Page 1583 - Week 06 - Thursday, 7 June 2007
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ACT Labor government for Catholic schools is declining in real terms. The commission goes on to say:
The ACT government should be ashamed that it continues to provide the lowest level of per student funding to the non-government schools sector of any state or territory government in the country.
On such things like housing affordability, the ACT also scores badly. I do acknowledge your recent program announced in April, but the Housing Industry Association says that affordable housing in Canberra has hit its lowest level since 1984. The association’s latest quarterly survey reveals that if nothing is done housing affordability will not be restored until the year 2022. Canberra is now the third most expensive capital city to live in in the country, with mortgage repayments accounting for about 35.8 per cent of an average first home buyer’s income. The Chief Minister tries to explain it away by the fact that the ACT has the highest per capita income in the country.
Much of this can be attributed to the government. Economist Tom Hird, in researching the effects of stamp duty, has found that stamp duty has grown dramatically faster than house prices, with tax payable on the median house more than doubling in all capital cities except Melbourne over the last seven years. That is a major disincentive for moving house. It is a major obstacle to the efficient reallocation of housing stock between generations as people choose to stay in housing no longer suitable to their needs.
He also found that rising stamp duty is a contributing major factor to recent rent increases in major capital cities. He estimated that stamp duty accounts for up to half the increase in rents since 1999-2000. In Canberra, the median stamp duty on a house is $14,890. The failure of the government to have a large bank of land ready for sale has also been responsible for the dramatic increase in house prices and rents. One would accept that that is just common sense, but it is only recently that the blinding realisation has occurred to the government: “We actually do need to have a land bank. We have got to get moving on this.” That is utterly basic.
The government is now, through its belated housing affordability strategy, making some minor changes around the edge. Yes, catch-up but, as usual, it is all too little, too late. This is a government that has received extraordinary windfalls but has failed to save for a rainy day or even for the days it does not rain because the cost of not having secured a safe reliable water supply for Canberra is great and growing. This budget is, as I have said, a “fingers-crossed budget” because it does not even allow for the failure of the drought to break. The relatively paltry sum of $6 million over four years for climate change to be allocated to a policy that has yet to be announced is also not likely to go far. The Assembly used to have a policy that had targets, but that was too expensive for the ALP. Indeed, I would not have minded a few incentives here in relation to climate change.
One helpful little hint might be solar energy. The ACT has more daily sunlight than anywhere else in Australia. We also have a cool climate which assists greatly in the generation of solar energy. Perhaps a little partnership between business, the CSIRO, the ANU and government would be a good idea. The federal government I am sure
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