Page 141 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 15 February 2006
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MR STANHOPE: Right; that’s the question. So I will answer the question on the basis of: are taxes and rates going up? We have begun the process of developing the budget. It will be a long and tough process, as it always is; it is one of the hardest things that any government does. Always seeking to meet government priorities and determining or deciding between priorities is tough. It is a tough business. It is one of the hardest things that anybody does in government—it has been for us, it was for you and will always be thus.
We went through a tough process last year. Across the board we insisted on an efficiency dividend. From some agencies and organisations it was five per cent, from others it was two per cent, and others were protected from any dividend at all. Any government—not just one that is faced with a tough budget but any government that is serious about the business of government—looks always at the way in which it spends money and the way in which it raises money. The equation, as we all know—as anybody who has sat in the cabinet and sought to make decisions around the meeting of priorities and how to meet them would know—requires a range of tough decisions to be made around priorities, projects, expenditure and rates, and we will be going through that process this year.
As every other government has always done and as every government will do into the future, we will be looking at our priorities, we will be looking at levels of expenditure, we will be looking at the way in which we deliver our services and the structural and strategic issues around delivery of services. We will be looking, as we have in every single budget we have ever delivered, at revenues in place and opportunities for adjustment—whether up or down or whether through abolition, in which we are currently engaged. We are in the process of abolishing a range of taxes and duties as part of the negotiations of treasurers in relation to the tax regime across the board.
We have made no decisions, Mr Pratt, as you would not expect. It has not yet been discussed as an issue, but as we get into the hard toil of putting a budget together we will be looking at programs, we will be looking at all expenditures, we will be looking at determining and deciding on priorities, we will be looking at governmental structures and we will be looking at revenue sources. We will be making decisions on all of those areas, and we will deliver a good, solid budget that delivers on our commitment to this community and our commitment to the delivery of the best possible government services that can be delivered by this government. We currently lead the nation in service delivery. We have across the board the best services of any jurisdictional government in Australia bar none—everybody knows that—and we have enhanced the level of service.
Mrs Burke: Are you sure, in every area?
MR STANHOPE: Everybody knows it. We have the best outcomes in education, we have the best outcomes in health, we have the safest community in Australia, we have the greatest place in which to live. This is the greatest place in Australia. Many of you would wish to dispute that, but it is. This is the greatest place in Australia, and we in government have ensured that we have retained that reputation and will continue to do so into the future. We will do it through good, responsible, tough budgeting. This is a government that will take the hard, tough decisions. We will not allow the level of government service delivery to wither. We will maintain it and at the end of the day we will deliver a budget that is appropriate to our bottom-line position. You can rest assured
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