The New South Wales branch of the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) has backed calls from a broad range of community leaders for the NSW government to replace stamp duty with a broad-based land tax.
NSW AMWU Secretary Tim Ayres will today appear at a NSW Business Chamber’s Tax Reform Forum alongside NCOSS and the NSW business community in calling for the Baird government to reform the state’s property taxes to deliver inclusive economic growth.
“The evidence is in: a broad based land tax is fair, efficient and simple,” said NSW AMWU Secretary Tim Ayres. “A broad-based land tax will raise the revenue that our state desperately needs from the people who are able to afford it.”
“Sydney has become Australia’s most unequal city, and we are second least affordable housing in the world. We need our state government to implement reforms that can grow the NSW economy in a way that includes all members of out society,” he said.
“Housing affordability in this state has become a profound economic and social challenge. First-time home-buyers are at a record low; we are seeing an entire generation of young people being denied the stability of home ownership by a tax system that preferences the needs of wealthy investors over lower and middle-income earners,” he said.
“There is considerable evidence that replacing stamp duty with a broad-based land tax would make it cheaper for first-home buyers to enter the property market. Alongside changes to negative gearing and the capital gains discount it is a real opportunity to make housing in this state more affordable to those who need it,” he said.
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