Page 2609 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 11 August 2015
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Rising rates are not new. I know that there are those who have raised their concerns about rising rates in this town. It is interesting, if you look at a website for a certain Katy Gallagher—it is on her website; it provides information on Katy Gallagher’s campaign for the ACT electorate of Molonglo—it said:
Katy is particularly interested in hearing your views. Please take time to participate in the current process and email her with your comments or concerns.
She talked about the Liberal ACT rates saga. Katy Gallagher was railing against increased rates, because she understood before she got into this place, back when she used to talk to people, real people out there in the suburbs—
Mr Wall: Back when she was one.
MR HANSON: Yes, back when she was one.
Did you know—
she said—
that the ACT Liberal Government has increased rates by the forecast and not the actual … CPI?
Back then the Canberra Liberals actually increased rates by the forecast CPI as opposed to the real CPI which would have probably been a fraction of a per cent. And Katy Gallagher was out there saying that was an abomination. Katy Gallagher would have been probably in touch with her community back then. When she was standing for election I am sure she was at the street corners talking to people. She probably understood the concerns that people had, the burning issues that people had trying to meet their weekly payments, their budgets. And she understood this. She said:
This means that when the real CPI comes in below the forecast the Liberals have been pocketing the balance!
Now that balance between CPI and your rates is hundreds of dollars. It is probably a seven, eight, nine per cent difference in many cases.
She said:
Under ACT Labor policy, rate increases will be capped …
Did you hear that? It is a doozy. “Under ACT Labor policy, rate increases will be capped.” That is nice, isn’t it? You can see how you transition, when you are in the Labor Party, from somebody maybe who understood the impacts of rates increases to now when what you have got is Andrew Barr. Maybe he understands, maybe he just does not care. You can go back to his inaugural speech where he basically says that the family home is just a tax haven. As he said, his mentor Ted Quinlan used to say, “Tax them till they bleed but not until they die.”
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