Treasurer says budget will be implemented

National, Normal
Source:

The National, Thursday 08th December 2011

By JEFFREY ELAPA
TREASURER and Minister for Finance Don Polye is confident that the Peter O’Neill-led government will see through the implementation of the 2012 budget.
He assured members of the diplomatic corp, development partners, the media and government bureaucracy, after tabling the 2012 budget in parliament, that the government was confident of continuing in office despite the Supreme Court ruling tomorrow.
He said he was confident because the government had the numbers.
He was asked during the press budget lock-up in parliament whether the government was confident that the budget was going to be implemented as budgeted with the Supreme Court reference ruling tomorrow.
He said the government had the numbers – well over 80 members – while the opposition, who remained on the middle bench while awaiting the court decision, had only about 24 members.
It meant, he said, that if the court ruled against the government, Parliament could still decide on who would form the government as forming a government was a numbers game.
He said they had the numbers to remain in government until the election.
Meanwhile he said the budget was a people’s budget and whichever government got into power would not make any difference as the budget was for the people.
However, he said the task of implementing the budget lay in the hands of public servants.
He said they would be the ones to deliver goods and services to the people.