Wednesday, 4 March 2026

 Annabelle CLEELAND (Euroa) (10:15): For every dollar business owner Travis Taylor earns, he is taxed 63 cents. Sixty-three cents in every dollar through land tax, payroll tax, the emergency services tax and a growing list of other charges. Since 2014 the Allan Labor government has introduced or increased 60 taxes and charges, leaving Victoria the highest taxed state in the country. I recently sat down with Travis from Mitre 10 Heathcote, Seymour building group and Taylor transporting, and what I heard was his complete exhaustion. Travis bought his business in 2000 and built it into a regional success story, turning over more than $13 million, and along the way he backed regional Victoria, investing in industrial developments, residential projects and businesses that created local jobs. Travis once employed 53 people, but today that number is down to 24, and not because demand disappeared or ambition faded, but because the relentless pressure of payroll taxes, rising rates, unreliable power and layers upon layers of red tape have made it too difficult to keep going at this scale. When we lose businesses like Travis’s, we lose jobs, apprenticeships, suppliers and confidence in our local economies.