Tuesday, 19 March 2024

 Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (18:25): (783) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Treasurer, and it relates to the bungling of Labor’s land tax billing and administration. We know that Labor’s land tax targets mum-and-dad investors, home owners and renters. This appalling tax was the brainchild of a government that cannot manage money. It is to pay off, supposedly, a $1 billion COVID debt created by Labor’s bungling and mismanagement when it locked up Victorians for over two years and destroyed the state’s economy – well, it is even further destroyed now, and under Labor Victorians are forced to pay 52 either new or increased taxes, this being one of them. Make no mistake, this tax will drive property investment out of Victoria and lead to less rentals on the market and higher rents.

Your government’s own estimates have admitted that the average Victorian household will be paying an additional $1300 a year. This adds to our spiralling cost of living, further putting household budgets under pressure. Victorians actually pay the highest property tax in Australia, and the Property Investment Professionals of Australia have named Victoria as the worst state in the nation for renters due to the high stamp duty and the new land tax.

The final insult to Victorians is that the Allan government has completely botched its billing system. There are many, many errors in the land tax billing system. I have been contacted by a number of constituents in my Eastern Victoria Region who have been billed for properties that they do not even own. The bungling clearly breaches the privacy of many Victorians. After contacting the State Revenue Office and pointing out these glaring errors, my constituents were insultingly forced to give a verbal declaration that any information given by them would be the truth, and accurate, and told they would be subject to fines if that were proven not to be the case. How can the state government compromise personal data through somebody else receiving information on the billing of these terrible taxes? Sending out the details of other investors is just plain wrong.

Treasurer, given your land tax system is riddled with errors and causes great distress in the first place, the action I seek is for you to fix the bungling within the billing system to ensure that there is no further distress caused to these people receiving this additional impost.