Page 2485 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 1 August 2018
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We are trying to think, “What can we do in the meantime, in the short run, that is not very complicated?” We know that there is a major problem that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later. That is why I put forward my motion, which I am really hopeful will be passed in some form or other. That is why I am suggesting an amendment to Ms Berry’s amendment.
My amendment just makes it clear that because we know there is work being done—I think Ms Berry’s amendment said there are in excess of 100 suggestions—we thought, “Okay, the government has done a lot of work. This is really great. But, given that is the case, we need to be clearer about the reporting back.” Given all the work that has been done, I cannot see why we should not be able to do an implementation plan for the suggestions. This implementation plan could include things which are contingent on other things.
It may be that the implementation plan says it would make sense to do these things after another measure. I do not know. Obviously, I do not know what the implementation plan would be. But I do think that we need to start looking at our housing affordability a bit more positively and proactively and say, “We actually need to change. We actually need to implement some plans to do something.”
I am very pleased that the government has put a lot of effort into consulting and talking to the community. I thought the housing summit last year was a really great outcome. I was very privileged to be able to attend all of that summit. There were so many brilliant ideas there. I really hope that the vast majority of them are implemented.
The reason I did not go for implementing one of the other brilliant ideas is because most of them were a lot more complicated and innovative. We were not in a position to say, “This is an idea which has been thought about for a long time.” Back in the Seventh Assembly it was part of the parliamentary agreement to actually do it. Unfortunately, that did not happen at the time.
Appreciably, also, Ted Quinlan, the former Labor treasurer, has noted that land tax is a potentially inequitable tax, given that it is only levied on rental properties and the justification for that is very complicated. It is a long discussion in terms of where the taxation burden is, comparing the federal government and the ACT government.
I contemplated writing a motion entirely about land tax and whether it was equitable. I think that is a discussion to be had but I decided, “Let’s go for just a small target that is pretty noncontroversial,” because community housing providers already get land tax exemption. That is what we should remember when looking at this motion.
If a community housing provider owns the property, they already have this exemption. It applies if they headlease some properties from private landlords such as myself. I acknowledge that I am one of the people who potentially could be impacted by this motion. I want to make that abundantly clear. However, I reject the criticisms of Alex White. For most landlords, land tax is not equal to the difference between affordable rent and land tax.
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