Page 1863 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 22 August 2007
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contradicting the doomsayers who say there has been a rush of investment out of the ACT, because quite clearly there has not been. In the most recent statistics available to us, the March quarter figures, March to June, the percentage of housing finance commitments in the Australian Capital Territory for investment was 37 per cent—significantly above the long-term average.
MR SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Seselja?
MR SESELJA: Yes, Mr Speaker, and I seek leave to table the article that the Chief Minister and I referred to, perhaps to clear up some twisting from the Chief Minister.
Leave granted.
MR SESELJA: I table the following article:
“Stanhope’s super mistake on property”—article appearing in the Sunday Canberra Times on 12 August 2007.
Thank you, Mr Speaker. Treasurer, what relief from the burden of increased rates and taxes can the people of Canberra expect under the Chief Minister’s leadership?
MR STANHOPE: The relief that Canberrans are experiencing in appropriate levels of taxation in the Australian Capital Territory is the relief of not having the lowest level of expenditure on mental health in Australia, which, of course, was the legacy of the Liberal Party. That is the relief. Canberrans are relieved that we no longer spend on mental health the shameful levels that the Liberal Party did. The ACT electorate is relieved that it will never again—unless it re-elects a Liberal government—have to experience an episode such as the Gallop royal commission of inquiry into disability service delivery in the Australian Capital Territory.
The people of Canberra are relieved that they will never again have to deal with or experience a government that in its period of government cut 100 beds out of our public hospitals. That is the sort of relief that Canberrans can expect under the taxing regime of this government. It is the relief that they will not have to experience or tolerate a government that did not fund child protection, a government that did not fund disability services, a government that cut hospital beds, a government that set out to pursue a $12 million infrastructure upgrade of Bruce Stadium and ended up spending nearly $100 million and along the way breaking the law.
That is the sort of relief that Canberrans can expect under this government. Have a look at the numbers. Get the numbers out and have a look at them. We tax at average levels across Australia. We are right in the middle. We tax less than some states; we tax a little bit more than others. We are right in the middle. That is the sort of relief that Canberrans have enjoyed over the past seven years, and which they will continue to enjoy for many years to come, if Gary Kent has his way.
Functional and structural review
MR PRATT: My question is to the Treasurer. Treasurer, you have continued to refuse to release the functional review report prepared by Mr Costello in 2006. It is
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