Page 3572 - Week 12 - Thursday, 19 September 1991
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RATES AND LAND TAX (AMENDMENT) BILL (NO. 3) 1991
Debate resumed from 12 September 1991, on motion by Ms Follett:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
MR KAINE (Leader of the Opposition) (4.37): This Bill is a matter of some concern to the Liberals in opposition, and there is much about it that I believe is of concern not only to us but also to the general community. That in no way is a criticism of the Government or the fact that it seeks to bring this Bill forward. It is its right to do so. But there are things about it that I believe need to be resolved. We have attempted, in the last week since the Bill was tabled, to resolve some of those issues, and we have been unsuccessful.
I would have to say that officers of the ACT Government Service have been most helpful in providing information for us, within their capability to do so. But that has not resolved some of our concerns, because the information that we believe we need to address a couple of issues - which I will come to in a minute - simply is not available; it simply is not recorded, apparently, in the form in which we need it to be able to evaluate some of the proposals in this Bill.
We note that the Government has taken up one of the initial public concerns that had to do with principal residences. They have now excluded the principal residence from the impost proposed in this Bill. That, of course, is fair and reasonable.
We believe, however, that there are other people who should be considered; and I foreshadow that a Liberal government, after February, will address a couple of issues that this Bill raises. We foreshadow that, because I do not believe that it is possible for us to resolve them in the meantime.
One of the issues, however, is one that the Government itself may wish to take up in the intervening period; and that is the fact that there are people who own rented accommodation who will be significantly and unfairly affected by the imposition of this tax. I refer specifically to people on fixed incomes, perhaps long retired, who have an investment in a couple of properties to supplement their income in retirement. They have no way of recovering the impost of this tax, except simply to pass it on to the tenant.
The Government has expressed the view that not all landlords will be able to do that; nor should they. But I think that there are people in that category, and I just mention it as a particular element of the community where further consideration needs to be given to their position, and to whether or not there ought to be some provision in this Bill for application for waiver of the tax in certain compassionate circumstances.
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