Julia Gillard takes aim at state stamp duties at economic forum
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has taken aim at the states' stamp duties on home purchases in her opening speech of the government's economic forum in Brisbane.
It was briefly raised in the context of how the nation improved its competitiveness through increased labour mobility.
She linked the issue of labour shortages in the mining sector to stamp duties on real estate transactions.
"We've got to talk about labour mobility… We've got to crack this nut. Workforce is one of the real nubs of the economic discussion in Australia.
"We've worked on national licensing of professions and trades and on incentives for welfare to work, and now we're turning attention to more improvements to jobs services, and to issues like state transaction taxes on property as well."
Stamp duties on conveyancing sits among the biggest sources of revenue for most state governments.
The ACT government has begun a 20-year stamp duty phasing out to be replaced by higher annual property rates.options to replace stamp duty are concerned, this really only leaves the one that was ignored: GST.
Enzo Raimondo, the CEO of the Real Estate Institute of Victoria, suggested yesterday that the GST had to figure promintly in any considerastion of options to replace stamp duty.