The hall No evidence required
I make that promise, Peter
Every single Victorian. Then the levies arrived with different names.
I make that promise, Peter, to every single Victorian.
Daniel Andrews, Channel 7, 28 November 2014, the night before the election. Peter Mitchell: will you promise not to increase taxes or introduce any new taxes? Andrews: “I make that promise, Peter, to every single Victorian.” Tim Pallas, the same week: Labor will not introduce any new taxes or increase any existing ones to fund its commitments.
By April 2017, 3AW had car stamp duty, some house-sale duty, and the Uber levy on the board. Andrews: not a broken promise. “We’ve delivered on each and every commitment we’ve made.”
This card files that sentence. It does not file “every tax is a rort.” COVID came later. The 2014 line did not have a pandemic clause.
What did have a receipt:
- Victorian Auditor-General, AFR 2024–25: the government “has introduced several new taxes.” Taxation income +68.1% since 2019–20, “driven in part by new taxes.” Mental health and wellbeing surcharge plus COVID-19 debt levies: $3.1 billion and $3.3 billion extra in 2023–24 and 2024–25. The COVID Debt Repayment Plan raised $4.3 billion through those levies. Taxes that year: $38.9 billion.
- Windfall gains tax — a levy when rezoning lifts land value. Vacant residential land tax. Both sit on the State Revenue Office site. Both arrived after the Mitchell interview.
- Opposition lists count dozens of “new or increased” charges. Those lists are a campaign. The auditor’s figure, and the SRO pages, are not.
Grammar: no new taxes, no increases, every Victorian. Logic: a levy with a new name is still a tax. Rhetoric: “we’ve delivered on each and every commitment.”