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“I think it’s important to say whether we are in a technical recession or not, we are certainly feeling the impact of the world recession in NSW. We are seeing increased unemployment, we are seeing our payroll tax revenues dropping, we are continuing to see very little movement in land transfer duties and we have seen a massive drop in revenues to this State.”
(Treasurer Eric Roozendaal, Question Time, 3 June 2009)
“Well the standard definition – and that’s depending on which economist or which text book you pick up – on a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative growth.”
(Premier Nathan Rees, Radio 2UE, 19 January 2009)
The inability of Treasurer Eric Roozendaal to utter the “R” recession word, is a reminder to the people of NSW that their Government is unable to accept that it has failed them, Shadow Treasurer Mike Baird said today.
“My concern is that with the Treasurer’s inability to accept that the Mini-Budget he handed down in November last year hurt this state, he will make the same mistakes when he delivers the full State Budget in less than two weeks,” Mr Baird said.
“It is crucial that this Budget does not repeat the errors of the Mini-Budget which cut infrastructure spending and increased taxes, and resulted in this state’s economy going backwards,” he said.
“Premier Rees agreed in January that two quarters of negative growth is the definition of a recession. The same definition was supported by Premier Iemma prior to the 2007 election and a range of economic commentators*.
“That was confirmed by the ABS figures yesterday for NSW. State Final Demand fell 0.4 percent for the December 2008 quarter and negative 0.2 percent for the March 2009 quarter.
“It’s time we had honesty from the Rees Labor Government rather than spin, and a focus on delivering a properly planned strategy to return this state to its leading economic position, rather than NSW dragging down the rest of the country.
“As a starting point, I encourage Treasurer Roozendaal in the State Budget to adopt the NSW Liberal/Nationals policy of reducing payroll tax and cutting infrastructure lead times, to put a direct focus on job creation.
“The NSW unemployment is at 6 percent, compared to 5.4 percent nationally and tipped to go above 9 percent. Keeping people in jobs should be a Budget priority and not spin campaigns to tell us NSW is performing well,” said Mr Baird.
MEDIA: Wendy Black - 0418 532 534
* Shane Oliver, AMP, Radio 2UE, 3 June 2009 and Ross Greenwood, Radio 2GB, 3 June 2009
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