Page 5504 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 17 November 2010

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Perhaps if the leader of the Greens got out in the community more and talked to the real people out there, they would know that this hurts, every day, ordinary folk in the Canberra region.

It is important that we have this motion. It is important that the motion gets up as it is. It is not a big ask. We kept it simple because we knew the government was not capable of delivering more than this. All we are asking for is a statement, a cost of living statement, each year in the budget which informs the Assembly and the community of the key cost of living impacts of its policies.

This motion, in the main, just deals with the bread-and-butter factors that affect the lives of ordinary people and that ordinary people have to cope with. They are even struggling in many cases in balancing the competing demands that are placed on families.

The key issue that underpins this motion concerns the role of our government, and that is not an unreasonable thing. What can the government do? What can the ACT government do to reduce the cost pressures that are faced by people, by families, living in the ACT? As Mr Seselja has noted, the government has control of a number of policy levers that can influence the cost pressures on goods and services that are faced by Canberra people and Canberra families.

In considering the matter raised in this motion, it is easy to be distracted and get into a discussion about government revenue and how governments are always concerned about protecting their sources of revenue. They are legitimate concerns. But the pursuit of revenue, and indeed the spending of revenue—because, let us face it, we have got an inputs government; “we spend more, therefore we are better” is the motto of this government—should not be made in isolation from the effects of increasing taxes and other charges on the people of the ACT, the families of the ACT and the business community of the ACT.

Nevertheless, it is useful to place the actions of the ACT government in some sort of context in discussing cost of living pressures. In 2001-02, the ACT budgeted for revenue of $2.043 billion. In 2010-11, budgeted revenue was $3.668 billion. This represents an increase of 80 per cent. Over the same period, the consumer price index for Canberra increased by 29 per cent. Government revenue up 80 per cent; CPI up 29 per cent. If the effect of price increases is removed, the real increase in budget revenue has been about 40 per cent. Over 10 years, that is still a very significant increase in government revenue. In large part this increase has been built on increases in existing as well as new taxes and charges—so-called indirect taxes that have to be paid by consumers, by householders and by businesses.

The key factor that we face in considering this motion is what realistically can the ACT government do, or indeed can any government do, to reduce the cost pressures on individuals and on families. The ACT government can contain its own expenses and hence limit the call that it has to make on the community’s resources. This raises the issue of efficiency in the provision of government services. The ACT government can encourage the most competitive business environment such that the providers of goods and services do so at the most competitive prices.


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