Latest news with #TimPallas
NZ Autocar
4 days ago
- Automotive
- NZ Autocar
Electric car RUCs coming for Australia
Australia is considering a road-user charge (RUC) system for electric vehicles (EVs) to help offset falling fuel excise revenue. Currently EVs don't pay excise tax or road tax. And they now account for around one in ten new car sales. Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers has met with the transport and infrastructure industries to propose the RUC plan, and organise a timeline for its implementation. Once up and running, all electric cars will pay a tax based on distance travelled, or at least that is the plan. Currently, the government adds a 52c fuel excise at the pump, with the sum aimed at maintaining and improving roads. However, BEVs are exempt on account of not needing fossil fuels. So a road-user charge would mean owners of non-ICE vehicles will also contribute to ongoing road maintenance. The fine details of the tax have yet to be ironed out. It is unclear whether rural EV owners will pay less than urban dwellers. Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas said: 'You've got to be conscious of the fact that there are areas that will be disadvantaged by a purist model of road use…so you have to make allowances for that,' according to a report in the Australian. Whatever happens, the new tax looks to be a while away. Chalmers is suggesting it won't happen until 2028. Victoria tried to introduce a RUC system for EVs and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) in mid-2021. However, only the Federal Government has the power to impose such a charge so it was scrapped. The NSW Government wants to implement a similar system from July 1, 2027 but again it would not be enforceable unless adopted nationwide. Whether Australia follows New Zealand in implementing a road-user charge system that includes all light vehicles is unclear. No country or state has yet introduced a scheme where all powertrain types pay RUCs. More information on the Australian plan will be announced soon.
The Guardian
01-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Is the cost-of-living crisis over? Victoria's new treasurer is optimistic, but housing remains a battleground
Victoria's new treasurer, Jaclyn Symes, is confident cost-of-living pressures will ease by the next election – and that voters will be less concerned about the state's soaring debt once they see the completed projects it has helped fund. In an exclusive interview with Guardian Australia after handing down her first budget in May, Symes also signalled openness to reforming stamp duty. But she hit back at industry groups like the Property Council, calling on them to move beyond criticising current policies and offer solutions: 'Saying, 'Don't do this,' that doesn't particularly help me. I have a policy brain, I like to find problems and fix them.' The upper house leader made history in becoming Victoria's first female treasurer after she was handpicked by the premier, Jacinta Allan, to take over from retiring Tim Pallas in December. Symes inherited a mountain of debt, and the recent budget forecasts it to climb even higher, to $194bn in 2028-29. That's up from just $21.8bn before Labor took office in 2014, after years of rapid public sector growth, major infrastructure spending, the pandemic and subsequent credit rating downgrades. Symes's first budget was sold as a turning point, delivering a $600m operating surplus and a slight drop in net debt relative to the state's economy. It also included unexpected federal windfalls, which Symes defended using to ease cost-of-living pressures – pointing to $18m for food relief as one of her proudest budget items. 'People have asked, 'Couldn't you have had a higher surplus?' Sure. But it wouldn't have felt very good knowing we're not supporting some of those services that people doing it really tough are relying on,' Symes says. Looking ahead to 2026 – the year of the next state election – Symes is optimistic that the cost-of-living crisis that has engulfed Australia will have eased. She says interest rates are coming down, housing supply is growing and, for the first time in years, wages are forecast to outpace inflation. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email 'All the signs are there. But if we go too early and abandon the people that are still struggling, then I wouldn't feel very proud about that,' she says. She hopes that people will soon be 'feeling more confident and not worrying about the cost of every meal that's going on the table'. 'That's what you want for all Victorians, but that's not the case right now'. Symes also believes that state debt won't dominate the election debate, and that voters will instead be grateful for the infrastructure it's funded, including the Metro Tunnel and West Gate Tunnel, both set to open this year after huge cost overruns. Symes points to Sydney's $21.6bn Metro, which also ran billions over budget but is now popular with voters: 'The day it opened, people were like, 'Oh, actually, this is a worthwhile investment.'' The budget also brought pain for some, with 1,200 public sector jobs set to go, with the treasurer warning more job losses are likely once the government receives the recommendations of a review, a move Symes defends as tough but necessary. 