Mark McDonald, MSP for Aberdeen Donside, addresses the Scottish Parliament on 3 February. Watch the video below and click "read more" to view the text of the speech.
· Mark McDonald (Aberdeen Donside) (SNP):
When I asked Jackie Baillie about the Finance Committee’s report on the draft budget, she responded by saying that she was not at the meeting when we discussed it. Her argument is somewhat undermined by the fact that the Labour Party was represented at that meeting and that it signed up to the recommendation on the SRIT in the Finance Committee report. There is one line in the report from which the Labour Party dissented, which is:
“The Committee, therefore, welcomes that the DFM now supports indexed deduction per capita and recommends that this approach is agreed in the fiscal framework.”
The Labour Party is opposing the deal that would ensure that Scotland would get a fair settlement in the fiscal framework.
· Jackie Baillie:
Will the member take an intervention?
· Mark McDonald:
It would be unfortunate if Jackie Baillie tried to explain the thinking behind why something was opposed at a meeting at which she was not present. [Interruption.]
· The Deputy Presiding Officer:
Ms Baillie, Mark McDonald is not taking an intervention.
· Mark McDonald:
I will move on.
When the committee took evidence on the Scottish rate of income tax, Stephen Boyd from the Scottish Trades Union Congress said:
“our point is that, at this particular moment in the economic cycle, having been through an historically unprecedented collapse in real wages over the past five years, 2016-17 is not the moment in which to increase taxes on the lower paid.”
Ruchir Shah of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations said:
“We do not need to increase taxes to invest in prevention. Prevention is something that can be done with budgets now ... I do not think that we should look towards the new tax powers as a panacea and as the way to bring extra money into prevention. We need to look at our budgets independently of the tax system.”
I have another quote from that committee meeting:
“the yield that we would get from 1p on the Scottish rate of income tax is actually quite small ... Is there not a better argument to be had about shifting the spend within the overall budget, which is substantially higher?”
That was said by Jackie Baillie. I wonder what has transformed the Labour Party’s opinion between that September meeting of the Finance Committee—that evidence is on the record—the signing off on the committee’s report, which happened just last week, and today’s debate. Perhaps Jackie Baillie can enlighten us.
· Jackie Baillie:
Mark McDonald realises, of course, that the yield would be £0.5 billion. Failure to use the SRIT now will lead to devastating cuts of £1 billion before any new powers come to this Parliament. Does he not regret the decision that his cabinet secretary is making?
· Mark McDonald:
I can only apologise to Jackie Baillie for again quoting her own words at her. She said:
“the yield that we would get from 1p on the Scottish rate of income tax is actually quite small ... Is there not a better argument to be had about shifting the spend within the overall budget”?—[Official Report, Finance Committee, 30 September 2015; c 7, 15, 30.]
If she wants to change her position, that is a matter for her.
· Neil Bibby (West Scotland) (Lab):
Will the member take an intervention?
· Mark McDonald:
I am looking to develop my comments a little further.
As the cabinet secretary said when he gave his budget statement to Parliament, this budget is important because of the need for public sector reform—the need to reform the way in which we deliver our services. We are in a period of on-going Tory austerity at Westminster, so doing things in the same way as we have always done them will not be sustainable in the long term. We have seen reform of police and fire and rescue services, and reforms of health and social care are taking place. It is now time to look at how services are delivered at the local level and to drive forward the shared services agenda.
That agenda has been taken forward very well in some areas of Scotland—it would be remiss to suggest that a strategic approach has not been taken in parts of Scotland. However, it is also fair to say that a lot of local authorities are lagging far behind when it comes to public sector reform and the shared services agenda.
An interesting element of the debate is the Labour Party’s insistence that savings can be achieved only by cutting front-line services. Only last week in The Press and Journal, the finance convener of Aberdeen City Council, Labour councillor Willie Young—a man with whom I have my own special relationship—boasted that the council had identified £20 million-worth of savings without a single saving coming from the front-line services that the Labour Party today says are the only things that are left to be tackled. The notion that there are not savings to be found in local government or that local authorities could not achieve different ways of delivering services flies in the face of what Labour councillors are saying.
· Drew Smith:
Since Mr McDonald is fond of quoting other members, I point out that, on 23 April last year, he said:
“we cannot sustain further austerity, which results in those with the least being hurt the most”.
He went on to say that his belief is
“that we need to see a commitment to public spending increases”.—[Official Report, 23 April 2015; c 8-9.]
How does Mr McDonald propose that we raise more money for public services? [Applause.]
· Mark McDonald:
I am always grateful when Labour members are fans of my early work. [Interruption.]
· The Deputy Presiding Officer:
Order, please. We must hear Mr McDonald close.
· Mark McDonald:
The point that I make to Mr Smith, if he will listen, is that we put forward a comprehensive and costed package that a Westminster Government could deliver as an alternative to austerity. We did not get the result in the Westminster election that we were hoping for, and Mr Smith’s party certainly did not. That was what that comment related to.
The point about the SRIT, on which I have always been consistent, is that I do not believe that it is right that the same increase in tax should apply to those on the basic rate as applies to those on the higher rate.
· The Deputy Presiding Officer:
Mr McDonald, you must close.
· Mark McDonald:
The Labour Party disagrees with me on that, but I suspect that the public will disagree with the Labour Party.
· The Deputy Presiding Officer:
If members take interventions, they must take them in their own time.
