SA Liberals dump stamp duty deadline
SA Liberals insist that scrapping stamp duty is still on the agenda as they abandon phasing out the tax by 2041. The Treasurer has accused the Opposition of “dumping” its centrepiece election pledge.
The South Australian Liberals say ditching stamp duty is still on the agenda despite the state’s Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis claiming that “they’ve abandoned it”.
However, the party has abandoned its pledge to phase out the tax by 2041, with plans to establish a Tax Reform Commission instead, if elected at the March 2026 election.
They also doubled down on one element of their policy: removing stamp duty for first-home buyers on established homes up to $1 million.
An SA Liberal government would also lift the threshold of payroll tax from $1.5 million to $2.1 million.
Announcing the policy today, Opposition Leader Ashton Hurn said that if elected at the next election, a Hurn Liberal government would establish the commission within the first 60 days after being elected.
According to the SA Liberals, the commission would cost about $2 million and would conduct a review of all state taxes, levies, fees and charges, including those collected for the state by local governments.
Hurn said that if she were elected, the commission would be led by an independent chair and would provide a detailed roadmap on how to reform the state’s tax system within the first 12 months of the government.
“That’ll be tasked with pulling back the curtain and looking at every single tax, fee and charge in South Australia and how that’s impacting not just families, but businesses too,” she said.
“We want to look at every single nook and cranny of the tax system to really look at what options there are to reform.”
However, Treasurer Koutsantonis did not hold back in his criticism of the policy change, claiming the SA Liberals were “ditching” their centrepiece policy to scrap stamp duty just weeks out from the election.
Koutsantonis claimed that the stamp duty policy would have “ripped” more than $2 billion a year from state revenue and that the details of the commission were leaked to the State Government in advance.
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“Ashton Hurn and Ben Hood were eagerly promoting the scrapping of stamp duty as a fully costed and properly thought-through economic plan – in fact, Mrs Hurn called it ‘the single biggest tax cut in our state’s history’,” he said.
“And now, only weeks later, they’ve abandoned it.
“What’s inevitable is that such a body will advocate for new taxes to replace any stamp duty cuts.
“So, rather than going to an election promoting the biggest tax cut in SA history, Ashton Hurn is instead promoting the possibility of a brand-new tax on every home.”
