Mr REED - 2001-11-27
Isn’t it the case that the tax slug delivered in your mini-budget was required to cover the $100m additional Territory borrowings which will be used to pay for your election promises that you were told would be unsustainable in the lead-up to the election campaign, rather than what your mini-budget is suggesting is a deficit reduction strategy?
ANSWER
It is important that I again state that this man has no credibility in asking questions about the budgets. This is the man who thinks budgets are so important that you can fiddle with the figures. You can cheat Territorians, you can be dishonest with Territorians and that is just fine. So, what credibility does he have in asking any questions?
There is only one simple answer, and it is obviously beyond the comprehension of the opposition. This mini-budget is all about dealing with the unsustainable budget situation left by the former administration. If we had not had to deal with that, we would not have had to have a mini-budget. Even though he probably tried to pore over our Access Economics document in the run-up to the election, it was a balanced document; it was one that was achievable. We did not need a mini-budget to put that in place. What we need a mini-budget for is to deal with the nine times blow-out in the deficit, that you failed to tell Territorians about and cheated on the budget papers. That is the bottom line.
ANSWER
It is important that I again state that this man has no credibility in asking questions about the budgets. This is the man who thinks budgets are so important that you can fiddle with the figures. You can cheat Territorians, you can be dishonest with Territorians and that is just fine. So, what credibility does he have in asking any questions?
There is only one simple answer, and it is obviously beyond the comprehension of the opposition. This mini-budget is all about dealing with the unsustainable budget situation left by the former administration. If we had not had to deal with that, we would not have had to have a mini-budget. Even though he probably tried to pore over our Access Economics document in the run-up to the election, it was a balanced document; it was one that was achievable. We did not need a mini-budget to put that in place. What we need a mini-budget for is to deal with the nine times blow-out in the deficit, that you failed to tell Territorians about and cheated on the budget papers. That is the bottom line.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016