Page 1785 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 8 June 2016
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This budget, as I say, marks the conclusion of the first stage of tax reform. Stamp duty has been cut considerably. From today, a Canberra home at around $500,000 will save $7,040 in stamp duty compared to before tax reform began. The stamp duty cuts will continue in coming years. I am pleased that from 1 July 2018 commercial stamp duty will be abolished for property transactions valued at under $1.5 million, and by 2021-22 stamp duty will have been halved for a buyer of an average Canberra home.
In addition, the government has increased the payroll tax free threshold to $2 million, the highest tax-free threshold in Australia. It ensures that the ACT has the lowest payroll tax rates in the country for small and medium-sized businesses with payrolls of up to $5.6 million. Over the course of the tax reforms that have been opposed by those opposite, this payroll tax cut has exempted 200 local businesses from paying any payroll tax and has given a $34,250 a year tax cut to businesses with payrolls of more than $2 million. The government continues to support local businesses, helping them to grow and create jobs, including through the continued implementation of the confident and business ready strategy.
The budget also, as is attracting a great deal of interest from those opposite, funds the first stage of our city-wide light rail network. It does so whilst delivering balanced budgets and budget surpluses, and it is important to note that the cost of the first stage will be less than one per cent of the budget. As I noted yesterday, I look forward, prior to the election in October, to announcing the details of stage 2 of light rail.
The budget also delivers on a range of very important community priorities, including funding world-class services, caring for vulnerable Canberrans, delivering more municipal services and investing in our city’s transport networks.
The budget makes an unprecedented investment in family violence prevention—a $21½ million community response—because we know that every Canberran deserves to be safe in their own home. The budget also builds new homes for our public housing tenants and increases the funding for concessions. It makes record investments in our health and education systems, delivering more doctors, more nurses, more emergency department staff, upgrades to our city’s hospitals, and of course the ongoing construction of the University of Canberra public hospital.
We are upgrading and expanding schools right across the city, providing more support and training for teachers and upgrading spaces in our schools for students with a disability. We are supporting our police and emergency services workers. We are duplicating a range of roads across the city—Horse Park Drive, Ashley Drive, Cotter Road and Aikman Drive—as part of a roads package worth more than $110 million. We are investing in better public transport, purchasing new buses, providing new bus routes and building a new bus depot in Woden.
The budget also delivers more municipal services for our suburbs. There is the rollout of green waste bins commencing in Kambah and Weston Creek, ahead of a territory-wide rollout. There is more funding for mowing, and for upgrades of playgrounds, parks and local shopping centres.
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