Two months into being Premier, Jacinta Allan has finally shifted her focus from Melbourne to host a press conference in Bendigo today.
The Nationals Member for Northern Victoria Gaelle Broad said: “This Government has prioritised big projects in Melbourne and failed to address the priority issues confronting rural and regional Victorians, particularly in housing and health.”
The Allan Labor Government’s new health tax is another hit for rural and regional communities, with many GP clinics facing the risk of closure.
The Allan Labor Government recently reclassified tenanted medical professionals as employees, not contractors, for payroll tax. This move has left clinics grappling with debts often in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, as the tax has been backdated up to five years in many instances.
The Labor tax grab has been described by Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) as the “biggest existential threat to general practice” in Victoria.
Polling by the RACGP unveiled a potential mass GP clinic closure in Victoria, and over one third of clinics will consider moving their practice interstate as a result of the Allan Labor Government’s health tax.
“Under Labor, Victoria’s state debt is now the highest in the state, and they are introducing new taxes to make up for their waste, and in the meantime, continuing to destroy our health system,” Ms Broad said.
“The risk that GP practices will close due to Labor’s new health tax is of great concern in regional areas.
“Not only is the health system broken in Victoria, but the Allan Labor Government has failed to invest in social and affordable housing, leaving many regional Victorians without a home and struggling to make ends meet.”
Ms Broad raised the issue in Parliament last week, saying recent data shows the Big Housing Build was more like a tiny housing build.
“In 2020 Labor pledged $5.3 billion to build 12,000 new homes by 2024. To date they have spent more than $3 billion, but public housing stock has only increased by 395 homes, while the total number of bedrooms has actually gone backwards – 2700 less bedrooms than in 2018.
“Victoria’s public housing waitlist has ballooned to more than 65,000 people. Over the last five years more families have been displaced than have been given a home.
“Families fleeing domestic violence are now waiting close to two years to relocate to a public housing property. A lady in Echuca fleeing domestic violence and in need of urgent access to public housing was told the best the state could offer was a tent at a local caravan park for six months.”
Ms Broad encouraged anyone concerned by the health tax to sign a parliamentary petition:
Media Contact: Linda Barrow 0484 303 764 linda.barrow@parliament.vic.gov.au
