❓ Dr. Honey questions the Treasurer's performance and the effectiveness of government changes, while the Treasurer defends his record, highlighting financial improvements and criticising the opposition's inconsistency and past government's financial management.
AnsweredQoN 45Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
M c GOWAN
GOVERNMENT — AUDIT FINDINGS
45. Dr D.J. HONEY to the Treasurer:
I have a supplementary question.
Does the substantial deterioration in government entity audit performance demonstrate
the failure of the machinery-of-government changes and show why the Premier
should hand over the role of Treasurer to someone who has the time to do the
job properly?
The SPEAKER : All right, so
you have snuck a second question in there. I am again going to advise people
that I will get harsher on that if people continue to do it.
GOVERNMENT — AUDIT FINDINGS
45. Dr D.J. HONEY to the Treasurer:
I have a supplementary question.
Does the substantial deterioration in government entity audit performance demonstrate
the failure of the machinery-of-government changes and show why the Premier
should hand over the role of Treasurer to someone who has the time to do the
job properly?
The SPEAKER : All right, so
you have snuck a second question in there. I am again going to advise people
that I will get harsher on that if people continue to do it.
AnswerView source ↗
Madam
Speaker, Richard Court was the Treasurer. Colin Barnett was the Treasurer.
Charles Court was the Treasurer. Sir David Brand was the Treasurer. Sir Ross
McLarty was the Treasurer. They were all the Treasurer. Ray O'Connor was
the Treasurer; he was the Treasurer.
Several members interjected.
Mr M. McGOWAN : Sir James
Mitchell was the Treasurer. There you go! I am confident that the member for Cottesloe
will never be the Treasurer. They were all Treasurers. Colin Barnett loved it
so much he was Treasurer three times. That is the reality.
During my time as Treasurer and
Premier, we have turned around the state's finances. Seven years ago,
we were the worst-performing state financially in the commonwealth. We are now
the best by far. We are the only state that has recovered the AAA credit
rating. The Liberal–National government lost it in 2013. We recovered
it. That government had record revenues during parts of its time in office. We
recovered it, even though the former government lost it. I have been the
Treasurer or Premier during that time. As my ministers will attest to, we are
careful with money. The previous government was not careful with money.
Admittedly, the member was not there, but his predecessor and those ministers
were not careful with money. They did not care about money. They had two budget
processes—the Liberal Party process and the National Party process. As
Liberal Party ministers of that era will attest to, they hated it because
government did not work properly. The Liberal–National model does not
work because there are two governments within the one government. It is
dysfunctional, as members can see in New
South Wales. It is dysfunctional in how it operates. Go and ask any Liberal in
New South Wales and they will tell members that it does not work.
Members opposite condemn us. One
day members opposite are saying that our surpluses are too big and then they
are saying that I have failed as Treasurer. Which one is it? We are either too
successful with the money or we are not successful enough! It is hard. The
thing about oppositions, and I was opposition leader for five years, is that
they have to have some consistency. They cannot say one thing one day and
another thing the next and expect the people upstairs not to notice. They are
going to notice when the opposition is saying everything to all people.
Eventually, if an opposition is everything to everyone, it is nothing to
anyone. That is the position this opposition is
in. As we pointed out yesterday, opposition members complained about housing
the other day and then they were opposing every housing development. How
can they be taken seriously? How can the Liberals and Nationals be taken
seriously on anything?
Speaker, Richard Court was the Treasurer. Colin Barnett was the Treasurer.
Charles Court was the Treasurer. Sir David Brand was the Treasurer. Sir Ross
McLarty was the Treasurer. They were all the Treasurer. Ray O'Connor was
the Treasurer; he was the Treasurer.
Several members interjected.
Mr M. McGOWAN : Sir James
Mitchell was the Treasurer. There you go! I am confident that the member for Cottesloe
will never be the Treasurer. They were all Treasurers. Colin Barnett loved it
so much he was Treasurer three times. That is the reality.
During my time as Treasurer and
Premier, we have turned around the state's finances. Seven years ago,
we were the worst-performing state financially in the commonwealth. We are now
the best by far. We are the only state that has recovered the AAA credit
rating. The Liberal–National government lost it in 2013. We recovered
it. That government had record revenues during parts of its time in office. We
recovered it, even though the former government lost it. I have been the
Treasurer or Premier during that time. As my ministers will attest to, we are
careful with money. The previous government was not careful with money.
Admittedly, the member was not there, but his predecessor and those ministers
were not careful with money. They did not care about money. They had two budget
processes—the Liberal Party process and the National Party process. As
Liberal Party ministers of that era will attest to, they hated it because
government did not work properly. The Liberal–National model does not
work because there are two governments within the one government. It is
dysfunctional, as members can see in New
South Wales. It is dysfunctional in how it operates. Go and ask any Liberal in
New South Wales and they will tell members that it does not work.
Members opposite condemn us. One
day members opposite are saying that our surpluses are too big and then they
are saying that I have failed as Treasurer. Which one is it? We are either too
successful with the money or we are not successful enough! It is hard. The
thing about oppositions, and I was opposition leader for five years, is that
they have to have some consistency. They cannot say one thing one day and
another thing the next and expect the people upstairs not to notice. They are
going to notice when the opposition is saying everything to all people.
Eventually, if an opposition is everything to everyone, it is nothing to
anyone. That is the position this opposition is
in. As we pointed out yesterday, opposition members complained about housing
the other day and then they were opposing every housing development. How
can they be taken seriously? How can the Liberals and Nationals be taken
seriously on anything?
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