Page 2329 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 12 August 2014
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
MR HANSON (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (3.50): (Second speaking period taken.) It is an encore performance. I will not go over all the ground that has been covered but I might refresh people and give them the highlights.
Mr Coe: “The best of”.
MR HANSON: “The best of”; “the greatest hits”. We will move on to some new ground. Do you think for a minute, Mr Treasurer, that we are going to forget the debt in this budget, that we are going to forget the deficit—although there is a surplus projected at some stage, isn’t there? Does anyone believe it? It is a bit like some of Mr Corbell’s projections for the cost of light rail: which is the least dubious—that or Mr Barr’s surplus? I do not know. I do not think either is particularly credible.
Rates—that would be a bit of a highlight, wouldn’t it? With respect to the fees and charges and, of course, the cumulative effect of all that, as I mentioned before lunch, we are seeing fees and charges and rates all going up by about 10 per cent, whereas people’s wages are going up by two or three, if you are lucky—and pensions, in some cases, by even less. Maybe, if you are working in Shared Services or you are a contractor, your wage is going the wrong way, but you are still expected to pay your fees and charges.
I did not quite give Mr Barr the credit of being the world’s greatest Treasurer, because I know he would like to claim that mantle, but I think he is the world’s greatest Treasurer at getting revenue into the budget. In terms of a bloke that can actually squeeze the community for everything that they have got and find those innovative new ways to get money, I think we do have to give him credit. Credit where credit is due; I think he has taken over from his mentor, Mr Quinlan, as someone that really can find new ways to bring in money to the coffers of this government.
Of course, as we talked about before lunch, this is, in many ways, to pay for a number of misdirected priorities. We spoke about capital metro, and there was reference to the stadium. I would refer people to Jack Waterford’s article for further discussion of that.
In some ways what is interesting is what was not in the budget—that is, the reappearance of the death star.
Mr Barr interjecting—
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ms Lawder): Thank you, Mr Barr.
MR HANSON: Mr Barr is giving commentary on his stadium. I wonder what Mr Waterford would have to say about the reappearance of the big government office building. It was not in the budget. They did not want to have any mention of it in the budget, of course. This is part of this funding arrangement where everything is free. This is the Simon Corbell methodology for capital metro: “Someone else will build it for us. There’s no cost to the community.” I think that is what we are talking about with the government office building: “Someone else will come along and build it for us. There’s no cost to us.” But, of course, there is.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video