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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-06-20 Daily Xml
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Savings Targets

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (15:04): Supplementary: why is the Treasurer committing to maintain efficiency dividends, he says, from the former government's Mid-Year Budget Review, yet in the previous answer he also confirmed that he is taking a hard decision to cut the programs that were funded by these efficiency dividends?

The PRESIDENT: It is a very loose thread to the original answer, but I am going to allow it. Treasurer.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:04): And, sadly, Mr President, indicates the former minister's inadequate understanding of budget related matters, which is perhaps not a surprise. Mr President, it is quite clear that the former government did leave considerable savings tasks to agencies. It is quite clear that we have added to the efficiency dividend by way of the announcements we made at the election for 2018-19 in the 4 September budget. The savings tasks for departments will be a combination of labour savings or efficiency dividends and additional ones from the incoming Liberal government.

Now, to all intents and purposes, agencies will have to just implement the total savings task, and that will mean that, if we are going to fund new initiatives, such as abolishing payroll tax for all small businesses, we will have to, in some agencies, or right across agencies, either discontinue or not continue with certain projects or programs which might have been projects or programs the Labor Party loves, Mr President.

So they are the difficult decisions that will need to be taken, but there is nothing inconsistent with those positions, and, in fact, it is entirely consistent with the position that we promised the people prior to the election.

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