Added: Nov 18, 2008
From: Kihuonca
Duration: 4:37
19 Aug 08Good Afternoon, Madam Chair, Lord Mayor, Councillors and people in the Public Gallery. My name is Ruth Bonnett and I am pleased to be given this unique opportunity to address you on this day. Lord Mayor, Despite my Canadian accent, I am Aussie through and through, and I am here to tell you that if you think this unprecedented, punitive and selective rates increase for unit owners is sound policy, then Lord Mayor, you're dreaming. I am not a member of any political party, and I voted for you and your team. I am very disappointed with the rates increase decision and the way you have conducted yourself in the council chamber and in the media. Members of your own Party do not support this manifestly unjust rate hike.Lord Mayor you have shown the people of Brisbane that you have fallen short of expectations. You are hiding information from rate payers, you are misrepresenting the truth in the media, using wedge politics to turn ratepayer against ratepayer, you are personally attacking your critics and playing the man instead of the ball on this very important issue which requires sensible debate and discussion. The proposed rate hikes have threatened our financial security, they have interfered with our quiet enjoyment and have put our retirement plans in jeopardy.The quarterly rates as quoted by the selling agent (Sue Hollingsworth) for a home for sale at Coorparoo, on a typical block -- are $536 per quarter. These are not changing in January 09. The Annual Rates per sq m of land are only $4 per square meter.The current rates for our 2 bedroom unit in the City are $400 per quarter. You now want to increase our rates to approximately $1,040 pq.Parity does not mean we pay $1,100 per quarter, and a home owner in the suburbs pays $536 pq, when the costs to deliver services to Unit Owners are less than half of what it costs to deliver those same services to a house in the suburbs.I now want to share the reasons I believe this recent policy of raising rates selectively for unit owners to be wrong.1. You have NOT been completely honest with rate payers -- you have been tricky and secretive in the way these increases have been presented to the public. First, the reported rates increases were in the order of $170 pa for luxury unit owners. There was absolutely no mention of removing the rates cap which is there to protect owners from sharp increases in valuations. You are repeating the story line as many times as it takes for rate payers to believe you. You are implying that all unit owners in the City are Millionaires. You are misrepresenting what unit owners pay per quarter. You are using wedge politics to turn suburban home owners against unit owners by claiming that they have been subsidizing unit owners for many years. Nothing could be further from the truth. Stand up and open a true debate on this issue. Deal with the facts, not fiction.Lord Mayor, have your advisors checked the easily available Census data on the income of residents of PostCode 4000?Lord Mayor, these are NOT the home of Millionaires! 2. These are Unprecedented Changes-- This is a manifest change from assessment of rates based on unimproved property value. You now say that improvements should be taken into account when assessing rates for unit owners. Changes of this magnitude and scope require consultation and debate, not spin doctoring, wedge politics and misrepresentation of rate payer's contributions. 3. You have No Mandate -- Lord Mayor, this change was not announced as part of the election campaign. You do not have the mandate to make substantial and selective changes to the rating system, simply to meet your budget shortfall. We demand long term sustainable policy, not short term, knee jerk fixes. We require solutions, not stealth.4. This is Backward-Thinking 1950's Policy - Punishing ratepayers who chose to live in higher density homes that have a lower impact on provision of services is wrong policy. Council costs should be based on impact of dwelling choice and urban sprawl should be discouraged, not rewarded.Lord Mayor, the High Density Rate Payers in our building are currently paying $90,000 per quarter from 200 units on a 2,500 sq m block of land in the CBD. You are proposing to raise this contribution to $215,000 pq.The equivalent suburban rates collected from an equivalent amount of land anywhere in suburbs such as Coorparoo, Camp Hill, Morningside, Chapel Hill and Pullenvale are in the order of $2,160 per quarter.I think it is abundantly clear that suburban owners of Brisbane are NOT subsidizing High Density Rate Payers.
Channel: News
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