Cost of living
Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (09:44): The Victorian Labor government is making life harder for Victorian families. Policy decisions of the Andrews government are fuelling the cost-of-living crisis that all Victorian families are facing. Labor government decisions have forced up the cost of electricity and gas by over 35 per cent. This is impacting both households in Victoria and particularly businesses and our food manufacturing sector, and this is one of the reasons that grocery bills for the average family have now risen by nearly $1700 per year. Increases in WorkCover and payroll tax are going to add to these price increases further when it comes to going to the supermarket shelves, as businesses have to pass through the costs that they are going to receive and the increased WorkCover premiums and the increased payroll tax for a lot of businesses. It is not just a tax on jobs, it is a tax on all Victorians as these costs are passed through the supply chain. The cost of owning and driving a car in regional Victoria is getting higher because of the damage caused by the treacherous country roads that we have to drive on, and that is going to get even worse into the future as the cuts to road maintenance funding are going to mean that the roads are going to get even worse. Everywhere Victorians turn, the insidious hand of the Labor government is in people’s pockets taking more of Victorians’ hard-earned money to pay for the incompetence and mismanagement of this government and particularly to pay for the cost overruns on major projects. Thirty billion dollars in overruns is just an absolute disgrace.