Media Release

Peter Gutwein MP
Shadow Treasurer

Monday 18th January 2010

Aird continues the promotion of Liberal land tax policy

Shadow Treasurer Peter Gutwein said today that he was pleased that Treasurer Michael Aird had highlighted the fact that the extra funding that was proposed for the Valuer General by Labor would not be required any more under the Liberal’s bold land tax elimination policy.

Under the Liberal’s Cap and Cut Land Tax policy, Labor’s proposed extra allocation to the Valuer General will not be required because we will not be using valuations for land tax purposes after this year, as Land tax bills will be capped and then progressively reduced to zero as we move to abolish this tax by 2020.

Under Labor valuations are still required because even with the changes they have made, land tax remains as a growth tax and in future years Labor’s plan is to continue increasing the receipts it receives from this tax.

The current level of funding that the Valuer General receives will remain.

The lazy and incompetent Michael Aird has had this policy since Wednesday, and the best so-called attack he can muster is to point out what is written explicitly in the policy – that is, that the extra funding allocated to the Valuer-General will not be required because our plan it to abolish land tax, not increase it.