Page 1435 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 10 May 2006
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increased their taxation revenue by 24 per cent as against the ACT’s nine per cent. We have gone from third highest under you to third lowest under me, third highest under you to third lowest under this government.
Get your facts straight. Go to the latest documentation, stop peddling these lines of untruth that you are out there peddling constantly. You are simply wrong. The ACT is the only jurisdiction which has had a decrease in taxation per capita in recent years. That is significant. Our taxation take is going down, and in every other place in Australia it has gone up, most notably with the commonwealth, going from eight to 24 per cent. We have gone to nine. Just get those numbers straight. There is, of course, another way of measuring the taxation relativities between states and territories, that is, in relation to the ratio of taxation to gross state product.
MR SPEAKER: Order! The Chief Minister’s time has expired.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo) (11.06): Despite what the Chief Minister has said today, the ACT is facing serious budgetary problems. I welcome Mr Mulcahy’s motion. It will give us the opportunity to discuss this issue in a serious way. Mr Mulcahy has very ably spelt out the financial dilemma facing the ACT. It is a dilemma that was totally foreseeable and, therefore, avoidable. As he has done before, the Chief Minister has shrugged off these reports and criticisms. Last year in estimates, when we talked about efficiency savings in health, he twisted our words and said that we wanted to slash $100 million from the health budget. That has been the Chief Minister’s standard line, and we heard it again today. He says that we do not want money spent on essential services. Of course we want money spent on essential services. But the non-essential services, the arboretum and the busway—
Mr Stanhope: No. It is aged, disability and abused children—a select few.
MR SESELJA: The efficiency gains have not eventuated.
Mr Stanhope: Who are the select few in the arboretum?
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Seselja has the floor.
Mr Stanhope: Mr Seselja does not think we should fund abused children.
MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Stanhope!
MR SESELJA: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Once again, the Chief Minister is twisting words. He says that because we call for efficiency gains we do not support essential services. Of course we do. We support essential services.
Mr Stanhope: You ignored them for seven years.
Mr Smyth: The government ignored it. Three ministers—
MR SESELJA: What has been the Chief Minister’s response—
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