EMBARGO: 5: 00PM
PRIME MINISTER.,
FOR MEDIA SUNDAY JULY 11 1982
ELECTORATE TALK
The Cain Labor Government's new probate tax is punitive and
discriminatory. It is not just a tax, it is a confiscatory
z-ppropriation. Thirty nine cents in the dollar is a punitive
rate by any measure, and the rate is the same whether you are
at the bottom or at the top.
It is not a tax on the rich. The limit of $ 200,000 is not
high. Many ordinary people with a house and a superannuation
policy will be caught. People with a house and a small business
are almost certain to fall outside the limit. Without doubt,
probate will damage Victoria's economy enormously.
If this new tax becomes law, it will cause an exodud from
Victoria, as retired people go off in even greater numbers
to Queensland. House and land values in Victoria will go down.
People will see the assets they have built up for themselves
and their families decline in value.
I-ronically, it is the ordinary. home-owners and home-buyers
in suburban Melbourne who will be amongst the'. hardest hit.
The value of their homes will fall. Worse still, Mr Cain's
new tax will-stop people investing in Victoria. Who will start
a business in Victoria if they cannot leave it to their children
without probate? Mr Cain's probate discriminates-against the
family business, and takes away the incentive to work hard
the very.. thing which has helped build Australi4 up.
No-one outside this State will want to invest in Victoria,
because every single dollar of assets which non-residents
hold in Victoria can be liable to probate at the full rate
of thirty-nine cei-ts in the dollar. o
Labor has claimed that probate will only hit a small percentage
of estates, but that. claim seems largely guesswork,. and when
you take.-account of the exemptions that are in the Bill, especially
the exemption for spouses, it is certain that a far higher
percentage of families will be hit.
I am certain Mr Cain kn6ws that exempting farmers from probate
will lie divisive. It will lead to great resentment against the
farming community amongst those who are not exempt. Labor has
never understood, or sympathised, with our farming communities,
so Mr Cain would not care about arousing. hostility towards ; the
man on the land. There is only one way to prevent this to
withdraw probate duty altogetlier. I am sure farmers were exempted
because Mr Cain knows their returns are too low for them to put
aside money for probate. But by taxing others in this divisive
-2-
* way, especially email businesses# he has shownl a blatant
disregard for them and for the community as a whole*
It is natural for people toiwant to build up assets and-leave
what they have accumulated to their families and children.
Mr Cain's tax is socialism at its worst. Dogma has gone to
his head. What can he be thinking of by exempting estates
left children to their parents and grandparents?
The natural thing is for parents to leave property todabno
thcehil drn. hisis what Mr Cain should exempt abno
this unnatural tax.
Victoria will be the only State with probate if M4r Cain goes
ahead. Why does Mr Cain want probate when even Mr Wran has
ab-ish-~ -iEt-I probate is* i mposed on ' Vict~ oriansD New South
Wales and Queensland will be the beneficiaries as people leave
the State of Victoria and take their asset!; with them.
Probate was always one of the most hated and vicious forms
of tax, a~ nd Mr Cain's -proposal, with its hiLgh rate and its
selective exemptions, is a particularly vicious form of probate.
Taxes on the living are high enough without; taxing the dead.