Bills
Land Tax Assessment Amendment (Native Title Settlement Exemptions) Bill 2025
Receipt and first reading
Bill received from the Assembly and, on motion by Hon Matthew Swinbourn (Minister for the Environment), read a first time.
Second reading speech
Hon Matthew Swinbourn (Minister for the Environment) (5:57 pm): I move:
That the bill be now read a second time.
The bill amends the Land Tax Assessment Act 2002 to exempt land transferred or granted under the South West Native Title Settlement from land tax from the 2025–26 assessment year. The exemption will also be available to land transferred under other similar native title settlements as they arise. These changes reflect the Cook Labor government's continuing commitment to reconciliation action.
The South West Native Title Settlement is the most comprehensive native title agreement negotiated in Australia's history, establishing Western Australia as the leader in native title agreement-making well before the national principles were adopted by federal, state and territory governments in 2021. A key commitment under the settlement is the Noongar Land Estate, which consists of up to 320,000 hectares of land for the Noongar people via the Noongar Boodja Trust. Approximately 300,000 hectares will be used for cultural purposes, while the remaining land will be used for housing or development purposes to generate income for the trust. The estate will support the rebuilding of vital connections to country across the metropolitan, South West, Great Southern and Wheatbelt regions, along with the development and use of economic land to generate income for the trust. Long-term social, cultural and economic opportunities will be made possible for close to 30,000 Noongar people on their own terms.
Although any taxable land is likely to qualify for a charitable exemption from land tax, this would require an application and assessment to be made for each parcel of land. Given that the final land allocation is expected to consist of tens of thousands of parcels of land, this will impose a significant administrative burden on both the Noongar Boodja Trust and the Department of Finance's RevenueWA. Under the current arrangements, government cannot provide any up-front certainty to the trust about whether the land will be exempt.
Under the proposed changes, all land transferred or granted under the six Indigenous land use agreements that make up the South West settlement will be exempt from land tax. This is consistent with the transfer duty exemption provided under the Land Administration (South West Native Title Settlement) Act 2016 for all land transferred under the settlement. It is also consistent with similar tax concessions offered by other jurisdictions, such as the Commonwealth's income and capital gains tax exemptions for native title benefits and the duty and land tax exemptions introduced in New South Wales in recent years for land transferred to registered native title body corporations.
Several other native title settlement negotiations are underway across the state. The bill will create a regulation-making power to allow these other Indigenous land use agreements to be prescribed for the purposes of the new land tax exemption. An Indigenous land use agreement can be prescribed only if it requires the state to pay compensation to a settlement landholder for the loss, diminution, impairment or surrender of their native title rights. This ensures the exemption applies only to land transferred or granted under a prescribed Indigenous land use agreement to which the state is a party, not other agreements between Aboriginal groups and private entities.
The proposed amendments will exempt freehold land transferred, and land granted by the Crown under a lease, licence or management order, under the South West settlement or a prescribed agreement. It will also apply to any land purchased using settlement funds that is specifically authorised by the settlement or a prescribed agreement. The exemption will not apply to land subsequently purchased outside the terms of the South West settlement or a prescribed agreement using either funds granted under a settlement or internally generated income. However, a charitable exemption may apply to this land. For settlement land to be exempt, it must be owned by a settlement landholder. A settlement landholder is a person who is authorised or established under the South West settlement or a prescribed agreement to own, hold or manage land or a person prescribed by regulation. This means the exemption will cease to apply when it is transferred to a third party outside the settlement. A person can be prescribed as a settlement landholder only on the recommendation of the minister, who must be satisfied that the prescribed person has sufficient connection to the settlement agreement. This will ensure that the exemption cannot apply to land held by parties who are unrelated to settlement agreements.
The amendments will commence from 1 July 2025 and provide an exemption for the 2025–26 assessment year, which is the first year that land tax will apply to any South West settlement land transferred to the Noongar Boodja Trust in 2024–25. This bill will provide up-front certainty to the Noongar Boodja Trust and remove a significant administrative burden for both the trust and RevenueWA. It is a sensible and practical measure that will support the important work of native title settlements in our great state.
Pursuant to standing order 126(1), I advise that this bill is not a uniform legislation bill. It does not ratify or give effect to a bilateral or multilateral intergovernmental agreement to which the government of the state is a party; nor does this bill, by reason of its subject matter, introduce a uniform scheme or uniform laws throughout the commonwealth.
I commend the bill to the house and table the explanatory memorandum.
(See paper 455.)
Debate adjourned, pursuant to standing orders.