'Do I want people to lose their jobs? No. But I also have a responsibility as treasurer to make sure that we are being cost-effective,' she says. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion At parliament last week, it became clear housing will be a key battleground at the next election. While the premier pledged to get 'millennials into homes' through planning reform and an extension of stamp duty concessions for new apartments, units and townhouses, the opposition announced a revived 2022 policy to abolish stamp duty for first home buyers on properties worth up to $1m. The shadow treasurer, James Newbury, says it would give 'young Victorians the final leg up they need', but Symes is sceptical, questioning both the opposition's costings and the policy's failure to increase housing supply. Stamp duty remains a huge revenue source for the state – forecast to bring in $11bn in 2028-29. But it's loathed by homebuyers and economists. The Grattan Institute's Brendan Coates calls it 'the worst tax in Australia', as it locks people into their homes, discourages downsizing and acts as a 'tax on divorce' – as separating couples will both have to go on to pay it. Many economists have long called for it to be replaced with a broad-based land tax. Asked if she would consider such a move, Symes leaves the door open: 'I'm always open to having discussions about tax reform. I've got the finances to manage so I can't make reckless announcements.' Last week, Symes addressed a post-budget Property Council breakfast, where she faced a tough crowd. Before she took the stage, Lendlease's Adam Williams warned that property taxes would soon make up 47% of the state's total tax revenue. In the Q&A segment, a member of the crowd said tax on foreign investment was 'killing' developers. Symes tried a joke: 'Let's have a show of hands – what's the worst tax? What's your favourite tax?' It fell flat. Newbury called her 'tone deaf' and 'out of touch' and criticised her for previously describing the role of treasurer as 'fun'. But Symes says she's not fazed by criticism, and that she's been underestimated before: told she couldn't be agriculture minister because she wore wedges to a farm and dismissed as attorney general for 'giggling like a schoolgirl'. 'The commentary that actually affects me more than anything else is the young women, particularly high school girls, who say, 'We have a female treasurer. That's so cool.''
AU Financial Review
30-05-2025
- Business
- AU Financial Review
Vic Labor hiked taxes to pay down debt. Instead, it rose by $5b
The Victorian government's debt pile in 2026 will be $5 billion greater than forecast two years ago when then-treasurer Tim Pallas slapped businesses and investors with higher taxes to repay emergency funds borrowed at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Budget papers show Victoria's net debt will grow to $167.6 billion in the next financial year, despite a 'COVID debt repayment plan' unveiled two years ago that forecast debt would climb to $162 billion in 2025-26, and Pallas declared the government had to bring the balance of emergency borrowings down to zero.
The Age
29-05-2025
- Business
- The Age
Victoria pockets another $1 billion from the TAC
The Transport Accident Commission will deliver Victoria another billion-dollar windfall this year, an $800 million improvement on forecasts in last year's budget. The Allan government insists the TAC remains financially sustainable as it receives its second dividend above $1 billion in as many years and forecasts a similar payment in 2029. But the opposition has criticised the move as it lowers the commission's insurance funding ratio, from well above its target to the middle of the range. State budget papers show that in the 2024-25 financial year, the state government will receive a $1.13 billion dividend from the Transport Accident Commission, up from forecasts of $300 million in the last budget. Loading It is the second billion-dollar payment to come from the TAC in as many years after then-treasurer Tim Pallas requested a $1.08 billion dividend in 2023-24 which was approved. The treasurer has the power to request a dividend or 'capital repayment' from the insurer, after consultation with the organisation and TAC minister. The most recent dividend means the Victorian government has now received $2.87 billion from the TAC since 2019, including capital repayments of $255 million in that year and $400 million in 2022. The budget is also forecasting another $1.15 billion dividend in 2028-29, revising previous estimates that would have delivered yearly contributions in the hundreds of millions.
