House of Assembly: Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Contents

STATE BUDGET

Mr MARSHALL (Norwood—Leader of the Opposition) (15:12): My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer confirm that he is still committed to the fiscal targets contained in last year's budget, and can he update the house on progress towards those targets?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Treasurer, Minister for State Development, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for the Arts) (15:13): The Mid-Year Budget Review updated the targets that are contained in the last financial statement. So, we have had the budget. It's been updated by the Mid-Year Budget Review, where there have been additional revisions to the targets that have been mentioned.

If you look across the forward estimates, in 2015-16, which is the projected surplus that we had in the budget, there is still a projected surplus. It was $512 million in the budget and it's $468 million in the Mid-Year Budget Review, so we do remain committed to the fiscal targets that we set for ourselves.

I have given the house some information about how we're going in relation to the savings task which underpins the fiscal targets and the financial targets that we've set ourselves. They're progressing well and, of course, in the budget more will be revealed about where we are in relation to our revenue projections and the budget measures and the effect that that will have on the overall aggregates.