It’s perhaps not as hated or understood as that most insidious of property charges, stamp duty, but ever since it was introduced in Australia almost 140 years ago, land tax has become just as big a cash cow for State Governments.

Its initial aim – back in the 19th Century - was as a sort of wealth tax to encourage the owners of large holdings of land to break them up and sell them off.

While that had the desired effect way back then, the other thing it showed the Government of the day was that land tax was something which could help fill their coffers and they really had to give nothing in return.

So, more than a century after it served its purpose and should have been scrapped, we still have this insidious tax which afflicts investors for no particular reason.

It seems that, even when it has outgrown its original purpose, once we get a tax in Australia the chances of getting rid of it are negligible.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, now we have the Queensland Government announcing that it will further penalise property investors by dragging interstate owners into its land tax regime.