Canberra Liberals leader Elizabeth Lee will move a motion in the ACT Legislative Assembly today calling on the ACT Labor-Greens government to acknowledge that their economic policies are contributing to the cost-of-living crisis and to apologise to Canberrans for wasting their money.

Ms Lee said that at a time when Canberrans are facing a cost-of-living crisis, the ACT Labor Greens government has wasted:

• more than $76 million dollars and counting on the abandoned HRIMS system
• more than $10 million on the CIT contracts débâcle
• more than $600,000 per year whilst it continues to pay the salary of two CEOs for CIT
• close to $200 million cost blowout for the Canberra Hospital expansion project
• $33 million on the mismanaged Acton Waterfront project
• more than $1.5 million on the rebranding of Canberra Health Services; and
• continues to waste $400 million on interest payments alone on their skyrocketing debt.

“And these are just an example of the long-term and ongoing waste of taxpayer money by Labor and the Greens,” Ms Lee said.

“The 2023 ACT Cost of Living Report by ACTCOSS states that the ACT is experiencing a cost-of-living crisis with more and more Canberrans experiencing hardship, including people in full time work.

“Andrew Barr’s economic policies are putting more pressure on households, students, seniors, and some of our most vulnerable Canberrans.

“Since the Chief Minister announced his tax reform agenda, the amount of money the government collects from ACT taxpayers, including rates, land tax, payroll tax, stamp duty and vehicle registration, has over doubled; an increase of $1.3 billion.

“Over the last decade, this Labor-Greens government and Andrew Barr have increased household rates, vehicle registrations, utilities tax, emergency services levy, just to name a few, and Canberrans are starting to feel the effects of these taxes.

“At the same time, this Labor-Greens government is wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ dollars through incompetence and decisions that are not in the best interests of our community.

“Andrew Barr must apologise to the people of Canberra for not using their hard-warned money to ease the cost-of-living pressures. Instead, he has wasted hundreds of millions on his government’s mismanagement and incompetence, and Canberrans deserve better.”