Wednesday, 12 August 2026

 Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (19:35): (2687) My adjournment matter is for the latest Treasurer, and it concerns Labor’s land tax and the crippling impact it is having on my constituents. Not a day goes by that I do not get an email or hear firsthand – because unlike a lot of Labor MPs in the north, I actually go out and speak to my constituents and listen to them – and they tell me about Labor’s land tax regime here in Victoria and the crippling impact it is having on them.

I have got to say, it particularly impacts migrant families in the northern suburbs, who are being penalised and punished by this Labor government for owning more than one property and running a small business from one of them. I can tell you, it is communities like the Italian community, the Greek community, the Lebanese community and the Maltese community who built this state; they worked bloody hard and mostly with their hands. They might have started a business and they might own one property, which is their business, and one house, mortgaged to the hilt on both of them. Because of that decision to take a risk, they are being punished by this Labor government. Some of them are paying up to four times what they were previously before this Andrews–Allan–Carroll government’s COVID debt recovery taxes. That is what we have seen: we have seen this government massively jack up land taxes. It is punishing the very people who built this state.

Labor’s approach is in stark contrast to the Liberals and Nationals. We will reverse Labor’s land tax hikes by lifting the land tax threshold from the current level of $50,000 back to the old level of $300,000 over a five-year period, saving 280,000 Victorians up to $975 a year. This will help make Victoria a better and more attractive place to invest in a business, to have a go and get ahead, like so many migrant families and communities in the northern suburbs have done in the past. But under this government, because of their $200 billion of debt that they have racked up and because they have seen $15 billion siphoned off to corruption, everyone is paying for this debt.

The action I seek from the Treasurer is to commit to copying the Liberals and Nationals policy on land tax and stop financially punishing my constituents for working hard and having a go.