Bracks Government Fiddle The Books To Hide The Loot
The Bracks government has been using inconsistent accounting to hide $1.4 billion of extra revenue it has accrued over the past twelve months, according to Auditor General Wayne Cameron. While the Bracks government declared a surplus of $795 million, the Auditor General has revealed that using the same method the Bracks government used last year, the surplus would be $2.1 billion (See Herald Sun: $2.1 billion surplus earns rebuke; Auditor General: Report on the Finances of the State of Victoria, 2004-05).Now there is nothing wrong with a surplus, but when the Bracks government is at the same time busy imposing new taxes on outer suburban families (See Brackswatch: Bracks: Breaking Another Promise; Herald Sun: Battler counts cost of new tax), then you have to wonder what is going on.
The secret can probably be found in the Bracks Government's determination to be re-elected in 2006 for another four years on the hog; after all just earlier this week they announced $502 million in spending in rural Victoria, where a loss of vital support in 1999 killed the Kennett government. Whereas the Federal government in surplus has focused on pushing through tax reform and cutting taxes, the State government hasn't unveiled any plan to use it's tax bonanza to reform inefficient and outdated taxes like Stamp Duty and Payroll Tax; or to cut the burden on Victorian taxpayers. Instead, they are adding to the burden of battling Victorians in order to boost the size of the bribes they can offer voters in 2006. Worst of all, they don't even want to admit what they are doing, and like Enron before them are resorting to accounting trickery in order to hide their loot.
[See Technorati: News and Politics; Victorian Politics;
Steve Bracks; Politics; Melbourne; Victoria; Tax; Finance; Accounting;]
posted by JP @ 11:55 AM
3 Comments:
Bracks is spending 7 million taxpayer dollars on political advertising. Shame bracks shame.
You're right.
The economy going gangbusters is shite news.
student - The economy going gangbusters is great, no one is arguing with that. What we are doing is asking why the Bracks government is putting so much effort into increasing and hiding revenue at the same time. If you ask me, it's incredibly fishy that they changed their accounting standards in order to hide money the year before an election.
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