Page 2728 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 6 June 2012
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MS GALLAGHER: I do not find it embarrassing at all, Mr Smyth—at all. This is a budget that we are very proud of. What have we heard from those opposite? Nothing; just the same old tired speech that they give at the end of every budget every year, the same slides perhaps with the dates changed. There is not a single alternative. There is not even a view about whether tax reform is a good idea—a view that it might be a good idea but “we just haven’t thought about it yet”.
Mr Smyth: On a point of order, Mr Speaker, I think the standing orders say that the minister cannot debate the subject.
MR SPEAKER: Minister, let us again focus on the question Ms Porter asked and less on the Liberal Party, thank you.
MS GALLAGHER: This is a budget that invests in the local economy. We want to make sure that we are doing everything we can as a government to make sure that confidence levels are maintained, that those in our community who are doing it tough get an extra hand and that we reform some of the unsustainable tax system that is in place at the moment.
I should add that the changes that we have announced will benefit governments of all political persuasions from now and into the future. Anyone who sits here and does not think that these changes should happen obviously is not of the view that they will ever form government and be responsible for putting together a budget that delivers services that this community wants and expects and, indeed, deserves.
We have a very strong budget. We have a very strong balance sheet. We have a AAA credit rating.
Mr Smyth interjecting—
MS GALLAGHER: Mr Smyth, you can keep talking it down. You can keep talking it down all the way to October. We are here to ensure confidence in the city. When you walk around and talk with people—you talk to the community sector, you talk to the business community—everyone, except the Canberra Liberals, wants to work together to see this city through the next couple of years. Every single person I have spoken to says, “How can we work together to move our city into its next century but at the same time make it even stronger and make it even better?”
These are people that genuinely care about the city. They are not the people that wake up with a smile on their face every morning because they have found another problem to run, another service to talk down, another public servant to attack or another health system to ridicule. This is not the approach that this government supports. (Time expired.)
MR SPEAKER: Supplementary question, Ms Porter.
Opposition members interjecting—
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