A parliamentary inquiry into land valuations in New South Wales has recommended abolishing the officer of the Valuer-General.
In its place would be a Valuations Commission that would be overseen by the state ombudsman and a parliamentary committee.
The inquiry's chair, Liberal MP Matt Kean, says it should mean more transparency and fairness for landholders.
He says that in the past there has been a perceived lack of independence in the Valuer-General's office.
"The valuing body - the Valuer-General - was outsourcing the work of the valuations to government - the same body that is taxing these bodies," Mr Kean said.
"We're requiring that these functions be independent of government so that the public can have confidence in the valuations they receive."
Mr Kean says the current valuation system has not just been letting down miners, but homeowners too.
"We're requiring the Valuer-General to provide landowners a fair hearing, to provide transparency around the valuation methodologies, and to treat landholders with the respect, dignity and fairness to which they're entitled," he said.
"These things have been significantly lacking in the last 10 years."
The inquiry held its first hearings in March in Broken Hill, where the city council is facing a $6.8 million overpaid rates bill from mining company Perilya after a court agreed its land was worth less than a third of its original valuation.
That decision is subject to an appeal.
Despite blaming the Perilya valuation error squarely on the Valuer-General, Mr Kean is shy about saying the State Government should bear the costs of the mistake.
"With regard to the Perilya case, that's a matter for council to work out what options are available to them, but my job has been to make sure that we have a valuation system that works in the interest of landowners," he said.
The 259-page report also looks at issues in the Mid-Western Regional Council area, saying botched valuations have impacted on the council's credibility with local landholders.
The chairman of the Mudgee branch of NSW Farmers, Mitchell Clapham, says farmers will be better able to present a case when they feel their land has been incorrectly valued.
"Landholders will now be able to use values of surrounding properties in their objection process where we couldn't do that before," Mr Clapham said.
"We had to use actual sales results and where there was limited sales or no sales of rural properties in your area you wound up having to try and compare your property with a sale of a property could be 100 or 200km away and with different soil types etc."
There have also been issues in Mr Kean's electorate of Hornsby with the local council's planned compulsory acquisition of a quarry.
Cabinet will now decide which recommendations to turn into law.
Read the full article on ABC News here.
