The Nationals Member for Murray Plains, Peter Walsh, says the Allan Labor government’s latest tax grab – more than $2.1 billion through the fire services levy – is pure theft.
Mr Walsh says the tax slug has been almost doubled, from 8.7 cents per $1000 in a property’s capital improved value, to a whopping 17.3 per cent.
He says Victorian homeowners, businesses and farmers “are all victims of this blatant scam”.
“Even worse, commercial, industrial and primary production landowners will pay 100, 64 and 189 per cent more respectively – in a shock announcement coming just days after Labor’s fraudulent ‘economic growth statement’ which failed to reduce any tax on businesses,” Mr Walsh adds.
“And it is a scam, we know full well this money is not going where it belongs, and where it has been promised – to support the irreplaceable work done by our dedicated volunteer firefighters in CFA units across my electorate and across the state,” he explains.
“The Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund (ESVF) will see all of Victoria’s emergency services, which are normally allocated funding in the annual state budget, now rely on the new levy to fund up to 95 per cent of their operations,” he says.
“But with a classic Jacinta Allan sleight of hand, her Labor government will claim it is handing money to all sorts of organisations and sectors and in the end no-one will know where it has gone – it will just disappear along with all the billions and billions of dollars this incompetent government has made disappear into the Big Bill, the pockets of the CFMEU and into its army of consultants.”
Mr Walsh says to clobber families with yet another tax, in Australia’s most taxed state, during our worsening cost-of-living crisis, is “outrageous”.
He says Ms Allan and Treasurer Tim Pallas just this week spruiked support for manufacturing and business, but instead of cutting bureaucracy and taxes, have come out today and said “cop this”.
“All Labor’s new tax grab will do is put further pressure on prices of essential goods and services during a cost-of-living crisis, at a time when inflation remains high,” Mr Walsh says. “The financial recklessness of Labor means it cannot fund our frontline emergency services and is now hitting Victorian ratepayers with yet another increased tax.
“After slashing tens of millions of dollars from Triple Zero Victoria, the State Emergency Service and the Country Fire Authority in the past two years, Labor now blames hardworking volunteers for a massive two-billion-dollar increase.
“Labor cannot manage money, cannot manage emergency services and Victorians are paying the price – let’s just hope we don’t find out how bad that cost will be as we head into another fire season.”
