Owners fight parking tax Author: Mark Phillips Date: 21/12/2006 Publication: The Financial Review
The Property Council has called on the Victorian government to postpone plans to double parking levies in the Melbourne CBD until it has developed a long-term strategy to tackle traffic congestion.
Property owners in the CBD are bracing for the levy to be raised to $800 a year from January 1 for long-stay spaces in the CBD, Docklands, St Kilda Road, Southbank, the northern CBD fringe and parts of Port Melbourne.
Labelled a congestion levy, the tax was introduced last year to discourage commuting to the CBD by car, with the $38.8 million in revenue generated in 2006-07 to be allocated to public transport.
The Victorian executive director of the Property Council, Jennifer Cunich, said there was no evidence that the tax had reduced traffic congestion, pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
The government should postpone the doubling of the tax rate until it had released a final report by the Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission on congestion in Melbourne and had a long-term strategy to solve the problem.
"This tax is simply a piecemeal approach that hasn't led to a reduction of traffic to the CBD," Ms Cunich said.
Landowners in Port Melbourne are also continuing to campaign against the inclusion of a small pocket, bordered by the Bolte Bridge and West Gate Freeway, in the congestion tax zone.
Brett Heath, the general manager of marketing for Salta Properties, which owns about five hectares in the area affected by the levy, said the area neither suffered from congestion nor had adequate public transport.
"I have maintained all along that the draftsmen who drew the plans did so in error and should have excluded Port Melbourne area on the basis that it's not part of the CBD; it's an industrial-commercial area," Mr Heath said.
A spokeswoman for Treasurer John Brumby said the government had no intention of changing the policy but would review it after the levy had been in place for three years.