Mr Speaker, the DA approves of the committee's report primarily because we welcome the spending freeze announced by the Minister. This is exactly the right signal to send to the ratings agencies to show that National Treasury remains in control of the country's finances.
However, Treasury did have to do some fiscal gymnastics to get to this spending freeze. The expenditure side has been cut by savings of R3 billion, which is to be welcomed, but it has also been slashed by R3,5 billion of underspending. So, effectively, we now are banking on departments to underspend their budgets in order to balance the fiscus. This is extremely problematic.
Perhaps more alarming is the fact that the entire contingency reserve of R5,7 billion has been added on the revenue side. This reserve is meant to remain in place to provide for unexpected contingencies and acts of God. The DA supports the policy of building in a contingency reserve but we do not support drawing it down to balance the Budget. If we spend it now, we could be vulnerable and exposed.
So, even though the spending freeze requires some smoke and mirrors, we commend the Minister of Finance's stated commitment to fiscal consolidation. It is much needed in this government that has a serious wasteful expenditure problem.
While this Budget shows that Treasury is in control of the finances, unfortunately it also reveals that they are not in control of the economic policy. Every Budget, the Minister of Finance stands here and calls for microeconomic policy reform; he calls for a reduction in the costs of regulatory compliance for small business. He calls for the removal of trade barriers; he calls for things called "active labour market policies", which is a euphemism for youth wage subsidy. What does this government do about implementing these things? It does nothing, niks nie, lutho. I have only been in Parliament for the past three and a half years and I'm already sick of the Minister of Finance standing here every few months to announce things that never get implemented. I can only imagine how frustrated the veterans of this House must be. This is the DA's main problem with this Budget and with the Fiscal Framework. Thank you. [Applause.]