Page 2831 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 13 August 2013
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There is no plan to triple rates—that’s a lie.
We have got it in Hansard:
… at no point did I deny there would be pain.
The government claim that they have done the modelling. When we had estimates on 17 June this year, Mr Barr said:
I know exactly what the effect of my reforms will be.
Good. Share what exactly the effect of your reforms will be. If you know it and you have it, you have an obligation to make it public.
Let me say that again. On 17 June this year, in the estimates, there was this exchange:
Mr Barr: I know exactly what the effect of my reforms will be.
THE CHAIR: You have done modelling, surely?
Mr Barr: Yes, there is a variety of modelling.
So we have done modelling. What we are afraid to do is show that modelling. This whole debate on the rates, and whether they triple or not, could have been finished the day Mr Barr tabled that modelling. The fact that he will not table it says simply one thing, members: “Your rates, and the rates of all Canberrans, will triple.”
When asked to release the rates modelling over 20 years, Mr Barr responded: “No, because there are a number of variables that we will consider as we go through each round. I know. You are not allowed to.” So much for openness! So much for transparency! So much for participation! So much for collaboration! Call it what you like. What is going to happen is that rates will triple. We see it in the figures. The budget has indicated it. Rates will triple in just over 11 years.
No-confidence motions are serious motions. The Financial Management Act is a serious piece of legislation. We know from the act that the minister has an obligation to abide by the principles of responsible fiscal management or tell the Assembly, when he tables the bill, why he will vary from that path. He did not tell us that when he tabled the bill in June this year.
He is obliged under the law to comply with the act. The act says that he must, when he tables the budget, give “full, accurate and timely disclosure of financial information about the activities of the government and its agencies”. If he does not, we are obliged to move no confidence in a minister who is not complying with the law—the law that he is responsible for the good administration of. He is responsible for ensuring that the law is met. If it is not met, he must go. If he seeks to push the budget through today in this way, he should go.
Members, if you have not checked it online, I would urge you to. It is on page 10 of the Financial Management Act, headed “Budget management: Appropriations and
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