SA Liberal MPs vent frustration over planned land tax changes in partyroom meeting
Rebel Liberal MPs have won assurances from Premier Steven Marshall there will be more consultation on the controversial land tax policy.
Liberal MPs have vented their frustrations over land tax in a highly-anticipated partyroom meeting, and won assurances from Premier Steven Marshall of more consultation.
Ministers and backbenchers gathered at Parliament House on Monday night for a scheduled meeting ahead of a day of regular sitting this week and Estimates hearings.
It followed a breakout of unrest last week over proposed changes to land tax, which a vocal group of MPs fear will spark a backlash from marginal seat voters and loyal supporters.
Mr Marshall had flown back into Adelaide after two weeks of leave, and took a meeting with Property Council of Australia SA executive director Daniel Gannon before confronting his own MPs in the partyroom over growing anger which took Cabinet by surprise.
It is understood three MPs were “quite vocal” in opposing the land tax changes and a total of six raised concerns, while others who are known to share their complaints did not speak.
“It was quite a polite meeting,” one MP told advertiser.com.au.
“Marshall came to the meeting with a listening ear, and promised to consult with industry before any implementation.
“He is keen to see some reform, but will listen to industry and stakeholders. “He was appreciative that we could have communicated our messages a bit better as a government.”
The MP said that dissidents were prepared to give Mr Marshall and Cabinet “the benefit of the doubt” as they worked through a final land tax model to be presented to Parliament.
That is expected to occur in September, after further modelling is undertaken.
Industry and many in the Government believe that the $40 million per year which the Budget forecast the change to raise is “soft”, and the final amount could be more than double.
Treasurer Rob Lucas has said that money raised above that figure can be used to offset the Government’s total land tax take, including accelerating plans to cut the highest rate paid.
Mr Marshall will on Tuesday afternoon face Question Time, where the Opposition is set to play up the public outbreak of division witnessed over the past week.
The Opposition is yet to declare a position on the land tax changes, as it awaits full details from the Government. It looms as critical to deciding the fate of the proposed reform, as key crossbenchers in both the Upper and Lower houses of Parliament prepare to vote against it.
Earlier this month, four Liberal MPs crossed the floor to vote against their own government on controversial mining legislation. One of the four, Mount Barker-based MP Dan Cregan, refused to rule out the possibility of doing so again when asked directly on Monday.
At a press conference on Tuesday morning, Mr Marshall rejected suggestions of a feisty meeting, saying all agreed tax should be cut.
“The partyroom is very clear that we need to lower taxes in SA, and that’s precisely what we are doing at the moment,” Mr Marshall said.
“All reform has people that are winners and losers. “We are trying to minimise those people who are going to be adversely affected.
“That’s why we are sitting down in respectful consultation with the sector.
“What we want in SA is a fairer land tax system. What we want in SA is lower land tax. “That’s what the Government is working towards.”
Mr Marshall said he had stopped the implementation of carpark and bank taxes in Opposition, before slashing ESL and payroll bills in Government.
“We are the party of lower taxes in SA,” he said.
“I genuinely think we do need to deal with the aggregation issue. It just is indefensible from my perspective to have somebody that might have, let’s just say $7 million worth of property in a single property, paying a completely different rate to somebody who might have $7 million worth of property across multiple land holdings. I mean, that’s inequitable.
“The previous government were happy to kick the can down the road on this issue. We are not. We want genuine reform. We want lower land tax, but we’ve got to fix up some of these issues with regards to the way that it is applied. We want an even playing field. That’s what we’ll be implementing. “I fully understand that this reform is difficult.”
The land tax reforms would take effect on July 1 next year.