Page 165 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 6 March 2007
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not provide the necessary investment to maintain their own property to a desired standard? Why does the government have to impose this tax supposedly to clean up graffiti, something which it should be doing anyway and which previous governments have been doing? Previous governments had things such as a very effective anti-graffiti squad, which was introduced back in 1995, when they had a much bigger deficit to overcome as a result of a previous Labor government’s incompetence than the people opposite have now. In fact, they inherited a surplus from the economic good management of the previous government, one which they are now squandering.
Mrs Burke: Priorities.
MR STEFANIAK: Indeed, priorities. Thank you, Mrs Burke. I think this is an instance of a government clearly having its priorities absolutely askew, absolutely wrong. I think it is the responsibility of an ACT government to ensure that public areas are clean, that they are safe and that they are attractive to users. This levy is not voluntary; it is compulsory. I am aware of the one in Darwin that was scrubbed. Can you point me to where any of these levies have actually worked? It was very interesting to hear the comments made by Dr Foskey in terms of the briefing she had—my colleague Mr Mulcahy also has had a briefing—about the complete lack of clarity on what you are going to use this levy to do.
The sum of $1.2 million is not inconsiderable and it will be quite an impost on businesses. How is it going to affect these businesses? How is it going to affect the average punter out there as well? The owners of these buildings will pass it on to the tenants, who will pass it on to customers and pass it on to clients. It is a levy that does not extend outside the city limits. For example, at this stage, I think, the Turner business enterprises fall inside the outer zone and it does not extend beyond there, but what is going to happen in the future?
Let us look at parking. The previous government, of which I was a member, made sure that we did not have pay parking in Belconnen and Tuggeranong, and certainly never in the hospitals. We were in office for seven years and we were cash strapped when we got in. It did not take you very long to introduce pay parking in Belconnen and Tuggeranong and it did not take you very long to introduce pay parking around the hospitals. What confidence can the people of the ACT and the small businesses that form the basis of our prosperity and are the backbone of the ACT have in terms of your not imposing a similar levy outside the Civic area, on the group centres and on the suburban shopping centres, centres that actually benefited from considerable injections of money for the public good by the previous Liberal administration?
Watch this space. I think we will be seeing from an increasingly cash-strapped government, cash strapped because of its own economic incompetence, this levy being extended beyond the city limits. It seemed like a good idea at the time, another tax, another way it could slug business. In many instances you are going to slug some very small businesses which are already having some difficulty paying the huge increase in taxes that you lot levied in your current budget. This burden will be passed on to customers and clients.
Mr Stanhope: What does the property council think?
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