Gary Higgins: Now’s not the time to slug Territorians with new taxes

It’s not the time to be asking Territorians to be opening their wallets more frequently, with ever increasing costs of living, or to create uncertainty for private businesses who have their eyes on investing here, writes Opposition Leader Gary Higgins

Opposition Leader Gary Higgins says the Gunner Government shouldn’t be asking Territorians to open their wallets more frequently.

Put out the open for business sign and open the doors to new Territorians, that’s the message I’d like to see being sent across Australia and to our north.

Now is the time to be providing comfort and certainty to business, big and small. To be doing what we can to keep Territorians in the Territory and to keep them in work.

We should be encouraging more tourists, and welcoming new residents to a fair cost of living, attractive job opportunities, safe communities in which to live, a fantastic lifestyle and great education and health care.

It’s not the time to be asking Territorians to be opening their wallets more frequently, with ever increasing costs of living, or to create uncertainty for private businesses who have their eyes on investing here.

Territorians should not be paying for a government shopping list that should be reprioritised. Why is it that their only answers are to slug Territorians with new taxes and go cap in hand to Canberra?

Territory taxes should not be funding a museum that the community does not want or an underground carpark in the Darwin CBD with no cost-benefit analysis attached to it.

It beggars belief that the Labor Government would not rule out scrapping its proposal to potentially introduce bank, payroll or land taxes when I asked this week in Parliament about the proposed revenue plans.

The midyear economic report­, the halfway benchmark on 2017-18 Budget forecasts indicates­ what’s best described as an accidental improvement.

Regardless, debt is still rocketing to $5.3 billion, and Territorians’ pockets will be the ones hurting as a result.

The last thing the Territory needs is additional taxes and an increased cost of living.

We need look no further than petrol prices, an obvious reminder of prices going skyward each time we drive past the petrol station, with no explanation­ as to why we’re paying so much more than we were just weeks ago.

Territorians are being burnt at the bowser, and we don’t need that trend to continue with more taxes.

And it’s not just one part of our community being hit.

A Pensioner and Carer Concession Scheme is important for older Territorians, and it is well deserved.

However any additional financial­ support will seemingly be sucked back into government coffers and increased living costs, and the scheme itself­ is still months from commencement.

Why won’t this government welcome the $40 million worth of private investment proposed for the Darwin International Airport?

This is not a taxpayer funded development, this is a $40 million project that will create much needed jobs during and after construction.

This is sending the wrong message to private investors that bring their own big dollars, jobs and growth.

This is even more crucial in the current challenging economic climate­. And it’s not just about attracting big business. More than 95 per cent of businesses already here are small businesses.

The Government’s proposed payroll tax is a direct tax on Territory jobs.

The property tax? An attack on every Territorian, just like the increased motor vehicle tax. The proposed insurance duty tax, pushing up the cost of living and the banking tax? That’ll mean higher bank fees and charges.

You have to ask the question, why isn’t the government looking at its own expenditure rather than asking Territorians to open their wallets?

Gary Higgins MLA is the Leader of the Opposition