Media Release

Peter Gutwein MP
Shadow Treasurer

Thursday 15th July 2010

Labor Blows the Budget by Half a Billion Dollars

Documents tabled in Parliament today show that the Government overspent its budget by a whopping $543 million.

This confirms that last year Labor was prepared to spend recklessly in a desperate attempt to buy votes. While some of the budget overruns are understandable, there are many that raise significant concerns.

For instance, why is it that Ministers blew their office budgets by a combined $1.4 million? It is interesting that Ministers went way over budget in the months leading up to an election.

The documents also confirm that nearly $800,000 was spent to reimburse former Police Commissioner Jack Johnson for legal expenses and to conduct Code of Conduct reviews into separate allegations against Mr Johnson and the current Acting Commissioner, Darren Hine.

It also confirms that $385,000 was tipped into the Premier's Sundry Grant Fund to make sure the money kept flowing in the lead up to the election.

If anyone ever needed proof that Labor was not good at managing money, a half-billion dollar overspend paints a pretty disturbing picture of fiscal incompetence and recklessness.