State Taxation Further Amendment Bill 2025

Parliament of Victoria | Legislative Council | Second Reading
18 November 2025

David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan Region):

Others have spoken on various provisions, so I will not take up the chamber’s time by going over them again.

[Georgie Purcell interjected]

You cope with your disappointment well. Instead I will turn my attention to the congestion levy. A congestion levy sounds like a fine idea, and it would be reasonable to assume that its purpose is to prevent congestion on our roads, and one would expect that such a levy would be accompanied by corresponding uptakes in public transport and the like.

That all sounds great. However, this is not a congestion levy; this is a car park levy. In most major cities – such as London or Singapore, for example – where a congestion levy has been introduced, it applies a cost to vehicles driving through the regulated area. Our more, shall we say, oblique Victorian congestion levy is simply a tax on car parks.

The levy will increase parking costs by around 73 per cent in the existing category 1 and category 2 areas, and it expands category 2 to include parts of Burnley, Cremorne, South Yarra, Windsor, Richmond, Abbotsford and Prahran that have never been liable to this levy in the past. And surprise, surprise, there is actually no evidence whatsoever that it will do anything to decrease congestion. There has been no analysis on whether the levy has reduced congestion at all.

The congestion levy was introduced in 2006 – I thank Mr Batchelor for his erudite history of the levy – and since that time it has increased by a whopping 658 per cent. If passed, this congestion levy will collect more revenue from people parking their cars than is collected from all of the gaming venues in Victoria collectively.

There is no doubt that car park operators will pass this levy onto their patrons, and many of these are workers and families who likely have no alternative but to drive to their place of work, adding to their cost-of-living pressures. My region is host to some of the suburbs with the highest private commuting rates. It is not because the residents are particularly wedded to driving to work, crawling along the Calder for an hour and a half each day, each way – most of them would rather not do that.

But with the abysmal public transport options available to many of them, they really do not have much of a choice. And while well-heeled inner-city suburbs boast the highest work-from-home rates, areas like Cairnlea and Hoppers Crossing in my neck of the woods have some of the lowest work-from-home rates in Melbourne, so the levy will increase their parking costs by an average of $1386 per year.

The levy will negatively impact people like hospitality workers and healthcare workers, many of whom are women, as well as shift workers, who are understandably reluctant to catch public transport home after their shifts. Students and young people, who are particularly vulnerable to price increases, will be disproportionately affected, as will tradies, community workers, retail workers and salespeople who rely on off-street parking for their work.

Other members have spoken about the impact on retailers who will be negatively impacted by this car park tax. Stallholders at the Queen Victoria Market reckon this will seriously damage their trade, as a huge proportion of shoppers travel from outside of the city to go to the market and this will be a real deterrent to them. I could go on, but essentially we oppose this cash grab by the government dressed up as a congestion levy.

[Council divided on Bill]

[Bill passed 21 votes to 16]