Yo ops!
gotta say I've seen the pencils empty or more to the piont not in a position to raise revenue any number of times.
what you say is correct though, the NT govt have an agenda on this one.
Tennent Creek and Katherine will badly miss the service but if the Gov told their employees to fly instead of drive and refuse to renumerate them for driving it would mean the service would continue
don't ya luv red tape