‘Don’t need him’: Treasurer says he’ll go around NSW to enforce land tax

Treasurer Cameron Dick has said how Queensland will enforce its controversial land tax, as he hit back at the NSW Premier’s lack of co-operation.

Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick has admitted his government will be relying on an “honesty system” to enforce its controversial land tax, as he claimed he didn’t need the NSW Premier’s co-operation to make it happen.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet on Monday announced he would refuse to hand over data identifying Queensland property holders living in NSW, which would ultimately add them to Queensland’s looming land tax list.

The reforms would see interstate landholders pay thousands more for their Queensland properties and there are fears rents could raise in the state as a result, exacerbating an already alarming housing crisis.

In a press conference on Monday, Mr Dick said he did not need Mr Perrottet’s help and could simply take the “publicly available” data, which the government planned to strip from land registries, title registers and valuations.

“If (Mr Perrottet) doesn’t want to help us, that’s fine,” Mr Dick said.

“We don’t need him to close this loop.

“The data on ownership and the data on land valuation is already public, it’s available publicly across Australia and across every state so we’re going to continue down this path.

“Of course we will ask landholders as we do each year to make a declaration of property that they own.”

Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick and NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet.

When asked if the government’s land tax would then rely on the honesty of interstate property owners declaring their holdings, Mr Dick said, “an honesty system backed up by the work of the Queensland Revenue Office”.

“This is now the law, it was passed by our parliament, not one member of parliament voted against it,” he said.

Experts slammed the tax as “ludicrous”, saying workload costs could end up outweighing the predicted land tax revenue.

Mr Dick later lashed out at Mr Perrottet, saying he was made fully aware of Queensland’s land tax plan last year and had only changed his tune because he was “likely to lose” the upcoming NSW state election.

“Dominic Perrottet is making these statements today because he’s six months out from an election, he’s tanking in the polls and it’s an election that he’s likely to lose,” Mr Dick said.

“Dom Perrottet has got some hide lecturing us about land tax.

“This is a bloke who wants to put an annual land tax on every home in NSW forever.

“So if Dominic Perrottet wants to side with property speculators who are coming up to Queensland, flipping properties, making money and squeezing out Queenslanders from the property market from getting and buying a home, that’s entirely inadequate.”

The Treasurer could not confirm what effect the land tax would have on Queensland’s rent prices or the tax implications it would have on recently legalised granny flat rentals.

“Public rents are determined by the pressure of the market supply and demand factors,” Mr Dick said.

“Rents last year went up 13 per cent, that had nothing to do with land tax.

“The (granny flat) announcement has been made and we’d obviously need to do a (tax) analysis of that.”

Originally published as ‘Don’t need him’: Treasurer says he’ll go around NSW to enforce land tax