Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the member for Shortland's motion, and I urgently call on the Prime Minister and the Liberal-National government to act to ensure these residents do not have to pay GST on the site rental for their mobile homes. I will continue to hold this new government to account for a whole range of issues that impact on the people of the North Coast, and this is one issue of grave concern. Since this matter was first brought to my attention, in the past weeks I have been inundated with concerns from very deeply distressed constituents who quite simply cannot afford this rent increase.

Throughout the nation, mobile home parks provide affordable housing for hundreds of thousands of Australians every day, particularly pensioners. On the New South Wales North Coast, thousands of local residents live in these parks. These are people who are already doing it very tough when it comes to any increases in the cost of living, and they simply cannot afford to pay an extra 10 per cent GST on their rent. It is also important to note that mobile home parks are very strong communities and often provide vital support and friendship for those residents, and this government has again severely underestimated how vocal these groups will be in fighting the government to stop this unfair cash grab.

We have had this fight before and the community has spoken out on this issue before, as we have heard some speakers mention today. When the Howard government introduced the GST, it caused great distress as to how it was to be applied to mobile homes in caravan parks. They disregarded the effect the GST could have on the most vulnerable in society and those living in these parks. They did not think to protect those who live in mobile homes by specifying their exclusion when they drafted the legislation. It was cruel then that those most vulnerable in our community were being hit with this GST, and it is equally cruel now. Back then, the people of the North Coast fought back and later forced the then Howard government to back down—a great community victory. And the victory in 2001 meant that mobile home parks were to be deemed residential premises and were therefore exempt from GST. However, just a few weeks ago, on 30 October 2013, following a review, the Australian tax office released a draft ruling to say that these mobile home estates would no longer be considered residential premises and therefore no longer exempt from GST.

Given that initial community outrage 12 years ago, and the outrage in the past few weeks, I cannot understand why the Liberal-National party have not acted and spoken out against this unfair ruling and stated what action they will take. What I find particularly appalling is that the local National Party on the North Coast have remained completely silent on this issue whilst their party is looking to bring in this unfair GST increase in the mobile home parks. In that shameful grouping I will include the state National Party members of parliament, the National Party councils and indeed local National Party branch members—all have been silent while their party is bringing in this most devastating GST affecting thousands of people in mobile home parks. In fact, they will probably remain silent; as they have shown on other issues, they just do not seem to care about the most vulnerable in our area on the North Coast.

I would like to also take this opportunity to pay tribute to all those locals in my area who have spoken out about this very cruel and nasty plan. I would particularly like to give credit to Mr Ken Cummins from the Tweed branch of the Affiliated Residential Parks Residents Association and the attention that he has brought to this very important issue. Ken has highlighted that, with the imposition of the GST on mobile home rents, rent increases in some parts will be up to $50 a fortnight. This means that those who can least afford it could be forced to sacrifice some very important everyday necessities, because of the low incomes they are on. This is an increase they simply cannot afford.

I would also like to acknowledge the fact that many of our local media on the North Coast have done a great job in highlighting this issue, particularly the Tweed Sun. I think their headline on 14 November said it all: 'Sneaky move: federal government GST plan targets park rents'. The article quotes Ken Cummins saying that it would impact more than 2,000 people in Tweed parks alone. Mr Cummins also highlighted the fact that they have a local petition which already has more than 1,500 signatures. So you can see that a lot of people, in signing those petitions, are concerned.

The online Echo, on 13 November, had the headline 'GST hike on mobile-home pensioners "devastating"'. The article outlined the concerns of the many local pensioners who will be impacted by this. The headline in the online My Daily News was 'Parkies face 10 per cent rent rise from GST proposal'. I also note the local ABC has raised the issue on a number of occasions. The reason they continue to raise the issue is that most people who have been in that area over the past decade realised many years ago what a big issue it was and have mobilised very quickly, particularly the people within those mobile home parks. It is not just Ken; he has a lot of people out and signing this petition. There is very widespread concern across the community, and, as I said, it is causing great distress to very vulnerable people.

In light of that, I would like to conclude by urgently calling on the Prime Minister and the Liberal-National party to listen to the concerns of people across the country. I ask them urgently to act and to ensure these residents do not have to pay GST on the site rental for their mobile homes.

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