Regional development and property investment will be strongly discouraged by the Andrews government’s appalling windfall gains tax, which should be subject to a parliamentary inquiry before it comes into effect.

One Nation’s Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell MLC said Labor had – quite shamelessly – given itself a free licence to print money at a whim.

“No wonder this change was snuck through during the pandemic with very little scrutiny in Parliament,” Mrs. Tyrrell said. “Whenever he decides he needs more funds, Dan Andrews can just have some place re-zoned and skim the cream off the top so he can continue with his reckless spending of other people’s money”.

This will impact on growth in regional Victoria by discouraging people from investing in regional housing and property. In the middle of a state and national housing crisis created largely by low supply and exacerbated by the Andrews government’s restrictive rules on landlords, the very last thing the government should be doing is further discouraging property investors.

“I’ll be calling for this shameless Labor money grab to be referred to a parliamentary inquiry before it comes into effect from 1 July this year.”

Mrs. Tyrrell said the solution to Victoria’s housing and rental crisis was to increase supply, reduce demand, incentivise residential property investment and eliminating bureaucratic red tape.

“Under Dan Andrews, Victoria is lagging the nation with social housing comprising less than 3% of total housing stock,” she said. “More than 64,000 people, many of which are families, are on the waiting list.

“Almost two years ago, the Andrews government also significantly increased restrictions on landlords, reducing the incentive for them to remain in the long-term rental market. This windfall tax is yet another disincentive.

“We can increase housing supply for Victorians by banning foreign ownership of residential property, as New Zealand and Canada have recently done.

“Otherwise, government just needs to get out of the way. Local government red tape is creating crippling delays in the release of new land, a huge factor in driving up land prices and further crippling young Victorians and first home buyers from entering the homeownership market”.

Landlords and property investors are being unfairly treated as the whipping boys in this crisis. The vast majority of investors have only a single property for which they have worked many years and sacrificed much to save for, just to have a little more income in retirement. They are facing big increases in insurance costs and council rates.

They should not be treated as a no-limit ATM by Dan Andrews.