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Business View Australia - March-April 2016 127
PERTY DEVELOPMENT
sort of activity is taking place in the
market.
“We made a conscious decision to
have a broad membership and not
just have massive companies but to
get that right mix.
“There is a company called
Greenfields Property Development,
who are developing the biggest ever
project in New South Wales. Twenty
years ago, Tony Perich, who is the
owner, was a farmer. Now he is major
developer. He met Laurie Rose two
decades ago at one of our functions.
Laurie’s been doing Tony’s work
ever since. They are great business
partners and this goes to show how
a simple meeting at an event can
create a lot of synergies and some
good business relationships.”
The UDIA is a common voice for the
urbandevelopmentindustry.Itregularly
takes up causes which will serve to
promote efficient development and
advises the federal government on the
steps that are required to be taken.
One of the issues being championed
by UDIA is the need to shift away from
inefficient taxes such as stamp duty
and the requirement for developers
to pay substantial amounts as initial
development fees.
The Institute has made a detailed
submission to the government
describing how the inefficient tax
system is proving to be detrimental to
economic growth and prosperity. It has
made the case that the imposition of
stamp duty results in reduced labour
mobility and productivity by tying
down people to a particular location.
Inefficient taxes also result in the
reduction of new housing projects
thereby leading to an increase in the
prices of existing residential units.
A strong argument has been made
for replacing these inefficient levies
with GST and taxes on the value of
land, which are considered a vastly
better option and which would result
in increasing the pool of housing
available over a period of time.
The National President of UDIA, Mr.
Cameron Shephard has urged the
government to take up this important
issue, “A great deal of Australia’s
economic potential is being held back
and squandered by a tax system that
has failed to keep up with the times.
Phasing out stamp duty in favour of a
broader based GST, and broad based
lower rate land taxes could deliver real
dividends for economic growth and
productivity, and housing affordability
and supply.”
Another issue that UDIA has been
consistently taking up with the federal
government is the need to strengthen
the country’s infrastructure so that it
can continue to cater to the growing
population. The recently issued
Australian Infrastructure Audit Report
states that the country’s population