Opposition questions the Premier's credibility on electricity prices, citing budget papers and debt. Premier dismisses the focus on forward estimates, asserting the current budget is the only relevant financial plan.

AnsweredQoN 591Legislative Assembly
Asked
20 September 2011
Portfolio
Premier

QuestionView source ↗

STATE GOVERNMENT FINANCIAL PLAN
I have a supplementary question. Why should people trust anything the Premier says about electricity prices when he has just told the house that he is not committed to his own budget papers, which show a $22.4 billion debt and a 25 per cent increase in electricity prices in the two years after the election? Mr C.J. BARNETT

AnswerView source ↗

How many times have we had this discussion? Most times a Leader of the Opposition might be accused of living in the past, but this Leader of the Opposition is the only member of Parliament who lives in the year of the forward estimates. He is out there in some ephemeral world of the forward estimates. Get real. As I have explained to him a number of times, there is only one budget and only one allocation of funding, and that is the budget.
Mr C.J. BARNETT replied: How many times have we had this discussion? Most times a Leader of the Opposition might be accused of living in the past, but this Leader of the Opposition is the only member of Parliament who lives in the year of the forward estimates. He is out there in some ephemeral world of the forward estimates. Get real. As I have explained to him a number of times, there is only one budget and only one allocation of funding, and that is the budget.
How many times have we had this discussion? Most times a Leader of the Opposition might be accused of living in the past, but this Leader of the Opposition is the only member of Parliament who lives in the year of the forward estimates. He is out there in some ephemeral world of the forward estimates. Get real. As I have explained to him a number of times, there is only one budget and only one allocation of funding, and that is the budget.

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