Mr KIELY - 2002-08-21
What is Treasury’s advice on the government’s plan to bring the budget into balance by 2004-05?
Mr Reed: Can’t you read the books?
ANSWER
The comment from across the House is: ‘Can’t you read the books?’ I would have thought a demonstration of the opposition response to the budget this morning was simply that - that you could not read the books. You simply could not read the books. I sat here squirming this morning. We heard one ridiculous statement after another coming from the mouth of the Opposition Leader. Would you like me to go through all the stupid things you said this morning?
Members interjecting.
Ms MARTIN: It would take half an hour to go through all the stupid things that were said; the inaccurate things. Let us start with net worth …
Mr REED: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The Chief Minister and Treasurer well knows that she, in reply closing debate on the Appropriation Bill, will have every opportunity to go through the matters to which she refers in detail, and she does not have to waste time available for us to ask questions.
Madam SPEAKER: It would be nice if we could have short questions and short answers today, and not so many interjections. Chief Minister, would you like to continue your answer to the question.
Ms MARTIN: The question – well, Madam Speaker, you do give a little latitude ...
Madam SPEAKER: I do, I do, but not always.
Ms MARTIN: … and I am still stunned at what we heard this morning. We heard, for example, the Opposition Leader talk about net worth, and try and quote figures, and somehow equate me in what he thought was cute, to be the Joan Kirner of the Northern Territory. He had the wrong page. Again and again through the speech, he had the wrong page. He did not read Budget Paper No 3. This is a budget paper you can be proud of because it has more in it than we have ever seen in it before. It explains variations, it compares apples with apples in one year to the next. You did not read …
Mr Burke: I read the one that was signed by the Under Treasurer. The one we can believe, remember? This is fiscal transparency.
Ms MARTIN: Page after page of the Opposition Leader’s speech this morning was simply wrong. It was simply wrong. I am trying to be charitable. I am trying to say that he was either lost or confused. However, in terms of an incompetent performance, it was really of a very high scale, and it is very disappointing.
Let me talk about the deficit reduction strategy, because it is one that has been ticked off under our new Fiscal Integrity and Transparency Act. This is not the same as we saw before, where the previous Treasurer, the now member for Katherine - he was the member for Katherine then …
Mr Reed: Always the member for Katherine, not now.
Ms MARTIN: Okay, you were the member for Katherine then – sat up in his office up there on the 5th floor and said: ‘How will I write the bottom figure to this budget? We are coming into an election, what would I like it to be? Oh, $12m is a good number this year’. Well, that was exposed, wasn’t it?
Mr Reed: It was $22m this year.
Ms MARTIN: That was exposed. This is not a budget that deals with that, and so the figures that you have in this budget are there under a Fiscal Integrity and Transparency Act, and those figures have been prepared by Treasury. To have a discussion with those who perpetrated such a deceit on the Territory about a budget that had been done with such integrity, is something that galls me. It is a very serious issue.
What we are doing is dealing in a responsible way with the black hole that was left in the budget - the black hole. We had a Treasurer who pretended it was $12m for deficit for the last financial year, and what was it? In very quick time, it was well over $100m, and when we got Percy Allan to do a very close check, it was $126m. Any pretence that we have heard from the Opposition Leader – who has been out over the last 24 hours to the media saying: ‘What rubbish, black hole in the budget’. That black hole was there, it was a deceit to Territorians.
We are moving on from that. We are dealing with your deceit and our budget - this Labor budget for all Territorians no matter where they live in the Territory - will come back into an even balance by the year 2004-05. Look at that: this is the Treasury figures, and it shows very clearly we have identified the carry overs - something that the Public Accounts Committee showed that you tried to do a Harry Potter on and get to disappear. It was simply another deceit perpetrated on Territorians: lose a carry over from the one year and lose it from the next year. Where did you put it, Treasurer, then? Did you put it in your back pocket? Maybe you put it in your back pocket. We did not see it! The Public Accounts Committee and Percy Allan exposed that.
This is a deficit reduction strategy that Territorians can be very proud of, because in 2004-05 – I will table it for everyone, if you like - we will be back in an even balanced situation. We will be back there, we have a strategy. Yet, at the same time, while we carry through with that strategy, we have put effective increases into the key areas for Territorians: education, health and community safety.
It really was a budget yesterday, and a budget for the next year that delivers but invests for our future. I would like to table this. This is an honest deficit reduction strategy. It has had a tick from all those who carefully looked through …
Mr Burke: What page is it in the budget papers? What page is it in the budget papers?
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Leader of the Opposition, once was enough.
Ms MARTIN: If you cannot read the budget papers, we are going to have to help you out. We do not have colour in the budget paper.
This is a proud budget with key areas of funding, and a proud deficit reduction strategy that has been done without me sitting there writing bottom numbers, as we have seen previously. This will serve us well for the future.
