- The following statement was released by Senator Nick Kempe, the Shadow Finance on Proposed Rental Tax on Friday, February 8, 2019
It was clear that there was widespread opposition to the residential rental tax which was causing anxiety amongst our elderly population, in particular.
I would ask: was there any consultation about this in the first place? If there had been, the scale of the opposition would have been clear, and the Premier should have provided political guidance to the Tax Reform Committee.
Although the tax was amongst a raft of new taxes being considered, Government intended to raise taxes by $50m in 2019/20 and residential rental taxes were set to raise $26m.
So, given that 2018/19 still had a Budget deficit of $89m and given that Government has not cut any costs, what tax will replace the rental tax after this about-face?
Don’t be fooled. This Government has already introduced new taxes and it is clear its only plan is to introduce more.
It has listened to one section of our population, the elderly, will it listen to the rest who have been, or who will be, affected? We will see on February 22.
