Page 5310 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 15 November 2011
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you don’t have to pay it all at once. But we’re going to tax you $100 for the privilege.” So for the mums and dads, the pensioners and others who cannot afford to pay, they have to pay extra. Some get a concessional extra, some do not have to quite pay all of the $100, but they all have to pay extra.
Dr Bourke, Mr Corbell and Katy Gallagher believe these families in the suburbs are doing it so easy that, when the $900-odd rego bill comes in, and they look at that bill and at their rates bill, which might be coming up at a similar time, at the school fees, their water bills, their electricity, their gas—all of these bills that pile up—the government say to them: “You don’t have to pay your rego all in one go, but you do have to pay an extra 100 bucks now. You have to pay 100 bucks more than other high income earners have to pay because those high income earners are able to afford to pay it all in one go.” What a disgrace.
Dr Bourke said that it may not be passed on. What is the other promise for relief from the Liberal Party? It is about the use of sports fields. Dr Bourke, in claiming that it is not going to be passed on, is saying that Canberra’s local community-based sporting facilities are profiteering. He is saying that it is their fault that fees are going up; that it is their fault that many young, poor families cannot afford to play Rugby League, soccer or netball.
This just encapsulates how out of touch the Labor Party are in this place. They long ago abandoned these people and now they are claiming that the clubs would somehow profiteer if we give them some relief from the high fees charged to use ACT government facilities. We make no apology for fighting hard for Canberra families facing cost of living pressures.
This government, the Labor Party and their Greens partners, insult Canberra families when they say, “But we give targeted assistance.” There has always been targeted assistance. There will always be rebates for the very lowest income earners, but this government take so much from so many and then say they should be grateful when they spit a little bit of it back at them.
Where is the targeted assistance for those who cannot pay their rego? Where is the targeted assistance for those who cannot pay their rego in one go? They get a tax. What an inequitable policy this government oversees—it charges Canberra families who are doing it the toughest. It is not MLAs in this place, who are privileged to have our registration paid as part of our salary packages, who are doing it tough. It is thousands of other families, though, who see that large rego bill and cannot pay it in one go. And the government says, “Thank you very much; we’ll take an extra $100 from you.”
This is a government that pile it on. Let us look at it. We know how much they tax per person—an increase of $1,696 per person. All of these families are copping that extra tax from the ACT Labor Party. We have seen the massive increase in rates that Canberra families are subjected to. Right across the board, they are being forced to pay around 80 per cent more on their rates than when this government came to office. Wages have not gone up by 80 per cent in that time. Wages have gone up by a little over 40 per cent. CPI has not gone up by 80 per cent in that time but rates have.
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