Page 2991 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 14 August 2013
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The pensioner duty concession scheme has been further expanded, further cutting stamp duty, from 1 July this year. The full duty concession, which means households only pay $20 in stamp duty, is available to eligible pensioners purchasing properties valued at up to $580,000. A partial duty concession is available to eligible applicants purchasing properties valued at up to $733,000. In the case of a vacant block, a full duty concession, only $20 payable in stamp duty, is available for land valued at up to $302,000, and a partial duty concession is available for land up to nearly $350,000.
The government provides a wide range of concessions, and I am pleased to share with the Assembly information about these concessions and the number of older Canberrans who access them. The energy concession has risen by 10 per cent to $322.10. The government estimates that nearly 25,000 households will access this concession in 2013-14. The utilities concession for water and sewerage rates increased by 2.5 per cent this year to a maximum of $84.05. That is expected to be accessed by nearly 19,000 households. Combined, this is a total of over $400 in savings for households on their energy and utility bills.
Mr Doszpot has outlined in his comments—and I will re-confirm that—that there is access to concessions under the spectacle subsidy scheme, the taxi subsidy scheme, for motor vehicle registration, for drivers licence, rental rebates, amongst other schemes. The government has also provided assistance to seniors card holders, as the Minister for Ageing has noted, through the gold card now being available for everyone over 70, and through a 10 per cent concession in the motor vehicle registration, which increases to a 28 per cent concession for a gas vehicle.
Self-funded retirees with medical conditions can access, through the concessions program, the spectacle subsidy scheme, the utility costs of life support equipment scheme and the taxi subsidy scheme.
The government will not be supporting this motion today because it contains inaccuracies and uninformed contributions, an example of Mr Doszpot running an approach based on baseless scare campaigns. We think that older Canberrans deserve better from this place; so we cannot be supporting resolutions to this effect. We will get on with the job of delivering for older Canberrans, particularly through the abolition of a number of taxes that older Canberrans pay now and should not have to pay, particularly tax on insurance and stamp duty.
Debate interrupted in accordance with standing order 74 and the resumption of the debate made an order of the day for a later hour.
Sitting suspended from 12.30 to 2.30 pm.
Questions without notice
Canberra Hospital—data centre
MR HANSON: My question is to the Chief Minister and Minister for Health. Minister, this week you advised the Assembly about the outage at the Canberra Hospital on Monday. You stated:
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