Page 2207 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 6 June 1990
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proposed to allow liabilities transferred with a business to be deductable for stamp duty purposes, and that is another major concession.
I find it difficult to support either of these concessions to the business sector, especially given that we will be penalised in the Grants Commission for them. Could I also point out that this $1m cash grant to the business sector will mean, on Mr Humphries' figures, that four or five schools will be closed by this Government.
As I said at the outset, even with these weaknesses, the Labor Party will be supporting the Bill. I must say that for some time I did not think that we would have that opportunity. Continued statements by the Chief Minister that he was only interested in slashing expenditure and not in addressing our revenue base difficulties led me to believe that all of my revenue proposals would be dropped. Quite clearly, the events of last week indicate that I misread to an extent what he was saying. It is not that Mr Kaine is not interested in the revenue side of the equation; it is just that his interest is selective.
We have heard much over past weeks about how the Chief Minister is so distressed that he is unable to reduce business taxes in this budget.
Mr Kaine: We all have our little weaknesses, Rosemary.
MS FOLLETT: Some of them are not that little, Trevor.
But then what does the Chief Minister announce this week but an enormous increase in the burden on the average working Canberran: 17 per cent increases in rates, 25 per cent increases in parking charges, 20 per cent increases in registration. And all this is from our Chief Minister who said last year:
The ACT Liberal Party has clearly and unequivocally stated that it will not increase taxes in the ACT and that applies equally to individuals and businesses.
I think that what we are seeing here is a total abandonment of that election platform by the current Government. As to the statement that it applies equally, I think that has also been totally abandoned.
Mr Speaker, as I said, we will be supporting the Bill, but I think it is worth noting that the Bill to an extent looks after the business sector - and that is by a Government which has made no attempt whatsoever to look after the ACT community.
MR STEFANIAK (4.25): I wish to speak in support of the Bill. The provisions of this Bill will go part way to helping the ACT address the imbalance between ACT expenditures and revenues and will also help to protect the integrity of the current stamp duty revenue base.
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