Page 5424 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 8 December 2009
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These amendments will clarify who owns a parcel of land, irrespective of the actual registration of these details.
When there is a change of purpose it is necessary to recalculate the unimproved value of the parcel of land for the three years prior to the relevant year to ensure that there is equity in the recalculated value of the land. An objection has been made to the recalculation for more than the previous year, just the previous year. The government sought legal advice about responding to this objection. These amendments will provide for the calculation of the unimproved value based on estimates of the unimproved value for the previous three years on the new land use type.
In relation to the rental status of properties, some situations have arisen where the details of a change in status have been provided to the commissioner but the formal requirements for notifying a change in status have not been followed. These amendments will clarify the process that must be followed to ensure that proper and timely advice is provided on any change in status. These amendments will enhance the administration of the rates and land tax regime in the ACT. The only losers, if we can categorise them as such, will be those people or organisations who do not wish to comply properly with the legislative requirements.
Mr Assistant Speaker, as I said, the opposition will be supporting the bill. However, in the briefing that I had—I thank the minister for the briefing and I thank the staff for, again, a timely and informative briefing—I did ask the eternal question: what consultation has been carried out? The answer was that, given the points were minor ones, it was not felt there was a need for consultation. I have done my own consultation. A number of groups that I spoke to yesterday after I had the briefing were quite surprised that this bill had been tabled and indeed was up for debate for today. They had no idea about it. Again, minister, consultation in this case—and from a government that says it has learnt the lesson of consultation—is lacking. What we might consider a small change or just an administrative change does have an effect on the way in which people and business conduct their affairs. If the government is serious when it says that it has learnt about consultation it needs not just to say that and needs not just to determine when and where it will consult.
The people I spoke to were concerned. They went away and checked and came back and said, “It seems reasonable.” But their problem was that they did not know. The government says it has learnt its lesson on consultation but, yet again, there were groups that felt a little put out at the fact that this was being debated today and they had so little notice about having time to have input. That said, the opposition will support the bill.
MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (11.12): The Greens will be supporting the Rates and Land Tax Legislation Amendment Bill 2009 as these amendments will ensure that the territory is able to collect land tax in an efficient and equitable manner. It is the Greens’ understanding that the first and fourth amendments have the effect of making the registration of a units plan conditional on the payment of all outstanding amounts of rates and land tax for a parcel of land that are payable by that owner of the parcel of land. This is a practical amendment that ensures the territory collects adequate revenue when it is due. This amendment will become increasingly important as many of the suburbs closer to the city centre will be developed from single houses on large parcels of land to more sustainable medium density dwellings.
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