Page 1921 - Week 05 - Thursday, 5 May 2011
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You are right, Jon. You are not boosting yourself; you are kidding yourself. This is a government that has contributed more than any other government to making housing unaffordable for Canberra families. The government has major controls on housing affordability in this territory. Land release is your responsibility. Massive taxes and charges on land are set by your government. The planning system is your department. Stamp duty is your tax.
ACT Labor policies in the last 10 years have been the major driver in making housing unaffordable for young Canberra families. In all, that is a shameful record of increasing the cost of living and a disgraceful attitude to those suffering under those pressures. What is the ACT Labor’s response? A thumping new tax. Last year I warned of the potential problems of this impending tax, the massive increase to the change of use charge.
As well as the stamp duty, the ACT Labor government will be imposing another tax, worth even more tens of thousands of dollars. In Braddon, in 2011-12, $17½ thousand will be added to every unit to build more than five units, then $24½ thousand, then $31½ thousand, then $42,000 and finally $52½ thousand per unit in the last year. We heard from the Treasurer today, saying: “Is it going to push down existing land values? No, it is not going to push down existing land values. Is it going to push up rents and prices? No, it is not going to push up existing rents and prices.” What is left? The Treasurer’s position on a $50,000 tax impost is now that it is going to be absorbed by developers; every cent of it will now be absorbed. If that is the case, you may as well double it or triple it. Apparently it does not matter how high your taxes are.
She read a letter from LJ Hooker and said, “This proves that the sky will not fall in next year; the sky will not fall in next year.” The new position of the Treasurer is that this tax will not make the sky fall in yet. It will not make the sky fall in next year. It will fall in the year after or the year after that or the year after that. Mr Speaker, this is a ridiculous position—the idea that you can add $52,000 in tax to a unit and it will have no difference to the price, it will have no difference to rent and it will not affect land values, apparently. This is the new economics as espoused by our Treasurer.
We can go through the list. I chose Braddon because it is an area where we would want to see redevelopment. But you can go through Turner, $52½ thousand; Phillip, $41,000; Kingston, $52,000; Narrabundah, $41,000; Ngunnawal, $30,000; Deakin, $52,000; Garran, $41,000; and Curtin, $41,000. Anyone who claims that you can put such high levels of tax onto properties and it will have no impact on the cost of living and will have no impact on rents is delusional. It fails the common-sense test. I say to the community: make that judgement for yourself. Do you think that putting a new $50,000 tax on a unit will make a difference to the cost of buying a unit? Do you think that putting a $50,000 tax on a unit will make a difference to renting a unit? Of course it will.
I note in the budget that the Treasurer has introduced an even greater remission rate than was first countenanced and it is now riddled with more exceptions and waivers than first contemplated. For a tax that purports to provide clarity and openness, it
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