Emma KEALY (Lowan) (11:49): I am so happy I can speak on this bill to correct the rubbish that we have just heard from the Labor government, the spin and nonsense and the clear misrepresentation of the fact that this is just another great big new tax from Labor that will hit country people hardest. It will hit farmers the hardest. It will hit CFA volunteers who run the farms and who work on farms the hardest. It will hit every Victorian who enjoys eating Victorian food the hardest, because they will have to pay more for their food. It will hit people who are looking for rental housing harder, because there is no rental property that is exempt from this great big new tax from Labor. It will only be passed on to renters; they will be the ones who help to pay for this. They are what the facts are, and that complete and utter nonsense from the member who just spoke from the Labor government – to say that every dollar of this great big new tax goes to volunteers is just an outright lie. It is an outright lie. Even the Treasurer says that this money will go back in to fund core government services, core government services that they already receive tax revenue for that they are not using appropriately.
Nina Taylor: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, I am concerned about the use of the language ‘outright lie’. I think it would be unparliamentary.
Roma Britnell interjected.
The ACTING SPEAKER (Juliana Addison): Member for South-West Coast, I would ask you not to contribute while a point of order is being made. I remind the member for Lowan about referring to someone as a liar. I know you said it was an outright lie – just be cautious.
Emma KEALY: Farmers’ contribution for this great big new tax from Labor will increase. It will not just increase a little bit, it is going to increase from $76 million a year to about $204 million a year. That is money out of country Victoria that is going to be funnelled into major core government services, which are predominantly to service people who live in Melbourne. Our people are happy to pay their fair share of tax, but at the same time that you are putting a surrogate land tax on country Victorians to subsidise the fact that Labor cannot manage money, Victorians are paying the price. Country Victorians are paying the price, and they are putting hands in their pockets to pay even more tax for core government services and bureaucrats who sit on their bums in Melbourne and do not deliver for country Victorians. What they are paying more taxes for is more of those bureaucrats, because it is not coming back to fix the potholes. It is not coming back to fix our crumbling road edges. It is not coming back to duplicate the Western Highway, where there are more and more fatalities every single month. It is not coming back to our region to help fund CFA volunteers to make sure they have got up-to-date appliances. I spoke to a CFA volunteer the other day who could not get funding for a $24 chock to put under the back wheels of the CFA truck so it did not roll back over them when they were filling up from a dam. How do you think that this great big new tax is going to go? Do you think it is going to go back to the CFA volunteers or the SES volunteers? No, it is not. And the government has actually outlined that it will not do that. So the member for Albert Park wants to say what she is doing with nuance and concern about saying, ‘You’re lying.’ When you say that every dollar is going to volunteers, I can tell you, you can put your own language on it, but you know what, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, we know it is a duck.
Firefighters in my area are very, very concerned about this. I want to get some of this on the record. I wish I had an hour, but I know you are not going to give me an extension of time. This is so hard for people in my electorate, because it is the CFA volunteers who have spent the last three months on the backs of fire trucks who are going to be contributing the most to this tax. I want to pay credit to all of those volunteers, all of the people whose land was being burnt at the same time they were on the back of a fire truck, the people who paid their staff to be on the back of a fire truck so they could keep that support going, not just for a couple of days but week on week on week. It was not just through Christmas, not just through New Year and not just through the time that they should have been managing and doing some key things on their property. They were actually there fighting fires and standing up for their communities. These are the same groups that were involved in this fire that have been told they are not going to get as much money next year. They are the same groups who have given these outlines of what they are paying, more and more, in this volunteers tax, because that is what it is, and I want to get some of these numbers on the record. In the Wickliffe area, there are about 400 private fire units that fought the Grampians fire. It was a huge cost. He wants to get the costings about this, which has not come through. He wants to invoice the state government for what he believes are unnecessary costs incurred that he should not bear, especially given the large amount that he pays in levies, and this is a huge amount of additional stuff. There is a huge amount of money that is being taken from our region, and it is not coming back to support our CFA volunteers.
Down in Hamilton, John Northcott got his rates notice this year – an increase in his levy of 90 per cent. Another volunteer, a very good friend of mine who has been impacted by fire and is also suffering from a cancer as a result of his firefighting, cannot access full coverage of his costs through the government’s program, and we have been heavily advocating for that. He is going to be paying the price. His costs have gone up 70 per cent, plus he is facing even more through this new volunteers tax. For Pat Millear, a champion who heads up the Westmere fire brigades group, at the moment it has gone up by 60 per cent. There are some farmers in that area who are looking at their cost for this tax going from about $24,000 to $80,000 a year. There are hundreds of millions of dollars coming out of my electorate, and it is not coming back. I did say earlier about this being a surrogate land tax. This is just a tax on farms. We know that farms are currently exempt from land tax, and this is just another way of Labor sticking their hands in the pockets of farmers who are doing their darndest to keep our people fed, to keep them clothed and to drive the Victorian economy. Farmers find it very, very difficult to fund a higher rate. They always have high input costs, and they are struggling for water at this point in time. There is no doubt that this will come at some point in time as a tax on food.
Every Victorian is struggling with the cost of living. Last week we heard that grocery prices have gone up by 30 per cent over the last six years under the Allan Labor government. This tax will mean that they will pay more and more. The volunteers exemption that has been spoken about today is not a broad-based exemption. Rental properties are ineligible to be included, so what this means is that people who rent get no benefit out of the time that they volunteer, apart from feeling darn good about it, and good on them for getting out and doing it. You know what, I have seen those volunteer firefighters and I have seen volunteer SES workers, and they do an incredible job. They do it because they love it, and they do it because of the rewards that they get in the community and in looking out for one another. They do not deserve to be slugged with a great big volunteers tax. This just goes to show that Labor cannot manage money, and it is our country Victorians and our country farmers and our country volunteers who are going to pay the ultimate price. I commend all of the councils in my region, because while it has been spoken about in this chamber – and contributions from the Labor government would indicate that there has been extensive consultation with councils – this is not what they are saying. They are saying that they have not been consulted and did not know that this tax was coming.
I believe councils are willing to put on the public record their concern around this, and I have got articles in front of me which I have not got time to reference, from West Wimmera Shire Council, Southern Grampians Shire Council and Glenelg Shire Council. I spoke to the Little Desert action group last night. There was a motion from the Hindmarsh region that they outright reject this great big new tax and the money that it will take from our region when we get nothing in return under a Labor government.
If anybody has any heart at all, you will see this for what it is. This is just a tax grab. It is getting money to fill the budget black hole that Labor have created by not managing projects appropriately and by happily allowing for corruption on our major projects, with money being funnelled through to bikie gangs and the government doing nothing about it. My community knows exactly what that is about. It was another motion last night. They are sick of their taxpayer money going to Labor so they can just blow it on paying off bikie gangs. That is exactly what they were saying last night. That is not me; that was them. Everybody is sick to death of the way that this government thinks that taxpayer money is their own that they can waste and just fritter away on anything. Our people have had enough. Labor cannot manage money, and Victorians are paying the price. For once, stand up for CFA volunteers and vote down this tax.