Page 1935 - Week 06 - Thursday, 9 June 2016
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MR HANSON (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (3.00): Madam Speaker, on Tuesday this week, Andrew Barr presented his fifth budget, and, more than anything, it showed very clearly that this is an election year. What was interesting, members, about Andrew Barr’s speech, was not so much what he said but what he did not tell Canberrans—like the facts about rates. We all remember at the last election when Andrew Barr said rates would not triple. Well, we now know the truth.
This year Andrew Barr announced a slowing of the rates rises that are causing so much pain. The fact is that the pause in the pain is for one year only—this election year. Then it is back to Mr Barr’s rates grab again if Labor are re-elected. The fact is that people’s rates will go up an extraordinary 20 per cent on units, hurting those on the first rung of home ownership and adding to the cost of renting as those costs are passed down. So if you pay $1200 for your unit in rates now, if Labor are re-elected at the following election you will be paying nearly $2000 in rates every year. The fact is that the take from commercial rates is going up another 10 per cent, slamming small business yet again.
In another election year special, Andrew Barr announced green bins. But the fact is that it is only a trial and it is only for some of Canberra. That is perhaps the biggest backflip in ACT election year history, and it is hard to think of a more shallow, poll-driven announcement—until you look at the bus announcement. The government proudly announced a direct bus to Civic, but the fact is that that, too, is only from one location and—would you believe it—even more cynically, only for one single year. It just happens to be the election year.
The fact is that a lot of the announcements in the Labor Party’s budget are actually re-announcements of Liberal Party policies. The Horse Park Drive duplication is a Liberal Party policy copied by Labor. The Cotter Drive duplication—a Liberal Party policy copied by Labor. Ashley Drive and Gundaroo Drive duplications—Liberal Party policies copied by Labor.
Then there is the great myth of economic responsibility. Once again, Mr Barr has promised a surplus in the outyears of this budget. That is his promise. But the fact is that Mr Barr has promised a return to surplus in every budget, but it is always just over the horizon and it has never actually happened. Since Mr Barr has become Treasurer he has actually racked up deficits of $1.1 billion. That is the fact. Mr Barr in five years has spent more than a billion dollars than he has received in revenue, and that is despite all of the rates increases. The fact is that since he has become Treasurer, debt has gone from virtually nothing to $2 billion dollars, and the whole community has to pay the price.
In this budget, the take from land tax is up 11 per cent; duty on rego and transfers another 11 per cent; utilities tax is up nine per cent; and the take on parking, up 22 per cent. That is the truth of this budget, and it is a truth born from an inescapable fact: that, this government has been in power for too long. It is a truism that old governments turn sour and they start to smell. And the smell around this 15-year-old government is manifest in three critical failures.
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