Page 2337 - Week 07 - Thursday, 4 August 2016
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Earlier this year students were bemoaning the fact that living in Canberra was just too expensive. Canberra has a high percentage of tertiary students. We are the primary campus for two universities, ANU and UC, and we also have the Australian Catholic University, the University of New South Wales at ADFA and Charles Sturt University represented here in Canberra. We also have our own CIT.
So when there are stories in the media about students in Canberra finding the cost of living here tough, that should be a concern. I know it is to those of us on this side of the chamber, because we know the importance of a strong tertiary education sector. But for too long issues like this have fallen on the deaf ears of this ACT Labor government over the past 15 years. We need tertiary institutions to establish in Canberra. We need students to want to study here. But if it is too expensive for them to live and study here, they will go elsewhere and another industry will be driven away.
For the car owner we have seen costs of registration rise. While many of us in this building have the advantage of free parking, many of our staff do not and they pay around $15.70 a day. That means over $160 a fortnight just for the pleasure of getting to work. And no, the bus is not an option for many people with commitments in and outside of work hours such as footy training, shopping, collecting children from school or dance classes. The financial pressures on families living in the ACT are significant and they are everywhere.
For those who wish to play sport, the government has not left you off the list either. On almost a weekly basis I have complaints from sporting groups, from junior clubs to senior levels, about how much it is costing their members to use Canberra ovals. It is always more expensive than across the border in Queanbeyan and each year the fees go up above CPI. For example, charges for AFL, Rugby League and enclosed ovals have all gone up six per cent this year. I well remember it was only a few years ago when the clubs were told their ground hire charges were to rise, in some cases by almost 50 per cent. We found out about these charges and raised quite a fuss about it. There was a huge outcry in the media and it was only then that the government decided to back down a little, but just a couple of years later we are seeing ground hire fees at three times the CPI.
Why are Canberra families having to pay three times above CPI? A major reason, aside from the Labor and Greens parties’ known economic incompetence across Australia, is the ACT’s own folly of light rail. Whatever figures you wish to believe, and however you want to measure it, one line out of this year’s budget should cause every Canberran to stop and think. Because while we keep being assured that this will not be an economic burden and it is all on someone else’s credit card, the interest bill alone, according to this government’s own budget papers, will be $38 million, starting in 2018-19, and $21.2m the following year. The interest bill alone would be enough to build a hospital extension or the major part of a school, and we certainly need more of both of those.
The Canberra Liberals understand the importance of containing costs of living. We know that Canberra is a great place to live, to study and to raise a family, but it also
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video