Statutes Amendment (Budget Measures) Bill

Second Reading

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (16:52): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading explanation and explanation of clauses inserted in Hansard without my reading them.

Leave granted.

The 2024-25 Budget continues the government's investment towards a world class health system, implementing education sector reforms, increasing the supply of affordable housing, reducing cost of living pressures, and maintaining efficient public services.

The Bill contains amendments to relevant legislation to implement measures announced in the 2024-25 Budget and other administrative amendments, including:

Removing the property value stamp duty thresholds for eligible first home buyers on the purchase of a new home or vacant land for contracts entered into on or after 6 June 2024;

Removing the property value cap of $650,000 for the First Home Owner Grant for eligible contracts entered into on or after 6 June 2024; and

An exemption from payroll tax on the wages of general practitioners related to bulk billed services.

I turn now to a more specific discussion of the detail of these important amendments.

First Home and Housing Construction Grants Act 2000

The Bill amends the First Home and Housing Construction Grants Act 2000 to remove the property value cap of $650,000 for eligibility for the $15,000 First Home Owner Grant for contracts entered into on or after 6 June 2024.

Eligibility for the First Home Owner Grant is also being removed for individuals who own, or have owned, a residential investment property, ensuring access to the grant is limited to those who are genuinely purchasing their first property.

Mining Act 1971

The Bill amends section 17 of the Mining Act 1971 to enable the Treasurer to determine the market value of minerals sold pursuant to a contract with a genuine purchaser at arm's length, for the purposes of determining royalty, in circumstances where the Treasurer is not satisfied that the contract price reflects the market price of the minerals. Section 17(6) provides for the market value of the minerals to be determined according to a market index price in a relevant industry market recognised by the Treasurer, a price obtained for comparable sales or other prescribed methods.

The Bill also amends section 56M of the Mining Act 1971 to gradually restrict future eligibility for landowner rental distributions, consistent with practices adopted in other jurisdictions. Where an application for a mining lease, retention lease or miscellaneous purposes licence is made on or after 1 July 2025, a freehold landowner with an interest in land over which the mineral tenement is granted will not be eligible to receive a rental distribution in relation to that parcel of land.

Further to this, where a freehold landowner's interest in land over which a mineral tenement is granted is transferred on or after 1 July 2026, the new freehold landowner will be eligible to receive 50% of their original rental distribution entitlement in relation to that parcel of land. Land subject to transmissions associated with deceased estates and transfers where a familial relationship exists will continue to be eligible to receive 100% of the original rental entitlement. The entitlement of freehold landowners under section 56M in respect to existing mineral tenements will not otherwise be impacted by the amendments.

National Electricity (South Australia) Act 1996

The Bill amends the National Electricity (South Australia) Act 1996 to enable the Governor to establish a scheme by regulation for the purposes of providing adequate long duration dispatchable electricity capacity to ensure secure, reliable and affordable electricity supply for the State.

The scheme is intended to incentivise the availability of new and existing long duration dispatchable capacity to support reliability during reliability events, such as maximum demand periods, periods of low variable renewable energy resource availability and disruptions to interconnector flows from other jurisdictions in the National Electricity Market. The required amount of capacity to manage risks to energy reliability in South Australia will be determined under the new electricity planning and forecast functions of the Office of the Technical Regulator.

Regulations made pursuant to section 15B may make provision for (without limitation), the establishment of bodies and appointment of persons to perform functions in respect of the scheme, the imposition of duties and obligations on market participants, including to provide or procure capacity, and the making of financial contributions and the recovery of costs in respect of the scheme.

Payroll Tax Act 2009

This Bill amends the Payroll Tax Act 2009 to allow for an exemption from payroll tax on the wages of general practitioners related to bulk billed services from 1 July 2024. The exemption is designed as an incentive for general practitioners to bulk bill patients.

The exemption only applies to the relevant wages of a general practitioner, it does not apply to the wages of any other employees within a medical practice.

Subject to the passage of the Bill, the Government will introduce regulations under the Payroll Tax Act 2009 providing for the exemption to be calculated based on the proportion of bulk billed items relative to the total number of billed items provided by those general practitioners engaged in a medical practice as an employee or contractor. This percentage deduction will then be applied against the medical practices' total annual general practitioners' wages bill. The regulation will apply from 1 July 2024.

