Commenting on the story: Adelaide Metro office closing to make way for high-rise hotel

Yet again, the explanation for withdrawing a service is that people will be better off without it. – Cathy Chua

Yet another blow for older people who still rely on personal contact to gain information.

I’ve just been looking online for bus route info and it’s not simple to make sense of it. I like to have a paper timetable to check.

 Call me old fashioned, but the reality is I’m not alone in this preference.

It seems as if this government would actually prefer no one caught public transport, with this latest closure  combined with a number of bus services being cut or reduced.

It’s hardly comforting to know I can trek down to the railway station to still get transport info.

How easy is that for the elderly? Shame. – Josephine Sando

Maybe new offices could be opened in Rundle Mall, the bus depot, rail terminal and the airport.

 These Adelaide Metro Offices would be a gateway for tourists.

 Not everyone has proper access to the internet. Everyone should be catered for. – Graham Nixon

Commenting on the story: Marshall promises “ambitious” tourism splurge following hotel warning

A catchy tourist promo line might be “Come to South Australia to see where wonderful heritage buildings once stood”. – Garth Owen

Commenting on the story: Airport flights, passengers and road traffic set to take off

I travel to many airports around the world and find Adelaide to have the most chaotic top-off and pick-up area, even worse than some third world airports.

It was great when the new terminal first opened, with dedicated drop-off on a first floor ramp and pick-up below on the ground floor immediately outside the terminal building.

Now it is a free-for-all mixed zone away from the main building.

Is there any plan to improve the current ridiculous situation? – George Hobbs

Commenting on the story: Business honeymoon fading for State Government

The Premiers Economic Advisory Council appears to have given poor advice and has a puerile attitude to the effect of the new aggregation of land tax.

This together with outdated scales and revaluations is going to cause huge damage to the business confidence of the State.

Geoff Rohrsheim’s advice that “the problem is in the transition” shows  a complete misunderstanding of the problem. – Roger Frinsdorf

When the current State Government was elected I really thought that this could be a positive turning point for SA.

 I have just participated in a workshop as part of the state’s Housing and Homelessness Strategy.

My understanding is that the strategy is long-term and amongst other goals aims to encourage an effective and efficient housing sector in South Australia.

 As a very long-term landlord (and hospitality and tourism operator) I can categorically say that the proposed changes to the land tax regime will do everything to discourage an effective and efficient housing sector.

The private sector provides in the order of 80% of rental housing in South Australia and is subject to by far the highest rate of land tax on the mainland.

No end of support to the public and community housing sector can make up for this impost.

 Under the changes to the regime announced in the budget, a South Australian landlord who operates a rental business with properties with say $4m of land value is subject to land tax of $113,144 per annum.

If the same business were in Queensland, the land tax payable would be $50,000.

The way rental businesses in South Australia have kept their costs within the bounds of reality is to hold properties in separate ownerships.

The changes to land tax announced in the state budget means that rental businesses in South Australia would pay over twice the land tax that their Queensland counterparts would pay on a holding of $4m. 

The disproportion increases as the land value of the business increases. Bear in mind this could be as few as eight rental properties.

On that basis, land tax per property in Queensland is $6250 per annum and in SA it will be $14143 per annum.

Even if it is 12 properties, the Queensland landlord pays $4166 per property and the South Australian landlord pays $9428 per property.

By any measure this is a substantial proportion of the gross rent.

This will relegate the private rental sector to a cottage industry, where the only financially viable landlords are those who own one or perhaps two rental properties.

Is that efficient? I think not. It discourages a professional and business-like rental enterprise and inevitably leads to worse outcomes for tenants.

No surprise that the honeymoon is over.

I see another one term Liberal Government. – John Wyk

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