Hectic times, late nights ahead for pollies

IT HAS been almost a year since Dominic Perrottet, in a National Press Club speech, made the case for introducing sweeping land tax reforms in this term of parliament. “Government shouldn’t have to wait for an election cycle to do what is right,” he told me during his first Press Club address as Premier.

But by introducing his stamp duty reforms with just a handful of sitting weeks left in this term, the government could end up ensuring the election is fought on which party is better placed to support first home buyers looking to get into the market.

If passed, first home buyers would be given the choice to avoid stamp duty in favour of land tax from January next year — for homes worth up to $1.5 million. Its success is not assured. The government is still seeking support of the cross bench, many of whom remain sceptical.

Perrottet has so far refused to speculate on whether he would take the policy to the election if he cannot get it through parliament.

If the reforms fail, or fail to pass in the scant amount of parliamentary time remaining before the election, expect the Coalition to spend the campaign accusing Labor of standing in the way of first homebuyers.

Similarly, Labor is also gagging for a fight on home ownership. Labor has been planning a major scare campaign over the proposal for months.

The party’s Treasury spokesman Daniel Mookhey has labelled the policy a “forever tax on the family home”, accusing Perrottet of extending across the housing market if elected. The only problem is, it’s not quite true. Under the policy, first homebuyers who choose land tax would only pay a yearly fee while they owned the home.

If sold, it would revert to stamp duty for any future buyers.

“If a person stays in their (first) family home, for the rest of their life, they will pay this tax forever,” Mookhey said.

The stamp duty proposal is one of a number of headline reforms the government is trying to rush through parliament at the 11th hour: politicians from both sides are planning for a lot of late nights over the next month. It has taken a year but Perrottet is perhaps now acting like the Premier that those who knew him hoped he would be: with a crash or crash through reform agenda on education, childcare and home ownership.

Labor’s Chris Minns will have his own make or break moment to outline his agenda at Labor’s State Conference on Sunday. While he will announce some new policies, his speech will be designed to whip up the party faithful ahead of the election.

Labor sources expect a major healthcare worker policy will nullify calls from unions and party branches to implement strict nurse-to-patient ratios. But as The Daily Telegraph has revealed, Minns will face a test of his leadership over tough new penalties for climate protestors causing traffic chaos.

Minns is likely to win that fight but it promises to be messy — much like the last few weeks of Parliament will be for Perrottet.