Page 2275 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 5 June 2013
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Then, of course, there are the staff cuts they did not tell anybody about. Remember in the lead-up to last year’s election that it was the Liberals who were going to cut everybody. “Not us. We don’t cut staff.” But 100 staff are going from Education and Training, 17 from the CIT, 38 from Community Services and 29 from environment. Yes, Health gets 131 jobs.
Mr Coe: There may be allies from the ACT branch as well.
MR SMYTH: Yes, there might be cuts at headquarters as well. But it is very hard for people in education or Community Services or environment to morph into being new nurses. So there are cuts and people are affected by this. People are losing their jobs.
Then, of course, there are the liabilities. Borrowings are up $531 million over the forward estimates, reaching a peak of $3.52 billion. The government will borrow $769 million within 24 months. Of course the interest expense is $655 million over the forward estimates. $655 million. You talk about why you should have surpluses. Well, if you have a surplus, you do not pay interest. Very simple. I think the approach the Howard government took where they paid off the debt that the Labor Party left them and had money to spend on programs is something people should look at.
Then, of course, there is the cost of living statement. That statement is inconsistent with last year’s because last year it proved to be such an embarrassment for the government when they clearly put out the effect the increase their budget would have on cost of living in the ACT. It is hard to directly compare, however, in all five of the household situations, property taxes increase in excess of nine per cent after concessions. That is the stark number. I think it was 7.76 per cent last year in total. So there we go. We see utility increases and transport will also generally increase. This is a government not being open and accountable but making the statements incomparable. Clearly the cost of living is rising; they are just unable or afraid to tell people exactly what it is.
Paragraph (2) of my motion condemns the government for their failures—their failure to be honest in the lead-up to the election, including both the 2004 and 2008 elections. Clearly, for the 2012 election they did not tell the people of the ACT the truth. In that they were deceitful. The problem with this budget is the debt, and the belief that, miraculously, in a number of years we will suddenly have this $29 million surplus. It is kind of like Wayne Swan’s surplus that we just had to have so he could prove that he had budgeted for a surplus.
There is doubt that this government can deliver infrastructure on time and within budget, and we see the fallacies of previous projects coming home to roost. They cut the prison and said it would last for 20 years. Well, it probably did not last 20 months before it was full, and now we are going back to spend in a very interesting environment. Building new buildings inside existing prisons is very difficult and very expensive, all of which we said at the time.
This is a government that does not deliver for the ACT. This is a government that has not put the ACT on a firm financial position. This is a government that does not
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