Mr Reed: Can’t you read the books?
ANSWER
The comment from across the House is: ‘Can’t you read the books?’ I would have thought a demonstration of the opposition response to the budget this morning was simply that - that you could not read the books. You simply could not read the books. I sat here squirming this morning. We heard one ridiculous statement after another coming from the mouth of the Opposition Leader. Would you like me to go through all the stupid things you said this morning?
Members interjecting.
Ms MARTIN: It would take half an hour to go through all the stupid things that were said; the inaccurate things. Let us start with net worth …
Mr REED: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The Chief Minister and Treasurer well knows that she, in reply closing debate on the Appropriation Bill, will have every opportunity to go through the matters to which she refers in detail, and she does not have to waste time available for us to ask questions.
Madam SPEAKER: It would be nice if we could have short questions and short answers today, and not so many interjections. Chief Minister, would you like to continue your answer to the question.
Ms MARTIN: The question – well, Madam Speaker, you do give a little latitude ...
Madam SPEAKER: I do, I do, but not always.
Ms MARTIN: … and I am still stunned at what we heard this morning. We heard, for example, the Opposition Leader talk about net worth, and try and quote figures, and somehow equate me in what he thought was cute, to be the Joan Kirner of the Northern Territory. He had the wrong page. Again and again through the speech, he had the wrong page. He did not read Budget Paper No 3. This is a budget paper you can be proud of because it has more in it than we have ever seen in it before. It explains variations, it compares apples with apples in one year to the next. You did not read …
Mr Burke: I read the one that was signed by the Under Treasurer. The one we can believe, remember? This is fiscal transparency.
Ms MARTIN: Page after page of the Opposition Leader’s speech this morning was simply wrong. It was simply wrong. I am trying to be charitable. I am trying to say that he was either lost or confused. However, in terms of an incompetent performance, it was really of a very high scale, and it is very disappointing.
Let me talk about the deficit reduction strategy, because it is one that has been ticked off under our new Fiscal Integrity and Transparency Act. This is not the same as we saw before, where the previous Treasurer, the now member for Katherine - he was the member for Katherine then …
Mr Reed: Always the member for Katherine, not now.
Ms MARTIN: Okay, you were the member for Katherine then – sat up in his office up there on the 5th floor and said: ‘How will I write the bottom figure to this budget? We are coming into an election, what would I like it to be? Oh, $12m is a good number this year’. Well, that was exposed, wasn’t it?
Mr Reed: It was $22m this year.
Ms MARTIN: That was exposed. This is not a budget that deals with that, and so the figures that you have in this budget are there under a Fiscal Integrity and Transparency Act, and those figures have been prepared by Treasury. To have a discussion with those who perpetrated such a deceit on the Territory about a budget that had been done with such integrity, is something that galls me. It is a very serious issue.
What we are doing is dealing in a responsible way with the black hole that was left in the budget - the black hole. We had a Treasurer who pretended it was $12m for deficit for the last financial year, and what was it? In very quick time, it was well over $100m, and when we got Percy Allan to do a very close check, it was $126m. Any pretence that we have heard from the Opposition Leader – who has been out over the last 24 hours to the media saying: ‘What rubbish, black hole in the budget’. That black hole was there, it was a deceit to Territorians.
We are moving on from that. We are dealing with your deceit and our budget - this Labor budget for all Territorians no matter where they live in the Territory - will come back into an even balance by the year 2004-05. Look at that: this is the Treasury figures, and it shows very clearly we have identified the carry overs - something that the Public Accounts Committee showed that you tried to do a Harry Potter on and get to disappear. It was simply another deceit perpetrated on Territorians: lose a carry over from the one year and lose it from the next year. Where did you put it, Treasurer, then? Did you put it in your back pocket? Maybe you put it in your back pocket. We did not see it! The Public Accounts Committee and Percy Allan exposed that.
This is a deficit reduction strategy that Territorians can be very proud of, because in 2004-05 – I will table it for everyone, if you like - we will be back in an even balanced situation. We will be back there, we have a strategy. Yet, at the same time, while we carry through with that strategy, we have put effective increases into the key areas for Territorians: education, health and community safety.
It really was a budget yesterday, and a budget for the next year that delivers but invests for our future. I would like to table this. This is an honest deficit reduction strategy. It has had a tick from all those who carefully looked through …
Mr Burke: What page is it in the budget papers? What page is it in the budget papers?
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Leader of the Opposition, once was enough.
Ms MARTIN: If you cannot read the budget papers, we are going to have to help you out. We do not have colour in the budget paper.
This is a proud budget with key areas of funding, and a proud deficit reduction strategy that has been done without me sitting there writing bottom numbers, as we have seen previously. This will serve us well for the future.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016