Land Valuations

In reply to the Hon. J.A. DARLEY (30 May 2018).

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer): The Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government has advised:

1. As outlined in the 2016-17 Budget Measures Statement the Valuer-General did receive $15.45 million over the forward estimates as additional support to improve valuation accuracy, which is referred to as the revaluation initiative, but this initiative is not about commencing a five-year rolling revaluation program, where one-fifth of the state is to be valued each year for five years.

Rather, the Valuer-General will still continue to undertake general valuations for rating and taxing purposes for each of the areas of the state as required, and the valuation project work associated with this revaluation initiative will not be undertaken in isolation to the regular annual general valuation process. This way the whole state will continue to be revalued on an annual basis during the life of the revaluation initiative, avoiding the relativity issues between valuations that would be created if only one-fifth of the state was valued each year for five years.

Even if this was not the case, section 19(3) of the Valuation of Land Act 1971 (the act) relates only to a discretion the Valuer-General may exercise to amend a valuation that is not consistent, or relative, with other valuations in force. The section does not direct how the Valuer-General is to approach the general valuation task across the state, and is designed not to prevent the Valuer-General from meeting the intent of the act for them to provide regular and accurate valuations to the rating and taxing authorities.

Relativity between valuations is important from a fairness perspective, and the Deputy Valuer-General is aware of this, but where these issues may exist on the various valuation rolls across the state, the issue is also best addressed through improving the accuracy of valuations, which the revaluation initiative is designed to do.

2. The revaluation initiative was incorporated into the commercialisation process for land services, and as part of the purchase price there are contractual arrangements for Land Services SA, the new service provider, to undertake the valuation services associated with the project. As a consequence the project will continue, and work will occur in 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21, with the completion date for the initiative remaining unaltered.

The work undertaken by Land Services SA will be under the governance of a steering committee chaired by the Valuer-General. So the Valuer-General will have oversight and control of the work that is undertaken, in particular, the quality of the work and the valuations that are determined.

The communication plan associated with the initiative is designed to make the process as transparent as possible, and to keep stakeholders informed of what valuation changes will occur.