Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Treasurer. Would the Treasurer inform the House of benefits to Australians from tax reform? What remains to be done to cut taxes, and what threats are evident?

Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Bonner for his question. When the government reformed the tax system in 2000 and introduced the GST, it was to replace wholesale sales tax and nine inefficient state taxes. Since its introduction, the GST has delivered to the states, cumulatively, $187 billion in GST revenue. No state has done better than the state of Queensland, where the member for Bonner comes from. Over the next four years, the GST is expected to deliver to the states, over and above what they were guaranteed, $12½ billion. That is over and above what they were guaranteed, which was a rising base anyway—$12½ billion.

Unfortunately, whilst we now have an agreement from the states to abolish eight of those taxes, the states still refuse to abolish stamp duty on business conveyances. As far as the Commonwealth is concerned, the GST is designed to replace nine state taxes, and the Commonwealth will insist in the interests of taxpayers that nine state taxes are abolished. At the same time that the states have had massive windfalls in GST revenue, in some states they have been actually increasing stamp duties on conveyancing, as they did in Queensland on 1 July 2006. Listen to this: in June 2000, stamp duty on the median house in Brisbane was $3,859. In June 2006, stamp duty on the median house price was $10,347. Even worse, in the highest stamp duty taxed state in Australia, Victoria, in June 2000, stamp duty on the median house was $8,009. In June 2006—this is the median house—it was $16,806. So you would get your first home owners grant and it would cover about half of your stamp duty bill in Victoria. You would get your first home owners grant and it would cover about 70 per cent of your stamp duty bill in the state of Queensland.

I noticed on the weekend that the Queensland coalition leader has announced a policy to reduce stamp duty and eventually eliminate it. It is about time that state governments were held accountable for the stamp duty windfall. It is about time that the buyers of homes got a fair go. It is about time that the Labor governments, which have been swimming in GST revenue, did something about their stamp duties. This policy is to be commended as an indication on behalf of the state coalition, on behalf of the Queensland people, to deal with stamp duty duties, which have not been cut, nor have they been indexed, but they have become extremely high and are punishing homebuyers in Australia.