Mr REED - 2001-10-23
Madam Speaker, without indulging in blame politics, what arrangements will the Chief Minister put in place for a full appropriation-style debate for your mini-budget? Do you plan to rush the budget through in the next sittings on urgency, or will you acknowledge the appropriateness of the importance of a mini-budget and afford this Chamber, on behalf of Territorians, a full, open and honest debate on your mini-budget without rushing it through on urgency in the November sittings?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, you cannot win with the now opposition. Either we had to have this mini-budget three weeks ago, or now we are being accused of trying to rush it through the parliament at the end of November. I think it was the Opposition Leader who was on the media saying: ‘It is no good, you are leaving it too late to go to the end of November. It should be right now’. Which was probably a few weeks ago, maybe even late September.
Mr Burke: Come on, answer the question.
Mr Stirling: She’s trying to.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms MARTIN: Thank you, from the floor. The mini-budget that we will be bringing down with, I hope, the support of that side of the House, will be an amendment to the budget. It is a mini-budget. It is a very important mini-budget because it will restore the rights in the budget, which we have seen - and I refer the opposition again to the Treasurer’s Annual Financial Report and other documentation, which includes the Auditor-General’s August report, which includes Percy Allan’s report, which I do not have here with me now.
This mini-budget is very important. It will be a mini-budget that is an amendment. It is not a full budget process, it is amending the budget that was so poorly done in May. That was not factual, it was deceitful, so we are fixing that. The mini-budget will go through in one sittings of parliament, and it will go through on urgency. We are doing the work now to make sure that the initiatives that we are committed to bringing in, and the rectifying of the false figures we saw in the May budget, are properly restored. I say to the former Treasurer, this is a mini-budget, it is amendment to the 2001-02 budget, and it will go through on urgency in the November sittings.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, you cannot win with the now opposition. Either we had to have this mini-budget three weeks ago, or now we are being accused of trying to rush it through the parliament at the end of November. I think it was the Opposition Leader who was on the media saying: ‘It is no good, you are leaving it too late to go to the end of November. It should be right now’. Which was probably a few weeks ago, maybe even late September.
Mr Burke: Come on, answer the question.
Mr Stirling: She’s trying to.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms MARTIN: Thank you, from the floor. The mini-budget that we will be bringing down with, I hope, the support of that side of the House, will be an amendment to the budget. It is a mini-budget. It is a very important mini-budget because it will restore the rights in the budget, which we have seen - and I refer the opposition again to the Treasurer’s Annual Financial Report and other documentation, which includes the Auditor-General’s August report, which includes Percy Allan’s report, which I do not have here with me now.
This mini-budget is very important. It will be a mini-budget that is an amendment. It is not a full budget process, it is amending the budget that was so poorly done in May. That was not factual, it was deceitful, so we are fixing that. The mini-budget will go through in one sittings of parliament, and it will go through on urgency. We are doing the work now to make sure that the initiatives that we are committed to bringing in, and the rectifying of the false figures we saw in the May budget, are properly restored. I say to the former Treasurer, this is a mini-budget, it is amendment to the 2001-02 budget, and it will go through on urgency in the November sittings.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016