CAMPAIGNING against the State Government’s proposed new land tax stepped up last week when protesters gatecrashed an ALP fundraiser.

Planning Minister Justin Madden was guest speaker at the $1500 to $2000-a-plate Planning Briefing, sponsored by Grocon and hosted by Progressive Business at the Intercontinental Hotel in Collins St.

Police were called in when several of the more than 500-strong crowd of angry landowners made their way into the hotel to personally hand their list of resolutions regarding the government’s proposed UGB changes, traffic plans and Growth Areas Infrastructure Contribution, to the minister.

Beveridge resident and spokeswoman for protest group Taxed Out, Jeanette Laffan, said she was delighted that what were previously fragmented groups of landowners had joined together to form a united front against the government’s proposals.

“When we planned to do this, we contacted Julianne Bell from the Protectors of Public Lands, the Green Wedges Coalition, a few others and they’d all been thinking along the same lines and we agreed it was in everyone’s best interests to have a joint rally,” Mrs Laffan said.

As a result, families from across the affected communities including Beveridge, Wollert and Doreen met in the city to voice their protest and demand that the government “Axe the Tax”.

Mrs Laffan said the Taxed Out committee had been delighted when notified on the Friday prior to the rally that Mr Madden had agreed to meet with a delegation of landowners on Monday.

“We sent in a formal request two or three weeks ago,” she said.

“Six of us went in, we had a full hour and to give (Mr Madden) credit, he gave us a full hour, he did listen to our concerns and gave us a fair hearing.

“We left him with our submission and a copy of our fact sheet, which refutes the (Growth Areas Authority’s) fact sheet and he invited us to send more material.”

Mrs Laffan said that the group still left the meeting with more questions than answers and as a result, agreed that the protest action would go ahead the following day.

“We were given no assurances about any of our concerns and there are still things that he won’t concede on this issue,” Ms Laffan said.

“The information for the UGB changes and the GAIC says that you magically get a tenfold increase in your property value when it’s brought inside the UGB.

“But that uplift doesn’t occur until there is a structure plan put in place – that can take years.”