Wednesday, 11 September 2024
Bills
Short Stay Levy Bill 2024
Bills
Short Stay Levy Bill 2024
Second reading
Debate resumed.
Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (18:01): I rise to make a contribution on the short-stay tax bill 2024. Actually, this is officially called the Short Stay Levy Bill 2024, but the correct term is ‘tax’ because that is exactly what it is. It is the 55th tax that we have seen imposed upon Victorians in the last decade. I will take you back to the commitment by the previous Premier, who said that under a government led by Labor we will not see new taxes. Well, 55 new taxes are what the state Labor government have imposed on Victorians. Now, when we have incredibly difficult, challenging times, when we are seeing people really struggling under the cost of living, here is another tax – a tax that will very much harm regional Victorians particularly. I understand that the government claimed that this was to put houses back onto the rental market. I am not going to deny that there is a housing crisis. There is absolutely no question that under Labor we are in a housing crisis. It would make sense to try and solve that problem. However, this tax does not do that.
Before I explain how it does not do that, I would just like to comment on the degree of crisis that exists in this state, caused by Labor. In 2020 the Victorian Labor government promised $5.6 billion to deliver 12,000 new homes. These are not additional homes, yet the Victorian Auditor-General report revealed that in March 2024, four years later, despite having spent $2.9 billion the number of families waiting for a home since 2018 had grown by 16,000 people – an increase of 35.32 per cent. But what was discovered today, and what my friend at the table the member for Polwarth, who is the Shadow Minister for Housing, has identified and highlighted, is that to avoid scrutiny over the soaring numbers, the Allan Labor government has now removed almost 10,000 Victorian families from the Victorian Housing Register, reclassifying them deep in Homes Victoria spreadsheets. That is disgraceful.
The problem is real. Labor is trying to pretend it has gotten better. It has gotten disgracefully worse. Most of my colleagues can also attest, as I can, that in our offices we get people coming in constantly – people who are homeless, sleeping in their cars, women fleeing family violence – and the answer from this government has just been to set targets like 800,000 homes to be built in the next 10 years, miss targets, say that they will build 80,000, not even get anywhere near close, shift the blame and get the local government to take responsibility but not give them the power. So yes, there is a rental situation in this Victorian state because of the makings of the state Labor government. But will this new tax do anything to assist in the homelessness crisis? It will not. And that has been demonstrated by all the evidence already presented by the Shadow Treasurer, who put document after document forward to demonstrate that the industries who are associated with this bill and the effects of it cannot find any evidence to support the government’s comments that it will get properties onto the rental market.
The government themselves cannot provide any evidence to demonstrate how this tax will actually affect the rental crisis in a positive manner. In fact they will not even demonstrate how they have come up with any modelling to show that. I understand the intent was to spin a story, a narrative where many people concede, ‘That might work,’ but the reality is there is no evidence, and the government cannot even support it with any modelling.
What I suspect is really happening here is Homes Victoria, which was set up by the government to try and assist in providing more homes for the social housing or the affordable housing market, have got themselves into a $180 million debt. This tax, according to the government’s figures, will raise about $60 million per annum, but $30 million of that is going to come from regional Victoria, yet in the Treasurer’s own words, he will only be putting about 25 per cent of that back into investing in homes in regional Victoria. I have already told you the extent of the numbers. Twenty-five per cent of $30 million is not going to build many homes. One of my colleagues in the bill briefing asked about the maintenance aspect of the money going towards social housing. The answers could not be given to us about the figures of how many homes this will build or how much maintenance this will go towards. There is no evidence. It is just spin. Who will it hurt the most? It will hurt regional Victorians.
When I looked at the government’s idea – they say it will turn properties back to the rental market – one of the questions I asked during the bill briefing was: I have a constituent in my electorate who has done up a dairy, an old dairy on a farmstay. This dairy is done up nicely, but it does not have a laundry and it does not have kitchen facilities because it is a short-stay accommodation. It will be subject to the 7.5 per cent tax. How will that property help return properties to the rental market? It is not suitable for the long-term rental market, and many of the properties that this government has caught up in this poorly thought through bill are properties that are not going into the rental market because they are just not suitable.
Then you have got the situation where many women have set up their businesses around homes where they have got little short-stay properties, and they might have children, or their work means that they need to be working at home, so they will be doing the gardening and they will be doing the cleaning and the laundry. So this actually affects many women in the state who have set up these businesses and are just trying to make ends meet with some extra income.
The government have done very little consultation. They have not been able to explain how the bill will actually assist the goal that they have set to try and achieve, but what it will do is it will harm regional Victorians, because the cost of going into the regions and staying in a short-stay property will actually be greater. Places like south-west Victoria, where we have got South Australia right next to us, will struggle even more because this is a tax that is not in any other state. Victoria is the state with the greatest debt. We have $187 billion in debt – greater than Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania’s debt put together. We are the state that is struggling the most because of the mismanagement of the state Labor government with that enormous debt.
People in south-west Victoria, they will holiday across the border at Mount Gambier and places across from Nelson. It will not be on the Victorian side of the river. It will be on the South Australian side of the river where properties will be used for accommodation. Instead of increasing throughput through tourism and assisting the regions to recover from the lockdowns that really affected the tourism industry in regional Victoria, we are seeing a government who completely misses the mark.
