POPULAR WORDS

Queensland Treasurer Terry Mackenroth says he is prepared to remove stamp duties on a range of business conveyances – but only if the Commonwealth offers adequate compensation. His comments follow Wednesday's meeting between Treasurer Peter Costello and his state and territory counterparts, in which he failed to convince them to cut inefficient business stamp duties despite receiving a GST windfall in the billions of dollars - as was invisaged under the agreement (IGA) that paved the way for the introduction of the GST. Mackenroth - like his state and territory colleagues - says Queensland has cut all taxes required under the IGA and Costello's offer to adjust the GST formula to get other imposts only set down for "review" under the agreement abolished is inadequate. "If Peter Costello wants to rewrite the GST agreement then he is going to have to bring a lot more to the table," he says. "Over the past five years we had got rid of every tax that we agreed we would. But now Peter Costello wants to go further and force us to remove another six taxes ... that are worth almost $8.5 billion to the states and territories over fiver years. "We are prepared to consider his request but he is going to have to go a lot further than his offer today. Under his proposal only $300 million in compensation would be provided and Queensland would not have received one cent of that money." The Commonwealth and the states have agreed to reconvene in Canberra in four to six weeks time to consider the proposal in more detail. "In that time we will come up with options to phase put the taxes over time," says Mackenroth, who has already committed to cutting land tax in the Budget - a tax not slated for review under the IGA.