Page 2341 - Week 08 - Thursday, 7 June 1990
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betterment tax to 100 per cent instead of the shonky system that they put on. When you can start raising your money appropriately from those that suffer least, then I will be prepared to start considering the need to raise rates.
Mr Humphries: Where does the other $98m come from?
MR MOORE: I am glad Mr Humphries interjects, "Where is the other $98m?". I take this opportunity to say that that figure of $98m is absolute bunkum, and you know it is bunkum. It is misleading the people of Canberra, and you have been doing that for long enough. If you believe it yourself, then you are being misled by the Chief Minister. If you had given me the opportunity to speak on the Priorities Review Board report yesterday, I would have been prepared to explain to you why that $98m, or $100m, or whatever you would like to call it, is absolute bunkum. The Chief Minister is sitting there "hanging his head in shame", as Dennis would say - but he is probably writing something. He is the one that has been misleading the people in Canberra in order to implement the agenda of the Liberal Party in moving things out of the government service delivery sector into the private sector. I think that this business of raising the rates beyond CPI is not acceptable and I shall support the amendments.
MS FOLLETT (Leader of the Opposition) (5.48): Mr Duby has offered not one jot of factual evidence to support his proposal to increase the rates by 16 per cent. Mr Speaker, Mr Duby has the very great advantage of having the Commissioner for ACT Revenue and another departmental adviser present in the chamber. I feel quite sure that those very capable officers would have given Mr Duby the evidence if there had been any.
I think it speaks volumes that all Mr Duby did, in responding to my amendments, was get up and badmouth me. That is about all we can expect from this man in this house, and it is an absolute disgrace, but he is the Minister for Finance, for better or for worse - for much worse in this case - and I expect a reasoned argument from him. We have not had it.
The fact is that the increase of 16 per cent that is being proposed by the Government is an increase of some 8 per cent over CPI and it has not been justified on any grounds whatsoever by the Minister responsible. Moreover, the increase of 16 per cent is a direct denial of the election promises given by Government members with regard to rates. As I said before, we have spent most of the day talking about integrity and keeping promises, and this is just another example of the total abandonment of principle by Government members. I think it is a disgrace.
Mr Humphries referred to the question of increasing revenue, and indeed that is a matter that I have spoken on many times. But it should not really come as a surprise to Mr Humphries to know that the rates are not the only source
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