Page 1916 - Week 05 - Thursday, 3 May 2012
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address such issues for Canberra residents. I think the title of Mr Corbell’s bill is poignant as it explicitly acknowledges the importance of cost of living issues for Canberrans.
Just last week, CommSec’s economic report confirmed that Canberrans experienced the lowest wage growth but the highest increase in consumer prices in the country. In the whole of Australia, the ACT and South Australia were the only jurisdictions to have wage growths that were not keeping up with consumer prices.
It perhaps should not come as any surprise then that in last Sunday’s Canberra Times there was an article titled “Families hit breaking point”. Looking at the latest Insolvency and Trustee Service Australia figures, the number of Canberra residents forced into debt agreements has increased by almost 104 per cent, not to mention the fact that for the first three months of this year the ACT had the worst rates of insolvency in the country.
Then again, we are living in a city where, over the last 10 or so years, property rates have increased by 75 per cent, outmatching CPI growth by 31 per cent. In many suburbs, rates have more than doubled since Labor came to office. Rents have increased by approximately 68 per cent, outpacing CPI growth by 25 per cent. Water prices have increased by over 200 per cent. Water is now triple the price it was when Labor came to office. Electricity prices have increased by 75 per cent, outmatching CPI by approximately 31 per cent.
On the topic of electricity prices, given this government’s support for their federal counterpart’s carbon tax, come July Canberrans will be hit with an additional $244 in their electricity bills, bringing the average Canberran’s annual electricity bill to $1,662. This is on top of the $225 extra they will have to pay every year in their power bills to foot the bill for this government’s solar feed-in tariff scheme. The list goes on and on.
We should also not forget that, since ACT Labor has been in government, ACT taxes have increased by 90 per cent per capita. ABS figures recently released show that we are taxed 10 per cent more than the national average. Based on local and state taxes, the ACT’s taxation per capita rose by eight per cent in 2010-11 to $3,437.
We have seen on so many occasions the government claims one thing but delivers nothing like it. Recall last December when we debated Mr Corbell’s bill for the large-scale feed-in tariff scheme. He said:
Today I am proud to bring to the Assembly this landmark legislation that will set the standard for renewable energy generation across Australia and deliver upon ACT Labor’s vision of making Canberra the solar capital of our nation. This legislation represents the Assembly and the community with an opportunity …
We, as was the case with most Canberrans, thought that this would mean large-scale solar generation in the ACT, more jobs, more opportunities. Yet as it turned out, Mr Corbell’s large-scale solar scheme amounted to nothing more than a mechanism allowing for a carbon accounting treatment in certificate trading for New South Wales generators in the ACT region.
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