Wednesday, 21 June 2023

 Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (16:39): The other issue I grieve for is the costs that are being put on people with the housing crisis that we have, and the housing crisis that we have in Victoria is an issue of supply. It is an issue of supply for new homes. It is an issue of supply for rental properties. It is an issue of supply for public housing or social housing, and that goes back to policy decisions of the government that have slowed down the release of new land. If you go around regional Victoria, nearly every regional city has a shortage of new land because the process of getting the planning provisions through are just so tortuous and take so long.

Danny O’Brien interjected.

Peter WALSH: That’s right.

The SPEAKER: Member for Gippsland South, you are not in your allocated seat; therefore you cannot speak.

Peter WALSH: As the member for Gippsland South said, the other thing that is going to restrict land supply is the new tax on planning decisions. It is not a windfall gains tax, it is actually a tax on housing blocks, because what you will find is that for most regional cities it will push up the price of a housing block by $20,000 to $25,000. That is $20,000 to $25,000 more that a young couple have to find to buy a block let alone build the house. Then you go through all the other charges and increased licence fees for all the tradies that have to go and do that work – the increased registration fees and everything. The cost of doing all those things – the cost of business registration and the cost of tradies registration – is all increasing because a socialist government put their hand in your pocket to take your money out because they ran out of money. You have run out of your money, so you are taking our money to actually –

The SPEAKER: Leader of the Nationals, through the Chair!

Peter WALSH: Sorry, Speaker. Those on the other side, when they run out of their own money, are taking money out of everyone else’s pocket to pay for all the debt that this state has.