Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also rise this morning to address a matter of discrimination—discrimination against the residents, families and taxpayers in my electorate of Mitchell in the outer suburbs of Sydney. I also rise on behalf of those people who live in the outer suburbs in the south-west and in Western Sydney.

Yesterday ratepayers, residents and taxpayers in my electorate rose to the news that the New South Wales state Labor government is considering yet another property tax on homes in north-western Sydney to fund infrastructure. This is on top of the exorbitant taxes and charges that have been levied against homeowners over many, many years in New South Wales. In fact, in New South Wales you are lucky if you can get an average block of land without $120,000 of government taxes and government charges.

I am pleased to be following the Minister for Housing, who spoke here this morning. I did not hear her explain how her new measure, which provides 17c in the dollar for first home saving accounts, will address a new property tax placed on homes that will be built near the North West Metro line. That 17c in every dollar will be wiped out by any new tax imposed by the state Labor government. If you look at the proposal they are considering, you will see the travesty that is unfolding in New South Wales and Mr Rees’s desperate move to fund the North West Metro rail link.

In the article I am holding, we see that not only are they considering imposing a levy on developers who build homes serviced by the metro, and a new property tax on the homes contained near the metro line, but they are also looking at halving the metro line, from Epping to Castle Hill. We have heard since 1999 from the state Labor government that there would be a heavy rail line built from Epping to Rouse Hill. We then heard it would be a metro line, which is a reduced capacity rail initiative. Now we hear that they are considering a new tax to fund it and they are considering halving the length of the line, when all of the development assumptions in the outer suburbs of Sydney have been premised on the fact that a mass transit line would be coming. There have been increased densities and there have been landmark developments. We have a corridor in the north-west of Sydney which will now grow to 60,000 homes, premised on the fact that there will be a rail line.

In New South Wales, we have a situation where the state government is in a state of freefall collapse. This federal Labor government is silent on the fact that, in New South Wales, property development is being cruelled by government taxes, charges and levies, and the state government is planning to impose a new property tax on homes in the outer suburbs of Sydney, at the expense of the residents, to provide infrastructure. There should be no new infrastructure taxes or charges without infrastructure provision. (Time expired)