Wednesday, 14 May 2025

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee

Report on the 2024‒25 Budget Estimates

Tim McCURDY (Ovens Valley) (10:12): I am delighted to rise to speak on the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee 2024–25 budget estimates. There are a couple of issues I would like to raise on that, particularly 13.4.1, Treasurer’s portfolio, about land tax and the exemptions from land tax. Properties listed as alpine resorts are exempt: Falls Creek, Mount Buller, Mount Hotham, Mount Baw Baw and Lake Mountain. Dinner Plain, which sits within Mount Hotham, is not deemed by the government to be an alpine resort, which is quite odd because it has an elevation of 1570 metres, which is higher than Mount Buller and Lake Mountain. It has all the attributes of an alpine resort, it has the same snow cycle as all the alpine resorts and yet it is not exempt from the vacant residential land tax, which is a bit of a concern. Now, there is an old saying that if it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck. I think that is where we get to here with Dinner Plain. The residents are really concerned that there are double standards going on here for them, particularly owner-residents in Dinner Plain, when someone just down the road at Hotham, which has the same cycle, is deemed exempt.

Yet the State Revenue Office refuses to see that Dinner Plain is an alpine resort. In fact the Alpine School, which is funded by the Victorian government, is in Dinner Plain. They call it the Alpine School and it is in Dinner Plain, but Dinner Plain is not rated as an alpine resort. I just cannot understand why you would have a school in that region. And the answer is that it is an alpine resort. The other example with Dinner Plain is that it has all the other attributes: it is compulsory to carry chains; as I say, the elevation is higher than Baw Baw and Lake Mountain. It really is an unfair tax, and it should be removed from the residents of Dinner Plain. Even VicRoads, when it advertises on its website, talks about the alpine region, and Dinner Plain is in that region. Everybody can see that. I think the Treasurer needs to really have a closer look at this to see how we can assist the people of Dinner Plain. They too should be exempt from this tax. The other thing is that there are seasonal ambulance, seasonal VicPol and seasonal ski patrol services in Dinner Plain – again, all the same attributes – so it needs to be treated equally to the other alpine resorts.

On another point, in section 9.3, the environment portfolio, I want to address the water and the buybacks in the Murray–Darling Basin. I know that all sides of the chamber are on a unity ticket here when it comes to buybacks and the damage that they do in regional Victoria. We have seen just this week a stark reminder with 300 jobs that will be lost in Strathmerton, in the Bega Cheese factory. Bega is a great factory. Bega are based in the Bega Valley, but they do have sites in Tatura and Strathmerton. They are going to shut down the Strathmerton site – 300 jobs. It will affect Cobram, Numurkah and obviously Strathmerton people. Barry Irvin is an excellent operator, but they have had to make a tough decision in Strathmerton to close it down to save $30 million a year. That is primarily because of these buybacks, the water that is leaving our regions.

I know Minister Shing, who was the Minister for Water, Lisa Neville, the minister before that, and I believe Minister Tierney were all on the same page: buybacks are hurting our communities. This is the proof we have been looking for. This is the proof we need to now tell the new Minister for Environment and Water Murray Watt, who has taken over from Tanya Plibersek. They have got to stop this approach to buybacks at all costs and saying that we are going to save the environment with all this water when we know there are so many constraints in the system that the river systems cannot handle the flow of water that they are trying to buy back for the environment.

As I say, Bega Cheese are trying to save $30 million a year – I do not take that away from them. In the early 2000s there were 3 billion litres of milk produced in that region. We are now down to 1.7 billion, and that is the result of the water being taken away. You have heard the saying ‘Just add water.’ We know when you add water to coffee or you add water to gravy, you see what happens – it grows. But if you reverse that and you take water away – if you take water out of milk, it becomes milk powder. When you take water away from dairy farms and all farms, they just become dust. We are seeing this firsthand now and, as I say, these buybacks are hurting. We have said they would hurt, and this is proof in the pudding – 300 jobs at Strathmerton, which will affect the whole north-east region.