Victoria’s COVID-19 Debt Recovery Taxes a Drain on Economy: Libertarian MP

The Victorian Labor government’s plan to pay off its substantial pandemic-era debt has been described as a “drain” on the state’s economy. The state government has introduced new land taxes—as well as a payroll tax—that will compel property owners to fork out thousands per year to pay off the estimated $31.5 billion (US$20.7 billion) debt incurred under former Premier Daniel Andrews. “Victoria is the biggest taxing state,” Libertarian MP David Limbrick told The Epoch Times on Jan. 19. “So it doesn’t have a revenue problem; it has a spending problem.” According to the state government, the COVID debt levy will be used to pay down the state’s pandemic measures, or what the state describes as “one-off investments” that were “designed to protect Victorians and Victorian businesses throughout the pandemic.”...