Page 2453 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 22 August 2006
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Mrs Dunne interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Order! I warn you, Mrs Dunne.
MR STANHOPE: Why does Mr Mulcahy keep asking me these questions? He keeps asking the questions: “Why is there a need to ensure that we have the resources? Why have rates been increased? Why was there an increase in the GFS debts?” He seeks to draw a distinction between the Australian accounting standard and the surpluses that have been produced. We know why they have been produced. The Australian accounting standard allows us to account very generously for land sales and superannuation receipts. Last year the international stock market in particular went gangbusters and we had a massive, serendipitous windfall into our superannuation account. Over and above that, there was fantastic management.
Mr Mulcahy: Oh!
MR STANHOPE: Now that you have drawn attention to it, I would never, self-effacing as I am, have drawn attention to the fact that since becoming Treasurer the bottom-line position improved by $70 million.
Members interjecting—
MR STANHOPE: He was doing well. He picked up $100 million. But in the past five months there has been another $70 million turnaround, which is massive. Now that you have drawn attention to the change in the guard, who am I to deny the obvious conclusion that can be drawn from that? Mr Mulcahy invites me in response to his question to draw attention to the fact—
Mr Mulcahy: Explain the taxes.
MR STANHOPE: The taxes are there to meet the level of government service delivery, which is a feature of this government and has been for the past five years. We have increased recurrent education expenditure by 30 per cent. We have, as a result of the Gallop royal commission into your stewardship of disability services, increased expenditure on disability services by over 60 per cent. Since coming to government we have, as a result of your underfunding of emergency services, increased funding for emergency services infrastructure by 49 per cent, which is a doubling of that figure. We have allocated an additional $26 million a year for emergency services, an additional 69 per cent in expenditure for disability services and an additional 30per cent in recurrent expenditure for education. There has been a quadrupling of the number of child protection workers.
Mr Pratt: And you have wasted it, Jon.
MR STANHOPE: This is what gets me in this policy vacuum. Which of the expenditures on disability services would you not have funded? What are you going to withdraw? How many of the child protection workers will you sack? How much of the emergency services expenditure do you think is unwarranted? How much of the extra 40 per cent of expenditure in health service delivery would you not have committed? You
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