Page 1353 - Week 04 - Thursday, 12 April 2018
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A 91-year-old war widow also wrote to the committee saying she had been forced to cut back on heating, cooling and food to afford her rates.
“I did not expect that at the end of my life, living in this city would be so difficult,” …
That is what a 91-year-old war widow is saying about this government: “I did not expect that at the end of my life, living in this city would be so difficult.” That is why the Canberra Liberals are fired up. That is why the Canberra Liberals will continue to do everything we can to ensure that these voices are heard, because the Labor Party is not listening. The Labor government is stridently going ahead with its selfish regime, which is all about revenue for pet projects rather than the welfare of Canberrans. We will happily stand up for the 91-year-old war widow who says, “I did not expect that at the end of my life, living in this city would be so difficult.” The ABC reported on 8 April:
Self-funded retirees and pensioners made up a substantial portion of the submissions.
“I am 78 and my wife is 89. We live a modest lifestyle on … part-pension, plus some basic superannuation … and my wife is in the early stages of dementia,” …
These are the victims of this rates regime. Unfortunately, the inquiry that was set up by this Assembly did not have long to report. It did not have long to conduct its inquiry. The Canberra Liberals encourage people to have their say, and that is exactly what I hope all members in this place do. I hope that all members encourage Canberrans to contribute to making submissions. As a result, Miss Burch and Ms Lee put out a letter to many households, saying that, as is well known, the Canberra Liberals do not support this rates regime. In actual fact, let us remember that we voted against this rates regime on every occasion, and we also voted against the change of methodology.
Mr Steel: A point of order, Madam Speaker, on relevance. Mr Coe is talking about the substance of the inquiry. That is not the matter that we are discussing today. We are discussing whether a privileges committee should be formed, and he has not gone to that, and continues to speak about the substance of the inquiry, which is not relevant at all.
MADAM SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Steel. I uphold the point of order. Please go to the substance of the motion that is in front of you.
MR COE: The ACT Labor-Greens government took this action, the change of methodology, without a mandate, without consultation and without recognition being given to the fact that apartment dwellers use fewer local services such as garbage collection, roads, footpaths and nature strips, because many of these services are provided by building management and bodies corporate.
The ACT Labor-Greens government did this without analysing the negative impact that higher rates and taxes would have on young Canberrans trying to save to buy
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