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THE State Government has refused to publicly release the report at the centre of their decision to establish an urban growth boundary tax that will affect hundreds of locals.
The Minister for Planning, Justin Madden, has failed to respond to requests by local MP Donna Petrovich and lobby group Taxed Out to publicly release the report.Mr Madden refused to answer Mrs Petrovich when she asked him in Parliament last week if he had actually read the report.
"I can assure the Minister, that even if he won’t read the report, there are plenty of us keen to do so and find out on what basis this outrageously unfair tax has been conceived," Ms Petrovich said.
"We have a right to read the 2008 Charter Keck Cramer Report given that it is the basis of the government’s push to bankrupt landowners who fall into the urban growth boundary."I would like to know why it is being hidden," she said.Mrs Petrovich said she is also concerned that the Minister continues to publicly say that no landowners have contacted him about opting out from the urban growth boundary.
"I understand that many people have done so, but are still waiting for the Minister to tell them how they can do this," she said.
More than 200 landowners voted unanimously at last week’s Taxed Out northern branch public meeting to take up Mr Madden’s offer to have their properties removed from the UBG.
Landowners were angered by Mr Madden’s comments on ABC Radio and in Parliament recently that his invitations to have their land considered for exclusion from the UGB have been ignored, despite dozens of individual landowners requesting this option.
The Growth Areas Infrastructures Contribution (GAIC) will see a tax of up to $95,000 per hectare on land included within Melbourne’s Urban Growth Boundary (UGB).
The tax will be charged retrospectively from the December 2, 2008 and is a tax effectively attached to the certificate of title of land.
Landowners already inside the 2005 UGB will be hit by an $80,000 per hectare GAIC tax, but do not have the option of being removed from the boundary.
Taxed Out recently made the decision to run a major advertising campaign in the September 9 Herald Sun newspaper, encouraging people to voice their opinions about the tax.
Taxed Out Chairman Michael Hocking said the State Government had "tried to sugar coat this tax with claims that land within the UGB will lead to an increase in its value despite the fact that much of the land will not be developed for 20 years or more."
"Logic dictates that the government’s value uplift theory can only be applied to land with short term development potential (0-3 years) yet the government is applying this tax to land that, by their own admissions, will not be developed until at least 2019 and as far away as 2029," he said.
"The Minister has made it clear from his comments that he is not listening to our concerns or doesn't care about them."
He said Taxed Out has consistently agreed that it is reasonable that some tax is paid but has argued that it should be paid at the point of development, as that is when land is most valuable.
"Many [of those affected] are older Victorians who will wish to retire well before their land is ready for development," Mr Hocking said.
"The government wants to take the tax on the first sale or subdivision of the land after it is included within the UGB. For many this will mean that after owning their properties for many, many years they will be left with very little equity.
"We are saying to all Victorians that if they let the government impose an exit tax on the sale of properties in the way this Government is proposing with this tax, beware, because it will be all Victorians who will be faced with the same or a similar tax in the future.
"Taxed Out will continue to focus on changing the point at which this tax is charged.