Victoria's Latest Tax

[pmccarthy]

public letter by John Gault of Maryborough:

 

 

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PREMIER OF VICTORIA, AND HER GOVERNMENT.

NEW TAX ON RATEPAYERS TO ALLEGEDLY FUND EMERGENCY SERVICES IN VICTORIA.

Dear Premier and Members of Victorian Government.

I am writing to you to express my utter and complete disgust and dismay at the passage of a Bill through the Parliament last night 16th May 2025, the effect of which is to savagely increase the taxation of property owners to allegedly fund emergency services in Victoria.

May I remind you that one of the core responsibilities of Government, if not indeed the MAJOR core responsibility of Government is to protect it's citizens from fire, flood, disaster and emergency by funding services to alleviate these emergency's from consolidated general revenue. But no, you continue to apply a levy related to land and property value rather than discharge your core responsibility irrespective of where, when and whom is affected by disaster.

There are times when I find it hard to use words strong enough to relay the depth of my feelings on such occasions as this. And this is one such time. But I will try.

Drawing on words by a well know journalist (Leonard PItts Jr of the "Miami Herald") when he wrote the day after of the disaster which was the destruction of the World Trade Centre in New York 24 years ago . . . . .

"You monsters. You beasts. You unspeakable bastards.".

To which I add "You soulless unpitying, unfeeling, merciless ratbags!".

At a time when especially Victorian farmers are facing the trauma of one of the worst droughts in recent history, when ALL Victorians are facing one of the worst cost of living crises in our history, when buying a home has become the impossible dream of vast numbers of Victorians, when we live in the most turbulent of economic times here at home and internationally, when there are wars broken out all over the world, when citizens are already fearful of what comes next, you do THIS!

As I said that journalist wrote, you monsters, you beasts, you unspeakable bastards!

And you make a virtue of deception! You also slightly eased the increase to the levy farmers pay, from a planned 189 per cent increase, to 150 per cent. Instead of hitting us with a baseball bat, you "generously" only belt us all with a sledge-hammer!!!! For many farmers, this is just about the last straw. Have you not heard of "Black Dog"?

And commercial premises owners are hit with similiar but slightly lower increases, and for residential house owners, the rate will more than double from 8% to 17%. Shame on you!

I for one am aware that your taxation powers are all but impregnable. I realize that you can put the long hand of Government into the back pockets, the bank books, the hard earned dollars of every farmer, business owner and John and Mary Citizen. And this is a glaring example of just that!

And coming from your Treasurer who not so long ago I clearly remember asking her Head of Treasury not to to send her papers which might confuse her with difficult financial terminology!

Premier and your Government, you might just have tipped the people of this State over the edge - the next time we get to pass judgment on your Government, believe me, WE WILL REMEMBER!

And that date is for Victorian voters the next State election - SATURDAY NOVEMBER 26, 2026.

I want to assure you that every day between now and then, WE WILL NOT FORGET!!!!!

So in conclusion, on behalf of ALL the John and Mary Citizens of this once prosperous and great but now languishing State, we will NEVER forget!

To which I again add "You soulless unpitying, unfeeling, merciless ratbags!".

Yours sincerely.

John Gault.
Maryborough.

[facthunter]

People want the Gov't to do everything but don't like to have to pay for it.. WE ARE Getting more extremes of weather. It WILL only get worse and cost more to rectify. as time goes on.  Nev

[onetrack]

Property owners are extremely well off by any measure, in this day and age. They are best situated monetarily to fund emergency services, and they have most to lose in fires, floods and earthquakes. I don't have much sympathy for John Gault, he's almost certainly a multi-millionaire, as are all farmers today. In my neck of the woods, farms are selling today for 10 times what they were 20 years ago, and it's all corporate money being ploughed into them.

 

One of my previous clients just sold his farm for $22.5M (in less than 3 weeks, I might add), and around 20 years ago he would've been struggling to get $2M for it. Pay the levy John Gault, you can easily afford it, you're a member of the "landed gentry", and you probably got your land for a relatively small outlay, or inherited it.

 

Drought is part and parcel of farming, I've endured it, and had to wear it. I changed business direction and put in 2,500 acres of crop in 1980 (which turned out to be the worst drought year in 80 years), and I harvested ONE 8 tonne truckload of wheat off that 2,500 acres at the end of that year - when I should've harvested at least 1500 tonnes.

And a big parcel of that cropped land was leased land, too - it wasn't even my land. Then I had to put up with diesel going from 10c litre to 40c a litre in the space of 18 mths - along with interest rates going from 7% to 23% in the same period of time!

 

No Govt cared about whether I could survive in my line of business, I just had to suck it up, and live with my losses. Farmers are pretty good at whinging about what they pay out, but they say nothing about what they get in, in good years, or in capital gains with their valuable land.

