Page 5086 - Week 13 - Thursday, 29 November 2018
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
example, a light industrial company—will pay total taxes of $26,860 in the ACT but would pay $78,407 in New South Wales. That same business owner, if they purchased the property after 1 July this year, would pay no stamp duty in the ACT—zero—compared with $40,490 in stamp duty across the border.
It is only if a business is very large, with an annual payroll bill above $2 million, that their tax bill in the ACT would approach that which they would pay in New South Wales, and even then, once the higher cost of stamp duty in New South Wales is factored in, many large businesses would continue to be better off in the ACT.
Like Mr Coe’s brain snap earlier this year when he suggested he would abolish payroll tax, at a cost to the territory budget of half a billion dollars annually, this campaign on commercial rates shows where his real priorities lie. He does not care about the small businesses that are clearly better off under the ACT’s tax system. He is in fact campaigning now to give tax breaks to Australia’s and the world’s biggest companies, tax breaks that only the biggest companies and commercial landowners may benefit from. They may be his values, but he should be at least up-front with the Canberra community that that is what lies behind this campaign.
I am certain that the PAC inquiry will canvass all of these issues. I am equally sure that we will have plenty of time to unpack Mr Coe’s unfair plans to give tax breaks—massive tax breaks; half a billion dollars of tax breaks—to the banks, to the major multinationals, to the major gouging supermarket and petrol companies that operate in this city, to the biggest developers, as we get closer to the 2020 territory election—if he stays in his job through that period. The government is happy to agree to this referral. We look forward to the committee’s insights when it reports back to the Assembly next year.
In closing, I draw members’ attention to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. It does a business count and looks at how many businesses are operating in jurisdictions. The bureau states:
During 2016-17, all States and Territories … experienced an increase in business counts … Over this period, the largest percentage increase was in the Australian Capital Territory … followed by New South Wales …
So we saw the largest percentage increase in the number of businesses operating in our jurisdiction. This fact gets in the way of Mr Coe’s narrative that business is abandoning the ACT and moving across the border to pay stamp duty in New South Wales, to pay more taxes in New South Wales, to pay the transaction costs of stamp duty in New South Wales, the costs of physically moving a business into New South Wales and to pay more payroll tax in New South Wales.
The statistics from the ABS show the exact opposite of what Mr Coe is arguing. But never let the facts get in the way of one of your ideologically blinkered opinions. Here we go once again. This is the party that supports tax cuts for the big banks, tax cuts for the biggest businesses in this country and does not support a fair and progressive tax system. It is the same issues that play out nationally and played out in the Victorian state election just last week. If you want to continue down this path, please
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video