SA Treasurer blast Liberals over state election stamp duty pledge, as Tarzia promises ‘no new tax’

A radical plan to abolish $1.6bn of state revenue has sparked the biggest economic policy fight of the state election campaign.

Opposition Leader Vincent Tarzia has defended his controversial new election promise to abolish stamp duty, saying full costings for the ambitious policy will be revealed closer to March’s state election.

It follows calls from the government for the Liberal leader to provide hard data to back up his plan, which has been labelled “reckless” by Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis.

Mr Tarzia was the keynote speaker at a Committee for Economic Development Australia (CEDA) event on Wednesday, speaking to stakeholders from across the state’s public and private sectors.

His speech and subsequent QandA, which were initially billed as Mr Tarzia sharing his “vision for the future” of the state, were dominated by the new stamp duty policy.

Top of many minds was where the government would make up lost revenue, with Mr Tarzia saying the government would not engage in “vanity projects” like the scrapped hydrogen plant.

“We believe that people are better off spending their money than governments,” he said.

While stamp duty was the focus of his keynote address, Mr Tarzia said the Liberals would have “more to say” on a range of policy areas, including housing and the algal bloom, while offering little hint as to what these potential new policies may be.

“I actually really enjoy putting policy together,” he said to the audience jovially.

Prior to the CEDA event, Mr Tarzia and Shadow Tax Reform Minister Heidi Girolamo told the media that costings for the plan and other key Liberal policies will be released in the lead up to the election, saying they would be “independently modelled” and verified.

He also made the claim that there would be “no new tax” under a Tarzia government.

“We know that stamp duty makes it harder for young people to get into the market and also makes it hard for older people to downsize if they want to and that’s leading to inefficiencies right across the state,” he said.

Opposition leader Vincent Tarzia has revealed his party plans to scrap stamp duty by 2041 if elected to government at the March state election. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis blasted the stamp duty policy as “dangerous” and “reckless”, warning that it could lead to frontline workers such as police and emergency services losing their jobs.

“It is not possible to take out one third of the state’s tax base and not make cuts to essential services,” he said.

He called on Mr Tarzia to release the full costings to alleviate concerns over public sector job cuts.

Mr Tarzia dismissed Mr Koutsantonis’ criticism as a “scaremongering tactic”, saying there would be no cuts to frontline services.

Asked at the end of the event to summarise a Tarzia Liberal government, he said it would be “fundamentally pro-growth”, “stimulate economic activity”, and would work to make SA’s energy system “more green” and “more reliable”.

Kouts blasts Libs’ stamp duty plan among ‘most dangerous’ he’s seen

Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis lashed the Liberal’s new policy to phase out stamp duty, saying it had “not been thought through” and that it would cripple frontline services.

The ambitious new policy, which would see the tax phased out by 2041, was officially unveiled by Liberal leader Vincent Tarzia in a speech to a Committee for Economic Development Australia event on Wednesday.

“Stamp duty is an inefficient tax that inhibits the housing sector’s ability to reorganise itself and stops young people getting into the housing market and older people from downsizing,” Mr Tarzia told The Advertiser.

He said a Liberal government would put “power back in the hands” of homeowners and aspiring homeowners.

Mr Koutsantonis said the policy was one of the “most dangerous” he’d seen in his 28-year political career.

South Australia Labor Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis. Picture: Dean Martin

“This is the equivalent of firing every single teacher who works for the Department for Education,” he said.

Mr Koutsantonis said Mr Tarzia was “not thinking clearly”, and urged him to release the Liberal’s modelling for how the plan would be feasible.

“The Liberal Party used to be economically responsible,” he said.

“The idea of abolishing this tax in full is dramatic and quite frankly reckless.”

If elected in March, the Liberals aim to “wean off” stamp duty by adjusting the brackets within five years, with the view to totally abolish the tax within 15 years.

Stamp duties on financial and capital transactions currently brings in $1.6 billion each year, according to the Liberals. But they say there will be no new tax needed to replace it, the idea being to put more money in people’s pockets and grow the economy that way.

The policy is the latest in a list of election promises from the opposition. Picture: Dean Martin

“Once you remove Labor’s budget blowouts which affect every department, and failed projects like the half a billion they spent on hydrogen, there is only a very modest reduction in revenue that can be managed through good financial stewardship and growing the economy.

“Only a Liberal government can do this properly. Not a single frontline service will need to be touched and if anyone says that will happen then they are lying.”

The new commitment to abolish stamp duty follows a pledge made in June to exempt first home buyers from paying stamp duty on existing properties.

“My vision is one where the government delivers the highest value to taxpayers of anywhere in the world, while remaining in the background and not becoming the story,” Mr Tarzia said.

The policy is the latest in a list of election promises from the opposition.

The Sunday Mail revealed a “one-strike rule” for serious offenders breaking bail that would send them straight to jail.

That announcement came as part of a community safety policy that included a $40m Breaking the Cycle Fund focusing on early intervention and rehabilitation programs for high-risk youths and repeat offenders.

Another policy heading into the election is the slashing of public transport fares to 50 cents, a $240m plan the Liberal said would cut living costs and boost patronage.

Originally published as SA Treasurer blast Liberals over state election stamp duty pledge, as Tarzia promises ‘no new tax’