Wednesday, 20 March 2024

Land tax

Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (18:02): (802) My adjournment matter is for the Treasurer, and the action that I seek is for the Treasurer to acknowledge that his latest increase to land tax is hurting mum-and-dad investors and driving up the cost of rent, and further I ask that he considers reversing the policy.

Some years ago my constituent Kellie, from Barnawartha, and her husband helped their daughter escape a violent relationship. They could not find a rental property, so they stretched all their resources to buy a second home in Wodonga where their daughter could live. The same housing pressures still exist today, with rental vacancies in the city sitting at below 1 per cent. Six years later their daughter still lives in the home. She has been able to turn her life around and is now in her third year of a nursing degree. Her parents did all they could to help her because that is what parents do, but the government’s new land tax is making the situation impossibly difficult. They have been slugged a thousand dollars a year for the next decade by this grubby little money grab.

The justification for this tax was that it would only affect wealthy landholders and those most able to pay, but the Real Estate Institute of Victoria has said that nine out of 10 rentals are mum-and-dad owned properties and that 75 per cent of owners only have that one additional property. People like Kellie are not land barons, they are everyday investors who stretch to make a long-term investment, and now they have become collateral damage in the government’s failure to balance the books. Kellie called the tax ‘a kick in the guts’. She said:

This is the final straw. I cannot believe this ridiculous and cruel legislation made it through Parliament. My husband and I are so stressed and anxious as we are already stretched on our budget as far as we possibly can.

My colleague the member for Benambra has been meeting with constituents affected by this tax, including Kellie, whose story is repeated across the state. Liz from Browns Plains, about halfway between Wodonga and Rutherglen, has been a residential property investor in Wodonga for almost 12 years. This year she has been hit with a $975 land tax bill. She has had to increase her tenant’s rent and now plans to sell the property at the end of the lease.

At a time when rental vacancies are at historic lows and rents are rising so high that normal people are priced out of the market, it is heartless for this government to be slugging property owners with a land tax that will force them to raise rent. Investors and business owners across the state are deciding to abandon Victoria, not only because of this latest tax grab but also because of the increased regulatory risk associated with conducting business in Victoria.