17/04/2007
The Howard Government’s latest scare
campaign about the cost of Labor’s policies is completely dishonest.
It is a work of pure fiction. Senator Minchin’s claimed figure of $20
billion over four years is many times the actual cost of Labor’s commitments.
The facts are:
• Labor’s water infrastructure commitments are funded with money
already allocated in the Budget but not spent.
• Labor’s broadband commitment is a capital commitment, moving two
existing government telecommunications investments across into a new telecommunications
investment.
• No Labor commitment to fund a $2 billion Gold Coast infrastructure program
has been made.
• No Labor commitments to spend Future Fund earnings on infrastructure
projects have been made. Senator Minchin has simply invented a figure of $8.6
billion in new spending.
• A number of the commitments identified by Senator Minchin do not come
on line for several years, but he asserts they commence immediately.
In fact, the vast bulk of the claimed $20 billion in new Labor spending simply
does not exist.
Senator Minchin’s table of Labor spending commitments is the last nail
in the coffin for the Charter of Budget Honesty. Labor’s lack of faith
in the government’s ability to operate a fair and objective costing
of Opposition promises has been emphatically confirmed by this exercise.
Labor has already identified $3 billion in savings, and is formally committed
to keeping the Budget in surplus and not increasing taxation as a share of
GDP.
As the Finance Minister presides over endless wasteful spending and $10
billion commitments that aren’t even considered by Cabinet, Senator Minchin would
do better tackling his own spending problems, rather than inventing stories
about Labor’s commitments.
