EVERY Victorian household and business will have to pay another $60 in taxes and charges for water under plans by the State Government to introduce an environment levy.

The Parliament is trying to use this issue as a tax and create another cash cow and that's not on.

What the Parliament are saying is, in addition to the levy, they are going to ramp up the cost of water so it's a true cost recovery exercise.

They are going to do that by increasing the cost based on usage. And that's going to directly impact on families more than anything else.

The Parliament was yet to announce how much more water would cost, but based on a 5 per cent increase on an average annual water bill of $600, plus the levy, households and businesses would pay about $60 more a year.

The recent announcement that the Parliament would introduce an environmental levy on all water users to pay for increased environmental flows in our rivers was the opposite to what Labor said it would do prior to 1999.

The two proposals combined represented an unprecedented tax slug on all Victorians.

Unlike the Liberals, who slugged regional Victorians with catchment management fees, we are proposing an environment levy which will be borne by all water users.
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