Jess Wilson promises to scrap five major taxes to help struggling Victorians
Victoria’s new Liberal Pary leader Jess Wilson has promised to axe five major taxes — including the controversial $3bn emergency services levy — and brushed off concerns about a flood of cancellations at a Liberal Party fundraising dinner.
New Victorian Liberal leader Jess Wilson has promised to scrap five major taxes to help struggling Victorians amid he ongoing cost of living crisis.
The newly minted leader has also brushed off concerns about a flood of cancellations at a Liberal Party fundraising dinner saying the call was made by the party organisation.
Speaking from a Salvation Army centre on Friday, Ms Wilson said she would axe the GP tax, the Emergency Services levy, the Airbnb tax and the schools payroll tax.
She also said she would wipe stamp duty for first-home buyers on properties up to $1m if the Liberal Party wins the state election in 2026.
“Every time we’re putting more taxes on businesses, we’re pushing up prices for Victorians,” she said.
“This is the consequence of when the government is more focused on running up a debt bill, more focused on cost blowouts on major projects.”
Ms Wilson added her government is “committed to reducing five taxes”.
“That includes the emergency services tax, a $3bn tax on every household, every business, and every farm in this state.”
The public commitment is the first major policy announcement under the new Liberal leader after she flagged that debt would be her key campaign issue after toppling her predecessor last week.
Salvation Army commander Brendan Nottle welcomed any help for struggling Victorians, warning things were getting worse in the ground.
“At the moment, we’ve seen an increase in the 600 people a day that we see through our cafe that we operate here, and we’re seeing a change in the faces that are attending,” he said.
“Particularly in the evening, we’re seeing more mums with little kids coming in, and they’ve got a partner who’s doing everything they can to make ends meet, and they simply can’t, and so they’re needing to come to places like this.
But Treasurer Jaclyn Symes hit out at the move by Ms Wilson saying it would create a black hole in the government budget.
“They’ll make up the difference by cutting more than $11.1 billion from health, education, transport, housing, jobs and more,” she said.
“Communities like those that the Salvation Army serve need support, but Jess Wilson’s reckless economics only offers fewer nurses, fewer ambos, fewer police, and more chaos – and all to please multinationals like Airbnb who profit from taking housing off the rental market.
“Jess Wilson must outline a real plan for how she expects to cut more than $11.1 billion from the budget without wiping out the Labor Government’s surplus and impacting the services people rely on.”
Ms Wilson’s commitment to scrapping the five taxes comes after the Labor government has previously been critical of the Liberal’s tax reform suggestions, saying there would be a “$10.8bn budget black hole” due to unfunded tax promises.
Ms Wilson said she had not received any feedback on why attendees of a $1300-a-head Liberal Party dinner scheduled for November 29 at the plush Crown Palladium had pulled out of the event following the toppling of Brad Battin this week.
“It’s been postponed to next year and we’re looking forward to it,” Ms Wilson said on Thursday.
“There’s been a leadership change.
“I’m standing here today, Sam’s (Groth) standing here today and we thought the best course of action would be the party organisation postponing that to next year.”
Ms Wilson said she wasn’t concerned about donor pulling out of the event and hadn’t had any feedback as to why they had.
The Herald Sun has confirmed the cancellations that flowed following Tuesday’s coup to topple former Liberal leader Brad Battin was one of the reasons leading to the event being put off until next year.
The event had long been advertised as a major fundraising effort to support campaigning ahead of the 2026 election.
Originally published as Jess Wilson promises to scrap five major taxes to help struggling Victorians
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