Page 2287 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 22 June 2011
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
the formula? Would you like to change rating formula? It is a minority government. Let us have a look at your ideas, put them on the table. Put some evidence behind your emotive claims as outlined in the motion from Mr Seselja that there are all these families at breaking point. Honestly come forward with your ideas, come forward with your evidence. It is a minority government. Come here and let us have the honest discussion. Do not come in here conveniently and have 15 or 10 minutes of negativity with no ideas and no solutions.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (3.52): I am speaking to the amendment.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ms Le Couteur): I assumed so.
MR SESELJA: We just heard it there. I think the Chief Minister really started to articulate her views on this issue. She started off a little bit conciliatory but towards the end she went back to the Labor Party form—that is, that there is no evidence that there are lots of families at breaking point. Apparently, Canberra families are not doing it tough. I do not know what parts of Canberra Katy Gallagher hangs out in but when I speak to families right across the city—
Ms Gallagher: No, bring the evidence.
MR SESELJA: and the reason—
Ms Gallagher: Oh, that is your evidence.
MR SESELJA: The evidence is in the fact that all of the essentials of life, the things we need, are going up much, much faster than the CPI. Any reasonable person can deduce from the fact that most people’s salaries go up is somewhere around CPI, a bit above sometimes. We have seen wages growth but the growth of these key fundamentals of life, the things that people generally cannot do without, have gone up much faster than that. That is the evidence in the motion.
Rents have gone up faster, rates have gone up faster, water has gone up faster, electricity has gone up faster. These are all key things that people cannot choose. They cannot choose whether or not to have electricity. They cannot choose if they do not own their own home whether or not they pay rent. They cannot choose whether or not they pay the government rates. They have to pay these things and these things are going up much faster than their incomes. That is why they are feeling the squeeze. So Katy Gallagher comes in here and says that there is no evidence that people are feeling are feeling the squeeze. Where is the evidence?
I will speak to the amendment because I think it reflects this attitude which is being pushed. It is very much this inner city centric view of the world that is completely ignorant of the real pressures on Canberra families. We saw it there. This amendment put forward by the Chief Minister is a sort of “let them eat cake” amendment—you have never had it so good, guys. The government says that you have never had it so good. That is the view of the Chief Minister.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video