Page 1646 - Week 05 - Thursday, 8 May 2008
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the Chief Minister, our spending and increase our revenue efforts—so much so that 500 public service jobs were cut; 23 government schools were closed; funds for business assistance were slashed; funding for tourism was slashed; the inequitable fire and emergency services tax was introduced; the inefficient utilities tax was introduced—and all of these decisions were made apparently in compliance with the still-secret recommendations of the Costello report.
In this year’s budget, we see a complete reversal of that strategy. The government are employing more public servants. Indeed, the Chief Minister has said we can absorb the 2,000 or 3,000 public servants that the commonwealth might dispense with. We have seen $100 million worth of recurrent spending and we have the announcement of the $1 billion future spending on capital works.
I am reminded of some words I heard almost eight years ago in this place. The speaker at that time said, in relation to the 2000 ACT budget:
What is the point in putting up a draft budget that is so far out of kilter with what is to follow? It allows the Chief Minister at the vital moment to flutter over Canberra dispensing stardust as she waves her magic social capital wand.
These comments were made, of course, by our current Chief Minister, then in his capacity as Leader of the Opposition, in a speech given to the National Press Club on 20 May 2000 in his so-called drover’s dog budget speech.
We can talk all we like about this latest budget being a budget for the future. I would have thought every budget should look to the future. Indeed, if a budget did not do that, we would all be in serious trouble. But the reality is that, as you view this budget, it resembles very closely the description of the last budget brought down by Mrs Carnell. So, if Mrs Carnell was wrong then, Mr Stanhope must be wrong now. And what we have is a latter-day Tinkerbell—although comparing the current Chief Minister to Tinkerbell is a bit disparaging for Tinkerbell—dispensing fairy dust haphazardly over the ACT in a desperate attempt to gain re-election this year.
We see the government strongly exposed in the Daily Telegraph this morning, under the heading “Stanhope’s poll shock”, which talked about a “mean-spirited” government that makes decisions that are now back flips that have to be sold as some form of community consultation.
You only have to look at the nature of both the recurrent and the capital expenditure proposals spelt out in the budget papers presented last Tuesday to observe the Tinkerbellesque nature of the Chief Minister’s latest budget. There are five pages of recurrent expenditure initiatives in budget paper 3, including an amount of $28,000 for the Rugby League world cup match—not that I in any way disparage the provision of these funds to the Rugby League. Then we have an affordable housing compliance officer, for which no funds are provided at all—so very affordable!
There are 11 pages of capital projects in budget paper 5, including an amount of $140,000 as the restoration of appropriation for Stromlo forest park. What a joke! A project is listed that simply restores funding to an existing project. Then there is an
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