ABC News
20-05-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Hope springs eternal as Victorian Budget promises ongoing infrastructure projects
For a document that pours billions of dollars into concrete infrastructure, the Victorian budget figures feel very shaky. No new taxes, a $611 million surplus, lots of cost-of-living relief like free kinder, public transport for children and seniors: all good right? Yeah … maybe. But the numbers get scary, fast. An eye-watering amount of debt (hey, what's $194 billion between friendly lenders?) means that by 2028-29 more than 9 per cent of what the state spends will be on interest payments. For the coming three years, the state is borrowing between $1.7 billion and $5 billion a year to keep the infrastructure projects going. On cash flow, the Education State is going backwards at a rate of $7 billion to $10 billion a year. The old joke goes: a billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you're talking about real money. The current reality is nowhere near jesting about. In the past decade Victoria had problems other states would dream about — cash pouring in the door, people flooding in to live here and spend, and a healthy economy growing like spring grass. Then bang: the COVID pandemic. Immense spending. A spike in the price of construction materials and the labour cost of mega-projects. More demands on health and education. So here we are. The economic vision of new Treasurer Jaclyn Symes and Premier Jacinta Allan continues the mantra of their predecessors, Tim Pallas and Daniel Andrews, which would be summarised as: That's before immense amounts of spending on social programs — everything from dental vans at schools and $859 million for free kinder for three and four year olds to rebates on power bills and $18 million to help pharmacies deliver more medicines without the need to see a doctor for a script. You can buy or decry the vision, but there's no shifting the government from it. Potentially, the vision is edging towards being made real. Government infrastructure investment is said to have peaked at $24.2 billion in 2023-24, part of an immense $213 billion in projects underway. That cost will "moderate", the papers suggest, to $15.6 billion by 2028/29. Similarly, the debt position is set to improve. The ratio of net debt to gross state product — the value of all the goods and services created in Victoria in a given year — is set to fall from 25.2 per cent in the 2026/27 financial year to 24.9 per cent two years later. If ratings agencies change their mind about the state's 'rating' (which affects the costs of borrowing money) maybe even faster. The calculations and detail of how the budget will be trimmed in are similarly fingers-crossed and difficult to divine. The promise is $3.3 billion in savings over the coming four years, which is called the "forward estimates" period. But how? You tell me. This is what is listed — a theoretical $3.3 billion list that boils down to seven dot points. To save a lot of words: cuts. But here they are. To make it clear: cuts. Cuts to programs aren't necessarily a bad thing, nor is reducing expenditure growth. But the detail — what they'll cut, who will go — has been kicked into the future. Much of it is in the hands of the ongoing Silver Review that won't land until June. Around 1,200 employees will go, although many of them are "not necessarily real people" the Treasurer noted, but roles that aren't being filled when they end. Previously the figure discussed has been 3,000 roles. So that means a lot more when the review lands. "Entities" like government agencies will be cut or absorbed, but again it's difficult to define and kicked into the future. One of the most surprising numbers is that the Victorian government is projecting population growth to fall — for the longer term. (Don't worry, Melbourne will soon be larger than Sydney due largely to our access to land for housing and the lower cost of it.) The Education State has roared by putting the richest and most mobile young international students into universities and education institutions, luring many to stay permanently. Federal government changes put a hammer through that mirror. What is currently a 2.4 per cent population growth rate for 2023/24 is projected to fall to 1.7 per cent for the forward period the budget looks at. That's a problem for the fairly simple finances of the Victorian government. Money comes in through grants from the federal government, which is largely the result of the goods and services tax (GST) and income tax. The rest of the cash comes from state taxes on employment (largely payroll tax), land transfer fees — better known as "stamp duty" — and land tax. All of these elements are based on population. That's people coming to Victoria, buying a house, keeping it, being employed here. Victoria doesn't get royalties from resources. ("Unlike WA where they can literally dig money out of the ground," Jaclyn Symes noted dryly.) So Victorians have to make their own way. The vision is of connected suburbs, a thriving capital city and healthy regional centres all bustling with happy new arrivals. There's just a lot of hope involved in getting there. Close your eyes, put down the pedal and drive over the unfinished bridge.
