Page 87 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 14 February 2012
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What this government does is deliver deficits and deficits and deficits and it budgets for deficits and deficits and deficits. That is the problem. When you are budgeting for deficits all the time, that is what you actually get. Unless you start actively budgeting for surpluses, you are not going to achieve that surplus. It is ironic that we have got a government that is willing to blame everybody else. Let us look at it. In the 2009-10 budget, it budgeted for a deficit of $173 million. In 2010-11, the same amount. In 2011-12, if you look at this, we were meant to have a budget of $36 million in the GGS but we are not going to get that. It is $181 million. Next year, 2012-13, it is meant to be $23 million but it is $154 million.
You can well imagine now that people out in the world would be thinking, “Gee, they cancelled their promise to build the great big office building and they have not given us a real good case.” It might be that they just cannot afford it. It may be that they are now just running short of funds. I will look at this in detail. I have only just received this document. But you do have to question the financial ability of a government that cannot bring in a surplus. We hear the promise: “We have got a plan. In 2013-14 we will have a surplus.” They sound more and more like Wayne Swan and Julia Gillard all the time.
I do not think any credible economics commentator believes that we will have a credible surplus when the budget is announced later this year. I do not think any credible commentator, looking at the outyears, believes that a Gillard-Barr government has the ability or the wherewithal to deliver a budget that will deliver strong surpluses so that we can build a strong future, so that we can include all those who want, for instance, to own their own home, because this is the government that has destroyed land affordability.
Let us look at housing affordability. In a way in respect of housing affordability, it is sort of a pat thing to say, “We blame the builders.” But the underlying root cause of housing affordability is the ability to access land. We have a government on one hand that has constrained land supply for so long. Now we have statements from the minister earlier—“Builders, get used to it; I will flood the market if I have to so that I can put some more money in the books to make me look better”—without any consideration for the long-term effect of flooding the housing market.
You only have to look at conveyancing and at the lease variation charge to understand that the economic management of the land portfolio from this government is destroying land affordability in this territory. That is the problem. That is the problem.
Mr Corbell: Not enough land, too much land.
MR SMYTH: No, Mr Corbell interjects, which I think is pretty brave for Mr Corbell. This is the man that got fired for his land policy. His own Chief Minister fired him because he could not handle the land release program and had constrained land release to such a degree that it became unaffordable. That is the problem.
Mr Corbell: Do not mislead the Assembly, Brendan. Do not mislead the Assembly.
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