Waste and recycling management
Mr WELLS (Rowville) (13:25): This statement condemns the Andrews government’s latest junk policy to charge Victorians for four colour-coded rubbish bins. Bin nights across the state will see Victorians drag four bins to the kerb and pay extra rates for their council bin collection. But the real news is the new hike in the landfill levy. On top of the cost of new bins and what it will cost for extra trucks to collect them, which the government has yet to come clean on, the minister has nearly doubled the landfill levy from $65.90 a tonne to $125.90 a tonne. Local councils are already struggling with the increased costs from the recycling crisis. Manningham’s costs are up 275 per cent on last year, as just one example, and these costs are passed on to residents via the annual waste charges in their rates.
So Victorians are getting a new bin tax plus a new landfill levy on top of massively higher waste charges from councils. I am sure Victorians are scratching their heads and asking why the highest taxing government in Australia needs more of their hard-earned money. After all, land tax revenue in 2017–18 was $2.56 billion but in 2018–19 went up to $3.5 billion—a $1 billion increase in just one year.