Page 122 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 28 November 2012
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and, as I said, most particularly for people in the outer suburbs of Canberra. When you go through that list of rate increases you see it is the outer suburbs that have felt it. Many of those families are struggling with very large mortgages, many families have a number of children and many have the extra cost pressures that go with living in the outer suburbs. They are feeling it and this government has done nothing to address it. The motion calls on the government to outline how it will lower the cost of living pressures on Canberra families. At the moment it seems there is very little focus on that in the Labor-Green agreement, which I will come to in a moment.
The Canberra Liberals pushed very hard for a cost of living budget statement. Whilst it was watered down by the coalition, we certainly believe that it provides an important indicator, though a far from perfect indicator, of the kinds of cost pressures that are being imposed by the ACT government. There are some that are imposed by the federal government, there are some that are there as a result of living in the city we live in and there are some directly as a result of government action and inaction.
We know that there was a $641 increase for an average family in the 2012-13 year due to ACT government taxes and charges. That is according to the government’s own numbers. That is according to their cost of living statement, which leaves a number of things out. But even on that cost of living statement we saw general rates go up 9.6 per cent, utilities 11.5 per cent, electricity 17.8 per cent, gas 11.5 per cent and sewerage 8.2 per cent. Charges will rise from $8,400 per year to $9,066 per year, with a $600 increase in one year. Families are being forced to pay that. Of course, many of them are paying much more. The ambulance levy and the utilities tax were not included. The increase in CTP insurance is not accounted for. The family in question apparently does not park their car, which can add another $3,240 a year to their charges. Of course, if the family has a child that attends a non-government school they will be paying more in fees due to their child being funded approximately $1,300 less than a child attending a non-government school across the border in New South Wales.
There is very little attention in the Labor-Greens parliamentary agreement in relation to the cost of living pressures. There are a number of policies outlined. The only mention of note in relation to the cost of living is “to help Canberra households reduce energy, reduce emissions and save money on utility bills”. That is a worthy aim, but let us look at the actual policies that are behind that. The policy mechanisms chosen for this include a 90 per cent renewable energy target and the rollout of the large-scale feed-in tariff scheme. That will lead to cost increases.
Let us move to electricity. Electricity has increased 85 per cent since ACT Labor came to power. As I noted earlier, there was a 17.8 per cent increase in the last year, mainly as a result of the carbon tax which the local Labor-Greens coalition have supported. Research released by Choice in 2012 shows electricity is the expense that household decision makers are most concerned about. Analysis conducted by Nielsen released in October 2012 found that increasing utility bills continue to concern Australians, with electricity, gas and heating prices being a major concern of 40 per cent of Australians. It is the 10th consecutive quarter where rising utility bills have been the biggest concern.
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