There is good reason for regulation to be introduced into the short-stay market – nobody I think is disputing that – to get a fairer playing field between the commercial accommodation places, but that is not the situation here. This is not going to add more regulation; this is simply adding a tax, a money-grabbing tax that will prevent Victorian families from being able to take a holiday, to generate income into the community. It will affect the pubs, it will affect the restaurants and it will affect the cafes, the coffee shops, the retail businesses and the hospitality businesses that are doing it so tough in Victoria. In fact with South Australia next door and the South Australian Premier ringing many businesses, what we are seeing is an exodus from Victoria. South Australia is saying, ‘Come on in. We’re welcoming you. We will facilitate your business, not hamstring your business.’ This is just another example.
But the most interesting part for me is that the government have not even done their due diligence on whether this is able to stack up constitutionally. The legal challenges are pending. Just like with the electric vehicle tax, which was unconstitutional, it is highly likely that we will see from this disorganised, chaotic government, who keep randomly rushing things through without doing their homework, that this may not even be constitutionally able to stand up in a court of law when it is challenged. Time will tell on that one, but the track record of this government – the electric vehicle tax demonstrated that they had not done their homework there – so we will probably – (Time expired)
Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (18:11): What is paramount when we are talking to the purpose that underpins a bill? What are the key purposes when we are talking about the Short Stay Levy Bill 2024? Taking action to deliver more social and affordable housing – and I will demonstrate that loop, because I feel there has been a rather linear argument and I am seeking to demonstrate the circularity and the connection that this bill is seeking to drive – and secondly, to make more properties available for longer term rental, which would certainly be advantageous for regional areas. I am not saying regional areas exclusively – it is the whole of Victoria – but in terms of particularly workers being able to have somewhere to reside I remember we did a parliamentary visit, when I was in the upper house, to Bright, and part of the problem was they did not have anywhere to house people. So certainly having –
Anthony Cianflone interjected.
Nina TAYLOR: Yes, the workers, that is right. We have got to think about the workers going to regional areas, and that was so the hospitality staff had somewhere to stay. Hence encouraging those who own rentals to have longer term rentals as opposed to short-stay will be a win–win for those communities if they can then in turn staff the local pubs and cafes et cetera.
In Victoria there are – this has been stated already, but just for clarity – around 63,000 short-stay accommodation places, with almost half of these in regional Victoria. We have regional Victoria very much at the forefront and in mind here because of the incredible impact that short-stay accommodation, as opposed to having sufficient longer term rentals, can have on regional areas. Almost 50,000 of these places are entire homes. We know the value in that of course, because then you can have more people, and it may be families et cetera – it may be even that they relocate for work or otherwise to support those regional areas.
I do not want to dominate my discussion with regional areas, but I have heard a lot about, ‘Oh, what about the regions, what about the regions?’ Actually the concerns of the regions are very important when we are discussing this bill, because we have got to make sure as a minimum that workers have somewhere to stay so they can help to support the businesses that are running in those areas. Fundamentally what the policy is seeking to do is to drive longer term rentals. I am reiterating that point.
I should say: I live in the big smoke. I am in a high-rise. I actually bought an Airbnb and converted it to my permanent home. It is not that interesting, but just to say that it was an Airbnb. It is now a permanent home, and I do not rent it out or anything else. I like living there, but just to say that now has become a permanent residence. Having said that – what might be a little bit more interesting – I had many years in the rental market, and I know, one, the difficulty that there was a few years ago anyway. We know now there is even more incentive to create longer term rentals and to increase the availability of longer term rentals for people, because we know the value.
I am not actually criticising Airbnbs per se. I know when I went to Amsterdam I did stay in an Airbnb, but it was an owner-occupier property. I am not sure where the owner went for the week, but they went somewhere else and I used that property. But I must say I did not have loud music and I did not annoy the neighbours and I actually was respectful because I thought it was actually a lot more fun, rather than creating a party and destroying the lives of the poor neighbours, to actually go out and use the pubs and cafes to meet up with people – there is a novel idea – particularly when you are in close proximity.
I know that particularly in areas like Docklands – Yarra’s Edge is in my electorate; Docklands has obviously got both sides of the Yarra there – and Southbank itself literally there are huge numbers of Airbnbs in my electorate. In St Kilda as well – you only have to google it and you are like, ‘Oh, my goodness.’ What that means is there is so much potential for so many more people to be able to have longer term rentals in a pretty built-up area. Southbank itself has circa 22,000 people. It is like a mini city itself. When you think there are thousands of Airbnbs, look at the potential there. That goes more to some of the controls as well that are incorporated into this bill as a good start when we are looking at giving owner-occupiers more control over who their neighbours are and the activity. What I mean by that is in terms of having the ability to have amenity in your building. That is what I mean, not the individual selection of people, so to speak.
Coming to the circularity, which was a point that I made from the outset but that I think is important to emphasise, all revenue raised from the levy will go to Homes Victoria to support the building and maintenance of social and affordable housing across the state. I did hear a point made by the opposition: ‘Oh, my goodness, homelessness is a serious issue.’ Absolutely it is. You only have to look at our housing statement to note the prioritisation of building and increasing supply in our state, and that is well underway – we already have thousands of homes that are in planning, built, under construction or delivered – because it is so important. But having yet another mechanism to be able to support more social and affordable housing is actually helping to drive down homelessness as well, hence coming back to the purpose of this legislation.
