Page 4199 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 23 October 2019
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The motion that I have brought forward today calls on the government to stop these unfair increases to rates, taxes, fees and charges, particularly for those on a low income in the ACT. But we also think it is reasonable that we get all of the modelling that the government have available as to what will be the revenue in future years. They must have done these projections; they must have done this work. As reported yesterday, there is a culture of secrecy in the ACT Labor government. It is a government that is strongly disinclined to tell the taxpayers of Canberra how their money is being spent. It is a government that claims all of the glory but distances itself from all of the pain.
It is reasonable that the people who are paying their bills get to see how much revenue is going to be asked of them in the coming years, so I very much hope that the Greens will be supporting this motion, and particularly paragraph (2)(a). Surely, they will also want to stop unfair increases to rates, taxes, fees and charges, particularly for low income households.
There is no doubt that what I have noted in this motion is absolutely true. There is no doubt that the government received $214 million more in revenue. There is no doubt that, despite the 13 per cent increase in revenue, the ACT government has failed to deliver basic services to a reasonable standard. And there is no doubt that Canberra families are suffering because of the tax burdens placed on them by this government.
If the Greens are once again going to side with the Labor Party on this motion and if they are going to prop up a culture of secrecy, it is a pretty significant indictment of them once again. It is a party that is in cahoots with the Labor Party, and a party that is just as responsible for the hardship that this party has caused as anybody else would be.
I look forward to the contributions in the debate by the Chief Minister and Ms Le Couteur. I have very low expectations that the government will support my motion and deliver the modelling that has been forecast. I think it is fair that all Canberrans get to see how their money is going to be collected in the years ahead.
MR BARR (Kurrajong—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Social Inclusion and Equality, Minister for Tertiary Education, Minister for Tourism and Special Events and Minister for Trade, Industry and Investment) (11.26): The government will not be supporting the motion and I will address the issues that Mr Coe has raised. The government is committed to raising revenue in a way that is fair, efficient and sustainable to deliver the resources needed to fund essential public services. I remind the Leader of the Opposition that, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, tax per capita in the ACT is at the Australian average and indeed is lower than in New South Wales and Victoria.
If he is particularly concerned about increases in taxation per capita, he would be well advised to look to his commonwealth friends. The ABS reports on this annually. The most recently available data—for the 2017-18 financial year—indicates that there was an increase in tax per capita across the nation of 6.9 per cent. The commonwealth government taxation per capita increased by 8.2 per cent. The average taxation per
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