Page 2091 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 5 June 2019
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(c) the heaviest lifting of this reform process has been achieved and the rate of growth in rates will now begin to slow; and
(3) also notes:
(a) housing affordability is a problem facing many Canberrans;
(b) the ACT Government has made the largest investment in public housing renewal and growth in the Territory’s history;
(c) over the 10 years to 2024, the ACT Government will have invested more than $1 billion in public housing and renewed approximately 20 percent of the portfolio;
(d) following an Assembly Motion, the ACT Government is piloting a land tax concessions program for property owners who make properties available at less than 75 percent of the current market rate;
(e) 15 percent of dwellings in the ACT Government’s land release program are to be set aside for community, public and affordable housing; and
(f) the ACT is the only jurisdiction in Australia where homelessness decreased between the 2011 census and 2016 census, but rough sleeping has increased.”.
The amendment highlights the facts as they relate to the ACT economy, to our levels of taxation and to the reforms that have been undertaken in recent times.
There are many things that the Leader of the Opposition has said in his remarks that are not supported by facts. I know we live in a world where you apparently can now just say anything, and expect people to believe it, even though there are no facts to actually support your propositions. Not the least is this continued assertion from the Leader of the Opposition that somehow there is a mass exodus out of the Australian Capital Territory. We in fact have been achieving above national average levels of population growth, and all three components of population growth—births, international migration and migration within Australia into the ACT—have been positive. That is why we have been growing by more than 8,000 people a year. People are voting with their feet and they are moving into Canberra. That would seem to belie the very negative narrative that the Leader of the Opposition has about our city.
More than 8,000 new residents each year are joining our city. That is a very clear indication that people want to live, work, raise a family, study and start a business in this city. In recent times, in the last few years, we have seen very significant business growth in the ACT. We have seen more than 3,000 net new businesses establish themselves in Canberra over the last four years. We have seen our territory’s gross state product grow faster than in the rest of Australia and we have seen per capita gross state product increase. Not only is our population increasing and our economy growing, but per capita we are doing better year on year. That is not an economic circumstance that the majority of Australians are experiencing.
For these reasons I cannot accept the very negative and oppositional assertions of the Leader of the Opposition that somehow no-one wants to live in Canberra, that everyone is leaving, that this place is terrible. It is not. It is the best city in the world in which to live.
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