Labor caught altering tax cut pledge after Ben Carroll accused of extending tax hike by three years

The Victorian Labor Party has been forced to make an embarrassing change to its land tax policy just hours after it was announced.

Premier Ben Carroll pledged on Sunday that a re-elected Labor government would scrap the land tax hike imposed on Victorians by Daniel Andrews.

However, the government’s pledge to increase the threshold in $25,000 increments would actually result in the tax hike being extended for another three years.

Mr Andrews imposed the 10-year hike in Victoria’s land tax in 2023 as part of a Covid debt repayment plan.

Under the scheme, which is set to end in June 2033, Victorians are required to begin paying land tax on land valued at $50,000, rather than the previous level of $300,000.

A $500 land tax surcharge was imposed on Victorians with properties worth $50,000-$100,000, while those with properties worth $100,000-$300,000 were hit with a $975 surcharge.

Homeowners with properties worth more than $300,000 were hit with the $975 surcharge plus a 0.1 percentage point increase in their land tax rate.

The tax hike has resulted in a 60 per cent increase in land tax payable on the homes worth the median value of $953,000 (with the tax increasing from $2,740 to $4,368).

Thousands of Victorians are also now paying land tax for the first time.

The Victorian Opposition has already pledged to axe the tax hike by increasing the thresholds back to $300,000 over five years.

And on Sunday, Premier Carroll promised a re-elected Labor government would also scrap the tax.

“I’m a new Premier and this is my new direction. I’ll cut land tax in my first Budget,” Mr Carroll said.

“Lower land tax, more cost-of-living relief, and a responsible way to pay for it.”

A media release outlining the government’s plan states that the threshold would be progressively increased from the current rate of $50,000 in increments of $25,000 per year.

“We will keep raising the threshold beyond the forwards until the $300,000 threshold is fully restored,” the previously embargoed media release states.

However, this sentence has now been changed in the version posted to the Victorian Labor Party’s website now.

“We will keep raising the threshold beyond the forwards until the $300,000 threshold is fully restored at the end of the six year implementation in financial year 2033/34,” the website states.

The change came after Opposition Leader Jess Wilson accused the Premier of proposing a three-year extension to the tax, since it would take 10 years for the threshold to reach $300,000 and the current tax is set to expire in mid 2033.

“Only Ben Carroll and Labor could extend a tax by three years and pretend it’s a tax cut,” Ms Wilson said.

“This is… a tax that the Labour government put on Victorians because they locked them down for COVID and then put a COVID debt levy on them, sending them the bill,” she said.

“And now they’re extending it for another three years.

“This is Ben Carroll once again being tricky and lying to the Victorian people.”

Asked about the change, a spokesperson for the Premier denied there was an issue.

“We were up front from the beginning with media about this,” the spokesperson said.