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Dominic Perrottet will become the 46th Premier of NSW after a landslide victory over planning minister Rob Stokes in a party room ballot on Tuesday (5 October).
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Dominic Perrottet becomes new NSW Premier
05 October 2021
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10 minute read
Dominic Perrottet was appointed NSW State Premier on Tuesday morning (5 October) after a party room vote installed the former treasurer as Premier, and Stuart Ayres as his Deputy, while Matt Kean succeeded him as Treasurer.
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“It’s an honour and absolute privilege to be elected as the parliamentary leader of the Liberal party, the premier of NSW, alongside my deputy leader, Stuart Ayres,” Mr Perrottet said.
Mr Perrottet won the vote 39 to five, defeating the Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, Rob Stokes, following former premier Gladys Berejiklian’s resignation last Friday, after the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) announced that it will move to investigate her relationship with former MP, Daryl Maguire, and grant funding promised to initiatives he led.
Mr Stokes welcomed Mr Perrottet’s appointment, who he said would have his backing when he faces re-election in 2023.
“The party room had a democratic vote. I always said I would give people a choice. They have chosen emphatically, democracy is the winner,” Mr Stokes said.
“Dominic Perrottet will be a magnificent premier and he has my undivided loyalty and support. And I will use every ounce of strength in my body to make sure that he is re-elected as premier in NSW when we go to the polls in 2023.”
Mr Perrottet was appointed as Ms Berejiklian’s Deputy after she took party leadership following former NSW premier Mike Baird’s resignation in January 2017. As part of the reshuffle, Mr Perrottet took over as state treasurer and Minister for Industrial Relations.
The COVID-19 pandemic thrust Mr Perrottet into focus over the last two years as an outspoken advocate for business support; an agent of the NSW JobSaver scheme and, more recently, the architect of the state’s new property tax proposal.
Led by Mr Perrottet, the NSW government’s property tax proposal suggested that first-time home buyers could be able to enter the market as much as two-and-a-half years sooner if stamp duty was done away with and replaced with an opt-in annual property tax.
The new tax would be imposed on unimproved land value (ULV) – or, simply the value of a block of land before factoring in the residence built on it. Once a buyer opts in to the tax, the property will remain subject to the tax, no matter how many times it changes hands.
The proposal expects it will take 20 years for the property tax to cover half of all residential properties, with further take-up proceeding gradually in subsequent years.
It’s a lengthy period that sparked concerns from both CA ANZ and CPA Australia in April, when early consideration of the proposal came to light.
Both the peak bodies said the long opt-in transition offered cause for concern because it would see property buyers faced with juggling three taxes concurrently: stamp duty, land tax and property tax.
Mr Perrottet said, however, the proposal could offer major tax reform for the first time since the Howard government’s introduction of the goods and services tax in 2000.
“We are proposing a once-in-a-generation reform to make home ownership more affordable and achievable,” Mr Perrottet said.
“Making changes to the property tax system is highly complex, and we want to make sure we get this right.”
The proposal emerged at the later stages of his tenure as state treasurer, which has been long mired by allegations that his department had mismanaged the state’s Workers’ Compensation Scheme, icare.
A 2020 joint investigation from The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and the ABC’s Four Corners found that icare had underpaid 52,000 injured workers by up to $80 million.
Later, in April this year, a review of the Workers’ Compensation Scheme tabled by NSW Parliament’s law and justice committee detailed the deteriorating financials of the scheme, which the committee’s lead reviewer, Robert McDougall QC, attributed to “sloppy” mismanagement.
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