Mr McADAM - 2001-10-17
Why are the high levels of financial liabilities the Territory government has inherited such a problem?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, as the question was asked, I thought of the words of the now Opposition Leader which were, ‘spend, spend, spend’. I hope as you fall asleep at night you think about ‘spend, spend, spend’ because what you have left for Territorians is a debt now at $500 000 in interest that we pay every single day, and a debt that, under the previous administration and his Chief Ministership, was a deficit that was never an honest one. It was always massively understated, year after year.
Let us talk about the liabilities. As I outlined in my report this morning, Professor Percy Allan found that net debt and unfunded employee liabilities of the Territory were set to grow …
Mr Burke: What do you think? We have all heard about Percy, what do you think?
Ms MARTIN: I think this is important that the opposition listens to this - were set to grow to $3.3bn by June 2005, or 146% of estimated total revenue.
Of course, these liabilities do not have to be paid up in a single year, and I am not saying they are. But the ongoing costs in terms of interest and superannuation payments do have to be paid each year. Or didn’t Mike tell you? In 2000-01, these combined costs were $212m, and this amount is set to rise in the coming years. This is around half the annual health budget. So, the liabilities of those two is half the annual health budget and 60% of the education budget. Alternatively, it is about 70% more than we spend on police protection every year. The more we spend servicing debt or paying out the entitlements of our employees, the less we can spend on what Territorians really want, and that is on job creation, better health and education.
Not only did this CLP government, under the member for Brennan, utilise the Bankcard, it has taken it to the Territory’s absolute limit. The Under Treasurer’s own words were: ‘We have an unsustainable budget situation’. There is no reserve in emergencies, and there are fewer options for dealing with the collapse of things like Ansett, or the decline in tourist numbers. It took 23 years to get to this point and a new government, very sadly, cannot reverse it in a day. But we are determined to do it.
The next government of the Territory will have an open and transparent fiscal framework, something to work with – sadly, something we did not inherit after 26 years of the CLP.
Madam SPEAKER: Before we do continue I just remind members, including the Chief Minister, that you do not refer to people in this House by name, you refer to them as the member for whatever electorate. It may have been a slip, but I do not want you to start getting into that sloppy habit already.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, as the question was asked, I thought of the words of the now Opposition Leader which were, ‘spend, spend, spend’. I hope as you fall asleep at night you think about ‘spend, spend, spend’ because what you have left for Territorians is a debt now at $500 000 in interest that we pay every single day, and a debt that, under the previous administration and his Chief Ministership, was a deficit that was never an honest one. It was always massively understated, year after year.
Let us talk about the liabilities. As I outlined in my report this morning, Professor Percy Allan found that net debt and unfunded employee liabilities of the Territory were set to grow …
Mr Burke: What do you think? We have all heard about Percy, what do you think?
Ms MARTIN: I think this is important that the opposition listens to this - were set to grow to $3.3bn by June 2005, or 146% of estimated total revenue.
Of course, these liabilities do not have to be paid up in a single year, and I am not saying they are. But the ongoing costs in terms of interest and superannuation payments do have to be paid each year. Or didn’t Mike tell you? In 2000-01, these combined costs were $212m, and this amount is set to rise in the coming years. This is around half the annual health budget. So, the liabilities of those two is half the annual health budget and 60% of the education budget. Alternatively, it is about 70% more than we spend on police protection every year. The more we spend servicing debt or paying out the entitlements of our employees, the less we can spend on what Territorians really want, and that is on job creation, better health and education.
Not only did this CLP government, under the member for Brennan, utilise the Bankcard, it has taken it to the Territory’s absolute limit. The Under Treasurer’s own words were: ‘We have an unsustainable budget situation’. There is no reserve in emergencies, and there are fewer options for dealing with the collapse of things like Ansett, or the decline in tourist numbers. It took 23 years to get to this point and a new government, very sadly, cannot reverse it in a day. But we are determined to do it.
The next government of the Territory will have an open and transparent fiscal framework, something to work with – sadly, something we did not inherit after 26 years of the CLP.
Madam SPEAKER: Before we do continue I just remind members, including the Chief Minister, that you do not refer to people in this House by name, you refer to them as the member for whatever electorate. It may have been a slip, but I do not want you to start getting into that sloppy habit already.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016