The Northern Territory's chief minister is refusing to rule out major cuts to health and education in Tuesday's budget.
"There's a lot of investment going into all agencies and all infrastructure right across the Territory," Adam Giles told reporters on Friday, saying the particulars would be announced on budget day.
He said there would be "a significant amount of spending" in education and health and on roads infrastructure but declined to go into detail.
"I'm not going to anticipate the budget," he said.
The government has made 14 pre-budget announcements worth about $127 million, 12 relating to tourism, recreation and the arts.
They include $39m for upgrades to Litchfield National Park, $25m to seal the Mereenie Loop road in central Australia, $18.3m for a Darwin art centre and $13.5m for motorsports.
The only health announcement has been $3m for mental health services.
When asked why, Mr Giles said: "We've learnt from past years that when you make all the announcements on budget day some of those are lost."
The government is focusing on tourism growth after the $35 billion Inpex LNG gas project winds up next year, as a response to concerns the NT economy is too dependent on the project.
"What we want to do is make sure Territorians have that sense of security that beyond Inpex government is well and truly planning for job creation and job growth going ahead, and that we let Territorians know we're working as best we can to protect lifestyle with investment in sport and also in parks," Mr Giles said.
Legislation is being drawn up for a $200m infrastructure development fund from money raised by the sale of the Territory Insurance Office last year, half of which has been already allocated to flood mitigation works in Darwin and Katherine, and which Mr Giles said will be fully tabled in the budget.
He said he was also anticipating a return to surplus sooner than projected for 2016-17 but would not elaborate.
Earlier on Friday, Treasurer Dave Tollner was asked about allocating $2m for a shade cloth at a Darwin bowling club while youth diversion programs have been cut in Alice Springs.
He said there was "enormous money" being spent on health, education, the environment, roads and economic development.
"To sit here and cherry-pick and say it's all going to be shit because we've made an announcement about a shade cloth on a bowl club (is offensive)," he said.
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