I do want to get to the issue of consultation. I think that is a fair question to be raised in the chamber. There has been extensive consultation on the design of the levy involving a range of stakeholders, including community, business, booking platforms, councils and tourism bodies, to maximise benefits for tourism and local jobs. The levy is payable for each short stay of less than 28 days in Victorian premises. Longer term stays of 28 days or more are not subject to the levy, just to get to the precision of the bill itself. I should emphasise – and when I was talking about that short stay it was about a week in Amsterdam, but they will have their own rules there of course – the levy will not apply to premises that are the principal place of residence of the owner or renter. For example, if you own or rent your home and rent a bedroom out for short-stay accommodation, the levy does not apply, just to be clear.
When we are talking about tourism, a very important thread that should be discussed – I think it makes good sense to discuss it in this context – is that the levy will not apply to hotels, motels and other commercial forms of accommodation that meet the Commonwealth GST definition of ‘commercial residential purposes’. Commercial accommodation cannot generally be used for long-term residential occupation and is often subject to strict regulatory arrangements. The levy will not apply to residential student accommodation, rooming houses, retirement villages, residential care facilities, supported residential services and temporary crisis accommodation, simply because they are not suitable for long-term rental or for sale on the housing market. So we can see that there has been a very considered approach in terms of constructing the ambit of this bill and the impact that it is supposed to have but also making sure that there are important elements that are not included – that is, the exclusions that I have just mentioned – for practical and realistic purposes.
Coming back to that issue of workers, the levy will not apply to short-term accommodation provided by a facility to its employees, contractors or clients – for example, accommodation for seasonal workers or travelling medical staff. These are very, very important nuances when it comes to looking at the impact of this bill.
The bill also amends the Owners Corporations Act 2006 to authorise an owners corporation to make rules to prohibit the use of lots in a strata development for short-stay accommodation. This will enable individual owners corporations to manage local amenity issues caused by short-stays. I have to say, people in my electorate have certainly been advocating on this issue, and you can understand why. I have spoken to the numerous Airbnbs that are at Southbank, Yarra’s Edge, Docklands just over the Yarra there as well and then of course St Kilda, and even other parts of Albert Park as well. I was googling there – lots, so therefore a lot of potential as well. They have also raised issues – and I can affirmatively say this has been raised for my attention many times – of the nuisance behaviour as well, which is certainly very selfish on the part of those who do behave in that way. They have to remember there are people trying to live their lives, so I just do want to make that point as well. But anyway, that is good, and these controls correspond to those controls in New South Wales when it comes to the owners corporations. These are important strides forward in this space.
Richard RIORDAN (Polwarth) (18:21): I rise tonight to make a contribution on what I think is possibly the worst piece of legislation to come to the Parliament in the eight years since I was elected. There have been some shockers – absolute shockers – brought to this Parliament, but this one is the worst. In fact it is so bad I am actually going to download the member for Albert Park’s contribution, because that alone will ensure my victory at the next election from the tourism operators along the Great Ocean Road. Tonight they saw the heart of this government’s intention on this. It is not about supporting regional tourism. It is not about helping accommodation in regional areas. It is purely a cheap tactic to win the support of the Greens. And how do we know that? We know that because the Greens appear to be the only people in the state happy with this legislation.
Despite what the member for Albert Park said about extensive consultation, I can tell you now I have been receiving texts during the member’s contribution from all sorts of serious tourism operators right around the state, all laughing. I am not going to name them because they are still going in to bat, because, guess what, the State Revenue Office, which is an absolutely central plank of this piece of legislation, has not yet figured out how it is going to bill and receive the income from these businesses. The member for Albert Park talked about extensive consultation. I can tell you one thing, member for Albert Park, as someone who has worked in the tourism economy for the best part of 20 years. I can absolutely assure you that no person consulted in tourism would have for one second thought 1 January was a good time to start a new tax on their industry. A new tax will have new paperwork, new computer systems, new software and new billing arrangements – all sorts of complexities. No administration in their right mind would think that 1 January, in the middle of the Victorian tourism season, was a good time to implement that tax. I mean, if you have to bring in the most appalling, unfair, discriminatory tax that will do all it can to destroy tourism in regional Victoria, bring it in on 1 January, because that is where it will maximise its damage! It is all the evidence the community needs that this government has not been serious in its consultation, has not spoken to the industry and has not worked through the effects.
But let us talk, more importantly, about what this government says this ridiculous new tax is supposed to do. They are bringing in this new tax, they tell us, because they are doing Victorians a favour – they are going to help with social and affordable housing. As the shadow minister for social and affordable housing, can I just say that this government has failed abysmally. They have spent nearly $3 billion. There are 456 fewer social homes in Victoria today than there were last year. They have got less houses, they have spent more money and, even worse, there are 3500 fewer bedrooms in social housing in Victoria today this year than there were before they spent the $3 billion. No Victorian can trust this government to put this money to good use and make a better life for Victoria’s most desperate and most needy and those without a home. This government has no track record of it. They cannot demonstrate any capacity whatsoever to do that with this tax.
What is worse about this tax is this tax is not hitting wealthy landlords, this tax is not hitting multinational internet companies that do not pay tax in Australia that operate offshore. No, none of those people are affected by this tax. This tax hits Victorian families – every single family who wants to go on a holiday and use short-term accommodation, whether it is through their local real estate agent, whether it is through a stay-at-home mum that is operating a business on the side to make ends meet or whether it is an online platform. It does not matter what the method is. This is a tax on the people wanting to use that service.
