Page 3238 - Week 10 - Thursday, 16 September 1993
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Where is the tax on people who use other forms of fuel for heating their homes in the ACT? Where is the tax on gas? Where is the tax on wood? No, there is no tax on any of those things.
You people are picking out people who use diesel fuel because you think they are a small enough constituency for you to be able to get away with it. You are victimising these people because you think you will get away with it. You are targeting people who are on hospital waiting lists; you are targeting people with kids at school; you are targeting people who have to put petrol in their cars. You people could not give a damn about the citizens of this Territory. You just want to get your take. But, for all the pain we are experiencing, for the gutless approach you take, there is no long-term benefit to the citizens of this Territory - absolutely none. Madam Speaker, the people of the ACT could have forgiven toughness, but they cannot forgive wimping out. That is what this budget has done. This Territory might not be bankrupt, but this Government's strategy certainly is.
MR WESTENDE (5.18): Madam Speaker, much has been said this afternoon about the budget. I do not think it could have been said more eloquently than the Canberra Times put it in its lead article today. It said that $60m could be shaved off the expenses without hurting and without harming services provided. This was said by an economics writer who has been writing for the Canberra Times for at least the last seven or eight years that I know of.
Mr Lamont: And has been wrong for seven or eight years.
MR WESTENDE: He has not been wrong.
Mr Connolly: He was wrong about the Kambah Health Centre.
MR WESTENDE: But forget about the lead article in the Canberra Times. The hindrances the business community has suffered from this Government are numerous. The Chief Minister yesterday made a statement that the Government's aim is to have a construction industry that is strong, healthy and sustainable. Why, then, does the Government deem it necessary to impose on builders, especially as the building industry is one of the main providers of jobs in the ACT, a 5 per cent fee for site works, a $100 fee for design and siting and an increase in tip fees for builders' spoil of 100 per cent?
Mr Lamont: And record building in the ACT in the housing industry.
MR WESTENDE: Where is the assistance to business? We will wait for how long? Not for long.
Mr Lamont: That is what has happened and you do not like it very much.
MR WESTENDE: I like it very much. But listen to another imposition. I can quote only the figures from 1992 because the ACTEW annual report in 1993 very conveniently omits these figures. In 1991-92 a residential megawatt of electricity cost 76.3c; a commercial megawatt, 127.6c; and an industrial megawatt, 91.2c. Combine the commercial users and the industrial users and you find that, on average, they pay double the price domestic users pay. Yet business people are the people you rely on to provide jobs. What hypocrisy! You rely on business to provide jobs, and what do you do? At every step you make it difficult.
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