Page 1556 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 14 May 2019

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MR BARR (Kurrajong—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Social Inclusion and Equality, Minister for Tourism and Special Events and Minister for Trade, Industry and Investment) (12.01): I move amendment No 5 circulated in my name [see schedule 2 at page 1644]. This is a straightforward amendment that will ensure that guidelines can be made so that an insurer can request an assessment to determine an injured person’s fitness for work only in certain circumstances specified in guidelines.

MR COE (Yerrabi—Leader of the Opposition) (12.01): It is very difficult to know what these guidelines contain, given that they have not been fully written, so the devil will be in the detail.

Amendment agreed to.

Clause 105, as amended, agreed to.

Clause 106.

Debate interrupted in accordance with standing order 74 and the resumption of the debate made an order of the day for a later hour.

Sitting suspended from 12.02 to 2.00 pm.

Questions without notice

Taxation—reform

MR COE: My question is to the Treasurer. Treasurer, has your tax reform regime been revenue neutral, as you have promised?

MR BARR: Yes.

MR COE: Treasurer, has rates revenue increased by more than 130 per cent since the reform program began in 2011-12? Is this amount considerably more than property price growth, population growth and inflation?

MR BARR: Yes, rates revenue has increased. It has increased as a result of a number of factors. The Leader of the Opposition outlined a number of them. There are significantly more rate-paying households and commercial ratepayers in the territory since the commencement of the reform because we have been experiencing a period of very significant population growth.

Opposition members interjecting—

MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Coe, members!

MR BARR: Also, Madam Speaker, as we have debated in this place on probably several hundred occasions since 2012, the government is switching the tax base away from transaction-based taxes, insurance taxes and payroll taxes towards the broad-based land tax, the most efficient form of taxation available to our level of government.


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