Shadow Treasurer Rob Lucas said today that Parliament’s Estimates Committee’s over the next week will try to find the details of $695 million in cuts to programmes and services announced in the September budget.
“The budget is a little like an iceberg, because the Rann Government has only included the details of about 10 per cent of the budget costs in the budget papers. Families and businesses in SA want to know what is hidden beneath the surface and what the impact will be on them of the hidden 90 per cent of the cuts,” Mr. Lucas said today.
The Treasurer, Mr. Foley, will appear before the Committee today and will be asked to provide answers on many issues including:
• Details of where the 1,571 jobs will be cut from the public service and whether TVSPs will be offered;
• Details of the new Shared Services Centre, which is meant to achieve savings of $130 million and cut 600 jobs;
• Details of school closures and the new education and correctional services PPPs;
• Details of promises made by Mr. Rann and Mr. Foley before the election which have now been broken;
• Details of blowouts on capital works and why the Rann Government is trying to prevent details of further blowouts being revealed.
“Whilst many questions will be asked of Ministers, there is no guarantee the Rann Government will actually provide answers,” he said.
“The arrogance of Mr, Rann, Mr. Foley and other Ministers is stunning and is best demonstrated by the fact they have still refused to promise details of $900 million in budget cuts included in the 2002 budget! In fact, the Rann Government has fought a three year battle to prevent release of this information under FOI laws,” he said.