Page 2088 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 5 June 2019

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Government—taxes and charges

MR COE (Yerrabi—Leader of the Opposition) (10.44): I move:

That this Assembly:

(1) notes:

(a) the increasing cost of living in Canberra due to ACT Government rates, taxes, fees and charges;

(b) general rates and land tax have risen from $324 million in 2011-2012 to $625 million in 2017-2018; and

(i) the tax burden has increased significantly;

(ii) the price of land has doubled between 2011 and today;

(iii) Canberra is now the most expensive city to rent a house; and

(iv) the ACT is the worst in the country for repeat periods of homelessness; and

(2) calls on the Government to bring about urgent relief for Canberrans by:

(a) halting Labor’s punitive rates and land tax increases; and

(b) bringing certainty, confidence and efficiency to the land release and planning system.

I have moved this very important motion today because I know that there are thousands of Canberrans that are doing it tough. When we look to the gallery and see all the students from Ainslie Primary School, we are reminded of the importance of making wise decisions here so that their future is even brighter, even better, even stronger, than what it is right now.

That is why I am so concerned about the situation with our budget and particularly the cost of living in the ACT. I believe that there are thousands of Canberrans that are doing it tough, largely because of decisions that this government has made. Particularly through rates, land taxes, a myriad of fees and charges, and of course the cumbersome planning system, this government has driven up the cost of living in this city. The cost of housing in the ACT is out of reach for tens of thousands of people.

This government seem to have no qualms about the fact that, under their watch, after 18 years of Labor, we have 27,000 people living in poverty—27,000 people below the poverty line—in the ACT, after 18 years of Labor. That is what it has come to. This has been exacerbated as a result of this so-called tax reform. What the tax reform has done is drive up the cost of housing in the ACT. In fact it is renters that feel the pinch the worst.

There is not a single property in the ACT, according to Anglicare, that is deemed to be affordable. How can the members of the Labor Party tolerate that? How can the backbench members of the Labor Party tolerate the fact that there is not one single affordable property in the ACT? Not one. Of the 170,000 properties in the ACT, not one is deemed to be affordable by Anglicare.

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