Probate fees
Michael O’BRIEN (Malvern) (14:26): My question is to the Premier. Labor’s decision to hike probate fees by up to 650 per cent –
Members interjecting.
The SPEAKER: Order! The Minister for Transport Infrastructure will come to order.
Michael O’BRIEN: Labor’s decision to hike probate fees by up to 650 per cent acts as a death tax payable up-front on the family home. It will particularly hit family homes with a mortgage. An average family home in Box Hill valued at $1.7 million with a $1.2 million mortgage actually counts as a $1.7 million estate for probate fee purposes. Premier, how is it fair that a grieving family pays Labor’s up-front death tax on $1.7 million when the amount inherited is $500,000?
Members interjecting.
The SPEAKER: The Minister for Transport Infrastructure is warned.
Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:28): In answering the member for Malvern’s question, I remind the member that I went into the detail of this matter yesterday. I also reject his characterisation of the decision that the government has made to put in place a fairer probate system where particularly those smaller estates have their fees abolished and the larger, more complex estates have their fees set at the cost recovery level. I went to this yesterday, and I have nothing further to add.
Michael O’BRIEN (Malvern) (14:29): Yesterday the Premier told the house that ‘extensive consultation’ was undertaken on these probate fees. That consultation was in fact a survey with 124 survey responses, and when participants were asked if they supported the proposed changes to probate fees, 94 per cent said no. Why is the Premier imposing an up-front death tax on the family home against the community’s clear wishes?
Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:29): The answer is that we are not. The changes being made are focused on how we can make the system fairer, abolishing those probate fees for small estates, keeping the medium-sized estate fees cheaper than New South Wales and South Australia and having the larger ones at a cost recovery level, reflecting the complexity of these matters.
Peter Walsh: On a point of order, Speaker, the Premier is debating the question. I suggest she get a new cheat sheet that actually deals with the facts of the question and not something that has been written for her and is irrelevant.
The SPEAKER: That is not a point of order. The Premier has concluded her answer.