❓ Mr. Barron-Sullivan questions the Treasurer about infrastructure spending relative to revenue growth and tax burden. The Treasurer defends the government's spending priorities and AAA credit rating.
AnsweredQoN 244Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
I refer the Treasurer to the government’s budget rhetoric about infrastructure spending and the fact that budget revenue increased by $3.2 billion in Labor’s first four years - Mr E.S. Ripper : What a government! Mr D.F. BARRON-SULLIVAN : “What a government”! Is that what the Treasurer says when revenue increases by $3.2 billion? Revenue increased by $3.2 billion in Labor’s first four years while budget spending on infrastructure fell below 2001 levels for three successive years. In this year’s budget of 2005-06 it has increased to only $67 million above the 2001 budget expenditure. (1) Will the Treasurer explain Labor’s failure to use budget revenue growth over the past four years to increase infrastructure spending from the budget for priorities such as schools, hospitals, police stations and roads? (2) Given that the facts show that budget spending on infrastructure has been stagnant, despite unprecedented revenue growth, what other excuse does the government have for its failure to reduce the tax burden in an environment of booming revenue? Mr E.S. RIPPER
AnswerView source ↗
(1)-(2) Members opposite cannot stand the fact that the government will spend almost $16 billion on its capital works program over the next four years. They cannot stand the increased expenditure committed for key community services, that Western Australia’s credit rating is AAA and that it will continue to be AAA. Members opposite cannot stand that our AAA credit rating is here to stay. Regardless of whatever fantasies the Leader of the Opposition engages in, we will not give up that credit rating; our financial policies will ensure it is retained. There has been a massive increase in spending on key community priorities. Surely a former shadow Minister for Health should know, for example, that more than $1 billion extra a year is being spent on health than was spent in the last Court government budget. We would expect the member for Leschenault to know that. We hear of this strange double-think world that the opposition lives in. On the one hand members of the opposition talk about all our additional revenue and on the other hand they do not acknowledge how much extra is being spent on key services and core community priorities. For “afters”, they talk about the need for additional spending in those areas. They want to eat their cake and have it too, in many different ways. The truth is that the government has done all the things that the opposition has been asking it to do. It has increased expenditure on core services, offered tax relief and family concessions to the amount of $2.4 billion in the next four years, and increased funding on key community priorities such as health, education, law and order, environmental protection and child protection all within a financially responsible framework. The opposition cannot stand that a modern Labor government can deliver on a AAA credit rating.
Mr E.S. Ripper : What a government! Mr D.F. BARRON-SULLIVAN : “What a government”! Is that what the Treasurer says when revenue increases by $3.2 billion? Revenue increased by $3.2 billion in Labor’s first four years while budget spending on infrastructure fell below 2001 levels for three successive years. In this year’s budget of 2005-06 it has increased to only $67 million above the 2001 budget expenditure. (1) Will the Treasurer explain Labor’s failure to use budget revenue growth over the past four years to increase infrastructure spending from the budget for priorities such as schools, hospitals, police stations and roads? (2) Given that the facts show that budget spending on infrastructure has been stagnant, despite unprecedented revenue growth, what other excuse does the government have for its failure to reduce the tax burden in an environment of booming revenue? Mr E.S. RIPPER replied: (1)-(2) Members opposite cannot stand the fact that the government will spend almost $16 billion on its capital works program over the next four years. They cannot stand the increased expenditure committed for key community services, that Western Australia’s credit rating is AAA and that it will continue to be AAA. Members opposite cannot stand that our AAA credit rating is here to stay. Regardless of whatever fantasies the Leader of the Opposition engages in, we will not give up that credit rating; our financial policies will ensure it is retained. There has been a massive increase in spending on key community priorities. Surely a former shadow Minister for Health should know, for example, that more than $1 billion extra a year is being spent on health than was spent in the last Court government budget. We would expect the member for Leschenault to know that. We hear of this strange double-think world that the opposition lives in. On the one hand members of the opposition talk about all our additional revenue and on the other hand they do not acknowledge how much extra is being spent on key services and core community priorities. For “afters”, they talk about the need for additional spending in those areas. They want to eat their cake and have it too, in many different ways. The truth is that the government has done all the things that the opposition has been asking it to do. It has increased expenditure on core services, offered tax relief and family concessions to the amount of $2.4 billion in the next four years, and increased funding on key community priorities such as health, education, law and order, environmental protection and child protection all within a financially responsible framework. The opposition cannot stand that a modern Labor government can deliver on a AAA credit rating.
