Page 2091 - Week 06 - Thursday, 7 May 2009
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scheme falter. Documents prove the banks were concerned as early as 2004, yet the cost of those shattered dreams is one Mr Stanhope was willing to pay to cling to power.
Given the cost this government is willing to brook to stay in power, what is the plan to reduce expenses? Nobody knows. There is no plan to reduce expenses. We keep coming back to the massive debts this budget drives the territory into. So far we have scant information on how this government intends to pay for these debts. It admits there are still nearly $100 million of savings that it has yet to find. This is a disgraceful abrogation of planning and leadership in tough times. The only response seems to be to slug car users, raise bus fares and rely on the above-CPI increase in rate revenues. That is plainly not going to be enough to rein in the deficit, so there must be more cuts coming and we have no indications of where those cuts will be.
There is a provision for an efficiency dividend across all ACT government departments, and when we look at crucial portfolios such as education that amounts to a future cut of $11.975 million. In health, it will be $19.775 million in cuts. Those figures were not leaked to the press before the budget. The Canberra Liberals do not oppose sensible cuts. We do oppose a Treasurer putting out a budget whose plan for the future holds no substance and no detail. That is not a plan; it is a pipedream.
There is also the announcement of the Expenditure Review and Evaluation Committee. This does, of course, raise memories of the Costello functional review that closed schools and slashed jobs and services across the territory. As such, this budget must sound as a warning bell ringing loud and clear across the community. There are cuts hidden in this budget, but we do not know what or when. This deficit is unsustainable, but there is no plan to pay back the debt. The continuing addiction to spending cannot continue. There must be a plan to reduce the deficit, not a hope that the deficit will disappear by itself. In reality, it is not surprising that the government which wasted the good times so comprehensively seems to have no idea on how to handle the tough times.
There is no plan to manage portfolios. In every portfolio across this budget we see a hotchpotch of ideas, a kaleidoscope of concepts, with no plan to manage any of them in a more professional, streamlined manner to increase outputs and decrease costs to the taxpayer. In Territory and Municipal Services, Katy Gallagher and ACT Labor will slug all workers in Canberra with an increase of 20 per cent on ticketed parking machines and a 20 per cent and 50 per cent increase on metered machines. Bus users are also hit with an increase of 11 per cent. Every person that works in city areas will be affected and it will hit them where it hurts—their everyday family budget. As it was called on radio on Tuesday, and replayed at breakfast yesterday, this is being referred to as a reverse Robin Hood—robbing the poor to pay the rich.
It was interesting to watch the Chief Minister dismiss the parking increase with a wave of his hand. “Don’t bother me with this,” he says, “it is only a few dollars.” Jon Stanhope still does not get it. It is these very measures that cause the young families in Canberra, worried about their jobs, worried about their mortgage, to reassess the family budget. Maybe it is a small luxury of a night out with the family that now goes to pay Jon extra to park their car. Maybe it is a little less saved for Christmas that is sacrificed. “Only a few dollars,” he says.
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