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5th November 2021
Dear Resident of Southern Metropolitan Region,
1.The impact of Victoria's COVID lockdowns
After 263 days of lockdown, the world’s longest, citizens of Melbourne and Victoria having achieved 80% double vaccination are regaining some freedoms. However, rebuilding the Victorian economy will be made more difficult because of the mismanagement of the Andrews Labor Government.
Not only have we Victorians been locked down longest, at 1,100, Victoria has experienced the most COVID related deaths of any Australian jurisdiction. The damage to our economy of these prolonged lockdowns has been massive as they have also impacted on our families and children.
Despite the longest lockdown, Daniel Andrews has refused point blank to release the formal written health advice provided to the Chief Health Officer supporting each public health order made. It is my view that this information should be public given the impact on businesses and families across the state. Labor has refused to obey parliamentary orders to release these briefs and has blocked the release of this information at Freedom of Information despite being ordered to do so by the independent Information Commissioner. What does he have to hide?
2.Victoria's public finances
In September, there was a significant fall in employment in Victoria – the largest in the country - (123,000 people or -3.5%) and a smaller fall in New South Wales (25,000 people or -0.6%) while employment grew in Queensland (31,000 people or +1.2%). Monthly hours worked in Victoria fell by 16.6 million hours (3.6%) between August and September, following the 3.4% fall between July and August 2021, and were 3.2% lower than March 2020.
These negative figures from the ABS follow concerning payroll jobs data that recently saw Victoria responsible for almost three quarters of payroll jobs lost nationally. The recently released Victorian Financial Report 2020/21 shows our budget has taken a hit with debt up from $44.3 billion to $72.7 billion up $28.4 billion on last year – 64 per cent in one year.
A revaluation of assets, like our parks, scooped a cool $24.9 billion in ‘uplift’ to cover or cloak the full extent of a debt surge; otherwise net debt would have been nudging 100 billion dollars. The eyewatering deficit of $14.7 billion should concern all Victorians and much of the large capital spend is being mismanaged with project cost blowouts now a sad norm under Labor. A recording of my comments on the Victorian Financial Report is available here. Other concerning ABS data reveals Victoria’s population shrunk by 42,900 in the year to 31 March 2021, and that Victoria was the only Australian state or territory not to grow its population over the period.
Victorians are voting with their feet, fleeing the Andrews lockdowns and the surging taxes under Treasurer Tim Pallas - 39 new taxes. Andrews and his Treasurer need to stop bringing in new taxes that are hitting our job creating businesses so hard. In 2014 the night before the election Andrews promised no new taxes “to every single Victorian” but there have been 39 new taxes brought in by Labor since 2014 (listed on my website). And new ones added during the pandemic. What does the Premier think he is doing? Hitting these vulnerable businesses while they down? The recent state budget saw a surge in tax during a pandemic. Not smart. There is also a new tax planned by Daniel Andrews - the Windfall Gains Tax before parliament right now that will add new taxes to prospective developments - making housing more expensive for families in country Victoria and the city.