Your claim that I want all property owners to pay land tax so a few property investors can pay less tax is both offensive and untruthful. That was your suggestion. It wasn't mine (Whose side is David Singer on?).

In reality the final amount paid by the investor may not be that much. A large portion of land tax paid initially by the investor actually ends up being paid by his tenants or by consumers in the form of higher rent or higher prices. What is not recouped from the tenant can be claimed as a tax deduction by the investor.

The elimination of cross subsidies is nothing new. It was the rationale for changes made in 1994 by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal to the way water rates were assessed.

No one likes paying tax, but if we have to, it should be more equitably distributed among property owners.

I have been pushing for land tax reform long before I lodged my complaint with the Ombudsman in 2004. I have been involved in pursuing such a reform since 1998 when this proposal was first presented to both the Government and also to the Nile Inquiry conducted by the Upper House into land values.

I have consistently warned the government since 1998 that the land values are inaccurate and that the continued reliance on them to assess council rates and land tax was dishonest and needed to be replaced by a fairer and more transparent system. I have presented the government with report after report to substantiate what I was alleging. The government hid behind the spin of successive Valuers Generals who kept telling it the system was operating perfectly. The chickens have now come home to roost with a vengeance.

I also made a number of complaints to the Ombudsman, ICAC and the Audit Office during that time, which they all refused to investigate. Their inaction has also contributed greatly to the shambles we now have. Is this the kind of bureaucracy and land valuing system that the people of NSW deserve?

Rely, if you like, on what the Government, the Valuer General and the Ombudsman tell you. They have all acted abominably in one of the worst proven scandals in public administration in NSW history.

Don't forget these values are also used to make compensation payments to property owners. Five recently went to Court to successfully secure additional compensation from the Roads and Traffic Authority. How many accept what they are offered because they believe that Valuer General's valuations are accurate?

Yes, the methodology is sound but only if the guidelines laid down for its operation are followed, which is not happening. That is the Ombudsman's particular brand of spin. You swallow it hook, line and sinker.

Finally, your claim that property investors in Ku-ring-gai, Lane Cove, North Sydney and Mosman will pay higher land tax next year will certainly prove correct, but they can thank the Government, not me.