Wednesday, 9 March 2022

 Mr QUILTY (Northern Victoria) (18:12): (1807) My adjournment matter is for, I believe, the Minister for Planning. On 10 February the government released new guidelines for building practitioner fees. If you are a builder, the cost of your legal registration is set to increase by between 40 per cent and 200 per cent over the course of the year. For example, the five-year renewal fee for individuals increased by 123 per cent. The government has not explained why the prices have increased. The most likely explanation is that this is yet another tax increase. Thirty-eight per cent of the cost of new housing is tax, at least, and increasing the fees and taxes on builders only serves to make housing even less affordable. Building workers have already been hobbled by years of COVID restrictions and are now being slapped with enormous fee increases. Imagine how you would feel if you received your registration renewal in the mail and it had doubled in cost. That is what these changes feel like. Fee hikes like this go to show that the government is never charging a fee for service. Every government charge is a tax designed to raise overall government revenue. The amount paid by the consumer is almost never based on the cost of administration or the benefit received from the services. The cost of administering the regulatory system of the building industry did not suddenly triple, but building practitioners will be forced to pay up to triple the cost anyway. We often hear how this government wants to promote affordable housing, but everything it does only raises the price of houses. I call on the minister to immediately reverse this fee hike and to reduce the tax burden on Victorians trying to recover from the damage caused by this government’s COVID strategy.