Mr BURKE - 2004-05-19
In Budget Paper No 2 for the 2003-04 budget titled, ‘Fiscal and Economic Outlook’, that is signed by your Under Treasurer, it restated your fiscal objectives in this way:
Treasurer, this year’s statement by the Under Treasurer dumps these fiscal objectives by stating:
And further:
Treasurer, will you now admit that you have been unable to manage the economy; you cannot stick to your own fiscal strategy and your own departmental spending; and you cannot be trusted with Treasury responsibility?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, from the same person and member of parliament who not so long ago was saying, ‘spend, spend, spend’. Now we are not allowed to spend. Here we have the ambiguity and contradiction from members opposite. The current Leader of the Opposition referred this morning to us having walked on Percy Allan. People might remember Professor Percy Allan in the black suit with the very gaunt features - the undertaker look.. He was the one who said: ‘You have to get serious about a deficit reduction strategy’, and we worked to it. Faced with the deceitful deficit that we inherited in August 2001, we set about repairing the debt and the havoc that had been reaped on the Territory’s fiscal situation and budgetary performance over the last years of the CLP.
We will still make a balanced budget in 2004-05 due to the extra $28m out of the GST. We would otherwise have been in deficit, because …
Members interjecting.
Mr STIRLING: They have very short memories, these people opposite. They forget that when we went to Canberra in March of this year and spoke with the federal Treasurer, we lost $47.7m out of 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07, 2007-08, all the way through until the Grants Commission reviews its relativities again in five years time. That is going to put a hole ...
Mr Mills: That is not true.
Mr STIRLING: Well, the equivalent to New South Wales, for $48m out of us, was about $250m they would have lost, or even higher. The fact is, O’Sullivan came along and said: ‘No recruitment in 1990 to 1994 has left a hole in police force ranks at the middle and senior level’. It is still catch-up. It is worse than catch-up, because you do not have the experienced people to bring the numbers through. There was deceit about the actual police numbers in the force over those years, so there was a massive fix-up job there.
Is the member for Brennan suggesting we ought not have adopted the recommendations from O’Sullivan? If so, fine, go and tell the people, because we believe O’Sullivan did a quality job in pointing to the deficiencies in the police force, and pointed the way forward in what we needed to do. The spend is $75m over about three years.
We recognised the difficulty that the tourism industry was in, through ...
Mr MILLS: A point of order, Madam Speaker! This answer has no relationship at all to the question that was asked.
Mr Stirling: Yes, it has!
Mr MILLS: Madam Speaker, I move that so much of standing orders be suspended so as to allow me to move the following motion to censure the Chief Minister. In particular, I move that this parliament censure the Chief Minister …
Mr HENDERSON: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I seek a ruling on how on earth the Leader of the Opposition intends to censure the Chief Minister who this parliament, by a motion, has granted a leave of absence for this particular day and tomorrow.
Mr Baldwin: Well, which one of you over there wants to be the Chief Minister?
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Wait a moment. Clerk, can I speak to you for a minute?
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Let us have some clarification. Leader of the Opposition, you are seeking leave to move suspension of standing orders, is that right?
Mr MILLS: That is correct.
Madam SPEAKER: Okay, then we will put that. Is leave granted?
Leave granted.
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, we accept the censure motion. I ask that further questions be placed on the Question Paper, and for you to cease the rolling of the cameras. We accept the censure motion and I would ask that the censure be directed to the Acting Chief Minister who, by convention, is the Deputy Chief Minister in the Chief Minister’s absence.
[Editor’s Note: Question Time ceased due to moving of Censure Motion]
- These fiscal objectives might be best described as the principal ‘macro’ indicators that allow assessment of the overall financial performance of a government and the extent to which current policies are sustainable and are likely to contribute towards reductions in debt.
Treasurer, this year’s statement by the Under Treasurer dumps these fiscal objectives by stating:
- … the government has departed from its previously announced strategy to provide additional support and stimulus for economic growth, both by increasing spending and by reducing taxes in the 2004-05 budget.
And further:
- … the decision to boost service provision, particularly in the areas of health, education and community safety, has resulted in significant recurrent expenditure beyond that anticipated in the previous fFiscal sStrategy.
Treasurer, will you now admit that you have been unable to manage the economy; you cannot stick to your own fiscal strategy and your own departmental spending; and you cannot be trusted with Treasury responsibility?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, from the same person and member of parliament who not so long ago was saying, ‘spend, spend, spend’. Now we are not allowed to spend. Here we have the ambiguity and contradiction from members opposite. The current Leader of the Opposition referred this morning to us having walked on Percy Allan. People might remember Professor Percy Allan in the black suit with the very gaunt features - the undertaker look.. He was the one who said: ‘You have to get serious about a deficit reduction strategy’, and we worked to it. Faced with the deceitful deficit that we inherited in August 2001, we set about repairing the debt and the havoc that had been reaped on the Territory’s fiscal situation and budgetary performance over the last years of the CLP.
We will still make a balanced budget in 2004-05 due to the extra $28m out of the GST. We would otherwise have been in deficit, because …
Members interjecting.
Mr STIRLING: They have very short memories, these people opposite. They forget that when we went to Canberra in March of this year and spoke with the federal Treasurer, we lost $47.7m out of 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07, 2007-08, all the way through until the Grants Commission reviews its relativities again in five years time. That is going to put a hole ...
Mr Mills: That is not true.
Mr STIRLING: Well, the equivalent to New South Wales, for $48m out of us, was about $250m they would have lost, or even higher. The fact is, O’Sullivan came along and said: ‘No recruitment in 1990 to 1994 has left a hole in police force ranks at the middle and senior level’. It is still catch-up. It is worse than catch-up, because you do not have the experienced people to bring the numbers through. There was deceit about the actual police numbers in the force over those years, so there was a massive fix-up job there.
Is the member for Brennan suggesting we ought not have adopted the recommendations from O’Sullivan? If so, fine, go and tell the people, because we believe O’Sullivan did a quality job in pointing to the deficiencies in the police force, and pointed the way forward in what we needed to do. The spend is $75m over about three years.
We recognised the difficulty that the tourism industry was in, through ...
Mr MILLS: A point of order, Madam Speaker! This answer has no relationship at all to the question that was asked.
Mr Stirling: Yes, it has!
Mr MILLS: Madam Speaker, I move that so much of standing orders be suspended so as to allow me to move the following motion to censure the Chief Minister. In particular, I move that this parliament censure the Chief Minister …
Mr HENDERSON: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I seek a ruling on how on earth the Leader of the Opposition intends to censure the Chief Minister who this parliament, by a motion, has granted a leave of absence for this particular day and tomorrow.
Mr Baldwin: Well, which one of you over there wants to be the Chief Minister?
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Wait a moment. Clerk, can I speak to you for a minute?
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Let us have some clarification. Leader of the Opposition, you are seeking leave to move suspension of standing orders, is that right?
Mr MILLS: That is correct.
Madam SPEAKER: Okay, then we will put that. Is leave granted?
Leave granted.
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, we accept the censure motion. I ask that further questions be placed on the Question Paper, and for you to cease the rolling of the cameras. We accept the censure motion and I would ask that the censure be directed to the Acting Chief Minister who, by convention, is the Deputy Chief Minister in the Chief Minister’s absence.
[Editor’s Note: Question Time ceased due to moving of Censure Motion]
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016