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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 8 Hansard (8 August) . . Page.. 2559 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

What that improved figure demonstrates above anything else is continuing strong performance by the ACT economy and a very strong outlook for the ACT government's management of the economy. I contrast the figures that Mr Quinlan has just quoted with the comments he made about the budget a few short months ago, which were to the effect that the budget surplus was "rubbery", that the projection of surpluses in outyears was a bit of a fantasy-

Mr Quinlan: I didn't say that.

MR HUMPHRIES: Or something to that effect-and that there was considerable doubt about whether the government could sustain a surplus in future years.

Mr Quinlan: No, I did not say that, either.

MR HUMPHRIES: I think you will find that you did, Mr Quinlan. I will get the things you have said and put them to you at the end of question time. I am sure we all recall Mr Quinlan casting serious doubts on whether the surplus was sustainable. In fact, Mr Quinlan, you said that the budget was actually in deficit and that it was only through trickery on the government's part that we were talking about surpluses.

Do I sense a change of heart in the Labor Party? "Maybe we were wrong to say that the surplus was not sustainable." Perhaps you were a tad wrong about that. If you are saying that our surpluses are sustainable and that we have managed the budget well enough to produce these majorities, these surpluses-that was a Freudian slip, wasn't it?-perhaps we ought to get credit for that. You cannot have it both ways, Mr Quinlan. You cannot say, "This government can't produce surpluses," and then rely on those surpluses when you want to say that you are prepared to spend some of that money in the context of the coming election campaign.

MR QUINLAN: I have a supplementary. I will infer from the fact that the Treasurer's answer started with "I expect" that it means "I don't know." Given this projected bottom line-after all those additional appropriations designed to get rid of any spare cash before an election campaign-I wonder if the Treasurer could advise the Assembly whether his current estimate of the surplus for the current financial year, 2001-02, might be revised upwards of the $12 million that it stands at now.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, we are barely six weeks into the financial year, so it is simply impossible to say.

Mr Quinlan: It's a yes.

MR HUMPHRIES: No, it's not a yes.

Mr Quinlan: It's not a no!

MR HUMPHRIES: What is your people's line? Are you saying that our surpluses are going to be produced or are not going to be produced? You have run the line that our surpluses are not real, that they are rubbery, that they are a figment of our imagination.

Mr Quinlan: No, I am just asking you!

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