COUNCIL TAX COLLECTORS

The meaning and intention of the OPEN SPACE CONTRIBUTION appears to being misused and treated like just another tax for general revenue by Councils and Shires and thus if the ACT is not being used according to the intended law then the term should changed to reflect the true TAXING nature as indeed it has become a SHARE OF DEVELOPERS PROFITS TAX which some Councils like the Greater Dandenong Council are requiring that developers pay the several $million 'CONTRIBUTIONS TAX' prior to gaining subdivision approvals to offer OFF THE PLAN pre-sales to the public and prior to getting funding from bankers who always require pre-sales evidence before lending them the development money to proceed with providing more housing in that region. These types of demands are resulting in no deals going through part application stage as developers would need $millions more in equity to proceed with the projects. The alternative be that Councils be required to use that OPEN SPACE CONTRIBUTIONS money for its proper intended use and to buy land for Parks & or Recreation use in the outer fringes of Melbourne or Victoria in lieu of the lack of such land availability in the inner suburban areas, rather than it going into consolidated revenue.

Councils are already buying land outside their boundaries for rubbish disposal Land Fill sites and Councils like the CITY OF MELBOURNE should be required to use those PUBLIC OPEN SPACE CONTRIBUTION collections for purchase of their own PRIVATE OPEN SPACE for use by their ratepayers outside their council boundaries.

This would increase the demand for GWZ land which is currently the cheapest land available today, it sometimes being next door to smaller parcels of land up to 40 times more valuable per square foot and the proposal a more equitable means of getting a protected "Green Wedge" Open Space supply of land instead of expecting private landlords to pay for the original Greenie plan by Liberal Party Premier - Rupert Hamer. It was Sir Rupert Hamer who came up with this socialistic plan to let the private owners pay for the Greens Lungs of Melbourne idealism which is silly considering that the whole of Victoria and Australia have more than enough government Crown Lands & designated National Parks and extesive millions of acres of green grazing farmlands providing fresh air for the major cities for the Lungs of Melbourne ideal.

The true financial stakeholders are the landowners and their bankers who are never consulted or been considered for invitation by letter for discussion; whereas the Green pauper and public housing groups seem to get all the attention as claiming to be stakeholders deserving influence in other peoples private property rights and in so doing debasing the asset cover held by the banks and putting the borrowing landowners at grave risk..which the Planning Ministers and their Department staff never consider in their deliberations.

If Victoria is to be run like a Socialist State by the Liberals then I wish they would just be honest about it, so we can decide whether to fight them from the trenches or to move to WA or QLD perhaps. Its been a 40 years punishment for GWZ landowners whereas murderers get substantially less these days.