Dan Tehan - Member for Wannon
When I walk down the main street of Hamilton, I see too many empty shopfronts. These are stark reminders of the businesses we’ve lost and the services our communities are missing.
Every vacant window represents lost opportunities for jobs, investment and vibrancy. We can’t afford to let Hamilton and all the other nearby towns in the area slowly wither.
To bring our main streets back to life, the Federal and State Labor Governments need to:
• cut red tape for small businesses;
• lower taxes such as the land tax which drives up fixed costs and eats into profit margins;
• lower energy bills - electricity bills for example have risen by 39% under the Albanese Labor Government;
• ensure that governments work together to drive investment into country areas.
With policy support, imagination and community drive, we can turn empty windows into thriving hubs once again.
Our main streets should be places of energy and pride. Let’s make sure governments help not hinder.
Across Victoria, small business owners, landlords and home-based entrepreneurs such as consultants and Airbnb hosts are opening their land tax bills and reacting with shock. Their anger is real and it’s justified.
By slashing the tax-free threshold and slapping on new fixed charges for land valued as little as $50,000, the Victorian State Labor Government has dragged thousands of ordinary Victorians into the tax net for the very first time.
This isn’t a tax on the wealthy. It’s a tax on mum-and-dad investors and small businesses trying to keep their heads above water.
Higher land tax means higher rents, fewer jobs and more empty shopfronts on our main streets as already mentioned. It punishes the very people who take risks to keep our towns alive.
Instead of squeezing small businesses and families to plug the Allan Labor Government’s debt black hole, the government should be backing investment and growth.
In my capacity of Shadow Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction, I recently visited the United States on a nuclear energy fact-finding study tour.
I met with U.S. Department of Energy officials including Acting Assistant Secretary Mike Goff from the Office of Nuclear Energy and visited other major research institutions including the Idaho National Laboratory (known for its work on small modular reactors or SMRs) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee which conducts research into fusion energy.
The purpose of my tour was to:
• examine the latest nuclear technologies, especially SMRs and fusion, and see how Australia might adopt them;
• ensure Australia does not fall behind globally in energy technologies;
• explore how lifting current bans or regulations could allow Australia to incorporate nuclear into its energy mix;
• assess how private capital could be involved in rolling out a civilian nuclear industry in Australia;
• explore whether Australia can become more integrated in the uranium supply chain, enrichment or conversion processes;
• investigate the possibility of build bilateral cooperation in nuclear technology with the U.S.
ENDS
Contact: Sandie Gustus M | 0408 564 232 E | sandie.gustus@aph.gov.au
Published in the Hamilton Spectator
