Page 1093 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 May 2020
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Detail stage
Bill, by leave, taken as a whole.
MR RATTENBURY (Kurrajong) (Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability, Minister for Corrections and Justice Health, Minister for Justice, Consumer Affairs and Road Safety and Minister for Mental Health) (3.17), by leave: I move amendments No 1 to 3 circulated in my name together [see schedule 1 at page 1140]. I also table a supplementary explanatory statement to the amendments.
Amendments agreed to.
Bill, as a whole, as amended, agreed to.
Bill, as amended, agreed to.
Housing–residential rates
MR COE (Yerrabi—Leader of the Opposition) (3.18): I move:
That this Assembly calls on the ACT Government to apply the $150 rebate (or credit) to residential rates for the fourth quarter of 2019-20 rather than in 2020-21.
The Canberra Liberals know that so many people in Canberra are doing it tough. Unemployment is on the rise, underemployment is increasing, businesses are struggling and households are doing it tough. About six or so weeks ago the ACT government announced that a $150 rebate would be issued to ACT households. However, the fine print was that the rebate does not kick in until August, September or October, depending on what tranche of rates you are in. Therefore, for this very modest sweetener, this very modest amount of support, a household has to wait six months.
It is, of course, no coincidence that at the same time this modest rebate kicks in an ACT election campaign will be taking place. I do not think it is too much of a conspiracy theory or too outlandish to suggest that there is a correlation.
A rebate of $150 is not much, but it is something, and Canberra households that are doing it tough need that support now. For a household to which $150 will be significant, it is going to be significant now. The household that can ride out the next six months without that $150 could, arguably, be nowhere near as needy as the ones that need it right now. It is poor form at the height of COVID for the government to make this big announcement about a $150 rebate but then in the fine print say it is not coming for six months.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video