Page 1645 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 12 May 2015
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their contents and their buildings. Why would we put a tax on that? So we are getting rid of it, and we are the only jurisdiction in Australia to be getting rid of a tax on insurance.
On stamp duty, already our stamp duty cuts are saving homebuyers in this city thousands of dollars. If you buy a property for $500,000 you are saving nearly $5,000 in stamp duty. If the property you are buying costs $750,000, you are saving more than $6½ thousand in stamp duty. If you are eligible for one of the other concessions that we are offering, we are giving you a $20,000 stamp duty discount in many instances in relation to average housing purchases.
Conveyance duty in the ACT is lower than it was, and it is getting lower every year. And every budget I deliver as Treasurer will cut stamp duty. Stamp duty has been identified very clearly as an inefficient, volatile tax that distorts the property market. We are against it. We want to abolish it. We are cutting it every year. Those opposite love stamp duty, love to roll around in it and want to put stamp duty up. They want to squeeze more out of homebuyers. That is their position. They support stamp duty. They support stamp duty going up and up. They want to hit the average Canberra household with a $25,000 stamp duty bill—no, $30,000; no $40,000; $50,000. As house prices rise in the coming decades, the Canberra Liberals want to squeeze more and more out of first homebuyers, people who downsize and people who might need to buy a bigger house because they have a bigger family. For anyone who ever needs to move house, the Canberra Liberals will have their hands in your pockets, taking stamp duty from you every time you need to move.
Our taxation reform is designed to be revenue neutral, to transition away from the inefficient taxes to a more sustainable and efficient revenue base. It is what every tax review in this nation has recommended, including Joe Hockey’s most recent one, the Henry review before that and every other tax review going back in history, looking at the issue of stamp duties levied by state and territory governments. They all recommended moving away from this form of taxation. That is exactly what we are doing.
I know it hurts those opposite that their policy position is so backward and so regressive, but this government will continue to cut stamp duty, to cut insurance tax, to cut payroll tax. We have been doing that in every budget since I have been Treasurer, and we will continue to cut inefficient taxes in order to ensure we have a more sustainable tax system that funds the services this community needs in the most efficient way possible.
Discussion concluded.
Adjournment
Motion (by Ms Burch) proposed:
That the Assembly do now adjourn.
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