Page 5982 - Week 14 - Thursday, 8 December 2011
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and this is being reflected in the statistics for the ACT. Indeed, the reality for many Australian families—families in the ACT and elsewhere—is that there is ongoing pressure on family incomes. The major pressure for many families is, of course, high mortgage repayments.
This factor may be eased following the recent cuts in the cash rate by the Reserve Bank. Nevertheless it still remains a major constraint on the spending capacity for many families. In the ACT, in particular, we have some of the highest mortgage levels in the country. People are renting rather than buying, but the cost of rent is an equally substantial factor in family spending capacities. Other significant and increasing cost pressures are derived from the cost of energy, which we know has gone up, and the cost of education, which is also going up, among other matters.
The message for this government is clear: any hikes in taxes will have a serious and adverse impact on ACT families. A variety of taxes are already imposed in the ACT for which there are steady increases year on year, and, in some cases, very large increases, such as rates, water, electricity, communications and utilities, each of which is a significant factor in virtually everyone’s budget. There is little capacity for this ACT government to hike taxes even further. Indeed, any further increases will place many families in quite disastrous circumstances.
This government should actively seek opportunities to restrain or reduce taxes to ease the pressure of cost of living on families in the ACT, and they should do it quickly.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Leader, ACT Greens) (3.55): I am pleased to be able to contribute to this debate this afternoon. As we know, it is very easy to stand up and say that no-one should have to pay any taxes and charges and should continue to get the many and varied services in return that are provided in the ACT. No-one likes to pay government fees and charges, but the reality is that governments have to raise revenue to provide services. And the challenge for us is to impose taxes and charges in a manner that is as equitable as possible. This allows for the best use of our resources and discourages damaging or otherwise undesirable outcomes or behaviours.
Taxes and charges do provide us with very useful levers. That is what taxes are, and Mr Smyth would know about this. They do provide useful levers in being able to put out certain outcomes that you want to achieve, as well as raising revenue. The Greens have consistently argued that we need to take advantage of this as much as possible.
The Greens do not believe that we currently have the right mix and the right taxes, and we very much look forward to the report of the taxation review. This is something that the Greens are very keen to work on and an area where reforms are needed. The Henry tax review provided a real catalyst for change and it would be a real shame not to take advantage of that.
There are a number of inefficiencies in our system and across many taxes and charges—those imposed by both the states and territories and the commonwealth. We need to ensure that our mechanisms are consistent with what is imposed by the
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