Page 88 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 14 February 2012
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MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Mrs Dunne): Order, Mr Corbell!
MR SMYTH: Mr Corbell, you move the motion. Mr Corbell said, “Do not mislead the Assembly.” Mr Corbell is the only member that I know of that was found by this place to be guilty of persistently and wilfully misleading the Assembly.
Mr Corbell interjecting—
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Order, Mr Corbell!
MR SMYTH: There may be more for you later on misleading the Assembly, Mr Corbell. You should review all the statements that you have made because we are quite happy to have those debates any day you want.
I will go away and read the document fully. I will go away and look at the numbers. I would urge anyone with a view to the future of the ACT to have a look at these documents. Simply go to page 5. You probably do not have to go much beyond page 5 when you see that the budget deteriorates so badly and so quickly under the management of this Treasurer, based on the record of the former Treasurer who is now Chief Minister, that one cannot have any confidence, given the speech of the Treasurer, that they have any plan at all to deliver a surplus into the future.
I will finish with the numbers. We had a projected deficit of $36 million in the budget. We find from the review that it is now a deficit of $181 million. I think the numbers speak for themselves. But I think what was even more noteworthy was the lack of anything in the Treasurer’s speech except, “Trust me; I am the Treasurer.” That is all he said: “Trust me. We are not going to panic. We are not going to do anything.”
In fact that is the problem. They have not done anything to diversify the ACT economy. They have not done anything to move away from their almost total dependence on property-based taxes. They have not done anything to address the decline in our GST relativities and the funding that is coming from GST. We know that they have not spoken to the Grants Commission because the Chief Minister told us so.
You do have to question what they are doing on that side of the chamber when it comes to the economic management of the ACT. The answer is simply nothing, because after 11 years they have no idea, they have no plan, and they have no way of returning, I believe, in the year 2013-14 this territory to a surplus.
MR HANSON (Molonglo) (4.14): It was not my intention to speak until I heard Mr Barr throughout his speech basically trying to make excuses, as Mr Smyth has alluded to. The most ridiculous line that he has come up with is this fear campaign that he is trying to run about what might happen some time in the future if a federal coalition is elected.
This is not about that. This is about the budget review as it stands today, and Mr Barr has to take responsibility for what has been delivered today, not what might happen
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