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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 5 Hansard (13 May) . . Page.. 1335 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

I was pleased that Mrs Carnell saw fit to provide exemptions for charitable organisations, certain hospitals, universities and schools. Charitable organisations need an exemption, given the increased demand for support services due to the Liberal-induced recession in the ACT.

The implementation of the new debits tax in the ACT will bring with it a reduction in the financial institutions duty, as I mentioned earlier. Mrs Carnell said in her speech, Mr Speaker, and it is worth noting, that such a reduction will be welcomed by business in the ACT. I have no doubt that it will be. What this means is that business will be paying less tax while the average person out in the suburbs will be paying more tax.

Mrs Carnell's acknowledgment of pensioners in this Bill, albeit limited, was pleasing. It demonstrates that she is feeling pressure in an election year and that she knows she has unfairly targeted pensioners throughout her term of office. When this proposal was first announced last year I made much of the impact on lower income earners, and it is pleasing to see at least some acknowledgment of those concerns in this Bill. Mrs Carnell has limited her concessions to pensioners and has shown no equivalent compassion for those living on small or limited incomes. Her pensioner rebate scheme demonstrates no real commitment to limiting the hardship that these changes will cause.

Mr Speaker, the financial institutions duty contained an exemption for deposits of social security and other income support payments. As a result of these changes, pensioners now will not enjoy a tax concession on withdrawals from these accounts. Unemployed people will not enjoy tax concessions on withdrawals from these accounts, and neither will other people on limited incomes. Mrs Carnell obviously has no comprehension of the hardship that such new taxes cause in a community that is already suffering. The Carnell Government set the ACT on a downward economic course. Her Federal Liberal colleagues accelerated it, and no doubt will do more damage tonight. Yet Mrs Carnell is still unaware of the pain it has caused. She has not provided exemptions from the debits tax for health care card holders such as the unemployed, sickness beneficiaries, Austudy recipients and others. I am disappointed by this, Mr Speaker, but I have to say honestly that I am not surprised.

Mr Speaker, we are proposing amendments and I will talk to them when they come forward. In summary, my concern in relation to the rebate scheme is threefold. It does not include all the groups who are in hardship and ought to be assisted, it is limited in its assistance, and it provides the assistance well after people have incurred the taxes. It seems to me, Mr Speaker, that a more appropriate course would have been to have given people on limited incomes and facing financial hardship the benefit of those exemptions up front, rather than in arrears after they have been out of pocket for 12 months. Mr Speaker, the Labor Party will be moving amendments to this legislation in due course, and I commend those amendments to the house.

Debate (on motion by Ms Tucker) adjourned.

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