David Bartlett appears set to take Paul Lennon’s political advice and back-flip on land tax.
Yesterday Mr Lennon wrote that David Bartlett should back-flip on land tax, like he has on water and sewerage, in order to try and neutralize the issue politically.
Today we read that Mr Bartlett is set to take exactly that course of action.
But just like with water and sewerage, it appears Labor will take only short-term, politically expedient action and ignore the real issue.
While we would welcome Labor adopting our position of capping land tax receipts at $90 million and returning the windfall gain to those hit by massive increases this year, this would do nothing to address the inherent unfairness of land tax.
People shouldn’t forget that Labor is philosophically opposed to cutting tax. It’s not in their genes. Any back-flip on Land Tax will be a short-term blip on the radar. Rest assured that if Labor is re-elected, people will continue to pay more and more for Land Tax.
The Liberals are the only party committed to taking real action on land tax, and we will have more to say about how we will do that before the election.
Peter Gutwein MP Shadow Treasurer
