Mr  Pallas  (Tarneit) — The fire services property levy is a  botched  reform that this government  has  been  advertising as a simpler and fairer system, but that is  not what it has delivered.  There are a lot of people who are getting a shock when they receive their rates notices, which include the embedded Napthine government new  fire  services property  levy.  Members  of  my  community  have approached my  office having discovered there  have been huge increases in their fire services contribution  with  no  corresponding  decrease in their insurance rates. One of the more ridiculous situations is that people  are  being  charged the commercial rate of car parks  and ATMs.  The commercial rate, about 10 times more than the  residential  rate, is also applied to investment units, and often owners will have no choice but to pass them on to residents.

Jennie, who lives in my community, has  seen her rates increase by 450 per cent, but many of her renters are in a vulnerable position because they are disability pensioners. The  Treasurer, who has insultingly described these people  as asset rich  and income poor  and  the  sort of people  we  should not care about,  has changed his tune  remarkably  since he was in opposition, when he railed against the effects  of land tax increases on exactly this  class of  people. When  will this  government acknowledge that  it has completely  botched  the fire services levy?  It should review  the levy so that it lives up to the claim of it being a simpler and fairer tax, because at the moment it is neither.

See Tim’s speech in Hansard here.