MEMBER for Mildura Ali Cupper has dismissed criticism over her support for a new tax that the National Party claims will “drastically push up the price of new homes” in Mildura to feed the Victorian Government’s “tax addiction”.
The Nationals said rural landholders would be slugged a 50 per cent tax on sales uplifts of $500,000 or more on any land rezoned from farming to rural residential, residential or commercial, which would be a “devastating blow” to the future of the next generation of Victorians trying to own or build their first home.
Leader of The Nationals and shadow minister for regional Victoria Peter Walsh said the squeeze on land availability in regional Victoria had already created long delays for vacant blocks, while rental vacancies were at all-time lows.
Mr Walsh said Ms Cupper had “disappointingly” helped Labor get the windfall gains tax through the Lower House of State Parliament last week.
But Ms Cupper rejected The Nationals’ condemnation of the Bill and censure of her support.
“It’s not as scary as the Nats are making out,” Ms Cupper said.
“If it had been devastating or adverse in the way it is being framed by the National Party, then I wouldn’t have voted for it,” she said.
“What they are saying is quite misleading which is standard practice in lieu of a positive, imaginative, engaging policy – they just have a crack at what everyone else is attempting to do.”
Ms Cupper said the legislation would close a tax loophole that had benefited owners of rezoned land “because of the government’s stroke of a pen”.
“Governments raise revenue to pay for all of the things that we need, like roads, schools, hospitals – public investment in the regions that we need more of because of our isolation and because of our vast geographical distances and sparsely populated electorates,” she said.
“As a regional MP that is constantly making a call on the government for more public investment, I have no philosophical problem with a government that raises revenue.
“I don’t blindly follow everything the government says and does, but the idea that the windfall gains tax will mean a landholder is going to pass on a massive liability to a developer and the developer is going to pass on that massive liability to a mum or dad homeowner is again misleading.
“It suggests that this tax constitutes a loss that is going to be passed on, but we’re talking about someone who overnight, because of no actions of their own, has had a massive big uplift in value of their property and a portion of that is going to be taxed now.”
