Page 3583 - Week 12 - Thursday, 19 September 1991
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year after the election, will be able to address the problems that we will have inherited from the Labor Government and deal with the problems that this tax will have imposed, because clearly they will be many.
MR DUBY (5.14): Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I share the view put most eloquently by Mr Humphries in relation to the fact that this measure is part of the Government's budget process. I certainly would not consider rejecting or varying this particular extension of the existing land tax to residential investment properties. We have heard discussions from the Deputy Chief Minister and from other speakers. We have heard Mr Humphries say that this tax will be passed on, et cetera. It does not matter whether there are high interest rates or low interest rates, or whether this tax is imposed or whether it is not; the bottom line is that landlords will obtain from their tenants as much as they possibly can. That is a simple truism.
It is immaterial to suggest that as interest rates decline, for example, rents will reduce; or that as interest rates go up rents will increase. Landlords, like others operating in the market - it is a jungle out there - will extract as much rent as they possibly can for their property. If they choose to pass this tax on, as people are saying they almost certainly will - if I were a landlord I would certainly choose to pass on - - -
Mr Moore: You would try.
MR DUBY: I would try to pass it on. Indeed, if I were a landlord, just between you and me, I would try to make a profit out of this tax, because we know that the average value is in the order of $51,000, so the average tax is going to be - - -
Mr Berry: We know that he is trying to make a profit out of the Hare-Clark system; so why not?
MR DUBY: I certainly shall. The average tax is going to be $510, or about $10 a week. Most landlords will, of course, have that subsidised as an income tax deduction, and their actual costs, if we work on a basis of 50 per cent taxation or thereabouts, will actually be in the order of $250 per annum. But I guarantee that most landlords will say to their tenants, "I have to pay an extra $10 a week tax; the rent will go up".
Mr Berry: If Hare-Clark is good for Duby, is it good for you?
Ms Follett: That is right.
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