Mr KURRUPUWU - 2012-11-01
Can the Treasurer outline to the House how the fiscal imbalance has tracked this year and why it is such a concern to Territorians?
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Arafura for his important question because the Territory’s financial position deteriorated alarmingly over the space of a few short months in 2012. At the time of the 2012-13 budget released in May this year, the fiscal balance for the non-financial public sector was estimated to be $767m for this financial year. Just a few months later this figure changed.
If we took the imbalance between revenue and expenditure over the four years of the budget, the forward estimates would be $2.9bn. We were set to spend $2.9bn more than we earned over the next four years, which is alarming to say the least. By the time the pre-election fiscal outlook was published in August just before the election, that fiscal imbalance had climbed to $867m for 2012-13. That is an increase of $100m in the space of a few months. A mere three months later, the sum of the imbalances in the budget and forward years totalled $3.1bn.
You can see what I am describing. Things have deteriorated rapidly in relation to the fiscal imbalance and the sum of the imbalances for the forward years. That is a deterioration of $181m in the space of three months. What was that spent on? Where did that go?
That is what we are finding out thanks to the Renewal Management Board and the fine work it has undertaken. It has routed out these anomalies, these rapid deteriorations in the financial situation of the Northern Territory. This over-expenditure, or spending beyond our means, is not sustainable. This is the point we have been trying to make for the last 10 weeks. We cannot continue on this trajectory. A government groaning under the weight of such a significant imbalance between earnings and spending is hugely impeded in pursuing its policy agenda. If all our money is going towards paying off debt, paying off these huge interest bills - $750 000 escalating to probably $1m in the very near future, per day, every day - we cannot spend money on education, health services, childcare services and all the other things people value in the Northern Territory. It is impossible.
Thanks to the former government, that is why we are in the space we are in; that is why we are having to make savings - to put things in ...
Madam SPEAKER: Your time has expired, minister.
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Arafura for his important question because the Territory’s financial position deteriorated alarmingly over the space of a few short months in 2012. At the time of the 2012-13 budget released in May this year, the fiscal balance for the non-financial public sector was estimated to be $767m for this financial year. Just a few months later this figure changed.
If we took the imbalance between revenue and expenditure over the four years of the budget, the forward estimates would be $2.9bn. We were set to spend $2.9bn more than we earned over the next four years, which is alarming to say the least. By the time the pre-election fiscal outlook was published in August just before the election, that fiscal imbalance had climbed to $867m for 2012-13. That is an increase of $100m in the space of a few months. A mere three months later, the sum of the imbalances in the budget and forward years totalled $3.1bn.
You can see what I am describing. Things have deteriorated rapidly in relation to the fiscal imbalance and the sum of the imbalances for the forward years. That is a deterioration of $181m in the space of three months. What was that spent on? Where did that go?
That is what we are finding out thanks to the Renewal Management Board and the fine work it has undertaken. It has routed out these anomalies, these rapid deteriorations in the financial situation of the Northern Territory. This over-expenditure, or spending beyond our means, is not sustainable. This is the point we have been trying to make for the last 10 weeks. We cannot continue on this trajectory. A government groaning under the weight of such a significant imbalance between earnings and spending is hugely impeded in pursuing its policy agenda. If all our money is going towards paying off debt, paying off these huge interest bills - $750 000 escalating to probably $1m in the very near future, per day, every day - we cannot spend money on education, health services, childcare services and all the other things people value in the Northern Territory. It is impossible.
Thanks to the former government, that is why we are in the space we are in; that is why we are having to make savings - to put things in ...
Madam SPEAKER: Your time has expired, minister.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016