Page 1097 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 May 2020
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
there will be a need for more ACT government support. People are rightly asking what will happen after September to JobSeeker and JobKeeper, and also what will happen in terms of certainty from the ACT government. I am aware of that and I intend to address those issues in good time.
I thank Mrs Jones for her very kind act of bipartisanship in providing some water at this moment. It is not a beer, Mrs Jones, but cheers; thank you very much. I commend my amendment to the Assembly.
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (3.33): The Greens will be supporting the ALP’s amendment. Mr Coe’s idea is, of course, very attractive on the surface: why should we not get the $150 rebate into people’s hands earlier, given that the additional cost to government would be very low?
The main problem I see with this is that some rates bills for the quarter have already gone out. It would be super confusing to send out a second bill shortly afterwards with a new amount. Members will all recall what happened when the government redesigned the rates bill two years back. It led to a wave of confusion, cranky emails, and even an amendment to a motion by me that I do not think is worth repeating.
I am sure that some people would understand they have just saved 150 bucks and be very pleased. But other people would think that they had to pay both and start panicking. Some people would just pay the first one and end up overpaying. Then there would be a considerable number of people who would think the government was a pack of idiots for wasting money and sending them two bills with different amounts on them. I just cannot see how it is going to work, basically, from a clear communication point of view and certainty to ratepayers.
I also accept the Chief Minister’s point in his amendment that the timing was deliberate, with the rebate intended to provide financial relief after the effects of earlier assistance are over. Timing the rates relief for early next financial year is potentially going to be very useful, because it will come just before the federal government is scheduled to wind back the JobKeeper and the JobSeeker COVID supplement measures at the end of September.
It is also going to come, looking more locally, much closer to the time when the six-month moratorium on evictions due to rental arrears comes to an end, in October. It may be something which will help landlords and tenants reach a more amicable agreement in terms of what they should do with rent arrears, if the $150 rebate to rates turns up during the period when they are negotiating their way out of this problem.
I know that life is starting to take early steps back to normality, but unless the federal government changes its mind on the wind-back, next financial year is going to be economically very grim. Even if you believe the rhetoric of an economic snap-back, which the Greens, along with many economists, think is highly unlikely, there is absolutely no way the ACT government will have restored all of the jobs lost by the end of September. We will still have reduced international student numbers and approximately zero international tourists. Floriade will remain cancelled, along with other large events.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video