Australian News | 4 October 2026
Victoria’s election campaign is sharpening around two high-cost policy areas: hospital waiting lists and land tax.
The Coalition has pledged to halve the state’s elective-surgery waitlist if elected, while Labor says it would reverse part of the land-tax changes introduced in 2023.
Coalition focuses on elective surgery
ABC News reports that the Coalition is proposing a program that would allow public patients to receive eligible procedures in private hospitals at no cost to them. Opposition Leader Jess Wilson says the policy would deliver an additional 25,000 surgeries a year.
The program is costed at about $1.27 billion and would be funded by winding up Breakthrough Victoria, according to the Coalition. Victoria had about 68,730 patients waiting for planned surgery across urgent and non-urgent categories in June.
The government, meanwhile, points to a record 218,000 planned surgeries delivered in the past year and says all category-one patients were treated within 30 days.
Labor promises land-tax changes
Labor says it would progressively raise the land-tax threshold after lowering it from $300,000 to $50,000 in 2023. Under the new proposal, the threshold would rise by $25,000 a year over several years.
The government estimates the change would cost about $230 million over five years and says it would fund the measure through savings including government-fleet consolidation and delayed level-crossing removals.
What voters should watch
Both announcements involve trade-offs. The surgery policy depends on available private-hospital capacity and the design of contracts with providers. The land-tax change shifts revenue and cost-of-living settings but also reduces a source of state income.
Victoria’s state election is scheduled for 28 November 2026.
Source
Read the full report from ABC News.
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