Page 2861 - Week 07 - Thursday, 7 June 2012
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Again this week, and in fact in Mr Seselja’s speech this afternoon, the Canberra Liberals have pulled out the “highest taxing jurisdiction” line. In talking about the amount of local and state taxes levied per person in the ACT, Mr Seselja conveniently forgets that last year there was a very large one-off tax payment that significantly distorts the figures. Last financial year—and we all know this—News Corporation paid $77 million to the territory, and if you exclude this figure you get an average tax per person that is fourth in the country, smack bang in the middle. So, unless Mr Seselja thinks Rupert Murdoch is a struggling Canberran, the figure he quotes really does not tell the story.
The reality is that most people in the community are doing okay but there are a number of people who earn a good deal less than the average wage and who are doing it tough. These are the people that the government should be providing assistance to.
The Greens have always been the party that have focused the most on helping those doing it toughest and we are more than happy to have the cost of living debate and are very confident that we have the best range of policies to tackle the issue.
Forever listing the cost of things, some of which the government has very little to no control over, does little to demonstrate the real impact that the changes are having on different parts of the Canberra community.
The real value of keeping a family of limited means warm in the winter is something that the Greens do recognise and something that we have worked very hard to actually make a difference on during this term. Thanks to the Greens’ efforts we now have a much improved concessions scheme for those who struggle the most to pay their utilities bills. We have long campaigned to make Canberra’s housing more energy efficient, which is of course the best way to reduce the ongoing costs for families. Through the parliamentary agreement we have been successful in getting extra money for this program. As I said this week, we are disappointed that the government has not put more into this, but we have put significant millions of dollars extra into energy efficiency measures in public housing.
We also tried to set minimum standards for those in the rental market who typically have the least means available to them, and neither of the other parties supported that initiative.
On car registration surcharges, the Greens agree that the fee should not be charged to concession cardholders. That is an easy and targeted way of assisting those doing it toughest. The real challenge is to do something to assist the next group of people who are experiencing real difficulty but do not quite qualify for a concession card. The real burden that actually falls on this group, partly because they are difficult to target initiatives for, is substantial and should be better recognised. We do need to be looking at how we can support this group.
The Greens are very pleased that the ones who appear to be receiving particular assistance from the budget are pensioners, who we know do not receive adequate payments from the commonwealth.
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