And what do we know about short-term accommodation? We know, for example, that in the Great Ocean Road region – one of the most visited regional areas in Australia, if not the most visited – apart from one development in Torquay there has not been a new commercial accommodation built in that region since the mid-1980s. Tourism in regional Victoria has grown off the back of short-stay accommodation. And why does that work? Because some of our most popular visited spots are popular places for people to have holiday homes, whether it is at the snow, whether it is at Daylesford, whether it at the Great Ocean Road, whether it is down in Gippsland or whether it is up on the Murray. And what do we know about holiday homes? They are never going to be available for full-time rental. They are homes that people have acquired through hard work and enterprise. They have sought to find that property themselves, and they use short-term rental accommodation as a way to help cover the costs of that property that their family and their loved ones enjoy at special times. These are not property moguls. These are not people profiteering out of it. It is a big part of the leisure lifestyle that so many Victorians enjoy. And this government is taxing it and making it less affordable and less appropriate.
It is a laugh to think that 50 per cent of the homes that this tax will affect are in regional Victoria. Regional Victoria, we know, has not got the commercial accommodation for visitors to go to elsewhere, so the government, by its very logic, says it is going to take the tourist pool of accommodation out of the system and put workers in it. Who is going to want the workers if there are no visitors coming to the community to start with? What if this government got its way and 50 per cent or 80 per cent of the short-term accommodation was taken from my electorate, from the Great Ocean Road region? We would not need the extra workers because there would be so many fewer people coming to stay. It is logical. And the fact that this government have not even been able to comprehend that shows how little they understand about the important visitor economy in regional Victoria.
The other side of it is 40 per cent of short-term accommodation is not families going for a holiday but families and people needing it for emergency services, health care and essential working. The member for Albert Park also made the comment that there was not going to be the tax on family violence accommodation services or worker accommodation. That is only for specialty accommodation in those areas. Guess what, member for Albert Park, you might have specialty emergency service accommodation in your electorate, but in regional Victoria we have none. We have zero special accommodation facilities and services in regional Victoria – none. This government has funded none of it. It does not exist. So if you are a single parent with children escaping domestic violence and you have to go somewhere, you can take a short-term rental accommodation and you will be paying more. This government is going to charge you 7.5 per cent more every night you are seeking refuge in that accommodation. That is just a tax on desperation. It is a desperate tax attacking Victoria’s most vulnerable, and it is not good enough.
It also applies to visiting medical specialists and other visiting professionals who come to regional communities that do not have hotels and motels – they do not exist, by and large. If they are coming to a country town to provide ophthalmology services for the week or for knee and heart check-ups and other special conditions, they are staying in an Airbnb and it is an extra 7.5 per cent on that accommodation. What about the family from regional Victoria that has to spend – as my family did back in the 1980s – nearly a year in Melbourne with a sick child having cancer treatment? They stay in short-term accommodation too. They are staying down here in Melbourne not because they want to, not because they are getting any joy, but in order to help their young child recover from traumatic cancer treatment. Those families will be charged an extra 7.5 per cent every night that they are down here in Melbourne seeking medical treatment. That is simply not fair. It is simply not fair. It adds to the trauma of the experience; it adds to the expense.
Anyone who represents regional Victoria – and my colleague here the member for Ovens Valley will absolutely attest also to it – will know the amount of stress and expense that so many regional families go through to get long-term health care. When it is a critical illness, they come to Melbourne and invariably short-stay accommodation is a solution because the whole family can get together. If you have to go to a commercial accommodation and rent a hotel room and you have got three or four kids, you might have to have a couple of rooms; it is incredibly expensive. These are things that people live through, and this government has not thought of it; it has not allowed for it. Instead it has put a tax on it in the misguided belief that they are somehow charging multinational companies when they are not. They are charging families, they are charging individuals. It is a tax on services to country communities, and worst of all, in a year when this government has increased the fire services levy by 70 per cent to our farming communities, 50 per cent of this tax is coming from regional communities.
This government is shameless, absolutely shameless, in its tax attack on country Victoria. It is tax, tax, tax, and it is all coming here to Melbourne to pay for overblown tunnels that are over budget, overtime and overdue, and what are country Victorians getting for it? Absolutely nothing. We are having our regional tourist economy, our visitor economy, attacked beyond belief in a harebrained, ill-thought-out tax. We have got fire services levies increasing and land taxes being felt and experienced by regional Victorians for the first time ever with the lowering of the threshold. This government is a tax-attacking government.
Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (18:31): I would like to begin my contribution by calling out some of the absolutely ludicrous claims that the Liberal opposition have been making in relation to this bill, and I say this in the context of the fact that any policy we have ever put up in this chamber, or indeed outside the chamber, when it comes to housing has always been opposed by the Liberals. They have been the first to say no when it comes to any policy or measure we have sought to introduce to try and increase, provide incentives and encourage the construction or supply of housing for families, renters, retirees and people in need. Whether it was the plan for Victoria, they opposed it; whether it is our housing statement, they opposed it; or whether it is our goal and our target, ambitious as it is, over the next 10 years to build 800,000 new homes, they opposed that target. They opposed the construction of more granny flats in people’s backyards. What have they got against granny flats? They opposed the $5 billion Big Housing Build program, they opposed our rollout of 12,000 new social and community homes through the Big Housing Build project and now of course we come to today where they oppose this Short Stay Levy Bill 2024 as one of the means and levers to try and free up and create more housing opportunities. They oppose every measure every step of the way when it comes to building and unlocking that supply for housing. Forget about the three-word slogan ‘stop the boats’: under this Liberal opposition, frankly, it is ‘stop the homes’.