Mr D.F. BARRON-SULLIVAN : “What a government”! Is that what the Treasurer says when revenue increases by $3.2 billion? Revenue increased by $3.2 billion in Labor’s first four years while budget spending on infrastructure fell below 2001 levels for three successive years. In this year’s budget of 2005-06 it has increased to only $67 million above the 2001 budget expenditure. (1) Will the Treasurer explain Labor’s failure to use budget revenue growth over the past four years to increase infrastructure spending from the budget for priorities such as schools, hospitals, police stations and roads? (2) Given that the facts show that budget spending on infrastructure has been stagnant, despite unprecedented revenue growth, what other excuse does the government have for its failure to reduce the tax burden in an environment of booming revenue? Mr E.S. RIPPER replied: (1)-(2) Members opposite cannot stand the fact that the government will spend almost $16 billion on its capital works program over the next four years. They cannot stand the increased expenditure committed for key community services, that Western Australia’s credit rating is AAA and that it will continue to be AAA. Members opposite cannot stand that our AAA credit rating is here to stay. Regardless of whatever fantasies the Leader of the Opposition engages in, we will not give up that credit rating; our financial policies will ensure it is retained. There has been a massive increase in spending on key community priorities. Surely a former shadow Minister for Health should know, for example, that more than $1 billion extra a year is being spent on health than was spent in the last Court government budget. We would expect the member for Leschenault to know that. We hear of this strange double-think world that the opposition lives in. On the one hand members of the opposition talk about all our additional revenue and on the other hand they do not acknowledge how much extra is being spent on key services and core community priorities. For “afters”, they talk about the need for additional spending in those areas. They want to eat their cake and have it too, in many different ways. The truth is that the government has done all the things that the opposition has been asking it to do. It has increased expenditure on core services, offered tax relief and family concessions to the amount of $2.4 billion in the next four years, and increased funding on key community priorities such as health, education, law and order, environmental protection and child protection all within a financially responsible framework. The opposition cannot stand that a modern Labor government can deliver on a AAA credit rating.
(1) Will the Treasurer explain Labor’s failure to use budget revenue growth over the past four years to increase infrastructure spending from the budget for priorities such as schools, hospitals, police stations and roads? (2) Given that the facts show that budget spending on infrastructure has been stagnant, despite unprecedented revenue growth, what other excuse does the government have for its failure to reduce the tax burden in an environment of booming revenue? Mr E.S. RIPPER replied: (1)-(2) Members opposite cannot stand the fact that the government will spend almost $16 billion on its capital works program over the next four years. They cannot stand the increased expenditure committed for key community services, that Western Australia’s credit rating is AAA and that it will continue to be AAA. Members opposite cannot stand that our AAA credit rating is here to stay. Regardless of whatever fantasies the Leader of the Opposition engages in, we will not give up that credit rating; our financial policies will ensure it is retained. There has been a massive increase in spending on key community priorities. Surely a former shadow Minister for Health should know, for example, that more than $1 billion extra a year is being spent on health than was spent in the last Court government budget. We would expect the member for Leschenault to know that. We hear of this strange double-think world that the opposition lives in. On the one hand members of the opposition talk about all our additional revenue and on the other hand they do not acknowledge how much extra is being spent on key services and core community priorities. For “afters”, they talk about the need for additional spending in those areas. They want to eat their cake and have it too, in many different ways. The truth is that the government has done all the things that the opposition has been asking it to do. It has increased expenditure on core services, offered tax relief and family concessions to the amount of $2.4 billion in the next four years, and increased funding on key community priorities such as health, education, law and order, environmental protection and child protection all within a financially responsible framework. The opposition cannot stand that a modern Labor government can deliver on a AAA credit rating.
(2) Given that the facts show that budget spending on infrastructure has been stagnant, despite unprecedented revenue growth, what other excuse does the government have for its failure to reduce the tax burden in an environment of booming revenue? Mr E.S. RIPPER replied: (1)-(2) Members opposite cannot stand the fact that the government will spend almost $16 billion on its capital works program over the next four years. They cannot stand the increased expenditure committed for key community services, that Western Australia’s credit rating is AAA and that it will continue to be AAA. Members opposite cannot stand that our AAA credit rating is here to stay. Regardless of whatever fantasies the Leader of the Opposition engages in, we will not give up that credit rating; our financial policies will ensure it is retained. There has been a massive increase in spending on key community priorities. Surely a former shadow Minister for Health should know, for example, that more than $1 billion extra a year is being spent on health than was spent in the last Court government budget. We would expect the member for Leschenault to know that. We hear of this strange double-think world that the opposition lives in. On the one hand members of the opposition talk about all our additional revenue and on the other hand they do not acknowledge how much extra is being spent on key services and core community priorities. For “afters”, they talk about the need for additional spending in those areas. They want to eat their cake and have it too, in many different ways. The truth is that the government has done all the things that the opposition has been asking it to do. It has increased expenditure on core services, offered tax relief and family concessions to the amount of $2.4 billion in the next four years, and increased funding on key community priorities such as health, education, law and order, environmental protection and child protection all within a financially responsible framework. The opposition cannot stand that a modern Labor government can deliver on a AAA credit rating.
