Page 1561 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 8 May 2018
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
This is nothing more than a tax grab, pure and simple. The Treasurer has not provided a shred of evidence as to how this will benefit Canberrans. It is only benefiting the Treasurer’s bottom line. However, even if more people are deterred from investing and living in Canberra, the long-term financial impact could in fact be negative.
It seems the Labor-Greens government policy on foreign investment is somewhat contradictory. On one hand, the Chief Minister and his cabinet jet set around the world hosting lavish dinners in Europe and encouraging investment in Canberra. Then, if people do decide to invest here, they slug them with extra charges or deter them from actually investing here.
As the scrutiny report pointed out, it is not clear how imposing this additional charge will achieve its purported objective of relieving housing pressures for local residents. Based on the Treasurer’s own figures, this charge will only affect between 200 and 300 properties but will generate $4 million in revenue over the forward estimates. It has a greater likelihood of making things worse for Canberrans because millions of dollars of land tax will be passed on to tenants via rent increases.
The Treasurer purports that these amendments will fix the issues surrounding rental and housing affordability. In reality, the changes will only exacerbate the existing problems by placing more Canberrans in financially precarious positions and increasing the available revenue for this Labor-Greens government to further mismanage.
In 2007-08 only 13 land tax objections were lodged with the revenue office. This year there have already been 192 objections lodged in relation to land tax, with 121 of those still outstanding. The number is only going to go up once these amendments take place, and the impact on thousands of Canberrans will be felt.
In 2007-08 land tax only brought in $72 million. In comparison, the Treasurer has already collected more than $109 million in land tax revenue this year. That is an increase of more than 50 per cent on the last 10 years, and let us also remember that land tax for commercial properties was pushed into rates. So the impact on residential is even starker.
These increases are not enough for the Treasurer. He wants to gouge more households by extending land tax to even more properties. These are important policies with huge consequences, and the Treasurer has insufficient evidence to support the changes.
It is clear the Treasurer does not want us to look into the modelling and does not want us to look into the details and mechanics of the bill. It is absolutely disgraceful that the Treasurer is again attempting to hide the effects of his tax policy on Canberrans. It is all very well for the Chief Minister to say that they get aggregated data from the utilities companies but at some point they are going to have to get household-specific data, and I think that poses many problems.
This is just another instance of this arrogant Labor-Greens government trying to avoid scrutiny on major policies and issues. The Treasurer has not provided any compelling
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video