I would like to also take this opportunity to just call out again some of the misleading allegations that have been made in relation to this bill’s alleged impact on the tourism sector, particularly from the Shadow Minister for Tourism, Sport and Events, the member for Nepean. God help us if he were to become the minister for tourism. I say this from the context of having been a former tourism adviser for the former minister who I believe was the greatest tourism minister – with no disrespect to the current minister – John Eren. I had the pleasure to serve with John Eren. I knew John Eren. John Eren is a friend. I can tell you, the member for Nepean is no John Eren, because you have got to look at not just what he does not say, because he does not say much, really. I mean, what new events, what new policy measures have the opposition announced when it comes to growing tourism since they have come to opposition again through another occasion post 2022 election? They have not announced anything except for criticising and opposing again everything we have been seeking to do when it comes to tourism. And the stats and the facts, which the opposition do not want to cite, just speak for themselves, because frankly the way the shadow minister the member for Nepean talks about tourism in this state, he should not be the shadow minister; he should be the minister for tourism for New South Wales or Queensland or South Australia, because he talks down the tourism sector in a way that actually encourages the other states to try and poach our events and our tourism sector, because the fact is our tourism sector’s year-on-year spend – let us look at the facts – is well over now $39 billion total in total visitor spend, growing by $1.5 billion in the last quarter alone. That is a 12 per cent year-on-year increase when it comes to total tourism spend in this state. It is growing substantially.
Total tourism spend now, compared to 2019 pre pandemic, is 31 per cent higher than prior to the pandemic. Total visitors have reached 98 per cent of levels compared to those of 2019. International visitor spending has reached over $7.8 billion, an 86 per cent increase year on year for the state’s economy since then. Total domestic tourism expenditure in Melbourne is now recorded at 27 per cent higher than in 2019.
Let us look at the regions, region by region. A lot of these allegations are being made around how this bill is going to impact those respective regions. Let us look at how those respective regions have been growing on the watch of this government and this great current Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, Minister Dimopoulos. Looking in comparison to pre-2020 levels, in the Grampians, for example, domestic visitor expenditure has grown by 50 per cent. It has grown by 93 per cent in the Geelong and Bellarine region. It has grown by 91 per cent in the Phillip Island region. I acknowledge the member for Hastings, who is here, and the member for Bass as well. In the High Country it has grown by 52 per cent. The Great Ocean Road – we just heard the member earlier from that region, where tourism expenditure domestically has grown by 58 per cent. There is all this talk about tourists being driven away from the Great Ocean Road and the Twelve Apostles. The last time I checked, the Twelve Apostles are not going anywhere. They are still going to be there for tourists to go and see. I see we may have a member from the Murray region coming up shortly. I had the pleasure to spend time in his region in motel and caravan park accommodation recently this year. Tourism expenditure –
Tim McCurdy: Where?
Anthony CIANFLONE: In Bright. In the Murray region tourism expenditure has grown by 35 per cent, and in the Goldfields, 61 per cent. Mornington Peninsula, where the member for Nepean comes from, has seen 54 per cent growth in domestic tourism expenditure. You do not hear him talk up his local tourism sector at all. Gippsland has seen 53 per cent; the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges, 82 per cent; and Daylesford and Macedon Ranges, 24 per cent growth. In total, regional Victoria’s domestic tourism expenditure was recorded at 39 per cent higher than in 2019.
When it comes to tourism we have been proudly continuing to build a calendar of events that is the envy of all the other states and territories across the country. They are doing their utmost to poach many of these events, but they have got no chance because, again, on the watch of previous Minister Pakula and current Minister Dimopoulos we have, for example, secured the Australian Open until 2046 – another 22 years that the Australian Open grand slam is still going to be here. The Australian Grand Prix has been secured until 2037, another 13 years. The AFL Grand Final is staying until 2057, another 34 years. The Boxing Day test, as we heard earlier today in question time, is staying until at least 2030, another six years. We have had the Melbourne Cup and Spring Racing Carnival people in the building just recently this week. We are investing in the Nyaal Banyul Geelong Convention and Event Centre. The Kardinia Park master plan has been virtually completed. We have got the Western Bulldogs in Ballarat going out to Eureka Stadium. We continue to invest across many of our other regions in terms of events. The Regional Events Fund and marketing and promotion are all proudly led by Visit Victoria and the respective good work of the regional tourism bodies and authorities as well.
Of course this policy – just before I turn to the substance of it – is just as important when it comes to the workers of the tourism sector. When I was tourism adviser I remember sitting down with many, many operators over those years and hearing many of their different grievances and concerns in relation to the industry, which we sought to support. But one of those big concerns was the lack of housing for tourism workers in the regions in particular. I just find it absolutely ironic that this bill is one of the measures that will actually try and free up some of those properties that are currently locked out of that rental market and actually give the opportunity to workers to be attracted to those regions to work and to find rental properties, which they currently are locked out of. This bill will to some degree support those outcomes.
