Page 4586 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 31 October 2018

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MR COE: this artificial unimproved land value, but the reality is—

MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Sit down, Mr Coe. Mr Barr, Mr Wall, as you know, I have a fair degree of latitude in relation to interjections, but that is plain, ordinary old shouting, and it will stop. The question is that Mr Barr’s amendment be agreed to. Mr Coe.

MR COE: The impact on valuations and the actual outgoings is very significant. To have a valuation go from $159,000 to $450,000 in one year is extraordinary. The impact that has on rates means that they go up by tens of thousands of dollars. That has to impact the yield and therefore the property value.

It is all very well for the Chief Minister to say that it is fairer or that it is more efficient, but for these small businesses it is having a huge impact on whether they make an additional investment, whether they hire that additional person, whether they put more technology into their business or, worse still, whether they continue to operate here in the ACT.

We think that the modelling is very important, because I would love to see modelling or advice from the government that says that this is not going to hurt the ACT economy, that it is not going to hurt businesses, and that they can all wear it. I would love to see that, because that would give me a lot more confidence about the future of the territory’s businesses. But I do not think it exists. It certainly does not marry up with the stories that we have heard from dozens of small businesses in Canberra that are struggling as a result of your rates policy.

I am pleased that we will at least be getting some information from the government, and it is a shame that this is not published just as a matter of course. But hopefully in the coming week or two we will actually get something meaningful that will be of at least some comfort or some utility to the business owners of Canberra when they are tackling these re-valuations from the valuation office.

Amendment agreed to.

Original question, as amended, resolved in the affirmative.

Recreational vehicle tourism

MR WALL (Brindabella) (4.50): I move:

That this Assembly:

(1) notes:

(a) recreational vehicle (RV) tourism provides significant benefits to the Australian economy;

(b) the road tourism market is valued at approximately $19 billion;

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