Page 1938 - Week 05 - Thursday, 5 May 2011
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other savings will come from, but already we are reinstating because departments and ministers cannot control their spending and this Treasurer cannot deliver what she promises.
Mr Assistant Speaker, in 2009-10 Labor’s actual spend of $3.7 billion was 14 per cent above the initial estimate of $3.2 billion. You only have to look at the additional spending between 2007-08 and 2010-11 above initial estimates and you will see that it is $1.6 billion. That is the root of our problem. This is a Treasurer who cannot control spending and this is a Treasurer who cannot control the ministers. At the same time, she will seek to blame others and she invents a billion dollar figure. She said we lost $1 billion of revenue, but she cannot point to it, cannot detail it.
It is not true and it is not consistent with the facts presented in her own budget papers. Indeed, the Treasurer said yesterday in question time:
Our recovery has occurred faster than we had thought, which is why we are returning to surplus two years ahead of time. Our own performance and
additional revenue are assisting us to improve our bottom lines, as are the savings that we have outlined in the budget. All of those together give us a good way through and a return to surplus in 2013-14. But I will not accept those views that have been put opposite that the global financial crisis never happened, that we never saw the impact on our bottom line. We still are not getting the levels of GST … that we forecast in 2008-09 for this year; they will now be delivered in 2014-15.
And here is the final summary, Mr Assistant Speaker:
So, yes, our own-source revenue has assisted in our recovery. That is why we are returning to surplus faster. That is why our bottom line looks healthier. That is why we are able to do targeted new spending in this budget.
The money kept rolling in: $2 billion of additional revenue over initial estimates over four years is a river of gold in anybody’s language, particularly over a $4 billion budget. It is almost beyond comprehension to see how, when making savings was the order of the day, this government actually could increase spending by 13 and 14 per cent over the initial estimates. Turning to the three outyears, as I have said they are now estimated to have an aggregate deficit in the three outyears of $249 million.
Of course, the government continues to engage in fiscal juggling by including the gains on superannuation assets, either to reduce estimated deficits or to increase surpluses. But if you look at the underlying deficits, they continue into the outyears. I would now like to make some comment on the debt policy of this government. In general terms, taking on debt is not a bad policy, provided the funds are used to develop assets that enhance the community’s welfare or provide a sound return to the borrower.
Some members will even recall that a former Labor Treasurer, Ted Quinlan, espoused the merits of taking on debt where a sound case had been made for the loans to be taken out. But what has happened in this year’s ACT budget? The Treasurer has told us that an additional $650 million will be borrowed over the next two years. These
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