Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

to move:

That the House:

(1)

notes that:

(a)

as a result of the introduction of The New Tax System on 1 July 2000, every State and Territory will be better off in 2006-07 than they would have been had tax reform not been implemented;

(b)

since the introduction of the GST in 2000-01, Western Australia has received around $18.4 billion in GST revenue and is estimated to receive a further $3.9 billion in 2006-07;

(c)

the Western Australian Government has benefited the most from the mining boom among the States, collecting more revenue from royalties, including petroleum revenue from the North West Shelf, than any other State, and is expected to collect almost $1.9 billion in royalty revenue in 2005-06 and over $2.2 billion in 2006-07;

(d)

the Western Australian Government collected $2.36 billion in 2005-06—almost double what it collected three years earlier;

(e)

Western Australia is estimated to be the highest taxing State in Australia on a per capita basis in 2005-06 and is set to remain one of the highest over the forward years;

(f)

as part of the Intergovernmental Agreement on the Reform of Commonwealth-State Financial Relations, the States were to abolish nine State taxes; and

(g)

the Western Australian Government has failed to implement this agreement and abolish all of these taxes; and

(2)

calls on the Western Australian Government to:

(a)

immediately abolish Mortgage Duty, Rental Duty and Non-real Conveyance Duty as agreed in the GST agreement;

(b)

take immediate steps to reduce the burden on home buyers by substantially decreasing Stamp Duty and associated land charges; and

(c)

reduce the overall tax burden on Western Australians from the highest in the nation.

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