Wednesday, 28 August 2024

Matters of public importance

Infrastructure projects

The SPEAKER (16:01): I have accepted a statement from the member for Caulfield proposing the following matter of public importance for discussion:

That this house recognises that ‘the Big Build … is absolutely rotten’ (Nick McKenzie, 2024) and condemns the Allan Labor government for:

(1) the disastrous CFMEU-driven cost blowouts exceeding $40 billion across major projects, including the Metro Tunnel and North East Link; and

(2) the wasteful $216 billion Suburban Rail Loop, which is pushing Victoria’s debt to $187.8 billion by 2027, threatening the financial future of our state, and leaving Victorians across the state without their fair share of quality services and infrastructure.

David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (16:01): The matter of public importance (MPI) that I have raised today is a very important matter for every single Victorian. The crux of this is, as the beginning of this matter states, that this house recognises that ‘the Big Build … is absolutely rotten’. This is not my quote, this is a quote from Nick McKenzie from the interview that he gave on 3AW condemning the Allan government for the blowouts, the waste and ultimately the corruption that we have seen in the Big Build, which I will come to shortly. This matter of public importance goes to the heart of why under Premier Allan, while she was the Premier and previously the infrastructure minister for 10 years, we have seen massive blowouts on all of our infrastructure projects – $40 billion of blowouts in our infrastructure projects – and it goes to the core that Premier Allan cannot manage money or major projects, and Victorians are all paying the price.

We will discuss the CFMEU blowouts, which have led to a 30 per cent increase on $40 billion of major projects, including Metro Tunnel and North East Link. And haven’t we heard so much about that in the last two weeks? The Metro Tunnel specifically was seen as a great project to be delivered before time and on budget. If we did a cost–benefit analysis of that project at the moment, the cost–benefit analysis would be in the toilet. It has blown out by $4 billion, with another $888 million that we heard of today. Again, in terms of the benefit, what do Victorians get? Slower trains. What a Third World concept that is – to spend $14 billion to only get slower trains. What an absolute train wreck it is, member for Bentleigh, the Metro Tunnel.

But wait, there is more. We will talk today about the $216 billion Suburban Rail Loop, a project it was said that was going to change our lives – absolutely change our lives. The costings were done on the back of a napkin. We know that because every single time every expert from the Auditor-General, from the Grattan Institute, from Infrastructure Victoria and now from Standard & Poor’s – what do they all say? It does not stack up. Even the Allan Labor government’s mates in Canberra – what have they done with the Suburban Rail Loop? They have crab walked away. They have said, ‘Do you know what, it’s not our project. The $11 billion that you had us down for, we’re taking that back. We’re going home.’ And that is because this government and Premier Allan cannot manage money and cannot manage major projects, and all Victorians are paying the price.

When we look at this I want to come back to the core and the beginning of this MPI: the big rotten build. I would like to draw the house’s attention to those comments made by investigative journalist Nick McKenzie on 3AW. Nick McKenzie labelled the Victorian build as:

… absolutely rotten … organised crime profiting like mad and very little is being done to stop it.

He then went on to say, when asked about his thoughts on the Premier’s response to the CFMEU allegations:

She is about two and a half years late … I think the Premier’s lack of response is very, very serious … we shouldn’t be living in a gangster state …

This is the Premier that has done nothing for 10 years, that has sat on her hands and allowed the CFMEU to profit. Whether she has been the infrastructure minister or the Premier, Premier Allan has done nothing but allow the CFMEU to run the show on major infrastructure. That is why we have $40 billion worth of blowouts. That is why each and every hour in this place, in this state, we will be paying $1 million just to pay the interest on the $188 billion that we have in debt, record debt – more debt than New South Wales, Tasmania and Queensland combined. That is why – because this state, and particularly this Premier, cannot manage money. Premier Allan cannot manage money on major projects, and Victoria is paying the price.

Let me get onto the 2½ years late of doing something about this. In May 2023 I asked the Premier, when she was the minister responsible for infrastructure in this Parliament, what action she had taken to ensure there was no further illegal activity on projects that she was responsible for. Her answer was, ‘Nothing. It’s not my problem. I will leave it up to the contractors to worry about it’ – absolutely nothing. Imagine if 16 months ago Premier Allan actually did her job and investigated that and, like we are seeing now, put the CFMEU into administration. Imagine the millions and millions and billions of dollars that would have been saved on major projects and infrastructure in this state. But 2½ years ago the Premier said, ‘Not my problem.’

When Nick McKenzie starts doing his work, all of a sudden it is ‘We’ve got to start doing something.’ Even now it is slow, even now there is nothing and even now there is not enough. There is a good reason why Premier Allan and the Labor government here in Victoria have been very slow to act: money that has been donated to the Labor Party to get them re-elected by –

Members interjecting.

David SOUTHWICK: Thank you very much – the CFMEU. You know what, it is very hard to cut out your friends when they are paying you to ensure that their donations get you back into this place. There are many people that have been elected to this chamber from the Labor Party that thank the CFMEU every day for their donations and have not been too forthcoming in calling them out for their corruption. That is something that we should remember.

Let us go to the core, which is about these blowouts on major projects – $40 billion in major project blowouts. Metro Tunnel, $14 billion – a project with a $4 billion blowout plus $888 million, which we have just found out about. But that is just the beginning, because what happened was, again, in June the Auditor-General reported that there was going to be no money left in reserves, in contingency, to fund the rest of this project. You would think at that point in time the Premier and the Minister for Transport Infrastructure might say, ‘Well, we’d better actually look at what we’ve got to do with this project.’ Do you know what they did? They wrote to the contractors and said, ‘How about we give you some more money so you can get the project delivered in time for the next election? And you know what, for any of those problems on there, we will sign away any legal obligation because they are obviously not your problem’ – the contractors causing the problems – ‘they are our problem, the government’s. So how about an $888 million bribe to go quiet?’ $888 million to silence the contractors ‍– how about that?

But, do you know what, we have not seen the response yet. That was a letter from the government. We have not seen the response, so who knows how much Victorian taxpayers are on the hook for for Labor’s mismanagement and waste. All we know is one thing for sure: it is going to be a lot more than $888 million. This clearly shows this is not just Labor, because we have been saying this for a long time, but this is Premier Allan who cannot manage money and cannot manage major projects, and we are all paying for it. Victorian taxpayers are paying for it.

But let us not stop at Metro, with all of the problems there, which the government still talks about as a fantastic project, which we are going to have to run slower trains on. A fantastic project to run slower trains? And who knows, when we get 10-car sets, whether they can run through the Metro Tunnel. What a Third World joke from this Premier and from this government.

But let us talk about North East Link, shall we, because North East Link – another flagship project from this government – has also spiralled, from $16 billion to $26 billion. We had $10 billion in the last blowout. Let us just talk about that, because that blowout came out in December. On 10 December we heard there had been another $10 billion blowout on this project. What happened two days later, after the blowout? Two days later the Premier, being so reckless, went and signed up for the first stage of the Suburban Rail Loop – $3.6 billion. So here was a government that had just had one of its major flagship projects blow out by another $10 billion saying, ‘Yep, no worries. We’ve got plenty of dough. Even though we’re in debt $188 billion’ – a million dollars an hour in interest just to pay that down, or $26 million a day – ‘it doesn’t matter. Here’s another $3.6 billion just to sign the first stage of the Suburban Rail Loop, with no business case, no plan. Who knows where we’re going to get the $11 billion worth of value capture. Who knows where the federal money is going to come from. A $22 billion black hole for the Suburban Rail Loop, but, you know what, it doesn’t matter. We’ll just sign up Victorians to more uncertainty.’

We know the Suburban Rail Loop has been reckless. We know that this project has not been properly managed. We know global ratings giant Standard & Poor’s has issued a stark warning that if the Allan Labor government presses ahead with the Suburban Rail Loop without securing additional federal funding, Victoria’s credit rating could be slashed, pushing our state into even more financial despair. We know that when the credit rating goes down the interest payments go up, and we know that when the interest payments go up Victorians pay more. It is very, very simple: they pay more.

When you have a disastrous government that could not manage a fete and could not manage a chook raffle – could not manage anything at all – you would not put it in charge of anything. You would put them in a corner and say ‘You know what, just go and play with your calculator and learn some numbers’ because you would not put this lot in charge of anything. It is absolutely unbelievable to think that this government for 10 years has managed the purse strings. They were lucky when we had good money coming in in terms of property investment and development, but they fixed that up really quickly by taxing the bejesus out of people, and everybody said, ‘Good night, Victoria, we’re off. Good night, Victoria. Lights out, we’re off.’

But that is not all. We have a government, as I say, in debt. We have a government with broken promises – promise after promise – when it comes to these projects and all of the money that has been wasted. This is why the backbench are very nervous, because $216 billion for the project means, ‘What about our fair share?’ What about our fair share for Niddrie? What about our fair share for Melton, for electrifying the Melton line? What about our fair share of the Suburban Rail Loop money in Bendigo? What about that in terms of ambulances? What about Point Cook in terms of another rail line? What about Greenvale in terms of ensuring that Mickleham Road, stage 2, is separated? What about Yan Yean, to ensure that they have the Hazel Glen College delivered? What about Eltham, to ensure that they get a new community hospital? Well, that is not happening because the current member for Eltham is too busy trying to claw back the money that has been taken off her for the Suburban Rail Loop. What about the South-Eastern Region, in Clyde, where the Clyde railway station extension was promised, but never delivered, by Labor in 1999, 2002, 2006 and 2010. What about Monbulk, who wanted vital road safety upgrades for the Mount Dandenong Tourist Road? Again, what about that? That is never going to happen, member for Monbulk, because your Premier is too busy taking the cash and putting it into the Suburban Rail Loop. Member for Monbulk, you can jump up and down. That money is not going to happen. The member for Monbulk’s money will not happen, because Premier Allan has squandered it all on the $216 billion Suburban Rail Loop. And what about Ripon with the Murray Basin rail? That money is never going to happen either, member for Ripon, is it? No.

