Page 1268 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 25 March 2009
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her purported midyear budget review on 23 December 2008. This showed that the Stanhope-Gallagher government had acknowledged that the budget outcomes in the current financial year and in the outyears would deteriorate dramatically, from an aggregate surplus of $244 million as at May 2008 to an aggregate deficit of $286 million as at 23 December 2008.
This Stanhope-Gallagher government was maintaining the fiction, however, that the outcome for 2008-09 would remain in surplus as this review indicated that 2008-09 would have a much reduced surplus of $15 million. So the Canberra community was now being treated to the extraordinary spectacle of the Chief Minister saying in September 2008 that the ACT budgets would remain in surplus for the next four years and yet, a few short weeks after this, he and his now Treasurer telling the Canberra community that there had been a turnaround of half a billion dollars in the aggregate budget outcomes—reality, Mr Stanhope, reality; yes, a turnaround of half a billion dollars.
This was a most bizarre situation. The world economy was falling into a major hole. The Australian government, along with all other governments, was developing a substantial stimulus package to respond to the emerging economic breakdown—and the Stanhope-Gallagher government was maintaining the fiction that the ACT budget was still in surplus for 2008-09.
The record of the Stanhope-Gallagher government in managing the ACT budget is anything but sound. They squandered the boom in revenue. They failed to position the ACT economy so that it could withstand buffeting from external economic shocks. They failed to tell the people of the ACT the true state of the budget prior to the 2008 election. They made claims about being able to deliver the budget surpluses even when they knew, or should have known, that this could not be done.
The Canberra community is still looking to the Stanhope-Gallagher government for answers, for its response to the current situation. What do we get from this government? We need to wait till the next budget before this government provides us with its response. That is not good enough and it contrasts dramatically with the response of the federal government, where a substantial response has been developed outside the budget context.
The situation is serious and demands governments to do things differently. The Stanhope-Gallagher government has failed in its response. Mr Stanhope, you are quite right in calling for a responsible opposition, which we are. And it is our task to call you to task to be a responsible government.
MR COE (Ginninderra) (11.29): Madam Deputy Speaker, it is with disappointment that I see that this motion is even on the notice paper today. It is most regrettable that we are in a recession. The recession we are in today is brought about by years of mismanagement. Mr Stanhope can skirt around the fact that it is a recession until the cows come home. He may well say that it is a technical recession. Even Katy Gallagher, the Treasurer, said yesterday that she had doubts about whether it really was a recession, whether it really did have an impact. She said yesterday:
… there has not been a noticeable impact …
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