Tuesday, 12 November 2024

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:07): (725) My question is to the Attorney-General. Labor’s new probate fee tax hike will rip tens of millions of dollars from the grieving relatives of dead Victorians. How can the Labor government justify imposing these outrageous new up-front fees that will hit grieving people at their most emotionally vulnerable time?

 Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:07): I thank Ms Crozier for her question and the opportunity to address probate fees. It is a matter of fact that probate fees in Victoria are considerably lower than other states and do not cover the costs of hearings in the Supreme Court adequately. We want to make the system fairer, so we are abolishing probate fees for small estates – something that seems to be lost in some of the reporting. There will be no probate fees paid for small estates. We will keep medium-sized estates cheaper than New South Wales and South Australia. The policy will make it cheaper for many people, especially when the proceeds from the estate are less than half a million dollars. This value was increased following feedback from extensive public consultation that happened this year.

For the very small percentage of Victorians dealing with multimillion-dollar estates, the fees will be lifted to cover the level of administration and dispute resolution, as these complex applications often take up significant time within the courts. The most an estate will pay in probate fees is 0.24 per cent of an estate’s value, keeping it fair for everyone who is navigating our courts.

Bev McArthur interjected.

Jaclyn SYMES: We are not introducing a death tax. What I would also point out, Ms Crozier, regarding the part of your question in relation to the up-front nature of these fees is that I am certainly across a concern that it can take some time for estates to settle and for some of the money held up in estates and banking, and we are doing some work and I am seeking further advice in relation to whether there are opportunities – which probably falls outside my direct remit, but I am interested in having further discussions with banks in particular – to free up money from estates earlier to ensure that the estates are covering these introduced fair fees, as opposed to them coming out of the pockets of family members and the like, who then have to seek recompense after the event.

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:09): Attorney, thank you for that response. I think there is just an enormous amount of concern from so many Victorians on this issue. The fees charged by the probate office already recover three times the cost of running it. Under Labor’s new death tax, probate fees will now recover 10 times the cost of running the probate office. Charging 10 times the cost of providing a public service is not fee recovery, it is price gouging. Attorney, why is Labor making grieving Victorians cross-subsidise other aspects of the Supreme Court’s operations through inflated probate fees?

 Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:10): Ms Crozier, I addressed these issues in my answer to your substantive question. It seems to be an ignored point that we are making the fees fairer. We are reducing them for many Victorians and abolishing probate fees for small estates. We want to make sure that the system is paying for what it costs to administer, and we are addressing those complex and often very large estates with multiple parties that are interested. That is where the fee increase will be noticed. It will be noticed as nothing for those with small estates.