Of course this Short Stay Levy Bill will introduce that 7.5 per cent levy on short-stay bookings in the context of, namely, housing, creating more housing consistent with the policies that we have already committed to as a government, whether it is the Plan Victoria statement that we are developing and consulting on at the moment, the housing statement, the 800,000 new homes target, the Big Housing Build or the rental reforms. There are 130 reforms which we have introduced to make renting fairer for people who rent, because really, alongside one’s health, nothing is more important than housing and finding a home to live in. Whether it is families, young people, students, workers or retirees or whether it is people experiencing housing stress, rental stress or homelessness, every Victorian does deserve the chance to live in an affordable, accessible and safe place.
But as we know, right now across Australia it is becoming harder than ever before. Housing affordability has been at its lowest in decades, and it is taking that much longer, for example, for first homebuyers to save a deposit than it used to. Vacancy rates for rentals are at record lows, and prospective tenants are finding it harder and harder amongst the dozens and dozens of applications they are competing against to access a property.
Doing nothing is simply not an option; hence I have cited all those different measures we have been undertaking, in the context of which this bill is one of those important levers, which is why we need to progress with this bill as a matter of priority. It is a bill that will help instil – and I refer members to the contribution of the member for Tarneit a bit earlier around better balancing and helping create a fairer housing market, particularly for workers, essential workers, and particularly for those looking to live out in the regions. Indeed even in my own community of Merri-bek, fewer and fewer essential workers – whether they be nurses, emergency services workers – live in my community because of the housing affordability issue and very low vacancy rates, record low vacancy rates. I acknowledge the work of my council, Merri-bek council, in this respect, which has been advocating on this issue, and provision appropriately has been made in this bill for local government to also play a role going forward. I commend the bill.
Tim McCURDY (Ovens Valley) (18:41): I would like to say I am delighted to rise and speak on this bill, but sadly it is another tax being pushed onto Victorians, and it is a very, very sad day. This time it is the short-stay tax. The only thing we hope that is short-stay is the Allan Labor government, but anyway –
Tim McCURDY: Do you like that one, minister at the table? He agrees. I think he concurs. You know, it is a time when we have got protesters racking up millions of dollars worth of bills and the Minister for Police has to worry about how he is going to pay those bills – $15 million for taxpayers. The Premier will not even talk to the police. You have got trams rerouted today, the public inconvenience and of course the Premier at war with the very police that she relies on to try and keep Victoria safe. Herald Sun headlines today – aggravated burglary is up 100 per cent since Labor came to power. I know those on the other side want to dispute that, but it is a fact. And then the Premier continues to double down on the Suburban Rail Loop while the backbench starts scheming on how they can remove her so they can keep their jobs – because you have only got 100 weeks left, or a bit over 100 weeks left, and not only will you be out of government, you will be out of a job, some of you. You will be out of a job.
Tim McCURDY: I dispute that. I think in 115 weeks you will be losing government. So, member for Mordialloc, you will get your chance.
On top of all those issues that are going on today, then the Premier says, ‘Well, here’s a good idea: let’s introduce another tax. Nobody’s even going to notice.’ Well, we are noticing all right. Let us not be fooled: the ghost of Daniel Andrews is alive and well. I mean, it is just a different shade of lipstick.
So after 10 years Victoria has turned from an economic powerhouse to the woke capital of the world, the protest capital of the world, the turn-away-tourists capital of the world. You know, when this Premier along with her predecessor cancelled the Commonwealth Games we sent a clear message, a clear message to the world: ‘Don’t try to do business in Victoria; you will get shafted.’
This short-stay tax is another example – it is another kick in the guts for mums and dads not just in regional Victoria, all across Victoria. But I know the ones in regional Victoria are going to be hit hard out of this, out of no fault of their own. They are just trying to create an income for themselves. Some are just earning a couple of bucks on the side; some want to enhance tourist offerings in the small communities where we live. And they have now just been told they will become less competitive because of this 7.5 per cent tax. Only Victorian Labor can destroy confidence at such a high rate.
First of all we saw the land tax come in, and most of our offices had people come in and talk about the land tax. We will talk publicly about this, because we know people are hurting. I know that those on the other side of this room did not talk too much about the amount of people that came in and talked about land tax and how much it has increased. Some of them went up three- or four-fold.
This land tax has put a lot of pressure on people who have worked hard and saved hard to end up with a holiday house, and then they are saying, ‘How the dickens are we going to pay this land tax? What we may have to do is Airbnb for a few months of the year or a few weeks of the year to try and help offset this unfair tax, this land tax.’ No sooner do they do that, all of a sudden they get told, ‘No, now you’re going to pay another 7.5 per cent tax because you’ve decided to go into this market to try and help with the cost of living for you and for your family.’ Whichever way you look, it is an ugly, ugly tax.
I am someone who is in a border region. I live in Cobram. The electorate has Cobram, Yarrawonga and Bundalong. And then we go all the way up to Bright, where the member for Pascoe Vale stayed recently, and I am sure he enjoyed that. But if you live in, for example, Wodonga and you have got an Airbnb, you have just become less competitive against Albury. If you live in Corowa, then you have got an advantage over somebody who has got an Airbnb in Wahgunyah. Yarrawonga is the same: you have now become less competitive against a house, an Airbnb, a short-stay house in Mulwala. It is the same as Cobram–Barooga and of course Echuca–Moama, and that goes all the way down the Murray. I did hear the member for South-West Coast. She said the same for down in her electorate with Warrnambool and down towards Portland. The same things will happen there. South Australia tourism must be rubbing their hands together saying, ‘Bring it on, Victoria, if you’re that stupid that you want to bring on another tax’. That makes us less competitive. That just helps New South Wales and South Australia, who I have got nothing against, but it really is crazy that we are putting this tax on. It is going to hurt these businesses.