Daniela DE MARTINO: On a point of order, Speaker, I believe there is an obligation to speak in facts in this chamber.

The SPEAKER: There is no point of order.

David SOUTHWICK: The only fact is that Labor cannot manage money and Victorians are paying the price. We see blowout after blowout. Victorians are hanging their head in absolute despair, thinking to themselves, ‘We’ve got this lot in charge for another two years. We’ve got this lot that’s going to send the state broke. We’ve got this lot that couldn’t manage a chook raffle. We’ve got this lot that doesn’t care. We’ve got this lot that doesn’t know what they’re going to do in terms of going forward.’ Ultimately Victorians, each and every one of them, are paying the price for a reckless government and a reckless Premier who could not manage anything, let alone taxpayer money and the Victorian government.

Josh BULL (Sunbury) (16:17): I am not really sure what we just witnessed there. It was a fairly flat contribution. It was a bit Weekend at Bernie’s or Mr Bean’s New Year’s Eve party, where he sends the invite out to the whole suburb, two people show up and they change the clock to leave early. It was just an extraordinary, very, very flat sort of contribution. I am pleased to follow on from –

Tim Richardson: That was quite a funny joke.

Josh BULL: Thanks, member for Mordialloc. That is a compliment from you. I am pleased to have the opportunity to follow on from the previous member to speak about this matter of public importance. What we have seen are, of course, no surprises from the one-trick pony, the member for Caulfield. In his contribution, the member for Caulfield spoke about the speed of trains, which is a fair point. Do you know the slowest type of train, member for Mordialloc? A train that does not exist. What we have seen in question time and throughout the course of the last couple of weeks is those opposite at each and every opportunity barrack for failure when it comes to our Big Build. What do we see? Cheap political games, undermining the hard work of the entire team of the Big Build, and barracking for failure.

Those opposite can continue to do that. That is fine by us. They can keep barracking for failure, they can keep losing elections, they can keep losing respect and they can keep sending a message to the Victorian community that there is one side of politics in this great state that is committed to getting things done, that is committed to making sure we are delivering the big projects, the important projects, the projects that change communities and indeed the projects that Victorians vote for.

Granted, those opposite did not have many matters to deal with when it came to Big Build projects. They did not have many matters to deal with because there was nothing on the books. There was nothing to deliver. For four years, member for Monbulk – they were those miserable, lonely years – there were no projects delivered, no jobs created, no communities transformed, no communities changed. And what do we see today, last week and each and every time they come into this place – albeit it is a little bit flat for those opposite today. We of course are focusing on delivering, on making sure we are investing in supporting communities, removing level crossings, delivering the Metro Tunnel and delivering the Suburban Rail Loop. While those opposite can continue to block and stop, we will focus on the projects that Victorians voted for and the projects that our community wholeheartedly have endorsed and supported.

Members on this side of the house and this Allan Labor government know and understand that projects of this size and scale require complex planning, design and investment, and they do cause significant disruption. What we see is a conversation with the community: do you or do you not want to remove a dangerous and congested level crossing to make your community safer? That is wholeheartedly endorsed and supported. We know and understand that that is a significant undertaking. It takes a massive workforce, it takes planning, it takes investment, it takes design and it takes vision. What we see from those opposite is a vision vacuum. There is nothing. It is far easier to undermine, to talk the workforce down and to disrespect local communities.

I did have the opportunity just a couple of weeks ago to head down to the wonderful community that is Croydon for the opening of the Croydon station. There was a bit of excitement and there was a bit of a buzz around town. I think they thought you were coming, member for Mordialloc, rather than me, but that is okay. What was really pleasing to do on that visit was speak to the local community about what this was going to mean for them. I did also see in a later Facebook post the member for Croydon celebrating the opening of the station. I think that is a good thing. I commend –

A member interjected.

Josh BULL: A good local member indeed; I take up the interjection. But what we see is those opposite walking two sides of the street. They will slap, they will slam and they will criticise our projects, and then they will go out to the community and say, ‘Job done. We did it.’

A member: And that’s the Greens.

Josh BULL: Well, not that bad. We on this side of the house are committed to ensuring that the more than 17,000 Victorians that are directly employed on the Big Build continue to get the skills, the training and the opportunities that they deserve and indeed make our state better and fairer along that journey. For every 100 jobs on the Big Build, there are 200 more supported through the supply chain ‍– at peak construction, 38,000 indirect jobs and 50,000 across the entire economy. That is what those opposite want to stop. We know and understand that the more than 277 million hours that have been worked across the Big Build thus far have not only transformed communities but they have changed and shaped lives. We are a team that is committed to making sure that we deliver those projects at each and every opportunity.

We know projects such as the Metro Tunnel – and I have had the opportunity to be at all five of our brand new stations over recent times – this transformative project with those twin 9-kilometre tunnels and the connection of the Sunbury line to the Cranbourne and Pakenham lines, is a game changer. Just today we saw in question time those opposite taking the time to again try to undermine what is going to be an amazing, transformative project. I will guarantee you that those opposite will indeed be on those trains and will be more than happy to get off those trains at the amazing Parkville precinct and all of the other train stations that we will deliver as part of this project. It is the single biggest investment in the heavy rail network since 1981 – imagine the Victorian community without the city loop.

This is about ensuring that we have a determined vision to get on and get things done. That is the vision of the Premier and the Minister for Transport Infrastructure, who each and every day are supporting that workforce and supporting projects that Victorians voted for. We know, whether it is the Metro Tunnel, whether it is the West Gate Tunnel, whether it is removing level crossings or whether it is delivering the Suburban Rail Loop or the North East Link, we are committed to focusing on those jobs, those communities and each and every positive, and there are many, that these projects bring. Compare and contrast that to what we have just seen. To talk down, to undermine and to find every single opportunity to attack these projects is not just shameful behaviour, it is simply not being a decent Victorian, but I do not know why we are overly surprised about that.

We are getting on and we are delivering these projects. We know that by 2050 Melbourne will be home to more than 9 million people, roughly the size that London is today, and that growth is important in the context of jobs and in the context of homes and in making sure we are delivering to those precincts, those communities that deserve it, transport when and where they need it.

There is also commentary around the ability to work across our country communities, across the regions, and make sure that we are supporting all Victorians. What we know and understand is that these projects also benefit rural and regional Victoria. We know and understand – and I see the member in celebration over on the other side of the house – that it is incredibly important that we support every single Victorian. That is the government we are, and that is the government we will always be.

I want to take the opportunity to again thank and acknowledge the massive team, the huge team, involved in all of these projects, whether it be the Metro or whether it be the West Gate Tunnel. The transformation that is delivered through removing a level crossing is significant and is fundamentally important to local communities. If, Speaker, you were to have a crystal ball and go back 10 years, which is a significant period of time now, and look at the commitment to removing 50 dangerous and congested level crossings, the first commitment that was made, and the commentary at the time – ‘couldn’t be done’, ‘wouldn’t be done’, ‘shouldn’t be done’ – and fast-forward to four years later, it was those opposite that had the grand policy, which unfortunately was not delivered, of removing I think it was 55 intersections across the state. Of course we know and understand that we took a real, comprehensive, costed and budgeted plan to the people of Victoria that was endorsed.

This is about making sure that we are catering for growth, we are creating new jobs, we are creating new skills and we are setting our city and our state up for generations to come. All members of this house should – and I stress ‘should’ – know and understand the importance of investing in public transport, of working with our workforce and of making sure that we are delivering high-class facilities to communities when and where they need them. Making sure that we are doing this work and having the opportunity to do so is really, really important.

But we are not going to stop. Unfortunately what some will do when they get the chance and the opportunity is go out to the community, spook the community, operate in fear, operate in division and operate in a system of effectively undermining every good project that is within the community, that is being delivered and that is supported.

The Suburban Rail Loop will be a significant and important project for the Victorian community. The Metro Tunnel will open next year – as will the West Gate Tunnel – a critical project that is going to make our community stronger, fairer and better. Those opposite, frankly, need to go back to the party room, and sort out the divisions that they have, which are many and varied – and we are probably going to see a few more of those over the next month, I would have thought, or month and a half. It is going to be a very big finals series. But we are making sure that we are supporting communities and we are delivering on all of these projects.

You have only got to look to our friends up north who just a couple of weeks ago opened a significant metro project. What we saw in New South Wales was an acknowledgement that there is a long period of delivery when it comes to major transport projects and of course they do cause a great deal of disruption. The reflection that I would bring to the house is that what we saw in that set of circumstances was an acknowledgement from both sides of the political spectrum that those projects needed to be delivered, because to not do them would cost a whole lot more. You have got to have an opportunity to deliver these projects, and I think that the vast majority of Victorians would support, and have supported at three elections now, these projects. We are committed to ensuring we are delivering for all Victorians in the removal of level crossings, the delivery of Metro and the delivery of our massive program of road upgrades.

