Wednesday, 12 November 2025

 David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (12:34): (1115) My question is for the Treasurer. For the second year in a row the Business Council’s Regulation Rumble 2025, which ranks every state and territory on a range of tax and regulatory metrics, has placed Victoria as the overall worst jurisdiction for business. Victoria has been found to be least competitive for overall cost and regulation, with the worst ranking for property taxes and charges, licensing and requirements to do business and the second worst for payroll tax. I ask: do you accept that the Allan government and you as Treasurer are responsible for the shocking wooden spoon–quality performance?

 Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Treasurer, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Regional Development) (12:35): I thank Mr Davis for providing me the opportunity to talk about the performance of the Victorian economy. Mr Davis, I think I ran through some of these stats last time, but when it comes to business attraction and business growth we have the highest business creation in the country, one of the best participation rates in the employment sector, historically high business investment numbers and a regional unemployment rate that is lower than any other state in the country. We are backing Victorian businesses with record productivity-enhancing investment – things like roads, schools and transport infrastructure, which we are just about to open in relation to the Metro Tunnel and West Gate Tunnel. This week you might have caught that the Premier announced the state’s first major subsea fibre optic cable and the return of international flights to Avalon.

The report that Mr Davis refers to disregards a lot of the inputs and a lot of the good things that we are doing, which distorts the narrative. On payroll taxes, which Mr Davis mentioned, the report only takes into consideration the top rates and it does not consider the beneficial tax settings, our tax-free threshold –

Members interjecting.

The PRESIDENT: Mr Davis was waiting for everyone to be quiet so he could ask his question, and even some of his squad were yelling when he was trying to ask his question. Mr Davis does deserve to be heard in silence when he asks a question. When the Treasurer is trying to answer the question – I am sure Mr Davis is interested in the answer – the same courtesy should apply. Treasurer, without all the yelling.

Jaclyn SYMES: What I was referring to was that the report openly admits to not having regard to the regional payroll taxes, and it did not mention or take account of the tax-free thresholds that we recently changed. Mr Davis, in relation to business creation, we have added more than 123,000 businesses in the state of Victoria since June 2020. Quarterly business investment figures have shown that Victorian business investment grew by 1.7 per cent, significantly faster than the national rate of 0.7 per cent. Since the pandemic Victorian business investment has risen by 41 per cent, compared with 32 per cent for the rest of the country. Mr Davis, we are outperforming other states in relation to business investments and business construction. But of course there is always more to do, particularly in the regulation space, and that is why in the Economic Growth Statement we have committed to halving the amount of regulators that businesses deal with and a range of other investments to make sure that business continues to grow from strength to strength in Victoria so that we can continue to lead the nation.

 David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (12:39): I am completely unconvinced by the Treasurer’s response there. Noting that Victoria has the highest unemployment rate of any state in the nation and has a net debt that continues to grow by more than $2 million an hour, I therefore ask: why is Victoria so hostile to job-creating businesses? And I want to ask: will you accept an award of a wooden spoon?

The PRESIDENT: I will accept that. And you can leave the chamber for half an hour, Mr Davis. I will not even put the question.

David Davis withdrew from chamber.