Premier Rann and Treasurer Foley were desperate to avoid hard questions on their own black hole in the Labor Party’s costings document.
“Mr Rann, Mr Foley and the Labor Party have failed to include one dollar in its spreadsheet for a stormwater pipe network, which will cost more than $1 billion,” Shadow Minister for Finance Rob Lucas said.
“Rann Labor has said it will recycle 20GL of water by 2013 and 60 GL by 2050 but it says it will not use the existing pipe network to accomplish this.
“Therefore Labor will have to pay for a new citywide pipeline distribution system.
“There is no accounting for this in Rann Labor’s flimsy document.
“Mr Foley’s attacks on Liberal Party costings also fell apart during his press conference when he admitted the money he says doesn’t exist for Liberal Party promises actually does exist – right where the Liberal Party said it did all along.
“When pressed about whether funds existed in the unallocated capital line of the budget – where Mr Foley said it existed only days before the election campaign – he said “it hasn’t gone anywhere”.
“Mr Foley’s frank admission has blown apart his claim that a hole existed in the Liberals’ Southern Expressway policy.
“As a former Treasurer, I know there are hundreds of millions of dollars in “unallocated capital” over the forward estimates and we will pay for the Southern Expressway duplication with that money.
“The latest salvo of costings attack reflects Rann Labor’s increasingly desperate attempts to cling to power.
“Mr Rann’s election campaign has been full of hysterical hyperbole about how the sky will fall in if people elect a Redmond Liberal Government – and today was no exception.”
Mr Foley has also made a number of statements about Liberal costings which are simply untrue:
• The Liberal Party has never promised a 1,000 child “Super School” for autistic students – an existing school site will be converted for our autism school
• The Liberal Party will not be building a platform over the railway line for our city stadium
“Mr Foley’s costings document is also relying on $320 million of GST money which Treasury has told him we are not guaranteed to get,” Mr Lucas said.
“Mr Foley’s document still plunges the state into deficit and further increases state debt to $7.3 billion.
“It’s no wonder Mr Foley couldn’t get an independent costings firm to sign off and verify it.
“The Liberals’ costings document shows about $1 billion in surpluses with no increase in debt and potentially $300-$500 million of extra GST revenue which Treasury says we might get.
“It is clear the Liberals’ costings document has no black hole and our promises are affordable and achievable.
“Mr Foley’s dirty tricks and personal attacks demonstrate how Mr Rann and the Labor Party will do and say anything to cling to power.
“There are no black holes in the Liberal Party’s costings which, unlike the Labor Party’s, has been signed off by an independent and well respected accounting firm.”