Page 1937 - Week 06 - Thursday, 8 June 2006
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Indeed, if the Treasurer’s budget were really in surplus, we would not be having the harsh measures this government is handing out to the ACT community. There would be no need. So much for the dramatic turnaround! The emphasis should be on the word “dramatic” because we have here a fictional turnaround.
The headline budget simply does not reveal the actual state of the government’s finances. The government finance statistics, in each of its budgets, show that it has been making losses since 2003-04. In GFS terms, the budget deficit for 2005-06 is estimated to be $196 million, with a slight improvement to a deficit of $148 million in the coming financial year. That is a far cry from a $120 million surplus posted under the old, and now discarded, system.
Let us talk about the windfall gains in revenue since this government has come to power. Those windfall gains in revenue of $900 million over the past four years from property taxation and the GST have been squandered. How has the money been wasted? Let me just give you a few examples. Around $7.3 million has been expended on the Human Rights Commission and its related functions. And now we are seeing that act bite; we are seeing how much time it takes some government departments, who in no way would be expected to be breaching the necessary human rights, to go through the convoluted procedure associated with preparing submissions for government legislation. That is one little example of extra time, and time, of course, is money.
We have $2.1 million on the community inclusion fund. At least half a million dollars has been spent on the international arboretum. It is now scaled back from $12 million to $6 million. Around $6 million has been spent on the projected $150 million Belconnen busway, a busway expected to shave all of about three minutes off the journey from Belconnen to the city. Has this project been scrapped or put on hold? We are not really too sure.
The $130 million prison, which is another one of the Chief Minister’s hobbyhorses, is going ahead but a bit more slowly. Around $1.5 million was spent on the Chief Minister’s appeal against the coroner. Some $100,000 to date—and watch this space—was spent in a vain attempt by the Chief Minister to intervene in the High Court case to stop the commonwealth’s Work Choices legislation, for no better reason than to appease Labor’s union mates. And it is not over yet. I do not particularly like the chances of its success there. Yet there will be more expenditure there in the years to come.
While the Chief Minister was indulging in his personal follies, he allowed the ACT public service to blow out by over 2½ thousand public servants and then said that he was alarmed to discover what had happened. He was surprised that this had happened. A few months ago in this place, he expressed, I take it, genuine surprise that this had happened. He might have been alarmed by it, but he certainly was not alert. That is not leadership. The blow-out in public service numbers and expenditure happened under his nose. One can only assume that was because he was too preoccupied with his hobbyhorses. And it occurred under the nose of all of the ministers in this government.
The cost of employment has blown out by $445 million or 50 per cent over the same four-year period. People ask me, “If things have been so good, where has the money gone?” The answer is that, in addition to the Chief Minister’s vanities, over $445 million
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