Page 1866 - Week 06 - Thursday, 5 June 2014
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
At 10 per cent, our rates will triple in just over 11 years. We were promised that they would not, but let there be no doubt in anybody’s mind that they will. I point out to members how the language has changed from those opposite. Now the Chief Minister is trying to say that it was only a promise that they would not triple in this term of the Assembly and this term of government, and that we were saying otherwise.
We all know that was not what was being said at the last election. I remind members of the statement made by Andrew Barr on ABC Radio as late as last year where he claimed that rates would only triple “by the second half of this century”.
I remind members of the Chief Minister staring down the barrel of a TV camera during that election campaign and promising, insisting in fact, that rates simply would not triple. “They won’t triple under the government’s proposed tax reforms.” It was Katy Gallagher’s Julia Gillard moment. “There will be no tripling of rates under the government that I lead.” We know what the Australian people’s response to that statement from Julia Gillard was. And it would be the same to Katy Gallagher.
It is no wonder that the Chief Minister and the Treasurer are trying to rewrite their statements and trying to rewrite history. It is true that your rates are going to triple. It was always true, and no amount of squirming now will save you from the families of Canberra who get those rising bills every single year.
It is undeniably true that the extravagance in the territory’s budgets have to be paid for by the family budget. Andrew Barr, who is on the record as saying that the family home is a tax haven, is now using families as his own personal ATM. No matter what you earn or where you live, Andrew Barr is in your hip pocket every day pilfering more and more. Every time Canberrans turn on a light, Andrew Barr is there taking their money. Every time they turn on a tap or try to heat their home, Andrew Barr is there taking more and more. Every time they get into their car, every time they try to find a car park in the city, there is Andrew Barr taking their hard-earned money.
The cost of living statements in the budget show that, on average, transport costs increase by 8.5 per cent. Property charges increase by 9.25 per cent. Utilities increase by 8.5 per cent. Remember, the CPI is only 2.1 per cent. There is a projected 30 per cent increase in parking revenue, a 20 per cent increase in ORS revenue and a six per cent increase in car registration fees—all going to Andrew Barr to feed his bloated, lazy budget. In total, there is an increase of $932 million in revenue in the budget papers, or a 22 per cent rise—all that new revenue going to Andrew Barr.
Unfortunately, although Andrew Barr is world class—and I will give him this—at taking money out of the hip pockets of Canberrans, this mob opposite are disastrous at actually delivering anything. The GDE took longer to deliver than the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The mental health facility that they boast about in this budget was budgeted at $11 million and was due to be opened three years ago. It is now in the budget for four times that figure, and work has not even started.
What about the prison? It opened and it was unready. It was unfinished. It is now going to cost Canberrans about $100 million just to make it meet the original promise, at nearly double the original budget. And that is all after, you will recall, Simon Corbell said in 2007 that it was good in its configuration as promised for 25 years.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video