Page 2340 - Week 07 - Thursday, 4 August 2016
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The concessions program provides important help to around 30,000 Canberra households who need assistance with cost-of-living pressures. Concessions provide assistance that is additional to the support provided by universal core government services for people and households most in need. The territory government provides numerous concessions, including for electricity, gas and water bills; household rates; public transport; motor vehicle registrations; drivers licences; spectacles; taxis; and funerals. In 2016-17, the government will provide $53.5 million for these concessions.
We remain committed to supporting Canberrans most in need and, as we announced in the budget this year, we are investing an extra $35 million into our concessions program over the next four years. This investment followed a review of the program in consultation with the community to create a fairer, more sustainable and more accessible system to support vulnerable Canberrans into the future. The additional investment ensures that Canberrans can continue to have access to the concessions that they rely on.
As we discussed in question time, the ACT is a relatively low taxing jurisdiction. Our own-source revenue as a share of gross state product is the second lowest of any jurisdiction in Australia. That bears repeating: our own-source revenue as a share of our gross state product is the second lowest of any jurisdiction in Australia. And as ACT government taxation forms a small part of overall household costs, the Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows that average taxation per capita in the ACT compares favourably with other jurisdictions. Again, from question time today, the ACT per capita taxation of $3,524 is below the average across Australia of $3,755—below that of New South Wales, below that of Victoria and below that of Western Australia.
There are many other examples of the ACT government reducing the cost of living, such as the abolition of all tax on insurance products; the significant cuts to stamp duty, which are a massive up-front impost on housing affordability; our emergency and material financial aid program; our mortgage relief fund; the land rent scheme; the disability duty concession scheme; the student support fund; the secondary bursary scheme; the mobile dental clinic; the dental services scheme; and the women’s health service, to name but a few of the strong programs that we have to support the most vulnerable and most disadvantaged in our community.
The territory government remains committed to supporting Canberra households. Through the programs and policies that we have implemented, the government is ensuring that Canberrans, particularly low income Canberrans, have the right support they need and the right services they need. These are the values that we hold very dear and will always fight for in this place.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (3.45): I am going to take the opportunity today to focus on two particular issues that are significant items in the household budget—energy and transport. There are other topics, but Mr Barr has covered them quite well. I will focus on these two particular topics because the ACT Greens have long argued that a key way we can reduce the ongoing costs for residents is to reduce the cost of their energy bills which, we argue, can be done by both less energy usage and making our housing more energy efficient.
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