The Nationals leader and Member for Murray Plains, Peter Walsh, says a Liberal Nationals government will use taxation as part of its plan for Victoria’s COVID recovery – by cutting some and scrapping others.
Mr Walsh said Victoria needs a plan from people who actually understand business; how it works and what it needs when it has been smashed by four devastating lockdowns.
He said Victorian small businesses were already on their knees before the Andrews Labor Government staged another snap lockdown with “little to no support or a plan in place for the economic recovery”.
“The Liberal Nationals will deliver immediate relief; and relief not requiring business owners to go through pages and pages of red tape for a meagre few dollars that probably won’t make any difference if they keep getting locked down,” Mr Walsh said.
“For a start our plan will take thousands of small businesses out of the payroll tax system by lifting its threshold to be the best of any state,” he said. “And we’ll provide up to $1500 relief from state and local government fees and charges to small businesses who don’t currently pay payroll tax.
“And we have planned to freeze all business specific local government fees for four years – and also restrict councils from creating new or additional fees on businesses.”
Mr Walsh said with an economy so fragile, now would have to be the worst time in a generation or more for Labor to be slugging Victorian families with more taxes on buying their family home.
He said making home ownership and rents less affordable will put our economic recovery at more risk.
“We will make an immediate and seriously tangible impact on regional Victoria by reviving our planning flying squad to get out in the regions with local councils to help speed up the release of land,” Mr Walsh said.
“Our plan is 50,000 blocks and by helping local government fast-track that we will be helping thousands and thousands of families who need a government with a plan to get a roof over their heads,” he said.
“The Andrews Labor Government has lost control of the budget and its only plan to try and recoup the billions it has wasted on poorly conceived and managed major infrastructure projects, on top of the cost of COVID, is to increase taxes on families and small businesses.
“Only a Liberal Nationals Government will scrap Labor’s stamp duty hikes, which only put more pressure on families buying a home and only a Liberal Nationals Government will help the economy drive the recovery by giving it immediate incentives to reopen, re-employ and rejuvenate our state.”