Page 2594 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 25 September 2007
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costs run amock and charge people more because they have got no choice but to pay those taxes and charges; when you have a majority government you can do what you like—
Members interjecting—
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Mr Barr and Mr Stefaniak—wrong—Mr Barr and Mr Seselja, if you guys—
Mr Barr: I know he wants to be leader, Mr Deputy Speaker.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Point taken, Mr Barr.
Mr Barr: He may have to change his name to get there.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Point taken. If you two guys want to chat, outside please. Carry on; you have the floor, Mr Mulcahy.
MR MULCAHY: Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. As I said, the issue of addressing inefficiencies in the delivery of services is abhorrent to this government, despite the presence of one economic rationalist within the frontbench. But I understand the difficulty that he would encounter in attempting to persuade his colleagues, particularly those on the left, personified by my colleague Mr Gentleman, in doing anything—anything—that would upset the established order in terms of delivery of government services. The easy solution always is to say to the Commissioner of Revenue, “Turn up that machine. We need more money. Dream up something else. Talk to your colleagues interstate. What haven’t we thought of here?” And, of course, they have been very creative in that regard. I do not know what the next lot will be planned for after next year’s election, but if they have any hope of getting in, which I do not think will happen, I suspect there will be even more of these ingenious charges.
I remember my first job, Mr Deputy Speaker: I started work in the tax office. The first thing they taught us was about ingenious ways of collecting tax. They had something back in the Middle Ages where some king decided to tax people based on the windows they had. That one has not been thought up in the ACT, but given time I am sure it will come forward as a way of fleecing more out of the pockets of ordinary Canberrans.
So the issue here is to try and ostensibly make housing more affordable. As the measures introduced exist, I have indicated that we will support those particular initiatives. But despite this bill’s measures to try and address housing affordability, the more fundamental issue remains. This government is unwilling to contemplate relief from its own tax measures which are in fact making it harder for Canberra families to make ends meet when they get these slugs on their utilities account, when they get the fire and emergency service on their rates bill, and of course they see those rates bills going up, and the government will respond by saying, “Well, average increases.” Well, of course, as we know, many people, including our older citizens who may not be so much the beneficiaries of this measure, find their incomes do not go up but their tax liabilities to the territory government go up at a dramatic rate because of the growth in the value of the property on which their homes are situated.
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