Page 4194 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 21 September 2010
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If the Liberals oppose the change of use charge and the appropriate collection of that charge then it is up to them to implement changes to the legislation, to address the concerns that they might have. But, on this side, the government believes the community is entitled to a fair share of the profit that is being delivered by the granting of extra development rights to a developer for the benefit of building new residential opportunities across the city. If you were to believe that the change of use charge is the key determining factor of the price of housing in this city—and I am not sure if Mr Smyth believes that—then you would imagine, when people were paying two and a half thousand dollars for the change of use charge, that you would have seen big decreases in the price of units. Funnily enough, we did not see that.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Smyth, a supplementary?
MR SMYTH: Yes. Thank you, Mr Speaker. Treasurer, will Mr Quinlan’s committee look at the change of use charge in the review of taxation? If so, will the aim be to squeeze people until they bleed but not until they die?
MS GALLAGHER: You still haven’t got over this tax review, have you, Brendan?
I do not see any reason why you would exclude the change of use charge. I have certainly not taken the view to exclude or include particular charges and taxes from the review. That is open to the review panel. I think the amount of work that is being done around the change of use charge and the level of expert analysis that is being done, which will be shortly provided to the Assembly, once I receive it, will be available to the review panel as well.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Seselja, a supplementary question?
MR SESELJA: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Treasurer, will you have a phase-in period for the big tax on homes? If so, how long will it be?
MS GALLAGHER: That is certainly being considered by the government. We are waiting on some work being finished by Professor John Piggott, who is doing the review of the draft schedules and feeding in with the economic analysis which will be provided to the Assembly.
I understand from discussions with Treasury that transition arrangements are part of those discussions and have been put on the table. The government has not considered all those pieces of work yet, but I understand that one of the options being put forward will include a transition to the new arrangements.
Domestic Animal Services—dogs
MS LE COUTEUR: My question is to the Minister for Territory and Municipal Services and concerns a repeat outbreak of the parvovirus at the Domestic Animal Services facility. Minister, are you aware that since the last sittings a parvo-infected dog was released from DAS—the Domestic Animal Services facility—to a foster carer and had to be put down within two days? How do you explain DAS’s inability
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