Mr MATT KEAN (Hornsby) [1.01 p.m.]: I am delighted to speak to the report on the inquiry into the land valuation system and the eighth general meeting with the Valuer-General. I commence by saying that the recommendations made in this report are the most comprehensive overhaul of the valuation system in New South Wales, and it is long overdue. The report makes 29 recommendations that go to the heart of what our valuation system should be: a system that the public can have confidence in whereby fairness and the treatment of landowners is paramount to delivering the outcomes required.
We believe that the valuation system is in need of a paradigm shift. We believe that treating landowners fairly and respectfully is a complementary—indeed necessary—element of an effective and impartial valuation system. Accordingly, the committee recommends a new process for objections and compulsory acquisitions that affords landowners procedural fairness, a rules based approach to valuation methodologies and a new governance framework that replaces the Valuer-General with a Valuation Commission. The committee also recommends three-year averaging of council rate valuations to dampen the material and significant volatility in the valuation system.
In this inquiry we took over 130 submissions. We conducted public hearings right across the State. We travelled to rural and regional New South Wales, as far as Mudgee. We went to Hornsby where we saw that decisions of the Valuer-General affect not only individuals but entire communities. They affect families and they affect the compensation that people receive when the Government uses that extraordinarily coercive power to compulsorily acquire people's properties. The Valuer-General's powers extend to setting the compensation that people receive. What we saw during this inquiry was an instance where a cut-and-paste job was used to determine the compensation people received. The financial wellbeing of these people was determined by a job that in the committee's view was not done properly.
I take this opportunity to put on the public record my thanks to the people of Leppington, particularly Frances Vumbaca and Koula Rafailidis, who had the courage to come forward and tell their story. By telling their story we were able to shine the spotlight onto a system that is letting people down and is going some way to undermining the public's confidence in valuations. Let us not forget that the valuations people receive determine the taxes they will pay. They determine the council rates that people will pay. We saw instances of extreme volatility in valuation, potentially creating a council rate lottery, which we do not want to see. That is why we have recommended averaging valuations over three years, not unlike how land tax is determined in this State, because we think that landowners—taxpayers—should be able to predict the taxes they will pay. Extreme volatility in valuation makes that task very difficult.
We think that landowners should be able to predict and that the valuations they receive should be transparent. It is not good enough that the valuations are opaque. It is not good enough that people cannot understand how they are assessed. This has led to a situation where people feel that valuations are a dark art, an inexact science, and that raises concern across the community. We want a system that people can have confidence in, and they will have confidence in it if they can understand it, if they can see how it is working, if that volatility is dampened. Subsequently they can have confidence in the taxes that they pay. Recently I saw the Valuer-General respond to some of the committee's recommendations or some media around the committee's work. I refer to a 7.30 Report program on the ABC last week.
The Valuer-General posted a statement on the 7.30 Report website saying that the valuation system continues to be regarded as one of the leading benchmark mass valuation systems in the world. Try telling that to the people of Hornsby who received a valuation of $26 million for a disused quarry, which was well in excess of what they believed it should be, and they were not afforded the right to put their case, to respond to information which adversely affected their position. Try telling it to the landowners of Leppington who had their valuations done in 2008 and again in 2010 with exactly the same valuation despite a major change in the zoning in the interim period. Try telling it to people who have not been afforded a fair hearing, who have not been able to see the methodology of their valuation, who were not treated with the respect, dignity and fairness to which they should be entitled. The committee made recommendations to address all of those things. [Extension of time agreed to.]
I place on the public record my appreciation for the hard work of all committee members. The 29 recommendations, which focused on improving the fairness, integrity and equity of this system, were made in a bipartisan manner. Members from the Labor Party, the upper House and lower House, from The Nationals and from the Liberal Party came together to bring about the change required to give the public confidence in this State. Politics were put aside and the focus was on ensuring that we could have a world-class valuation system, that we could have a valuation system and taxes which the public could have confidence in.
I thank all committee members for giving up their time to make sure that we got the results that the public wanted to see. I acknowledge my deputy chair, Mr Scot MacDonald, the member for Cessnock, Clayton Barr, the member for Port Macquarie, Leslie Williams, the Hon. Adam Searle in the upper House and the Hon. Eric Roozendaal, who is no longer a member of Parliament. All members contributed greatly and brought their experience to bear in making this report possible. I thank the hardworking committee staff. They were asked to deliver a very detailed report in a very short time and they worked exceptionally hard to make that a reality.
I thank Helen Minnican and Rachel Simpson. John Miller was exceptional. He was new to the committee but his addition to the committee staff brought about a real change. The committee staff could not do more to help us when John Miller came to the table and I am very appreciative of that. I take this opportunity to thank Jessica Falvey and acknowledge her work. She is a new member of the committee staff and she worked exceptionally hard and did an incredible job. She is an exceptional staff member and should be commended. Jenny Whight had the unenviable task of doing all the administrative work on this committee, and she was exceptional. Jenny liaised with all the offices and set up meeting times and so on, and I thank her. I thank the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly for her confidence and support in making this report happen.
The recommendations in this report require legislative change. I implore the Government to take them on board and adopt them. I also implore the Valuer-General to accept the recommendations and to work with the committee to ensure we have a valuation system in which we can all have confidence. Finally, I thank Professor Sourdin, who is the Director of the Australian Centre for Justice Innovation, and Mr Stephen Lancken, director of Negocio Resolutions. Their evidence in supporting our recommendations around procedural fairness was excellent and the basis on which we made a number of recommendations. This committee report goes a long way to addressing the issues we had relating to the fairness of the system, the integrity of the valuations received and the efficiency of the system. The 29 recommendations were made with those principles in mind and they will go some way to making sure the valuation system in New South Wales is world class and that the public can have confidence in it.
Read the full transcript in Hansard here.
