Page 3247 - Week 11 - Thursday, 12 September 1991
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Mr Kaine also raised the question of the possible additional rent that people may have to pay if - and it is "if" - their landlord chooses to pass on the land tax by way of rent increase. Again, there are a couple of things to say. The first is that rent is most usually increased at the changeover of a lease. When there is a new tenant and a new lease is drawn up, the land tax may be reflected at that time. As Mr Kaine has said, the impact I expect if landlords choose to pass on the net effect of land tax is, on present indications, around the $4 to $5 a week mark. That is a very far cry from the kinds of figures that have been bandied about by the Real Estate Institute, the Housing Industry Association, and so on.
Far from creating a special class of tenants, what I have done, and it has been done in every State and the Northern Territory, is include this class of tenants in a general revenue provision which other landholders have to pay. I do not see it as a particularly remarkable step.
Finally, Mr Kaine made a point about its impact on low income families, and again I think that is a valid point. It is something that I and the Government have been concerned about in drafting the legislation.
Mr Collaery: Why announce it in advance? The landlords have all applied it now.
MS FOLLETT: Mr Collaery interjects that the landlords have already applied it. They can apply it only in accordance with the Landlord and Tenant Act, and I trust that they have done so. If they have not, I trust that that is drawn to attention. As I have said many times, I have been concerned to ensure that the extension of the tax base does not have an adverse impact on low income families and low income renters. I have asked the Minister for Housing to keep a very close watch on the situation and to advise the Government on the impact that the broadening of this tax base may have on private renters, particularly those in the lower income brackets.
However, I think it would be wrong to assume that all renters are in lower income brackets. They clearly are not. I understand Mr Kaine's concern. I share that concern, and I will be looking to the Minister for Housing to advise me if and when any action needs to be taken to further protect those low income families.
MR KAINE: I ask a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. The Treasurer is aware that about one in eight residential units in the ACT is owned by the Housing Trust, and not all of the occupants of those 12,000 housing units are by any means low income earners or deserving of any support at all from the community in terms of the amount of rent they pay. Do you not agree that you are now statutorily creating an elite class of tenants who, irrespective of their income and irrespective of their ability to pay, will be shielded from the net effect of the rent increase that flows from this one per cent increase in land tax?
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