Page 4117 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 18 November 2015
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They are not acting like a government convinced in its reforms. Interestingly, paragraph (2)(b) of Mr Barr’s amendment says:
outline a program for the next five years of taxation reform, including analysis about rates increases on households and businesses …
The analysis, I suspect, will simply show that they have gone up. We want to know what the impacts have been. If they were genuine they would simply agree to my amendment. If you are going to do something, do it properly. Make sure you work out what the impacts of the increases have been, what the financial impacts are on households, and then the cost of living impacts on ACT businesses and households.
The government say, “Aren’t you lucky? We’ve lifted the burden of insurance levies off you and all households are now $250 better off.” If you were paying $1,000 in rates and your rates have gone up 45 per cent on average, you are now paying $1,450. So there is a slight deficit there. You are actually $200 worse off because of these reforms. It is as simple as that, Madam Deputy Speaker. Because they have not done the job properly over the past 15 years and because they have not diversified the economy, the only place they can pile the expense of the way that they run the government is on the rate payer.
The Chief Minister says that these reforms should be revenue neutral. If the reforms are revenue neutral then the rates must triple. All of the money that was in the taxes that are supposedly being abolished, and we now know there is a question mark over what “abolish” means—the value is abolished. It is not made up nearly enough by the growth in the market. There are dilemmas in the argument there from the Chief Minister as well.
We are familiar with the case of Manuka newsagency. I have quoted the case of a business in Fyshwick whose rates have gone up 48 per cent over the past three years. I will just finish by reading a couple of letters that I have received and I know Mr Barr has received. To quote from a constituent:
My sincere apologies if this sounds rude, but I speak on behalf of the entire ACT community who is devastated and shocked by the continuous increases in rates well above CPI.
Rates must decrease, not increase, as they are a complete waste of money for ACT residents. Infrastructure projects like light rail, while essential, should not be funded by additional burden on already struggling families.
I would like to point out that residents are willing to pay stamp duty as it is one off while ridiculous rates are a constant harassment. Labor will push ACT into recession due to ridiculous increases in parking, rego, and licences in addition to rates.
My family and friends were ACT Labor supporters but will never vote for them again …
There is a second letter:
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