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 Giddings won't speculate on savings targets 

Giddings won't speculate on savings targets

01 Feb, 2012 03:00 AM

PREMIER Lara Giddings has refused to reveal if her departments are on track to meet their savings targets ahead of financial reports due in a fortnight.

However, the opposition and unions have questioned whether the government is on track to achieve the $200 million in savings it outlined for this financial year.

Ms Giddings said yesterday that everyone would have to wait for the mid-year financial report to see if there was any change on the cuts being made to health, education and police.

However, she acknowledged the task was hardest on health, which must find $100 million in savings.

``We may well find there is a longer lead time in health in order to achieve the $100 million of cuts that they need to achieve . . . in a responsible way to ensure people still have access to the services they require . . .''

She said that the department must find the savings and keep driving down its costs per patient, but ``it's just realistically over what timeframe we are able to achieve that.''

She refused to say whether health was on track to save $100.2 million or education with $45.9 million or police with $8.1 million.

Opposition finance spokesman Peter Gutwein said that it was unlikely the government would achieve its own revenue or savings targets.

``They were never going to achieve the savings they needed by slashing frontline health services, which is why we called on them to adopt our very achievable savings measures,'' he said.

Community and Public Sector Union secretary Tom Lynch said that while some departments appeared to be on track, others were reportedly struggling.

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Lara Giddings won't reveal which departments are on track to reach budget savings.
Lara Giddings won't reveal which departments are on track to reach budget savings.

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