Page 4583 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 31 October 2018
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
that government has a role in that service provision? If you do not believe that, if you want the world of trickle-down economics, of privatisation, of small government, of Trump-style policies and politics, there is your man. There is your alternative Chief Minister. If that is what Canberrans want, they will vote for that vision, Madam Assistant Speaker, which was put forward to them in 2012 by Mr Seselja and again in 2016 by Mr Hanson, and undoubtedly it will again be put in 2020 if Mr Coe leads his party to the election in October of that year.
That is what we will see from the Canberra Liberals. It would not surprise anyone that that is their fundamental, philosophical view: small government, less involvement in the provision of health and education services and trickle-down economics at its worst. That is what they prescribe for our city.
We have an alternative view: that we should seek to raise revenue in the most economically efficient, progressive and fairest way. That is what we will continue to pursue through our tax reform agenda. We want to remove stamp duties, and we have done so for 70 per cent of commercial property transactions in this city, with a heavy favour for small and medium-sized transactions and small and medium-sized businesses.
Mr Wall: As opposed to an annualised slug.
MR BARR: As Mr Wall’s interjection identifies, those large up-front costs are an inhibitor to people investing in our economy. That has been removed and is therefore not required to be met in any business loans associated with borrowing to acquire commercial property, and remove a significant distortion from investing in our economy.
We also have the first $2 million of a business’s payroll tax free in this jurisdiction, which, compared to New South Wales, is a very generous threshold. The total mix of taxation in our system ensures that, of the three factors of production—land, labour and capital—we tax capital the least, we have a very generous threshold for small and medium-sized enterprises when it comes to labour taxation, and that we focus our tax efforts on the most efficient form of taxation available to our level of government.
That is what we are doing. That is good economic policy, it is very good taxation policy and it also has the benefit of providing consistency and reliability in revenue collection, which allows for the efficient planning and provision of government services, services highly valued government by our community.
The evidence is there to see in terms of business growth, economic growth, low unemployment and record levels of population growth, sustained over an extended period now. People are voting with their feet. More people want to live, work, study and invest in Canberra. That is exactly what we are endeavouring to do in this term of government. We will continue this approach. The amendment I have moved today highlights those policy objectives and policy settings while also providing the information that Mr Coe is seeking earlier than he is seeking it.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video