JULIE Bishop has delivered a blunt message to Labor — pass the government’s budget measures or watch as it looks elsewhere for cuts. The Foreign Minister this morning told reporters if the government has to find further savings in her department — including foreign aid — she will point the finger at her Opposition counterpart. “If savings are found from my department, I will hang that around the neck of Tanya Plibersek each and every day until the next election,” Ms Bishop said.“She has a choice pass the Budget proposals that we took to the Budget and have been arguing for, otherwise if there are savings from my department she as the Shadow Foreign Minister will be accountable for them. “She will be responsible.”But Ms Bishop didn’t end there. “If there are cuts to my department, if there are cuts to the foreign aid Budget, it will be Tanya Plibersek, Bill Shorten, Chris Bowen, Tony Burke, their responsibility. “They were Cabinet Ministers in the previous Government that left the Budget in a state of utter disrepair. “They vandalised the Budget. We had Budget surpluses. We had money in the bank. They trashed the Budget, they must wear the consequences.” The Minister said the government is faced with a “daunting challenge”, given billions of dollars of its measures are being held up in the Senate. “If we want to continue to repair the Budget so it’s in a sustainable position, we will have to find savings.” The government already announced it May it would be capping the foreign aid budget at $5 billion for the next two financial years. When asked hasn’t the aid budget already contributed to the heavy lifting, Ms Bishop conceded “you are quite right”. “I believe that through our new aid paradigm we have a sustainable aid Budget into the future. “My point is this — if there are savings from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade because we cannot get our Budget reforms through the Senate, I will blame Labor.” The Minister said “every department” is being asked to look for areas where they can help contribute to repairing the budget. She would not go into details about whether cuts could be coming from the department in general or specifically foreign aid. “That is a matter for our expenditure review committee.”Yesterday Shadow Minister Plibersek criticised the government for slashing the aid Budget and foreshadowing more cuts. “The Abbott Government said before the election that they would continue to index aid funding by the CPI, consumer price index, that it would continue to increase. “They have cut to the bone, $7.6 billion cut, which is the largest single cut in the Federal Budget.”
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 06:49:05 +0000
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