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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-05-27 Daily Xml
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STATE BUDGET

The Hon. I.F. EVANS (Davenport) (14:46): I have a supplementary question for the Treasurer, Madam Speaker. Given the Treasurer's answer, can he explain why the Tasmanian government, which was re-elected on exactly the same day as this government, can deliver its budget on 17 June, three months earlier than this government?

The SPEAKER: I do not think the Deputy Premier needs to answer that. The Deputy Premier is not responsible for the Tasmanian budget but, if he chooses to answer it, he can.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Treasurer, Minister for Federal/State Relations, Minister for Defence Industries) (14:46): I will answer it because it is quite simple. It is because they are not undertaking the type of work that we are undertaking.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Treasurer, you have not finished?

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I am not going to continue to stand if I am going to be heckled the whole time. They either want an answer or they do not. The time line for the Sustainable Budget Commission has been well-known for seven or eight months. It is an enormously difficult and lengthy process—

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: —as we undertake a complete review of most government spending programs so that the cabinet can have before it the full range of advice as to what we may consider to be funding commitments of a lesser priority than others. It is a process that I undertook—in a different format, admittedly—when I came to office in 2002. It is a much larger process that I undertook post the 2006 election. It is consistent with what Dean Brown and Stephen Baker did in 1994.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: It is consistent with what John Howard did in 1996 and, in fact, I am using the same person John Howard used. We are a government that has been very prudent with our financial management.

Mr Williams interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I am not sure whether the deputy leader remembers, but there was a thing called the global financial crisis.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: From memory, we lost some $3 billion of revenue over the forward estimates period, and we have got back close to $2 billion of that. We are still down, as I advised the house two or three weeks ago, by $1.2 billion over the forward estimates than what we would have received.

You cannot replace that level of revenue without a detailed exercise and looking at your spending. That is what we are doing. We have the AAA credit rating. We are the government that got it back and we are the government that will keep it.

The SPEAKER: The member for Taylor.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! We will hear the member for Taylor in silence.

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