Page 1991 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 6 May 2009
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It is a government’s role to provide leadership, particularly in these tough times, and ACT Labor is doing just that in relation to this particular budget. The strong continued investment building on the billion dollar Building the Future program will support the ACT economy by providing stability and supporting jobs. It is expected that some 2,000 jobs will be supported through the capital programs in this budget.
In contrast to that, of course, is the nature of the cuts that the Liberal Party proposed in the last election, which they are a bit leery about raising and discussing now. That is why we look forward with such interest to the alternative budget that will be delivered by the Leader of the Opposition tomorrow on behalf of his shadow treasurer.
We will listen intently to what it is that the Liberal Party have to say tomorrow about how they will deal with a circumstance in which in this first year $224 million of anticipated revenues has been simply taken from our forward estimates. What would the Liberal Party do in the situation that we find ourselves in? We know what they proposed to do a few months ago. They did propose, as Ms Gallagher said, to simply cut the major projects and facilitation unit—$2 million or $1.9 million a year straight out of major projects—
Mr Smyth: No. She said “abolish”.
MR STANHOPE: That is it. This proposal, however you care to describe it, is to abolish the major projects and facilitation unit—$1.9 million of funding out of major projects is major projects. It is interesting, too, to note that the other major saving of the Liberal Party—the Treasurer has mentioned this without attempting to be too scornful—was to actually cut the Treasurer’s Advance, which is not a saving at all. It really is just fiddlesticks. That is just smoke and mirrors (Time expired.)
MR SPEAKER: Ms Burch, a supplementary question?
Mr Seselja: Give them a licence to spend too much.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Ms Burch has the floor.
MS BURCH: Can the minister advise the Assembly on the community reaction to this significant investment?
MR STANHOPE: Thank you, Ms Burch. As I just outlined, the 2009-10 budget builds on the billion dollar investment of Building the Future. In total, in fact, there is $928.4 million to be spent over four years on new capital infrastructure through this budget, including federally funded projects under nation building and the jobs plan.
As I outlined, the 2009-10 budget plays an important role in supporting the ACT economy in these tough times—tough times that have been brought on us by the global financial crisis. All of those impacts on our budget are external and completely outside our control. Of course, they are externalities and impacts that are affecting all governments around Australia. It is expected or anticipated at this time that the commonwealth, for instance, will next week reveal a budget deficit of somewhere
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