Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (15:47): I am very pleased to support Mr Davis’s motion 1586 on the notice paper, a disallowance motion of statutory rules 111 and 112. You know that the government are getting desperate, and you know that they are reading the tea leaves and that they are looking at the polling and getting very nervous, because they have asked all of their members to hyperbole, to be dramatic, to be outrageous and to try and knit some prefabrication of a story out of absolutely nothing, which is what we heard from the former speaker. Let me give you some context. We heard from the former speaker about the threat to Victorian people, that there is going to be a threat to Victorian people. Well, let me say that we are living in that threat right now. The former Premier looked down the barrel in 2014 and said, ‘There will be no new or increased taxes.’ The Premier, coming into government, looked down the barrel of the camera and said, ‘No new taxes.’ Well, we are up to about our 67th new or increased tax, and let us just see, there are more on the table.
Let me also give some context around the $200 billion in debt that this state will have in a few short years. That is an existential threat to the Victorian people. Let me also give some other reality. If there is one thing that I know the Deputy President has spoken about in her contributions, as have we all over here, it is the consultation. So many Victorians feel that they have been consultold by this government in many forays and many, many areas.
Let me also provide some other context around this.
The government in 2017 brought in a thing called the coal royalties tax. They tripled the coal royalties tax. Apparently it was up for review and all of that, but they tripled it. What did that do? That pushed Hazelwood coalmine over the gangplank. It made it shut rapidly. It put thousands of people out of work in my electorate, and it ensured that there were power prices going up.
Let me go back to this particular motion. I want to just talk about some of those regulations. They have risen by up to 297 per cent. What does that look like? The mining licence application has gone up from $4500 to $17,900. The exploration licence renewal has gone up from $1300 to $5200. The tourist fossicking authority has gone up from $110 to $400. Mining licence rent per 10 hectares has gone up from $250 to almost $1000. These are not marginal. These are fundamental changes to how costs operate in this space in Victoria.
What it also shows is that the whole timing around this creates a serious problem for Labor and for Victoria. In terms of the increased fees, they commence on 1 January next year. Six months later, in July, Victoria moves to a new duty-based regulatory framework. Under that framework the statutory work plan approvals will no longer be required, and the government’s own regulatory impact statement acknowledges that work plans will no longer be required under a duty-based model and that the fee structure will need to be reviewed again. So we have got a review, we have got prices being pushed up –
David Davis: There will be more charging.
Melina BATH: Absolutely more charges.
What does that mean for Victorians? We heard the former speaker speak about threats to Victorian people. That is what the former speaker said. Well, let us look at some of those threats. Cement Concrete & Aggregates Australia has warned that there will be a higher quarry price, and that will have to flow on. If you have input costs to a business and industry – they are not a charity – they have to pass on those costs. They absorb and absorb and absorb, but they have to pass them on. That is going to flow on to construction materials, to housing, to roads and infrastructure and to other projects, including renewable energy projects. It is going to put pressure on local production. It is going to put pressure on regional jobs – something that I feel very passionately about, as do my colleagues. It is going to bump up prices across the board.
What we also certainly see in Victoria is – I worry very gravely about the state of our roads. Under this, with those increased prices, we are going to see less again. It is going to be more expensive. We know this government has cut road maintenance – the actual filling, the actual work done, the actual area covered – dramatically in the last few years. Simply put, you cannot fix a pothole without rock, and the Liberals and Nationals have a plan to solve that. We are going to increase the number of potholes not just filled but eliminated – 1 million. We are going to have over four years an uplift of 25 per cent in road funding to ensure that we get rid of 1 million potholes. We are also going to introduce Better Roads Victoria, which is about establishing the actual work that needs to be done to fix those potholes and to eliminate them entirely and review construction standards to increase department and contractor accountability. We want to see actual action being done.
The other thing that I am quite concerned about – the mineral council has been very strong on this – is that Victoria already has some of the highest exploration licence fees and application fees. It has the second highest exploration licence fee renewal fees among Australian jurisdictions. We know that it is just dearer and dearer not only to do business as a small business in this country but to generate the activity that is required to construct, to build and to make.
I also just want to point out, in terms of the prospectors and fossickers, it is not just the larger companies that are going to be hit with this, and then a review next year, and then potentially more, an increase; in actual fact it is those everyday people. The prospectors and fossickers will also be hit. The tourist fossicking authority is going to have an increase. We know that the miners rights are also having an increase. These are concerns because we want to ensure people are out enjoying that activity. It is a very traditional activity. In fact Victoria was built on the back of prospecting and goldmining – many of the fantastic towns that we know of like Bendigo, Ballarat and Maryborough, all of those – and this house has gold lining all through it because of that particular industry and pastime. We want to see that continue. We know that this government has actually been very keen to lock prospectors and fossickers out of public land. They have reduced access to 70,00 hectares of national park over a range of spaces out to the west, out near Wombat State Forest. We know that that has then curtailed the Prospectors and Miners Association of Victoria and their members of the opportunity to go prospecting, and we see that this also is a concern.
When the road washes out in East Gippsland, we need construction material, in my electorate. When a road fails in Wellington, we need roads, road base and aggregate. When new homes are built in Baw Baw and Cardinia, we need concrete, aggregate, drainage and roads. It is one of the fastest growing regions in the world – in the state, without a doubt. It might be in the world; I have not done that checking, but I know that it is one of the fastest-growing municipalities, and a great one, too. We do not want to see that curtailed, and we need this disallowance. I am very pleased that my colleague David Davis has brought this on, and I support him entirely.