Page 2402 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 12 August 2014
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giving massive tax discounts and write-downs to those who have millions and billions stashed aside in superannuation; yet taking it away from low income households. They are the choices.
We could sit here and debate all night our quite clear policy contrasts in relation to those issues that matter most to ACT residents and indeed Australians. And we have seen time and again, when it comes to which party the people of Canberra and the people of Australia trust to manage health and education, it is overwhelmingly the Labor Party. It is because of our track record in the delivery of essential services to people in Canberra and across Australia and being able to do so in a fiscally responsible way.
How we do that is by having a fair, sustainable taxation system that is progressive, that asks a little more of those who have high incomes to make a contribution to the greater good of our society by providing world-class health and education services. And more than half of the territory budget is spent, and rightly so, in public health and public education because that is the absolute guarantee of a decent and civil society: high-quality public health and public education services. And that will always be the difference between this side of politics and those opposite.
Mr Hanson can come in here and try to lecture the Chief Minister about securing more funding for education and securing a once-in-a-generation change to fund schools on the basis of need, to get money where it is most needed in education, to transform our public education system at a national level to ensure that resources go to needy children in this country. He can come in here and make snide remarks, as he is wont to do, but he has never contributed anything positive to public debate in this area because, at his core, the Leader of the Opposition stands for nothing but greed and wealth accumulation against the values that most Canberrans hold dear. And that is why the Leader of the Opposition is the Leader of the Opposition and not the Chief Minister and will stay in that position. His speech tonight absolutely confirms that it is his role in public life, and we look forward to him staying as Leader of the Opposition for quite some time to come.
MR HANSON (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (9.41): Madam Assistant Speaker, I will take my second 10 minutes. Look, it is clear that Mr Barr is not really the ACT’s greatest Treasurer. It is the ACT’s greediest Treasurer that I should respond to. For anybody to come into this place and complain about people taking tax out of people’s pockets, I think is ironic. It is extraordinary that Andrew Barr, the great taxer, the great claimer of rates and other fees and charges in this town of his great lease variation charge and other fantastic taxes—
Mr Coe: Unless they are the Labor Club seeking deconcessionalisation.
MR HANSON: Right, and then it is deregulation, isn’t it? Then it is, “Do you want some deconcessionalisation? We will sort you out with that.” But what I would ask Andrew Barr to do, the ACT’s greediest Treasurer, is answer me two questions. This is a test for the Treasurer. I hope he is listening because this is a test and he can demonstrate how he is not the world’s greediest but the world’s greatest Treasurer.
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