Land Tax Forum

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (15:01): My question is to the Premier. Will the Premier front landowners at Sunday's land tax forum?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (15:01): No, I have other arrangements.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens can leave for half an hour under 137A.

The honourable member for West Torrens having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I have other arrangements this weekend, but I have taken the opportunity to meet with the organiser on two occasions in the last two weeks and my door is always open. We are listening to people. We are consulting with people. The Treasurer has made it extraordinarily clear that we are happy to receive any submissions that the industry has for us to consider before we make a final position that will then go out for public consultation. We then hope to introduce that information to this parliament in a few weeks' time so that we can have the land tax cuts in place for 1 July next year.

This is an important reform. Reforms like this are never easy. I note that those opposite contemplated these reforms on a number of occasions but, as per every single useful reform that could have been helpful for South Australia, they just swept it under the mat. This was too hard. Kick that can down the road. We know the consequences of that sort of lazy government: South Australia gets further and further behind. We saw disaster after disaster after disaster under the previous government, whether it be the TAFE debacle presided over by the deputy leader, whether it be the health debacle presided over—

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: Premier, please be seated for one moment.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —by the Leader of the Opposition, whether it be problems with child protection that the deputy leader also looked after.

The SPEAKER: Premier, please be seated for one moment. I believe that question was about whether the Premier was attending a land tax forum at the weekend.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Yes.

The SPEAKER: I have the point of order for debate. I ask the Premier to come back to the substance of the question, please.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Yes. As I was saying, sir, I won't be able to attend the land tax rally, which has been organised to take place on the weekend, but we are listening and we are consulting. I must say that the vast majority of all the feedback that we have received has been respectful. I emphasise the 'vast majority', not all, but we have received a lot of feedback. A lot of it is respectful. A lot of it is useful and constructive because I think most people realise that the current arrangement, the disaggregated arrangement, is where you may have two people with exactly the same land value but held in different structures who have completely different tax rates in South Australia. I often say to people—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I often ask people who tell me how they are going to be affected if they have determined what their effective land tax rate is and whether or not that is acceptable. One of the things that we heard repeatedly from the sector—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan: Will you be with the haves or the have-yachts on Sunday?

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —in the lead-up to the election was that the top marginal rate of 3.7 was unacceptably high. We are addressing that. That is exactly and precisely what we are addressing. We have never said that the reforms that we are putting forward will benefit every single person in the state, but what we are saying is that we are prepared to take on this important reform. We are absolutely committed to lowering the taxation burden in South Australia, and that is precisely what is represented in the state budgets from last year and this year.