Page 2915 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 6 August 2008
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said, “Brendan, where do these economics come from?” “I will look it up,” he said. I said, “You don’t understand. They talk about a stimulatory effect on the economy when you spend a dollar. It might bring you $4 to $6—that is a view in the tourism industry—but it is has got absolutely no economic basis in terms of tax revenue whatsoever.” If that were the case, we would get out of every line of business and just go into tourism in this territory, because you would increase your revenue five-fold. It is typical of Mr Smyth’s shallow approach to economic and tax policy, echoed, of course, by the costings.
Mr Smyth talks about government spending. We have not heard a word in months about the costings on that hospital fiasco, because it has been a complete and utter stuff-up. It was embarrassing to Tony Abbott when he was the federal minister, because the Chief Minister actually saw the flaws in the mathematics, and it was embarrassing to me and the shadow Treasurer. He did it all over 10 minutes and lobbied people behind my back. When we look at the figures, we see they are completely and utterly flawed. It is typical of the approach to economics and taxation, a lack of understanding and, in this instance today, a complete repudiation of the principles that they are supposedly committed to. From my point of view, I do take some pleasure in this, because it gives me an opportunity to differentiate very clearly as to who supports constant—
Mr Stanhope: That’s unseemly, Mr Mulcahy.
MR MULCAHY: Yes, it probably is, Chief Minister, but it does give me the opportunity, I must say—not that one would exploit this—to let the people of Canberra know how serious they are about getting the tax burden off. I say this also to the Greens: how serious are they about decreasing the tax burden when people are battling and having to find the money on their property for rates, the emergency services levy and other taxes? People who are on fixed incomes, commonwealth superannuants—of whom there is a very large number in this city—see their federal pensions going up by CPI but they just cannot meet the extra charges, not only the ones going up by WPI but the new ones that came in during the last two years since they retired. They can only stay in their homes by lightening their capital, borrowing money or cutting their expenditure, which is what many of them do, because they do not like to be in debt when they get towards their latter years.
The Canberra Liberals—they have got a new name because they are embarrassed to be called the Liberal Party of Australia—do not care two hoots about these people. They are worried about people on $200,000 incomes getting government subsides for housing. They make a statement in terms of education reform that is completely all over the place in terms of costing, ranging from $25 million to $30-odd million in the course of one day. They have not costed that one out too well. They do not know where they stand in terms of swimming pools in Gungahlin. Mr Seselja is paying for ads in Gunsmoke, saying, “We need a pool in our suburb.” Of course, he lives in Macarthur, but they will not let those little facts interfere with the truth, because they might be able to keep the ruse going that he lives up there. Then, of course, when the government call their bluff and say, “Well, we’re going to spend the money up there,” suddenly they will not commit to it. It is just an extraordinary shambles of an arrangement and a shambles of an approach to taxation and economic policy.
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