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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-09-23 Daily Xml
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Land Tax

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (14:50): Yes, my supplementary question to the Treasurer is: will he please explain to the house why he thinks there is no connection between the state's land tax revenue and the removal of stamp duty on commercial real property transactions?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Minister for Small Business) (14:50): Wow! I am lost for words. I will explain this, and perhaps the two up-and-comers at the back—

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley is called to order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —can explain this to—I even notice members of the gallery smiling. Conveyance duty is charged at transaction, so when a commercial property is transacted—

Mr Knoll interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is warned for the second and final time.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —there is a charge at the transaction point. If the member is saying that somehow we will allow a greater aggregation of properties because we are removing conveyance duty and people can therefore have multiple ownerships without paying a conveyance, it is true, but their land tax bills will be more substantial. If he is saying that people can disaggregate their properties because there is no conveyance, I am more than happy to go through this with the shadow minister about why we think the impacts will be minimal, given the rate of land tax that we charge in this state.

I think he is fundamentally confused between what a conveyance duty is and what a land tax is. A conveyance duty is at the point of transaction. You do not pay an annualised conveyance duty; you pay an annualised land tax. They are two separate charges. I don't want to do damage to your leadership chances because I actually want you to succeed, because I pray every night you get it, but—

The SPEAKER: Point of order.

Ms CHAPMAN: Much as I would welcome you to this side of the house, I am not asking you to be the new leader, and nor should the Treasurer.

The SPEAKER: Yes, the Treasurer will address his remarks through the Chair.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I think what the member is saying is: by removing conveyance duty, will there be greater disaggregation of properties, therefore ending multiple ownerships and therefore being able to move properties around to different ownerships to restructure their land tax liabilities? The Treasury have done some forecasts and that is relatively minor, but that was not the question. The member for Adelaide is struggling to understand what is actually going on, in that the member Stuart has just humiliated himself in front of the parliament.

The SPEAKER: If the point of order from the member for Adelaide or the member for Unley is that the Treasurer was mistaken in referring to one of them, then they will be leaving the chamber for a bogus point of order. Do they still wish to make the point of order? Supplementary.

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