Mr KIELY - 2001-10-24
Given the result of the $140m deficit released yesterday in the Treasurer’s Annual Financial Report, what was the impact on the Territory’s debt levels?
ANSWER
I thank the member for Sanderson for his question. Yes, net debt, an issue that our previous Treasurer, the man for the rubbery figures, never liked to really come to terms with …
Mr Reed: I am flattered that you talk more about me than what you are going to do with the government.
Ms MARTIN: It is interesting that the Treasurer, the former Treasurer protests: ‘Don’t talk about the past’. There is an analogy here that leaps out. This new government is like someone buying a house. You buy a house and the person selling it to you, or giving it to you, or handing it over says: ‘Look, it’s a great house. Don’t worry about the big hole in the back wall; don’t worry about the fact that the white ants have eaten up a few of the structural beams; don’t worry about that. Just look forward, look forward.’ That is how ridiculous it is because we have inherited a budget situation that demands attention and the weasel words we are getting from the opposition now are: ‘Don’t look back, don’t look back’.
Members interjecting.
Ms MARTIN: It is interesting that you should hear those comments because this mob should really be terribly proud of the budget. Nearly 27 years in government, you should be able to say proudly: ‘We did it well. We were great fiscal managers’.
The real tragedy is you were anything but good fiscal managers. You perpetrated deception on Territorians in your budget papers, which really is the bottom line of any government. Yet the Country Liberal Party, in government for nearly 27 years, ended up perpetrating a misrepresentation and a deception on Territorians through the bottom line of what we are about, and that is our budget papers.
Unfortunately, the net debt of the NT public sector was $1.416bn at 30 June 2001, and that was up from $1.294bn in 2000. So, a substantial increase from a government that said: ‘We are great fiscal managers’. This works out at the highest per capita debt in any jurisdiction in Australia - $7523 for every Territorian. This is over four times what the average is of the other states. That average is $1718. What are we in the Territory? We are $7523. This is the inheritance of the good fiscal managers. It really is very sad to say that it is clear from these figures that the previous government simply lost control of the finances of the Territory.
Over some of the 1990s, there was an adherence to a debt reduction strategy. Over the last two budgets, do you know where that debt reduction strategy was? Out the big hole of the wall in the house - it was out the big hole in the wall of the house we have inherited. When every other jurisdiction was stabilising or reducing debt, the Territory, under the Country Liberal Party, was simply hell bent on going the other way. We had a government that was using increased borrowings to pay for the blowouts in current expenditure. Recurrent expenditure, as we said time and time in this House, is on the Bankcard. It is on the never. The day-to-day running of the Territory, the paying of wages, the servicing of programs, it was on the Bankcard.
The thing about it is that we listened in here time and time again to the banging of the chest, the proud statements of what great fiscal managers the Country Liberal Party were. Well, every page of every document we opened shows just how misguided and wrong that statement was.
ANSWER
I thank the member for Sanderson for his question. Yes, net debt, an issue that our previous Treasurer, the man for the rubbery figures, never liked to really come to terms with …
Mr Reed: I am flattered that you talk more about me than what you are going to do with the government.
Ms MARTIN: It is interesting that the Treasurer, the former Treasurer protests: ‘Don’t talk about the past’. There is an analogy here that leaps out. This new government is like someone buying a house. You buy a house and the person selling it to you, or giving it to you, or handing it over says: ‘Look, it’s a great house. Don’t worry about the big hole in the back wall; don’t worry about the fact that the white ants have eaten up a few of the structural beams; don’t worry about that. Just look forward, look forward.’ That is how ridiculous it is because we have inherited a budget situation that demands attention and the weasel words we are getting from the opposition now are: ‘Don’t look back, don’t look back’.
Members interjecting.
Ms MARTIN: It is interesting that you should hear those comments because this mob should really be terribly proud of the budget. Nearly 27 years in government, you should be able to say proudly: ‘We did it well. We were great fiscal managers’.
The real tragedy is you were anything but good fiscal managers. You perpetrated deception on Territorians in your budget papers, which really is the bottom line of any government. Yet the Country Liberal Party, in government for nearly 27 years, ended up perpetrating a misrepresentation and a deception on Territorians through the bottom line of what we are about, and that is our budget papers.
Unfortunately, the net debt of the NT public sector was $1.416bn at 30 June 2001, and that was up from $1.294bn in 2000. So, a substantial increase from a government that said: ‘We are great fiscal managers’. This works out at the highest per capita debt in any jurisdiction in Australia - $7523 for every Territorian. This is over four times what the average is of the other states. That average is $1718. What are we in the Territory? We are $7523. This is the inheritance of the good fiscal managers. It really is very sad to say that it is clear from these figures that the previous government simply lost control of the finances of the Territory.
Over some of the 1990s, there was an adherence to a debt reduction strategy. Over the last two budgets, do you know where that debt reduction strategy was? Out the big hole of the wall in the house - it was out the big hole in the wall of the house we have inherited. When every other jurisdiction was stabilising or reducing debt, the Territory, under the Country Liberal Party, was simply hell bent on going the other way. We had a government that was using increased borrowings to pay for the blowouts in current expenditure. Recurrent expenditure, as we said time and time in this House, is on the Bankcard. It is on the never. The day-to-day running of the Territory, the paying of wages, the servicing of programs, it was on the Bankcard.
The thing about it is that we listened in here time and time again to the banging of the chest, the proud statements of what great fiscal managers the Country Liberal Party were. Well, every page of every document we opened shows just how misguided and wrong that statement was.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016