Page 2639 - Week 08 - Thursday, 14 August 2014
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
commitment to the repayment of this. In the current year, the estimated outcome is now $167 million. For borrowings next year, interest is $184 million; then it is $209 million, $223 million and $233 million. It is up 10 per cent this year, 13 per cent the next year, seven per cent the next year, five per cent the next year.
This is a government that is borrowing and borrowing. I think the Treasurer said it is a typical Labor budget. Yes, it is—borrowing with no end and no plan to repay the debt. That is the legacy of this budget. We see it in the increased costs that taxpayers will pay. We know the cost of living is going up constantly. We know that really there is no relief from this government, whether it be through fees and fines, whether it be through other charges or whether it be through the fire and emergency services levy.
This is a government that know how to tax; this is a government that know how to borrow. But from all of the questions that we ask there really is no indication, either in the budget documents or in the questions and the answers, that this government have a strategy to repay it. They say we have low debt to equity. True. They say that it is perhaps within the means to repay it and it does not affect the rating. All possibly true. But there must come a moment of truth where we actually get from a Treasurer how they are going to pay off this debt. That is the problem; we have never heard from this Treasurer how he will pay off this debt.
Let us face it; $233 million by 2017-18 is a lot of money that could be spent on services. It is a lot of money that could be spent on new infrastructure. It is a lot of money that could be left in the pockets of taxpayers so that they can spend money on themselves and their families, and their own pursuits—so that they can get on, so that they can raise a family, so that they can get ahead and have a great life here in the ACT. You will not get that with this Treasurer.
The borrowings cost line there on page 78 tells the real story of this budget. It is a budget of debt; it is a budget of deficits. We now know, through the consolidated financial reports for the June quarter, that the superannuation has dipped.
The real question is: at what stage will we actually get a strategy to pay off this debt? I referred to some of the recommendations in earlier debates about ACTEW and the way they are changing perhaps how they will deal with their debt, looking at talking to ActewAGL about the repatriation of some capital. But when we have interest payments increasing at such a level over the outyears, with no clear indication of how we will pay it back, people should be very concerned about the approach that this government has taken to funding their promises and the approach that this government has taken—or in this case not taken—in articulating how they will pay this debt back.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Housing and Minister for Tourism and Events) (5.51): The territory banking account has been established to separately recognise and account for the general government financial investment assets and debt liabilities. So any revenues that are received on behalf of the territory are transferred to the account, and the account makes fortnightly budget appropriation payments to agencies.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video