Page 1946 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 5 August 2014
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funding needs and areas of stress within the program. Gordon made a lovely point when he said that delivering aid is like building a plane while you are flying—it constantly changes. I think we all need to keep in our minds that Kippax UnitingCare do a great job in what they do.
There was, not intentionally, a large focus on the arts that emerged. We had a number of groups appear, particularly the Belconnen Arts Centre. The government talks about having shovel-ready projects. The Belconnen Arts Centre is ready to go. In recommendation 13 the committee recommends that the government fund it as a priority in the current budget and then also funds as a priority the redevelopment of the foreshore to allow the arts centre to reach its full potential.
The committee was unanimous on these issues. Indeed, there is a string of recommendations, from 13 to 20, that look at arts. I refer in particular to recommendation 18, which states:
The Committee recommends that the ACT Government fund and conduct an economic analysis of the value of the arts and cultural sector to the ACT economy …
That is a very important recommendation.
We looked a lot at the structure of the budget itself. I think the unanimous view of committee members was to bring back budget paper 4, Treasurer. It is far more handy than the plethora of documents which delivered 100 less pages but certainly seemed to use up a whole lot more paper.
In particular, there was a strong focus on debt and on how we make sure we can pay our debt. Recommendations 45 and 46 look at the debt and ask the government to explain it more clearly. Quite clearly, the debt will have an impact on the cost of living, as do new taxation measures. I recommend recommendation 56 to members, which states:
The Committee recommends that the ACT Government either: (a) does not commence the Payroll Tax Amendment Bill until 1 July 2015; or (b) or moves an amendment to grandfather all existing contracts from the new payroll tax regime.
This will have an effect on the lives of people. When we quizzed the Treasurer over it he said it was not the intention that people had pay cuts as a consequence of this tax. Well, they will. Quite clearly, they will. It will affect their cost of living. The government need to reconsider the way they have implemented this. It is inherently unfair to change something when people have already made their arrangements for the coming years, without any warning at all.
The committee recommends that we also look at the debt held by ACTEW. We had discussions about changes that would be made there, and that the Treasurer or the shareholder should inform the Assembly of what happens there.
There are three recommendations, given the announcement last week of the sale of ACTTAB—recommendations 61, 62 and 63. Recommendation 61 is that the sale
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