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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 7 Hansard (18 June) . . Page.. 1835 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

Of course, Mr Costello also tried to tear up another agreement - the agreement about competition policy - when he tried to impose sales tax on government entities while not imposing the same sales taxes on non-government entities with which they were competing; but that is another story.

Mr De Domenico: The private sector already pays sales tax.

MR WHITECROSS: No, they do not - not all of them.

Mr De Domenico: Yes, they do.

MR WHITECROSS: No, they do not.

Mr De Domenico: Ask them.

MR WHITECROSS: I know now, Mr De Domenico, why you are not the Treasurer.

Mr De Domenico: The charities do not pay sales tax.

MR WHITECROSS: Mr Speaker, it is a good thing that the Commonwealth were persuaded not to go down their sales tax path to the extent that they intended, because it was indeed a bad policy. The Liberal State and Territory Premiers and Chief Ministers had to make a big sacrifice in order to persuade the Commonwealth to renege on that position. The loss of revenue to the ACT is therefore significant - something which is completely at odds with the messages the Liberal Party were conveying to this community and the Australian community as a whole before the last election about their style of government and what they would achieve in government. That dishonesty is a matter of record, and its impact on the ACT is a serious matter. Mr Speaker, the ACT will be hit hard by these losses of revenue. There are some quite significant amounts. I am interested that Mrs Carnell is now saying that the reduction in special purpose grants is $5m. That is up on the figures I had previously seen. I also notice that she is no longer saying that education will be exempt. I am looking forward to some clarification of that matter.

Mr Speaker, the decisions from the Premiers Conference will affect the Government's three-year budget. The effect will be all the greater, given the state that Mrs Carnell's three-year budget is in already due to her mismanagement. We have already seen significant blow-outs in her health budget. We have seen her cancel capital works to pay for them. She has put capital works on hold, putting off problems till next year. We have seen her sell off the fleet to pay for this year's budget deficit, leaving a hole in the second and third years of her three-year budget. We have seen significant shortfalls in revenue - as yet unexplained shortfalls in tobacco franchise fees - - -

Mr De Domenico: People are smoking less.

MR WHITECROSS: Mrs Carnell did not seem to think so.

Mrs Carnell: It would be pretty hard to believe.

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