Page 2399 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 7 August 1990
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MR KAINE: It was an actual deficit. It was an actual deficit as a projection of your budget, Ms Follett. Do not talk about financial incompetence because we will get to you at the right time. All I did in trying to rectify the $37m budget deficit that would have ensued in this fiscal year if we had done nothing was to carry out an internal exercise where I asked all Government agencies to tell me how they would reduce their expenditure by 4 per cent. That was an across-the-board target to see what could be done to reduce expenditure, because 4 per cent would have gone about two-thirds of the way to closing the budget gap. It would have gone about two-thirds of the way, not closed it totally, because I recognise that there are other things that would have needed to have been done. Out of that we got some proposals and the Education Department came up with some proposals which have partly reflected - - -
Mr Connolly: To save how much money? Can you put a figure on it?
MR KAINE: To save, in total, across the whole budget around about $24m to $25m. I did not set a target for the - - -
Mr Connolly: How much from school closures?
MR KAINE: Listen carefully, Mr Connolly; just be quiet and listen. I did not set a target for the Education Department.
Mr Connolly: You do not know how much from school closures.
MR KAINE: Have you got that? Did you get that clearly? I did not set a target for the Education Department. I set an overall objective of reducing the budget expenditure by about 4 per cent. Out of that came, as part of the Education Department's proposals, a consolidation of the resources committed to education. There were surplus resources there. Any sensible person looking at the education system in the ACT would have to acknowledge that there are surplus resources being identified and some of this reflects in the schools.
Mr Connolly: What value of surplus resources?
MR KAINE: You will find that out when I bring my budget down in a month's time. Just have patience, old chap, and you will find that you will get a good budget and you will get a budget that we can live with, not the rubbish that we got last year that we are still trying to live with. The budget that you brought down last year is part of the problem.
So much for the financial incompetence in the Education Department. We are doing what we have to do to produce a balanced budget this year and the Education Department, like every other department, has to make its contribution
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