Page 256 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 10 December 2008
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Mr Seselja: You do not believe Treasury? Were you guessing?
MS GALLAGHER: You tried to get away with this in the election campaign and you lost there.
Mr Smyth: It is a fact. Remember? It is a fact.
MS GALLAGHER: Not one job, we were told. Jobs were going to be lost in your slash and burn.
Mr Seselja: That is not what Treasury said.
MS GALLAGHER: Well, I will not go into what Treasury would say. It is not fair to pull public servants into a political discussion but jobs were going to be lost. There is absolutely no doubt. Spending was going to be cut. This was all your big effort if you won government to invest in and to support the local economy, was it?
Perhaps you could argue this if you showed in your response to the global financial crisis that you were obviously completely aware of and completely understood the impact on the ACT economy. Perhaps you could argue this if you had responded to that in any way that was different, but you did not. You can take the next four years to beat us up and to have a go, but your surpluses would not be surpluses. They would not be stronger and they would not be bigger.
I hate to break it to you, but the impact of those external factors which you so succinctly quoted from the City News would have affected the Liberal Party as well. I hate to say it. You would not have been exempt from the global financial crisis. If you were in government, this motion could equally be applied to you. That is the point I am trying to make here.
I will try not to respond to the members who are attempting to interject because I know that is unparliamentary. Mr Seselja looks relaxed and comfortable there wanting to bait me, but I know it is unparliamentary to respond to those interjections; so I will not do it.
The ACT government has already forecast a moderation in economic growth in the 2008-09 budget. The budget presented forecasts for gross state product and state final demand that were below trend and at the time the ACT economy had been expected to moderate in line with the national economy in response to high interest rates. Only in the past few months has the full implications of the global financial crisis started to become more apparent. Governments around Australia and the world are significantly revising down their budget positions just a few months after they prepared their 2008-09 budgets.
Just yesterday, as you will all know from reading the Australian Financial Review, which I am sure Mr Smyth does, the Queensland government released its budget update. It revised down an initial surplus of over $800 million to around $50 million. The Victorian and national governments have also significantly revised down their surpluses, while in New South Wales the budget has been revised into significant
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