Page 3634 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 21 November 2007
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
But I do not know and have not asked what this might translate to at the end of the year.
Mr Smyth: Why not?
MR STANHOPE: At this stage it is irrelevant.
MR SPEAKER: Supplementary question, Mrs Dunne?
MRS DUNNE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Since the minister does not know what is going to happen for the end-of-year figures—
MR SPEAKER: Come to the question, Mrs Dunne.
MRS DUNNE:—has he received any advice as to the likely outcome of the ACT’s financial performance for the December quarter? It is only six weeks away.
MR STANHOPE: No, but just last week I tabled the September quarterly result. At this stage I think it is relevant that we concentrate on that. Just last week I tabled the September quarterly result. I have not anticipated what the December result might be—
Mr Smyth: Point of order, Mr Speaker: the Chief Minister has just said that he will not answer the question.
MR SPEAKER: No; he answered it. I heard him answer it.
Mr Smyth: He should come to the point. If he cannot answer about the December quarter, he should say so and sit down.
MR SPEAKER: I think he answered it as he started out.
MR STANHOPE: I assume that Mrs Dunne and the Liberal Party have not looked at the September quarterly result. If they have, they have simply passed over it. Last week I tabled the September quarterly report, which indicated that the economy is still performing very strongly, which is very pleasing. My expectation and that of Treasury is that the economy will continue in this next quarter to—
Mr Mulcahy: Or tax windfalls.
MR STANHOPE: It is actually not tax windfalls; it is the strength of the economy and the level of turnover—the number of transactions that are resulting in additional stamp duty and conveyancing duty. These are taxes and charges that were not increased in the budget; these are rates of charging that have been in place for some time. They are not increasing. The increase in revenue is not as a result of extra tax revenue; it is a result of a very strong economy performing particularly strongly, with significant additional transactions over and above those anticipated.
There is a level of conservatism in this budget, as there has been in every budget delivered since 1989. It is a credit to Treasury. On any analysis of budgeting by any
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .