Page 1025 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 19 March 1991
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Berry, of course, is very pleased to hold his head high and say he belongs to. Is he a Trotskyite? I am not sure. Anyway, what would happen, of course, is that we would have, God forbid, another case of the mismanagement that we experienced for seven months under Labor and under Ms Follett.
Her carping at the performance of this Government, while in my view not even addressing the issue of what the forward estimates report is all about, shows just how clear her misunderstanding is of matters economic. As I said, the very fact that we are getting no response from the Opposition - as they say, "Our leader has said it all" - indicates just how bankrupt Labor is in its policies, its economic management and its understanding.
MR MOORE (8.47): Mr Speaker, I think the most critical factor in dealing with the forward estimates report will be the forthcoming report of the Commonwealth Grants Commission, due in just a few weeks' time. When we see that Grants Commission report we will really be able to interpret the forward estimates that we have before us.
The Treasurer, in his speech on the forward estimates, stated:
We will be aiming to produce future balanced recurrent budgets, to minimise borrowings and to better utilise the Territory's capital base.
I think the aim that is outlined there is one that anybody who is interested in responsible budget management would accept as a positive and appropriate goal. I think it is particularly important - I have made this comment on a number of other occasions - that we have illustrated a responsible attitude to borrowing so that we do not put ourselves in the position of so many other States where the debt, thanks to previous borrowing, weighs down the budget in such manner that the budget itself, and the possibilities of government control over it, become crippled.
When we look, through the Estimates Committee, at the relationship between the capital and recurrent budgets we see that, on a percentage basis, it is the same as that which existed under both the Labor Government and previous Commonwealth governments. That indicates to me that this Alliance Government has not set its own priorities as far as its budget goes, except within that framework.
Rather than accepting the capital and recurrent budgets and the relationship between the two, it is most important for a new Territory government to assess the community's needs and desires. I think this is something that needs more effort and ought to be looked at much more carefully. The Treasurer said in his speech:
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