Page 291 - Week 01 - Thursday, 13 February 2020
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Speaking of stamp duty, this is the government that has abolished stamp duty for first homebuyers. This is the government that has seen the buyer of a $500,000 home now paying $9,100 less in stamp duty than when tax reform commenced. That is a saving of $10,570 compared with the stamp duty payable in Victoria, and $6,590 compared with New South Wales. I have heard those opposite say, “You just add it to your mortgage.” That is what the opposition wants you to do: pay interest on $9,100 that you do not have to pay under this government. Pay interest on it every year for 25 or 30 years, because it will be the last bit of your mortgage that you pay off. When you add that up, that is a lot of money for Canberrans every year.
We know that there are Canberrans who struggle from day to day. We are committed to doing what we can to help them. We will continue to invest in our public services, to grow our economy and to provide vulnerable Canberrans with the assistance they need to live fulfilled and happy lives.
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (4.21): I thank Mr Wall for providing yet another opportunity—although it is a pity he is not here to listen to it—to talk about these important issues. They are important issues, particularly to lower income earners in Canberra. We have to remember that quite a substantial number of people in Canberra do not earn as much money as we in this place are privileged to earn.
Continuing the themes from yesterday, one of the obvious ways to reduce cost of living pressures is to have a good public and active transport system because it is actually quite expensive to run a car. I looked up the NRMA’s figures, because it does them regularly, and it says that the cheapest car to run is the three-cylinder Suzuki Alto, which it reckons costs $89 a week. Coincidentally, that is the type of car I have, but I am not spending that much on it because I seldom use it. At the other end of the scale the dearest that the NRMA listed was the V8 Holden Caprice, which it thought would cost $361 a week to run. I do not think it has gone very high up the list; I think you can spend an awful lot more than a Holden Caprice costs.
The point I want to make is that, for people with anything other than a very small car, it is very clear that taking the bus is cheaper than having a car. MyWay cards are capped at $9.50 per day on a weekday and $5.87 on a weekend. It is not a lot cheaper than using my little Alto, but it is still a little bit cheaper; and on some days you do not necessarily use the bus. Of course, if you walk or ride your bike, as Mr Parton does, it can well be even cheaper. Given that the cheapest car costs close to $100 a week to run, by the time you pay for parking—and most people in Canberra would spend some money on parking—you are talking about an amount of money which, for most of us, is bigger than our rates. It just does not turn up in one bill that says, “Your car costs this much.”
It is really important and useful to have a public transport system which enables families not to have two cars, to have one car, if they have to, to take the kids to sport and after-school activities. I do appreciate that that is very hard to do on public transport, but it is a huge saving for a family if they can be a one-car family, not a two-car family, and it is a huge saving if you can work out how to be a zero-car family, so that you use public transport, you walk, you cycle, and you use the car-share options that are available, be it taxis, GoGet, Popcar or Car Next Door.
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