Page 643 - Week 02 - Thursday, 18 February 2016
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At the same time we see the expenses going up and up and up. The list of hits is often measured in cups of coffee. We are all used to the former minister for the environment talking about cups of coffee. “Oh, it’s only a cup of coffee a week.” We, of course, heard the great comment from the Treasurer and Chief Minister about paid parking in Civic, “Oh, well, just don’t have another bottle of sparkling water.” A lot of people in Canberra do not get to drink sparkling water, Chief Minister.
We have seen increases in power bills. You only have to go to the Australian Energy Regulator’s annual report from a year or so ago to see 5,000 Canberrans had an energy bill debt and 7,000 gas customers had a gas bill debt. Twenty-five per cent of people who were experiencing homelessness in the ACT were charged with a criminal offence in the last six months. One in three of those in prison reported being homeless the month before being incarcerated. That is because, as you so well know, Madam Assistant Speaker, housing is not cheap in the ACT.
We had a motion about this yesterday and we got the glib lines from the government yet again: weren’t they good; they were doing much. The tone of it was that we should all be grateful.
We know that, for instance, the national rental affordability scheme sets affordability at 75 per cent of the value of market rent, but in the ACT this is not considered affordable. That is from the Anglicare rental affordability snapshot. God forbid if you were a student. Anglicare reported that some 87 per cent of students living in Canberra were suffering housing stress. This is at a time when the government—and rightly so—is saying that Canberra is a great place to come and get an education at the world-class facilities that we have at ANU, UC, ADFA, Charles Sturt and the Australian Catholic University. But is it a dilemma for many students in that they simply find it hard to live here.
We know from reports from employers, whether they have apprentice plumbers or apprentice hairdressers, the biggest problem in getting and keeping apprentices in the ACT is often the fact that the kids that come in from the country or come from interstate cannot afford to live here. This is under a government that inherited in 2001 some of the most affordable housing in the country. They have, through their flawed land release policies and their flawed planning, turned the ACT for many people into a housing nightmare.
They are just some of the hits. Then, of course, there are the straight-up financial hits. We have got a Chief Minister who will not admit that his tax reforms are failing and will not admit that his tax reforms, particularly in the area of rates, will see a tripling of rates in the ACT. You only have to go to the budget figures to see the numbers. Back in 2012-13, rates took $297 million. In 2015-16, they are expected to take $419 million, a 41 per cent increase, and 10 per cent over the last year. In the coming years it will be $462 million over the $297 million, which will be a 55 per cent increase. Then in 2017-18 it is expected to go up to $506 million, which is 70 per cent over the $297 million figure. In 2018-19 it will be 85 per cent. So it goes on. It is almost solidly a 10 per cent increase every year which people are expected to find. If you are on a fixed income, that is pretty tough.
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