Page 3582 - Week 12 - Thursday, 19 September 1991
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Certainly, some landlords will have bought their properties before that phase and will now be entitled to say, "I have sustained a period of bad weather. The rates have now come down and I am entitled to expect the same kind of revenue from my property that I originally anticipated when I bought it". However, when another burden comes along, human nature being what it is, it is quite logical that people will pass that burden on, and in this case that burden is land tax.
Make no mistake, this Government will see increases in residential rent rates above what might ordinarily be expected, simply and solely because of its land tax. It will happen. Let us watch the market and see what happens. I can assure you that it will happen.
I emphasise, though, what Mr Kaine said about this tax. Despite the many misgivings that the Opposition has about this tax and the many problems we see with its operation, we do not believe that it is responsible or appropriate for us, sitting on opposition benches, without access to all the levers and knobs that one has in government to regulate and control and to test particular theories of activity and behaviour, to go modifying this tax and, at the same time, make a major impact on this Government's budget.
We believe that it is more appropriate for this Government to live or fall by its budget. This Government will have to face the people and explain why it has imposed this tax and why there is no threshold, as there is in other States where this tax applies. I suspect - in fact, I know - that many people will not accept that explanation. They will say that this is an inequitable provision and that the Government that has provided this inequitable provision should go. The size of the hole that might be knocked in the Government's budget would be very large indeed were it to be rejected in whole or even in part by the establishment of a threshold. We have considered the matter and decided that it is much better for the Government to live or fall by its own decisions.
I think that much debate about this legislation will have to ensue in the wider community. Its impact will be felt by people in coming months when the legislation is passed. I understand that 1 October, or thereabouts, is the operational beginning of this tax. That is not sufficiently far ahead of the election on 15 February for it to save the Government some direct concern, and direct impact from that tax.
I am not convinced by anything that has been said about why the threshold will not work in the ACT. It works in other places with aggregation; it should work here on the same basis. But how you do that, of course, is a matter for a government to work out. I hope that we, in government next
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