Page 3104 - Week 08 - Thursday, 16 August 2018
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It goes without saying that all of these cuts will impact disproportionately and dramatically on the most poor, disadvantaged, vulnerable and marginalised people in our community.
This is probably the most progressive Labor Chief Minister the ACT has ever had, and perhaps one of the most progressive Labor first ministers Australia has ever seen, having a go at his former colleague. Today Jon Stanhope wrote:
Labor and the Greens have announced that Land Tax will increase by a further 45 per cent over the next five years. I imagine the fact that the Greens have supported these massive hikes in Land Tax was an additional consideration in their decision not to support the Liberal Party motion. To have done so would certainly have exposed the depth of their hypocrisy.
Jon Stanhope goes on:
However, the price the community will pay as a result of the bargain struck between the two parties is the consequential funding cuts which Labor and the Greens have agreed to make to other functions. These include a cut of 3.7 per cent (compounding) to Environmental Protection (the first casualty of which is the decision to defund Frog Watch—oh, Shane; oh, Caroline, how could you?), a cut of 0.6 per cent (compounding) for Social Protection, and effective cuts to Housing and Community Services and to Health in relation to both of which the agreed growth in funding is less than inflation.
(Second speaking period taken.) It would have been very hard to imagine a few years ago that you would have Jon Stanhope coming out on a regular basis attacking this government because of their inability to represent vulnerable and marginalised people. That is exactly what is happening. Obviously Mr Stanhope feels compelled to represent them because it is clear that the Labor Party does not.
The Labor Party has gone from representing those in the bottom two quintiles to those in the top two quintiles. They are quite happy to see those struggling the most in our community pay for their grandiose schemes and for their grandstanding. The government continues to pull the wool over the eyes of Canberrans, spending thousands on a PR unit which is tasked with trying to make the government look as good as possible while hiding data on cost blowouts, funding costs, and low staffing levels in key budget areas.
The budget that we are debating is a bad budget for everyday Canberrans. It is a bad budget for business in our city. Under this government, payroll tax will double and it will drive even more businesses across the border into New South Wales. The Canberra Liberals want to see this trend reversed. We want to see people choosing to live in the ACT rather than choosing to live over the border. We want to see the ACT government competing with the New South Wales government to be the best jurisdiction when it comes to the cost of living. Instead the government has given up the race.
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