We will ensure that at every opportunity we are working closely with and listening to Victorians and we are making sure that they know and understand that with that investment – whether it be in transport, whether it be in housing, whether it be in a whole range of services that we can provide – we will listen, we will act and we will make the hard decisions when and where we need to, as opposed to blocking, stopping, playing cheap political games or coming in here and delivering what is just theatre. Out there in the community, relieving congestion and improving safety are what matter to people. Getting people home safer, sooner and in a better and fairer way is what this government is committed to. We will ensure that we are always listening to make sure that we are putting people first, and we will always deliver for the people of this great state.

Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (16:31): I am very pleased to rise and support the matter of public importance submitted by the member for Caulfield. I want to support the member for Sunbury because I am indebted to him for enlightening the chamber on how much the government’s Big Build program is delivering for rural and regional Victoria. In Casterton they are ecstatic about the Suburban Rail Loop (SRL). In Orbost they are just waiting for the North East Link to be finished. In Mildura they are excited about the Metro Tunnel and the blowout up there. In Shepparton they cannot wait to see the West Gate Tunnel open because that is going to make a big difference to their lives as well. We get the member for Sunbury and the Premier saying the Suburban Rail Loop will be great for all Victorians. Like I said, in Cavendish they are waiting every morning for the newspaper delivery to come. They are standing outside waiting to find out the update on the Suburban Rail Loop because it is going to make a big difference in Cavendish and in Portland and in all those areas.

They are seeing this $40 billion blowout on the Big Build, and in the meantime those of us in rural and regional Victoria are driving around on goat tracks because our roads are absolutely appalling because of the management of this government. Every time there is a blowout on a major project in Melbourne, what happens? The government finds the money for it. But when we raised concerns about our local roads in the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee last year, the department said it had not met its targets on upgrading local roads because there had been a ‘unit cost increase’ in the cost of doing the roads. Did the government put any extra money in to make sure that we actually met the targets and fixed our roads? No. There was nothing for rural and regional Victoria to fix our major roads, but if there is a $10 billion blowout on the North East Link, ‘No worries, Tim, I will just sign another cheque.’ What was it, $888 million, member for Caulfield, on the Metro Tunnel? Oh yeah, we will sign up for that because we want it open in time for the election, so we will put in an extra billion dollars – no problem at all. Rural and regional Victorians are absolutely not buying this spin from the government about the Big Build because they are not seeing any benefit.

I could go through some of the projects that are not happening. The member for Ripon would like to talk about, I am sure, the Western Highway duplication at Buangor. She might say and the government might say, quite rightly, that there are reasons for that, but perhaps they could explain why the Ararat to Stawell section is not happening. The government’s Big Build website states that the planning was completed in 2013. What year are we in now? 2024, 11 years down the track and it has not progressed. Likewise the Kilmore bypass and the Traralgon bypass, member for Morwell. I think I was about 12 when the first stage of the Traralgon bypass was planned. I am 50 now and it still has not progressed. What is happening with the Yarrawonga–Mulwala bridge, member for Ovens Valley? Built in 1939, it will probably be another hundred years before that gets done too, the way we are going. The Swan Hill bridge, likewise. The north-west rail, the Murray Basin rail project – the government likes to talk about what it does for rail and what the opposition did on rail. Well, that is again a monumental catastrophe of management. And guess who was in charge of the Murray Basin rail? The Premier today. It is another one that the Premier has touched and just messed up. And that is just on transport infrastructure.

I would like to touch on a couple of things that are of small relevance in a statewide sense but really important. The bushfires occurred over the new year period in 2019–20, yet the member for Gippsland East will tell you that for some of the rebuilding projects from the bushfires, like the Thurra River bridge and the Cape Conran cabins, it is five years that we have been waiting for the government to rebuild those facilities in East Gippsland. It is taking five years to actually deliver something. The Thurra River bridge, taking you to the Croajingolong campgrounds at Thurra River, is very important for a place like Cann River – a place that has lost much of its economic base in the last 10 years because the Labor government shut down the timber industry. So what has the government done? ‘Oh yeah, we’re going to step in and look after Thurra River and Cann River. No, no, we are going on the go-slow there. We’ll get to it when we feel like it.’ The words of the then Premier saying to the member for Gippsland East that we will walk beside you in this recovery ring pretty hollow when you hear that sort of outcome. You can go through plenty of them. Sealers Cove walk at Wilsons Prom in my electorate – damaged in 2021. It will be 2025 before they are going to fix it, if you are lucky. We are seeing time and time again throughout this state where regional Victoria misses out.

A couple of years ago I asked the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) to look at the infrastructure investment of city versus country. It was bad enough when you include the Commonwealth government contributions, but knowing, as I do and as my colleagues do, that the federal coalition government had put a lot of money into regional projects –

Members interjecting.

Danny O’BRIEN: I am talking about regional – like the Regional Rail Revival, which the current Premier likes to talk about a lot, yet it was actually the federal coalition government that funded most of it. Notwithstanding the new federal Labor government is now having to kick up another $300 million for the Gippsland line, and we still have not got the Bunyip River bridge done. We still have got Longwarry train station with a platform but no rail. Is that the case?

Wayne Farnham: Correct.

Danny O’BRIEN: This is just the state of things. Anyway, I asked the PBO to do an assessment of infrastructure spending, and he found, when you took out the Australian government contributions ‍– this is the 2021–22 budget, mind you; this is before we had a $10 billion blowout on the North East Link and before we had the blowouts on the Suburban Rail Loop – that there were projects in the metropolitan area of $79 billion and projects in regional areas of $11 billion. I want to put that in context. That is asset investment per person in the metropolitan region of $15,000; in regional areas it is $7000. You do not hear the member for Ripon, the member for Wendouree, the member for Eureka and the member for Macedon complaining. The member for – well, you are not really regional, Yan Yean, sorry. Maybe the member for Lara might actually speak up. Where are the government regional members? I would not include you in that, Speaker, in deference of course. Where are they speaking up?

The figure I have just given per person in metropolitan Victoria shows 114 per cent more infrastructure investment than for someone in regional Victoria. As I said, that is before the $10 billion blowout on the North East Link. Imagine what those figures would be now. It is an absolute disgrace that the government is wasting this money – $40 billion of blowouts on these projects – and yet we are still waiting for things. We are waiting in my electorate for investment in Sale College and in Foster Primary School. We are waiting for a new stadium at Mirboo North primary and secondary schools. We are wanting kamikaze corner in Leongatha to be fixed up. The Minister for Roads and Road Safety is at the table. Maybe she could listen to that one and fix that too. We are waiting for erosion at Loch Sport to be finished before it wipes away houses because the government has done nothing for seven years. Yet at the same time we have $188 billion of debt and regional Victorians who are missing out on all of this investment are getting nothing, and now we are being asked to pay for that debt. We have got the increases in land tax. We have got the increases in payroll tax. We have got the schools payroll tax if you happen to send your kids to a private school. We have got the vacant residential land tax. We have got the windfall gains tax. And as of yesterday, now we have the Airbnb tax, of which 50 ‍per cent of those Airbnbs are in regional Victoria. So we get nothing but we have got to pay extra for it and our kids are going to be saddled with $188 billion in debt.

The SRL in particular – I mean, I have been on the record in this place before saying that this in theory is a good project, the idea of having an orbital loop. In theory it is a good project. In principle it is good. In principle it is also good that I have a private island in the South Pacific, but I cannot afford that and neither can this state. This is a project that does not stack up. The federal government is showing that it does not stack up, and if this project goes ahead under this government regional Victoria will suffer again for decades at a time as it sucks investment away from us. We have got goat tracks for roads at the moment. That is only going to continue if this government continues with this project program.

Nick STAIKOS (Bentleigh) (16:42): The Nationals should be the lead coalition partner, but there is no justice in this world. When we were emailed this matter of public importance yesterday late afternoon, I was really, really happy to have the opportunity to speak on it because I will always relish the opportunity to talk about Labor’s infrastructure agenda, the same infrastructure agenda that, as we speak, is directly employing more than 17,000 Victorians. Every time they pursue this decade-old campaign against Labor’s Big Build, they are saying to those Victorians that they should be out of a job.

I sat through the member for Caulfield’s appalling contribution. We know that the member for Caulfield has always had a dubious relationship with the truth, and I was absolutely staggered the other day when he started tweeting about Pinocchio, referring to other people as Pinocchio and trying to claim that they had a problem with the truth. This is the same member for Caulfield who literally pretended to be a professor. This is the same member for Caulfield –

Brad Rowswell interjected.

Nick STAIKOS: I will come to you in a moment, member for Sandringham.

Brad Rowswell: On a point of order, Speaker, accusations such as are being made by the member for Bentleigh can only be made by substantive motion. The member for Caulfield is not even in the chamber. It is a pretty low act. I would ask you to pull up the member for Bentleigh.

The SPEAKER: Member for Bentleigh, I ask you not to reflect on other members in the chamber.

