Page 2976 - Week 07 - Thursday, 30 June 2011
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taxes went up, some taxes went down. What is happening tomorrow is that, as far as I can tell in the ACT, no taxes are going down. They are only going up. It is not surprising then in that context that the Labor government has effectively rejected—even though it says “noted”—the recommendation from the estimates committee that “the ACT Treasury Directorate conduct a comprehensive cost of living analysis of government taxes, fees and rates on Canberra families since self-government”. It notes it, and it says:
The Government carefully considers the impact of revenue and taxation collected as a matter of course through the annual budget process.
Pigs might fly, Mr Assistant Speaker; they do not. And if they did, they would perhaps have done that work, they would perhaps care about the impact of their policies and they would perhaps try and restrain their spending and not continue to increase taxes so significantly and to impose this massive new tax on renters.
Tomorrow Canberra families will wake up to higher taxes and charges as a result of this government. Tomorrow Canberra families will also be paying much more for their electricity, they are going to be paying more for their water, they are going to be paying more across the board, they are going to be paying more for rents as they go forward and as tax increases are placed upon them.
I know that the people of Tuggeranong will particularly feel it because if you look at the increases in rates it is the people of Tuggeranong who tomorrow will be burdened with those large increases. If you live in Banks, you will see your rates going up 6.3 per cent—151 per cent since this government came to office. If you live in Bonython you will be copping a 5.6 per cent increase—118 per cent since this Labor Party came to office. In Calwell the increase is 5.9 per cent—110 per cent since they came to office. Chisholm gets a 7½ increase tomorrow—129 per cent since this government came to office. In Gilmore it is 6.5 per cent—113 per cent since they came to office. In Isabella Plains it is 5.9 per cent—116 per cent since Labor came to office. Kambah gets 4.7 per cent—107 per cent since Labor came to office. Oxley gets 5.9 per cent; Richardson, 5.8 per cent; Theodore, 5.1 per cent; and the good people of Wanniassa, 5.2 per cent.
This is the result of a government that does not care about cost of living. This is the result of a government that just thinks that any spending is good spending and that restraining your spending is for the weak. The attitude of this government is that expenditure restraint is for other parties and for other governments and controlling particularly the cost of delivering services, the cost of delivering capital works, is not something that this government is interested in. If it was serious about addressing cost of living issues, that is what it would be doing.
Instead we can only look at their record, and tomorrow people will again feel the weight of their record. So for the family with a couple of kids living in Calwell, living in Gordon or living in Amaroo, these people will be asked again to pay more and more and more. They will be paying much more for their electricity, they will be paying much more for their water, they will be paying more if they are renting; they will see that go up. They will be paying much more for their rates. And particularly if they live in Tuggeranong, tomorrow they will be paying much more for their rates.
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