Page 1098 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 May 2020
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Ending JobKeeper and the JobSeeker COVID supplement in late September would dump a large number of people on to the base rate of unemployment benefit. The base rate is grossly inadequate, as I have spoken about in the Assembly on many other occasions. This is the view of a lot of people, everyone from the Greens to ACOSS and, in fact, the Business Council of Australia. I think it is well accepted almost everywhere except in the federal coalition government.
In conclusion, the Greens will not support Mr Coe’s idea of bringing the rates rebate forward because it would cause significant confusion to ratepayers who get two bills. It would also change the timing from an economic stimulus perspective. We agree with the Chief Minister when he points out that the timing was deliberate and quite probably very good. So we will, instead, support the Chief Minister’s amendment.
MR WALL (Brindabella) (3.37): Now, more than ever, Canberra ratepayers need some sort of cost of living relief. We know that one of the biggest causes in the blowout of household budgets over previous years has been in residential rates. This has been the case for some time. The disproportionate increases in our residential rates bills over the years have hit crisis point for many households, particularly in my electorate of Tuggeranong.
The Canberra Liberals’ prediction in 2012 that our rates would triple has become a reality. The cumulative impact of 19 years of Labor and the Greens at the helm, nine of those with Andrew Barr in charge of the budget, is now coming home to roost. The issue of unfair rates rises has been a topic of conversation in Tuggeranong households and, indeed, Canberra households for many years.
We had warned that it would happen via tax reform put forward years ago. Who can forget the infamous words, at the time, of Mr Barr’s mentor, the former Labor Treasurer Ted Quinlan, who stated, “Tax them till they bleed but not until they die”—“them”, of course, being the families paying rates across the ACT?
Now we are in a climate where over 10,000 Canberrans have lost their jobs in the space of a couple of months. Cost of living relief is a necessity; it is no longer a bonus. Assistance that will bring relief to families when they need it most, when so many Canberrans need assistance in balancing their bills, is now needed most.
The fact is that we are talking about a rates rebate of only $150 that will have a significant impact for the families who need it most but, in the scheme of things, is only a fraction of the significant increases that have been levied over the previous years on every ACT ratepayer, simply to cover their costs. The $150 rebate that is being offered is barely enough to cover a trolley of groceries for most families.
Again, the very least that could happen is that any rebate that is being offered be offered immediately and provide immediate relief to those who need it most. Again, we call on the government to do this as a priority and to do it immediately.
MR COE (Yerrabi—Leader of the Opposition) (3.39): The Canberra Liberals do not put this in the too-hard basket, as the Labor Party and the Greens do. We think it is quite doable in the ACT government rates system to attach a $150 credit to everybody’s account right now. It is doable. They just do not want to.
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