Ms CARNEY - 2006-02-15
On radio this morning, the Minister for Public Employment asserted that it was the responsibility of departments to live within their budgets and that departments are responsible for their own fiscal management. Immediately prior to the last election, you gave in to union pressures for increased wages, not the departments. By saying it is the department’s responsibility to live within budget when you are the one changing the amount of money for wages to be paid is a cop out. Will you accept that the wages blow-out last year was not any department’s fault, but your responsibility, or will you now do what your Minister for Public Employment did this morning, and blame public servants for your shortcomings as a fiscal manager?
Mr Henderson: What a stupid question.
Ms CARNEY: That was the question. Do you have a problem with that?
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, there are a couple of responses that I need to make to that rambling and disjointed question.
Ms Carney: Okay, that is the patronising one. Got another one?
Madam SPEAKER: Leader of the Opposition!
Ms CARNEY: Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Ms MARTIN: To say to departments, as Chief Minister, and as has Treasurer, that you live within your budgets - which are good cashed-up budgets and have increased over the last four years - is terrific, responsible fiscal management. I make no apology - that is what I have said to CEOs: ‘You have adequate budgets and you must live within them’. As I said, I make no apology.
When there are EBA increases, then those increases are appropriately funded to departments so they continue to live within budgets. I say to the Leader of the Opposition and members of the opposition: which public servant would you like to tell they did not deserve their pay increases?
Do you want to go and tell the nurses that they did not deserve the recent pay increase? Do you want to go and tell the police they did not deserve the recent pay increase? How about the teachers? We should not increase the teachers pay to keep up with national standards, to keep up with what they deserve.
Ms Carney: It is not the question. You blame public servants for your bad management. You do! It is the Labor way.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms MARTIN: Again, I make no apology. Our public servants deliver services for Territorians and they deserve to be paid properly to do that. We fund departments to be able to do that, and I have asked them, with increased funding, to stay within those budgets. Maybe the Opposition Leader thought she was scoring some kind of king hit. I say again: we will have responsible budget management and our public servants deserve to be paid properly for the important work they do.
Mr Henderson: What a stupid question.
Ms CARNEY: That was the question. Do you have a problem with that?
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, there are a couple of responses that I need to make to that rambling and disjointed question.
Ms Carney: Okay, that is the patronising one. Got another one?
Madam SPEAKER: Leader of the Opposition!
Ms CARNEY: Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Ms MARTIN: To say to departments, as Chief Minister, and as has Treasurer, that you live within your budgets - which are good cashed-up budgets and have increased over the last four years - is terrific, responsible fiscal management. I make no apology - that is what I have said to CEOs: ‘You have adequate budgets and you must live within them’. As I said, I make no apology.
When there are EBA increases, then those increases are appropriately funded to departments so they continue to live within budgets. I say to the Leader of the Opposition and members of the opposition: which public servant would you like to tell they did not deserve their pay increases?
Do you want to go and tell the nurses that they did not deserve the recent pay increase? Do you want to go and tell the police they did not deserve the recent pay increase? How about the teachers? We should not increase the teachers pay to keep up with national standards, to keep up with what they deserve.
Ms Carney: It is not the question. You blame public servants for your bad management. You do! It is the Labor way.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms MARTIN: Again, I make no apology. Our public servants deliver services for Territorians and they deserve to be paid properly to do that. We fund departments to be able to do that, and I have asked them, with increased funding, to stay within those budgets. Maybe the Opposition Leader thought she was scoring some kind of king hit. I say again: we will have responsible budget management and our public servants deserve to be paid properly for the important work they do.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016