Government Humiliated By Treasury And PBO On Coalition Costings

Aug 29, 2013

The Rudd government was humiliated today by the Parliamentary Budget Office, the Treasury and the Finance Department, after it levelled allegations at the Coalition over its election policy costings.

All three organisations issued public statements that challenged claims made earlier in the day by Prime Minister Rudd, Treasurer Bowen and Finance Minister Wong. The ministers released confidential minutes from Treasury, Finance and PBO and claimed there was a $10 billion dollar “black hole” in the Coalition’s costings.

Treasury, Finance and the PBO released statements which effectively disowned the figures. It was a major assertion of public service integrity during the caretaker period of an election campaign. [Read more…]

Filed Under: 2013 Federal Election, A.L.P., Audio, Liberal Party, Rudd, Video Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Martin Parkinson: A Year In Retrospect, A Decade In Prospect

Dec 13, 2011

This is the text and audio of a speech by Dr. Martin Parkinson, Secretary to the Treasury.

Dr. Parkinson addressed The Sydney Institute. The speech was originally published on the Treasury website.

Whilst technical to some extent, the speech is readable and informative. It traces economic developments over the past year and advances some thoughts on the coming decade. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Audio, Economy Tagged With: ,

Ken Henry’s Address To The National Press Club

Nov 12, 2008

The Treasury Secretary, Ken Henry, has addressed the National Press Club, in Canberra.

HenryAn affable, confident and articulate Henry delivered a speech on taxation and then took questions on allegations from the Liberal Party that he has conspired with the Federal government to manipulate the economic growth forecasts.

The speech introduced Jim from Jericho, an Australian equivalent of Joe the Plumber, who gave Henry a lesson on the taxation of fencing wire.

  • Listen to Ken Henry’s speech (55m)

Text of Ken Henry’s prepared speech:

Towards a tax and transfer system of human scale

1. My working holiday

As people all around the world quickly learned – such is the reach of the electronic media these days – I spent July with my wife, Naomi, in the Epping Forest Scientific National Park in central Queensland, helping look after what may be the last 115 northern hairy nosed wombats left on the planet.

The care of our native wildlife is one of my passions. Another is tax policy. That, too, has occupied a fair bit of my time this year as we have been undertaking one of the most fundamental tax reviews ever attempted in this country.

Spending time on one’s passions would normally be considered a good thing. In some respects, then, this has been a good year. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Audio, Cabinet-Ministry, Public Service, Rudd, Taxation Tagged With: , , ,

Ken Henry Speech To Treasury Staff

Mar 14, 2007

This is the text of a speech by Ken Henry, Secretary to the Treasury, to Treasury staff.

The speech is titled, “Treasury’s Effectiveness in the Current Environment”.

The speech was reported in the media in the context of the forthcoming 2007 federal election and suggestions that Henry criticised government policy. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Cabinet-Ministry, Howard, Public Service Tagged With: , ,