A bipartisan Legislative Assembly committee has called on the ACT Government to scrap controversial changes to rates, which have driven up costs for unit owners.
The ACT Government announced the measure in the 2017-18 budget, indicating it did not think unit owners were paying their fair share of rates.
The change has pushed many unit owners into the highest rating bracket, with one owner reporting a rates hike of 60 per cent in 12 months.
A petition against the changes, which garnered more than 5,000 signatures, triggered a Legislative Assembly inquiry overseen by two Government and two Opposition MLAs.
Almost all of the 98 submissions to that inquiry spoke against the changes and the committee said their concerns should be "taken seriously".
"It is evident … that there is considerable distress in the ACT community regarding the effect of the 2017 change," the report read.
"The overwhelming view of contributors to the inquiry is that the changed methodology is not fair, and that it has brought considerable financial uncertainty and hardship to the rate-paying community."
The committee described the Government's changes as "an inelegant response to a perceived disparity in revenue from units and free-standing houses".
They urged the Government to go back to the drawing board and devise a new method for determining units rates and land taxes.
Change is required to broken system: Opposition
Speaking in his capacity as Shadow Treasurer and not as a member of the Assembly committee, Opposition Leader Alistair Coe said the report was good news.
"We simply can't keep going ahead with the current regime in place," he said.
"[This] should send a very clear message to the Government that the rates system is broken and a change is required."
The Government thanked the committee for its work and said it would review the recommendations.