 

I've seen a bloke sorting out a recently-deceased farmers affairs, and this bloke confided he'd discovered a bank account belonging to the deceased farmer with $100,000 in it, that had been untouched for years. And that was in 1984, when $100,000 was serious money!

[Jerry_Atrick]

Here is a story on it: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-16/fire-levy-vote-passes-parliament-angers-farmers-emergency-tax/105295008

 

I agree with Nev, but there are different ways to manage it. As I recall, Australia generally had an unspken policy that those in rural and remote areas deserved a similar level of utilities (as far as practical) as more urban areas and that the bills for such utilities included the cost of supplying those areas - i..e there was a sort of defacto subsidisation. I recall some controversy over Telecom's bills in the day, but it was a generally accepted part of life in Aus. I don't see why rural Victoria, especially farmers would be required to disproptionately pay, especially when they are doing it fairly tough at the moment.

 

The way I see it, the Allan government has made a pretence of everyong pitching in, but the reality, the ones disproprtionately pitching in are the ones that are unlikely to vote for her in 18 months' time. There are other ways to manage it.  For example, there are still massive infrastructure investments, mainly in roads and the Tulla railway that could be paused or slowed to allow the economy to rebalance and breathing room to maintain the essentials. But that would mean probablyk releasing a heck of a lot of tradies works companies to compete in the normal market, which would probably drive prices lower, and since these people will be largely dran from ALP supporters, that will hit her already low relection chances.

 

She could do what Jeff Kennett did when he took over from Joan Kirner and add a flat increase for a defined period of time to council rates, but that would impact far ore people from her voter base and she doesn't have the luxury of blaming the current woes on the other team.. She is also, as Joan Kirner was when she took over, captive to her party and backroom vested interests. Yes, the Libs leader would also be captive to their party ideology and vested factional interests, but having the luxury of blaming the other team is a very potent one in politics.

 

What else can she do? The room to manoeuvre for any state premier isn't great. She can look at marginal increases to all of the revenue channells she has available to her. Here is a list: https://www.dtf.vic.gov.au/state-taxation-revenue. At the moment, the state revenues are $35bn or thereabouts. A 1% increase across the board will increase the coffers by $350m. I am not sure if that is what is required.. I can't find an amount the government say they need for the the fire service. But it should go a good way to what is needed.

 

 

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

10 minutes ago, onetrack said:

Property owners are extremely well off by any measure, in this day and age. They are best situated monetarily to fund emergency services, and they have most to lose in fires, floods and earthquakes. I don't have much sympathy for John Gault, he's almost certainly a multi-millionaire, as are all farmers today. In my neck of the woods, farms are selling today for 10 times what they were 20 years ago, and it's all corporate money being ploughed into them.

 

One of my previous clients just sold his farm for $22.5M (in less than 3 weeks, I might add), and around 20 years ago he would've been struggling to get $2M for it. Pay the levy John Gault, you can easily afford it, you're a member of the "landed gentry", and you probably got your land for a relatively small outlay, or inherited it.

 

Drought is part and parcel of farming, I've endured it, and had to wear it. I changed business direction and put in 2,500 acres of crop in 1980 (which turned out to be the worst drought year in 80 years), and I harvested ONE 8 tonne truckload of wheat off that 2,500 acres at the end of that year - when I should've harvested at least 1500 tonnes.

And a big parcel of that cropped land was leased land, too - it wasn't even my land. Then I had to put up with diesel going from 10c litre to 40c a litre in the space of 18 mths - along with interest rates going from 7% to 23% in the same period of time!

 

No Govt cared about whether I could survive in my line of business, I just had to suck it up, and live with my losses. Farmers are pretty good at whinging about what they pay out, but they say nothing about what they get in, in good years, or in capital gains with their valuable land.

 

I've seen a bloke sorting out a recently-deceased farmers affairs, and this bloke confided he'd discovered a bank account belonging to the deceased farmer with $100,000 in it, that had been untouched for years. And that was in 1984, when $100,000 was serious money!

John Gault's facebook page is here: https://www.facebook.com/john.gault.96/

 

He is not originally from the coutnry from what I can see.. Oakliegh is modest south eastern suburb of Melbourne. But, he has clearly made some money off the land, and is clearly right wing, looking at some of his posts. I agree that those who have the means to pay more should.. but that is somethign that is a wider discussion than this particular tax. For example, we are still giving our gas away to multinationals for free - shouldn't they pay for it.. they certainly have the means? The tax system has to be fairer, I agree.

 

Also, you're right the government coudln't give two stuffs about your business, but there are other non-agri businesses that, if you took away the subsidies, would probably go broke - fossil being one. You have to whinge like a pom to get the government to care 😉