Page 1423 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 11 August 1992
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there is a possible conflict of interest. At the same time, it is very easily resolved by the Assembly voting that there is no conflict of interest in allowing the member to discuss the matter. If there is a member in that position, it might well be worth resolving the matter before we start.
MADAM SPEAKER: Is it the wish of the Assembly that we proceed with this matter?
Leave granted.
MADAM SPEAKER: The Assembly has granted leave for Mr Kaine to continue.
MR KAINE (Leader of the Opposition) (3.18): Thank you, Madam Speaker. I can say quite unequivocally, right up front, that I have no conflict of interest. I own no house but the one I live in. Perhaps Mr Moore might be able to affirm the same thing when it is his turn.
Madam Speaker, it is regrettable that in the last three or four months this Follett Government has lost so much credibility in the eyes of the public, for a number of reasons. One of them, of course, is the matters that have come to the head of their agenda that were not declared during the election campaign. There has been a lot of discontent about matters of that kind. The question of land tax is one of those areas in which this Government has lost an enormous amount of credibility. I have to say, Madam Speaker, that the answers given during question time today indicate that the Chief Minister clearly does not understand or does not care how the land tax Act is put into effect and what its consequences are for private citizens in the Territory. I will deal with that matter in some detail.
The land tax legislation was introduced only about a year ago, and there is no question that the Government's intentions were to use it specifically as a revenue raising measure. It was directed, I believe, and I think the Government would affirm, at taxing income-producing investment properties. Although the Liberal Party had some concerns about that and does not like the tax in its present form at all - - -
Ms Follett: Mr Humphries voted for it.
Mr Humphries: To save your budget; that is why.
MR KAINE: We accept the Government's right to attempt to raise revenues.
Ms Follett: You voted for it.
Mr Humphries: I am not doing any favours for you next time; that is for sure.
MR KAINE: Madam Speaker, if we are going to conduct a debate on this issue, I might as well sit down.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order! Mr Kaine has the floor.
MR KAINE: Thank you, Madam Speaker. It is not so much the nature of the legislation that is of concern to me; it is the way it has been put into effect. It has been put into effect unthinkingly and, despite the claims of this Government, it has no regard whatsoever for the principles of social justice. We only have to look at some of the cases that have been put forward to demonstrate that they
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