Page 1636 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 12 May 2015
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
MR DOSZPOT (Molonglo) (3.43): I have pleasure in raising this matter of public importance in my name—the importance of low ACT government fees and charges. It is clear that it is becoming more expensive to live in Canberra, and a lot of that expense is due to government charges and fees. According to ACTCOSS, one in every 13 Canberrans is experiencing disadvantage despite living in a region of relative wealth. Key findings are that the territory has one of the highest levels of homelessness in Australia and that inequality is getting worse. Significantly, Canberra’s very high cost of living is being driven by the unenviable position of Canberra having Australia’s highest capital city rents.
It is obvious that something is going wrong when Canberrans start to pay more but are receiving less. The cost of living pressures being placed on Canberra families are building, and increasing taxes and charges are resulting in the family budget becoming more and more stretched. This means some of the most important issues to people living in Canberra are the fees and charges they will incur when going about their everyday lives—things like rates, parking, registering a vehicle, commercial rates and land taxes, just to name a few—all of which have increased under Labor and all of which are increasing higher than normal CPI.
Whether you are a single person starting a new career and life in Canberra, a student coming to Canberra to undertake tertiary studies, a transferring bureaucrat or teacher, a newly married family person or a retiree, the one uniting issue and major conversation starter is the cost of living in Canberra. For example, utility costs continue to grow. Water and sewerage prices have more than doubled since 2001. Growth in the cost of water and sewerage in the ACT over the last 10 years has exceeded CPI growth by approximately 60 per cent.
The cost of parking has significantly increased in the last couple of years. Last year traffic and parking fines increased by six per cent, and every year after this parking fines will go up by six per cent. In 2014 the government also increased the cost of drivers licences, number plates and parking permits. This would equate to families paying an estimated $445 more to keep their cars on the road.
What about housing? It is staggering to realise that Canberra’s cheapest housing is $100,000 more expensive than the cheapest homes in any other state or territory in Australia. We should be encouraging people to live in Canberra and providing them with incentives to stay, not taxing families wherever we can. As reported by the ABC, researchers from the University of Canberra’s National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling, NATSEM, found 14,000 people are experiencing disadvantage in Canberra. Report author Associate Professor Robert Tantun says the city has a very high cost of living, driven by Australia’s highest capital city rent. Canberra has one of the highest rates of homelessness in the country, with 1,785 people homeless on census night in 2011. St Vincent de Paul Canberra CEO Paul Trezise says inequality is getting worse.
As we have said, not taxing families wherever we can is what we should be looking at. But I guess it is no real surprise to many of us who still remember former Labor Treasurer Ted Quinlan’s famous quote—squeeze them till they bleed but not until
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video