Page 1173 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 7 May 2014
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There was an article about the Liberal Party in power from Noel Towell in the Canberra Times. He says, “Planned coalition cuts to the public service could plunge Canberra into an economic nightmare worse than the downturn of the mid-1990s.” According to the Australia Institute, even the best-case scenario of the coalition’s intentions to downsize the bureaucracy “carries a high likelihood of pitching the capital into recession with knock off job losses felt through the local economy”. Dr Denniss calculates that as many as 5,500 non-public servants would join the dole queue. He says that the city would bear the full brunt of the public service job cuts—12,000, he says. That was repeated by the shadow treasurer at the time, Joe Hockey, who is now the Treasurer and who will bring down the budget next week.
According to Dr Denniss, the worst-case scenario would see $694 million ripped out of household spending each year in the capital. This would include $79 million less spent on groceries, $33 million less on furnishings and appliances, $35 million less in cafes, restaurants—these are the people that the Canberra Liberals want to help, of course: cafes and restaurants and small business owners—and $7 million less on repairs by tradespeople.
The institute says that the reduced spending would see 11,000 jobs lost in local shops and 337 jobs lost in hospitality, cafes and takeaways. Reduced demand for services from the public service would see 506 fewer jobs in professional services, 376 fewer jobs in IT, 225 fewer jobs in office services and 137 fewer jobs in property services. “Cuts on this scale would very likely cause a local recession,” the economist wrote. “Even the best case scenario for Canberra would wipe out most growth in Canberra’s economy and combined with existing cuts could cause a recession,” he said.
He goes on to talk about the time that I mentioned earlier on under John Howard. He says, “House prices fell and it took six years to recover, by which time they were 30 per cent behind national prices.” I think that stands in stark contrast to how this Labor government is supporting Canberrans. The ACT government provides a broad range of supports to members of the community facing genuine hardship. It is impossible to capture all of that in just a short space of time but I will give you a summary, Madam Deputy Speaker.
I will briefly discuss concessions, other assistance and various related initiatives. On the concessions front, the ACT government offers around 31 different concessions delivered by six directorates in the areas of housing, utilities, transport, health and disabilities. They include rebates, discounts and waivers on the cost of services. The total value of the ACT concessions program in 2013-2014 is estimated at over $42 million.
The type of concessions and the eligibility for them are quite consistent across jurisdictions. This is aided by the national partnership agreement in respect of certain concessions of which the ACT is a signatory. Eligibility for concessions is related to criteria such as income, health or disability. Income targeting is usually determined by the possession of a commonwealth government concession card, such as the pensioner concession card, while health and disability eligibility generally requires a medical certificate.
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