Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Finance, Charities and Electoral Matters) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I read with great interest a story in today's Canberra Times titled 'Rates set to fall for most households'. The article states:

Chief Minister Andrew Barr will … use his annual "State of the Territory" address to announce rate freezes for about two thirds of home owners.

This follows Mr Barr's announcement on Monday that his government will freeze a number of fees and charges at 2019-20 levels, including birth, death and marriage registration, car rego, land title fees and others.

What these two announcements ignore, and what most of the media coverage has ignored, is that, since Mr Barr embarked on a so-called tax reform package in 2011, he has jacked up rates and charges year on year, putting a massive strain on Canberra households, families and businesses. While Mr Barr claimed at the time that his so-called tax reform package would see rates increase while stamp duty would be abolished, here we are, nearly 10 years down the track, and rates will have more than tripled and stamp duty is still here, still gouging Canberrans. In fact, even with rates tripling, Canberrans paid more than $15 million more in stamp duty in 2019-20 than they did in 2010-11. What do we expect from the Australian Labor Party and their fellow travellers, the Greens? For them, tax reform means only one thing: tax increases. Their philosophy is to tax you back into the Stone Age, and they are merciless in doing so. Is this some sort of road to Damascus conversion from Mr Barr to lower tax? I don't think so. The reality of the situation is that, having jacked up rates, Mr Barr now finds himself staring down the barrel of an election, with many Canberrans fed up with the gouges and the rorts of his government. What we see here is nothing more than a desperate pre-election fix from a desperate chief minister trying to save his job.

Mr Barr has form on pre-election fixes. Ahead of the 2016 election, instead of the planned nine per cent increase, Mr Barr decided to be generous and only slug Canberrans with a 4½ per cent increase. This was after having year-on-year increases of around 10 per cent. After the election, he returned to his merry ways and his massive tax gouges. When Senator Gallagher was Chief Minister, Mr Barr was her Treasurer. It was they who embarked on this so-called tax reform—I mean, tax-increase plan. I said at the time that, under ACT Labor, Canberrans' rates would triple within a decade, and, of course, Andrew Barr said that that was a lie. Well, here we are, eight years down the track, and we are well on the way. A decade into Senator Gallagher and Chief Minister Barr's grand tax plan, rates revenue will have increased from $209 million in 2011-12 to $697 million by 2021-22—more than triple. Who's paying for that? Of course, it is ordinary Canberrans. History has proven that it is actually Mr Barr who lied to Canberrans, and he should hang his head in shame. Having lied at the start of this tax plan, how can he be believed now, on the eve of an election?

If you don't believe me, perhaps you believe former Labor Chief Minister Jon Stanhope, who is critical of how Mr Barr and ACT Labor have managed the territory's finances since taking over the top job. I quote from Mr Stanhope:

Since releasing the debt genie from its bottle in 2013 net debt in the ACT has "ballooned" to Skywhale proportions. From a position of negative net debt of $736 million in 2011 it has increased in giant leaps, somewhat akin to the cravings of an ice addict for methamphetamine, the more you have the more you need, to a debt of $109 million in 2013; $910 million in 2015; $1.453 billion in 2017 and $2.216 billion in 2019 …

The reality of the situation is that, having jacked rates up every year and increased stamp duty every year, with increasing debt every year, service delivery in the ACT is worse than it has ever been, because the ACT Labor-Greens government is more focused on political grandstanding than getting the basics right. We see this in Mr Barr's chronic underfunding and mismanagement of the ACT health system. Despite Commonwealth funding more than doubling since the coalition came to federal government, Mr Barr has cut hospital funding in real terms year on year. The situation is so egregious that a recent report showed that the ACT has the highest emergency department wait times in the country. Just one in five patients who were classed as 'urgent' was seen within the recommended 30 minutes of presenting themselves. More startling and a figure of real concern is that not even those requiring resuscitation are always seen within the recommended time frame. This is quite an amazing record: jacking up rates, tripling rates in less than a decade, huge tax increases for families and business, yet still delivering record debt and still managing to underfund and mismanage the health system. That is quite the record when you are taking that much tax and still running massive deficits and still delivering such poor services for the people of the ACT.

The reality of the situation is that, under the Barr Labor-Greens government, many Canberrans—working people doing it tough, pensioners and people in lower income households—are locked out of homeownership, lack the essential services they need and are ignored. The Labor-Greens government doesn't even pretend to be committed anymore to affordable housing. And if you haven't got private health insurance, you'll be left waiting years for medical treatment that is essential to your quality of life. Again, Jon Stanhope, the longest serving Chief Minister in the territory's history, has completely lost confidence in Barr's government because it is simply not getting the job done. He says that ordinary Canberrans are:

… abandoned by the Labor Party, ignored by the unions and are invisible to the Greens. Ironically, they now have nowhere left to turn but to Alistair Coe—

and the Liberals

and who could blame them …

Who could blame them, indeed?

I've received many representations on the Barr Labor government's rates rorts from my constituents. Here are some of the direct quotes from people in the community:

They mean increased financial stress, having to choose between maternity leave and returning to work early after only 8 weeks, no family holidays, no extracurricular activities for the children.

The cost to our budget due to rates is significant. We have to go without to make sure they can be paid.

In addition to hurting its own constituents, the disgusting greed of the ACT Labor Government directly damages small businesses and harms the underemployed throughout the territory.

I feel like a cash cow for Barr Government as they are making up any excuse to get more money. Services in the south are dismal. So money leaves our pockets and we see no return.

The rates increases mean I have more difficulty in paying other bills and I have less discretionary funds. Also, what on earth did they spend it on? We have the worst hospital in Australia and dilapidated unmaintained local parks.

This is just some of the feedback from the community about this tired, long-serving Labor-Greens government and how much they are letting the people down. Canberra ought to be the best place in the country to live, but Canberrans are being let down by an uncaring, arrogant and incompetent Labor-Greens government.

I would ask Canberrans not to fall for this pre-election pretence from a government that only ever increases taxes. If we want things to get better in our city, if we want to see real change, then Canberrans need to let their voices be heard at the ballot box in October. Kick out this incompetent Andrew Barr Labor-Greens government and vote for Alistair Coe and the Canberra Liberals.