Page 3683 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 13 September 2017
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(a) the impact of major changes to the taxation system on the community need to be closely monitored;
(b) equity and social justice are important aims of the taxation system; and
(c) taxation is one important element of housing affordability, particularly for residents with low or fixed incomes; and
(4) further acknowledges that the Government will:
(a) monitor the impact of the recent tax and concession policy changes as these roll out, including their impact on:
(i) cost of living for Canberrans;
(ii) Canberra property owners who are on low or fixed incomes; and
(iii) Canberrans who are both income and asset poor; and
(b) conduct financial and social impact analysis on the adequacy of concessions and the eligibility criteria for these, and provide this analysis to the Assembly not later than Budget Day 2018.”.
It is always good to talk in this place about tax reform and the important changes that the government is making to ensure that we have a stable and adequate revenue base to deliver the high quality services that Canberrans deserve. So I would like to take this opportunity this evening to again step through the rationale for the current changes that we are rolling out in the 2017-18 budget.
From the outset, I think that it is important to note the ACT has a unique governance structure in that we are responsible for the delivery of both local government and state government-equivalent services like hospitals, schools and other community services, so that when each household in this city pays its rates, it does not go to fund just local government services like emptying bins and filling potholes, it also contributes to the state-level services that we rely on day-to-day in our lives in this city.
The ACT government spends $33,400 a year on average on each Canberra household, with around 14 per cent of this going to local government, municipal-type services. By far the largest share of that $33,400, some $10,300 a year, goes to delivering high quality healthcare services where our citizens need them through hospitals, walk-in centres and local clinics. The second largest share, $7,600 per household, goes to delivering education services through our great local schools.
I acknowledge that we are of course partly funded by the commonwealth government to deliver some of these services but that funding represents just 41 per cent of the territory’s total revenue, which is not sufficient to deliver local hospitals, schools and other services to the standard that Canberrans expect. In fact, at just 41.5 per cent, the commonwealth’s funding of its share of the total territory budget is the second lowest share that the commonwealth provides of any state or territory budget in this country. Only Western Australia has a lower commonwealth contribution to its total state budget.
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