Page 5313 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 15 November 2011
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Ross Solly asked her a legitimate question, because she announced that she was going to work with the banks to get some relief. Okay, that would be good, if you can do it. She was asked: “How is that going to work and have you spoken to any banks about it at this stage?” She said:
Look we haven’t … what we’re sending out though is a message and we know our banking contract …
And she goes on, “We haven’t spoken to the banks.” So she did not even bother to do the work. She says on radio that she is not preparing to do anything to help poor people if there is any sort of cost. She is not prepared to do anything to help those thousands of Canberra families who might be struggling to pay for various things—pay their rego, pay the sporting fees and various other things. She makes an announcement but she has not actually done the work. That shows how much she cares and how much Labor cares. That shows how much they care about these families. They do not care. They pile on these pressures year after year.
We have seen the government’s income more than double since they came to office. Then they say, “That’s okay because occasionally we will spit a tiny amount of that tax back in targeted assistance.” It is not good enough. It shows just how out of touch they are. It is why thousands of Canberra families are deserting them. They are seeing that the Labor Party has deserted them. They want to tax the poor, they want to make it harder for families in Canberra and they have got no plans to do anything about it.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Leader, ACT Greens) (4.22): I thank Dr Bourke for raising this important issue today. The Greens very much agree that the way government assistance is provided to Canberra residents who are doing it tough is a very important issue. It is also a very difficult policy issue. It is difficult to ensure that assistance really helps those in real need in a manner that is accessible to consumers and also responsive to their particular needs.
There are at times unintended flow-on impacts that ultimately negate the intention of the assistance and end up benefiting those who do not really need the assistance as opposed to those who do. One example that illustrates the point is the first homeowners grant, which I have spoken about before. I think it is appropriate to start by outlining some of the important principles for targeted assistance and factors that we need to be aware of when making decisions about assistance that the government provides.
As a community, we have a responsibility to ensure that no-one gets left behind and that there is a safety net and fair government assistance to ensure that everyone can enjoy a decent standard of living. Equality within a community is an important part of everyone’s prosperity and ensuring that no-one gets left behind is a real test against which we should be measuring ourselves.
Targeted, as opposed to general, assistance is the primary vehicle through which we should be looking to help those most in need. There are, of course, general measures that the government should be putting in place to help everyone and achieve a range of policy outcomes, but when it comes to those most in need, in most cases the only
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