Land Use Victoria
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) — My question is to the Treasurer, represented in this house by the Special Minister of State, and it relates to the government’s proposed sale of Land Use Victoria, also known as the land titles office. The land titles office generates $300 million in revenue annually. The office would generate significantly more than its purported $2 billion sale price in the long term were it to remain government owned. Selling this asset for a short-term gain may assist with the government’s balance sheet this term, but it will create a sizeable hole in future state budgets. Will the minister release the business case underpinning this sale?
RESPONSE:
The Government has recently appointed UBS as the financial adviser responsible for managing a scoping study, which will assess options to get better value for taxpayers from Victoria’s land titles registry function. The Government will consider what information can responsibly be made public once the scoping study has been completed. The proposed centralisation of the valuations functions is completely separate to the Land Titles commercialisation process. This policy decision is not motivated by the scoping study.