Mr E.S. RIPPER replied: (1)-(2) Members opposite cannot stand the fact that the government will spend almost $16 billion on its capital works program over the next four years. They cannot stand the increased expenditure committed for key community services, that Western Australia’s credit rating is AAA and that it will continue to be AAA. Members opposite cannot stand that our AAA credit rating is here to stay. Regardless of whatever fantasies the Leader of the Opposition engages in, we will not give up that credit rating; our financial policies will ensure it is retained. There has been a massive increase in spending on key community priorities. Surely a former shadow Minister for Health should know, for example, that more than $1 billion extra a year is being spent on health than was spent in the last Court government budget. We would expect the member for Leschenault to know that. We hear of this strange double-think world that the opposition lives in. On the one hand members of the opposition talk about all our additional revenue and on the other hand they do not acknowledge how much extra is being spent on key services and core community priorities. For “afters”, they talk about the need for additional spending in those areas. They want to eat their cake and have it too, in many different ways. The truth is that the government has done all the things that the opposition has been asking it to do. It has increased expenditure on core services, offered tax relief and family concessions to the amount of $2.4 billion in the next four years, and increased funding on key community priorities such as health, education, law and order, environmental protection and child protection all within a financially responsible framework. The opposition cannot stand that a modern Labor government can deliver on a AAA credit rating.
(1)-(2) Members opposite cannot stand the fact that the government will spend almost $16 billion on its capital works program over the next four years. They cannot stand the increased expenditure committed for key community services, that Western Australia’s credit rating is AAA and that it will continue to be AAA. Members opposite cannot stand that our AAA credit rating is here to stay. Regardless of whatever fantasies the Leader of the Opposition engages in, we will not give up that credit rating; our financial policies will ensure it is retained. There has been a massive increase in spending on key community priorities. Surely a former shadow Minister for Health should know, for example, that more than $1 billion extra a year is being spent on health than was spent in the last Court government budget. We would expect the member for Leschenault to know that. We hear of this strange double-think world that the opposition lives in. On the one hand members of the opposition talk about all our additional revenue and on the other hand they do not acknowledge how much extra is being spent on key services and core community priorities. For “afters”, they talk about the need for additional spending in those areas. They want to eat their cake and have it too, in many different ways. The truth is that the government has done all the things that the opposition has been asking it to do. It has increased expenditure on core services, offered tax relief and family concessions to the amount of $2.4 billion in the next four years, and increased funding on key community priorities such as health, education, law and order, environmental protection and child protection all within a financially responsible framework. The opposition cannot stand that a modern Labor government can deliver on a AAA credit rating.
The truth is that the government has done all the things that the opposition has been asking it to do. It has increased expenditure on core services, offered tax relief and family concessions to the amount of $2.4 billion in the next four years, and increased funding on key community priorities such as health, education, law and order, environmental protection and child protection all within a financially responsible framework. The opposition cannot stand that a modern Labor government can deliver on a AAA credit rating.
Mr E.S. Ripper : What a government! Mr D.F. BARRON-SULLIVAN : “What a government”! Is that what the Treasurer says when revenue increases by $3.2 billion? Revenue increased by $3.2 billion in Labor’s first four years while budget spending on infrastructure fell below 2001 levels for three successive years. In this year’s budget of 2005-06 it has increased to only $67 million above the 2001 budget expenditure. (1) Will the Treasurer explain Labor’s failure to use budget revenue growth over the past four years to increase infrastructure spending from the budget for priorities such as schools, hospitals, police stations and roads? (2) Given that the facts show that budget spending on infrastructure has been stagnant, despite unprecedented revenue growth, what other excuse does the government have for its failure to reduce the tax burden in an environment of booming revenue? Mr E.S. RIPPER replied: (1)-(2) Members opposite cannot stand the fact that the government will spend almost $16 billion on its capital works program over the next four years. They cannot stand the increased expenditure committed for key community services, that Western Australia’s credit rating is AAA and that it will continue to be AAA. Members opposite cannot stand that our AAA credit rating is here to stay. Regardless of whatever fantasies the Leader of the Opposition engages in, we will not give up that credit rating; our financial policies will ensure it is retained. There has been a massive increase in spending on key community priorities. Surely a former shadow Minister for Health should know, for example, that more than $1 billion extra a year is being spent on health than was spent in the last Court government budget. We would expect the member for Leschenault to know that. We hear of this strange double-think world that the opposition lives in. On the one hand members of the opposition talk about all our additional revenue and on the other hand they do not acknowledge how much extra is being spent on key services and core community priorities. For “afters”, they talk about the need for additional spending in those areas. They want to eat their cake and have it too, in many different ways. The truth is that the government has done all the things that the opposition has been asking it to do. It has increased expenditure on core services, offered tax relief and family concessions to the amount of $2.4 billion in the next four years, and increased funding on key community priorities such as health, education, law and order, environmental protection and child protection all within a financially responsible framework. The opposition cannot stand that a modern Labor government can deliver on a AAA credit rating.
