Qld land tax furore: Questions remain over other states’ co-operation

Victoria is yet to clarify if it will co-operate with Queensland’s new land tax regime, with Premier Dan Andrews raising privacy concerns.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is yet to clarify if he will co-operate with the Queensland government’s new land tax regime, as he raised concerns about the importance of privacy and data integrity.

His comments came as the West Australian Labor government confirmed it had not been approached by the Queensland government to share data for the land tax shake-up in the Sunshine State.

Mr Andrews on Wednesday said the Palaszczuk government had also not yet requested the home ownership details of Victorians.

“They haven’t made that request to the best of my knowledge, so I can’t really answer questions that have not actually been put to us,” the Labor Premier said.

“But I think we’ve all seen, in recent days, just how important privacy and data integrity is. But again, I’m not aware that a request has been made.”

A Victorian government spokesman also said: “The Queensland Treasurer has said his government will rely on publicly available records in relation to its land tax – this is a matter for the Queensland government.”

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the West Australian government said it would give “careful consideration” to any request from Queensland to share land data.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk with her Victorian counterpart Dan Andrews

But it also confirmed that RevenueWA had not been approached by Queensland to share such data, despite the Palaszczuk government previously suggesting communications had been made with other states.

It has previously been revealed that the Northern Territory and NSW had also not been approached by Queensland about the changes.

Earlier this month, Mr Dick said: “I’m not aware of … any other revenue office that is opposed to the work that we are doing, and we’ve communicated with all those revenue offices.”

The NSW, Tasmanian and Northern Territory governments have all now confirmed they will not be sharing land data with Queensland.

Mr Dick insisted this week the government would go ahead with the land tax shake-up regardless, claiming it did not need the help of the NSW government. “The data on ownership and the data on land valuation is already public,” the Treasurer said.

“It’s available publicly across Australia and across every state so we’re going to continue down this path.”

South Australian Labor Treasurer Stephen Mullighan did not respond to questions on Wednesday asking if his state would share land valuations with Queensland.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is set to raise the land tax changes on the sidelines of an upcoming national cabinet meeting.