Page 23 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 16 February 1993
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I have here a copy of an article from the Canberra Times of Friday, 12 February, where the Chief Minister is quoted as saying that only big business pays payroll tax. This is wrong. One needs fewer than 10 staff to reach the threshold and pay payroll tax. The Chief Minister is further quoted as saying that the Opposition is proposing that all business will pay 15 per cent through a GST and that she cannot see how that is good for business. I have some experience in that matter. Business is already paying wholesale sales tax - which will be abolished - of between 10 and 30 per cent, the most common being 20 per cent. The GST replaces wholesale sales tax.
I can already hear the Government saying, "What about the revenue? How will we replace that?". There are many ways to do that. Through increased employment the Government will save on such things as the Jobstart program. When more people are at work the Government will get back from the Federal Government a proportion of personal income tax paid by those people. When more people are at work there is increased consumer demand. It is those things that create consumer confidence. People would no longer be afraid of losing their jobs, which is the vicious circle that creates a depression in the first place.
I hear again, "It cannot be done". So said everyone about death duties until the Queensland Government abolished them. What happened? Within a year every government in Australia abolished them. It needs only an example. I have said earlier that a government should lead by example, be positive, be entrepreneurial, show the way. That is what this Government must do to make the ACT a shining example for Australia. It needs courage, but I am convinced that the results would more than repay the so-called forgone revenue. It requires courage, but we need business people and governments who say not "no can do" but "can do". I have some personal experience which has proven to me that with a "can do" attitude everything is possible. It is positive attitudes, creative attitudes, that will turn the economy around, but it can be done only by leadership, by action, by example.
What we need is bold initiatives. For example, corporatise public services which are costing taxpayers lots of money. Ban overtime and employ additional persons instead. In a business in which I have a personal interest we have limited overtime to what is an absolute necessity. As a result, we work hardly any overtime but we have employed six additional people in the last 18 months. That is an example to all our employees which they understand: They are now no longer scared of losing their jobs. They believe in the example that management has set out and practises.
We need not only vision but also a fervent desire to create jobs, a fervent desire to show how and where jobs can be created. What vision does a government have that can ask each and every household in the ACT to support a public transport system that costs that household over $600 per annum, whether they use the system or not? What vision does a government have when it asks 90 per cent of the population to subsidise a public transport system used by less than 10 per cent of the population? In fact, surveys have shown that bus travel accounts for only approximately 5 per cent of all passenger traffic, and I quote the Canberra Times of 16 October 1991.
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