I want to give you a quote. For Hansard, I will give this to you before I leave so you can see where this has come from. This is Murray Regional Tourism, a body that works so hard to promote tourism in our region, in all of north Victoria. They do an astounding job to make sure that they encourage and promote and get tourism wherever possible. I just want to make a couple of quotes from a letter they wrote to me:
The introduction of a new levy on visitor accommodation is likely to exacerbate this shortage by increasing costs for visitors, thereby reducing overnight visitation, visitor spend and local employment.
Regional Victoria, especially the Murray region, continues to recover from the economic impacts of COVID-19 and recent flooding events. Visitor numbers have not yet returned to pre-COVID levels, and infrastructure repairs are ongoing. This levy threatens to impede this recovery by discouraging visitation at a time when the region is still fragile.
I am sure you do not get that. Those living in Melbourne in their Melbourne electorates just do not understand the impact that took place over the last few years in regional Victoria. We certainly have not recovered, and now we get belted again. It goes on to say:
A critical concern for the Murray region is its position on the border with New South Wales and South Australia. The imposition of a levy exclusive to Victoria could drive visitors to opt for accommodations in bordering states where such a levy does not exist, creating a competitive disadvantage for Victorian businesses.
…
The imposition of a Victorian-only levy will place local investors at a serious disadvantage, increase administrative costs, and contravene the broad intent of GST reforms introduced in 2000, which sought to avoid a complex mix of taxes and levies across Australian states.
Finally, it says:
This levy is likely to lead to a decline in visitation, a shift in overnight stays to neighbouring states, and a negative impact on the already struggling regional economy.
These are not my words, they are the words of the Murray Regional Tourism board. They are seething, and I just do not think this government understand the damage that they do to communities like ours, who rely on, obviously, food and fibre, as we try to produce food and fibre for the world – but coming a very close second is tourism wherever we can get it.
I am not going to say the name of this person. This is an Airbnb operator in my electorate. I have not asked her for permission to use her name, so I am going to just say what she sent to me. She said:
Not every Airbnb operator is a greedy individual with a bursting portfolio of properties, especially not in rural regions.
I myself have a permanent disability, but because of what our farm is worth on paper, I cannot even access a Health Care Card to assist with my numerous medical expenses.
Like many farmers, we have been through many years of little income and we rent out a cottage on our property a maximum of once a week to try and make ends meet. It is a maximum of once a week because I physically cannot do all the washing and cleaning required in less than that space of time.
I beg you to not make it even more expensive for tourists to come and stay in our King Valley & Milawa gourmet regions which have been so severely impacted since 2019.
The difference that the income from bookings makes to us is the ability to buy food and pay our bills.
We cannot possibly drop our prices any lower to absorb the 7.5% levy.
This levy will further decrease our bookings and we won’t survive financially.
That is one of many stories. When you look at the electorate of Ovens Valley there are so many communities – Bright, Harrietville, Whitfield, Cheshunt, Porepunkah – with Airbnbs. They are all going to be in the same boat: Myrtleford, Eurobin, Oxley, Milawa, Wangaratta, Bundalong, and the list goes on.
It is really quite disappointing that those on the other side cannot see the damage that they are doing for supposedly raising $60 million out of this tax. It is not just the Airbnbs and the accommodation places that are suffering. It is the other businesses in the town. It is the cafe. If you get somebody to come and stay, you get three or four different families come and stay in Bright or Porepunkah or the smaller towns like Harrietville, they will eat at the restaurant, they will have a coffee at the cafe and they will take whatever activities they can. It is all those other businesses that suffer, not just the accommodation centre.
So I think this bloody-minded approach of just ‘Tax at all costs; it doesn’t matter who we hurt’ really is quite disappointing. It is hurting families. It is hurting mum-and-dad investors. This is not about corporates. This is mostly mums and dads who are trying to balance the books, trying to support their families with the cost of living that they have and just trying to make the books balance up. As I say, it is going to hurt not just the accommodation centres but all the businesses in these small communities.
Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (18:51): It is great to speak on the Short Stay Levy Bill 2024. If you listened to the member for Ovens Valley, you would think it is all doom and gloom, that tourism is not any good and it is all going into the toilet. Well, the stats and figures thankfully do not stack up with the cheerleading to go and take tourism to South Australia and New South Wales. And this is a consistent theme – I have heard a few speakers today championing tourism in other states. The Shadow Minister for Tourism, Sport and Events – I heard his speech and contribution and really reflected on it. It is finals season, as we know, and it is great for inbound tourism. There is going to be short-stay accommodation left, right and centre. We see that as Melbourne’s footy takes a break we have got the Storm, we have got the AFLW – it is all going off.
I have been watching a bit of that, and on no less than three occasions I have seen the shadow minister for tourism spending his tourism dollars in New South Wales and just getting in there with the inserter vibes, with tourism vibes. He is just getting into the rooms and going ‘Look at me’ and giving a high five to Isaac Heeney and spending tourism dollars in New South Wales. I thought, ‘What’s going on here?’ I appreciate some of the comments around the impact on tourism and the cheerleading, but I did not think it was actually ingrained in their souls and their values to go and spend tourism dollars so forcefully in New South Wales and be the ultimate inserters and say, ‘Look at me; I want to be part of the premiership chase for Sydney.’ I know the member for Nepean is a lifelong Swans fan, but you do not have to go and consistently spend your tourist dollars there.
