Page 3418 - Week 08 - Thursday, 23 August 2012

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But even if we accept the slightly skewed facts that are provided around that, with respect to the $9,000, it was put to the Chief Minister, and her response was unequivocal:

Do I believe that the community has to pay for the costs of delivering services? Yes, I do … Do I think that those costs will go up over time … Yes, I do.

I think that is a dismissive way of dealing with it. Will costs go up over time? Well, in some cases they should not always have to, and they certainly should not be going up more than inflation in many cases. At the very least, governments should be keeping costs to around inflation when it comes to costs on families. I think people can accept that. If inflation is at around three per cent, you might expect that your rates and charges will go up by a similar level. That is reasonable. People do not expect that it is going to stay as it was in 1990 or 2000, and if our rates in 2001 had gone up at around about inflation, of course they would be much lower than they are now. With electricity, likewise, water even more so, and for so many of the other services.

Getting this statement in the budget, the cost of living statement, was important. It was a great piece of work by the shadow treasurer. It showed his commitment, the Canberra Liberals’ commitment, to fighting for Canberra families and for really pushing to try and ensure that we get policies that put downward pressure on costs. That is really important, and I do not think the Chief Minister got it. When asked whether the cost of living eased or increased in her time as Treasurer and Chief Minister, this is what the Chief Minister had to say:

I think perceptually there is a view out there that the cost of living has increased … I think there is a disconnect between what are believed to be pressures and what actually are.

I think that is a pretty dismissive statement. To say to families, “What you are experiencing with your cost pressures is not real; you feel like you do not have as much money; you feel like costs are going up but they are not,” I think is not very responsive. I do not think it is very responsible. And I do not think it is true. People do understand. People in our community are not mugs. They can look at their costs, they can look at their income and they can compare. Most people in Canberra who work, say, as a public servant, might have seen their income go up by around three to four per cent a year—sometimes less than that, but around about that, CPI or wage price inflation. Yet they know they have seen their electricity go up by around 85 per cent in the last decade—so more than double that. They know that, depending on where they live, their rates have gone up, sometimes by 150 per cent in that time, sometimes by 80, 90 or 100 per cent. They have seen water go up by 200 per cent. I think we heard today again that under this government CTP, outrageously, has gone up by 50 per cent. They told us their reforms would fix CTP and it has gone up by 50 per cent over the last few years—I think over the last four years, the Treasurer said.

So people know that the things that they need are going up much quicker than the things that they want. Who cares, really, if plasma TVs are cheaper now than they were five years ago? That might be useful for one purchase for a family, but all of the day-to-day things—school fees, electricity, water, gas, petrol—have been going up


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