The need for a new economic model: Reflections on the 2009/10 Budget - Dr Kennedy Graham

The time has come, the Walrus said, to talk of many things.
Of shoes and ships and sealing wax; of cabbages and kings.

And also, Mr Speaker, the Appropriation (2009-10) Supplementary Estimates) Bill - which seeks parliamentary authorisation of the individual appropriations and changes contained in this massive document before us - involving some 68 Votes and running to 921 pages.

Not all will have read every page.

I have, however, been through pretty much all of it myself. And, more to the point of the broader implications of this Debate, perhaps, I have followed the Government's direction of the economy throughout the 2009-10 year to date, and the management of its public finances with careful interest and some sympathy.

Dr Kennedy Graham - It's time for a Steady-State Economy 16 Mar 2010

I rise in support of the comments by my colleague Dr Russel Norman. The purpose of the Appropriation (2008/09 Financial Review) Bill before us today is to confirm expenses incurred for the 2008-09 financial year that are in excess but within the scope of an existing appropriation in accordance with the Public Finance Act.

I begin by recognising the Minister of Finance for his cautious custodianship of the country’s public purse for the period in review. I am aware that he is responsible for only seven of the 12 months involved and that his Government would claim that was an insufficient time to make the mark it intended in battling the economic recession that it had inherited. But we have already had an additional 8 months since the end of the period under review.