Wednesday, 16 October 2024

Land tax

Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (19:10): (1192) My adjournment debate for the Treasurer concerns the land tax liability of Victoria’s power grid. We all know AusNet operate most Victorian transmission lines and so enjoy easements over significant stretches of our state, but the land tax bill they pay for it is shocking. For May 2024 to April 2025 the Treasurer and his friends at the State Revenue Office demanded an incredible $257 million. This raises a number of questions. The first is the impact of the Treasurer’s land tax hikes on Victorian electricity prices. Every time there is a rise, Labor run the line that it is the top end of town who will pay. We already knew this was a pretty shonky argument, but this SRO bill completely demolishes the lie. The biggest land tax payers are not developers, land bankers, property barons or foreign investment funds. It is every Victorian, every family, every business who pays an electricity bill, because of course AusNet does not wear it. Each year that the land tax assessment exceeds the value predicted, which is every year in Labor’s Victoria, AusNet apply to the Australian Energy Regulator for a pass-through, which allows them to transfer the cost from themselves to Victorian bill payers.

I looked back at the history. In 2020 AusNet reported a tax assessment of $161 million. Just four years later – four years – that had exploded to $257 million. That is $96 million more – a 60 per cent increase in just four years without any increase in input costs or materials or labour, just pure tax. If the Treasurer understands the massive whack his land tax grab has added to Victoria’s electricity bills, his lack of transparency is shocking. And if he is unaware, his lack of competence is damning.

I have already asked if the rush for extended transmission networks despite credible questions about their necessity resulted from ulterior motives, with the companies involved increasing their regulated asset base and ultimately their gross profits. But now I wonder about the government incentive. Building new transmission lines instead of reusing existing easements generates serious cash for the Treasurer, all without having to announce a tax increase. So I ask the Treasurer for more complete information. What is the state’s total annual land tax revenue from transmission line easements and from power generation sites? As more land across the state hosts renewable power generation, this revenue is presumably rising too.