Thursday, 30 November 2023

Ministers statements: economy

Tim PALLAS (Werribee – Treasurer, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Economic Growth) (14:30): I would like to start by –

A member interjected.

Tim PALLAS: Well, you could ask me a question any time you like.

I would like to start by wishing everybody a happy Ausmusic day, with or without the T-shirt. While the member for Hawthorn is still working on his debut EP, this government is delivering a greatest hits album. Let us start with the latest CommSec State of the States, which has the Victorian economy leading the nation. That is number one. As AC/DC tells us, ‘It’s a long way to the top.’ It is a particularly long way if you start from third, not first. From St Kilda to Kings Cross and beyond, this Labor government, the Allan Labor government, is delivering, and above all else we are delivering jobs from Warrnambool and the south-west, where the unemployment rate is just 0.9 per cent, to Bendigo, where the rate is 1.6 per cent, and right across Latrobe and Gippsland, where the rate is only 2.6 per cent. So things might be tough for those opposite but I echo the words of Crowded House and say to the member for Bulleen, ‘Don’t dream – it’s over’.

Meanwhile under our watch Victoria has returned to its rightful place as the engine room of Australian economic growth, with the Deloitte Access Economics Business Outlook report recently forecasting that growth in Victoria will outpace all other states over the next five years. 3.65 million Victorians currently have a job, meaning that since we came to office we have delivered 760,000 new jobs. Compare that to the forgotten years –

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Frankston can leave the chamber for half an hour. There will be no one left on my right-hand side by the end of question time.

Member for Frankston withdrew from chamber.

Brad Rowswell: On a point of order, Speaker, the Treasurer was forgetting a number there: a little less conversation, a little bit more action please would be my suggestion on behalf of the people of Victoria in relation to debt, deficit, interest repayments and any number of other things.

The SPEAKER: Order! I think I have heard that tune before, member for Sandringham.

Matt Fregon: On the point of order, Speaker, I think the point was that it was meant to be an Australian song.

The SPEAKER: Order! There are no points of order. The Treasurer to continue. He has 7 seconds, and he will be heard in silence.

Tim PALLAS: On the last sitting day of the year I would like to offer my best wishes to those opposite. To echo the words of INXS, ‘Don’t change’.