Page 4602 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 6 December 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
I will speak to Mr Kaine's amendment after he moves it. As he has foreshadowed that he will be moving it, I will foreshadow that I will be opposing it. I believe, in general, Madam Speaker, that the proposed amendment will benefit rate and land tax payers through the broadening of the appeal provisions and through the removal of superfluous requirements in the transfer of land advices, and it will allow for more equitable valuation of land processes. It will also ensure - and I think this is important - that only those people who are owners of land directly from the Crown and who occupy that land as their principal place of residence are eligible for an exemption from residential land tax.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Detail Stage
Bill, by leave, taken as a whole
MR KAINE (8.48): I move:
Page 5, line 28, clause 11, proposed new section 32B, after proposed section 32A insert the following section:
Rate of interest payable following certain reviewed decisions
"32B. Where, on a review of a decision referred to in paragraph 31(d) or (e), the Administrative Appeals Tribunal sets aside the decision of the Commissioner and substitutes a decision that interest or further interest, as the case requires, be paid to the owner of the relevant parcel of land, that interest or further interest is payable at the rate determined under subsection 22(3).".
I find it rather curious that the Chief Minister has signified her opposition to this amendment. I can only say that, if it is just and equitable to charge ratepayers at a specific rate when they fail to pay their rates, or any part of their rates, on time, then it is equally just that the Government itself should pay the same rate of interest when it has collected money that it was not entitled to and holds it over a period of time while a decision is made and then has to repay the money. All my amendment does is set the rate of interest which will apply when the Government has received and held somebody else's money for a long period of time at the same rate as the Government itself charges to a delinquent ratepayer. I do not see anything unjust in that or anything that the Chief Minister could bring up as justification for not doing that.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .