Page 2343 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 29 August 2007
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Most galling for many people in the community after the savage cutbacks and the 23 school closures announced last year is the unexpected surplus that the Stanhope government has posted. Last year the government projected a deficit of $80 million for the 2006-07 financial year. But the entire amount has been made up in one year as the result of significant additional taxes, mostly on residential and business property in the ACT.
For example, stamp duty alone rose from $157 million to $198 million, an increase of over 25 per cent in one year. This may well be an underestimate. The figure could top $500 million by the end of the financial year, according to the property council. Indeed, that would seem to be something that will be made out. Mr Hedley from the property council testified in the estimates hearings that Treasury had underestimated revenue for the coming year. He said:
… it is our submission that ACT Treasury persistently—year in, year out—grossly underestimate the amount of revenue from stamp duty, and an analysis of previous years’ budget papers will bear this out.
The Chief Minister has been quick to point out that the federal government has also posted a surplus. But there is a significant difference between the unexpected surpluses posted by both the ACT Labor government and the Howard government. In the first case, punishing taxes, notably property taxes, resulted in the amassing of $117 million surplus. In the case of the commonwealth, the underlying cash surplus was, I understand, $17.3 billion in 2006-07, $3.7 billion above what was estimated. The surplus was boosted by $1.7 billion from higher tax receipts, with company tax receipts up by about $1 billion a year. The rise reflected stronger company profits, which, in turn, reflects confidence in the economy.
What also needs pointing out is that while the Chief Minister claims that for Canberrans this surplus means money in the bank, it is merely returned to consolidated revenue. The human cost in the hike in ACT taxes and charges is that, as reported, significant numbers of Canberrans are seeking help to pay basic bills, and services across the board have declined. The Sunday Canberra Times story by Emily Sherlock on 19 August this year reported:
Canberrans are increasingly having difficulty paying the utility bills, with the cost of rent, electricity, transport and everyday living fuelling financial difficulties in the territory.
The Essential Services Consumer Council, which assists Canberrans facing gas, water and electricity disconnection, said the number of people seeking assistance had doubled since 2001. In the last financial year it received 1,200 new applications for assistance. This indicates that there are two economies. At a national level, the coalition government of Howard has encouraged growth and prosperity, which has driven unemployment down to 1974 levels and created 2.1 million jobs since 1996—I think it is even lower than 1974 levels—but at the local level around Australia we see Labor governments being wasteful and idle, and none more so than in the ACT. These Labor governments—the current government here in the ACT is notorious amongst them—have sought to make up for their own chronic mismanagement of government services, which have been allowed to deteriorate, by simply putting up taxes, fees and
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .