QUEENSLAND farm lobby group AgForce is calling for an overhaul of the way the state handles its unimproved land valuations – with a large number of producers seeking help in disputing this year’s figures.

The state valuer general’s office handed down its report in March, with primary production land in going seeing increases between 40pc and 99.5pc, leaving many concerned about its impact on land taxes.

AgForce chief executive officer Michael Guerin said the organisation has a yearly uptick in memberships when the valuations are released, with producers in areas where values have changed looking for help from the organisation’s valuation service. He said the values were consistently inaccurate and working through them with the department was difficult.

AgForce CEO Mike Guerin

“The whole thing in our view is manifestly inadequate and has been for years. Despite our work with the state valuation service year-after-year a lot of these issues have not been resolved,” Mr Guerin said.

“At the end of the day, these valuations are a mass appraisal with no ground truthing, which means there are a lot of inaccuracies in them. If you have a different land type on your property and that provides aspects to productivity over time it is often not recognised on the valuation.”

Disputing valuations a difficult process

One of the main issues being raised about the unimproved land valuations is a lack of transparency from the department and a difficult process to dispute them.

Producers are given a 60-day period to respond to the valuation, without the details of the Government valuation and often need to engage specialist valuer to demonstrate inaccuracies. Beef Central has heard the process has stopped many producers from disputing valuations they felt were inaccurate.

“All the onus is on the producer and they have inadequate time to gather their thoughts and lodge the objection,” Mr Guerin said.

“With rates and leasehold rental at stake, the implications are huge and they should have adequate time and resources to respond.

“We really only see producers who are willing to go through the process because we hold the workshops. But I suspect a lot of the producers who are out there would think it is too hard and carrying on growing food.”

Still opportunities to freehold

Mr Guerin said it was important to note that producers can lock in their valuations by initiating a freehold application.

“Even if you ultimately don’t go through with it, there is still an enormous amount of money to be saved if you lock in the freehold transaction at the old valuation,” he said.

“For those areas where the valuations have gone up by 100pc, that would halve the cost of freeholding land.

“It is a long and involved process to freehold, but by lodging the application you put a bookmark in for the value – then it is 12 months to two-year process from there.”

Where next for Qld land valuations?

The Qld Government has introduced a bill which would aim to create a pathway for a more transparent and workable pathway for disputes to land valuations.

Resources minister Scott Stewart said it was unlikely to pass parliament before the next election later this year,” Minister Stewart said.

“We have consulted extensively on the Land Valuation Amendment Bill and continue to do so.

“The independent Valuer-General is establishing a Technical Advisory Panel with stakeholders and will continue consultation through this group over the next six months.

“The bill will not progress until this work is complete and the proposed statutory guidelines have been finalised in consultation with stakeholders.”

Mr Guerin said the organisation will be pushing the valuer general’s office to change some of processes after this year’s reporting season.

“We will be sitting down with the state valuation service as we do every year and telling them that this year was completely inadequate, ask for improvement and recognition of the implications to landholders,” he said.

“Hopefully we will be more successful than previous years.”