Windfall gains tax
Mr WALSH (Murray Plains) (09:36): I want to raise the concern of farmers that live close to country towns in my electorate who are going to have their financial plans destroyed by the Andrews government’s new housing tax, the so-called windfall gains tax. These are not rich Melbourne property developers who may have had lunch or dinner with the Premier at the Flower Drum. They are ordinary hardworking families who have worked all their lives to build up an asset that the Andrews government now wants to snatch away from them. They cannot get straight answers from the State Revenue Office as to whether they will be in or whether they will be out. They are getting conflicting advice from their accountants as to what it will mean for them when it is triggered in their particular area. They believe it is an unashamed grab for their savings to pay for the Andrews government’s cost overruns on Melbourne infrastructure projects, which is currently $28 billion and counting, and they are very firmly of the view that they should not have their life savings snatched away by the Andrews government to pay for these cost overruns. They want to see the whole process around this new housing tax re-examined so their lifetime savings are not taken away.