Page 4827 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 14 December 2005
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MR STANHOPE: at the shallowness and the opaque nature of his question and the fact that he as shadow Treasurer has absolutely no intention of reflecting the promises—
Opposition members interjecting—
MR STANHOPE: which are still on the paper, are still on the table, from before the last election. We note, for instance—
Opposition members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Order! I think it is about time we came to the subject matter of the question—and the opposition ceased interjecting. Mr Smyth, I am tempted to warn you. I am not sure whether you can contain yourself once I do, so I just issue that interim warning.
MR STANHOPE: It is obvious that the opposition do not want to hear the answer, but, as I have just noted from a paper, our GST receipts in the last year were in the order of $750 million. The question went to the attitude I have taken to the GST, to our GST receipts, statements that I have made in relation to that and the attitude of the commonwealth to those receipts. I think it is relevant, in the context of total receipts of about $750 million, to think about some of the decisions that might have been made, and some of the promises. In the comments that I made, I was referring to the sorts of promises and initiatives one might have pursued, and pursued appropriately in relation to some knowledge around the extent of our GST receipts—somewhere in the order of $750 million. In the context of that, one, of course, is entitled to compare the ACT government’s approach to the ACT opposition’s approach, the approach that Mr Mulcahy brings to this subject.
We know about the alternative budget, which the shadow Treasurer has to date neglected or refrained from preparing. He has refrained from preparing it because, if he were to be honest, he knows he would have to go back to promises that remain on the table from his own colleagues, which have not been taken off the table—and amongst those there is more than an entire year’s GST receipts in a single promise made by the Liberal Party prior to the last election in relation to the establishment by the ACT of a bank to provide essentially upfront loans—
Opposition members interjecting—
MR STANHOPE: No, this is on the record. I can produce it, if you like. This is on the record; this is a Liberal Party promise from the last election, which is on the table, and it is costed at $840 million—more than an entire year’s receipts of GST. Mr Mulcahy, you can disown it. But the difficulty you have in disowning it, of course, is that the promise was made by somebody in your little push-for-leadership group—and, of course, we know that you are not going to do anything to upset anybody in your little push-for-leadership group—and, indeed, as I understand it, the aspirant for the deputy leadership. We cannot have the dream team fighting before they actually realise the dream. We cannot have the to-be deputy leader being chastised and essentially undercut by the would-be leader before they get there.
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