• Berwick Gazette
• Pakenham Gazette

By Melissa Grant

24th June 2009 02:00:32 AM

Residents are using Victoria’s roadsides, including that of the Pakenham Bypass, to make their feelings clear about the State Government’s proposed Growth Areas

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RESIDENTS continue to rally against a proposed land tax, with signs popping up on the Pakenham Bypass conveying their distaste for the infrastructure charge.

And 230 people attended a public meeting last week in Devon Meadows, also wanting Premier John Brumby to give the tax the axe.

The meeting attracted not only affected landowners but some residents outside the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) who are concerned that the legislation, if passed, will create a dangerous precedent.

Michael Hocking, president of a committee against the tax, said many were sympathetic to the campaign against the infrastructure charge.

“It sets a very serious precedent in Victoria – the whole concept of buying a parcel of land and taking the risk of a mortgage … only to (later) find the value has been taken away from you by the State Government,” he said.

Under the Growth Areas Infrastructure Charge scheme, those brought into the UGB in 2005 – including landowners in Officer – are charged a levy of $80,000 per hectare. This increases to $95,000 per hectare for those included in or after 2009.

Many landowners are particularly against the charge being levied at the point of sale rather than the point of development – including Officer dairyfarmer Graeme Dodson.

“If I was to offer my property for sale today I would probably get $30 million, maybe $40 million for it. That would attract a $10 million infrastructure tax,” he said.

“If I was to offer it for sale to a developer, which is all I could do, I would be lucky to get a $2 million deposit – where would I find the other $8 million?”

Mr Dodson, 77, who has lived on his Officer property since he was five, said he and wife Audrey feared they would be rated out of their property.

He said his council rates had jumped from $3000 to $22,500 in two rate years.

“The government thinks the land is worth a lot of money and so does the council,” Mr Dodson said. “If it goes on at that rate there’s no way we can keep on paying it.”

Growth Areas Authority (GAA) chief executive Peter Seamer has publicly rejected claims that the charge would disadvantage affected landowners, saying most were excited about being included in the UGB as it pushed up land values.

“The vast majority (of property), especially those brought into the UGB in 2005, is going to be worth a lot more money than the base rate for farming plus the levy,” he said.

But Mr Hocking said such statements were misleading.

“The fact is if people have to sell properties now they have to incur the charge before the uplift of value,” he said.

“They (GAA) don’t tell you what the value of the land is when you’re brought into the boundary.”

In Casey, the UGB is set to expand with an area from Cranbourne East to Clyde being considered for inclusion.

Planning Minister Justin Madden said Spring Street would only proceed with changes to the UGB if the GAIC was passed by Victorian Parliament.

“Our government is not prepared to alter the UGB without implementing the GAIC – to do so would leave growing communities without infrastructure and only increase profits for developers.”

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