Questioning in Senate Estimates today showed that the Labor Party has been cooking the books to make their spending plans look better.

 

In the budget the Labor Party brought forward about $1.5 billion, which was earmarked for spending in future years for State and Local Governments, to this financial year.

 

"Much of this will be paid on June 7. It is not clear what State and Local governments will do with the money for the 23 days that will be left in this financial year. Perhaps the interest will help their bottom line at the expense of the Commonwealth's", Senator Barnaby Joyce said.

 

"The Government could not provide a cogent reason for bringing forward this spending. They could not produce one letter from a local government requesting an early transfer of spending.”

 

"Labor has produced an accounting trick to increase the base of their funding in 2009-10 and therefore make the amount they can spend higher under the 2% expenditure cap in forward years.”

 

"The Government's financial acumen is demonstrated by them losing $11 million on the Sydney West Metro project. In last year's budget the Government gave NSW $91 million for this project. Not much more than six months later the NSW government scrapped the project, with $11 million of the Commonwealth’s contribution going west on helpful things like ‘consultant fees’.”

 

"This is another clear example that the Australian people simply cannot trust this Labor Government to deliver economic responsibility.”