Page 5490 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 17 November 2010
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are rising, and there are a number of reasons why. There has been underinvestment right around the nation; governments have been gouging money out of their state-owned electricity providers. There is no doubt about that. We have got those factors, many of which the government cannot control. What they are saying in that context is: “Don’t blame us, because we can’t control it.” Well, fine. But they are placing an additional burden on Canberrans. Knowing that we are going to see a lot of pressure—we have seen significant pressure, we have seen a 70 per cent increase in electricity prices—they are saying, “Don’t worry about that. We’ll give you a little bit more. Here’s $225 extra on your bill.”
I believe the government should actually be saying, “What can we do to lift those burdens? What policies can we have in place that actually lift those burdens?” We see it in housing affordability. The government has a direct influence on that through its land release program, through its planning, through the delivery of infrastructure, through the way it structures land development in this town. It has made it a major burden, and the cost burden on young families who have had to purchase a home in recent years or, indeed, who have to rent in Canberra’s very expensive rental market, is the direct burden of poor planning decisions by ACT Labor—the failure to roll out infrastructure, the failure to get land supplied where it should be, the taxes that they are introducing. At a time when we have very high rent—and we have seen those rents go up—they propose a massive tax on units. What do we think that will do for rents and for those families who are already struggling?
There is a bit of a “let them eat cake” approach from this government. We get the approach: “What can we do?” You can manage your spending. That creates downward pressure and, therefore, you do not have to levy as many taxes. You cannot have policies which are the most expensive way of reducing greenhouse emissions. When you choose the most expensive way, we all pay. People in the ACT all pay. You can put downward pressure on house prices and rents. You can ease that burden for first homebuyers. You can manage your spending.
We have highlighted time and again areas where this government has chosen to engage in wasteful spending and has not managed its budget. Every year we see the TAMS budget blow out. That costs, and the rates people are paying directly reflect that fact. That is why this motion also calls on the government to be transparent and to put forward every year a statement around the cost of living pressures, around the cost of living impacts of its policies. That is a reasonable thing to do. Surely, in the interests of transparency, in the interests of getting a government that has placed massive extra burdens on households to focus on those impacts, a statement like this is reasonable. It would say, “We as an Assembly, we as a community, expect that you will have this at the top of mind in the development of policy.”
As we can see from the figures, they have not had it at the top of mind. When they have wasted money in the way that we have highlighted on so many occasions in this place, you can see that they have not had that at the top of mind. When they have mismanaged their planning policy and their land release, that has added burdens. When they have added 75 per cent to rates to pay for their wasteful spending, that has added burdens. When their environmental policies are adding significant extra costs to electricity bills over and above all of the other costs that Canberrans are facing, you
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