Page 5427 - Week 17 - Tuesday, 3 December 1991
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appreciated, but it seems that the Liberal Party is not likely to show that degree of consistency. It was interesting that Mr Stefaniak's speech was replete with references to the number of votes the Labor Party is going to lose over this, which he presumably thinks he is going to pick up. The community generally regards politicians with some cynicism. It is an act of breathtaking cynicism to support a charge when in government, and then lead the attack against it when in opposition.
The essential reason why these charges were supported by the Government, and why, despite a number of meetings between the Motorcycle Riders Association, the Chief Minister and me, we said that we could not accede to their request to revoke the charges, was that we have traditionally kept a degree of parity between charges in the ACT and charges in New South Wales. I will table a comparison setting out the cost of registering a bike in the ACT, which is shown by a red line, and the cost of registering a bike in New South Wales, which is shown by a blue line. While traditionally through the early 1980s the cost in the ACT was somewhat above that in New South Wales, in recent years the gap has changed. I table that document.
I also table a document setting out the increase in registrations in over 600cc motorbikes, which shows, from a period of stable growth, a dramatic and rapid increase. Strangely, that is coincidental with the period in which the New South Wales cost of registration came to exceed the ACT cost of registration. I can show that even more graphically with a graph that correlates the number of registered ACT motorbikes with the differences in ACT charges. That shows a steady pattern, while the blue line - the cost of registration in New South Wales - is above the cost of registration in the ACT. Whereas the blue line dips below, showing that it is cheaper to register in the ACT than to register in New South Wales, the red line - the number of bikes registered in the ACT - begins to show a period of dramatic growth. I table that document.
We were satisfied that it is sensible to maintain parity with New South Wales, as we do on a range of charges. All the former Ministers of the Alliance Government would be familiar with that general issue of parity with New South Wales charges, essentially because it is hard to justify to anybody why a certain act should cost the Canberra citizen more than the Queanbeyan citizen or the Queanbeyan citizen more than the Canberra citizen. It is a general starting point for most fees and charges. Indeed, we recently increased speeding fines for similar reasons, and that was welcomed by Mr Stefaniak. So, the starting point is that there ought to be parity. When, added to that, we saw that when parity disappeared there seemed to be a dramatic increase in the number of vehicles registered in the ACT, we were convinced that it was a satisfactory move.
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