Page 132 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Mr Gentleman: Point of order, Madam Speaker.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Gentleman.
MR SMYTH: I will stop the clock, if I may.
Mr Gentleman: Debate is supposed to be relevant to the motion on the notice paper. I would ask him to be relevant to that.
MADAM SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Gentleman. Sorry, can we please stop the clock. The debate is relevant. Mr Smyth was referring to Mr Barr’s opening words, and that is clearly relevant to the debate. However, I will ask Mr Smyth to refer to members by their title and their surname. Mr Smyth.
MR SMYTH: Thanks, Madam Speaker. Let us go to the facts. It is a fact that the Treasurer just said that cost of living is a tired argument. This is the man who talks about equity, but his own statement a couple of minutes ago was that cost of living is tired. Cost of living is tired? Well, get out into the suburbs, Treasurer, and talk to those who are being affected. I know he likes to poke Red Hill. You always know he is in trouble when he goes straight to Mugga Lane. It is the only address he can pick out of his head. There are people who are not as well off in terms of cash flow in Red Hill, but let us leave the Red Hill argument out of it. Let us go to, for instance, Narrabundah. Narrabundah is not full of the wealthy and well-off, but Narrabundah has seen its rates go up 26 per cent. How is that fair and equitable?
Of course, then there are the rich of Hackett, who had a 20 per cent increase, and the minister thinks that is fair and equitable? Then there are the people of Hughes. They are all millionaires in Hughes according to the Treasurer, so he slugged them with a 25 per cent increase. And Hawker, clearly everybody in Hawker is well-off. They copped 25 per cent as well. If you are one of the rich burghers of Griffith you got a 32 per cent increase. Well, the Treasurer thinks it is okay to tax you because you are sitting on a property and you are wealthy, regardless of whether or not you can pay it.
Mr Phillips says himself that there are people who often have very low incomes but often have fairly high rate payments. Yes, they do. And this is the Treasurer who ignores them because cost of living is a tired argument. Well, cost of living is how people survive, Treasurer. Cost of living is what people have every day when they focus on what they can expend and what they cannot expend.
You can read the litany of increases under this government where taxation has gone up 90 per cent, where property rates are up 90 per cent, where rent is up 70 per cent, where water prices have tripled, where electricity is up 85 per cent. I am sure he thinks cost of living is a tired argument, because he does not have an answer. He says all of the world’s economists have said this is a good thing. Well, they do not live in Canberra. Anybody who wants to comment in an esoteric sense about tax reform, go for your life. But they do not live in Canberra. They do not live in Banks where the rates have gone up 151 per cent. They do not live in Bonython where they have gone
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video