Property-values debate
Senator Coghlan supports a pre-budget debate on property values and says two consecutive monthly increases may indicate that prices have stopped falling.
I support Senator Barrett’s call that when the Leader is arranging these pre-budget debates, to which we have agreed, he includes one on property values. Perhaps unlike Senator Barrett, I welcome the CSO figure and the increase it showed in August. That was the second month in a row. I fully appreciate it was nothing to write home about but two successive increases may signal that property values have stopped falling. All of that is very important as we face the budget and the introduction of a property tax. I support Senator Barrett’s call that the Leader includes that issue in one of those debates.