Page 1317 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 5 May 2015
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MS LAWDER: Chief Minister, when will you release the submissions received during public consultation, given that the submissions remain the submissions irrespective of cabinet consultation?
MR BARR: The government will make available the submissions and an issues paper in relation to possible options for reform of concessions in the coming weeks. I will make a package of information available for community feedback before any decisions are taken in relation to the concessions program.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Doszpot.
MR DOSZPOT: Minister, how will reducing funding for concessions for the most vulnerable people in our community help them?
MR BARR: The government is not proposing to reduce funding in the way that the shadow minister has indicated. Let me be clear that that is not the government’s intention. The government has looked, through this process, at ways to deliver more support to those most vulnerable. Our focus has been particularly on ensuring that those on the lowest incomes receive support. As I have indicated in this place previously, our focus is on eliminating middle-class welfare and welfare for those who are well off, and redistributing the benefits of any reform to lower income Canberrans.
I do note that a similar process is underway nationally. We will await particular decisions in the federal budget next week that will inform future community discussion on this matter. For those who are interested, this process has a long way still to go. The government will make public the submissions and the issues paper on the variety of options that are available to us to reform concessions in the future, with a view to maximising the benefits to those Canberrans with the lowest income and ensuring that our concessions program is targeted to those most in need. That is how a concessions program should operate.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Doszpot.
MR DOSZPOT: Minister, why should the people struggling most in our community have their concessions reduced, as they expect they will be, or cut because of your government’s mismanagement of taxpayers’ money and resulting huge budget deficit?
MR BARR: Sometimes, Madam Speaker, you have to wonder about the ability of those opposite to adjust their questions on the basis of answers. I have been very clear, in response to the series of questions, that the accusation that the shadow minister makes is not based on fact; it is untrue. Let me be very clear that the assertions made by the shadow minister are not the government’s intent. The government’s intent is to ensure that concessions are delivered to those most in need. That is our policy objective. That is what the Labor Party and the Greens party believe. That has been the subject of our discussions, to ensure that concessions are delivered to those most in need.
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