In addition, the Bill makes amendments to allow for an existing amnesty on certain wages paid to general practitioners and other health service providers, which expires on 30 June 2024, to be included in regulations.

This will provide greater certainty to taxpayers and remove the requirement to provide a range of historic wage information to determine the level of ex gratia relief to be provided through the amnesty if it is not legislated. This will deliver administrative benefits for the parties that took part in the amnesty.

Stamp Duties Act 1923

This Bill expands stamp duty relief for eligible first home buyers who enter into a contract to purchase a new home or vacant land to build a new home, on or after 6 June 2024.

Stamp duty property value thresholds for eligible first home buyers will be removed for the purchase of an eligible new home or vacant land to build a new home.

Eligibility for stamp duty relief will also be removed for individuals who own, or have owned, a residential investment property, to target relief to those who are genuinely purchasing their first property. This is consistent with the proposed eligibility criteria for the First Home Owner Grant.

When combined with the First Home Owner Grant, an eligible first home buyer could now receive total relief of over $50,000 on the purchase of a new property valued at $750,000 (broadly in line with the current median house value).

Mining Regulations 2020

This Bill amends references in the Mining Regulations 2020 which are consequential to amendments made above to the Mining Act 1971.

The 2024-25 Budget seeks to support the immediate challenges facing many South Australians by providing targeted cost of living relief to families, those on low incomes and to small business, continues to invest in important social services and infrastructure, and importantly looks to the future by commencing generational reform in early childhood education while doing so in a fiscally sustainable manner, with no new taxes, tax increases or savings imposed on agencies. The measures contained in this Bill support the key priorities of this government.

I commend this Bill to the Council and seek leave to have the explanation of clauses inserted into Hansard without my reading them.

Explanation of Clauses

Part 1—Preliminary

1—Short title

2—Commencement

These clauses are formal.

Part 2—Amendment of First Home and Housing Construction Grants Act 2000

3—Amendment of section 7—Entitlement to grants

This clause amends section 7 of the First Home and Housing Construction Grants Act 2000 so that the first home owner grant is payable regardless of the market value of the home to which the eligible transaction relates if the commencement date of the transaction is on or after 6 June 2024. Currently, the grant is not payable if the market value exceeds $650,000.

It also clarifies that the regulations may prescribe a cap on market value in respect of an eligible transaction with a commencement date within a prescribed period or otherwise which would mean no first home owner grant would be payable in relation to such a transaction if the value of the home exceeds that cap.

4—Amendment of section 11—Criterion 4—Applicant (or applicant's spouse etc) must not have had relevant interest in residential property

This clause amends section 11 of the First Home and Housing Construction Grants Act 2000 to provide that, if the commencement date of the eligible transaction is on or after the day on which this section comes into operation, any interest held or previously held in residential property in the State or another State or Territory by the applicant or the applicant's spouse or domestic partner precludes the applicant from receiving the first home owner grant irrespective of whether the person who held the interest resided in the property continuously for at least 6 months.

Part 3—Amendment of Mining Act 1971

5—Amendment of section 17—Royalty

This clause substitutes subsections (5) and (6) and recasts them to clarify the manner in which the value of minerals for the purposes of determining royalty in the section is to be determined. Proposed subsection (5) provides that the value of minerals, for the purposes of determining royalty, will be the value that represents the market value (excluding GST) of the minerals on—

in the case of minerals sold pursuant to a contract with a genuine purchaser at arms length—the day on which ownership of the minerals is transferred to the purchaser; and

in any other case—the day on which—

the minerals leave the mineral tenement from which the minerals were recovered or are used on the tenement; or

if the minerals have been transported to mineral land the subject of a miscellaneous purposes licence—the minerals leave that mineral land or are used on that mineral land,

whichever occurs later.

The market value of the minerals for the purposes of proposed subsection (5), if the minerals are sold pursuant to a contract with a genuine purchaser at arms length, will be the contract price for the minerals. In circumstances where there is no contract price for the minerals, proposed subsection (6) sets out the manner in which the market value of minerals is to be determined in various circumstances.

6—Amendment of section 17B—Assessments by Treasurer

This clause makes a consequential amendment.

