The Victorian Government has defended delays in the announcement of changes to the fire services levy.
The levy, paid by landowners as part of their insurance premiums, will be dramatically changed as part of a key recommendation after Black Saturday.
Treasurer Kim Wells says the delays have been caused by widespread consultation and an announcement will be made soon.
"This is the largest state tax reform for many, many years, as long as I can remember," he said.
"It has to be right. We said that we would move to a property-based levy by the first of July 2013 and we're on track but there'll be an announcement very shortly about the legislation."
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SHOCKING NEWS..GWZ LAND PRICE CONTROLS apparently recommended by Shire of Yarra Ranges and local organisations in 2009. Could this be true? Who initiates this stuff and which Councillors agree with this grand scale of MARKET VALUE PRICE FIXING ? And for those who are worried that council rates would rise should not worry.
I made an interesting discovery today....it appears that according to a submission to the State Government by Yarra Ranges Shire in 2009 the following organisations listed below supported the keeping of farmland prices as low as possible by making the following statement in the 2nd para .....
The price of land in Yarra Ranges is determined by its rural residential value (up to areas of
about 30 ha.). This makes it difficult for existing enterprises to expand their business in a
nearby location, particularly for the crop sectors at the lower end of the scale for net returns
per ha. This includes vegetables, orchard fruit and viticulture. A number of businesses have
expanded by purchasing properties outside the Shire, particularly in northern Victoria. While this provides some diversification for managing climate risk, it does increase costs of production, either running two sets of post-harvest facilities or returning crops to the home property for post-harvest handling.
A SOLUTION to this problem could be to Expand Existing Tenement Controls To Broader Areas of the Green Wedge zones, so land would NOT have rural residential value, but this would meet with widespread opposition from the majority of existing landholders.
This submission was supported by the following organisations it seems:
Australian Rubus Growers Association
Centre for Agriculture and Business - Yarra Valley Inc.
Flowers Victoria
Nursery and Garden Industry Victoria
Victorian Cherry Association Inc.
Victorian Strawberry Growers Association
Yarra ValleyWine Growers Association
YARRA RANGES SUBMISSION TO THE OUTER SUBURBAN/INTERFACE SERVICES AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE OF PARLIAMENT
INQUIRY INTO SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT OF AGRIBUSINESS
IN OUTER SUBURBAN MELBOURNE
January 2009
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