Page 1936 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 6 May 2009
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Wednesdays in the chamber and the opportunity that we have to talk about the ACT budget.
As members would be aware, we are witnessing the sharpest slowdown in the world economy since the Great Depression in the 1930s, and this is inevitably affecting the ACT budget outlook. Our revenue base has dropped by about $230 million, and annually across the forward years, and this is largely due to reductions in the GST pool, loss of income on financial assets, interest earnings on general cash and investments, and subdued activity in the housing market. These factors alone contribute to a revenue loss of around $1.1 billion since the last budget and equate to two years of growth off our revenue base.
The government has decided that there are no quick fixes to such a large reduction in our revenue base. However, it should be recognised that our community can have confidence in our financial position, as demonstrated through our strong balance sheet. This gives us the capacity to withstand the financial shock to a greater extent than many other jurisdictions. In fact, Standard & Poor’s have recognised that in their media release issued post the budget yesterday. It provides us with the capacity to preserve and in fact meet the growing need for services. We have the capacity to invest in a time of need to support the economy and jobs, and we can also invest in services where we can make a difference.
The government, through the budget, has responded effectively. The budget which I presented yesterday is all about supporting jobs, planning for the future and meeting the challenges that these financial times are placing upon us.
It is disappointing that we see today the opposition playing the role that they have come to play so consistently in this chamber, which is opposition for opposition’s sake—choosing to criticise just for the sake of it, failing to recognise that these are unprecedented times, failing to understand the magnitude of the fiscal shock and failing to understand that there are simply no easy solutions here.
I have said that we are all in this together, and I have invited the opposition, the crossbench, the community, employees, business and industry to work together, to work with us, at this time. Indeed, on that point, I would welcome the opposition’s submission to the government about the savings measures that they would like to see included in the budget adjustment task. We have made no secret—
Mr Seselja: Last time we did that you ran a hysterical campaign.
MS GALLAGHER: Well, we have not had a submission.
Mr Seselja: You haven’t?
MS GALLAGHER: We have not had a submission—
Mr Seselja: You didn’t see it?
MS GALLAGHER: from the opposition on anything, in my memory—
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