Jess Wilson pledges payroll, land tax cuts and public sector hiring freeze
Victoria’s payroll tax will be reduced to match NSW and land tax will also be phased out, under the Coalition’s latest fiscal election pledge announced by Opposition Leader Jess Wilson.
But the plan to cut 7,000 people from the civil service through a hiring freeze has been met with anger from the Community and Public Sector Union, which says the move will line the pockets of consultants.
Speaking at a Liberal Party business forum on Friday ahead of the giant clock calculating the state’s net debt, Wilson said the payroll tax threshold would be increased from $1 million to $1.1 million next year and $1.2 million in 2028 if the Coalition wins the state election in November.
He said the proposed changes would reduce the tax burden on 23,000 businesses.
Wilson also promised to phase out the Allan government’s 2023 land tax increase by phasing the threshold back to $300,000; The threshold will be increased by $50,000 each year for five years. He said this would reduce land tax bills for more than 270,000 people by up to $975 a year.
The coalition expects the plan to cost $360 million in lost land tax revenue and $670 million in lost payroll revenue over four years.
“I appreciate these are modest changes. But this commitment is important. It means Victorians are [elect me]”Victoria will be open for business again,” Wilson said in his speech.
The promises are part of a 10-year fiscal recovery plan that Wilson will implement before the November election. This includes a hiring freeze announced on Friday for what the Coalition government calls “back office roles” in Victorian public services during its first term.
He said the plan would cut 7,184 positions by 2029 — about 2.23 percent of the state’s public sector workforce — saving the budget $22 billion over a decade. It will not affect teachers, police and other frontline workers.
The CPSU warned that the plan would backfire on the Liberal Party and accused Wilson of wanting to outsource government work to consultancy firms. Branch secretary Jiselle Hanna likened their efforts to U.S. President Donald Trump’s ill-fated Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“Frankly, this is the strongest sign that Jess Wilson’s Liberals have no idea how to run the state or the basic job that public servants do to keep things running,” he said.
“Good luck getting rid of us. We’ve seen how that works [former federal opposition leader Peter] Dutton and DOGE. God forgives, but CPSU Vic keeps the receipts.”
Labor immediately launched a campaign against Wilson’s public sector cuts, claiming the depth of job losses would not have been possible without cuts to frontline services. A party spokesman said Wilson had wrongly assumed the increase in civil service employment would be 3.5 per cent when it was 1.5 per cent.
“This means the promised savings will never be realized,” the spokesman said. “The only way Jess could achieve her cuts would be to cut fast-growing frontline service groups.”
Prime Minister Jacinta Allan accused Wilson of wanting to make “deep and brutal” cuts to the public sector.
“We will not cut the jobs and services that working people and Victorian families rely on,” he said.
In 2023, then-treasurer Tim Pallas announced plans to cut up to 4,000 civil service jobs to save $2.1 billion as part of COVID-19 debt repair measures.
Asked about the cuts on Friday, Allan said they were announced by “a former treasurer in the previous government”.
“I am the prime minister today,” he said. “As Prime Minister, we presented a budget this week that reduces the debt. It provides a surplus and focuses on growing the economy.”
Last year the Allan government announced the public sector would save around $4bn from cutting nearly 1,000 jobs. These come after the government commissioned the Silver review to find savings at utilities, which Chancellor of the Exchequer Jaclyn Symes said “there is fat that needs to be trimmed”.
On Friday afternoon Wilson said he would not be distracted by Labor’s scare campaign.
“No one is being dismissed,” he said. “Everyone who has a job in the Victorian public service today will have a job in the government I lead.”
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Daniella White is The Age’s state political correspondent. Contact her at da.white@nine.com.auConnect with: X or email.
Chip Le Grand leads our state politics reporting team. He had previously served as the newspaper’s chief correspondent and was a journalist with 30 years of experience.Connect via email.
