Election 2022: Liberals accuse rival of costly land tax plan

Liberals have accused teal candidate Zoe Daniel of proposing a tax which would cost average homeowners in Goldstein almost $10,000 a year.

Goldstein independent candidate Zoe Daniel. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brendan Beckett

The Morrison government has accused the “teal” candidate for the Melbourne seat of Goldstein of proposing land taxes which would cost homeowners in the bayside electorate an average of almost $10,000 a year.

But former ABC journalist turned independent Zoe Daniel says she is merely proposing a ­review of property taxes, and not necessarily calling for land tax to replace stamp duty.

The debate comes as the ­Coalition government in NSW explores giving homeowners in that state the option of paying an annual property tax rather than a larger one-off sum of stamp duty, given the obstacle stamp duty poses for first-home buyers attempting to enter the market.

Outlining her policy on housing affordability and tax on her campaign website, Ms Daniel states: “Stamp duty is a state ­matter, but it is contributing to Australia’s housing affordability problem, discouraging established homeowners from moving house as their circumstances change, as well as encouraging overcapitalisation.”

“Any review should consider the assistance the Commonwealth could provide to the states to smooth the consequences of an equitable shift to a land tax ­regime,” she writes.

Calculations supplied by the Liberal campaign and based on Victoria’s current land tax regime show land tax would cost homeowners in Goldstein an average of $9750 a year, with those in Brighton up for an average of $13,291, compared with $8646 in Hampton, $8998 in Sandringham, and $9761 in Black Rock.

Liberal senator for Victoria Sarah Henderson accused Ms Daniel of having a plan “to replace stamp duty with a new land tax on the family home”, saying it “would be an enormous hit to household budgets year in, year out”.

“It is the price residents would pay for a deal cut in a hung parliament led by Anthony Albanese,” Senator Henderson said.

“For those people struggling with household budgets, this tax could shatter their finances.”

Ms Daniel said she was “not proposing an end to stamp duty and its replacement with land tax, but that the issue should be addressed as one element of a broad-based review of taxation led by experts in the next term of parliament”.

“As I make clear on my website, I have no preconceived position on what such a review might recommend but I think many of those who I speak to in Goldstein would agree that we have to have it,” she said. “Asking for a review is not rigid policy framing and to characterise it as such would be a misrepresentation. Housing affordability is one of the top issues raised with me by not only the young people in our electorate, but also older people concerned that their children will struggle to enter the housing market and can’t afford to live nearby.”