Page 5977 - Week 14 - Thursday, 8 December 2011

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other side of the ledger, which services they believe should be cut. Do they want to cut into the health budget, the education budget, the community services budget? Which areas will the Leader of the Opposition target this time? Which areas will it be?

That will be the challenge. It is not about who yells the most in this chamber. It is about the policy positions that people put forward. Mr Seselja has the chance this afternoon to put his policy platform before the Assembly.

MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (3.37): I would love to talk about our policies. I will talk both about this government’s lack of regard for the cost of living pressures being faced by Canberra families and also our solutions to deal with it. We have got a government that does not care about this issue. Let us just be frank about this. We have heard it time and time again. It has been passed down from one Labor leader to another. Jon Stanhope kept saying just how affordable it was to buy a house in Canberra, and then we have heard from Katy Gallagher: “Look, it’s okay, these debates are silly. Turn off the Foxtel for a while and deal with the cost of living issues.” We know what ACT Labor think about battling families in Canberra. They do not care. How do we know they do not care? Because of what they do and what they say.

They say things like “turn off the Foxtel” and “housing is very affordable in Canberra”. It is the “they’ve never had it so good” approach from the Labor Party. They put in place policies and taxes and charges which place burden upon burden upon burden on Canberra families. Some of these are low income families; some of these are middle income families. All things being equal, if you are an APS6 in the public service and you are earning $75,000 year, you would think, “I should be doing okay.” But you look at your mortgage, you look at the cost of childcare, you look at the rates you have to pay every year to this government, you look at stamp duty if you are buying a house or you look at the rent, and it does not go that far, does it? Even that $75,000 for the middle-income earner as an APS6 or an EL1 or a bit higher than that, it does not go very far.

This is where the Labor Party still do not get it. They do not seem to care or understand that it is the government’s role to do all they can to put in place good policies which make it easier for people to live a good life in Canberra. In some cases that will mean concessions, but in a far broader sense they have a responsibility to all Canberrans to try and have good policies. If they are good policies they will make it better for everyone. Yes, you will still need some concessions for people on very low incomes, but those who do not get those concessions will benefit from a government that does a good job; that looks to lower taxes and charges where possible, that looks to have policies which put downward pressure on prices, whether that is the cost of a home, the cost of renting or the cost of electricity and water. But this government has gone in absolutely the opposite direction. We heard, again, the disdain that is shown for these families by the Treasurer in his performance.

I thank Mrs Dunne for bringing this forward, because Mrs Dunne understands what families are going through in the suburbs. Mrs Dunne understands that, in places like Evatt and in places in west Belconnen near where she lives, there are literally


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