Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 8 Hansard (25 June) . . Page.. 2040 ..

MR WHITECROSS: In the last two years Mrs Carnell has put up rates for Belconnen residents by 7.1 per cent. If she had been following the old system, rates in Belconnen would have gone down, on average, by 3.3 per cent. They would have gone down.

Mrs Carnell: They would not have gone down under you, because your multiplying factor would have taken them over. Your multiplying factor would have taken them over because of commercial rates.

MR WHITECROSS: Mr Speaker, under our system - - -

MR SPEAKER: Swing around and address the Chair, Mr Whitecross, thank you.

MR WHITECROSS: You should address Mrs Carnell.

MR SPEAKER: Order!

MR WHITECROSS: They would have gone down by 3.3 per cent, and Mrs Carnell could still have had a 7.1 per cent increase in the total rates take. In Belconnen rates should have gone down, on average, by 3.3 per cent. Instead, they have gone up by 7.1 per cent. That is the truth; that is the reality. What is the story in Gungahlin? In Gungahlin residents are paying 7.1 per cent more rates now than they were two years ago. If Mrs Carnell had used the rates system that was in place under the previous Labor Government, they would be paying 3.5 per cent less in rates, on average.

Mr Speaker, the fact is that there are people out there in the community who are paying less. In fact, based on the increases in residential values and the extra rates taken, Gungahlin residents, Tuggeranong residents, Belconnen residents, Weston Creek residents and Woden Valley residents, on average, are paying more than they should be because of Mrs Carnell's approach. So much for fairness. The fact is - - -

Mrs Carnell: Who is not paying more? Who is paying less? You have just said everybody in Canberra.

MR WHITECROSS: No, I have not said everyone in Canberra. Mr Speaker, the fact is that Mrs Carnell has imposed a rates system based on 1994 values, which means that people whose property values have fallen quite significantly are not going to be paying rates concomitant with the values of their properties. It is not a fair system. It is a system under which people in many parts of Canberra are paying too much in rates. My calculations are that in Nicholls people should have had a fall in rates of 7.2 per cent instead of an increase of 7.1 per cent. In Spence, where property values have fallen quite significantly, they probably should be paying 20 per cent less in rates. In fact, they are paying 7.1 per cent more. This is what we have seen under this Government.

Because of Mrs Carnell's inability to make a decision, because of Mrs Carnell's prevarication on this issue, because she does not have a solution to this problem, there are people all over Canberra paying too much in rates, getting an unfair share of the rates burden. Mrs Carnell is too gutless to come up with a new decision. She is too indecisive to come up with a new decision. She has spent $72,000 of ratepayers' money already on a review which she says does not have the solution, and she does not have the solution.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .