Thursday, 31 August 2023

Building practitioner fees

Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (17:43): (457) My adjournment matter is directed to the Treasurer, and it concerns the exorbitant increases in registration fees for building practitioners in Victoria over the last two years. The action that I seek from the Treasurer is for the Treasurer to review and reduce these unfair increases in annual registration fees for practitioners across the building industry in Victoria, including builders, designers and surveyors. They are increasing the operating costs of businesses in the construction industry, which in turn means higher costs for customers. The legacy Premier Daniel Andrews and Treasurer Tim Pallas will leave to future generations of Victorians is record levels of government debt. Due to Labor’s financial incompetence this government will be forever remembered as being the government that truly sent Victoria broke. And while people joke that under Cain and Kirner the capital of Victoria was 20 cents, it is worse now because under Andrews and Pallas the state does not have even two bob to rub together.

On Tuesday it was reported that under the Andrews Labor government’s watch Victoria’s net debt is estimated to reach an unbelievable $226 billion by the 2026–27 financial year. To put that debt figure in perspective, that equates to $86,923 for every one of Victoria’s 2.6 million households and is a debt increase of 85 per cent in just five years. In true Labor fashion the Treasurer has accumulated this debt while expecting Victorians to pay more, introducing over 50 new or increased taxes, levies or fees since being elected in 2014. Labor’s only answer to their own financial incompetence is to tax their way out.

I was recently contacted by a building designer based in Shepparton who wanted to convey the extent of the disgraceful increases in the cost of his registration fee imposed by the Andrews Labor government over the last two financial years. In 2021–22 the cost of an annual registration as a building designer or architect was $61.30. This registration fee increased in 2022–23 to $294.40, which is a 380 per cent increase in just one year. In 2023–24 the same registration fee has risen to $673.60 if the fee is paid three months prior to the renewal date or $1052.40 if it is paid within three months of the renewal date. Even at the lower cost, that is an increase of 998 per cent in just two years. For a local building designer to register with the Victorian Building Authority to be legally able to operate his business, these exorbitant increases are unsustainable and unfair. It is not just designers and architects that have been lumbered with these fee increases but all positions across the building industry, including domestic and commercial builders, draftspersons, surveyors and project managers. These are exorbitant and unacceptable increases, and I call on the Treasurer to review and reduce the registration fees.