Page 3226 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 21 August 2019
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We also heard the absolute ramblings of the Greens, who want to see property value based taxation. Ms Le Couteur was quick to say that there are often people that have lived in the street for 30 or 40 years and it would be sad to see them go. It is that exact kind of policy that would see people unable to stay in their homes.
You have got a position here where government wants to tax people and the homes that they own and the business premises that they bought to better themselves, to get themselves ahead more and more, aided and abetted by two Greens members who want to see the reform go further, to the point that it chucks people out of their family homes. That is what she has said here today. For the pensioner who has lived in, say, Braddon for 40 years, the value of that property will have skyrocketed. That is just the nature of the property market in most major cities.
What Ms Le Couteur has advocated here today is that the market value of that property be taxed, not the underlying land valuation, which is a very small proportion of the property’s values. I think that is very scary. The electorate should be well aware that voting for Labor and the Greens is opening the door to those kinds of extreme policies.
Home owners and commercial property owners have borne the brunt of this government’s largesse and recklessness. And it continues. They have a little over 12 months before there is an opportunity to vote the government out of office. I hope that they take that opportunity at the next election. It is becoming more difficult for businesses to grow in the ACT. It is becoming more difficult for home owners to make ends meet. We have seen electricity costs spiral out of control under this government, through some reckless policies. Labor are saying that the Liberals are focused on reducing taxes. Absolutely we are. We believe in a lower taxing government. We believe that people’s money is best served in their pocket, being spent on the things that they deem necessary.
We also have a government that is reckless in its spending. There is a spending problem in the ACT, more so than a revenue problem. The revenue is increasing but the spending is increasing beyond compare. Mr Barr claims that he is concerned about the next generation and leaving a legacy. The deficit has continued to grow under his tenure as Treasurer. Net debt in the ACT is on the increase and we are now trying to move things off the books in a different fashion. We are entering into public-private partnerships that go for generations, for 20-plus years. That is what you call tying a weight around the feet of the next generation. Do not come in here and lecture us that tax reform is all great and it is about serving the next generation when you are signing the documents that are spending the money, tying that debt to the next generation.
There are about 14 months to go until the ACT public get to have their say on the future of this territory. I think they are going to be voting very hard in favour of a change of government after 18 years of reckless spending.
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (10.50): Under standing order 47, I seek leave to speak again to correct the misinterpretation of my words by Mr Wall.
Leave granted.
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