Wednesday, 11 September 2024

Short-stay accommodation

Richard WELCH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (19:04): (1150) My adjournment matter is for the Treasurer. The Allan government’s proposal to impose a new tax on short-stay accommodation, such as Airbnbs, will further financially burden Victorians, depress investment in residential stock and dampen demand in this state’s tourism sector. The government’s tourism tax will apply to all bookings on short-term accommodation from 1 January 2025, effectively raising the cost of every short-stay accommodation booking across Victoria.

This is not just an attack on tourism, it is a punitive measure on everyday home owners and small business operators who have turned to platforms like Airbnb to make a living, generate income and make ends meet. It is also a tax on workers and the disabled. Thirty per cent of short-term rentals are not for holidays, they are for those travelling for work and those with disabilities whose care and mobility needs are not met in traditional hotel accommodation. Further, hardworking families in suburbs like Mill Park, Bundoora, Box Hill and Glen Waverley in my electorate are already slammed by cost-of-living increases across every aspect of family life. With this new property tax they are being asked to pay even more if they want to take their family on a well-deserved, probably long-overdue holiday to regional Victoria. Guess what, accommodation in New South Wales and Queensland just became cheaper than Victoria. How does that help anyone’s bottom line?

The message to Victorian families is clear: do not dare own your own holiday home, because we will land tax it out of your reach; do not dare rent it out either, because the government’s hand will be there in your pocket taking a chunk of your income; and do not dare build a house, because we will add 40 per cent to the cost of building and deny your area any matching infrastructure. This is yet another dead hand tax that will not solve but exacerbate the housing crisis, harm our tourism industry and the many Victorians who depend on short-stay accommodation for their livelihoods, work and care.

The action I seek is to listen to the community, listen to the tourism industry, listen to disability groups, listen to the regions, listen to economists, give Victorians a break from endless new tax assaults on their cost of living and abandon this regressive, destructive tax before it becomes law.