Nick STAIKOS: It was widely reported in the papers and the member for Caulfield admitted to it, but I digress. The Liberals always oppose infrastructure. We have seen that over the 10 years that this government has been in power. They oppose level crossing removals. Even before we were in government, the then Premier Denis Napthine said that it was not possible to remove 50 level crossings over eight years. Well, here we are, we have removed 84 level crossings. That was not even the worst thing that Denis Napthine said. On the Metro Tunnel, this is what Denis Napthine said before we were even in government:

Having a massive hole dividing Melbourne would be worse than the Berlin Wall …

It would be absolutely detrimental to the operation of Melbourne …

In other words, building the Metro Tunnel would be worse than the Berlin Wall. This is what the former Premier said, but here we are 10 years later about to open the Metro Tunnel. We are about to open the Metro Tunnel, and it is a transformational project because the difference between those of us on this side of the house and those on that side of the house is that those of us in this government are ambitious for Melbourne. We see Melbourne as one of the great cities of the world. We are all well-travelled people. Go to New York, go to Tokyo, go to London – equally great global cities but with far superior public transport systems. We are changing that. I know they are well travelled as well; they in particular like to enjoy their travel allowances. They go overseas and they see the rail systems that exist in these great global cities. So I question: why do they not want the same for Melbourne? Why do they not want the same for a city that by the end of this decade is going to overtake Sydney as Australia’s most populous capital city or a city that by the 2050s is going to be the size that London is today? The trouble with the Liberal Party is they show no ambition for this state. When they try to enter the infrastructure debate, they do rubbish like we saw during the 2018 election campaign, when the former and probably future leader, the member for Bulleen, promised intersection removals. Do we remember the intersection removals?

A member interjected.

Nick STAIKOS: That is right. We were going to have all these off-ramps and on-ramps and flyovers. It lasted one day. It was a $5 billion announcement. After they made it, they were so embarrassed by it that it literally just died on its bum. This is how they treat infrastructure.

I have got to say, we need the Suburban Rail Loop. There is a long list of reasons why a city like Melbourne needs the Suburban Rail Loop. One is that it will connect our rail system to universities, to TAFEs and to health precincts. Let us play a little game. The game is called ‘Which Liberal Premier didn’t oppose infrastructure?’

A member: Which one?

Nick STAIKOS: Henry Bolte, because Henry Bolte in 1969 released the Melbourne transportation plan. And what was in that plan? A rail line to Monash University. In fact do you know what else? What are the three largest universities in Australia? I looked this up just earlier today. The three largest universities in Australia, from the top: Monash University, the University of Melbourne and RMIT. For all three the Allan Labor government is putting a train station at their door, because we believe that these large universities and these large health precincts need to have proper public transport connections.

Do you know what else? As for Suburban Rail Loop East, the Monash national employment and innovation cluster is the largest jobs hub outside of the CBD. Currently it has approximately 75,000 ‍jobs, and it is projected by the 2050s to have an additional 162,000 jobs. That is because that hub is home to Monash University, Monash Medical Centre, Monash Children’s Hospital, Monash heart hospital, the Australian Synchrotron, the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication, and Moderna. I know they do not all support vaccines on that side, but Moderna is in that hub thanks to this government. But those opposite do not believe that by the 2050s or by the 2030s – when it is already a jobs hub, the largest job hubs out of the CBD, and it is going to get exponentially larger by the time the Suburban Rail Loop is over – that precinct will require any public transport.

I think one of the most egregious things I have seen relating to their opposition to the Suburban Rail Loop lately concerns the member for Sandringham. The member for Sandringham and I share something in common. We are both millennials – only just, but we are both technically millennials. I think millennials started sometime in the early 1980s. The other thing we share in common is we both grew up in our electorates. Our electorates are neighbouring. In fact if you stand in the middle of Southland shopping centre, you are in two places at once because we have half of that shopping centre each. The other thing we have in common is that we still live in our electorates. And you know what we need to do, and the Premier said this during question time: we need to give other millennials, other young people, the opportunity to live where they were raised, to live where they grew up. But the member for Sandringham is out in his electorate running a scare campaign against the development that will follow the Suburban Rail Loop. I ask the member for Sandringham: if you cannot have higher density housing so people can have somewhere to live on an old gas worksite on the Nepean Highway, adjacent to the Frankston railway line, adjacent to the Suburban Rail Loop, between two industrial precincts 15 kilometres from the CBD and next to a major shopping centre, where can you build it? This is dirty, ugly politics.

He has not stopped there – he has gone around on this scare campaign, saying that we are going to take away 50 per cent of Sir William Fry Reserve and we have no plans to replace that open space. We have said time and time again we will replace every square inch of the open space at Sir William Fry Reserve. These are scare campaigns, because they have got nothing else. I get it – we are all politicians. This is an easy way to whip up a scare campaign. I understand he has got a public meeting scheduled soon where no doubt he will be sprouting more untruths.

But, do you know what, some things are actually bigger than politics. We have a housing crisis, and the SRL is not just a transport plan, it is a housing plan. We want 70,000 additional homes along the entire alignment of the Suburban Rail Loop East, because unlike those opposite we are ambitious about this state, we are ambitious about Melbourne and we are looking to the 2050s. We are looking to what Melbourne is going to look like in the 2050s, because in 30 years time, if we do not do any of this, the future generation will not thank us.

Brad ROWSWELL (Sandringham) (16:51): I also rise to address the matter of public importance submitted by the member for Caulfield relating to Labor’s Big Build, relating to CFMEU-driven cost blowouts and relating to the impact of the Suburban Rail Loop on our economy and our community. Where did the member for Bentleigh go? He has gone. He had a few things to say about me, so it is disappointing that he is not here in the chamber to hear the return serve. The thing is that what I am doing in my community is listening to my community and what I am doing is hearing my community when it comes to the Suburban Rail Loop. Those on the government side of the chamber will say time and time again, ‘We didn’t just take the Suburban Rail Loop to one election, we took it to two elections, and that gives us the mandate to deliver the Suburban Rail Loop.’ I will tell you that the truth of that in my community is this: the majority of my community did not vote for the Suburban Rail Loop. In fact they voted for me – not once, in 2018, but twice, again in 2022. In the intervening period between 2018 and 2022 I increased my margin by about 5.5 per cent, such is the disdain for Labor’s Suburban Rail Loop in my community.

It is untrue to say that everything was known about Labor’s Suburban Rail Loop before the 2020 election. In fact it is only after the 2022 election that we are actually understanding the truth of Labor’s Suburban Rail Loop – 18-storey, high-density, high-rise towers in my community next to one- and two-storey suburban lots. That is unacceptable. My community did not vote for that. My community did not vote for 6000 cubic metres of category A toxic waste to be removed from the Sir William Fry Reserve, which is what needs to be done before Joan the boring machine arrives onsite to start building these tunnels to wherever they are going. My community did not vote for the government to remove more than 50 per cent of Sir William Fry Reserve. Sir William Fry Reserve is a much-loved passive recreational space in my community. Yes, the government has said that it plans to replace it metre for metre, but where and when? Those details are sadly lacking. These are the things that my community did not vote for, these are the things that Victorians did note vote for and these are the things that Victorians – certainly Victorians in my community – need to be informed about. That is why next Thursday night I will be holding a community forum on these matters: to inform my community, to engage with my community, to hear my community and to come back to this place and convey to the government the truth of this project and the impact of it on my community.

Set all of that aside just for one minute. Let us talk about the economics of this. The government, the Premier as recently as today in question time, would not confirm that the expected amount for the Suburban Rail Loop of, what is it, $34.5 billion will in fact stay. Given the history of this government over the last 10 years – 10 years of Labor and 10 Labor budgets – chances are, if you look at history, it will be another Labor government blowout and Victorians will pay the price. I have a very firm view on these matters. At this point in our history we are in the middle of a hospital and health crisis. When education standards in this state are flatlining if not declining, we have got 30 per cent of students in grade 3 who cannot count to 20 after 10 years of Labor. That is the circumstance in this state. We have got a health and hospital crisis, we have got an education crisis and we have got a housing crisis, and this government are so darned set, so bloody-minded on delivering this vanity SRL project that they have forgotten people. They have forgotten the Victorian people. This is what happens after 10 years of being in government. This is not a partisan comment. This is what happens after 10 years of being in government – hubris sets in. They stop listening to the people who have given them the great privilege of being there and serving the state in the first place.

The SRL is friendless. Whether it is the Grattan Institute, whether it is RMIT’s Professor Michael Buxton or whether it is the Rail Futures Institute, the SRL is absolutely and utterly friendless, and it is about time this Labor government read the tea leaves and read the Labor pollster’s publication. Who was it? Old mate Kos was out there saying the SRL is friendless. Fair dinkum, read the tea leaves, get with the program, because we simply cannot afford it and we should be prioritising the Victorian people over vanity projects. Every day ending in ‘Y’ this Labor government simply do not get it.

Just yesterday the ABS released its latest business figures in Victoria. Do you know how many businesses have closed down or have left this state in the last 12 months?

Wayne Farnham interjected.

Brad ROWSWELL: Thank you very much, member for Narracan – top prize for you. 152,000 ‍businesses have closed down in this state or left this state in the last 12 months. At this point in our history we have got the highest debt in the country, the highest unemployment in the country, the lowest wage growth in the country and the highest inflation in the country. This is a government that is so darned set on creating their Big Build, which will in fact end up being Victorians’ big bill. It is a Labor government that Victorians simply cannot afford.

