Page 504 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 5 March 2008
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(a) the actions already taken and the announced intentions of the Rudd Labor Government to slash funding for federal government departments and programs;
Mrs Dunne: Yes. How is that about housing affordability, Mr Speaker?
MR SPEAKER: Mr Stanhope is explaining the effects of interest rate rises.
MR STANHOPE: I am stunned, Mr Speaker, that neither Mr Seselja nor Mrs Dunne knows what motion Mr Seselja just moved. The motion actually deals with the slashing of funding. Of course, when we get down to why—
Mrs Dunne: Yes.
Mr Seselja: She just said that.
Mrs Dunne: Yes, national institutions. Good on you. Let us talk about slashing funding.
MR STANHOPE: No, no. Mrs Dunne said it related entirely to cultural institutions, which, quite frankly, it does not. It relates to slashing funding of departments and programs. Mrs Dunne and Mr Seselja say that that is not what the motion is about; the motion is about the cultural institutions. They are just a touch uncomfortable in a 15-minute speech around the rationale for decisions and initiatives being pursued by the federal government in relation to rampaging inflation.
Mr Seselja and Mrs Dunne and the Liberal Party in this place and federally do not want to talk about the absolute direct impact of inflation on a Canberra family with an average sized mortgage—
Mrs Dunne: Put a motion about housing affordability on the paper and we will talk about it till the cows come home. You are the person who has driven up the cost of housing in this territory.
MR SPEAKER: Order!
MR STANHOPE: This is young Canberrans with young families—working families battling to meet their mortgage and other costs who have been asked since March 2005 as a result of Liberal Party mismanagement to pay an extra $4,404 a year on their mortgage. An extra cost of $110,000 over the life of the mortgage is the impost that has been imposed on young Canberra families, those with average sized mortgages, as a result of the mismanagement of the economy by the Liberal Party. That is the result of eight interest rate rises over the last two years.
The Rudd federal government seeks to deal with and ameliorate the possibility of a further interest rate rise to deal with inflation to reduce this enormous additional cost that Canberra families are being asked to meet in relation to their mortgages as a result of the mismanagement of the previous government. Mr Seselja and the
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