Page 3087 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 14 August 2012
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MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (11.30): If that is Mr Hargreaves’s final contribution to an estimates process after 14 years it is probably a succinct summary of his entire time here—laughable and a joke. It is interesting that Mr Hargreaves, of all people, talked about bullying because on a couple of occasions in the committee when we were deliberating on the report I actually asked Mr Hargreaves to stop his aggressive behaviour. In that case, if you want to read “aggressive” equals bullying then Mr Hargreaves should not have been bullying in the committee. His behaviour was particularly aggressive on a number of occasions and I think that is quite regretful. To the person who was the subject of that aggressive behaviour, I have already said that it certainly was not something that Mr Coe and I believed was either earned or necessary. It is the pot calling the kettle black, as always. He has left the room, and that is probably the best thing that could happen.
Madam Deputy Speaker, it is the government’s last budget of this term. I think the recommendations highlight that there are significant failings and flaws and a lack of detail in the budget or in the answers that we were afforded as members of the committee. In that regard the report is worth reading. I would go back, again, to what Mr Hargreaves said about the size of the dissenting report. It is curious that some years when we have had large dissenting reports with lots of recommendations Mr Hargreaves did not like them and then when we have a succinct dissenting report he does not like that either. He forgets about dissent. You move a motion in the committee. If it gets up, you cannot dissent from it. A number of the recommendations in the committee report came from Mr Coe or from me. You cannot get something in the report and then dissent from it. I think people understand the way that John Hargreaves operates, and I suspect this place will not miss him when he is gone.
There are a number of areas in this report that need to be discussed. First and foremost I go to page 10. It is in relation to the economic outlook, the budget savings plans and risks to the budget. We are very concerned about the state of the budget and this government’s ability, or in this case its inability, to deliver. We know, of course, that what happens this year with the budget is that the surplus for 2011-12 does not exist. There is a deficit of $125 million. There is no surplus in 2012-13; it is a deficit of $318 million. There is no surplus in 2013-14; it is a $130 million deficit. There is no surplus in 2014-15. And so it goes on.
Going to the risk section, it is interesting that Mr Hargreaves forgot to read the risks that the economic adviser wrote about in the report to the estimates committee. It talks about the unencumbered cash. One of the things this government has done under this budget is to run down the cash reserves. We see an enormous risk to the future of the ACT, and it is mentioned in the report that Mr Hargreaves forgot to read. What the committee was told with regard to the territory banking account, given the low balances in the account, which are $2 million and $1 million in a couple of years, was that were it to reach zero—if this were to occur—a borrowing requirement would be triggered. There is a very sensible recommendation that says that, should that happen, then of course the Assembly should be informed as quickly as possible. What did the report that Mr Hargreaves refer to say? It says:
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