Wednesday, 11 September 2024

 Bridget VALLENCE (Evelyn) (19:04): (833) I am passionate about manufacturing in Victoria – the industry, the jobs it creates, the innovation and the advanced technologies. Victoria was once the heart of manufacturing in Australia, yet in the past decade under the Andrews and now the Allan Labor governments Victoria’s manufacturing industry has experienced decline and is under significant pressure with increasing taxes, red tape, skills shortages, the cost-of-living crisis and uncertainty because of Labor’s anti-gas policies, which is why it makes no sense for this Labor government to persist with taxing Victorian manufacturers more and taxing them out of this state.

On behalf of Victoria’s almost 24,000 manufacturing businesses – many in my electorate, including in Lilydale, Mooroolbark, Montrose and Chirnside Park, and in Ringwood, Bayswater, Dandenong and across Victoria – the matter I raise is for the Minister for Jobs and Industry. The action I seek is for the minister to provide details of what representations she has made to the Treasurer for an urgent inquiry into the calculation of land tax valuations, specifically for Victoria’s manufacturers. These businesses are in the minister’s portfolio, and it is about time she did something about representing them properly.

Manufacturers in my electorate and across the state have faced extreme increases in land tax without any consultation or justification by the Labor government. Manufacturers are wondering what advocacy, if any, the Minister for Jobs and Industry has done given the extraordinary impacts to these businesses and jobs of being slugged with Labor’s land tax increases. Labor is damaging the sector and driving businesses and jobs interstate or offshore. The Victorian manufacturing sector contributes over $30 billion to the Victorian economy and could contribute more, it employs around 260,000 Victorians and could employ more, but it is being smashed by the anti-business policies of this Labor government, the red tape and the business-killing taxes.

Some manufacturers have been slugged with land tax increases of over 300 per cent. It is unfathomable really. A business in Scoresby, as an example, was charged $94,800 in land tax back in 2022 and just two years later is now being charged a whopping $354,475 in land tax. This 304 per cent increase is exacerbated by the additional taxes and charges the Allan Labor government has imposed on businesses, including payroll tax, the mental health levy, the COVID debt levy and massive increases in WorkCover premiums. Instead of this vital sector being valued, Victorian manufacturers are being punished and are paying the price for Labor’s financial mismanagement and reckless spending. I want to take the opportunity to pay tribute to Honi Walker and the South East Melbourne Manufacturers Alliance for their advocacy in this space.