Bill: State Taxation Further Amendment Bill 2025: Council Amendments

BILL:

‘STATE TAXATION FURTHER AMENDMENT BILL 2025: COUNCIL AMENDMENTS..’

Wednesday, 19 November 2025.

James NEWBURY (Brighton) (11:26):

There is a rule in this place that, as a courtesy, the Government will advise the Chamber when it is dealing with matters before the Chamber.

I do put on record that at the start of the day the Leader of the House said to me that we would not be dealing with Council Amendments at the commencement of the day; we would be dealing with them later today. There has been no notification, of course – no common courtesy provided to the Opposition. But would it surprise you that when it comes to a great big new tax, this Government would be sneaky and underhanded, because that is the calling card of this Government – sneaky and underhanded.

For the Government to shuffle into this Chamber sneakily and bring about a new set of taxes without telling anybody, hoping it would be just snuck through and that no no-one would notice, says everything about the Government. I say to the Leader of the House, if you want to play sneaky games, if you want to stop any cooperation or consultation in relation to the operation of the Chamber, you have just proved to me that is the path you want to go down. I am appalled that the Government would not show the common courtesy, the basic set of courtesies, when it comes to this Chamber. So, all bets are off – if the Government wants to sneak through taxes without any common courtesy, then guess what, that is the game that we will play too.

These Amendments bring out great big new taxes and impose them onto more Victorians, in addition of course to the 63 new taxes and charges this Government have introduced over their terms – 63 new or increased taxes and charges. This is a new one. It is a great swathe of new taxes that do not just apply to the city, where this was first applied. This new charge goes right across much of metro Melbourne. It is absolutely shameful what the Government is doing with this great big new tax, a tax that will apply to private car parks far, far out – into Stonnington. I mean, what this Government is doing is absolutely shameful. For the Minister to come in here and say, ‘It’s the responsible thing to do’ – I have never heard any single Victorian say, ‘We’re gagging for a new tax, and it would be only responsible for you to impose it upon us.’ I mean, what a con. What a con artist that Minister is. It is ‘responsible’ to impose new taxes. No, it is actually responsible to cut taxes. That is what is responsible, and this Government is imposing new taxes.

Every time the Government gets up and says, ‘How shameful it is that this Opposition wants to cut taxes, and they want to cut them a lot,’ I sit there and I laugh, and I think: sell our policy, baby, because we will cut taxes. The idea that this Government think it is responsible to increase them just shows how out of touch they are. We have made very, very clear how important we believe that message is to Victorians and how much they are hurting with the cost-of-living impact. For the Government to come in here and try and sneakily impose new taxes and try to hide –

Members interjecting.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Daniela De Martino): There is far too much noise in the Chamber.

James NEWBURY: Acting Speaker, if you would like me to speak up, I am only too happy to oblige. I understand the direction from the Acting Speaker.

Members interjecting.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Daniela De Martino): The volume in the Chamber is too high.

James NEWBURY: I hope the Speaker and Deputy Speaker are listening. I have just been advised I do not speak loudly enough.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Daniela De Martino): Is that a reflection on the Chair?

James NEWBURY: No.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Daniela De Martino): I was asking the Chamber to reduce the volume. It is actually quite hard to hear in this seat.

James NEWBURY: I completely understand, Acting Speaker, and appreciate your help in shielding.

What this Government has done today is try to sneak in changes to this Bill without common courtesy. The Leader of the House advised me herself that these changes would not be brought in at the start of the day. It is only common courtesy. Of course I am here ready to speak, because we are ready to defend Victorians from this shocking great big new tax that is going to be thrown across car parks across Melbourne.

Steve Dimopoulos interjected.

James NEWBURY: That is right, Minister for Environment, thrown across car parks across Melbourne. Victorians are going to see this great big new tax, and they are going to be absolutely disgusted to find this tax out of nowhere – and so they should be.

Let me speak specifically to an element of the amendments. What the Amendments do in no uncertain terms is buy the Greens vote. That is what they do, nothing else. These Amendments do nothing other than buy the Greens vote in the Council. I am not reflecting on anybody by saying that. I think it is fair and reasonable for the house to acknowledge it. What these Amendments do simply is ensure that there is a memorandum of understanding between the Government and councils on how these new taxes are spent and that they be applied to active
transport. What the Greens have gone to the government and said is, ‘We don’t support this State Tax Bill, so what we want is a clip of the ticket on the way through.’ I am not reflecting in any way in saying that. I think that is transparent; I think it is quite obvious. I would hope that the Greens would confirm that, because that is what it is. They have said, ‘If you want to collect a great big swathe of new taxes’ – and I think we all accept it is a great big swathe of new taxes, as the Minister agreed, throwing a blanket of new taxes across parts of metro Melbourne’s car parks – ‘we want a clip of the ticket on the way through. We want to be able to go to our base and say, “We’ve clipped that tax ticket on the way through.” That is what these amendments are; they are a clip of the ticket, a clip of the great big new tax take, and the Amendments do just that.

