Page 2604 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 11 August 2015

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video

subsidisation to keep it afloat. We will have two underutilised transports systems just so Mr Corbell can have, as Mr Glaeser says, his heart aflutter to hear the sound of train wheels on rails up and down Northbourne Avenue. That is not a justification for this enormous expenditure of money, and neither is keeping Mr Rattenbury in the government.

We should be looking to the long term. We should be looking for flexibility and innovation, as Edward Glaeser says. We should be upgrading the services we provide on our buses, things Mr Coe has spoken about for a long time. We should be making the most of the asset we have instead of buying and setting up another asset which will also require subsidisation, a great drain away from things like education, health, policing and urban amenity. We should have this taken to the next election if the government believe they are on the right course.

Question put:

That the proposed expenditure be agreed to.

The Assembly voted—

Ayes 9		Noes 8
Mr Barr	Ms Fitzharris	Mr Coe	Ms Lawder
Ms Berry	Mr Gentleman	Mr Doszpot	Mr Smyth
Dr Bourke	Ms Porter	Mrs Dunne	Mr Wall
Ms Burch	Mr Rattenbury	Mr Hanson
Mr Corbell		Mrs Jones

Question so resolved in the affirmative.

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate—schedule 1, part 1.6.

MR HANSON (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (4.22): This is an area that contains much—and I know that Mr Smyth and others will be speaking to this area—but I do want to hone back to a conversation we were having during question time about taxation and respond certainly to some of the points that were made by the Chief Minister. At one stage—and I was disorderly; I accept that—the Chief Minister was saying that the Canberra Liberals want a GST or that Jeremy Hanson wants a GST. I would invite Mr Barr, when he responds, to table his evidence of that. That would be most useful if he could do that rather than just make wild assertions.

I am aware that he has called for an increase, I believe, in the Medicare levy. That is his solution to taxation problems. But ultimately we are talking about what is in this budget. And there are a couple of things in this budget. Rates are going up, and we know that. We know that they are tripling. We know that they are going up substantially.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video