Hansard debates

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (14:33): I am pleased to make a contribution to this much-delayed bill that the government got itself into so much trouble with, the State Taxation Acts and Other Acts Amendment Bill 2023. This is a bill that puts new taxes in place – new taxes that will hurt the economy, hurt families and hurt businesses. This is the story of this state government: a massive level of new tax – more than 50 new taxes since coming to government in 2014 – despite promises in 2014, in 2018 and in 2022 that they would not introduce new taxes and not increase the levels of taxes. On each occasion they have lied, and after each occasion they have brought in a raft of new taxes, which have smashed families and businesses.

It is not surprising that Victoria is now the most taxed state and also the most regulated state. Those materials from Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry make it very clear that we have got an entirely uncompetitive state because of the decisions of the state government, principally the former Premier and the current Treasurer. The new Premier seems to have no plan to get out of this, and the Auditor-General made it very clear in the report the other day on the financial state of Victoria. They have now gone after him. He has done too much. He has exposed too much, and they have now got him in the gun and they are going to go right after him.

Michael Galea: You have no idea what you’re talking about.

David DAVIS: I sure do. I know exactly what they are doing. We have seen this before. I have been in this place before when a government has gone after an Auditor, and it is not a pretty sight. It is the wrong thing to do. Independent officers should not be attacked in the way that we have had the government go after the Parliamentary Budget Officer. They have gone after the Ombudsman. They have gone after the Auditor-General. They went after Robert Redlich. We heard what happened here. We saw what happened at the Integrity and Oversight Committee. We saw what happened there – Harriet Shing cut the feed. We saw what happened at the Integrity and Oversight Committee. Let us be clear. This government has so much hatred of independent officers that they will go after them, and that is what they have done.

Let me be clear. The Auditor dropped a report just a few days ago, and it looks at the debt in Victoria. It is an extraordinary set of figures. It is clear that the debt is going up and up and up, and if anyone wants any sort of understanding, they should go to figure 2F on page 16, and they will see the comparative debt figures that are entirely the result of the Labor government since 2014. And the surge in debt began before COVID. It began when the government decided it was going to embark on a series of major projects without costing them properly, without controlling the costs on them properly. On these major projects it said it was going to increase the level of debt as a share of gross state product from 6 to 12 per cent. That is what Andrews and Pallas said in the week before the election in 2018. You may not have been here, but I was, and I remember and I heard them say it. Michael O’Brien went out and said this was the start of it, they were going to go nuts and they were going to spend money like drunken sailors, and that is what they have done.

Let us be quite clear: the state’s indebtedness has got worse, and the percentage of gross state product that we will have to pay has also gone up massively. I want to also draw attention to the waste. It is not just the more than $30 billion of waste on projects, where projects have started at a certain figure and surged massively beyond that. If you look at the West Gate Tunnel, it has gone from $4.7 billion now up to over $10 billion. That is all because of incompetence and the failure of the government to cost these things properly. If you look at the level crossings, we still have not had the prices of any single level crossing released.

Members interjecting.

David DAVIS: Tell me how much any of those 72 cost. Tell us how much any of those 72 cost. The cost of a level crossing that has been completed has never, ever been released by this government, not one of them. The reason is because they are ashamed of the blowouts. They do not want to see the blowouts in the public domain.

The Metro is massively over budget – almost every project they touch. The Mordialloc bypass – pick a project and it is over budget and often over time as well. But there are other types of waste too, and the Auditor also brought down that very enlightening report on contractors, consultants and Victorian public servants.

Members interjecting.

Joe McCracken: On a point of order, Acting President, the interjections are just unbelievable and I cannot hear Mr Davis make his valuable contribution.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Bev McArthur): Continue, Mr Davis.

David DAVIS: The Auditor’s report on consultants and contractors in the Victorian public sector makes it clear that billions and billions of dollars are being squandered, that the amount of spending on consultants is surging, that the amount of spending on consultants has not been managed properly. We know that more than $24 billion has been spent on consultants, contractors and labour hire since the government changed in 2014. That is money that has not been well spent, by and large. A large chunk of it has been wasted, squandered and could have been reflected in lower taxes, lower charges and a stronger economy and less debt. This is a state government that is addicted to tax, addicted to debt and addicted to waste.

On the narrow points of this bill I want to draw the community’s attention to a couple of key points. The bill, in its original version, the version that we have in front of us today before the government circulates its amendments – I thank the government for sending the amendments so we have seen them today. They are not yet in the public domain, but I am going to foreshadow them in that sense, as others have in the chamber.

The bill as it currently is imposes a new and big fire services levy on renewable energy projects. It is an especially dumb new tax. We say we want new renewables; okay, let us have them. Bring them forward. You want to bring them forward –

Michael Galea interjected.

David DAVIS: No, no, it is your bill with the extra taxes. It is your mates who put the extra taxes in the bill. That is what it is all about. And we have said we do not want those new taxes, as have the Greens. They have said, ‘We don’t want the new taxes on renewables; we think it’s a dumb idea. A brand new tax on renewables and on batteries, a brand new tax on wind farms, a brand new tax on solar – what on earth is going on? You have got the federal government pumping new money into renewables and the state government putting a new tax on renewables. Let me be clear: the Attorney-General will come in here in a short period of time – I think there are two speakers left – and the Attorney will then circulate the amendments that say, ‘Uh-oh, we got it completely and utterly wrong.’ I thank the wind sector for the briefings they have provided me and the detailed notes they have provided me. The Clean Energy Council briefing note is very instructive on the impact. Let us be clear what happened here: the Supreme Court struck out some of the state government’s attempts to garnish extra tax out of the wind and solar energy industries. That is what happened, and the Supreme Court said, ‘No, you can’t.’ The difference between chattels and fixed assets is a fine legal point, but actually the Supreme Court made a decision. The government lost; the proponents won.

A member interjected.

David DAVIS: Well, it was your plan to put tax on the renewables. I am picking up your interjection here. I do not want to put a new tax on renewables in that way. I do not know why you did. That is what your Treasurer sought to do. That is what this bill has got in it. If you want to read it yourself, go and read it. Rather than the printed notes that you are handed, go and read what is in there. You will see that there is a brand spanking new tax on the renewables sector.

Members interjecting.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Bev McArthur): Order! Mr McIntosh, if you want to interject, you need to be in your place. Get in your place, Mr McIntosh.

David DAVIS: Even then, Acting President, interjections are disorderly. He also needs his speaking notes, which he reads very, very closely. We know that.

But the short story is that there was a Supreme Court case, and I am happy to provide the member with a copy of the case if he would like. I have had a good read of it –

A member interjected.

David DAVIS: Well, it would take a while. But I am precising what happened. The government lost, the proponent won and the attempt to redefine the fire services levy tax – let us call it what it is – was overturned. So the government comes in through the back door. You know, this is typical State Revenue Office behaviour and typical behaviour out of this Treasurer: ‘No, no, no, we don’t like what the independent umpire said over here; we’ll go back and we’ll go into the Parliament and overturn what was decided in the court.’ So that was what the bill tried to do, and I will welcome it when the Attorney comes in here with her tail between her legs on this and says, ‘Oh well, we got it wrong; we’re actually going to change the bill and we’re going to take the spanking new tax off renewables and we’re going to let the existing situation lie.’

That is what they are going to do. That is what the Attorney is going to do. And then it will go down to the lower house and they will stamp it, because the government realised eventually that there were enough people in this place that had woken up. We had been briefed by the people in the sector and the industry, and we understood very clearly that it was a dumb idea to put a brand spanking new tax on the renewables sector. The federal government pumping money in and the state government pulling money out – it is a bit like what is happening with the health tax. We want to strengthen primary care and we want to strengthen GPs, and the state government’s solution to that is to put a brand spanking new tax on GP clinics and say, ‘You’re going to have to pay this new tax.’

A member interjected.

David DAVIS: No, this is true to form. This is true to form for this government.

I want to also pick up a number of other points that are occurring with taxation at the moment. It is very clear that the decisions of this government with respect to contractors and consultants deserve much more scrutiny. We did the simple analysis. We added it up out of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC) figures. We now know, and it is proven in the Auditor-General’s report on contractors, that the definition between contractor and consultant is woolly. It is unclear. I might say I am troubled that the Department of Treasury and Finance has not agreed to clarify this and to implement what the Auditor has said. I am troubled because for years now the state government has been using this blurred line between contractors and consultants to avoid reporting what is actually going on. You can get to the list of consultants, but of course the consultants list looks a little smaller if the department just fudges it across and says, ‘No, no. This one’s a contractor.’ The definition is woolly – it is unclear – and the Auditor tested this. They tested the inaccurate and varied application of the definitions of ‘consultant’ and ‘contractor’. I think this has done a service, but I think DTF is going to have to come to the party. We are going to hound them and hound them until they do, because Victorians deserve to see the waste stopped.

The first part of stopping the waste is to have it accurately reported. We want to know how many contractors and how much. We want to know how many consultants and how much. We want to know how much labour hire and how much. And we want the aggregate figure in each and every department and each and every agency. That is not too much ask for. But at the moment you cannot get that figure easily anywhere. You have to go and dig for it. You have to dig for it out of PAEC. You have to piece together pieces of information, and you are never sure if the consultant and contractor numbers are right, because there is this fungible spread between the two definitions. You can only get to an aggregate for all three, because it is only in the aggregate that you actually know the full amount that has been spent, which is why when we did that $24 billion analysis that was all about the aggregate. And it has gone up massively over the period of this government – massively – despite them promising in 2014 that they would cut the number of consultants and contractors. That was a promise that was made in 2014, but it was not kept. Every year since then they have surged upwards.

Then we had Steve Dimopoulos make one of the strangest statements. He said that they were going to take on board the problems with contractors and so forth and consultants. This was a few months ago that he said this. He said they were going to cut it by 1 per cent, by $50 million. He said –

A member: Did he?

David DAVIS: That is what he said on the telly. I have got the clip. I have got it. He said they would cut it right across government by $50 million. But actually billions and billions are spent every year by this government on consultants, contractors and labour hire. Dimopoulos says we are going to cut it by $50 million. Well, do you know what that is? 1 per cent – we are going to cut it by literally 1 per cent.

We heard the Attorney-General here in the chamber yesterday or the day before – whenever it was. We asked that question about consultants and contractors, and in her department consultants and contractors have gone up massively over the period of this government. She is clearly looking at this and saying, ‘Actually, this is getting out of control’ – and it is. It is money that could be spent on people in need in her portfolio. It is money that could be spent on more court services, speeding up VCAT, speeding up the Supreme Court or the County Court – all manner of things. More police, for example, would be another alternative. The waste in this government is extraordinary. At the same time, the services are slipping. Health, education, ambulance – all of those services are sliding. (Time expired)