The Andrews Labor Government’s latest tax will drive up land prices and further impact housing availability and affordability, Member for South Wes Coast Roma Britnell says.
The Windfall Gains Tax, which was debated in state Parliament this week, will see the Government take 50 per cent of the windfall after land is rezoned as residential and sold off.
Ms Britnell said the Government was targeting what it called “greedy developers” but the tax would impact farmers who are now on the urban fringe in growth areas like Warrnambool, Portland, Port Fairy and Koroit.
“This tax is going to hurt those landowners, many who haven’t in any way sought to buy this land in the view it would be redeveloped into the future. They have simply, through growth, suddenly found themselves on the urban fringe,” she said.
“They are not greedy developers in any sense of the word.
“We already have a shortage of available land across the region, and this tax is going to make it worse.
“If land is rezoned, sold and developed, the costs are just going to be passed on, which will drive up the price of land and will price people out of the market.
“An accountant in my electorate told me Generational farmers will be severely financially impacted having taken all taken all the risk of ownership during that period and now have to pay this inequitable tax, despite not having been land speculators.”
Ms Britnell said the Andrews Labor Government had seen an easy opportunity to boost the state coffers after massive blow outs on metropolitan infrastructure projects like the West Gate Tunnel which is $3.3 billion over budget and at least two years late.
“The Government thinks it has found a river of gold that is easy to tap into – but it’s going to create long term problems around housing affordability and availability,” she said.
“Our regional already has massive problems when it comes to housing and this new tax, the 39th introduced by Daniel Andrews, is only going to make that worse.”