On the Metro Tunnel, just yesterday it was revealed there would be $888 million on top of the already $3.36 billion total cost blowout on that project. Where is that money coming from? Just last sitting week, a couple of weeks ago, it was revealed that this government plan to pour $1.5 billion into health. They first claimed that there were no health cuts. They swore black and blue there have been no health cuts – ‘record funding for health’ – and yet they come around and they say, ‘No, no, no. $1.5 billion of additional money for health.’ But where is that coming from? The Treasurer was out there at the doors of this place and he said, ‘No, no, we will not be increasing our debt.’ So if you are not increasing your debt, how do you pay the $1.5 billion? Here are your two options: you cut services or projects, or you raise taxes. They are the only two other ways of increasing revenue. Whether it is the $1.5 billion two weeks ago or the $888 million, close to $1 billion, just yesterday, Labor cannot manage money and they cannot manage projects, and Victorians, day after day, week after week, year after year, are paying the price.

The thing that keeps me up at night is this: there are still two and a bit years until the next election. I am generally an optimistic person, I am generally a hopeful person, but I hate to say it: for the next two years Victorians should be on notice, because if you look to the last 10 years of the economic destruction that has wreaked havoc on this state at the hands of Premier Andrews and now Premier Allan, I think it is fair to say that Victorians should expect more.

If you want to know what people are going to do in the future, look to what they have done in the past: 55 new or increased taxes, and half of those on the property sector. With a new build in this state at the minute, on a greenfield site anywhere between 30 to 45 per cent of that new build is government taxes, fees or charges, and this government wonders why we are in the middle of a housing crisis. The cost of building a new place on a greenfield site is going through the roof thanks to the taxes that this Labor government has handed down over the last 10 years – more than $40 billion on project cost overruns, on blowouts on major projects, alone in the last decade. It was the Masters Builders Association who actually had the gumption to put a figure on that, saying that around 30 per cent of cost blowouts are attributed to union involvement in this state. That is the state of things after 10 years of Labor, after 10 Labor budgets.

Victorians continue to pay the price. I say to those Victorians who may very well hear this contribution at some point in the future: there is a better way; there must be a better way. I say to Victorian businesses: it will not always be like this; Labor will not always be in charge. There is a new government coming – a new government that promises hope, that promises aspiration, that will get out of your way, that will roll out more red carpet and less red tape and that will incentivise Victorian businesses to create wealth and to create opportunity. That is what we offer. In November 2026 Victorians will have a choice, after 10 years of Labor – it will be 12 years at that point. Fair dinkum, Victoria is sick of this lot. There is a better way, and it is coming.

Ella GEORGE (Lara) (17:02): I am absolutely delighted to rise today to speak on this matter of public importance on the Allan Labor government’s Big Build. I am proud to be a member of this government because on this side of the house we understand the importance of investing in the future of our state – investing in projects that drive our economy, create jobs and provide the vital services and infrastructure that this state needs. It is not for the first time recently that the opposition should be thanked for an MPI topic. Today’s once again misses the mark on delivering a perceived blow against the Allan Labor government. What this MPI topic actually does is give us on this side of the house an opportunity to praise the many – because there are many – projects and ways in which our government supports Victorians through investment in public infrastructure. But I guess that is not surprising, because when all you do with the gift of government is cut, it shows that you do not understand the important role that major projects have in our state’s growth and economy.

Our state is growing rapidly. In 2050 it is predicted Melbourne will be home to around 9 million people and Victoria will grow to 11 million. It is expected that Geelong will grow to 500,000 residents, and that is a massive growth considering our current population is just shy of 300,000 people. Planning for this growth is needed right now, and we cannot afford to leave it too late. As a member of this house that represents the Geelong community, I know that the constituents of the Lara electorate do understand this and can see the benefits of this government’s Big Build projects. They can see how these projects are building the infrastructure that is needed now and to futureproof our state. The Big Build is not just about infrastructure delivery; there are 17,000 Victorians directly employed in Victoria’s Big Build. For every 100 jobs the Big Build creates, it supports an additional 200 jobs through the supply chains. Our projects have a positive impact on both direct and indirect employment, making a valuable investment for our community.

I had a great weekend. I spent a lot of time with my dog Blue. We got out to the park for some lovely walks in the beautiful Geelong sunshine. On Saturday night I joined many of my colleagues – some from this side, some from the other side – at the Premier’s multicultural gala with the Premier and the Minister for Multicultural Affairs. It was a fantastic evening. We had about 450 people. The member for Caulfield was there; he had a fantastic evening. The member for Point Cook also had an excellent time. We celebrated Victoria’s multicultural communities, with about 450 people attending. For the first time this government brought it to the regions.

On Sunday morning I joined the hardworking members for Geelong and Bellarine, the Minister for Regional Development, the Minister for Transport Infrastructure and of course the Premier at the South Geelong train station to celebrate the completion of the South Geelong to Waurn Ponds rail duplication, a project funded by the Allan Labor government. This is a massive project that would never have been completed under those opposite, because at every opportunity when in government they failed to invest in these big projects that regional Victorians need.

This project is part of the Australian and Victorian governments’ more than $1 billion investment into the staged upgrade of the Geelong line. Works have included removal of level crossings at Fyans Street and Surf Coast Highway and the construction of elevated rail bridges. I cannot tell you how excited people are in Geelong about these level crossing removals. It is the first time we have had them in Geelong. For years we have seen the benefits of the Level Crossing Removal Project across metropolitan Melbourne, and these are just fantastic investments in our community.

We have upgraded the South Geelong and Marshall stations with improved facilities and accessibility. This includes new station buildings. There is an overpass at South Geelong now – I never thought I would see that happen. There are forecourts and second platforms, more shelter and better wayfinding; 8 kilometres of track duplication in sections from South Geelong Station to Breakwater Road and from Marshalltown Road to Waurn Ponds station; more than 5 kilometres of new walking and cycling paths, linking existing trails and paths – this will create a continuous connection between South Geelong and Waurn Ponds; and signalling upgrades, new green open spaces and urban design improvements

This is such a massive project for the Geelong community, and the removal of these level crossings will reduce congestion for thousands of drivers each day. I have been down the Surf Coast Highway. It is so quick now; it is absolutely fantastic. The duplication works will go a long way in making it easier for trains to pass each other, which will improve reliability and reduce unexpected delays. This project also opens the door to additional services between Marshall and Waurn Ponds being added in the future. Construction teams have worked around the clock on a 72-day blitz, and I thank them so much for all of their hard work in delivering this project. The excitement in the community was palpable on Monday morning when trains were back on the Geelong and Warrnambool lines.

Another fantastic project from the Allan Labor government’s Big Build is the regional rail revival – something we are so proud of and all of our regional MPs are so proud of – upgrading every single regional passenger line in Victoria. This program is funded by a $4 billion investment from the state government and the Commonwealth government. Through this project we will see the delivery of more frequent and reliable services while creating 3000 jobs and supplier opportunities in regional Victoria. So far, five of the 10 projects have been completed as part of this revival. The projects include 200 new and extended services across the Ararat, Ballarat, Echuca, Shepparton, Warrnambool and Geelong lines; 14 completed station upgrades, including the two we have just opened at South Geelong and Marshall; four brand new stations; VLocity trains travelling on these lines for the first time ever; new stabling facilities being completed in Geelong, Ballarat and Shepparton; 316 kilometres of new and upgraded track across Victoria, including that beautiful 8 kilometres we have just opened in Geelong; more than 114 level crossings upgraded; and more than a thousand new and upgraded car parks, including upgrades of car parks at North Geelong and North Shore stations in the electorate of Lara. And there are still many more projects underway.

Despite the sanctimonious claims of those opposite, the vast majority of our projects are delivered on budget and on time, with many delivered ahead of schedule. This is at a time when we are seeing major projects right across the country and indeed worldwide facing unprecedented challenges, workforce shortages and supply challenges. We are seeing increased costs of materials and labour and workforce shortages pushing up the costs of things around the state, and yet this government is still delivering on major transport infrastructure upgrades.

We are not only building big in road and rail, but we are also helping to build thousands of new homes. Our $5.3 billion Big Housing Build is making sure more Victorians have a roof over their heads, with 9200 homes already under construction or completed. In Geelong this means there are 146 new projects totalling over $200 million in housing value. There have been 341 homes already completed, with another 222 on the way. This investment in Geelong has created over 1800 jobs.

Transport infrastructure across Victoria has greatly benefited from the Allan Labor government’s substantial investment of over $100 billion. With the population projected to reach 11 million people by the 2050s, the ongoing development of rail and road projects is essential for keeping people moving and promoting a more sustainable and enjoyable living environment. Our government’s infrastructure investment will offer increased housing options for residents and address the growing public transportation and suitable housing locations. The alternative, and what those opposite are suggesting, is that we cancel and pause these projects that Victorians have overwhelmingly voted for many times now. This would mean sacking 17,000 workers and cancelling 50,000 jobs, so my question to the opposition is: who are you going to sack first? We know that we need these projects in our state. That is what we are getting on and building. I note that the motion is concerned about the future of our state. Under Labor, Victoria is thriving. The real threat to the future of our state is the Liberal opposition.

