Page 3949 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 9 November 1994
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Rates - Payment Methods
MR BERRY: My question is to the Chief Minister in her role as Treasurer - and a very fair Treasurer at that. Fair taxes under Rosemary Follett are what you always have in the ACT. How will the rates payments changes, announced by the Government, assist ratepayers?
MS FOLLETT: Obviously, the use of rolling averages will specifically assist those ratepayers who are living in suburbs that experience dramatic one-off increases in their rates; they will find that those dramatic increases are very much modified. That will be of a great deal of assistance. But there are a number of other matters that have also been addressed in the rates review. One of the most significant will add to the convenience of people who will be paying their rates by the introduction of some of the more modern methods of rates payment, like direct debits. This will be of great assistance to people, as will the capacity to have a budget payment plan. I realise that people on low incomes are often able to cope much better with big bills if they have been able to plan for them over the year. That was certainly my experience as an impoverished person. It is much easier for you to cope with your own budget if you can plan in that way.
We will also be ending the practice of removing a ratepayer's ability to pay by instalment if they happen to be late with an instalment. This was an issue which many ratepayers felt was quite unfair and a real difficulty for them. What will happen now is that, if people miss an instalment, they will still have the right to pay by instalment, but they will have to add to that cost a small amount of interest. Madam Speaker, we will be staggering the dates of rates payments so that people will not be queuing up, as they have been recently, I know, at the shopfronts and State Bank offices to get payments in on the due date. Those are some of the new methods of assisting ratepayers, Madam Speaker.
Some will be continued, and they include the 50 per cent concession for pensioners. As members will know, pensioners who get that 50 per cent concession are now also able to defer their rates at that concessional figure, rather than at the full figure, which used to be the case. Clearly, that should make their lives a great deal easier. But ratepayers who are experiencing difficulties due to financial hardship have always had, and will continue to have, the ability to approach the Revenue Office to make arrangements to meet their particularly difficult circumstances. Disadvantaged residents, of course, have the right to have all or part of their rates deferred.
Madam Speaker, we have had a very good look indeed at the rating system in the ACT. The conclusion is that the system overall is sound; but we have introduced these additional measures to make it easier for people to meet their rates liability and, importantly, to maintain this very important source of revenue for the Territory.
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