Page 3781 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 24 August 2010
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Through the consultations, every one of the consultations except one—namely, that at Chifley—identified a barbeque as a reasonable outcome of the consultation. So barbeques were not provided at Chifley. They were provided at every other community park upgrade.
The day the Chifley play upgrade was completed, residents contacted my office and said, “Oh, there’s a barbeque at Cook. Our friends are telling us how wonderful it is. There is a barbeque at Holt. Why didn’t we get the barbeque at Chifley?” Because we consulted and, through the consultations, those that attended the consultation at Chifley explicitly decided against a barbeque. I can see the minute the consultation—(Time expired.)
Taxation—review
MR SMYTH: My question is to the Treasurer. Treasurer, on 12 August this year you announced that a review was to be conducted of the ACT’s taxation system and that this review would be headed by a former ACT Treasurer, Mr Ted Quinlan. Treasurer, Mr Quinlan sought to implement a number of tax reforms during his period as Treasurer but many of these failed, in large part because of the approach adopted by Mr Quinlan. Treasurer, why have you appointed as head of this review a person who failed to undertake appropriate research on such proposed tax reforms as a new rating system, a bushfire tax, a loan security tax and a parking space tax?
MS GALLAGHER: It will come as no surprise that we on this side do not agree with the allegations or the assertions just put by the shadow Treasurer. We believe that Mr Quinlan brings very significant credentials to the position of chair of the ACT’s government taxation review panel. Mr Quinlan will chair that panel. He will be ably assisted by the Under Treasurer and also Professor Ann Harding. Mr Quinlan brings with him a range of experience not only from his pre-political background but also his role as Treasurer in this place.
Having a thorough understanding of government and having a very committed career in the ACT—I think that on all of those measures Mr Quinlan stands out as an excellent chair of the ACT’s taxation review committee. He is committed to Canberra, he understands Canberra and he understands government. He will be ably assisted by two other individuals who I believe will bring forward, for the first time in 20 years, an independent review of the current situation with our own-source revenue, ideas for change—if there are ideas—looking at the Henry review, bringing that forward and doing social impact analysis on any proposed reforms that they bring to this place.
I cannot think of a better person to chair the ACT’s taxation review panel. I look forward to working with Mr Quinlan, Professor Harding and the Under Treasurer in progressing this very important piece of work.
MR SPEAKER: A supplementary, Mr Smyth?
MR SMYTH: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Treasurer, how can the community have any confidence in the integrity of this tax review when Mr Quinlan admitted in this Assembly, on 12 March 2003, that the only modelling that he had done for such a significant change as a proposed new rating system was “one draft”?
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