Page 2246 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 9 May 2012
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this important conversation about tax reform in the territory. Mr Smyth said that Labor does not believe in tax reform, which I found a little interesting considering I have rather a large tome here in front of me which seems to indicate that quite a lot of thought has gone in by the review team. I thought it was important to acknowledge that work.
As I said, we will be looking through some of the other measures that have been put forward in the recommendations—to look at them in further detail. But we are very interested in having this conversation with the community about how we can move away from these transaction taxes, stamp duty, to a broader based land tax system.
As I said, the important part is going to be in the design of this system. It is going to be in how we ensure that there are concessions and there is proper transition for people so that those who, for instance, in recent years have paid their stamp duty are not going to miss out.
We welcome it. We welcome this discussion. It is timely that we have this discussion. I hope that this report does not get put on the shelf and does not gather dust—that we do have that conversation with people across the community to see how we might implement a new system that really will put us in a far more sustainable position into the future. At the moment the stamp duty does not provide us with certainty about income on a year-to-year basis. We need to have a consistent income stream. The move to this new system that is proposed would provide that constant and consistent income stream that is going to be so important for the territory in facing the challenges that are ahead—not just environmental challenges but a whole lot of social policy challenges as well, with increasing needs for health provision and all the other services that Canberrans expect to be delivered, and quite rightly so. We look forward to participating in this process.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development and Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation) (3.39): As members would aware, I released the panel’s report and the government response this week. I certainly thank Ms Porter for the opportunity to discuss the review today. I thank Ms Hunter for her contribution and Mr Smyth for really talking about anything but the substantive issues contained in the review. But it was 15 minutes of contribution one way or the other; so thank you, Mr Smyth.
Madam Assistant Speaker, how we collect revenue that allows us to deliver services to the community is, indeed, an extremely important issue. Taxes must provide a sustainable level of funding to support the service levels expected by our citizens. A fairly important principle is that the tax base should expand with economic growth to allow for improved levels of service provision over time.
Because the economic and social impacts of taxation can be pronounced, there is often resistance to the very idea of reform. The familiarity and comfort of the status quo can often be seductive. But this view only protects entrenched interests and does not recognise another imperative, that societies and economies change over time, that they face new challenges and that policies must adapt. Taxation policy is no exception.
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