Page 1588 - Week 04 - Thursday, 7 April 2011
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MR HANSON: They wanted buses coming every 30 minutes—an extra 100 buses at a cost of $35 million. Madam Assistant Speaker, I could go on and on. But what is clear is that this ACT Labor government, with its Green colleagues, simply cannot exercise fiscal discipline. The people that pay again and again are the taxpayers of the ACT.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Before you begin, Treasurer, could I point out that there is a lot of conversation going on. It is disorderly to interject and it is doubly disorderly, Ms Burch, to interject when you are not in your place.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Treasurer, Minister for Health, Minister for Community Services and Minister for Women) (3.42): I will start by quoting an excerpt of the budget speech presented to the Assembly on 25 June 2002, in the words of Mr Ted Quinlan:
Mr Speaker, since coming to government we have been faced with a number of financial issues which the previous government had not addressed—issues which are not small in dollar value or insignificant in their importance to the people of Canberra and to the running of an effective government. Mr Speaker, I can only speculate as to the reasons why some matters were not provided for in the budget of 2001.
For example:
Mr Speaker, the Liberals had promised a jail. No capital funding was provided. Labor has now picked up the tab … A planning provision of $50 million has been set aside from the cash reserves to fund the construction of a new remand centre … a much needed facility …
… the Liberals had committed to the funding of a medical school. No budget funding was provided. Labor has now picked up that tab and has provided both a capital and an ongoing contribution to the medical school.
The last Liberal budget ignored the impending nurses salary settlement, as it ignored other very obvious wage and salary pressures.
I think it was one per cent that was put aside for wages. He continued:
That budget also presumed a clearly unachievable clawback in public sector superannuation.
He went on to say:
… it has become obvious that the information technology base has been neglected in funding. This budget provides … ongoing commitment to funding the cost of information technology across the public service.
Like Mr Hanson, I could go on and on for the benefit of those opposite who are trying to portray themselves as fiscally conservative and as the only people who can manage
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