Page 475 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 17 February 2016
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For example, utility costs continue to grow. Water and sewerage prices have more than doubled since 2001. Growth in the cost of water and sewerage in the ACT over the last 10 years has outmatched CPI growth by approximately 60 per cent. The cost of parking has significantly increased in the last couple of years, as well as the cost of driving licences, parking permits and registering a vehicle, which are all becoming more expensive here in Canberra.
When I am out in the community increases in cost of living is raised nine times out of 10 as one of the most fundamental concerns Canberrans have. Many elderly constituents approach me who have lived in the same area all their lives, bought houses there and find themselves in the position that they now cannot afford the fees and charges placed on them by this government.
Rates all across Canberra are increasing and residents are struggling to meet the rising costs. In the 2015-16 financial year rates in Aranda have risen 11.1 per cent, in Red Hill by 10 per cent, and in suburbs like Ngunnawal residents are paying $134 more than the previous year. That is a 10.4 per cent rate rise there as well. This government is asking those on low or fixed incomes to keep meeting these increasing charges year after year, and people are struggling. And now Mr Barr is trying to add to the problems of those that need the concessions by cutting or changing those concession outlines.
At an age when maintaining your independence is of the greatest importance, senior Canberrans have told me that they simply can no longer afford to keep a vehicle on the road. This not only impacts people going about their everyday lives; it also impacts their ability to participate socially within the broader Canberra community. The government’s answer to this is to reduce the motor vehicle registration concession by half to all those on pensioner or veteran cards. They will now need to look for an extra $265 a year to keep their car on the road, on top of their annual third-party insurance and other road user fees.
You would think that if the government is cutting motor vehicle registration they must want pensioners to use public transport instead. Wrong again, it would seem, because that concession is being reduced as well or could be completely cut altogether. The government has suggested concession fares should be removed for seniors card holders or restricted to off-peak periods only: “You can go to the shops. You can catch the bus to go to the shops, but only when nobody else is using the buses.”
Their rationale for this change as stated in the discussion paper was to improve the sustainability of the concessions program by reducing access to the concession for seniors card holders. This is absolutely ridiculous. In the government’s own words, they basically said that they do not want seniors card holders to use this concession because it is costing the government too much money. Well, Mr Barr, the only reason it is costing you too much money is because you have got money earmarked for other purposes. I would have thought it would be obvious that if you stop people using a concession, you will save money. If the government decide to remove concession fares for seniors card holders, this will save them $350,000 a year to help pay for that
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