Page 5979 - Week 14 - Thursday, 8 December 2011
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MR SESELJA: Again we have an interjection. Andrew Barr is just showing his disdain. It is a good thing, he says, that their incomes have all gone up. Okay, how many people do you think in Evatt since 2001-02 have seen their incomes go up by 136 per cent? Not many, Mr Barr. The empathetic Treasurer says, “It is a good thing; their land values have has gone up and their incomes have gone up.” They have not gone up 136 per cent—nothing like it.
We can look at any number of suburbs. People in Gordon have seen their rates go up 99 per cent. Not many of them have seen their incomes go up by 99 per cent in that time. Banks has gone up 152 per cent. How many people in Banks do you think have seen their incomes go up by 152 per cent? What disdain we hear from ACT Labor. Here in the chamber today it is on display. It is on display, with Andrew Barr saying: “You should be grateful. You should be grateful because your land value has gone up and your income has gone up.” Their incomes have not gone up anywhere near as much as this government is slugging the people of the ACT.
Incomes have not gone up anywhere near that amount. If you believe that, it demonstrates just how out of touch you are. This ACT Labor government is. This Labor-Greens alliance is out of touch with the concerns of Canberra families. That is why we should be looking wherever possible to give relief. That is why lowering people’s rego costs is a good thing. The very people who struggle to pay their rego—
Mr Barr: Yes, well, do away with the Brendan Smyth tax. You brought it in. It is your tax.
MR SESELJA: We believe you should get rid of it. Are you going to keep it, Andrew?
Mr Barr: It is your tax, Brendan. It is the Brendan Smyth tax.
MR SESELJA: You have kept it for 10 years.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ms Le Couteur): Mr Barr, this is not a conversation.
MR SESELJA: For 10 years Labor has been taxing people who cannot afford to pay. Those people in Banks who have seen their rates go up 152 per cent, when they got that rates bill, they would also be getting their rego bills. They would look at that $800 or $900 charge and they would be saying, “Gee, that’s a lot.” That is a lot in one hit when you have got the electricity and the water bills coming in, you might have school fees coming in, childcare. All these costs are coming in, piling up on families. And the government says to them, “Well, you can pay quarterly, but we’re going to charge you $100 a year extra.” We say we should get rid of that. We say we should give them some relief.
We challenge the Labor Party to match that. What would be so difficult about doing that? Instead, we have a government that is obsessed with building a $430 million office building. It blows money left, right and centre because it cannot control its
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