Page 1394 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 28 March 2012
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
MR SESELJA: We hear the interjections from Mr Barr. It is a bit like when Mr Stanhope used to tell us how good we had it on housing affordability. Mr Barr has repeated that many times: “That is okay because incomes have gone up.” But incomes have not gone up as fast as costs, and many of those costs have been either directly imposed by this government or significantly contributed to by this government.
Mr Barr is trying to take some credit on electricity. We know that the only thing they have done for electricity prices is to push them up through the feed-in tariff. Let us look at water. Water prices for Canberrans have tripled. We did not hear Mr Barr talking about the fact that we are paying the highest water rates in the country and that they have tripled under ACT Labor. That is a massive increase in the cost of an absolute essential for life coming from the ACT government through its agencies. We know why they have gone up. It is because they have not been able to manage costs. They have not been able to manage costs at places like Cotter Dam. We have seen the result.
That gets us to something that the government directly controls: taxation and rates. That has an impact on the cost of living. We have seen real growth in taxation, over and above inflation, of 50 per cent in 10 years. Taxation per capita has increased since ACT Labor was first elected—an increase of $1,696 per person in taxes and charges by the ACT government. We have seen massive increases in rates—in the rates on property, in rates on residential properties.
Let us look at a sample. What about the poor old people of Banks? It is 152 per cent in 10 years. Spence is 148 per cent; Charnwood is 158 per cent; Chisholm is 130 per cent. And the list goes on. The good people of Gordon—99 per cent. And that is just 2011-12. We have seen 111 per cent for people in Calwell. Holder is 98 per cent; Evatt 136 per cent; Dunlop 137 per cent; Amaroo 96 per cent; Ngunnawal 108 per cent; and Mawson 101 per cent. What have these people done to the government to deserve such a massive rate increase?
The list goes on and on. Tuggeranong residents have been particularly hard hit in recent years, and a number of the suburbs that I mentioned are Tuggeranong suburbs. We saw the second year in a row that Tuggeranong had the highest average rate increase. Rates went up by an average of 6.57 per cent last year. Why is it so? It is so because this government has not controlled its spending and it looks for more and more ways to tax the community and to slug the community.
The cost of living is a major issue right around the country. The complacency of ACT Labor and the Greens has been to say, “It is not an issue here in Canberra.” It might be an issue in Queensland, where they wiped out a Labor government based on cost of living issues. It might be an issue in New South Wales, where they wiped out a Labor government based on corruption and cost of living issues. But apparently, according to this government, it is not an issue here in Canberra. Well, it is. It is, and if you go to these suburbs you will see that people have seen their rates go up by these extraordinary amounts. They have seen their water go up threefold. We have seen all sorts of other taxes and charges, including the high rents that affect people significantly and the high cost of parking, which affects particularly working families and particularly young mothers who have no option but to be driving their cars.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video