Chris CREWTHER (Mornington) (17:10): I rise to speak on this matter of public importance submitted by the member for Caulfield:

That this house recognises –

quoting from Nick McKenzie’s CFMEU exposé –

that ‘the Big Build … is absolutely rotten’ … and condemns the Allan Labor government for:

(1) the disastrous CFMEU-driven cost blowouts exceeding $40 billion across major projects … and

(2) the wasteful $216 billion Suburban Rail Loop, which is pushing Victoria’s debt to $187.8 billion by 2027 …

This Labor government has been in power for 21 of the last 25 years and for the last 10 years in a row. Other than governing interactions between people to prevent injustice and ensuring a just and fair society, any government must do three things. It must maximise freedom, opportunity and hope. It must maximise freedom for people to live their lives and express their views insofar as it is possible. It must create equality of opportunity so people are not disadvantaged by where they live or the circumstances of their upbringing. It must enable hope so people can aspire to achieve their dreams and be rewarded for their effort. But if we look at the results under this Labor government, the opposite has happened. People have less freedom, less opportunity and less hope.

A blatant example has been this Labor government’s total mismanagement of the state infrastructure agenda, particularly the Big Build – or, as the member for Sandringham called it, the big bill. Premier Allan has overseen the rot that has infected Victoria’s infrastructure projects, with Nick McKenzie and others laying bare incompetence and corruption, particularly as they pertain to Labor’s CFMEU alliance. When taxpayers give up their hard-earned money to government, they expect government to manage that money wisely. Instead we have seen CFMEU-driven cost blowouts exceeding $40 billion across major projects and a white elephant $216 billion Suburban Rail Loop.

Since December last year road and rail projects have blown out by an eye-watering over $12 billion, costing taxpayers an extra $83 million each and every day. We have the West Gate Tunnel, three years late and more than $4 billion over budget, bogged down by a toxic soil crisis, cost overruns and legal troubles. We have the Metro Tunnel, blown out from about $11 billion to at least $14 billion, with another $888 million in secret top-up payments negotiated by the Allan Labor government. The rail line to Melbourne Airport has also been delayed, on ice for four years and facing a $3 billion shortfall. Meanwhile the North East Link has blown out by more than $10 billion and is now estimated to cost over $26 billion. Despite Labor announcing the total cost of the Suburban Rail Loop in 2018 to be around $50 billion, with no real business case, it has blown out now to more than four times that amount. These are not just abstract numbers that mean nothing. This is the blood, sweat and tears of hardworking Victorians. As per a quote used by Annika Smethurst in a recent article, it has been ‘over budget, over time, under benefits, over and over again’ with every project. Victorians continue to pay the price of Labor’s major project mismanagement.

It is not just major projects; there are also many other overrun projects. I was really involved in fighting for traders and employees in and off Young Street in Frankston from 2017 onwards. With the state Labor government’s Young Street upgrades, they put up with delay after delay after delay for nearly a year with seemingly no consequences for delays and increased project costs. This meant cars could not park near the shops and it totally reduced foot traffic over, from memory, two Christmas trading periods. Even my wife’s relatives in South Korea were shocked at how long this supposedly simple project was taking. It meant many traders were struggling to survive. Many had to cull employees and lost profits, with one saying she took just $2 in one day and went out of business. One suicided. It was so bad that then councillor Steve Toms was booted out of the Labor Party after doing the right thing by standing up for traders. I wrote to now Premier Allan in 2017 and raised it in Parliament at the time, calling for her intervention to assist traders impacted by the delays – traders like Don’s Custom Leatherworks, Fine Touch Hair and Beauty, Lucky’s, Tony’s Local Cash Trader, Eliza Doolittle and more. I got no response from the now Premier, and I still have had no response.

Taxpayers and people like this, calling for justice, continue to be betrayed by a government who throw around taxpayer dollars like Monopoly money. That is taxpayer money – I repeat, taxpayer money – wasted. That is mums and dads, hardworking income earners, students, apprentices, small business owners, traders and employees. It is people struggling with massive cost-of-living pressures – people who are often living pay cheque to pay cheque, increasingly accessing food banks; who cannot get into housing; who are struggling to pay the rent or the mortgage or loans; who are on the ever-increasing public housing waitlist; who are homeless or about to be; who pay taxes and give up their hard-earned cash; who spend time away from children, working day and night or in second jobs, paying their taxes to this Labor government – a Labor government who have just wasted it, as if it was Labor’s money to waste, not the money of the Victorian people.

Labor have wasted it to the point of now approaching a $188 billion debt and a $26 million a day taxpayer-funded interest bill. This waste has meant Labor increasing taxes across the board to try to tax their way out of debt, which we know does not work. It has meant more land tax, affecting rental providers and renters and reducing rental stock; more payroll taxes, affecting small business owners and employees; more schools tax, affecting parents making sacrifices to give their kids the best education; and now a holiday and tourism tax that will impact people holidaying with their family who might need short stays between accommodation or who are offering a home or a room. It has meant more cuts to services and other infrastructure. First were services that the public might not have noticed as much, such as prisons and corrections, but which do have a longer-term impact on crime and recidivism. Then there has been cutting off or delaying investment in rail and buses, often to places that do not have any public transport, particularly trains, such as in my electorate of Mornington, which has no rail services altogether, and such as with projects like the Frankston to Baxter rail line or retirement villages in Mornington with bus shelters but no buses.

Increasingly there are more cuts to what is normally advertised as Labor’s bread and butter – education and health – doing things like cost-shifting to councils, which we hear those like the Mornington Peninsula shire constantly talking about as well. It has meant a lack of investment in what is needed – public housing and crisis accommodation. Instead we have a housing crisis, with rental providers pulling out, meaning less rental stock, higher rents and homelessness at record levels. For example, on the peninsula net public housing has gone backwards under Labor over the last 10 years. Up to 30 per cent of such homes are in disrepair and vacant. We have one crisis accommodation service that could close at any time, and the peninsula is now reported to face the fourth highest level of homelessness in the state. This is despite Labor’s rhetoric and despite the fact that public housing and crisis accommodation are the responsibility of the state government.

It has meant, as I said, interest payments on debt approaching $26 million a day. That is a school redevelopment every single day that could go to many public schools with crumbling 50-year-old infrastructure that is falling apart, like Mount Eliza Secondary. It has meant a Labor government that is scrambling and getting more and more out of touch with the community, ignoring the cries of the community whether on increasing crime rates or people in extremely dodgy apartment buildings, like Culcairn Drive in Frankston, who after several years of struggle cannot go on much longer and need a bailout. These are people that this state Labor government have ignored despite their vulnerability. If you do not listen to people in need, if you do not listen to those who are struggling, if you do not listen to our most vulnerable and if you do not hear the cries of those who are yelling ‘injustice’, you do not deserve to be an MP, and you do not deserve to be in government.

What this all says to me is that we have a government that is increasingly tired and out of touch, failing to come up with new ideas, failing to listen to people, not listening to common sense and being increasingly wasteful with taxpayer funds belonging to the Victorian people. This all says to me that it is time for renewal, not just for our state but for the future of the people of Victoria – time for renewal when by November 2026 this government will have been in power for 23 of the last 27 years. It is time for a Liberal and Nationals government – a government that will lower and reduce red tape and taxes to bring in economic growth and new revenue to Victoria; that will cap, manage and pay down debt; that will focus on strategic infrastructure investment to grow and attract industry, create jobs, increase opportunities and support families; that will increase freedoms trampled on by Labor, particularly during COVID; that will bring in the Government Construction Projects Integrity Bill ‍2024 to block thugs from our construction sites; that will establish construction enforcement Victoria to have real teeth to enforce a reinstated building industry code of practice that will tackle crime and bring consequences to those who reoffend; that will invest in our future for kids and education; and that will bring freedom, opportunity and hope.

Lauren KATHAGE (Yan Yean) (17:21): I was a bit confused; I thought I had come into the wrong room. I thought this was a matter of public importance (MPI), but I am just hearing these sales pitches for a faulty, defective product that I do not want and I do not think many other people want either. Acting Speaker Edbrooke, I am really glad it is you in the chair actually because I want to share with you a really interesting fact, and that is about hot air ballooning. It was 241 years ago yesterday that the first hydrogen-filled balloon took flight. It took off in Paris. It was filled with hot hydrogen. It reached 550 metres. It floated 24 kilometres and landed in the village of Gonesse, where the villagers promptly took pitchforks and knives and destroyed it. They destroyed this floating machine that had landed in their village.

I really reflect on that because it just reminds me so much of those opposite. Why were the villagers so agitated to see this? They did not understand it. They did not understand this new technology, this new mode of transport, and became very agitated and began to attack, and it just sounds like those opposite. They do not understand big projects. They do not understand building infrastructure. They are confused. They see the Metro Tunnel opening coming towards them, and they are scared. They do not know what that is. They do not know how it was made – they would not even know how to make one – and they are freaking out, so they are attacking and they are destroying.

A member interjected.

Lauren KATHAGE: That is their usual way, that is right. Bring out the pitchforks. So that was 241 years ago yesterday. And after the villagers attacked and destroyed the hot air balloon, what do you think happened the next day in Gonesse? Nothing. Nothing happened in the village, because they had destroyed progress through their fear, their misinformation –

Brad Rowswell: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, I do not mind a yarn, I do not mind a story, I do not mind a history lesson, but on relevance I would ask you to draw the speaker back to the evidently sensible matter of public importance submitted by the member for Caulfield.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Edbrooke): I have a lot of faith in the member for Yan Yean and her journey back to the MPI.

