Page 1413 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 24 March 2010
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
had predicted, including the Australian Treasury. And prior to the announcement about the Commonwealth Grants Commission in the budget update, it proves it. We saw about a $129 million recovery for the 2009-10 year and a recovery of in the order of $70 million in every outyear. The decision not to slash and burn the budget at that point in time was the correct one, and I stand by that decision.
Since the Commonwealth Grants Commission report has come out, yes, I have gone on the record and said that the job ahead of us is harder. The $85 million that we lose next financial year, growing to $105 million in the outyear, does make that savings task harder. I have gone out and publicly said that. But the decision to have a seven-year recovery is the correct one.
Prior to the Commonwealth Grants Commission handing out their report, there was a view in my mind that we could have brought forward the seven-year plan to an earlier point in time. That related to a number of different decisions that were never taken. I felt that there was opportunity to reconsider the seven-year plan in light of the recovery we have seen across the ACT economy and bring it forward. I think it is the view of everyone in this place, no matter what side you sit on, that a recovery as soon as possible is preferable. Indeed, I think those were the words that Mr Smyth used in his speech—that he wanted to see a recovery as soon as possible. Then he stopped short of actually going to a date that he believes would be a responsible date to recover the budget into surplus. That is no surprise. No ideas, no views; just criticise.
Mr Smyth: Because we are not in charge. No faith in you at all. All guesswork; just guesswork.
MS GALLAGHER: Here we go: opposition for opposition’s sake.
Mr Smyth: Bingo.
MS GALLAGHER: I knew you would enjoy that. I knew you were waiting for it. You cannot come in here and say that you do not agree with the seven-year plan but you want to see the budget recover as soon as possible—but then you do not have a view about that. What is it? Is it one year? Is it two years? Is it three years? Is it four, five or six years? It is obviously not seven. I think we can take from your argument that you think seven is too long, so it is obviously less than seven—greater than one perhaps. You have got to come in here and stand for something so that you have got some credibility. You cannot just come in and whine and criticise and then not offer any ideas.
On top of that—we have not recovered the budget in time—I have got to commit to ensuring that we essentially do not cut any service to the community. You stop short of saying that we do not raise any further revenue, but I am sure that has come from the Liberal Party in previous speeches—that they do not want to see any increases in revenue. You cannot have it every which way. You cannot say, “No increases in revenue and no cuts to services but we want to see the budget recover earlier.” It is simply not possible.
We are working very hard in the decisions that we take. In our seven-year plan, we did acknowledge that the budget will continue to grow. Mr Smyth, in your speech in a
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video