Page 5308 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 15 November 2011
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Another innovative target scheme is the pensioner duty concession scheme, which supports eligible age pensioners and disability pensioners aged 50 or more who want to downsize into properties more suited to their changing circumstances. The concession applies to residential homes valued at up to $588,000. In fact, for properties valued at $465,000 or less, just $20 duty is charged. Last year, 91 Canberra households availed themselves of this scheme. Almost 70 per cent of these paid duty of just $20. Since the scheme commenced in 2008-09, 224 pensioners have been helped.
Any Canberran who is eligible for the homebuyer concession scheme or the first homeowners grant scheme can also elect to defer payment of the duty, giving them greater financial flexibility at a time when they are likely to have additional costs associated with moving house. As of 31 June this year, 531 Canberra households had chosen to defer payment of duty.
One of the most innovative ways in which this Labor government has helped more Canberrans become homeowners has been through the land rent scheme. Instead of purchasing the land component of a house and land package, buyers are able to lease the land at four per cent of its unimproved value. For households with an annual income of less than $85,500—rising to more than $100,000 for households with a number of children—a two per cent concessional rate is available. Opting for land rent can effectively halve the size of the mortgage a buyer needs to take out, opening the door to homeownership to many families on quite modest incomes.
While we are all familiar with the predictable carping of the Liberal Party in relation to this program, many hundreds of Canberra families seem to have seen through the Liberal negativity—the Liberal opposition for the sake of opposition. The number of households involved in the scheme is rising, with almost 1,100 land rent contracts settled or exchanged. That is 1,100 households that Zed Seselja does not believe should be able to buy their own home. That is 1,100 Canberra families that the Liberal Party thinks should be excluded from the dream of homeownership.
While many of the measures I have mentioned this afternoon are similar to measures taken by governments around the country, some are genuinely innovative. Land rent is one of them. Good, socially progressive governments are not afraid of innovation. They are not afraid to look at what makes their communities unique and then seek to devise policies and programs that are specifically tailored to that community. As I said earlier, good governments do not simply set and forget when it comes to targeted assistance.
The ACT government considers its concession schemes every year in the budget context. For example, in the most recent budget, the government allocated $12.35 million over four years to increase the energy concession available to low income households. The government also periodically takes a deeper and more comprehensive look at the state of play. The most recent major review of concessions was conducted in 2008.
But nothing stands still. That is why last week the Chief Minister announced the establishment of an expert panel to develop a new ACT targeted assistance strategy.
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