WED 11 dec 2013
Printed on 100% recycled paper
Karnivool
PROUDLY INDEPENDENT
Trades & Services Need help at your place this weekend? p.45-50
“Not good enough” ARIA winners coming to town p.33
Shortland MP angry over proposed tax hike on site fees Amelia Parrott @amelia_parrott
P
ensioners living in low-cost manufactured housing could be forced to cough up an extra $30 per fortnight if new plans to place a GST on site fees at home parks come to pass. In October, the Australian Taxation Office issued a draft ruling to impose a 10 per cent tax on moveable home owners on rented sites, a move that Member for Shortland, Jill Hall, believes will leave thousands of pensioners in her electorate worse off. “This is not good enough,” Ms Hall said. “95 per cent of people who live in moveable home parks are actually pensioners, they’re on limited income and a GST on top of a rental payment will be a big impost on their lifestyle and cost of living. They shouldn’t be penalised for deciding to live in this communal environment.” Ms Hall said, when questioned by a member of the opposition about the proposed changes during parliament last week, Prime Minister, Tony Abbott’s response was, “things happen.” She felt the Prime Minister was backing out of his election promise not to expand the GST.
EXCLUSIVE Pyne interview p.3
Special Olympics All of the Games action
p.4-5
Member for Shortland, Jill Hall receives a petition from Sunstrip Residential Home Park resident Bev Mulholland “Before the election the Government said that there would be no change whatsoever, no extension to the GST, and even if it is a decision of the ATO they need to make sure this doesn’t come into being.” Bev Mulholland, a resident of Sunstrip Residential Home Park in Blacksmiths, told the Post that the proposed changes would leave her $30 out of pocket each fortnight. “I pay $149 a week rent so this change will cost
me nearly $30 a fortnight and when we have our annual rate increase I could be looking at a lot more,” she said. “I’ve seen people here who hardly manage on a pension now. A lot of us don’t know what we’ll do.” Residents of the Blacksmiths park gathered on Friday to present a petition containing 3,000 signatures to Ms Hall, who will take the petition to Canberra this week.
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