So whilst Victoria is in the midst of an economic storm (er...basketcase) treasurer Tim Pallas is off overseas for the 4th junket of the year and he says he is not retiring from politics.
The credit rating is hanging by its fingernails, the Big Build program has turned into the Big Bill Fiasco and the Metro Tunnel is another near $1 billion over budget. The sneaky government released that morsel at 2:30pm last Thursday afternoon, the day beforte the AGL Grand Final public holiday. Co-incident.....no, never......yeah bulltish.
Meanwhile whilst Tim is away Jacinta is basking in the reflection of a dead Shane Warne at the MCG all the time whilst Victorian businesses are struggling and going broke.
The article below was published yesterday setting out the case for Victoria being the worst, by far state in which to run a business.
Just one lowlight if I may: When Andrews came to power Victoria was forming new businesses at the rate of 98 to 1,000. Today that rate has slumped to 80 : 1,000
Business is voting with its feet and avoiding Victoria at all costs.
Andrews, Allan and Pallas have killed Victorian business conditions and the whole Victorian economy************************************************************************************************************
Victoria slumps for business, as execs warn: ‘It’s really struggling’Gus McCubbing and
Patrick DurkinOct 2, 2024 – 4.41pm
Victoria has slumped behind the rest of the country in stimulating the growth of new businesses in what corporate leaders and economists say is a sign the high-taxing Labor government is stifling the state economy.
The state government under former premier Daniel Andrews imposed an extra $8.6 billion in levies in its 2023 budget to curb a mountain of state debt that is forecast to reach $188 billion by 2028.
Businesses and property investors were hit the hardest by the state budget – which included higher land and payroll taxes – prompting them to warn that investment would move out of the state.
The latest figures released this week from the corporate regulator show new business growth in Victoria has flatlined compared with the other mainland states. In the year to September, the average number of new businesses registering per 1000 existing firms in Victoria was 80.5, according to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
South Australia led the nation with 99.8, followed by the Northern Territory (98.4), Queensland (98.2), NSW (95.3), Western Australia (93.4), ACT (84.98) and Tasmania (82.54), per 1000 businesses. Victoria’s rolling 12-month average to September was higher than the comparable figure in 2019 (76.8) but far lower than in 2015 (107.8), when it came second to Queensland.
Economists said the data suggested business confidence was low in Victoria. Its outsized exposure to industries that are particularly vulnerable to higher interest rates and an economic slowdown – such as construction, retail and manufacturing – could explain some of it. But higher taxes are also a factor.
“Victoria has got to make up its mind on how much it can tax people, particularly businesses,” former NAB chief executive and BHP director Ross McEwan told
The Australian Financial Review.
“You are not seeing any growth in the housing market here because it’s nigh on impossible to make any money out of developments at the retail level. That’s got to change if you want to keep growing Melbourne and having people come here.
“It is one of the greatest cities in the world, but it’s really struggling and we’ve got to be very careful of the debt levels.”
Victoria’s credit rating of AA is the worst of any state according to agency S&P which has warned the state could face another downgrade to AA- if state debt reached 240 per cent of operating revenues, or interest payments reached 10 per cent of those revenues.
“Without doubt, it’s very obvious that we’ve been not well governed for a long time from a financial perspective, that is clear,” said CSL chairman Brian McNamee.“The government spending has been too high, and many projects have been poorly evaluated and shouldn’t have been done; and clearly the No. 1 skill would appear to be recruiting more people to work in the bureaucracy,” he said.
Impact of falling house pricesIndependent economist Saul Eslake said the latest registration data suggested something was wrong with the business environment.
“At face value, it is suggestive of a lack of confidence in starting up a business in Victoria. It could also be a response successive waves of tax increases,” Mr Eslake said.
IFM Investors chief economist Alex Joiner said another factor might be that new business start-ups that could have been backed by equity from property may have been affected by
Melbourne’s 1.4 per cent decline in house prices over the past 12 months.
By comparison, home values jumped 24.1 per cent in Perth, 14.8 per cent in Adelaide, 14.5 per cent in Brisbane,
4.5 per cent in Sydney, 2 per cent in Darwin, and 0.7 per cent in Canberra. They rose nationally by 6.7 per cent.
Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry boss Paul Guerra said business sentiment had declined in the state but Victoria still had the second-largest number of businesses overall and second-highest overall growth this year (by 67,445 to 1.08 million) behind NSW (which grew by 85,516 to 1.15 million).
“Everyone would accept that business sentiment isn’t as strong as it has been in the past in Victoria,” Mr Guerra said.
“Are we growing at a percentage rate lower than some of the other states? Sure. But they’re coming off a lower base. In terms of where we sit business-wise, we’re still going OK. All we really care about is overall growth.”
A Victorian government spokesman said the state had added more than 100,000 businesses since June 2020 at a growth rate of almost 17 per cent, the largest of any state.
“We’ve lifted the payroll tax-free threshold for small businesses, we are replacing stamp duty on commercial and industrial properties, and have started abolishing business insurance duty,” he said.
Victorian shadow treasurer Brad Rowswell said investor confidence in the state had “plummeted” under the Allan government.
“Victoria has the highest business taxes of any state in the country and that is quite obviously having an impact on where investment is made,” he said.
