ACT Opposition Leader Leanne Castley has taken aim at the government, using her budget reply speech to accuse Labor of missing the mark on bread and butter issues.
This week’s ACT budget included increased charges and levies for ratepayers as the government attempted to address a deficit of more than $1 billion.
Ms Castley said the government had lost focus on the issues that Canberrans cared about.
She argued that “Andrew Barr’s big economic vision” had meant her political rival no longer recognised politics as local.
“Most people in Canberra aren’t political tragics or ideologues, they just want their lights to turn on, they want good healthcare in an emergency and an operation when they need it,” Ms Castley said.
“We have to get ourselves to a position where we have that spending under control, which isn’t about cutting jobs.
“It’s about understanding what needs to be done and how we need to do the best things that we can for Canberrans.”
While criticising the government, Ms Castley did not outline any new policies of her own.
“We will take our time and when we’re ready with solid policies, we will share that with Canberra, far sooner than just before the election, … to build that trust that the Canberra Liberals are a team people can get behind,” she said.
She said future announcements would include a focus on housing affordability and measures to tackle what she said was an “exodus of small businesses from Canberra”.
Small business woes
Hamid Monga is one business owner feeling the pinch. He opened a dry cleaning business in Canberra’s inner north five months ago.
“In the budget there’s no incentives for the businesses at the moment, especially to go green.”
The former public servant says he’s done everything he can to keep costs down while running promotions to attract more customers.
“But because of the high rates and the cost of living and the inflation … [revenue] is not going up at all,” Mr Monga said.
The budget lowers the threshold for collecting payroll tax to capture more small and medium businesses.
Those with a payroll above $1.75 million will now have to contribute, down from $2 million.
Mr Monga said he was relieved that he did not have enough employees to incur payroll tax, but as a leaseholder, he feared his landlord would pass on the costs of increased commercial rates.
High value commercial properties with a land value of $5 million or higher will now also have to pay more in rates.
“We certainly don’t like it and we don’t welcome it,” Ashlee Berry, the ACT and capital region executive director of the Property Council of Australia, said.
“The increases on commercial rates, year on year, are just unsustainable and they’re hurting our industry. They’re hurting our businesses and we need to see something more happen.”
Canberra Business Chamber chief executive Greg Harford agreed.
“It is increasingly difficult to do business here in the ACT,” he said.
“It is expensive … and there are a number of challenges around labour and the regulatory environment.”
He said the government should be asking itself