Page 3217 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 21 August 2019
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As Mr Stanhope and Dr Ahmed said, there is a real impact from the increase in taxation for families on low incomes. The $100 increase in taxation for a wealthy household is not going to have the same impact that a $100 increase is going to have on a poor household. Even if you are talking about this notional cup of coffee a week, $2.80 a week for a family with $200,000 a year in income may well be a drop in the ocean, but $2.80 a week for a family on $40,000 or $50,000 a year becomes far more significant. Of course, there are many households that are not even on $40,000 or $50,000 a year.
What is more, we are not just talking about a cup of coffee a week, as the Chief Minister promised back in 2012; we are talking about considerably more than that. In fact, the increases to the fixed charges, the fire and emergency services levy and the fixed component of rates alone are considerably more than that cup of coffee a week. Now we are talking about a cup of coffee a day, and then some.
When you talk about $20 to $30 extra a week, you are starting to impact people’s quality of life pretty significantly. You are starting to impact people’s expenditure choices. People start to have to forgo things; they start to have to sacrifice. Often, that is going to mean sacrifice as to whether they turn the heating on in winter, on Christmas, on that trip to the coast, on that schnitzel down at the club once a fortnight.
It is all very well to look at budget papers and just see numbers scattered across hundreds of pages, but there is a personal impact from all of these decisions. It is all very well for the Chief Minister to sit up in his office, meet with treasury officials and just dial it up slightly—a bit more, a bit more—year on year. That dialling it up, that magnification, has a huge impact, especially on the lower quintiles in our community.
This goes to fairness, it goes to justice and it goes to deception. If you said back in 2012 what the situation would be in 2019, a lot of people would not believe you. But that is exactly what did happen. Back in 2012 the Canberra Liberals said that rates would triple. We were accused of fearmongering; we were accused of lying.
Let us have a look at the numbers today. Let us have a look at what is in the budget papers for 2020-21. Let us have a look at the distributional impact of this rates regime. Let us have a look at just how many families in Canberra are doing it tough. People in 2012 were conned; they were deceived by their government.
Surely there are members of the Labor Party—surely there are MLAs in this place, on the other side of the chamber—who know that this regime is hurting Canberrans. Do any of them speak out? Do any of them speak up internally? Do any of them say, “Enough is enough. Let’s just put it on hold. Let’s just put our pride away for a moment and put the brakes on”? We do not hear it. How can they just ignore the emails that they must receive from the people that we receive emails from? They say they are doing it tough as a result of the cost of living; they are doing it tough because of the rates, taxes, fees and charges imposed by this government. I am afraid the stock standard line that we have a more efficient tax system does not quite cut it when you are cold in winter.
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