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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 13 Hansard (5 December) . . Page.. 4510 ..

MR HUMPHRIES: Yes, there would be less rain and so on. Mr Speaker, we need to make sure we can resource that task. That is about things like creating a full-time fifth ambulance crew - - -

Ms McRae: And we would have Christmas more than once a year.

MR HUMPHRIES: That is true. Under Mr Osborne's government we would have Christmas more than once, but Mr Osborne's government is not here yet. Trust him, Mr Speaker. There will be more than one Christmas under Mr Osborne.

Mr Speaker, resourcing an extra ambulance, providing ambulance services in new areas of the ACT such as Gungahlin as they come on stream, improving the level of emergency trauma medicine at our hospitals, particularly at the Canberra Hospital, and increasing the level of training and proficiency by the emergency services generally, the Fire Brigade, police, ambulance and so on - all that is possible.

Mr Berry: It is us you are talking to. Cut it out.

MR HUMPHRIES: I am obviously stirring the cockles of Mr Berry's heart, so I do not want to say much more. This is a worthy piece of legislation which I commend to the Assembly.

MS HORODNY (5.30): Mr Speaker, we acknowledge that this Bill implements a Government initiative in the budget to increase revenue for use in establishing a fifth ambulance crew in the ACT and generally to improve road rescue services. This is certainly a desirable objective. Given the financial problems of the Government, we have no objection to this revenue-raising measure to meet the increased demands for road rescue services in Canberra, particularly as it is directed at road users who stand to benefit from these improved services.

We are concerned, however, about the way the Government has introduced this revenue measure, which is basically a $15 increase in motor vehicle registration charges. We would have preferred that the Government had been completely honest about this, rather than trying to gloss over it and giving it the nice-sounding name of a road rescue levy. Calling a revenue measure a levy usually implies that the money collected is going directly into the purpose for which the levy has been imposed, and it is more palatable to the public.

Mr Humphries: It is going into the purpose.

MS HORODNY: No, not entirely. It is not entirely going to the Ambulance Service. It sounds better to the public than calling it a tax, because the public can never be totally sure about where their taxes will end up being spent. The Government has called this a levy, but it has not hypothecated this levy into road rescue services entirely. The revenue raised is going into Consolidated Revenue. Although the Government has at the same time increased spending on emergency services in the budget, there is no direct relationship between the revenue from the levy and the increased expenditure, and there is nothing to stop the Government from using the revenue from the levy for another purpose

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