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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 5 Hansard (4 May) . . Page.. 1320 ..

MR SMYTH (Minister for Urban Services): Mr Speaker, for the information of members, I present the 1999-2000 purchase agreement between myself as Minister for Urban Services and the chief executive of the Department of Urban Services.

MR STEFANIAK (Minister for Education): Mr Speaker, for the information of members, I present the 1999-2000 purchase agreement between myself as Minister for Education and the chief executive of the Department of Education and Community Services.

MR MOORE (Minister for Health and Community Care): Mr Speaker, for the information of members, I present the 1999-2000 purchase agreement between myself as Minister for Health and Community Care and the chief executive of the Department of Health and Community Care.

MS CARNELL (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (3.39): Mr Speaker, I ask for leave to present the Rates and Land Tax (Amendment) Bill 1999.

Leave granted.

MS CARNELL: I present the Rates and Land Tax (Amendment) Bill 1999, together with its explanatory memorandum.

Title read by Clerk.

MS CARNELL: I move:

I am pleased to present this legislation that will determine the rating factors for 1999-2000. Members will remember that the current rating system was introduced in July 1997 to provide more certainty to ratepayers and to reduce the fluctuations in liabilities from year to year. This system also achieves better equity, or fairness, by redistributing rates liabilities more evenly. It reflects both the capacity to pay of property owners and the level of services received.

Features of the current rating system include: A fixed charge to apply to all land except rural properties; an ad valorem charge based on a rolling three-year average of unimproved capital values; a threshold to apply to all average land values; separate revenue targets to apply to the residential and non-residential sectors respectively; and differential rating factors for residential, non-residential and rural properties.

Mr Speaker, this Bill adjusts the rating factors to take account of the total rates revenue for 1999-2000, the level of the fixed charge, and the inclusion of the 1999 property values in the rolling three-year average of 1997, 1998 and 1999. It has been the Government's policy to limit the increase in the total rates revenue target each year to the

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