Grievance Debate

Land Tax

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (15:04): Suffice to say, the government's handling of the land tax changes has been an absolute shambles. It was clearly a decision made late in the budget process. The Premier was reportedly absent from nearly every meeting of the budget cabinet committee, in particular the one where the land tax aggregation measure was canvassed. It was a rushed decision late in the budget process to prop up a budget surplus, a $40 million estimate shoved into the budget with no work and no modelling behind it and no details about who may be impacted and by how much.

There was no legislation for the budget measures bill to be tabled before the house, despite the government claiming that this same measure had been legislated in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria. No modelling had been undertaken; at one point, they even asked for the modelling from the Property Council to be provided to better inform their estimates. There were three months of uncertainty before the government could finally release its third iteration of land tax changes here in South Australia, three months of paralysis for the housing construction industry and the property development industry.

Everyone was telling the government that $40 million was far too low an estimate. Liberal backbenchers were backgrounding the media, calling cabinet's process a train wreck. Other Liberal MPs were boldly telling constituents that the aggregation measure was a mistake. We now find out that aggregation is actually forecast to raise $118 million, nearly three times higher than the government claimed it would be.

No-one can rely on the current claims and the facts and figures that are now being touted by the Premier and the Treasurer. Nobody can believe the claims they make about their latest changes. Parliament must immediately be provided the detailed modelling that has been undertaken by Treasury as well as by the private consultants who were directly contracted to do work for the Department of Treasury and Finance.

We are now told that landowners will be paying an extra $86 million of land tax due to aggregation, net of reductions in the top rate—typical, old-school Liberal tax policy: cuts for those with the most in life and tax increases for the majority with less. Let's have a look at some examples. A landowner with $5 million worth of land will get a tax cut of $50,000 under these changes. There are 400 landowners with holdings above $5 million, so over $20 million of relief is provided to these lucky 400 people.

Meanwhile, thousands of landowners will be forced to pay the extra $86 million in higher land tax bills. These are South Australian families and retirees relying on rental income from their property investments who have structured their investments according to the law as it has stood for decades in this state. They will be hit for an extra $86 million in land tax. The Liberal government is retrospectively changing the investment rules on thousands of these retirees and families.

The Premier talks about courage and the courage that he has in doing this to South Australians. I can tell you what is courageous—being up-front with the people of South Australia before a general election that you are going to increase their taxes by $86 million. It would require courage for the Premier to face nurses and tell them that he is going to increase their car parking fees by $725 a year.

It would take courage to front motorists before a general election and tell them that they are going to see their motor registration fees increase by over $20 million, and it would take courage to tell motorists that they are going to face $30 million of higher fees and charges. It would also take courage to put all those changes to the parliament in the form of legislation. All these things the Premier has run away from.

He did not have the courage to tell South Australians he was going to increase taxes to the highest they have ever been. He did not have the courage to front those thousands of retirees, those family investors who are relying on these properties to provide them an income in their retirement, and tell them that he would be increasing their tax bills by thousands of dollars if not tens of thousands of dollars.

For people in my electorate, people who have come to me and said, 'I've got three investment properties with a land value on average of $400,000 each. This provides me a net rental income just so that I can survive in retirement,' their land tax bill is going from a few hundred dollars to nearly $10,000. It would require courage from the Premier to front them and, of course, he will not. It is this Premier who lacks courage. It is this government that lacks the courage to front South Australians about the tax increases they are imposing, and the Liberals—all of them—should be ashamed for supporting a Premier who can do this to South Australians.