Page 4082 - Week 13 - Thursday, 10 November 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
They come in here and tell us all the good stuff they are doing to help business! They have small business on its knees, and it is that sort of tax imposition that is part of it. The Chief Minister said, "Oh, no sweat, because our experts tell us that taxes, charges and fees at the Territory level account for only 3 per cent of the cost of running business". What absolute rubbish! She ignores the fact that it is not only the taxes, charges and fees the Government imposes; it is the whole impact of Government policy across everything business does that creates the burden. That total burden is, I submit, rather more than the 3 per cent the Chief Minister talked about.
I do not know where the Chief Minister and Mr Lamont live. Sitting in the visitors gallery is a gentleman many of us know. He went to a community council meeting in Tuggeranong the other night, which I go to regularly, and he made a very long speech about the problems of small business. The Chief Minister does not have to set up this spurious consultation process; all she has to do is go to a few community council meetings and community meetings of all kinds, where people like Mr Henry come along and say what the problems are. She does not need to go through this spurious consultation process; all she has to do is listen. She can take a walk through the suburbs and observe with her own eyes what is happening.
At that same meeting there was a local businessman from Wanniassa who made an impassioned plea that no more retail shopping space be opened up in Tuggeranong. He had good reason for that. His arguments were valid. But what do we hear today? The Minister is entertaining a proposal to add 16,000 square metres of space to the Tuggeranong Hyperdome.
Mr Cornwell: Supported by the member for Canberra.
MR KAINE: The member for Canberra, we were told, has actually put this proposition to the Minister and supported it. He says, "There is no proposal, but there has been an enormous amount of debate". With whom? Has he had any debate with the small businessmen and retailers in Tuggeranong? Obviously not. Mr Wood, I submit, has only to do what I suggested to the Chief Minister: Go down to the Calwell shopping centre, just around the corner from where he lives, and ask a few of the small businessmen in the Calwell shopping centre whether they want any more retail space on their doorstep. While he is there he might even have a little chat to them about all the difficulties they are having in keeping their heads above water.
Madam Speaker, it is absolutely appalling that, on a very serious, compelling subject that needs to be dealt with seriously, we get the Chief Minister telling us how great the world is - the rosy world she lives in - and Mr Lamont attacking the Opposition, not putting forward what the Government intends to do to fix the problem. In other words, as far as they are concerned, this is just an academic debate. It is not an academic debate for the 11,000 small business people out there. They are on their knees. I would like to hear, before the debate is over, one of the Ministers on that side of the house tell us what they are going to do about it. Seriously, I would like them to get away from it being an academic debate, take the issue as a real issue, and tell us what they are going to do about it. I have not heard anything productive from them yet.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .