Thursday, May 28, 2009

360 pages - pulped!

Here is is - my own well-thumbed copy of Budget Paper number one, which is actually ten documents, totalling around 360 pages, some 15mm thick.

I'll let AAP take up the story.

CANBERRA, May 27 AAP - A key budget document needed to be pulped and reprinted the day before the budget was handed down on May 12, a senior officer of the Department of Finance and Deregulation confirmed on Wednesday.

Budget paper number one, which contains the economic outlook and key economic and fiscal assumptions, had to be reprinted on the Monday before the traditional delivery of the budget on Tuesday.

"I can confirm that there was a budget document that was reprinted," general manager of finance's budget group, Paul Grimes, told a Senate estimates hearing on Wednesday.

"Budget paper number one ... was reprinted on the Monday ... the day before the budget," he said.

The Department of Treasury is due to face Senate estimates hearings next week.

This is the side of politics that complained about 100,000 dumped Work Choices Mousemats.