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FOR MEDIXA j -I.
TUESDAY, MARCH 17 1.981'
PRE. MIERS
I would .1i e to clarify certain pres3 reports this morning.
The Premr-iersl Conference on 15 April will not be
discus. inc7 t-he relative shares of Corm. noaalth revenue
that go to the_ Sta# tes.
A special cliv"-Sion Of the Comonweal-th Grants Cornission
was s*,-bbhiyl = I> egdI slation in Ju ne 1978 to ex: amine the
relati v-z pror. ions o] E the Commonwealth revenuaes that should
b e P d to e h Stae
The tprcpor cman of payme-nYts from the Cc Ir-. omqealthi
to S3a' 4..; date bac-k to the int'rodtictjcn of financial
assis3-4'-e 9x-ants in 1959 although effeCtively they are
still ~ 1ecdby the changeover to uniform taxation ill
19 42
All th e Premiers ac owledged at Pr: miers' Col): Zrences
in July and Oc tobcri of 1977 thcat their circumstances
had changed very signifi. ant3y since these relaltivi ties
were eatablished.
There would be no point in discussing thesermatters uriti).
we receive the report from the CronethGrants Co~ mssion
in June.
What we will be discussing, amongst oither izattc-rs, on
April is the actual sharc of onowelhrovenues that
should go to the States in total. ThSs of course is of
great interest to the Comnonwealth because it affects the
Conunonweolth's budget.,~./ 17
-2-
The other issue, of the CraritB Cornmission Report, i's of much
greater relevance to the States, It does not affect the
Commnonwath budget. It does affect the breakup of Comxoweal~ th
-pxovided revenue between the States.
Somel reportvg this mnorningj show i-nordinate confusion between
these two issues.
One nflewspaplr also said in a headliine this niorning that I
had put a D2lap to the Queensland Premier for a '" rcsources
boom levy scheme", 2 put no such proposal to the Premier.
V1That I did svyesterday at my join-t inew8 conference with
the QueensiThnd1 Prernie. r! is that all governmentg should be as
restra~. , Ai their own expenditure as possible.
It is t'tri: enterprise be givien room to grow
and t! 7. a 211 ofeg; oevsecr nment viust bell in achieving this
obj ec ti
it ~ tn ha hl m~~ re-trwirt in the Corimonwealth
r-ector d eCraaed between, Llune 1) 75 and June 1980, the States
and their auLhorit'lZs added 95,600 workers to their payrolls.
The Colwnonealth's spending. on goods and service s now
uses a smaller proportion of the nation's total resources
than it did 10 years ago while spending by the States and
local authoritics on goods and services has increased
substantially. The States and local-authorities are expected to require abri-ost.
$ 1,400 million rore for borrowing in 1980-81 thann in
1975-76,
3
On borroA. ing1i the CoronweaLth has decreased its
reqquirerftert while the States have increased their
-requirements. The point'to be made at the Pre-iers' Conference is that
restraint is required by all goavernmentL.
The StALtes which spend more than 50% of e. l the dollars
that are sient by governments, shouldf also show restrainL
in their spending ie the general objactive of tax cuts. is to
be achiev d.
In that cbjective of reducing tax, 1 kn\ ow that the Quee: sland
Premier is in agreement with mne.
I would h' that he would also agrea u. ith me on the need
for C: C7~ u C re-raint. 1
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