Page 3687 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 13 September 2017
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
process. After extensive negotiation with the ALP, I will be supporting Mr Barr’s amendment.
I want to start with a broad point about taxation. The ACT Greens support the government raising revenue because there are many things that the community and the Greens—the community as a whole—want the government to do. The community wants a decent public health service. They want a public education system that works. They want parks and playgrounds. These things require money, and that requires government revenue, which requires taxation. Indeed with respect to the debates earlier today, on private members’ day, an awful lot of them talked about government spending more on different things.
The ACT Greens also support a taxation system which is economically efficient—which is the big reason why we supported the move out of stamp duty—as well as being fair and equitable. Economics and social justice are both important, and we need to make sure that we do both simultaneously.
The Greens have supported, and we continue to support, the ACT government’s taxation reform program. It is a long-term tax reform program that is replacing economically inefficient taxes like stamp duty and insurance duty with more economically efficient taxes. The shift from economically inefficient taxes to land-based taxes is not something that was plucked out of the air. It is based on the comprehensive Quinlan review of the ACT’s taxation system conducted between 2010 and 2012. It is consistent with the federal government’s Henry tax review, which recommended the abolition of insurance and property transfer taxes, amongst others, in favour of more economically efficient taxes, including broad-based land taxes.
It is supported by most economists and business groups because of its economic benefits. The tax reform process is making progress on economic efficiency. Insurance duty has been abolished. There have been substantial cuts to stamp duty, which is now charged at a significantly lower rate than the national average for most residential properties, as Mr Barr expanded on at some length.
As I said earlier, the Greens are focused on more than just economic efficiency. While the taxation reform process is widely supported as an economic reform, social justice and fairness are just as important, and the Greens are focused on making sure that these reforms do not have unintended consequences for vulnerable people in our community.
Any major change to the taxation system can have unintended impacts on some parts of the community. And this is a major reform: it is major and it is long term. We need to constantly pay attention to the social impacts, not just this year or next year but looking at what is going to be happening over the next decade, or what could be happening if we do not look carefully at how we should do this.
I would like to illustrate the issues with a fictional example of a pensioner who is 65 and has just retired. Let us call her Susan. She is living in an older house in an average suburb. Susan’s age pension will go up a little each year to cover general cost of living increases. She will be able to afford her living expenses, but she will not be
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video