Page 2242 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 5 June 2013
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this morning. None of the Labor members turned up at Tuggeranong Community Council last night to tell their residents, their constituents, about how the budget would affect them. People, I think, were genuinely surprised that there was nobody there from the Labor Party.
Of course, there was no chamber of commerce event last night. That has been put off to Friday when, again, only the government will speak. I guess that is the price you pay so that the Treasurer can go off to an AFL do in his black tie to be there with the hoi polloi, the literati and the glitterati instead of looking after his community.
When we look at the motion, it is just the sort of thing you would expect from a government on the day after a budget. I would like to go through the points one by one. We are told that the budget is aimed at building a stronger economy and creating opportunity and fairness for all Canberrans. It is kind of funny that this comes after the Payroll Tax Amendment Bill that I just tabled because this is not a government that is being fair to all businesses in the ACT. It is certainly not a government that is building a stronger economy.
This is a government that still see themselves entirely dependent on commonwealth spending because they have done so little except to tear down the local business community in the last 12 years. I think the last 12 years will be remembered as the wasted years, just simply wasted. All the opportunities have gone begging. You see it in this year’s budget. The cranes have all disappeared from the skyline in the ACT, certainly in Civic. What we see, instead of having a government that consistently bring forward a program of new capital works to stop the boom and bust cycle, is nothing but plans and forward studies because this government were not ready.
I am sure the Treasurer will jump up after this and extol the virtues of his budget and how dreadful Tony Abbott will be. It is the same drum that Andrew Barr has been beating for four years, all at a time when his revenue outstrips his estimates every single year. He earns more money through his high taxes than he ever estimates.
Mr Hanson: It is a Labor budget.
MR SMYTH: It is a genuine Labor budget; big spending with no regard to the future. You only have to look at the estimates. In regard to revenue, the estimates have been pretty right over the last couple of years and they have spent the lot, Madam Speaker. They have spent the lot. Their spending outstrips their revenue. When talking about a stronger economy and creating opportunity and fairness for all, Mr Barr portrays this as a budget for a rainy day. He says that they have put something away. He has certainly squirreled it away because there is not much left to put away.
Then, of course, we have the deceit that is inherent in this budget. Before the last election this government claimed that they would not triple rates. But Mr Barr let the cat out of the bag yesterday. He said, “Yes, rates will go up 10 per cent every year.” If that continues for about 11 years, rates will triple as we predicted and as groups like the Ratepayers Association said would happen.
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