7—Amendment of section 56M—Rental

Subclauses (1) and (2) make consequential amendments. Subclause (3) inserts new provisions limiting the distribution of rental to a registered proprietor of land over which a tenement is held as is currently provided for in the section as follows:

proposed subsection (9a) prevents any distribution of rental in accordance with subsections (4) to (8) if the tenement to which the section applies was made on or after 1 July 2025;

proposed subsection (9b) provides that for the purposes of subsection (4), if a relevant interest in a parcel of land over which a mineral tenement is granted has been transferred (other than by reason of the registered proprietor being deceased or where the Minster is satisfied that a familial relationship exists between the transferor and transferee) on or after 1 July 2026, the net amount available for distribution under that subsection in respect of that parcel of land will be taken to be 50% of the amount remaining after deduction of 5% of the amount payable to the Minister;

proposed subsection (9c) defines the circumstances in which a familial relationship will exist between a transferor and a transferee for the purposes of proposed subsection (9b);

proposed subsection (9d) provides the Minister with the power to require, by written notice, that a person provide such information or evidence as the Minister may require for the purposes of considering whether a familial relationship exists, including a requirement that information or evidence be given on oath or verified by statutory declaration.

Subclause (4) inserts a new subsection (11) that defines certain terms used in proposed subsections (9a) to (9d).

8—Transitional provisions

This clause contains transitional provisions consequent on the amendments in clauses 5 and 6.

Part 4—Amendment of National Electricity (South Australia) Act 1996

9—Insertion of section 15B

This clause inserts new section 15B into the National Electricity (South Australia) Act 1996 as follows:

15B—Regulation-making power for purposes of scheme and fund in relation to electricity capacity

This section enables regulations to be made to establish a scheme or a fund (or both) for the purposes of providing long duration dispatchable electricity capacity to ensure secure, reliable and affordable electricity supply for the State.

Part 5—Amendment of Payroll Tax Act 2009

10—Amendment of Schedule 2—South Australia specific provisions

This clause inserts new clauses 17B and 17C into Schedule 2 of the Payroll Tax Act 2009 as follows:

17B—General practitioners—bulk billed services

This clause allows the regulations to, in relation to bulk billed services, declare a percentage of wages paid or payable to general practitioners engaged by a medical practice that provides bulk billed services to be exempt wages.

The clause allows the regulations to modify or exclude the application of the Act in relation to such exempt wages.

Regulations made for the purposes of the clause may operate in respect of the financial year commencing on 1 July 2024 or any subsequent financial year.

17C—Other exemptions for previous financial years

This clause allows the regulations to declare wages, or a percentage of wages, paid or payable in circumstances prescribed by the regulations to be exempt wages.

The clause allows the regulations to modify or exclude the application of the Act in relation to such exempt wages.

Regulations made for the purposes of the clause may operate in respect of 1 or more financial years that commenced before the commencement of the regulations.

Part 6—Amendment of Stamp Duties Act 1923

11—Amendment of section 71DD—Relief from duty in respect of certain purchases of new homes and land

This clause amends section 71DD of the Stamp Duties Act 1923 as follows:

by providing that no duty is payable if the contract for the conveyance or transfer of a new home or vacant land on which a home is to be built was entered into on or after 6 June 2024;

by providing that, if the commencement date of the relevant contract is on or after the day on which this Act is assented to by the Governor, a purchaser does not qualify for relief under the section if a purchaser under the contract, or a spouse or domestic partner of a purchaser under the contract, held an interest in residential property in the State or another State irrespective of whether the person who held the interest resided in the property continuously for at least 6 months;

by providing that a person is eligible for relief under the section regardless of the market value of the new home or vacant land if the contract for the conveyance or transfer was entered into on or after 6 June 2024;

by stating that the section does not apply to a contract entered into on or after 6 June 2024 that replaces a contract entered into before that date for the same new home or vacant land;

by allowing the Commissioner to determine that a contract for a conveyance or transfer entered into on or after 6 June 2024 that replaces a contract entered into before that date for the same new home or vacant land is eligible for the relief under the section that would have applied if the original contract had not been replaced;

by providing that the section does not operate to provide relief from the foreign ownership surcharge (within the meaning of section 72) payable on a contract for the conveyance or transfer of a new home or vacant land on which a home is to be built that is entered into on or after the day on which this Act is assented to by the Governor.

Part 7—Amendment of Mining Regulations 2020

12—Amendment of regulation 10—Prescribed information to accompany tenement holder's estimate of value of minerals

This clause amends references in this regulation consequential on the amendments in clauses 5 and 6.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. L.A. Henderson.