Page 1920 - Week 05 - Thursday, 5 May 2011
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ACT residents now pay 200 per cent more for water than when Labor came to office. April saw the announcement of another 15 per cent increase in the cost of water. Water prices are not directly set by the government, but, when water is supplied by a government monopoly, the two shareholders of the company are the Chief Minister and the Treasurer and we see the biggest budget blow-out in territory history on the Cotter Dam, you have to wonder whether they deserve to keep their jobs. The government certainly cannot shirk responsibility for these massive rises in water prices.
Electricity prices have increased by 75 per cent. By the ACT energy minister’s own admission, electricity costs will rise by another $225 per year for every ACT household just as a direct result of the feed-in tariff introduced by ACT Labor and supported by the ACT Greens. This is over and above all of the other increases which will be faced by electricity consumers, not the least of which will be the coming of the carbon tax and the 40 per cent target.
For these reasons, schemes such as the feed-in tariff have quickly been discontinued or downsized in other jurisdictions. Just today Greg Combet canned the commonwealth solar subsidy because the scheme “contributed to higher electricity prices”. It is amazing that even the struggling federal Labor government have realised some policy settings are adding too much to the cost of living and are prepared to respond—it seems not this one. They keep spending and we keep paying.
Parking fees have increased in Civic by 57 per cent and could be as much as $5,460 a year for a family. Families in the ACT with young children face the highest childcare costs in the country, and with some of the longest waiting lists. Yet for all that, the acid test for cost of living in the ACT is housing affordability. The Canberra Liberals believe in, and have always championed, the cause of those who strive to achieve home ownership. It was a major part of our policy platform of the 2008 election. At the time, we saw that the dream of owning a home was slipping through the fingers of many Canberra families. Now, sadly, we have been proven right.
According to a Bankwest report, of the ACT’s 8,200 key workers, including teachers, nurses, police officers, fire and emergency services employees and ambulance officers, for this group, all housing markets in the ACT are considered unaffordable. However, Jon Stanhope has since been on record as saying:
I’m not just boosting myself here; we have done more in Canberra than any other city in Australia in relation to land release and housing affordability.
Let me read that again:
I’m not just boosting myself here; we—
Jon Stanhope—
have done more in Canberra than any other city in Australia in relation to land release and housing affordability.
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