THE Labor government’s housing plan is a decade too late, once again revealing its incompetence as Victoria grapples with a crisis that should never have reached this point.
Victorians should be very sceptical that Premier Daniel Andrews can deliver on his promise to build 800,000 new homes over the next decade given the shortage of construction workers and the government’s track record of deceit and broken promises.
Under the Andrews government, in the past eight years, Victoria’s total public housing waitlist has nearly doubled, with 67,985 Victorians now in desperate need of a home.
In a span of four years, it managed to deliver a pitiful net result of an extra 74 social housing dwellings across the entire state – a far cry from their commitment to provide thousands more.
Last year, family violence victims waited 17 months for public housing priority transfer allocations.
Adding to its list of shortcomings, the Andrews government has now resorted to bullying short-stay accommodation owners with a first-of-its-kind new holiday and tourism tax for our nation.
This tax, aimed at filling the void left by their own incompetence and adding more homes to the permanent rental market, is nothing short of extortion.
Half the short-stay properties about to be hit with another 7.5 per cent of their platform’s revenue are in regional areas.
Yet, despite this, 75 per cent of revenue collected will flow into Homes Victoria for more social housing in the city and only 25 per cent for social housing in regional Victoria.
If Daniel Andrews had not wasted more than $30 billion in project overruns and outrageous pay deals for his union cronies, that money could have built 60,000 homes worth $500,000 without imposing additional taxes on hardworking Victorians.
The Andrews government is the most incompetent government in history and Victorians are paying the price.
Peter Walsh
Leader of The Nationals
