Page 3219 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 21 August 2019
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I believe that, in spite of the challenges associated with any reform of the taxation system, be it at a national level or indeed locally, what we are doing is the right and responsible thing, because it ensures the sustained ability of the territory’s finances in the long term. It avoids the financial volatility that we have seen in other Australian jurisdictions, such as the very significant revenue writedowns that the New South Wales and Victorian governments have had to undertake as a result of the collapse of their property markets.
State and territory governments are principally responsible for the delivery of public services and infrastructure needs for growing communities. This means providing more and improved schools, more teachers, more teacher assistants, more nurses, more doctors, more allied health professionals, more police officers, more firefighters, more ambulance officers—more people who go to work every day to make our community lives better.
It means providing more infrastructure, such as transport infrastructure, more community facilities, more parks, more playgrounds—all of the things that improve our quality of life. We have been, and we remain, absolutely committed to raising revenue in a way that is fair, where everyone contributes every year to the services that we all consume. That is the most efficient form of raising revenue available to state and territory governments, and, importantly, it is sustainable in the long term.
It is also important to look at what has been happening in other jurisdictions. The ABS do this on an annual basis, and their most recent report confirms that Canberrans are not paying more taxes than other Australians. Taxation per capita in the ACT is on the national average, and is in fact lower than in New South Wales and Victoria. Taxation per capita has increased in all Australian jurisdictions since 2011, and the average annual increase in the ACT has been below our closest neighbours. So we are not a high-taxing jurisdiction and the Australian Bureau of Statistics has confirmed this.
What we are achieving is a shift in the way that we collect revenue to a simpler, fairer and more efficient system. Since 2012 we have abolished stamp duty for eligible first homebuyers and we are phasing out stamp duty for all other buyers. Stamp duty on every property value has been cut. The rate of taxation is progressively being reduced over 20 years.
We have completely abolished insurance duties. They were collecting around $50 million annually. If they had remained in place, they would now be collecting more than $60 million annually. For the average Canberra household, that represents a saving of $300 to $400 per annum on duties they were paying on their insurance products.
The benefits of the stamp duty cuts and the other taxation changes are saving households with an average mortgage between $1,000 and $2,000 per year. Those who are receiving stamp duty savings are saving in the order of between $10,000 and $20,000, depending on the nature of their stamp duty transaction. We have reformed our concessions. We have directed them in a way that allows those who are renting to
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