Mr REED - 2002-08-22
In the interest of making the budget clearer to this House and to Territorians, would the Treasurer undertake to provide the actual cash expenditure for 2001-02, calculated on the same basis as the figures in the mini-budget, so that direct comparisons can be made? Will she further provide the staffing figures by agency so that Territorians can know how many people are actually being paid every fortnight in the Territory Public Service? Further, I seek leave to table a draft table with two columns blank to make it easier for the Chief Minister and Treasurer to provide the information by just filling in the blank columns.
Leave granted.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I refer the member for Katherine to Budget Paper No 3 and the figures against each agency of what the estimates are for staff. It is there. Like the Opposition Leader, you seem to have trouble in reading these budget papers, which have more detail in them than we have ever seen before. I was distressed to hear the Opposition Leader’s response to the budget, because it indicated he had not even opened the budget papers at the important parts like Budget Paper No 3. It was distressing to hear the member for Macdonnell last night standing in here declaring to all who would listen that we had the payroll tax figures wrong. He just did not understand it. He declared that we distorted the figures by $44m. He could not find it.
Mr ELFERINK: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The Chief Minister is well aware that I said there could be any number of reasons for this occurring. Her short-cutting was that she did not put those reasons in the budget paper.
Madam SPEAKER: I do not think that is a point of order.
Ms MARTIN: I would like to refer the member for Macdonnell to Budget Paper No 6, which explains very carefully about payroll - government payroll and private payroll - and how you do the numbers. It was not a complex calculation; it was a very straightforward one. I say to the member for Katherine, in the Treasurer’s Annual Financial Statement there will be cash figures - not against estimates, against actuals, as you know from being Treasurer - and accrual for both years. They will be there very clearly as the final accounting for the year 2001-02 in the Treasurer’s Annual Financial Statement, as you well know. The estimates of the public sector figures are in Budget Paper No 3.
Leave granted.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I refer the member for Katherine to Budget Paper No 3 and the figures against each agency of what the estimates are for staff. It is there. Like the Opposition Leader, you seem to have trouble in reading these budget papers, which have more detail in them than we have ever seen before. I was distressed to hear the Opposition Leader’s response to the budget, because it indicated he had not even opened the budget papers at the important parts like Budget Paper No 3. It was distressing to hear the member for Macdonnell last night standing in here declaring to all who would listen that we had the payroll tax figures wrong. He just did not understand it. He declared that we distorted the figures by $44m. He could not find it.
Mr ELFERINK: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The Chief Minister is well aware that I said there could be any number of reasons for this occurring. Her short-cutting was that she did not put those reasons in the budget paper.
Madam SPEAKER: I do not think that is a point of order.
Ms MARTIN: I would like to refer the member for Macdonnell to Budget Paper No 6, which explains very carefully about payroll - government payroll and private payroll - and how you do the numbers. It was not a complex calculation; it was a very straightforward one. I say to the member for Katherine, in the Treasurer’s Annual Financial Statement there will be cash figures - not against estimates, against actuals, as you know from being Treasurer - and accrual for both years. They will be there very clearly as the final accounting for the year 2001-02 in the Treasurer’s Annual Financial Statement, as you well know. The estimates of the public sector figures are in Budget Paper No 3.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016