Mr D.F. BARRON-SULLIVAN : “What a government”! Is that what the Treasurer says when revenue increases by $3.2 billion? Revenue increased by $3.2 billion in Labor’s first four years while budget spending on infrastructure fell below 2001 levels for three successive years. In this year’s budget of 2005-06 it has increased to only $67 million above the 2001 budget expenditure. (1) Will the Treasurer explain Labor’s failure to use budget revenue growth over the past four years to increase infrastructure spending from the budget for priorities such as schools, hospitals, police stations and roads? (2) Given that the facts show that budget spending on infrastructure has been stagnant, despite unprecedented revenue growth, what other excuse does the government have for its failure to reduce the tax burden in an environment of booming revenue? Mr E.S. RIPPER replied: (1)-(2) Members opposite cannot stand the fact that the government will spend almost $16 billion on its capital works program over the next four years. They cannot stand the increased expenditure committed for key community services, that Western Australia’s credit rating is AAA and that it will continue to be AAA. Members opposite cannot stand that our AAA credit rating is here to stay. Regardless of whatever fantasies the Leader of the Opposition engages in, we will not give up that credit rating; our financial policies will ensure it is retained. There has been a massive increase in spending on key community priorities. Surely a former shadow Minister for Health should know, for example, that more than $1 billion extra a year is being spent on health than was spent in the last Court government budget. We would expect the member for Leschenault to know that. We hear of this strange double-think world that the opposition lives in. On the one hand members of the opposition talk about all our additional revenue and on the other hand they do not acknowledge how much extra is being spent on key services and core community priorities. For “afters”, they talk about the need for additional spending in those areas. They want to eat their cake and have it too, in many different ways. The truth is that the government has done all the things that the opposition has been asking it to do. It has increased expenditure on core services, offered tax relief and family concessions to the amount of $2.4 billion in the next four years, and increased funding on key community priorities such as health, education, law and order, environmental protection and child protection all within a financially responsible framework. The opposition cannot stand that a modern Labor government can deliver on a AAA credit rating.
(1) Will the Treasurer explain Labor’s failure to use budget revenue growth over the past four years to increase infrastructure spending from the budget for priorities such as schools, hospitals, police stations and roads? (2) Given that the facts show that budget spending on infrastructure has been stagnant, despite unprecedented revenue growth, what other excuse does the government have for its failure to reduce the tax burden in an environment of booming revenue? Mr E.S. RIPPER replied: (1)-(2) Members opposite cannot stand the fact that the government will spend almost $16 billion on its capital works program over the next four years. They cannot stand the increased expenditure committed for key community services, that Western Australia’s credit rating is AAA and that it will continue to be AAA. Members opposite cannot stand that our AAA credit rating is here to stay. Regardless of whatever fantasies the Leader of the Opposition engages in, we will not give up that credit rating; our financial policies will ensure it is retained. There has been a massive increase in spending on key community priorities. Surely a former shadow Minister for Health should know, for example, that more than $1 billion extra a year is being spent on health than was spent in the last Court government budget. We would expect the member for Leschenault to know that. We hear of this strange double-think world that the opposition lives in. On the one hand members of the opposition talk about all our additional revenue and on the other hand they do not acknowledge how much extra is being spent on key services and core community priorities. For “afters”, they talk about the need for additional spending in those areas. They want to eat their cake and have it too, in many different ways. The truth is that the government has done all the things that the opposition has been asking it to do. It has increased expenditure on core services, offered tax relief and family concessions to the amount of $2.4 billion in the next four years, and increased funding on key community priorities such as health, education, law and order, environmental protection and child protection all within a financially responsible framework. The opposition cannot stand that a modern Labor government can deliver on a AAA credit rating.
