Page 1199 - Week 04 - Thursday, 17 March 2005
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I continued:
Note the grave warning: “expenditure outstrips revenue”. Then it hints—no, suggests—that the government will be baled out by increases in taxes, fees and fines.
What did we hear from the Chief Minister in the last couple of weeks while you were away, Treasurer? We have to put up taxation to cover costs or cut services—and we will not cut services. So what have we got? Tax more, spend more! Mr Quinlan is keen to continue to denigrate the figures we put out in the excellent document put together by my team. They have withstood the incoming briefs of the treasury and other units, which I think has confirmed the accuracy of them. The Treasurer has a short memory—this particular Treasurer always has had.
I want to talk about one line in his budget document—the $40 million. This is the Treasurer who says that $5 million plus $10 million, plus $12.5 million, plus $12.5 million equals $1 million. That is it—the $39 million hole in Mr Quinlan’s budget. This is the Treasurer who put out a document that says that five plus 10, plus 12.5, plus 12.5 equals one. Whose figures do you trust now? This is the Treasurer from the party that left us Labor’s legacy of an operating loss of $344 million.
What do we have in the 2003-04 financial audits from the Auditor-General? This is not from us; we did not put this document together. This is from the Auditor-General, the person charged with looking at the figures and the long-term financial position. Remember that Rosemary Follett’s government only managed to rack up a legacy of $344 million.
I will quote what the Auditor-General is saying on page 20 of the 2003-04 financial audits. She says that the territory’s long-term financial position is expected to rapidly decline over the next few years, with the expected shortfall rising by $658 million. That will be Ted Quinlan’s legacy at the next election. We will not be talking about Labor’s legacy of a $344 million operating loss; we will be talking about their legacy of a $650 million operating loss, courtesy of Treasurer Quinlan. I assume that is in 2007 figures, given that we are talking about escalators now, and escalators out of the problem we have. That is the problem with this government.
The theme of my response to the budget last year was that it was a budget of lost opportunity. We said here, at the top of the cycle, that we had a Treasurer planning for a deficit who did not have his figures right. Our predictions came true that the amount of revenue that was going to come in was way beyond what was forecast. So, one, he does not have a grip on the figures to start with; and, two, it was the lost opportunity of not drought-proofing the economy.
When he does not like something the Treasurer talks about glib lines, throwaway lines, 30-second grabs. This is the master of the 30-second grab. This is the man who is out there spreading this stuff—that everything is okay when even the Canberra Times editorial the day after the budget last year was headed “Budget of lost opportunity”. It was headed “Budget of lost opportunity”, Treasurer. You did not do your job; you could
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