Page 1405 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 5 June 2007
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and who delivered deficits under the Australian accounting standard, a standard which was introduced in 1996 by the then Liberal government and which applied in the territory for the following 11 years.
The figures are released again today in the budget papers for the edification of members and to explain what, under the Australian accounting standard—which, in relation to each budget for the last 11 years, has been independently audited by the Auditor-General—has been a feature. We see a deficit in 1996-97; we see a deficit in 1997-98—significant deficits, in excess of $150 million. We see a deficit in 1999-2000—
Mr Mulcahy: Why don’t you answer the question?
MR STANHOPE: I am getting to it. We see a deficit in 2000-01. We see five deficits in a row under the Liberal Party. Why does Mr Mulcahy continue to draw attention to these five deficits in a row under the Liberal Party? Because he knows that they were delivered by cabinets in which were the two people within the Liberal Party that he has on his side—one of whom he has already knocked off and one of whom he is waiting to knock off. It points and draws attention to the fact that Mr Mulcahy—the new light, the brave new Treasurer—
Mr Mulcahy: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I am simply asking that—
MR STANHOPE: —has knocked off one leader and is waiting to knock off the second on the basis of their appalling record in government.
MR SPEAKER: Order!
Mr Mulcahy: I am simply asking the Treasurer to explain to me about the GSF deficits that have been a feature of his government and that, as confirmed in his own budget papers last year, tell the real story. Can’t he just answer that question instead of worrying about the Liberal Party’s future?
MR STANHOPE: After six years of Liberal Party Australian accounting standard budgets—
Mr Pratt: Paying off your $344 million debt.
MR STANHOPE: We did continue. We continued in government with the accounting standard which we inherited from the previous government. We did that. We continued in government for five years with the accounting standard introduced and utilised by the Liberal Party, against which their budgets were measured.
Last year we changed. Last year we moved from the Australian accounting standard to the GFS. Today we see the first budget delivered consistent with that accounting standard. I think we would all now admit and be prepared to accept in retrospect that it is a decision that perhaps should have been taken much earlier. It is an accounting standard that we should have applied. It is an accounting standard which the Liberal Party deliberately chose not to embrace.
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