COMMENT

How the NSW government could reduce the stamp duty on housing and improve the funding of public transport in Sydney at one and the same time By Richard Kirwan, a Director of P/P/M Consultants Pty Ltd [This material is copyright] The Inquiry recently established by Michael Costa into Public Passenger Transport provides a real opportunity to establish the funding of public transport in Sydney on a sound and sustainable footing. In the process the Government could significantly reduce the unacceptably high current rates of stamp duty on property transfers. This could be achieved by creating a new specific source of funding for transport infrastructure and services in Sydney which would reduce the burden on general budget funds and hence allow a reduction in stamp duty. Properly structured, a public transport infrastructure charge would put existing areas, which are well provided with infrastructure, and newly-developing areas, where infrastructure needs to be installed, (such as the north-west sector and the outer south-west) on a even footing. It could generate sufficient cash flow to fund a large part of the requirement for additions and improvements to the networks without unduly penalising newly-developing areas and it could overcome some of the anomalies involved in other proposed methods of paying for new infrastructure in these areas. No-one likes a new tax. But the experience of the GST showed us that there can be significant reform of the tax ...