Page 959 - Week 03 - Thursday, 21 March 2019
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MR BARR: Yes, the government has identified, through a process of work, that there will need to be an amendment bill, and the government will proceed with that through the normal processes. In the meantime the revenue office is working through individual cases, and the government will waive any unintended charges in this context.
MR COE: Treasurer, why have you called this a loophole or unintended consequence when the fact that people will be liable for a quarter of land tax, based on a single day of vacancy, was the very intention of your legislation?
MR BARR: The intent of the legislation was clear. Where a circumstance has arisen where those who were not meant to be subject to the land tax, because of the principal place of residence exemption—where there has been an issue identified—the government has responded and waived those charges. I will introduce legislation to address that particular unintended consequence as it relates to those who have a principal place of residence exemption, which is the intent of the legislation.
MR PARTON: Treasurer, will all owners, particularly first homebuyers, who have been captured by this circumstance be issued a refund, and will you ask the revenue office to freeze the outstanding invoices?
MR BARR: That has already been done.
Municipal services—waste collection
MS LE COUTEUR: My question is to the Minister for Roads and Minister for City Services, and relates to the recent verge works around the city. Minister, why did the recent verge works on Northbourne Avenue outside the Sydney and Melbourne buildings include only waste bins and not recycling bins?
MR STEEL: I thank Ms Le Couteur for her question. We are currently looking at how we can improve the availability of recycling bins across the city, and we will continue to do that. That will include areas particularly where there is high frequency of traffic, like the Northbourne Sydney and Melbourne building areas, as well as group centres around Canberra. It is not unusual for there to be group centres—Curtin is a good example, in Ms Le Couteur’s electorate—where there are not recycle bins available. We will continue to look at how we can provide those, to make sure that we are improving our source separation.
Opposition members interjecting—
MR STEEL: We know what the Canberra Liberals think of recycling. They think that Canberrans do enough recycling. They were completely opposed to the container deposit scheme. They completely oppose our approach to waste management. But we will continue to roll out more—
Opposition members interjecting—
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