Page 3589 - Week 12 - Thursday, 19 September 1991
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Mrs Grassby: Bernard, you will have to leave, then. With all the houses you own, you will have to leave.
MR ACTING SPEAKER: Order, members! I think Mr Jensen is just being utterly proper.
Mr Collaery: Mr Acting Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Mrs Grassby referred to my owning all these houses. I own only one, and I own it with my partner. I own no other home, and I trust that she will withdraw that immediately.
Mrs Grassby: I withdraw it, Mr Acting Speaker.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (5.33), in reply: I would like to thank members for their comments. Most of the substantive issues which have been the subject of debate have been dealt with no less than masterfully by Mr Duby, I must say. All I can say is that, if he does the same sort of job on Hare-Clark, I will have to revise my opinion as to whether or not he will get elected - but I certainly will not have to revise my opinion as to whether or not Hare-Clark gets selected.
Mr Moore: I wonder how he will manage the next time around when it is single member electorates, though - thanks to him.
MS FOLLETT: That is quite right. Mr Duby has, in fact, addressed all of the substantive issues raised by other members, with the one exception of Mr Kaine's comment about the Housing Trust and its exclusion from this extension of land tax. I do have a lengthy explanation of why the Housing Trust ought to continue to be exempt from this land tax, but I will put it briefly.
The first issue is that no other public housing agency in this country pays land tax, although land tax is charged in every other State. So, it would be a one-off for our Housing Trust to have to bear this impost.
Mr Kaine: Perhaps we should be an innovator.
MS FOLLETT: Well, a further question arises in regard to the Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement. The advice that I have is that for us to charge land tax on the Housing Trust would put us in breach of at least the spirit of the Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement and may, in fact, involve us in serious financial implications in respect of that agreement. So, I think it is at least a cautious move at the moment, in regard to that agreement, to continue to exempt the Housing Trust.
A further matter that Mr Kaine alluded to is the fact that it is administratively very complex to include the Trust and even more complex to include only that part of the Housing Trust tenancies which are at market value. So, it would be a complex matter, it would be expensive to
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