Page 3138 - Week 10 - Thursday, 18 October 2007
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apply pure GFS. They will not account for long-term returns on superannuation. It is hypocrisy and humbug! The next time you hear—
Mr Stefaniak: What about your June turnaround, Jon? What about your extra money after the budget?
MR STANHOPE: Do not read the Hansards for the last two years or any of Mr Mulcahy’s press releases for the last two years in which he rails against the accounting standard applied by the ACT. The Leader of the Opposition, as recently as a few months ago, said, “These are not real surpluses. These are paper surpluses. They have taken into account superannuation. You cannot actually spend any of this.”
Mr Mulcahy: You can’t.
Mr Stefaniak: You can’t.
MR STANHOPE: So you cannot spend the surplus? You just did. Mr Mulcahy says you cannot spend any of this.
Mr Stefaniak: What about the extra $200 million you didn’t spend?
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Stefaniak, I—
MR STANHOPE: You cannot spend any of this.
MR SPEAKER: Chief Minister, order! Mr Stefaniak, I warn you. You have ignored my rulings on interjecting too many times.
MR STANHOPE: Mr Speaker, the shadow Treasurer informs us that you cannot spend any of this and they will not—that, in fact, they will take the true surplus position as the pure GFS. Indeed, in 2006-07, it actually did, as adjusted, become $30 million-odd—
Opposition members interjecting—
MR STANHOPE: minus 29. In 2006-07 it was 62. In the view, as I have been saying, of the Liberal Party, the real surplus for 2007-08 is $13.5 million. Mr Mulcahy has just agreed, through his party, to spend $54 million on health. He has agreed, and his explanation, in his introduction speech yesterday and on the media this week, of why we can afford to remove $16.5 million of revenue at this stage is because, as we see from the transcript of the interview with Mr Solly, “We don’t need it; we can easily do without it”. I have the transcript here. I will table it. He said, “We don’t need it. We can do without it. The surplus is far greater than we expected.”
But Mr Mulcahy’s surplus is actually $13.5 million and he is proposing, just in his revenue cut, to cut $16.5 million from the budget. Just his revenue cut, on Mr Mulcahy’s accounting standard, puts us into deficit, let alone the $54 million on health, let alone the $10 million which Mrs Dunne has undertaken to reinstate in teachers’ salaries to undo the work that has been done by the government to rationalise and make more efficient our education system, not to take into account the
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