Land Tax

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:39): Supplementary: how does the Treasurer justify land tax actually going down when his own budget papers show every single year in the forward estimates, the number is greater than the one before?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:39): That is very simple but, again, the Leader of the Opposition wouldn't understand it. The government has indicated that the collections from its land tax reform package, which is: increasing in thresholds, reduction in the rate from 3.7 to 2.9, and the removal of aggregation, collects less. The reason why the total land tax collections goes up was a process started by the former Labor treasurer, Tom Koutsantonis, when he gave additional funding to the Valuer-General to undertake the revaluation exercise.

Total land tax collections go up because of the revaluation exercise and the increases in property values right across the board. The government has been quite clear that from its land tax reform proposals we will be collecting less land tax, but property values increase every year and, as a result of the revaluation exercise commenced by the former Labor treasurer, Mr Koutsantonis—and as I have replied I think to a question from the Hon. Mr Darley on a number of occasions—the former treasurer estimated an extra $19 million a year being collected from the revaluation exercise. That was an estimate done by the former Labor government and the former Labor treasurer.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Ms Bourke, I will allow one more supplementary. I am keen to get to the crossbench.