Lauren KATHAGE: That quiet day, with nothing happening and no public transport in Gonesse, was very different to what happened in Mernda, which is also celebrating an anniversary – in fact on Monday last it was six years since Labor extended the rail line to Mernda. Coming towards Mernda was a new rail line, and were the villagers scared? No, the people of Mernda were very happy. They were very happy. They rejoiced. And in fact over 100 villagers, member for Sunbury, came to the Mernda train station before dawn for the first service. The first train to roll out of that station had 100 ‍excited locals on it. I encourage those opposite to be like the people of Mernda and less like the people of Gonesse and welcome these new infrastructure projects.

I would now like to speak a bit more about that Mernda rail project, which I hasten to add was delivered six months ahead of schedule. The Premier, then Minister for Transport Infrastructure, when speaking about Mernda rail said:

Why can we extend the rail line to Mernda? Because the previous Labor government extended the rail line to South Morang. That is why we can do this …

because we continue each term of government to work, to build, to extend, to grow, to make better, to make easier, and that is what we continue to do. The last time that South Morang had a functioning railway line it was called the rail motor stopping place 39, and it was a bush stop on the way to Whittlesea, until as a Labor project it was delivered in 2012 – that is right, 2012. It was during the term of those opposite but conceived and funded by our government. Big credit goes to Danielle Green, a local as well, who I will get to. The then public transport minister Terry Mulder, who those opposite might recall, at the opening of this project annoyed local residents –

Brad Rowswell: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, we do not mind a history lesson but the member on her feet has not mentioned Big Build, CFMEU-driven cost blowouts and the Suburban Rail Loop in her contribution to date, and she is more than halfway through.

Lauren KATHAGE: On the point of order, Acting Speaker, I am giving examples of projects delivered by the government ahead of schedule and on budget to demonstrate how the MPI topic is incorrect.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Edbrooke): I will rule on the point of order. I believe that the member is setting enough context for an MPI, which is a wideranging debate, but I will keep an eye on proceedings.

Lauren KATHAGE: Locals were annoyed that the then minister was not committed to extending the train line to Mernda. Those on this side will recognise this fantastic anecdote about the Liberal opening. The Labor member for Yan Yean at the time, Danielle Green, gatecrashed Mr Mulder’s celebration and she said the Baillieu government was:

… very good at cutting ribbons on Labor projects on the one hand and cutting services on the other.

I thought that was a great quote from the member for Yan Yean. It still holds so true today. If we look at the Big Build projects – and we have got great work going on in the electorate of Yan Yean with Bridge Inn Road, Yan Yean Road et cetera – for the four years or so that those opposite were in government, from 2010 to 2014, how much do you think they invested in infrastructure in Yan Yean? Can anyone guess how much they invested?

A member: $3.

Lauren KATHAGE: Less than $3.

A member: $2.99.

Lauren KATHAGE: Less than $2.99 – nothing. They invested nothing in any sort of ‘big’ or ‘build’ in Yan Yean for the time that they were in government. That is why our community continues to support Labor: because Labor is getting on with big builds all across Yan Yean. Going back to the then transport infrastructure minister, now Premier, she went on to ask:

What happened after the rail line was extended to South Morang? What happened for the years between 2010 and 2014? Nothing!

It is a well-recognised fact that there was no ‘big’, no ‘build’ and no ‘Big Build’ in Yan Yean in that time.

I would like to talk more now about this large mega-infrastructure project, which changed our community. As I said, we had people that came before dawn for the first train. It absolutely transformed our community. I would like to acknowledge Darren Peters and the rest of the community members who advocated so strongly for that. It was delivered six months ahead of schedule, a $600 million project with three new train stations in Yan Yean and in Mill Park, and there was 18 ‍months of construction. There were 1200 construction jobs and more than 1800 jobs in other industries. So it did a lot of work – more than 100 young apprentices learning new skills, delivering an extended rail line. Again, I emphasise that it was delivered six months ahead of schedule.

Mernda rail is delivering 982 train services each week to my community, with passengers taking up to 5000 trips every weekday from Mernda station and 8000 altogether on the Mernda extension – those multiple stations that I referred to. But we did not just build the extension and then stop. We have continued with the big builds with all the different work in my electorate. The Bridge Inn Road upgrade is nearly complete. That has duplicated a large section of road. We have got the Yan Yean Road stage 2 upgrade as well. We have already done Plenty Road. We are running out of roads but will continue to make big, bold builds in Yan Yean.

Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (17:31): That is 10 minutes of our lives we will not get back and a history lesson none of us needed; even some of the members on the other side are almost falling asleep. But I am more than happy to rise to speak up for the people of north-west Victoria, or should I say tropical north Victoria, because there is still sun shining up there this afternoon. As we have heard from every other member making a contribution on the matter this evening, the Big Build is not just rotten, it is an absolute stinker. I have been saying it for years when people come to me asking about the Murray Basin rail project and why we have not got efficient rail freight and why it was never finished, even though the government has said time and time again ‘Yes, it is – wait, no, it isn’t’ and ‘It’s finished. It works – no, it doesn’t.’ Where has the money gone? We know where the money has gone. It has gone into a big hole, or two, under the city. That is where the money has gone, that $440 million, underneath the city, because it appears that the Labor government do not care how they get their food. They do not care what we are growing, their food and their fibre, up in the north-west of the state and even down through central Victoria. They do not care about that. They care about the fact that they can go to the supermarket and they can go to a cafe and have their avocado on toast and their almond latte – who grows that? – and the toast that it comes on, whether it is sourdough or multigrain or whatever. Stuff coming from those –

Emma Kealy interjected.

Jade BENHAM: The orange juice. It is citrus season at the moment, and the oranges are delicious, I might add, because most of them in Australia are grown in the Mildura region. They are delicious, but where does it come from and how does it get to port? We are exporting a huge amount of product overseas. Not only are we feeding the nation, we produce more than enough food to feed this nation. Food security is not an issue. We feed the world in fact. The trouble is getting that food to port efficiently via rail is impossible at the moment. It is impossible. We are running a train that is over 1.5 ‍kilometres long that takes 16 hours to get from Mildura to Melbourne, and you have to go via Ararat. That is like jumping in your car and driving to Melbourne via Shepparton. Why would you do that? There is a bit of common sense lacking here. You could catch up with a few different people. You could catch up with all the rest of the Victorian Nationals team if you had to do that to get to Melbourne. It makes no sense, because common sense seems to be completely bereft in the Labor government.

I know you are trying hard not to grin and agree with me, Acting Speaker. Of course he is grinning. I hear the moans and I hear the heckling on the other side every time I talk about our food and fibre producers and the fact that without us you would be naked, hungry and sober. I hear the moans every time I start talking about this, but, you know what, come and spend a week. It is not enough to understand where your food comes from, but come and spend a week with me in tropical north Victoria or in Lowan, in Murray Plains, in Gippsland South or East – take your pick; they are equally as good gentlemen – or in Euroa. Well, I might be misleading the Parliament there slightly. Spend it in Shepparton, another huge food-producing region, another food bowl – they try and claim it, but they are not. It is okay. They are a little bit smaller. But a week is not enough time to understand what actually goes into growing food and fibre and how hard it is logistically to move that food and fibre. So when we hear up in these food and fibre producing regions about $440 million being squandered away on the Murray Basin rail project, and when we hear about $40 billion across major projects like the Metro Tunnel and North East Link, all we think about is ‘Here we are, no train, no passenger rail’.

Mathew Hilakari interjected.

Jade BENHAM: Yes, I know, we get this all the time: ‘Who shut it down?’ You know why it was closed down, right? Do you know why? Because when Kennett came in, the state was broke. What is happening now, and who broke it? Who sent us broke? After Cain and Kirner we were broke. History is not only repeating itself, it is getting worse. We like to say we never forget these historical things that happened, but it appears the Labor government have not only forgotten, they are making bigger mistakes now. Every Victorian is paying the price for their inability to manage major projects and their inability to manage a budget. Every Victorian family is paying the price.

I did allude to the passenger train, which is gone – yes, it has been gone for a little while – but there are a couple of very simple things. I mean, this is another thing that grinds our gears when we talk about these infrastructure blowouts, and these are just transport infrastructure things; do not get me started on roads. But let us talk about a river crossing, in fact another river crossing. Because we do not have efficient rail freight, the trucks on our roads have gone from what back in the 1980s might have been a semitrailer – your prime mover and your single trailer – to B-doubles, then road trains, and now we are at B-quads. Every logistics company, domestically or export, is running B-quad trucks, and the trailers are heavy. They are long, and they are not getting off the road for anything. So when you have got a road that is less than 3 metres wide, and I know they are because I get out and measure them, with drop-offs that are 8 centimetres or more, and I know they are because I get out and measure them – I do not know what the trigger is for those to be fixed – if you have got a family coming in a four-wheel drive or, heaven forbid, a little hatchback, and we know cars are not made like they used to be, like they were –

Members interjecting.

Jade BENHAM: I would love to take some of the members on the other side, put them behind a wheel and have them take on a road train coming the opposite way on a road that is so narrow and that they are only on because common sense has not prevailed and because all of that money that could have fixed the issue has gone into Big Build project blowouts. It is simply not good enough. Labor cannot manage money. It is proof they cannot manage money and they cannot manage projects. Country Victorians are paying the price. Country families are paying the price. We are sick of it. Here is some common sense.

