Treasurer and Minister for Trade
The Honourable Tim Nicholls
Newman Government hits savings target
The Newman Government has exceeded its commitment to find $100 million in departmental savings this financial year, highlighting its determination to pay down Labor’s debt and regain the state’s AAA credit rating.
Treasurer Tim Nicholls today outlined $186.5 million in savings identified since the LNP was elected two months ago.
“That’s a saving of almost $2.8 million a day,” he said.
“We’ve had to make a number of tough decisions but urgent action had to be taken to rein-in spending and waste, which was out of control under Labor.
“Not only has the Newman Government exceeded its target, it’s almost doubled it.”
Ministers were asked to identify savings that were cashable, specific and publicly identifiable. Savings could not include deferring expenditure.
Mr Nicholls said Ministers had demanded surplus funds back from their departments that would have otherwise been spent.
He said a large portion of the savings – more th an $11 million – had come from cutting non-essential expenses like advertising across all government departments.
“Treasury and the Department of Trade together have reduced their travel, consultancy and staff expenses by almost $2.3 million this financial year.”
Mr Nicholls said the savings were in addition to those identified in the LNP’s Costings and Savings strategy released during the state election campaign.
“The new savings we have identified will be used to improve the state’s bottom line,” he said.
“The Newman Government will do everything it can to clean up the mess we inherited from Labor.
“The LNP was elected with a mandate to pay down Labor’s debt, restore the AAA credit rating, build a four pillar economy and revitalise frontline services, and that’s exactly what we intend to do.”
He said he expected the true scale of Labor’s waste and mismanagement to be revealed when the independent Commission of Audit delivers its interim report on Friday (June 15).
