Land Tax

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (15:09): Supplementary: is there any part of your land tax policy that's not negotiable?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:09): The government is certainly not prepared to wind back the significant reform of driving down the top land tax rate to 2.4 per cent. We think that's broadly supported by everyone; and 92 per cent of individuals will be better off and 75 per cent of company groups will be better off. We are not prepared to make changes, for example, to the increase in the threshold to $450,000 because 9,300 land tax payers will no longer pay land tax as a result of the reforms. We are also not prepared to countenance a situation that the Labor Party was prepared to and that is to allow to continue a situation where someone can own millions of dollars' worth of property and not pay a single dollar in land tax.

So the answer to the question is yes, there are non-negotiable aspects to it. We have had 12 weeks of consultation with stakeholder groups and individuals and a very, very large number of people have expressed an interest in this over 12 weeks. We think the package now is a much improved package in terms of driving comprehensive reform and investment into South Australia. The nature of the consultation will be in relation to the technical detail of the drafting of the bill. Then, ultimately, it will be up to the parliament to decide whether it wishes to support the package or not.