Land Tax

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (15:06): My question is to the Premier. Will self-funded retirees be impacted by the changes to land tax aggregation?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (15:07): I don't have details on every single self-funded retiree's personal landholdings. I don't think that would surprise anybody in this house.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens will cease interjecting.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I don't think this would surprise anybody in this house, but we have made it very clear that as part of our reform we are closing the loopholes that exist—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —within the existing legislation. We don't believe that it's within the spirit of the—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: Are they tax frauds, are they?

The SPEAKER: Member for West Torrens!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We don't believe that it—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: Was it a loophole or are they tax frauds?

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens has been removed today. He is still interjecting and I ask him to leave for the remainder of question time.

The honourable member for West Torrens having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We don't believe that it is within the spirit of the existing land tax arrangements for individuals to open up multiple entities to essentially claim the tax-free threshold on a range of properties. They need to be aggregated. This is the direction the entire country is going in. As I have outlined to the house, it has already occurred in New South Wales and it has already occurred in Victoria. Unlike other jurisdictions, whilst we are implementing this important reform we are also lowering land tax. We are reducing the rates and we are increasing the threshold.