"Carr says land tax will be reviewed"

Ninemsn website, 23 February 2005

NSW Premier Bob Carr admitted his government's land tax was a political liability that would be reviewed ahead of the state Budget.

Mr Carr said Treasurer Andrew Refshauge would reassess the tax which has been deeply unpopular since the government last year abolished the $317,000 land tax-free threshold.

"The treasurer will review land tax in the context of the state Budget taking into account all the community concerns we've heard," he told parliament.

Mr Carr agreed the tax had become a liability.

"Sure it is, but so are any other taxes the state government applies," he told reporters.

"Some more than others. Those that affect people most tend to be the subject of complaint and we listen to it very seriously."

Opposition Leader John Brogden said Mr Carr should immediately restore the land tax-free threshold and scrap the unpopular 2.25 per cent vendor levy on investment properties instead of waiting until the Budget.

"If he's going to be a big man about the tax get on and do it now," Mr Brogden told reporters.

"Don't make people pay tax now and then maybe have no tax next year."

A working class Sydney family on Wednesday described how the land tax had affected them.

Daryl McGregor, an office worker from Sydney's west who is blind, and his wife Val received a $424 land tax bill for a block of land they bought near Yass, outside the ACT.

Mrs McGregor said the land was valued at $53,000 last year but was valued this year at $106,000.

She said the family would struggle to pay the bill.

"Already the son won't go back to saxophone lessons that's $20 a week so I guess he'll miss out on that and we'll probably take the daughter out of swimming lessons too," she told reporters.

Mrs McGregor said she had voted Labor at the last state election but did not think she would do so again.

Mr Carr said home owners had more to fear from high interest rates then from land tax and accused Prime Minister John Howard of breaking an election promise to keep rates low.

"The people of Australia have been betrayed by a prime minister who was re-elected on what is now clearly a sham promise," he told parliament.

Mr Carr on Wednesday also questioned the coalition's financial credibility, saying Mr Brogden's spending promises, including scrapping the vendor duty and building a super highway over the Blue Mountains, would cost $9.3 billion.

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