27 October 2011

Cost of living exploding?

| johnboy
Join the conversation
31

The Liberals’ Zed Seselja (aka the Working Class Hero) is banging his cost of living drum thanks to the latest ABS stats.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data released yesterday shows Canberra’s cost of living is continuing to rise under ACT Labor. In the past year, the ACT has experienced increases in the price indexes of rents (5.8 per cent), utilities (6.9 per cent), electricity (5.3 per cent) and water and sewerage (12 per cent). The ACT is also equal to Sydney with a consumer price index of 3.7 per cent.

“Under ACT Labor, Canberrans are being taxed more than ever before and are faced with such high basic living costs that many struggle to pay their bills,” ACT Opposition Leader, Zed Seselja said today.

“But instead of moving to reduce these pressures, this government continues to punish taxpayers by pushing ahead with a $430 million office block.

We might have to stop calling that office block “the pleasure dome” and start referring to it as “the root of all evil”.

Join the conversation

31
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

krats said :

Fast Facts

http://www.liveincanberra.com.au/fast_facts.html

Yeah, because the Live In Canberra website is so much more reputable that the Australian Bureau of Statistics. It’s not like they have a bias of trying to get people to come and live here or anything.

Rent, utilities etc are all up various percentages but it’s all okay because a cappuccino apparently only costs me $3.50? Phew!

BethiePrice said :

marcothepolopony said :

Do you think it is the government’s way of deterring and eliminating ‘lower forms of life’ from our community?

Keeping the cost of living sky high will (assist in) keeping out ‘ferals’ and undesirables.

Just a thought…………

Not really, some people take drastic measures when the cost of living becomes to high, thus resorting to ‘undesirable’ status. That bum on the street may have once been a middle income earning home owner forced out of his/her house due to increasing pressures on finances, now they have to beg for food to feed their children.
Plus the price of housing is continuously going up but you don’t see all the government housing on Northbourne being pulled down.
And it’s not just ACT, NSW cost of living isn’t improving either.

If I was to be a bum on the street, i’d do it somewhere warmer than Canberra.

Waiting For Godot said :

The astronomical rise in the cost of living can be pinned fairly and squarely on The Greens. Their pushing of crap like “Canberra Loves 40%” and the other environmental nonsense has pushed up the price of electricity, petrol and everything else down the line.

It might be OK for their mates living in apartments in Civic and the inner north, they can afford all of this. The rest of us are suffering. We can’t go on destroying our standard of living and creating more poverty just to give the Left a warm inner glow.

Electricity is up everywhere because of network costs. Fuel is up because of turmoil in the Middle East.

Market forces.

Do feel free to use price rises as a political stick to beat your enemy, though. All the political parties seem to do it.

Waiting For Godot10:31 am 28 Oct 11

The astronomical rise in the cost of living can be pinned fairly and squarely on The Greens. Their pushing of crap like “Canberra Loves 40%” and the other environmental nonsense has pushed up the price of electricity, petrol and everything else down the line.

It might be OK for their mates living in apartments in Civic and the inner north, they can afford all of this. The rest of us are suffering. We can’t go on destroying our standard of living and creating more poverty just to give the Left a warm inner glow.

Jim Jones said :

JC said :

Hey Zed, hope you or one of your staffers are reading. If you want my vote you need to do more than whinge about how bad labor has made things. How about telling us how you are going to be different and how your gonna fix things. I see from you lot is whinge after whinge after whinge and you won’t get my vote doing that.

It’s working for them federally

It’s not there are any shining lights amongst any of the them anyway.

JC said :

Hey Zed, hope you or one of your staffers are reading. If you want my vote you need to do more than whinge about how bad labor has made things. How about telling us how you are going to be different and how your gonna fix things. I see from you lot is whinge after whinge after whinge and you won’t get my vote doing that.

It’s working for them federally

Hey Zed, hope you or one of your staffers are reading. If you want my vote you need to do more than whinge about how bad labor has made things. How about telling us how you are going to be different and how your gonna fix things. I see from you lot is whinge after whinge after whinge and you won’t get my vote doing that.

Deref said :

Jim Jones said :

Classified said :

Deref said :

Of course it’d be soooo much better under the Libs.

It is said that people get the government they deserve.

Africans must be really terrible people.

+1

Agreed. Oh wait…..

AdventureTime7:49 pm 27 Oct 11

ABS data also shows that the ACT has the highest disposable income, so you could argue that the cost of living reflects this. I guess it depends which statistics you choose to become emotive about [insert comments about disadvantaged members of society and it not being their fault here]. Personally I think most statistics are boring 🙂

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Previousproducts/6523.0Main%20Features172005-06?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=6523.0&issue=2005-06&num=&view=

This is a sh*t load of money to spend on a building. And we are all paying.

Deref said :

Of course it’d be soooo much better under the Libs.

