Tuesday, 28 November 2023

Berwick Church of Christ

Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:35): (629) My adjournment matter is for the Treasurer, and the action is I seek is for the Treasurer to use his power under the exemption provisions of section 74 of the Land Tax Act 2005 – LTA-009 – to reverse the unjust land tax assessment bill received by the Berwick Church of Christ in Narre Warren South. This tax is retrospective, dating back to 2014. They have just received it in recent times, and not only that but they are being charged 20 per cent interest on the new backdated tax.

I want to explain a little bit about what this church actually does for the community. First of all, I want to say that in late 2021 this community received notification from the State Revenue Office – in late 2021 – that the land tax exemption was going to be removed from the undeveloped portion of its property, with an assessment being made retrospectively, as I said, back to 2014. Now, this land was purchased in 1987, and as the needs of the faith community have grown – and it currently services and is home to more than 2000 people – it has continued to develop so that it can serve the community. Let me just give you a list of some of the things that this faith community provides for its local area. It has a food pantry, which received the 2023 City of Casey Community Group of the Year Award in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the Casey community. It has a weekly youth program, which is the largest in the Casey–Cardinia area and connects with over 200 teenagers. Many of them have had tremendous challenges as a result of COVID. Numbers have continued to grow significantly over the past couple of years. It also has a counselling and mental health support program. It provides daily playgroup programs for Playgroup Victoria and there is a waiting list to attend, and it has made parking available for the Berwick Fields Primary School at no cost, since there is no parking publicly available for them.

They have contributed so much to this community and continue to do it, and yet they are being charged this outrageous tax. And on what basis? When they asked about the tax they were told by the commissioner that the application was rejected on the basis that whilst it had not denied that some church-related activities may have taken place at the Centre Road land during 2014 to 2022 in the land tax years the commissioner felt that the frequency and intensity of those activities was not sufficient. However, it does not provide a definition of what ‘sufficient’ is, and so we are asking the Treasurer to remove this tax.