Page 2175 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 15 August 2006
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The interesting thing is that a literal approach is taken to the tax relief that all of us thought, when the GST was coming in, would be adhered to by the state governments and territory governments that have absolutely had windfall gains through these GST receipts. Even in the papers that they distributed last night and tabled today, there were more windfall gains and GST receipts.
It was an interesting omission from Mr Stanhope’s statement when he tabled those documents today because he does not want to acknowledge that this territory government has been saved time and again by the windfall from GST revenues—$3.8 billion to date; $80 million in excess of budgeted expectations. But this territory government has failed to live up to lower territory taxes in the broader sense, as was the understanding when it entered into the intergovernmental agreement with the federal government and the other states and territory. This Treasurer has taken a very literal interpretation, as did his predecessor, of the ACT’s agreement with the federal government and the states in reducing only specific taxes and charges and certainly has failed to adhere to the important spirit of the agreement that committed it to reducing the overall tax burden on all Canberrans.
It is certainly true that the economy of this territory has been robust, but it is certainly also true that the success of this is due primarily to the impact of an Australian government which has created employment and economic prosperity across the board. The ACT is not in a unique position where it alone has caused all of this success, but Australia can claim to be very much on its own when compared with the global performance because our ratings in a range of different criteria put us head and shoulders above pretty well everyone in the developed world, even with the Asian meltdown some years ago. The cautious and sensible policies being applied by both the Australian government and the reserve bank at that time ensured that our country weathered the storm that was inflicted on so many of our neighbours to the north, and the people of Australia were the beneficiaries.
I continue to be amazed, as I said at commencement of my remarks, that this territory is unwilling at any time to give credit to the commonwealth. They are the largest contributor in the town but they are treated as though they are a hostile interest or a hostile force. They employ a very large number of Canberra men and women. The children of many of our citizens of this city are gainfully employed by the commonwealth here and elsewhere. Credit must be due to the commonwealth for the enormous success we have enjoyed as Australians over recent years, thanks to the election of the Howard government. It is certainly an area where I would like to see greater recognition.
The biggest challenge we are going to have as a territory is filling the jobs that the commonwealth government is wanting to create in this region. It certainly will not be assisted if people get the impression that, one, the ACT government is out in left field on every issue that comes across the table; and, two, that it is willing to apply punitive tax measures on its citizens. If you come here, you are going to be taxed out of your existence. As that message spreads—and sadly it is spreading into the Sydney media and elsewhere—people will think twice about coming to this territory.
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