Page 454 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 19 February 2020
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to go over the border to buy an affordable house. This jurisdiction collectively is letting down so many people, and so much of that is because of the punitive measures of this government.
After 19 years of Labor, we have 30,000 people in the ACT living below the poverty line. About 7,000 kids are living below the poverty line. That is what you get after two decades of Labor. I wonder if you asked people, including the then Chief Minister, in 2001, would you be satisfied that in 2020 there would be 30,000 people, including 7,000 kids living in poverty? Very few people would say yes.
We have had record revenue in this jurisdiction, year after year. We have had ample opportunity but, unfortunately, this government simply does not care. Right now, Canberrans are paying more than ever before for housing, and so much of that is due to this government’s planning policy, land supply and particularly its rates and land tax policies. These policies are harsh, they are unfair and they disproportionately hurt people on low incomes. And this government does not seem to care.
Interestingly, you have a government of 14 members, including two Greens, and not a single one of them seems to object; not a single one seems to say, actually, maybe it is not quite right. Maybe our housing policies are not quite right. Of course, that would take some courage. It would take some conviction. But I, and so many other Canberrans, are so disappointed that not one of them is committed enough to the territory to raise that objection.
Why is it that we have the most expensive housing in the country when it comes to rent? Why is it that Canberra families have to go across the border in order to buy a house? It just should not be that way. It does not need to be that way. I want Canberrans to have higher expectations for their government, because Canberrans deserve a good government. They deserve a government that is on their team. Instead, we have a government that is far more interested in its own grandeur than in the welfare of the people it is meant to represent. That is why we have 30,000 people in the ACT living in poverty. That is why we have 7,000 kids living in poverty in the ACT.
The ACT Cost of Living Report of May 2019, put out by ACTCOSS, lists so many areas where people are being priced out of the market. Fuel prices in Canberra rose by 15 per cent in a year, from 2018. They have risen by 30 per cent over the proceeding decade. Energy prices in the ACT continue to increase above the national rate, with electricity prices rising by 11 per cent, from 2018 to 2019. Fuel and energy costs account for around 12 per cent of income in the lowest income households, compared to just four per cent of income in highest income households. What that means is that the energy policies we have in this city disproportionately affect those on lower incomes.
That is the same for so many of our policies. We also know that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the territory, people from cultural and linguistically diverse backgrounds, people with a disability and women are overrepresented in Canberra’s low-income households. These are the losers of the government’s policies. I accept that there will be a few winners along the way, but there sure are a lot of
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