Page 3062 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 16 September 2015
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“(a) the Federal Liberal Government’s decision to slash 8000 jobs from the Canberra economy, and that this decision has caused an increase in office vacancy rates;
(b) that the Government leases Territory land to the private sector for a particular purpose, and that that purpose determines its value;
(c) that changing the purpose of a lease can deliver windfall gains for property owners, and a portion of these gains should be retained for the community;
(d) that the community’s portion of these windfall gains should be retained by the Government through the Lease Variation Charge (LVC) to fund the delivery of community services;
(e) the Government has a scheme of LVC remissions in place, which recognise contributions made to the community through developments, including for:
(i) adaptable housing;
(ii) childcare;
(iii) environmental remediation; and
(iv) high environmental ratings;
(f) that housing affordability has improved since 2012; and
(g) the ACT Liberals’ policy to provide a tax break to certain property developers is the wrong priority for the ACT; and
(2) calls on the Government to continue to ensure that a portion of windfall gains from changes to leases are retained for the community’s benefit.”.
I begin my response by quoting from the Canberra Times which, in response to this policy announcement from the Liberal Party, made a very clear statement:
To pretend, however, that betterment charges led to “massive missed opportunities in the CBD and in town centres”, and that axing them will stimulate broad economic growth insults taxpayers’ intelligence.
I know those opposite work on the basis that no-one will apply any scrutiny to their random policy announcements. It is not very often we get to come into this place and talk about a Liberal Party policy, but when they finally change gear from relentless negativity, from introducing sovereign risk into the territory, when they finally get around to showing us what their policy priorities will be, they announce a tax cut for a small handful of property developers.
They huff and puff about the LVC as if it is some sort of outrageous intervention that property owners should make a contribution to the community when they are granted a windfall gain by the government; that when someone is granted an unearned
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