House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-10-14 Daily Xml

Contents

LAND TAX

The Hon. I.F. EVANS (Davenport) (15:23): My question is to the Treasurer. When did the Treasurer first become aware that Revenue SA, without approval, had wrongly charged land tax on 136 South Australian properties; has the land tax been paid back to the taxpayers; and how can taxpayers have confidence that when they receive a land tax bill it is valid, when unapproved, unjustified bills have been distributed?

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Treasurer, Minister for Federal/State Relations, Minister for Defence Industries) (15:23): Obviously, I will get a specific answer to the member but, yes—

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Hang on, small business genius; just hold on.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Treasurer will return to the question.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Yes, then you went broke; then you went bankrupt.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: He can dish it, but he can't take it.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: The reality is that there are times—limited, thankfully—when there are errors made—

The Hon. I.F. Evans: Unapproved.

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Well, I cannot stand here and say that errors do not occur when we send out literally tens upon tens upon tens of thousands of land tax notices. If an error has occurred, we will obviously apologise and rectify it, but I would be very confident in saying that errors would have occurred on a regular basis under the opposition's administration, because we very rarely get 100 per cent of transactions correct all the time. There will be glitches. I will get the specific details of the matter the member raised. If he can give it to me, to make sure I get it correctly, I will do so.