Western Australia’s valuer-general has begun a major overhaul of convoluted pastoral rents to build a new valuation leaseholders can work out with “basic mathematics”.
Western Australia’s valuer-general has begun a major overhaul of convoluted pastoral rents to build a new valuation leaseholders can work out with “basic mathematics”.
Headlining the changes would be a move base the value of a station on a long-term average and better reflect the differing land values between the northern and southern rangelands.
WA valuer-general Carlo Tassone revealed at Thursday’s Pastoralists and Graziers Association of WA convention the reforms were penciled in to take effect from January 2029.
Mr Tassone said the calculation used for the last review was the source of much chagrin among the pastoral industry.
“Pastoral rents are based on land values, the economic state of the industry and land returns,” he said.
“I appreciate how complicated that process was – it was not transparent or easy to follow.
“What I am trying to do is come up with a solution which anyone can complete with a pen and paper and some basic mathematics, rather than seeing it as some sort of impenetrable black box.”
The proposed changes would prevent stations being rated based on a “worst or best year” and would recognise the lower value of southern rangelands leases with discounted carrying capacity equations.
The changes are not expected to make a big difference to the final rates.
Consultation is underway until March 2024 and every region’s potential carrying capacity will be re-evaluated prior to new rates being set.
WA’s rangelands encompass 2.2 million square kilometres covering 87 per cent of WA outside of the southwest corner from Kalbarri to Esperance and inland to Southern Cross.
It is split between two areas: the northern rangelands covering the Kimberley, Pilbara and northern Goldfields, and the southern rangelands covering the Gascoyne, Murchison and southern Goldfields-Esperance region.
The pastoral estate within the rangelands comprises about 861,000 square kilometres spread over 434 active leases.
Prominent WA station owners include billionaires Gina Rinehart, Andrew Forrest and Kerry Stokes, Chinese ball-bearing magnate Xingfa Ma and Singaporean businessman Bruce Cheung.
Rio Tinto, BHP and Australian Wildlife Conservancy hold significant pastoral portfolios, and Indigenous pastoral ownership has been growing over the past decade through the likes of Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation and KAPCo.
