Page 2479 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 18 August 1993
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Let us have a look at the other social justice things this budget has done. We see in the Canberra Times that items in the wholesale sales tax category are up from 10 per cent to 11 per cent. These items include biscuits, fruit juice, ice-cream, confectionery, furniture, electrical appliances, heating and cooling appliances, bathroom fittings, crockery, drapery and bedding. These are the necessities of life for the people in the out-blocks of Tuggeranong and Belconnen, not the millionaires. They are going to be affected by this socially just Federal Labor Government, supported by this socially just ACT Government. There will be $500 more per family per year onto the family budget for people in the ACT because of this socially just Labor Party.
Mr Lamont: I think you have your figures wrong again.
MR DE DOMENICO: No, they are right. The ACT will be getting $74m less from the Federal Labor Government this year; that is undeniable. What little surprises will the ACT Labor true deceivers spring on us in the coming budget? Will they bring their budget forward, like the Feds are planning - another opportunity to get into your pockets a full two months earlier? Perhaps that is another thing they could do. Health, where we are overspent, is to be cut further under the Federal budget. What are we going to do in this budget, Treasurer?
Mr Berry: It only requires more money.
MR DE DOMENICO: No, Mr Berry, funds for blood transfusion services are to be cut too. Cuts to road funding of $8.2m come at a time when the ACT is told by a report it commissioned to increase road maintenance. What is the Treasurer going to do? She cannot answer because she is not here; she is not interested, obviously. Consumers will be paying more dearly because of the increased dividends demanded from trading enterprises such as Australia Post and Telecom. An extra $850m this year will mean more for postage stamps and more for phone calls too. Here is this socially just Labor Government ripping into the very people who voted for them.
The fact is that anyone earning under $35,000 a year will end up worse off as a result of increased taxes and the deferral of tax cuts. Labor, the party of social justice? What rubbish! As I said before, the average motorist will be paying at least $5 more a tank for his leaded petrol. But Mr Dawkins, being the big-hearted, socially just man he is, will hit you for only $3 extra for a tank of unleaded petrol. If you use unleaded petrol and you drive around in a BMW or a Mercedes-Benz, he will hit you for three bucks; but, if you are a lady who lives out in Conder or Banks and needs the car to drive the kids to the cricket or the footie, you get slugged more because Mr Dawkins is socially just. Ms Ellis stands up here and says, "Yes, we support it; it is fabulous; it is fantastic".
The families in Tuggeranong and elsewhere in this town are going to walk into their pharmacies and find that no longer is there a $315 threshold; it is $400. That is also not going to affect the ordinary everyday person; it is going to affect the millionaires, is it? Once again, this is from a socially just Labor government. Let us have a look at the dollars in the pay-packet. Bugs Bunny in the skyrocket is what everybody understands. Let us get down to the nitty-gritty - the money
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