We tried in the other place to move a series of Amendments to make sure that, obviously, these taxes were not imposed, because we do not support them. I think we have said that since day one. We do not support them, and we will not support them today. We do not support what is somewhere in the vicinity of $100 million of new tax. This is not a couple of cents; this is not some loose change. This is $100 million of new taxes.

The Greens, for their support in the other place, have said, ‘We want to clip the ticket and we want councils to receive a proportion for active transport.’ In no way am I reflecting on active transport. As an avid bike rider myself, I am always interested in making sure that I do not get hit by cars, as has unfortunately been the case in the past. So, in no way am I reflecting on active transport. But what this Amendment does is it says, ‘On this great big $100 million of new tax, we want to take some and we want to push it in through active transport.’ I hope that
in the debate there is an up-front conversation about what these Amendments are about – ensuring that the vote was there for the Government in the Council.

At its core, though, this Bill is appalling. It is appalling because it is $100 million, but it is $100 million built onto the billions and billions of dollars that this government collects in tax – billions and billions and billions and billions and billions and billions in taxes that this Government collects. This Bill, which brings about $100 million into our –

Members interjecting.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Daniela De Martino): Order!

James NEWBURY: The Government benches are laughing at the billions they collect. The fat cats over there are laughing at the billions they collect. Can you believe it? Can you believe they are laughing about the billions they collect? The coalition is not ashamed to be opposing this.

Tim Richardson interjected.

James NEWBURY: Do not test me. The Coalition is absolutely strong in opposing this; we are not ashamed of it. So, every time, as I have said earlier, the Government gets up and says, ‘You should be called out for your plans to cut taxes and the way that you oppose taxes,’ I laugh and I think to myself, ‘Sell our policy, baby. Sell our policy.’ Victorians know that they are being taxed too much. They say it; they know it. Every time they open a bill, they find a new tax on their Bill. This year when they opened their rates notice, they found the emergency services tax. ‘Where’d that come from?’ they said. In many cases that tax was more than their rates notice – extraordinary. So, Victorians know that they are being taxed way, way, way too much.

What this new Bill will do, and these Amendments will bring about is taxes on people’s car parks. Not in the centre of the city, as the Minister claimed. This new tax will apply across suburban Melbourne in a way that will shock people. The minister talked about needing to impose this new tax because it was the responsible thing to do. I mean, it is only responsible for this Government in its mind to be imposing taxes at every available opportunity. But to bring about a tax, which in theory was designed for the centre of the city and now expand upon that as far as they can go – I am sure this Government will not rule out expanding this further. I am absolutely sure they are looking for an opportunity to expand it further and further and further, because as the Minister just said, the Government’s plan is to grow Melbourne from 5 million to 9 million people. That is what the Minister just said. So, there is no doubt that the Minister wants to expand these taxes across all of Melbourne, where those 9 million people live. That is what the Minister was implying. The Minister can correct himself, but that is what he was implying.

When you bring about these taxes in a sneaky way – when you bring your Amendments into the Chamber without telling anybody and you just scuttle up to the dispatch box and say, ‘We’re going to move these Amendments now,’ in contrast to the absolute commitment that was given to me that the Amendments would be dealt with later in the day – all you can take from that is an absolute assurance that this Government is behaving sneakily when it comes to these Amendments.

In terms of the management of the Parliament more broadly, if the Leader of the House’s word to me is not worth anything, then I would say it will make for a very disruptive place moving forward, because it is only reasonable to expect that when your word is given about management of this place it will be kept, and in this case it was not.

But it does not surprise us on this side of the Chamber. It does not surprise us that when it comes to a $100 million tax the Minister would scuttle up to the dispatch box sneakily and bring about these Amendments to try and make them law as soon as possible while no-one is looking – $100 million in taxes, sneakily. It is shocking. Every Victorian should be aware of it – just out of the blue bringing about this package of Amendments and trying to pass it while no-one is looking. Well, we were watching, and we are here to say no, absolutely no. We do not support what the Government is proposing. We will vote against what the Government is proposing. This is $100 million in new taxes. It is not responsible, as the Government would claim and as the Minister would claim. So, we will bevoting against this; we will be calling this out. What they have done is disgraceful.