Valuation of Land and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2010

The QLS has undertaken successful advocacy in relation to the Valuation of Land and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2010, which proposed a major change to the way in which land valuations should be conducted in Queensland.

The Society made submissions to the Scrutiny of Legislation Committee and Stephen Robertson MP, Minister for Natural Resources, Mines and Energy and Minister for Trade, raising three major concerns about the Bill, namely:

• the characterisation of ‘unimproved value’ to include improvements to the land;
• the unworkable objections and appeal processes; and
• the retrospective application of certain provisions which would effect current objections and appeals.

The Parliamentary Scrutiny of Legislation Committee agreed and referenced our concerns in its alert to Parliament.

As a result of these submissions and our collaborative efforts with other industry bodies, the Society was successful in getting the Government to reconsider its proposals. The Government has agreed to:

• introduce a new valuations regime based on ‘site’ valuations from 2011;
• create an independent statutory position of Valuer General; and
• remove the retrospective application of certain provisions to current objections and appeals.

As a mark of our efforts, the Society received a congratulatory letter from the Director-General of the Department of Environment and Resource Management for our contributions to the law reform process.