Page 1173 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 30 May 2007
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MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Mr Stanhope, I think relevance might be in issue here.
MR STANHOPE: Well, it is relevant. It is relevant to the fact—
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: I do not know that this motion has got much to do with the leadership—
MR STANHOPE: that Mr Mulcahy continually raises.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Can I ask you to think about that, please, Chief Minister.
MR STANHOPE: I do. I am talking about the deficits. I am talking about the position in this motion today—the reference to an alleged deficit last year of $160 million, of course, backcasted into an accounting standard that does not apply. We delivered the second highest surplus ever delivered by a government last year, under the accounting standards audited results introduced by the Liberal Party.
Mr Mulcahy: But what about the one you are operating under?
MR STANHOPE: We did not operate under it last year. We operate under that this year and we will see next year what the results are. But as things stand there have been four deficits in the ACT under the accepted accounting standard introduced by the Liberal Party—and all four deficits were produced by governments of which Mr Stefaniak was a member—all Liberal governments—significant deficits to the tune of $600 million or $700 million.
We wondered over this side why it is that Mr Mulcahy keeps drawing attention to the fact that in the context of economic management it is the Liberal Party that has consistently failed. We know why he is doing it. Of course, he washes his hands as a cleanskin, a new boy, and says, “That was the old guard; it was Bill Stefaniak and his colleagues in their cabinets that produced four successive deficits.”
It is interesting too as we see this sycophantic praise of the federal government, that there is no recognition by the opposition of the significant cuts to essential services throughout Australia under the Howard-Costello regime. Certainly, the education budget in the ACT has risen to cover the reduction in funding and support by the federal government for education around Australia. The education budget in the ACT is now higher than at any time since self-government, with expenditure on government schooling increasing by 26 per cent from $341 million in 2001-02 to over $430 million in 2006-07. Last year we saw record investment in public schooling in the ACT.
Since being elected this government has increased expenditure on health by over 70 per cent to just over $756 million, increasing Canberra’s reputation as an Australian centre of excellence for medical facilities. Expenditure on hospital services has increased by $220 million or 80 per cent, from just over $275 million to $490 million—more hospital beds, more elective surgery, enhanced intensive and critical care. Over the five years to 2005-06 our hospitals managed a 29 per cent
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