Qld shelves controversial land tax plan

Queensland’s Treasurer says he ‘stands by everything’ he said about a controversial land tax regime, despite Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk intervening to scrap the plan.

Cameron Dick has extraordinarily declared that he stands by everything he said over his controversial land tax shake-up, despite the Premier being forced to personally intervene to scrap the changes.

Annastacia Palaszczuk conceded on Friday that the changes were unworkable without the co-operation of the other states, as she confirmed that she would shelve the Treasurer’s contentious reforms.

Her comments put her at odds with Mr Dick, who only days ago publicly insisted he did not need the help of other states to enforce his land tax agenda.

Multiple states, including NSW, Tasmania and the Northern Territory, had all said they would not hand their land data over to the Palaszczuk government so that they could implement the changes.

Treasurer Cameron Dick addressing the media this week. Picture: NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

“It does require the goodwill of other states and if we can’t get those additional information, I will put that aside,” Ms Palaszczuk said in Canberra on Friday following a national cabinet meeting.

In the wake of revelations that the tax had been shelved, a spokesman for Mr Dick – who is currently on leave – said he stood by everything he had said about land tax.

“But of course he accepts the decision the Premier has made after talking to other leaders,” Mr Dick’s spokesman said.

Mr Dick blasted NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet on Monday after it was revealed NSW would not provide the data – but on Friday Ms Palaszczuk said she got on “quite well” with the NSW leader.

Deputy LNP leader Jarrod Bleijie accused the Labor government of being in “open warfare”.

“Never have I seen before a Premier and Treasurer publicly undermining each other,” he said.

“The people of Queensland are paying the price for a dysfunctional government.”

The now-scrapped changes would have seen land tax calculated using the total value of an investor’s Australian land – but they would have only paid for the portion of their land in Queensland.

The Property Council welcomed the decision to axe the land tax changes, after they had been warning that the reforms would lead to rent rises.

“As details emerged of how the new tax would be implemented, it became clearer just how untenable it would be,” Queensland Executive Director of the Property Council, Jen Williams, said.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles backed the Premier’s move to axe the tax changes, describing it as the right decision.

“At the time these decisions were made, we didn’t have those indications from other states and territories that they might be unwilling to assist us in administering it,” Mr Miles said.

“Now that we have that information, the Premier went to them (other state and territory leaders) to discuss it further.

“As a result of those discussions, she’s determined that the changes should be shelved for now.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in Canberra on Friday for a National Cabinet meeting. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, in Canberra for an in person meeting of national cabinet, was due to hold conversations with her counterparts on the sidelines about the matter.

How much revenue the state can pull from the new measure is “highly dependent” – according to Queensland’s Under Treasurer Leon Allen during budget estimates in July – on how much information other jurisdictions are willing to share on property owners and their landholdings

It is understood Ms Palaszczuk made the decision on Thursday night to shelve the scheme after speaking to her interstate counterparts.

It had become clear the other premiers did not support the land tax shake up and were set to not co-operate.

The tax regimen will be deferred, leaving the door open to the state government to revive it at some stage in the future.

Treasurer Cameron Dick said he “stands by everything” he has said about land tax but accepted the decision the Premier had made.