Page 2729 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 6 June 2012
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
MR SPEAKER: Order! Ms Porter has the floor, thank you.
MS PORTER: Chief Minister, can you indicate how this commitment to high quality service is consistent with the government’s measured plan to return to surplus?
Opposition members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Order! Before you start, Chief Minister, I remind members that at least two members are on a warning. Let us minimise the interjections, thank you.
MS GALLAGHER: The government will return the budget to surplus. We will do it on our original timetable of 2015-16. One of the things I said as Treasurer and indeed in the budgets that I brought down was that the budget plan allowed flexibility. It allowed us to respond to changing circumstances. When we thought we could bring the budget surplus forward, we did. But at that point we were not aware of some of the global uncertainty and, indeed, some of the intentions of the commonwealth. Now that those positions have become clearer and we have the strength of our balance sheet and the health of our budget overall, we have taken a decision to return to our original plan of 2015-16.
We have taken the decision up-front to return to our original plan to protect growth and to protect jobs. If we had not invested in the infrastructure program, in the spending that this budget contains, we would not have seen the predictions for growth in our economy over the next financial year that we have estimated. Indeed, we welcome the figures today in the national accounts that show that the ACT economy was, I think, the third fastest. It had the third highest growth in the country.
That is good news, Mr Smyth. We look forward to your press release welcoming that growth. We are happy that growth in the economy actually means jobs. It instils confidence in the city. That is what we are here to do. That is what this budget allows us to do. We are investing in jobs, we are investing in the local economy and we are investing, importantly, in confidence in our city. We welcome the support of those principles by other members of this Assembly.
MR SESELJA: Supplementary.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Mr Seselja.
MR SESELJA: Minister, how will the lease variation charge impact on jobs in the construction sector?
MS GALLAGHER: I welcome the opportunity to talk about lease variation charge, the charge that the Liberals hold entirely responsible for anything—anything bad that happens in the city is down to lease variation charge.
Mrs Dunne: Point of order, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Yes. One moment, Chief Minister. Stop the clock.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video