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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 7 Hansard (24 September) . . Page.. 2175 ..

MR SPEAKER: He got rid of the stamp duty on what?

MS CARNELL: He got rid of the stamp duty on residential conveyancing and the stamp duty on insurance. Both of those taxes are planned to stay under the Coalition tax package. That blows a $50m hole in Mr Quinlan's calculations for starters, but there is more. Mr Quinlan took it upon himself to abolish five existing Commonwealth payments to the Territory - - -

Mr Corbell: Tell us about Tim Fischer.

Mr Humphries: I take a point of order, Mr Speaker. The Chief Minister is being continually met by a wall of conversation, comments and interjections from those opposite. I think the Assembly owes the Chief Minister the courtesy of hearing out what she has to say.

MR SPEAKER: I thank you for the comment, and I uphold the point of order.

MS CARNELL: Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. Maybe Mr Berry could sit down. Mr Quinlan took it upon himself - - -

Mr Berry: I am pretty relaxed here.

MR SPEAKER: Order, please! This childish behaviour will be dealt with very shortly by somebody being warned. The Chief Minister is answering a question from Mr Hird. Please continue, Chief Minister.

MS CARNELL: Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. Mr Quinlan took it upon himself to abolish five existing Commonwealth payments to the Territory that are not even mentioned in the Coalition's tax proposals. Not only did he abolish some taxes, but he took away some payments to the Territory as well.

Mr Corbell: Just like job cuts to the Public Service were not mentioned in the last proposals?

MR SPEAKER: I warn you, Mr Corbell.

MS CARNELL: Thank you, Mr Speaker. These include competition payments, transitional allowances and special payments recognising the ACT's status as the national capital. None of these are earmarked for abolition under the Coalition tax package, and they add up to more than $71m. So we have a $50m hole in Mr Quinlan's calculations because he has misunderstood the taxes that were going to be abolished, and a $71m hole because he has misunderstood which grants are going to be replaced.

In other words, Mr Quinlan miscalculated the loss of ACT revenue by just a tick over $120m, not an insignificant amount. To be fair to him, it is estimated that some of the ACT's gambling revenue will be collected via the GST rather than existing gambling taxes. That leaves Mr Quinlan about $115m off the mark in one press release.

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