Page 449 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 20 February 2019
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For the government to now come in and say that every other Labor Party in the country is wrong and the Labor Party in the ACT of the past is also wrong I think goes to the very arrogance of this government. And particularly, it goes to the arrogance of the Chief Minister and the lack of willpower, the lack of strength, the lack of courage of each of his colleagues. I have no doubt that the Chief Minister would have pushed this through cabinet and also pushed it through caucus. And it shows just how weak all the other members of cabinet are that not one of them is willing to stand up for what is obviously an injustice.
What we are calling for today I think would be something the vast majority of reasonable people would understand: when hardworking families, hardworking men and women of Canberra made a purchase from the government, that was a pretty safe bet. Now what the government is saying is, “Do not trust ACT government regulations. You cannot bank on our laws. You cannot bank on what we say.” That is the admission from the government through their actions.
This was all very predictable. On 28 October 2015, about four years ago, I moved a motion not dissimilar in principle to what my colleague moved today. And in that speech I made mention of an investment containing two parts: the capital and the income. What the government is saying is that you do not have any capital and investment, and supposedly you have got your money back. What they could have also done is just put $200,000 into an account that did not draw interest and just withdraw $20,000 a year, and after 10 years they claim you got your money back. That is their perception of business.
Just imagine if you went and bought shares in a company and they said, “Because you have held these shares for 10 years, because you have received a dividend for 10 years, we’re now going to cancel your shares. We’re going to wipe them out.” Who would make an investment under those terms?
I note that Mr Ramsay’s amendment states they did not believe that they sold them as an investment. You do not need to look far into Hansard or into newspapers to see that the government clearly sold this as a small business opportunity. In actual fact, “opportunity for small business” were exactly the words that were used by the department of urban services. “Attention: opportunity for small business. Nine taxi licences to be auctioned at the Albert Hall by the ACT government.” There is no doubt that these were sold as an investment. There is no doubt these were sold as a small business.
The government have not just been deceptive, I believe, in addressing this motion today but also I think they have deceived so many people who, now it seems, foolishly trusted the ACT government. What hope do we have, as a jurisdiction, of getting people to invest in the ACT if the rug can get pulled out from underneath you?
I think people understand that in the hurly-burly of business you do have to compete and there can be new operators come to town. But what the taxi operators and taxi owners of Canberra did not expect was that not only did they have to fight Uber, which they were willing to do, but they also had to fight the ACT government that
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