Leaked Labor policy proposals reveal new taxes, legalising cannabis, eliminating council rate caps among plans on table

A leaked policy agenda set to shape the Allan government’s election blueprint includes radical proposals such as creating a land sale “super profits” tax, softening anti-protest laws and establishing a state-owned cannabis industry.

Hundreds of Victorian Labor policy proposals that include new taxes, legalising cannabis, and watering down anti-protest laws have been leaked ahead of a major party meeting this weekend.

The Herald Sun has obtained a copy of every policy committee report that will help shape the ALP’s state election blueprint next year, including on health, education, justice and the economy.

The reports, which run up to 100 pages long, contain new or revised policies, such as replacing stamp duty with an annual land tax, creating a new tax on land sale super-profits, and opposing new powers for a Special Envoy tackling anti-Semitism.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan. Picture: David Crosling

Policies have been crafted by ALP committees over the past year, and include:

• The creation of a state-owned, regulated, and taxed cannabis industry;

• Fast-tracking the “elimination” of coal, and to create a state-owned offshore wind industry;

• A permanent Aboriginal truth-telling commission;

• Cut the rate of population growth;

• Permanent pill testing at music festivals.

• Scrapping council rate capping in the “medium term”.

More than 600 Labor delegates, who are members, MPs or affiliated union representatives, will vote to endorse policy books at this weekend’s ALP state conference.

Labor sources said if they were endorsed they wouldn’t automatically translate to government action, but set a framework for the party’s election-year platform.

The Herald Sun has also obtained details about the heavy security presence for this year’s event, after pro-Palestine activists sent last year’s event into lockdown.

In an unprecedented crackdown “bag checks and wanding will be required for entry” and a photo ID will be needed for delegates.

A pro-Palestinian rally shut down Melbourne’s famous NGV. Picture: Valeriu Campan

A free Palestine rally joined an invasion day protest in Melbourne on January 26. Picture: Nadir Kinani

Premier Jacinta Allan on Thursday refused to be drawn on which motions her government was open to considering, saying while debate would be “robust” at the conference, Labor’s policy agenda was ultimately up to the parliamentary party.

“It’s the government that sets government policy,” she said.

Asked repeatedly if her government was considering a permanent truth telling commission, Ms Allan refused to answer.

“There’s a range of motions that are there for debate at state conference on Saturday,” she said.

“One of the great things about being part of the Labor movement is there is an abundance of ideas, an abundance of energy.”

Ms Allan also sent a warning to any pro-Palestine activists planning to rally outside Labor’s state conference, calling last year’s protest “distressing” and “inappropriate”.

“The scenes we saw at last year’s state conference were ugly and distressing,” she said.

“There is no place for that sort of behaviour.

“And I say to anyone that might want to come along on Saturday and bring extremist behaviour to state conference: don’t.”

The creation of a state-owned, regulated and taxed cannabis industry is being considered. Picture: Supplied

The leaked documents expose serious criticisms of the Allan government in areas such as health, justice and housing.

They say the government’s planned anti-protest laws, created to tackle anti-Semitism and violent extremism, will “threaten the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly that the labour movement and Victorians hold dear” and should be loosened — including getting rid of clauses that ban face coverings and assembling outside places of worship.
“These laws would only harm our democracy, our social harmony and our multicultural state,” it says.

Policy committees also target the government for failing to deliver on mental health promises to address issues identified in a 2021 royal commission.

One policy says at the 2022 state election the Andrews government announced that the mental health workforce would be doubled over a 10-year period and positions would be fully funded, but that there was no funding uplift allocated to hospitals “resulting in many services opting not to take them on”.

“Instances like this are riddled throughout the entirety of the mental health sector,” it says.

A levy on big business was introduced in 2022 to pay for extra mental health services, and is forecast to deliver more than $5.3bn over the next four years.

Major changes to payroll tax and company tax are advocated, along with backing a suspension of the AUKUS defence agreement due to an erratic Trump administration.

The push to phase out stamp duty over time and replace it with an annual land tax would give “every Victorian homebuyer the option to choose between paying stamp duty and paying land tax”.

“Stamp duty in its current format means that people are effectively mortgaging the stamp duty and paying it off over the term of their loan, with interest,” the report says.

Allan is getting ready for next year’s election. Picture: David Crosling

Pill testing trial facilities at the Beyond The Valley music festival. Picture: Alison Wynd

“It also creates rigidity in the housing market, limiting people’s ability to downsize and creating a reluctance to do so.”

The new tax on land sale super profits is needed, the ALP policy committee says, to create a new cash stream to pay for housing promises.

“For the government to deliver its commitments, including affordable housing and reducing the cost of living, new revenue ideas are required,” it says.

Some of the more obscure policies included a push to ensure the survival of the dingo, and to improve public amenities and “that access to public toilets be recognised as a basic human right”.

One senior Labor figure said the ALP was a party of activists and this was a forum where they could discuss their ideas.

They said if policies were endorsed they would be considered for the party’s platform, and a Labor government would choose to formally adopt them.

“It doesn’t create government policy,” they said.

Originally published as Leaked Labor policy proposals reveal new taxes, legalising cannabis, eliminating council rate caps among plans on table