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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 4 Hansard (8 May) . . Page.. 1162 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

Taxation is about two things. It is about providing community services and it is about the redistribution of wealth. The two, of course, are interlinked. Current governments, though, seem to neglect these two principles. They seem to go more and more for user pays, and ignore the importance of the redistribution of wealth and the importance of those who can more afford it paying for the public services. If we did not have this need for taxation, it is quite clear that the wealthy would still live well, as they always have.

Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, this is a budget that is about going nowhere fast. The Commonwealth pocket-money is rapidly decreasing, and we have not grown self-sufficient fast enough to make our own way. There is still a $100m gap.

Mr Hird: So, you want to bring in more taxes, Michael?

MR MOORE: Mr Hird interjects, "Oh, do you want more taxes, Michael?". Yes, Mr Hird, I do; and I am going to tell you how to go about it, because, Mr Hird, you might be able to ignore the fact that there is a $100m gap in our spending and our revenue or you can do something about it. There is a series of things that can be done about it. What you have been doing is patching it up. You find a bit of money from the sale of assets and sticky-tape it up; you take a bit of money from ACTEW and sticky-tape it up. But what does it do? It still leaves a fundamental $100m problem, every year, from the budget, and we are going to run out of sticky tape. That is the trouble, Mr Humphries; you will run out of it.

So, let us look at where you can find some taxation. I suggested some time ago - and you foolishly ruled it out - an accommodation levy, a bed tax. You did that on the ground that tourism would flood across the border to New South Wales. What nonsense! It was always a nonsense argument, but now - - -

Mr Humphries: Now it will flood the other way, into the ACT.

MR MOORE: Mr Humphries assures us that what will happen is that the accommodation trade will now flood into the ACT because of the bed tax. What nonsense! You know that it is nonsense, Mr Humphries. What will happen? None of that. Instead, we will just miss out on the possibility of taxing - not just taxing, but taxing people from outside the ACT. That is what a bed tax is about. The levy is on visitors. It is an excellent revenue idea, and you have a window of opportunity. Instead of always being held by business interests, have a look at this window of opportunity. New South Wales now has introduced a bed tax. You can do the same. In doing so, you will narrow down that $100m gap that we need to resolve in a permanent way instead of just patching up. This is an opportunity that must be seized now.

Our difficulty is that we have become addicted to our own mistakes. Our financial base is ignored. In fact, it is concealed. It is distorted by devices which require the shift of public assets to private hands - a public disgrace. Our education base is slowly being neglected. It is slowly falling behind other States. It is slowly falling behind the private sector. For how long can we go on like this? For how long can governments keep playing these distortion tricks and neglecting the real tasks?

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