Wednesday, 28 August 2024

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee

Report on the 2023–24 Budget Estimates

Wayne FARNHAM (Narracan) (10:33): I am pleased to rise today to talk about the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee report on the 2023–24 budget estimates, and I am going to reference chapter 2 on the fiscal strategy of the government, which is:

… creating jobs, reducing unemployment, restoring economic growth

… returning to an operating cash surplus

… returning to operating surpluses

… stabilising debt levels.

This is all very good, and I suppose if we all had crystal balls back then, wouldn’t we be wiser? When we talk about creating jobs and economic growth it is a pity that the ABS data that came out yesterday says over 152,000 businesses have left the state of Victoria. You cannot have economic growth when businesses are fleeing the state to other states.

Michaela Settle: We’re the fastest growing economy in Australia.

Wayne FARNHAM: Well, that is debatable. We also have the greatest debt of many other states. We have the greatest debt, and returning things to operating cash surpluses means you would have to build things on budget, which this government has failed to do. Just yesterday we heard of another $888 million blowout. That is the West Gippsland Hospital with $200 million in change – $880 million, which is $200 million-plus in change after you build the West Gippsland Hospital. That is not to mention that if we want to get things to a cash surplus we should not have blown another $380 million on the Gippsland rail upgrade. The project total was $540 million, and it has gone $380 million over budget. That is an 80 per cent blowout. With that original budget it was meant to duplicate the line from Bunyip to Longwarry, including the bridge. Because of the waste of the Labor government, that section of the project has been shelved. There is apparently a report out there that references the southern brown bandicoot and some Strzelecki gums. I am yet to see that report, although I do have a freedom-of-information application out on it. It has not been released. I am doubting if it even exists, to be honest. I think the reality of that project was it went so far over budget that the government just said, ‘We will not duplicate this section of track because, quite frankly, we have run out of money,’ and that is why that part of the project has not been done.

Talk about stabilising debt levels, what does that mean? We are going to be in debt to the tune of $188 billion. At the moment we are paying $15 million a day in interest, or $26 million or somewhere in that range. But the worst thing about this is if we continue on with the Suburban Rail Loop, Standard ‍& Poor’s have said they will downgrade our credit rating, and it will be between a range of 0.1 and 0.5 per cent. How much extra interest will that cost Victorians per day? Rather than fiscal strategy, this is fiscal irresponsibility, what is happening at the moment. The fiscal risk in Victoria at the moment, which is here, is the Allan Labor government. The fiscal risk of Victoria is this government.

We have a housing strategy that the government has come nowhere near delivering. They are 25,000 ‍homes short in the first 12 months – of the 80,000 homes a year, they are 25,000 short. That means next year you have got to deliver over 100,000 homes to meet your target. That will never happen. I can tell you now, that will never happen. You have got more chance of me growing an afro than this government delivering 100,000 homes next year. It is a shame, because we have got a project in my electorate that is due to start. What has happened here is it has been approved by the Minister for Planning, they put out a render of the project and now I have seen the elevations of this project, and it is disgraceful. It is a Soviet-style, 1970s type of construction. It is the ugliest building I have ever seen. What has been approved by the minister is now completely different. What got delivered and what was in the community consultation with my electorate are two completely different things. I have written a letter to the minister, I would like to catch up with the Minister for Planning, because she needs to jump on Housing Choices Australia and get them to deliver what the community expected.