Page 4197 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 23 October 2019
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Ms Cody, yes, I do know trees that take a long time to grow. One of the things I often point out to people is a photo of a house I moved into in Yarralumla in 1956. There is a house in the middle of a sheep paddock. There are no trees. There is no road. There is nothing. If you look at that area now there are trees. The point is that in Molonglo that will not happen because space has not been left to grow big trees. It is not the same, and that is the point we are trying to make.
I thank the Assembly very much for its support and I look forward to an independent review of what is happening in practice on the ground in the newest area of development in Canberra. If we are to continue to develop in Canberra—I am fairly confident that we will, regardless of who is in government after the next election—we need to learn from what we are doing now and do it better.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Taxation increases
MR COE (Yerrabi—Leader of the Opposition) (11.16): I move:
That this Assembly:
(1) notes:
(a) the ACT Government received $214 million more in taxes during 2018-19 than the previous financial year;
(b) despite this 13 percent increase in revenue the ACT Government has failed to deliver basic services to a reasonable standard in multiple portfolios, including health, education and transport; and
(c) Canberra families are suffering because of the increasing tax burdens placed on them due to the ACT Government’s poor policy decisions and misplaced spending priorities; and
(2) calls on the Government to:
(a) table all modelling regarding the 2018-19 and future revenue projections by 24 October 2019; and
(b) stop the unfair increases to rates, taxes, fees and charges, particularly for low income households.
I think it is fair that we in this place represent Canberrans in asking for greater transparency with regard to how their money is spent. The ACT government is money hungry. It is a government that keeps taking more and more, but it is delivering less and less. Last financial year, as depicted in the annual report and the consolidated financials for 2018-19, the ACT government received $214 million more in tax revenue than it did in the previous financial year. This represents a 13 per cent increase in the revenue that it had brought in through taxation.
The question that every single Canberran should be asked is: are you getting value for money? Is this government delivering for you? Are the services that you are receiving, be they health, education, community, justice, urban services or otherwise,
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