Page 2261 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 3 August 2016
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operators, contractors, small professional services operating as a single individual running their own business trying to get ahead, through to the slightly larger businesses where people have taken the risk, the entrepreneurship to not just better themselves but to create job opportunities and financial opportunities for other Canberrans.
I contend here today that the beating heart of this territory, the business community, is under enormous pressure. This enormous pressure is being placed on business by the ever-increasing financial burden of commercial rates and the levies and charges that have the power to impede growth and investment in this city of ours. Charges such as the lease various charge and tax impacts like the previously incentivised scale for payroll tax are all taking their toll on local businesses.
Canberra residential ratepayers are well aware of the fact that their household rates are well on their way to tripling under this government, a threat that we made most Canberrans aware of in the lead-up to the last election, which those opposite rejected, but after four years the proof is now in the pudding and residential rates are well on their way to tripling, as we described.
The other part of the rates issue that is seldom discussed in this place is the exorbitant amounts being paid in commercial rates by businesses and businesses seeking to invest in commercial property in this town. To actually illustrate what the differences here are, a residence in Forrest, a dress circle address in the ACT, with an unimproved land value of $1.461 million is paying a whopping $8,242 per year in rates. That is a fair amount but it is also one of the most premiere residential addresses in the ACT. If that is not gob smacking enough, a commercial premise in Fyshwick with a similar unimproved land value—in this instance, $1.544 million—will pay almost 10 times that amount. The business owning that piece of property in this territory is paying $70,733 in rates. That is near on 10 times the multiplier of what an equivalent parcel of land is worth in Canberra’s residential areas.
Another example is a property in O’Malley with an unimproved value of $650,000. The owners are paying just over $3,500 in rates. Yet on a comparable unimproved value on a commercial piece of land the owners are paying in excess of $30,000. That is $30,000 going to this government each year before any other costs are taken into account. That is a major barrier to investment in this town and one that is seldom discussed, seldom highlighted but most definitely is having a bite on those operating businesses in the Canberra community.
If we look at the ACT government’s own-source revenue in this year’s budget papers and do the maths, there is a simple calculation that near on 50 per cent—half of the revenue—that this territory raises directly is coming from businesses and businesses seeking to invest in the ACT. Taxes such as payroll tax, commercial rates, commercial conveyancing, lease variation charges, portions of the fire and emergency services levy, city centre marketing, not to mention the additional charges that are added by the lifetime care and support levy which is passed on in workers compensation policies across the territory. Those combined total almost 45 per cent. Then if you factor in the costs local businesses would be paying to register vehicles, purchase vehicles in this town and then also some of the other charges and taxes that,
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