(2) Given that the facts show that budget spending on infrastructure has been stagnant, despite unprecedented revenue growth, what other excuse does the government have for its failure to reduce the tax burden in an environment of booming revenue? Mr E.S. RIPPER replied: (1)-(2) Members opposite cannot stand the fact that the government will spend almost $16 billion on its capital works program over the next four years. They cannot stand the increased expenditure committed for key community services, that Western Australia’s credit rating is AAA and that it will continue to be AAA. Members opposite cannot stand that our AAA credit rating is here to stay. Regardless of whatever fantasies the Leader of the Opposition engages in, we will not give up that credit rating; our financial policies will ensure it is retained. There has been a massive increase in spending on key community priorities. Surely a former shadow Minister for Health should know, for example, that more than $1 billion extra a year is being spent on health than was spent in the last Court government budget. We would expect the member for Leschenault to know that. We hear of this strange double-think world that the opposition lives in. On the one hand members of the opposition talk about all our additional revenue and on the other hand they do not acknowledge how much extra is being spent on key services and core community priorities. For “afters”, they talk about the need for additional spending in those areas. They want to eat their cake and have it too, in many different ways. The truth is that the government has done all the things that the opposition has been asking it to do. It has increased expenditure on core services, offered tax relief and family concessions to the amount of $2.4 billion in the next four years, and increased funding on key community priorities such as health, education, law and order, environmental protection and child protection all within a financially responsible framework. The opposition cannot stand that a modern Labor government can deliver on a AAA credit rating.
Mr E.S. RIPPER replied: (1)-(2) Members opposite cannot stand the fact that the government will spend almost $16 billion on its capital works program over the next four years. They cannot stand the increased expenditure committed for key community services, that Western Australia’s credit rating is AAA and that it will continue to be AAA. Members opposite cannot stand that our AAA credit rating is here to stay. Regardless of whatever fantasies the Leader of the Opposition engages in, we will not give up that credit rating; our financial policies will ensure it is retained. There has been a massive increase in spending on key community priorities. Surely a former shadow Minister for Health should know, for example, that more than $1 billion extra a year is being spent on health than was spent in the last Court government budget. We would expect the member for Leschenault to know that. We hear of this strange double-think world that the opposition lives in. On the one hand members of the opposition talk about all our additional revenue and on the other hand they do not acknowledge how much extra is being spent on key services and core community priorities. For “afters”, they talk about the need for additional spending in those areas. They want to eat their cake and have it too, in many different ways. The truth is that the government has done all the things that the opposition has been asking it to do. It has increased expenditure on core services, offered tax relief and family concessions to the amount of $2.4 billion in the next four years, and increased funding on key community priorities such as health, education, law and order, environmental protection and child protection all within a financially responsible framework. The opposition cannot stand that a modern Labor government can deliver on a AAA credit rating.
(1)-(2) Members opposite cannot stand the fact that the government will spend almost $16 billion on its capital works program over the next four years. They cannot stand the increased expenditure committed for key community services, that Western Australia’s credit rating is AAA and that it will continue to be AAA. Members opposite cannot stand that our AAA credit rating is here to stay. Regardless of whatever fantasies the Leader of the Opposition engages in, we will not give up that credit rating; our financial policies will ensure it is retained. There has been a massive increase in spending on key community priorities. Surely a former shadow Minister for Health should know, for example, that more than $1 billion extra a year is being spent on health than was spent in the last Court government budget. We would expect the member for Leschenault to know that. We hear of this strange double-think world that the opposition lives in. On the one hand members of the opposition talk about all our additional revenue and on the other hand they do not acknowledge how much extra is being spent on key services and core community priorities. For “afters”, they talk about the need for additional spending in those areas. They want to eat their cake and have it too, in many different ways. The truth is that the government has done all the things that the opposition has been asking it to do. It has increased expenditure on core services, offered tax relief and family concessions to the amount of $2.4 billion in the next four years, and increased funding on key community priorities such as health, education, law and order, environmental protection and child protection all within a financially responsible framework. The opposition cannot stand that a modern Labor government can deliver on a AAA credit rating.
The truth is that the government has done all the things that the opposition has been asking it to do. It has increased expenditure on core services, offered tax relief and family concessions to the amount of $2.4 billion in the next four years, and increased funding on key community priorities such as health, education, law and order, environmental protection and child protection all within a financially responsible framework. The opposition cannot stand that a modern Labor government can deliver on a AAA credit rating.
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