Page 2012 - Week 06 - Thursday, 8 June 2006
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MR STANHOPE: He was being general, then. This was not in a budget context. The other aspect of this, too, is that today has been the first day of debate on the budget. For the last three days, the constant cry, the mantra, has been: out of control spending, wasting the legacy, the GST and the GST windfall. We heard that yesterday and the day before. Today—and it will be recorded in Hansard—the cry has been: you cannot cut that; you cannot change that; you have got to increase funding here; you must maintain funding in tourism expenditure; you cannot cut any support to business; you cannot remove the eight staff that support Healthpact; you have got to maintain funding here.
Not once have I heard a single speaker from the opposition answer the question: where is the money coming from? Today we have had the first debates on specific aspects of the budget dealing with a new regime and determination to find efficiencies. All we have heard today is: absolute waste; you must find savings; you have to create efficiencies; why have you not been doing it; do not dare reduce tourism expenditure by a cent; maintain all funding for business; ensure that business remains on the public teat to the greatest extent possible; reduce your land taxes to Victorian rates; reduce your stamp duty—
Mr Seselja interjecting—
Mr Barr interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Barr and Mr Seselja, the Chief Minister has the floor.
MR STANHOPE: Mr Smyth is out there banging on about comparing the tourism spend with other jurisdictions. It seems that Victoria may have lifted its per capita expenditure on tourism from $8.53 to $9. We expend at the rate of $55 per capita. We have reduced it, but we have not reduced it to anywhere near to $8 per capita. It is still way above that. We hear the cry: let us reduce our business expenses, stamp duty and land tax to Victorian rates.
Let us reduce everything, then. Should we shop around? Should we find another jurisdiction where the level of tourism expenditure is more simple than here? Tasmania spends more than we do; essentially it is all they have. So when it comes to comparing expenditure on tourism with other states, pick Tasmania. It is one of two places in Australia that spend more than we do. It is typical. When it comes to comparing expenditure on stamp duty and land tax, pick Victoria. The great irony at the breakfast yesterday and the applause for the Liberal Party—
Government members interjecting—
MR STANHOPE: That is right. The applause was led by the six members of the Liberal Party that were actually in the audience.
Opposition members interjecting—
MR STANHOPE: I am not paranoid. I am not stupid. I am not that gullible.
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