The reality of Victoria is very different to the woe and gloom that we have heard. By 2028, according to the tourism figures, $53 billion in total spend will be allocated in Victoria, a 32 per cent increase on 2023 estimates. With 112 million total visitors we will be up 18 per cent in just five years time and have nearly 95 million domestic visitor nights, up 14 per cent on 2023 estimates. They are the facts. They are the stats. We are the cultural, economic, visitor and sporting capital and one of the most diverse and inclusive places in the world. And that visitor attraction, the short-stay economy, will continue into the future.
You have got this really big tension point at the moment with the coalition on housing policy. This was a key anchor in the housing statement that was released last year. But you have this real tension point at the moment. You have got the member in the other place from the Northern Metropolitan Region Evan Mulholland saying, ‘We can’t have NIMBYs anymore; we’ve got to build more houses; we’ve got to do more. We’ve got to support people in their future and their security. Housing’s a right.’ Then you have got others like the member for Brighton, who is attacking housing in his community. You have got the member for Sandringham opposing housing in his community along the Suburban Rail Loop. You have got the member for Southern Metropolitan Region David Davis in the other place, who opposes everything, including housing. At least he has been consistently a NIMBY rather than a YIMBY, and I will say he is quite consistent in that. You need to front up with key policies for the future, and this is a key element of our housing policy.
So how many houses are taken off the market that are held in short-stay for a period of two to three months that could otherwise be on the market? That is a big question. We see that through the member for Nepean’s electorate where the housing crisis and the impact on rental unaffordability is having a big impact on communities. There are around about 29,000 full homes that are currently Airbnb listed, so it is a part of that sector and a part of that notion around fairness and affordability going forward for all Victorians.
The levy was talked about, consulted on and brought to the public a year ago, and now it makes its way into the Parliament. The revenue raised from that, on the back of the surging tourism numbers that we still see across Victoria, will have a significant benefit into the future.
In the final minutes of my contribution I want to say that this bill is really important to providing that funding for Homes Victoria, for making that contribution. To those opposite – and I know the member for Bulleen is going to get up and have a bit of a crack in a sec – just be reflecting on this. The Andrews and Allan Labor governments have proudly cut or abolished taxes and charges 64 times. This includes cutting regional payroll tax three times and lifting the payroll tax threshold on multiple occasions. It was $550,000 when we came to government. We are becoming the first state in Australia to abolish business insurance duty. It goes on. We are abolishing stamp duty for commercial and industrial properties. When the opposition were last in power they introduced or increased taxes and fees on 24 occasions. We will not see that again. Despite all of the grandstanding on impact, that is what we saw from those opposite. So I am not sure if the member for Bulleen is keen to get up and say a few words or have a go, but I have given him a nice lead-in there if he wants to have a contribution.
But this is part of a wider package of housing statement outcomes as well. It is not talking down the construction industry and housing industry. We need to get more to market, we need to be building more and we need to be ambitious in councils. We need that kind of policy rigour that we saw back when the member for Bulleen was the Minister for Planning. I think he said on the record it was 62,000 households and that we did not need the nimbyism from those in Sandringham or Brighton, even though those areas were closed down a bit, and we are now going back to those housing areas to see what else might happen.
The equal contribution from every LGA – all 31 metro councils and the 79 across Victoria pulling together to create more housing and more diversity in our markets – is the kind of policy energy that we need. The 80,000 target is aspirational. We are seeing some challenges in construction, and as we have seen in the budget, we are needing to gear down some of the major construction builds to let far more investment in housing come onto the market. We have seen that as a stated policy of the Treasurer pushing forward into the future and making sure that there is more space for housing. It is not talking down those housing outcomes. It is not blocking it because it suits you in your particular community to be a populist for 5 minutes, but getting amongst that and ensuring that the next generation has those housing outcomes. The median age for housing ownership is pushing towards the age of 40 now, and that means then that millennials and gen Zs are completely priced out, let alone trying to survive and be able to afford rentals into the future.
So that is the mix in this bill. It is about making sure that in every element in our policy we have a fair taxation system and that tourism growth will continue to surge across Victoria – not cheerleading maybe Premier Malinauskas or Premier Minns. You would think that the Libs would just be a little bit more Victoria centred – just a little bit. But they are just saying that tourism is going here and there, even though the stats show the surge and the millions more visitor hours that are going to be spent on nights in regional and rural communities and in Melbourne and metropolitan areas.
So that is what this bill is about: creating a range of reforms in the housing statement policy, fairness in taxation and ensuring that revenue will go towards supporting more homes and affordable homes for Victorians. That is what we want to build. We want to build for critical skill shortage workers in areas so they are not priced out of their communities, priced out of regional and rural areas and not able to find rentals because there is a stack of properties that sit empty. And we have got the member for Nepean, who has walked in, who has made some comments about tourism. We have just put on the record that tourism is surging in Victoria. The estimates are that by 2028 it will be off the charts, even though he spent a bit of tourism dollars in New South Wales recently hanging out with Isaac Heeney as the ultimate imposter, getting in there with Brian Taylor: ‘Look at me. Give me a bit of an interview while I’m promoting tourism in New South Wales’. We need that policy rigour back from Postcards. We need it back championing Victorians into the future.
Business interrupted under sessional orders.