Page 2490 - Week 08 - Thursday, 30 August 2007
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the federal opposition leader, and we need Mr Rudd to say that he is ruling out capital gains and land taxes on the family home. What we need from Mr Barr is for Mr Barr to say that a home is a home. He is just in the process of purchasing his own home. It is not a tax-free haven. It is your home. It is where you will raise your family. Good luck to you. I hope it is a fabulous home, like mine is. I do not see my home as a tax-free haven. I see it as a place to raise my kids, Mr Speaker, and I am sure you do as well.
MR SPEAKER: No, I am not raising any more kids. I have enough.
MR SMYTH: You have enough? So, Mr Speaker has a number of tax-free havens. That is nice to know.
MR SPEAKER: No, I have enough kids.
MR SMYTH: We need Mr Barr to rule out that his suggestion to Kevin Rudd was you can pay for your hospital program and all your other big-spending programs through capital gains tax and land taxes on the family home.
MR BARR (Molonglo–Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Planning, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Minister for Industrial Relations) (8.08): I am happy to do so.
Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Proposed expenditure—Part 1.13—Department of Disability, Housing and Community Services, $181,809,000 (net cost of outputs), $39,298,000 (capital injection) and $29,858,000 (payments on behalf of the territory), totalling $250,245,000.
MR MULCAHY (Molonglo) (8.08): As indicated, the territory government will appropriate about a quarter of a million dollars for the Department of Disability, Housing and Community Services. Obviously disability, housing and community services are important issue. Disabled residents in the ACT are some of the people most in need in this territory. Similarly, many housing and community services are also provided to some of the people most in need in this territory.
The people of the ACT deserve a government that is able to deal with these issues in an effective manner. They also deserve a government that provides an efficient and effective service. I note that we have seen increasing costs in the health sector recently. We have also seen increasing costs in disability, housing and community services. The budget papers reveal that there has been an increase in costs in real terms for per capita services. This means that the same amount of service is now expected to cost more. The government has to be careful to ensure that costs do not blow out in this vital area. Provision of services to everyone who needs it is too important. It is important to make sure that we are able to sustain service levels well into the future.
Turning to the Office of Children, Youth and Family Affairs, there are worrying signs appearing from constituents that suggest we should be concerned about child protection oversight in the ACT. Staffing issues at the Office of Children, Youth and
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