Page 950 - Week 03 - Thursday, 23 March 2017

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effective rating factor to the AUV of the whole parcel of land to work out the rates or land tax payable. The amount payable, rather than the AUV, will then be allocated to each unit by unit entitlement.

Noting the progressive nature of rates and land tax, the new formula will rebalance the discrepancy between houses and units in the rating structure by applying the marginal rating factors to the overall parcel of land. To lessen the financial impact for residential unit owners, a one-off $100 rate rebate will apply for 2017-18. This rebate will be made by notifiable instrument.

An announcement was also made in the 2015-16 budget to abolish insurance duties in the territory from 1 July 2016. This was implemented by disallowable instrument to set the rate of duty to zero and to suspend obligations for insurers to lodge returns. This bill repeals the legislative provisions that relate to insurance duty. It reinforces the government’s commitment to the abolition of insurance duty in the territory and provides administrative certainty and assurance to the insurance sector.

In 2016 a change was made to the pensioner rates rebate schemes to improve equity between different rebate programs. These changes were intended to take effect from 1 July 2016. However, the amending legislation did not commence until 18 August 2016.

I approved a disallowable instrument as an interim arrangement to provide taxpayer confidence and certainty. The instrument temporarily adjusted the rates fixed charge for affected pensioners whose rates assessment notices were issued before 18 August 2016.

This bill makes a technical amendment to the Rates Act to provide that the interim arrangements, which only affected a subset of rebate recipients, do not affect the calculation of the rebate in future years. This amendment provides certainty going forward and will place all pensioners on the same legislative basis for the 2017-18 fiscal year and future rates assessment years.

I commend the bill to the Assembly.

Debate (on motion by Mr Coe) adjourned to the next sitting.

Extended Throughcare

Ministerial statement

MR RATTENBURY (Kurrajong—Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability, Minister for Justice, Consumer Affairs and Road Safety, Minister for Corrections and Minister for Mental Health) (10.07): As members of the Assembly may be aware, I recently released an evaluation of the ACT government funded extended through-care program, which has been running as a pilot since June 2013. I am pleased today to talk to the success and lessons of the past three years.

At its heart, the extended through-care pilot program is a model that works to provide support to detainees beyond the end of an offender’s custodial sentence to enhance


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