Mr MALEY - 2002-08-20
Treasurer, you admitted a few moments ago that your government has received an extra $131m. We have just heard you try to explain and justify the increased power and water charges. However, how can you justify slugging Territory families an extra $90 per car to raise an extra $4m in light of the $131m windfall?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I believe the member for Goyder is talking about the Budget Improvement Levy which raises - if he could read the Budget Papers - $8m a year, and will over three years. In November 2004, that Budget Improvement Levy disappears. The Budget Improvement Levy - and this is something that the opposition doesn’t like to hear - is your responsibility for lying about the previous budget that was brought in here; for a deficit that blew out of control. And they would not admit it …
Mr REED: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I would ask the Treasurer to withdraw the word ‘lying’. You know that it is unparliamentary.
Madam SPEAKER: We have ruled that using the word ‘lie’ or ‘lying’ is out of order. Treasurer, withdraw.
Ms MARTIN: Madam Speaker, I should not use the word ‘lie’, I know, but it does …
Madam SPEAKER: Just withdraw it.
Ms MARTIN: I withdraw it. Not telling the truth about the previous budget.
It is only a year ago that we were elected and, within the first week of being in government, we were told that that bottom line of the budget was absolute rubbish. It was absolute rubbish, and what it meant for our budget situation was that we had an unsustainable budget situation, and entirely the responsibility of the Country Liberal Party and the previous Treasurer, the member for Katherine. We had to change that from an unsustainable situation to a sustainable one. I have said I am sorry to Territorians about the Budget Improvement Levy. We had to fix that budget up; the deficit situation had to be fixed.
Again, the hypocrisy of a man who should not have been Treasurer because he did not have the proper professional behaviour to be Treasurer. The hypocrisy of that is just outstanding.
Mr Dunham interjecting.
Ms MARTIN: What I can say to this House is - and you were part of that too, member for Drysdale, so do not try and …
A member interjecting.
Ms MARTIN: What I can say to this House, is we now have a Fiscal Integrity and Transparency Act. This budget brought down today is based on that Fiscal Integrity and Transparency Act. The figures that you have in this budget are real figures; you can trust those figures. I did not sit in my office upstairs and say: ‘What is a nice bottom line I can have in this budget?’ I did not sit there and say that.
These are Treasury figures and are real figures. The opposition understands the hypocrisy of their question. Let me put two facts here. The Budget Improvement Levy is directly due to the financial incompetence of the previous government. It will go in two-and-a-half years time. What I can say to Territorians is that, per capita, we have the second lowest level of taxes in Australia. When it comes to what we pay in motor registrations, we are simply at an average, and that includes the levy. In two-and-a-half years time, we will be way below that average. In terms of why we have that tax, why we have that increase, why we have the Budget Improvement Levy, is directly responsible to the previous administration.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I believe the member for Goyder is talking about the Budget Improvement Levy which raises - if he could read the Budget Papers - $8m a year, and will over three years. In November 2004, that Budget Improvement Levy disappears. The Budget Improvement Levy - and this is something that the opposition doesn’t like to hear - is your responsibility for lying about the previous budget that was brought in here; for a deficit that blew out of control. And they would not admit it …
Mr REED: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I would ask the Treasurer to withdraw the word ‘lying’. You know that it is unparliamentary.
Madam SPEAKER: We have ruled that using the word ‘lie’ or ‘lying’ is out of order. Treasurer, withdraw.
Ms MARTIN: Madam Speaker, I should not use the word ‘lie’, I know, but it does …
Madam SPEAKER: Just withdraw it.
Ms MARTIN: I withdraw it. Not telling the truth about the previous budget.
It is only a year ago that we were elected and, within the first week of being in government, we were told that that bottom line of the budget was absolute rubbish. It was absolute rubbish, and what it meant for our budget situation was that we had an unsustainable budget situation, and entirely the responsibility of the Country Liberal Party and the previous Treasurer, the member for Katherine. We had to change that from an unsustainable situation to a sustainable one. I have said I am sorry to Territorians about the Budget Improvement Levy. We had to fix that budget up; the deficit situation had to be fixed.
Again, the hypocrisy of a man who should not have been Treasurer because he did not have the proper professional behaviour to be Treasurer. The hypocrisy of that is just outstanding.
Mr Dunham interjecting.
Ms MARTIN: What I can say to this House is - and you were part of that too, member for Drysdale, so do not try and …
A member interjecting.
Ms MARTIN: What I can say to this House, is we now have a Fiscal Integrity and Transparency Act. This budget brought down today is based on that Fiscal Integrity and Transparency Act. The figures that you have in this budget are real figures; you can trust those figures. I did not sit in my office upstairs and say: ‘What is a nice bottom line I can have in this budget?’ I did not sit there and say that.
These are Treasury figures and are real figures. The opposition understands the hypocrisy of their question. Let me put two facts here. The Budget Improvement Levy is directly due to the financial incompetence of the previous government. It will go in two-and-a-half years time. What I can say to Territorians is that, per capita, we have the second lowest level of taxes in Australia. When it comes to what we pay in motor registrations, we are simply at an average, and that includes the levy. In two-and-a-half years time, we will be way below that average. In terms of why we have that tax, why we have that increase, why we have the Budget Improvement Levy, is directly responsible to the previous administration.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016