Could it be any worse??

Jim Jones said :

Classified said :

Deref said :

Of course it’d be soooo much better under the Libs.

It is said that people get the government they deserve.

Africans must be really terrible people.

+1

jimbocool said :

Actually, the saying is: “in a Democracy we elect the government we deserve” so it’s not the fault of the Africans, North Koreans, Syrians etc that they have oppressive governments.

As for the pleasure dome/death star, the ACT government has botched the sums as they didn’t allow for depreciation. Office buildings in this town have a useful life of 15-20 years – once the loan is paid off we will be the proud owners of a worthless building.

“Every nation gets the government it deserves (Toute nation a le gouvernement qu’elle mérite)” – Joseph de Maistre, 27 August 1811.

Actually, the saying is: “in a Democracy we elect the government we deserve” so it’s not the fault of the Africans, North Koreans, Syrians etc that they have oppressive governments.

As for the pleasure dome/death star, the ACT government has botched the sums as they didn’t allow for depreciation. Office buildings in this town have a useful life of 15-20 years – once the loan is paid off we will be the proud owners of a worthless building.

Jim Jones said :

Classified said :

Deref said :

Of course it’d be soooo much better under the Libs.

It is said that people get the government they deserve.

Africans must be really terrible people.

There are bad governments all over the world. I’d say this is reflective of what those governments can get away with given the societies they govern, and the underlying nature of the humans holding the power.

Classified said :

Deref said :

Of course it’d be soooo much better under the Libs.

It is said that people get the government they deserve.

Unfortunate, but true.

Classified said :

Deref said :

Of course it’d be soooo much better under the Libs.

It is said that people get the government they deserve.

Africans must be really terrible people.

Canberra is the 15th most expensive in the world to live in.

How much more expensive can a glorified country town get?

Deref said :

Of course it’d be soooo much better under the Libs.

It is said that people get the government they deserve.

Jim Jones said :

Classified said :

Why are they even building the new pleasure dome? Sure, it’s nice to have a new building and all, but that’s a lot of coin.

I think (correct me if I’m wrong) because it’s infrastructure that has a large initial outlay, but offsets against future costs. It was recommended by the Hawke review of the ACT public service as part of a way to make the ACT public service more efficient and accountable.

Clearly someone must have run the numbers, but I’d have thought the interest cost of the money to build would be a large ongoing cost until the loan was eventually paid back. The opportunity cost would be huge, even though down the track (probably in 20-30 years) the ACT govt would own a sizable asset.

marcothepolopony said :

Do you think it is the government’s way of deterring and eliminating ‘lower forms of life’ from our community?

Keeping the cost of living sky high will (assist in) keeping out ‘ferals’ and undesirables.

Just a thought…………

If so, it’s not working.

Of course it’d be soooo much better under the Libs.

marcothepolopony said :

Do you think it is the government’s way of deterring and eliminating ‘lower forms of life’ from our community?

Keeping the cost of living sky high will (assist in) keeping out ‘ferals’ and undesirables.

Just a thought…………

Not really, some people take drastic measures when the cost of living becomes to high, thus resorting to ‘undesirable’ status. That bum on the street may have once been a middle income earning home owner forced out of his/her house due to increasing pressures on finances, now they have to beg for food to feed their children.
Plus the price of housing is continuously going up but you don’t see all the government housing on Northbourne being pulled down.
And it’s not just ACT, NSW cost of living isn’t improving either.

marcothepolopony12:04 pm 27 Oct 11

Do you think it is the government’s way of deterring and eliminating ‘lower forms of life’ from our community?

Keeping the cost of living sky high will (assist in) keeping out ‘ferals’ and undesirables.

Just a thought…………

Jim Jones said :

I think (correct me if I’m wrong) because it’s infrastructure that has a large initial outlay, but offsets against future costs. It was recommended by the Hawke review of the ACT public service as part of a way to make the ACT public service more efficient and accountable.

I think that’s what the Costello Review was meant to do – shared services, centralise departments to be closer to Civic, and much more – and look where that got us.

Classified said :

Why are they even building the new pleasure dome? Sure, it’s nice to have a new building and all, but that’s a lot of coin.

I think (correct me if I’m wrong) because it’s infrastructure that has a large initial outlay, but offsets against future costs. It was recommended by the Hawke review of the ACT public service as part of a way to make the ACT public service more efficient and accountable.

Why are they even building the new pleasure dome? Sure, it’s nice to have a new building and all, but that’s a lot of coin.

JB, they would be the ABS stats, not the ABC stats.

“We might have to stop calling that office block “the pleasure dome” and start referring to it as “the root of all evil”.”

Weren’t you referring to it as the “Death Star” at some point? Seems fairly appropriate.

why is Zed so unhappy? He’s making $200,000+ per year

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.