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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 10 Hansard (23 September) . . Page.. 3168 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

In terms of the ageing in our community, of course the ageing in our community are enormously important, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker. Mr Kaine made very clear all the areas that we have addressed. We have addressed the issues brought to us by COTA. In fact, the debits tax that Mr Berry was raving on about was discussed at length with COTA and they were very pleased that we had decided to bring in a rebate system, unlike any other State apart from Tasmania.

Mr Berry: They would rather not have the tax.

MRS CARNELL: It is interesting that Mr Berry says that. The debits tax was put to us by ACTCOSS because they believed that it was important to broaden the tax base in the ACT if we were to have an equitable society. In fact, the Greens have regularly made that comment too, as have others who are willing to be at least a little bit fair about the ACT - that a broader tax base in the ACT is absolutely essential.

The fact is that Mr Berry forgot to make the comment that the FID tax was reduced by 40 per cent, and then we introduced a BAD tax at the same rate as New South Wales. This was done, as those in this Assembly who are in any way interested would know, to avoid a number of things, one of the major ones being, shall we say, a misuse of our taxes in this area - in other words, companies, particularly large companies, withdrawing in the ACT and depositing in other States. In other words, we needed to ensure that the revenue base for the ACT was protected so that we could spend it on social services.

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The time for the discussion has now expired.

Debate resumed from 28 August 1997, on motion by Mrs Carnell:

That this Bill be agreed to in principle.

MR BERRY (Leader of the Opposition) (5.23): Labor will be supporting this Bill. Fundamentally, it provides for a concessional rate of stamp duty on asset transfers following the breakdown of domestic relationships or where superannuation funds and pooled superannuation trusts are required to comply with Commonwealth legislation which requires them to broaden investment portfolios to reduce the risk from inadequate diversification.

I think there are some interesting points that need to be made in this debate. The Stamp Duties and Taxes Act describes "spouse" as follows:

"spouse", in relation to a person, includes a person who lives with the first-mentioned person as his or her spouse, although not legally married to him or her, on a bona fide domestic basis, and has so lived for a continuous period of not less than 2 years;

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