Page 2304 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 5 June 2013
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And the motion calls on them to do a number of things. It calls on them to be honest about the job cuts. Ms Burch is there having a bit of a chat. Why wasn’t she honest about the job cuts that she was going to bring forward in her directorate? Why was she criticising Mrs Dunne at the last election for secret job cuts—a fiction, a complete deceit—when the truth in this budget is that it is Ms Burch who has cut the jobs? She is cutting into her department. Public servants out there right now in education, Ms Burch, Community Services, Ms Burch, and CIT, Ms Burch, are all saying: “Where are these jobs going? Why hasn’t our minister stood up for us? Why hasn’t she stood up for us? Why did she run a scare campaign about Mrs Dunne and the Liberals when she has failed to stand up for us through the budget cabinet?” That is what the public service will be saying today.
The motion refers to delivering vital infrastructure on time and within budget. That would be something that we would call on the government to do. And it refers to putting the government in a firm financial position. That would be a pretty useful thing to do.
What we see from Labor is dishonesty. I just went through the issues with the jobs and the cuts. But also, with the deficit and the debts that have been delivered—when you look at the structural deficits, when you take out the superannuation—what you see is that this government’s revenue has gone up significantly and is projected to go up. By the end of the forward estimates it is a billion dollars a year more than it is now, but every year—every year—taking the superannuation speculation out of this, they are spending more than they are receiving. That is exactly like the federal Labor Party. That is what got this country and the Gillard government into trouble, and that is what is going to get this government into trouble.
We then have the issue of rates. It is quite clear now that rates are tripling. It is quite clear that in this budget rates are going up 10 per cent a year. Andrew Barr has confirmed that. Katy Gallagher has confirmed that. They are going up 10 per cent a year. We say, “What does that mean?” If you extrapolate that out, you see that rates will triple within 12 years—11 and a bit years. That is assuming that your house price, your land value, does not go up at all. And we know that historically it does, significantly. And if it goes up at the historical rates, rates will triple in a far shorter time than the 12 years that is currently projected.
We have said, “Prove us wrong.” We have repeatedly said to Andrew Barr, “Show us what your plan is. Show us what your plan is beyond the budget.” He has refused to do so. Why? If he is confident about his projections, if he is telling the truth, if he has a good story to tell, show us that these rates do not triple. Show us. But the reality is that rates are tripling. We see it in the budget and we know from what we have seen from the government’s information so far that there is no other way they can remove stamp duty and the other fees and charges without tripling rates.
The other great con appears to be Gonski. Again we had the minister this morning saying, “Gonski is good for the ACT, and it’s going to provide more funding.” But when you actually look at the analysis in the budget, I am not sure that that is the case.
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