Page 1416 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 11 August 1992
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a much more cost-effective and simple operation for the tax to be levied at a particular date. It is also a system that is readily understood by landowners. Madam Speaker, I might also add that it is the system that is in operation in every State, so it is hardly unusual. It is hardly an unusual arrangement.
Mr Humphries: No, it is not. With a threshold?
Mr De Domenico: With a threshold?
MS FOLLETT: Members opposite might kick and scream - landlords to a man over there. They kick and scream; but they simply will not accept the purpose of this tax, and that is that residential commercial properties ought to be taxed in the same way as other commercial properties. I know that this offends you, but it is a fact that the pro rata arrangement does not apply anywhere else. You ask me to bring it in in the ACT and I say that we are not currently contemplating that, nor do I intend that we will contemplate that.
The arrangement we have at the moment is the simplest possible arrangement. It avoids the kinds of complexities that Mr Cornwell has alluded to in his question. Manual systems would have to be introduced to keep track of the dates and the various liabilities of each and every landlord in the ACT and also, of course, verification of all that information would be required. It would make for not only a very complex system but also a very costly system, and for that reason I do not contemplate it.
Investigations Unit
MR MOORE: My question is also to the Chief Minister. Chief Minister, is your internal Investigations Unit justifiable from the perspective of what it costs and what is saved in terms of dealing with fraud?
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, that is a question and a half that Mr Moore has asked. I think it might be best if I take it on notice and try to get some quantified information, which I will certainly do, and make it available at the first opportunity.
Better Cities Program
MS ELLIS: My question is directed to the Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning. Mr Kaine has said that the ACT Government plans to waste scarce money by funding the better cities program to the tune of $71.87m. Can you please correct this confusion that Mr Kaine has created?
MR WOOD: Madam Speaker, I think a number of statements have been made. To tell you what has happened, the Chief Minister has made a submission to the building better cities program. She submitted that to the relevant Federal Minister, Mr Howe, and announced that and gave, I suppose, a very brief overview of what that was about. I might just add as an aside that there was some comment about consultation. There will be consultation. There will be the usual, formal process of consultation. But this is the way that the Federal
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