Page 3677 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 13 September 2017
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have made the progress they have to date, I think we in this place should be applauding them for having been able to do so under the ever-increasing and ever-tightening fiscal situation that they find themselves in.
I will just touch on one thing which relates to the amendment itself. There have been a few amendments from the government today and I have heard colleagues on my side say that they have had good engagement with the relevant minister’s offices when it comes to amendments and some discussion around compromise or finding a way forward.
But certainly that has not been my experience and my practice with Ms Berry in her role as minister. The first I hear of an amendment or am even consulted on an amendment to a motion that we are bringing into this place is when she stands to speak on the floor. And on an issue such as this where the focus is tripartisan support in this place to ensure the best outcome possible for children in schools across the ACT, there is an unwillingness to engage with the minister’s counterpart on the opposition benches.
The opposition will be supporting the amendment and let it go through. And we will watch keenly as the final recommendations are adopted and implemented in ACT government schools.
Amendment agreed to.
Original question, as amended, resolved in the affirmative.
Taxation—rates reform
MR COE (Yerrabi—Leader of the Opposition) (5.16): I move:
That this Assembly:
(1) notes:
(a) the budgeted 12 per cent increase in residential general rates revenue in 2017-18 is imposing serious financial pressure on home owners;
(b) the increases in rates have hit unit owners the hardest due to the Government’s change in its method of calculation;
(c) this change in the calculation of rates on units comes after a concerted policy by the Government to increase the number of Canberrans living in units;
(d) the residential rates increases and a budgeted 18 per cent increase in land tax revenue in 2017-18 places serious financial pressure on landlords and tenants as well;
(e) the pressure from rates and land tax increases is compounded by changes to Lease Variation Charges which increase the cost of residential developments;
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