Tuesday, 12 August 2025

Economic policy

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (18:14): (1819) My matter for the adjournment tonight is for the attention of the Premier. On the weekend the Premier let the cat out of the bag. They have got a big problem with some of their funding, they have got a big problem with the state budget, they have got a big problem with the Suburban Rail Loop and they have got a big problem funding the so-called activity centres across the city. There are 60 of them. But what the Premier said on the weekend can only be interpreted as new taxes to fund these problems – up to five new taxes, car parking levies, levies on development and other levies in the SRL zone and in the so-called activity zones, these high-density high-rise zones. I listened to the Premier closely in the chamber in the lower house today, and what I heard only chilled me further. It left me with the concern that the government is actually intending on these new taxes. They have obviously got a massive budgetary problem. On the SRL the problem is well known. They have got $11.5 billion-odd of state money. They have got $2.2 billion of federal money. They say they will get the rest from the feds somehow. Then there is $11.5 billion of so-called value capture. They are increasingly making it clear that with value capture it is going to be very difficult to get the kind of number that is needed.

But as I listened to the Premier it was clear that some of these high-rise high-density zones are also targets for these new taxes, and if we are going to see a list of new taxes, I think it is time the Premier came clean. The Premier needs to be honest with Victorians. They need to be very, very clear with Victorians about what the new taxes are, where they will be levied and which suburbs are going to pay the new taxes. In my area many of the activity centres are targets for these, and I look at the one around Stonnington, Monash and Glen Eira. I look at so-called Camberwell in the City of Boroondara and down around Moorabbin, but also some of the smaller centres: Kew, Auburn, Hawthorn and Glenferrie. These are targets for these new taxes and levies on properties. I think it is time the Premier came clean. Every Victorian who lives in one of these areas should know what new taxes are going to be levied on them and their families and indeed businesses too. But families who are the target of these new taxes, up to five new taxes, should know and they should know immediately. I am calling on the Premier to come clean, make a statement and explain to the community which taxes will be applied in which zones and how much they will have to pay.