Page 252 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 10 December 2008
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
funding, to services like SAAP, to ACTION, to other essential services that look after the community. In fact, we can now see that the cuts in the 2006 budget were the wrong decisions at the wrong time. For instance, the government is now hastily re-establishing business programs and hastily recommitting to a tourism budget.
We know that the Costello report on which the cuts were based was badly flawed. It is still unfortunate that we cannot see that report. So much for transparency and accountability!
It is sufficient to conclude that the Stanhope-Gallagher government failed to use the bounty from the good times to invest wisely for the poor times. Economies inevitably move in cycles. The Treasurer today could not define what an economic cycle was or how long it would last. I am sure she is confused with an electoral cycle which of course is four years. While we wait with bated breath for more pearls of wisdom from the Treasurer about economic cycles, given the recent history, it is difficult to work out where the ACT actually is at the present.
We only have to look at the last three or four months, where in the lead-up to the ACT election we had the Chief Minister telling the electorate on 28 August 2008 that the ACT “is experiencing a period of sustained economic growth and prosperity”. We are having sustained growth. In August—September, October, November, December—four months ago, we were living in a period of sustained economic growth. This was from a man who at that time was the Treasurer but who obviously could not read the front page of any of the morning papers as the world melted down in the global financial crisis.
Then again, on 10 September, the Chief Minister said that the pre-election budget update “will show a slight easing in the budgetary position”. On 17 September, the Chief Minister told us that Labor’s fully-funded election promises “would maintain a forecast budget surplus for each of the years of the next term”. Labor’s fully-funded election promises would maintain the surplus. What he said was that they had a plan that was contained in their election promises and that that alone would guarantee the surplus for each of the next four years. It is in a press release: “ACT Labor pledges continued responsible spending and budget surpluses”. They pledged budget surpluses. I will read some of the paragraphs, because they are just delightful to read:
ACT Labor today pledged to keep the budget in surplus in each year of the next term of government and called on the Liberal Party to make the same commitment.
Treasurer Jon Stanhope said ACT Labor had made the tough decisions that had put the ACT on a sound and sustainable financial footing and allowed it to make massive fully-funded investments in health, education and community safety.
“A sound and sustainable financial footing”, which is why we have seen them, since the election, scurrying around for urgent crisis meetings with the business community and particularly the tourism community that they have ignored for four years. Then he goes on to say in his third paragraph:
ACT Labor had no intention of squandering the stability in order to buy votes in the lead up to the October 18 poll, and he pledged—
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .