CAR PARKING LEVY

Mr MARSHALL (Norwood—Leader of the Opposition) (14:31): A supplementary, Mr Speaker.

The SPEAKER: Yes.

Mr MARSHALL: The Premier specifically said that the car park tax may go directly to landlords, many of whom would not have the ability to pass that on in any way, shape or form to the operators of the car park. Can you therefore explain to us what price signal this could possibly send to commuters to reduce traffic if it can't be passed on by the landlords to the operators of their car parks?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Treasurer, Minister for State Development, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for the Arts) (14:32): No, that is not the point I was making. That is a separate issue about the way in which the car park operates in those circumstances where the operator is a separate entity from the owner of the particular car park. It is a separate matter, and that will be dealt with in the course of consultation on the legislation.

One of the issues is a mechanism to ensure that those particular entities where there is a separation between the owner of the business and the operator of the business can have the capacity to pass that particular car parking levy on. So, that is a separate matter which will receive attention in the drafting of the legislation. What I was talking about was the incidence of this tax, and the way in which a particular company may choose to structure its affairs means that the incidence of the tax may not fall entirely upon the consumer.

It is likely there would be a substantial part of the taxation arrangements that will fall on the user of the car park, but the way in which the market operates and how people compete in that market may mean that some of the incidence of that tax, depending on their own judgements about their business model, may be borne by the particular owner and/or operator of the business. That's the point that I was making. It is a separate point about the ownership and the separate ownership and operation of the car park.