Budget debate stymied with one-way question time

To be fair, most of the questions (which are also important questions) aren't really for the Minister of Finance to answer solely. Behind budgets, whether it be for the Government or for a business, there is an overall plan or vision for that year and how it all fits in with the medium and long term goals. We usually make plans and then pass it to the finance guys to crunch the numbers, putting it into totals for people to better understand.

If we wanted to know why a company is planning to increase employees, we shouldn't really ask the finance guys but the decision makers, or the CEO or directors etc and how it fits into the long term goal.

If we prioritized reducing our debt it'd probably be better to work towards reducing spending over 5 or so years. And if we wanted to reduce aid dependence, we also probably should work towards reducing expenditure and promoting private sector growth, which is not that hard, just need to make it easy for businesses to start and operate. Also long term it's beneficial because the less we depend on others - the more it adds to the confidence for companies and individuals to invest more in our country. An Aid dependent country like ours adds to risks in investing here, a disincentive to invest. If the short term goal was economic growth, increasing government expenditure is probably one reason for it. But yeah, I think we all know even those in Government that continuously  increasing expenditure is not sustainable because of the debt and aid dependence concerns, but if it is part of an overall plan, such as to increase expenditure in the next few years because of the Pacific Games, and then drop it after the Games so we can go back to focusing on reducing debt. I'm sure there is a vision but it just for Government to share that vision and let the people know. As long as we know the plan behind the budget I think it will clear up a lot of things. God bless