Page 1919 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 3 June 2015
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government happily putting its fingers into people’s pockets by increasing parking and traffic infringements which are going up by large number in this year’s budget. That simply shows this is a government that has run out of ideas and has one-track vision. The government does not know what to do to improve the quality of life for people in the ACT.
One just needs to go through the numbers: payroll tax up 12 per cent, general rates up 11 per cent, land tax up six per cent, conveyancing—the mysteriously disappearing tax—is going up another four per cent and it goes up in the out years, and the lease variation charge up 15 per cent. There were those in the property industry who thought there might be some concessions given the slowness, particularly in Civic, and we have seen a number of groups—the Property Council and CBD Ltd—come out this morning saying this is not a budget for Civic. Everybody seems to agree that something has to happen for Civic, but this budget does not do it because light rail is sucking the life out of Civic.
You would remember, Madam Speaker, what happened when Mr Corbell was in charge of Gungahlin Drive—the six-year $55 million project that took longer than 10 years to deliver. Mr Corbell said in 2001, “On time, on budget.” Well, it was not on time and it was not on budget. It ended up being four times what was originally estimated, because this government cannot deliver capital works.
We had Mr Barr saying yesterday that the $375 million is in the outyears—it is not in this budget and will come later—but Mr Corbell was on the radio this morning saying there is provision for it in this budget. Which is it, gentlemen? It seems you cannot get your story straight, and that is because this government are fixated on this rail instead of fixated on fixing things. They just resort to greater taxes. The lease variation charge is expected to pick up 15 per cent because the remissions have gone. Many in the property industry thought there might be another package, particularly to help Civic, but apparently not. The emergency and fire services levy is increased by 25 per cent. You would have thought if your rates were increasing to cover standard municipal services like roads, rates, rubbish and ambulance and fire services that you had already paid enough. But, no: “We’ll slug them again. We’ll put another 25 per cent on the fire and emergency services levy.”
Then you go to the fees and charges: drivers licences are going up five per cent. The take from the taxi licensing is going up 17 per cent, but that is because it dipped so much this year because people are handing in their licences. The government expects it to come back next year, but we will see. Other fees: regulatory services up seven per cent, water abstraction charge up seven per cent, parking fees up 11 per cent. I understand Kate Lundy texted or tweeted this morning about this being an anti-car budget, but that does not worry this government because they are obsessed with these things and they will do whatever they want.
Other charges go up: traffic infringement fines 16 per cent, parking fines 29 per cent, other fines 116 per cent. This is a punitive government rather than a government that works towards improving people’s lifestyle by addressing it. People are speeding and people are incorrectly parking. What about the education programs? No, this is a punitive government all to fund their single track, and that is the problem with this
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