Page 3408 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 14 November 2007
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Of course, we have got more money going out on the percent for art scheme. How can Mr Stanhope stand here and convince me that this $1 million icon on Northbourne Avenue is vital for the people of Canberra and far more important than giving them tax relief? Go and tell that to the lady who called him on that talkback show and the others that talk to me when I go to Woden. Go and say, “Listen here. You shouldn’t get tax relief; you’re rolling in cash.” When they say, “But my pension is not going up much or at all, and the CPI has been fairly static,” Mr Stanhope’s view is to say, “Well, you’re rolling in cash. We have got to take an average view; we have got to add in all the $300,000 departmental heads, the well-paid politicians and the like; so tough luck. You are not getting tax relief. We are going to keep increasing taxes.”
It is staggering that the Chief Minister gets up here today and dismisses this proposal, this initiative—probably because the opposition is the one, in fact, who has brought it forward—and, in the same afternoon, he is dumping on the table here September quarterly reports showing another $92 million in revenue—another $92.5 million in revenue today declared as part of the September quarter. Taxation revenue is increasing by $46 million, and we still cannot afford relief for the people of Canberra.
How long does this go on? Do we go on with hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars and still say we cannot give people relief? What is the point we reach when you say that all of this pain and suffering that people had to go through in the previous budget with the fire and emergency services levy, the utilities tax, the water abstraction charge, the ambulance levy going up, general rates going up is over? When is enough enough?
Mrs Dunne: It’s never enough when Stanhope can get your spare change.
MR MULCAHY: It seems to be the case that it is never enough. Mr Stanhope just says, “Well, we’re not going to consider these things. We just want to keep spending.” We have now got this other swag of cash, and I know it is the first quarter and there will be adjustments, because some items fall earlier in the year and others fall later. But, I think, out of the figures presented today to the Assembly that, when you see an additional $92.5 million and you see that the variances are so substantial over the forward projections, there must be a point when this territory can start offering a little relief back to the people.
We are hearing from their federal Labor colleagues about the impact of fuel on family budgets; we are hearing about the impact of groceries from increases in supermarkets; we are hearing about the impact on vegetable sales—
Mr Corbell: What’s John Howard doing about it?
MR MULCAHY: I will answer that, Mr Corbell, in just one second. We are hearing about the impact on the price of vegetables because of the drought, and even Labor federally is starting to emulate the tax reforms that have been announced by the Howard government, and, I might say, an ongoing program of tax reform and forward-projected tax reductions. Even Kevin Rudd has not got the gall to get up and say, “No matter how much the government of Australia makes, we are not going to give it back to you, the people who are paying for it.”
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