Page 4198 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 23 October 2019
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commensurate with the fees and charges that you are paying? This government is very good at measuring on inputs but not so good at measuring on outputs. That is, they are good at saying how much they are spending; they are not so good at saying what they are actually delivering.
In the previous financial year the government brought in $1.815 billion through general rates and land tax, duties and levies, payroll tax and other taxes. In contrast, in 2018, it was $1.601 billion. An extra $215 million in one year was the increase. The question has to be asked: why is it that the government needs all of this revenue and where is it being spent? Importantly, how is it being collected and from whom?
The Greens, in particular, should be asking questions here about social justice. They should be asking: is it fair, is it just, that the ACT government keeps slugging Canberra households more and more? Perhaps the Greens, like the Labor Party, are just as addicted to the revenue as all aspects of the government seem to be.
With respect to revenue at $1.8 billion and an increase of 13 per cent, who else in the ACT gets an income increase of 10 or 13 per cent every single year? Who else has a compounding salary increasing by 10 or 13 per cent every single year? If you do get that sort of windfall year on year, surely you would have something to show for it; surely you would be bringing down your debt. But at a time when there is record revenue, the debt continues to grow. There is very little to show for it.
We all know the trajectory that this government is on. It is one that is going to tax many Canberrans out of their existence. It is a government that said they would not triple rates, and it is very obvious to all Canberrans that the rates are tripling. It is a government that said, “It will just be a cup of coffee a week.” We all know that it is considerably more than that.
It begs the question: what is going to happen next year; and what is going to happen the year after that, the year after that and the year after that? Whilst there are some households that can manage it, there are many that cannot. And even for those that can manage the cost of living in the territory brought about by taxes, fees, rates and charges, how much longer will they be able to put up with this government’s increases to these amounts?
It is a government that seems to be doing everything it possibly can to drive the economic development of Queanbeyan, because they are the big winners as a result of this government’s policies. Be it housing, be it recreation, be it business or so many other pursuits, this government is driving people and opportunities over the border into New South Wales.
You cannot keep increasing revenue at the rate that they are and not have a devastating impact on your base. But 13 per cent is well above the combined rate of growth of the city and of CPI. The growth of population and CPI is nowhere near 13 per cent, which means the tax burden per household, the tax burden per person, is increasing significantly in the ACT, well beyond that of inflation. It is just not fair.
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