Tuesday, 7 March 2023

 Richard RIORDAN (Polwarth) (14:38): (54) My question is to the Treasurer, and the question that I have for the Treasurer today is will he commit to Victorians, and particularly landlords in the Polwarth electorate, a review of the current land tax system? The land tax bills that were issued to constituents in the past couple of months and are due in August this year will see many, many small self-funded retiree landlords and many property owners who may only have one or two properties at the most in their portfolio subject to massive, massive land tax increases on top of rates and insurance and other costs. The huge impact that this will have in an electorate like Polwarth is that landlords will be forced to sell their properties or up their rents. This will have a catastrophic effect on housing affordability for those along the coast and in our coastal communities and increasingly small businesses that have done it really hard for the last two years will see landlords forced to put the rent up in order to make ends meet, to make the return on buildings.