Lauren Kathage: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, I note the continual interjections of the member for Lowan, who is not in her seat.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Edbrooke): The member for Lowan knows the standing orders, and the member will take her seat if she wants to interject.

Jade BENHAM: With the couple of minutes I have got left I would like to illustrate a couple of examples of what I think might be a little bit of common sense and forward thinking, because what is also very apparent is that with these infrastructure projects, particularly out in the regions, there is no forward thinking at all. We actually need a good 20-, 30- or 50-year vision. Here is a little bit of this. Our intermodal at the moment takes a rail line that goes right through the centre of the city. Move that south to Red Cliffs. If we could use some of this Big Build blowout money, we could then have a heavy vehicle bypass to get those big B-quads out of our main street. They go right through our main street, up Deakin Avenue. So if we move the intermodal south and get rid of that train line through town, freeing up all that land for, I do not know, housing – who knew? A bit of common sense – we could do that and then reinstate that Maryborough freight corridor so you could get those 1.5-kilometre trains to Melbourne and back. You could turn them around within 24 hours – who knew? Efficiency. Then you could put your Sunraysia–Mallee port link intermodal in Ouyen so trucks are not travelling all around the state to the city, to the port. They would only have to go to Ouyen. It reduces the length of the trucks, reduces your axle weights and reduces the wear and tear on the roads. It makes sense.

Imagine if you could reallocate some of that money. It just makes sense – not these stinking, rotten money pits under the city, which are perfect examples of the Labor government being completely bereft of the ability to manage money, to manage a budget, to think outside of the freeways and to actually care about the people rather than just continued power in the city. It absolutely stinks, and every single Victorian from now until my grandkids’ generation will be paying the price.

Katie HALL (Footscray) (17:41): That was like 4 o’clock on Christmas Day. Everyone has had a few drinks, and everyone is getting some great ideas for infrastructure projects. I am really interested that the member for Mildura is passionate about getting trucks off local roads, because so am I. My community, adjacent to the busiest port in the country, is about to be delivered an infrastructure project that is going to take 9000 trucks off roads every single day in Melbourne’s inner west. We are going to have truck bans on key residential roads, and we are going to have enforcement cameras to make sure that the trucks stay off those roads and use the West Gate Tunnel. It is very exciting to have a second river crossing so that when the West Gate stops there is an alternative for the people of Melbourne to move around. I do not know if anyone has ever watched Parks and Recreation and the community engagement meetings they have, but it was along those lines.

The largest public transport project since 1981 is also going to be delivered next year. A few things happened in 1981 – and I am probably showing my age here, because I am 42 and I was born in 1982, a year after the city loop opened. That was the same year that IBM launched its first microcomputer, which was very large. It was when Charles and Diana got married. It was when the first Donkey Kong was released. This is about the same era that the Victorian Liberal Party are running their operations in 2024. We are part of a government that believes in building the infrastructure for our state that we love, the greatest jurisdiction in the world, the greatest city in the world. We need these public transport and road infrastructure projects so that our city can keep moving and keep growing. We are going to be bigger than Sydney soon. I think the municipalities of Wyndham and Melton are bigger than Adelaide already.

So this remarkable growing city that we have needs this infrastructure, and it needs a government with the vision to deliver it. Of course the Metro Tunnel was cancelled by the Napthine government; it was all too hard and a bit too visionary. Why would we want to make public transport better in the City of Melbourne? Well, now it is going to be delivered next year, and, you know what, it is adding 60 per cent capacity to the Sunbury line, member for Sunbury. That is very exciting for the people of Sunbury but also for the people of Footscray, because we are going to have a turn-up-and-go service at Footscray station, the busiest station outside the city loop. The timetable will go the way of the VCR and the Nokia phone. I know that those opposite are also fans of those pieces of infrastructure.

A member interjected.

Katie HALL: Yes, playing a bit of Snake on the train. It is one of the most advanced projects not just in our state but in our nation’s history, and when it opens the benefits to our communities will be felt immediately. Every person catching a train is not burning fuel on the road, and they are reducing emissions. It is not just about convenience; it is about getting cars off the road and about cleaner air, cleaner water and safer streets for our kids, member for Sunbury. It is about affordable and accessible public transport to get people where they need to be safely and reliably.

At peak construction the Big Build is delivering jobs too – 50,000 jobs across the state, both directly and indirectly. I would like to hear the members opposite tell the workers from their communities that they do not want them to have their jobs on these transformational projects for Victoria. The Allan Labor government is not wasting a day getting on with the work that needs to be done to deliver for Victorians, and that is just what is happening.

Going back to Christmas, it is like Christmas next year in Footscray, because we have got the beautiful new Footscray Hospital reaching practical completion – $1.5 billion. To get those 5000 workers to the Footscray Hospital, they can catch the Metro Tunnel, and they will be able to catch it from the Parkville health precinct to the Footscray health precinct. When they get to Footscray station turn-up-and-go service, they will be able to get on a next-generation tram, and those trams are going to be built in Victoria – that is pretty exciting – out in Dandenong. They will be able to get on the tram and go directly to the new Footscray Hospital. While they are on the way there, they will not have to worry about dodging trucks on Moore Street, because there will be a 24-hour truck ban. There will be enforcement cameras to make sure the trucks stay where they are meant to stay, and that is on the West Gate Tunnel Project.

One of the most frequent conversations I have with constituents is about how the West Gate Tunnel is going to make our air cleaner, about how it fixes this wicked problem that we have been living with for decades in Melbourne’s inner west – that, yes, the trucks are getting bigger, the port is getting busier and we do not have the road infrastructure to take the trucks directly into the port. We do not have the road infrastructure, so they use local roads in my community. It has been a source of frustration for decades. Finally, we are getting the road infrastructure we need to resolve this problem, and I know that in our community we cannot wait for that but not just that; it is the 14 kilometres of additional bike lanes and walking tracks that will come with the West Gate Tunnel. I am watching the veloway being hung underneath the West Gate Tunnel.

Josh Bull interjected.

Katie HALL: Yes, I will be getting the BMX out and heading down the veloway. It has been in the shed for a while. I think people are really looking forward to the livability improvements that this will deliver for our community. I was really excited last week to go into Arden station on a tour organised by the member for Sunbury. I went with a whole heap of colleagues, including the member for Mordialloc over there. He is very excited about Arden station. One of the most exciting things for me was looking up and seeing West Footscray as the destination on the screens in the Arden station. It is a beautiful project, and people in my community just cannot wait to be able to use that.

I would like the opposition to be telling the children at my kids’ school that they should not be able to ride their bike to school safely and that they should have to deal with the trucks and navigate those issues. This is the practical, real-life reality of what the West Gate Tunnel and the Metro Tunnel will do for a community like mine in Melbourne’s inner west – a growing community as well, because in the next 10 years our population is going to grow 160 per cent. In the City of Melbourne and more broadly across Greater Melbourne we are growing rapidly, but what we have from those opposite is this aspiration that we do nothing, that we invest in nothing and that we have no vision – no vision for Victoria, just do the same thing over and over again.

A member interjected.

Katie HALL: Great interjection from opposite the chamber. This is a vision. This is an amazing vision. It is not just us that think it, it is the people of Victoria, because they have voted for it three times. We have not wasted a day to deliver the infrastructure that they have asked for, that they have endorsed at the ballot box time and time again. I feel like it is time, going back to the future from 1981 over there, where you can either get with the program and support transformational infrastructure for the people of Victoria or you can just keep getting rejected at the ballot box, because what we are delivering is what the people of Victoria want. The numbers are dwindling over there; they are dwindling. It is pretty bleak.

Nicole WERNER (Warrandyte) (17:51): I rise to support the matter of public importance submitted by the member for Caulfield, which goes to the heart of the rot that has infested Victoria. Today we are faced with a staggering betrayal of public trust exposed by the revelations from 60 ‍Minutes and the Age revealing appalling failures and corruption. The evidence is undeniable. Secret recordings have revealed CFMEU fixers arranging kickbacks to union officials, effectively bribing them to funnel corrupt companies onto taxpayer-funded projects. This underhanded scheme is not an isolated incident, it is a systemic abuse of power that has plagued Victoria’s Big Build program.

The $216 billion Suburban Rail Loop is another glaring example of mismanagement and irresponsibility. This project is not just a fiscal nightmare, it is a ticking time bomb for Victoria’s financial future. With our state’s debt projected to reach $187.8 billion by 2027, the burden of this wasteful project threatens essential services and infrastructure that Victorians rely on every single day. Victorians deserve better than to have their money squandered and their future compromised by a government that has shown nothing but disregard for fiscal responsibility and ethical standards and nothing but disregard for their hard-earned taxpayer money.

The CFMEU’s corruption and criminal activity is not just morally reprehensible, it is making the lives of everyday Victorians worse. The CFMEU’s criminal corruption is making it more expensive to build and buy a home, but do not take my word for it. When asked ‘Has the CFMEU made building apartments and houses in the suburbs more expensive?’ it was an emphatic yes from Phil Dwyer, national president of the Builders Collective of Australia. Chief executive of Master Builders Australia Denita Wawn said:

Ultimately, anything that occurs that costs money in our sector is passed on to the client.

We have always said that up to 30 per cent increases occur on construction sites, because of the activities of the CFMEU.

Victorians, if you are wondering why your housing costs are 30 per cent more here than in any other state; if you are wondering why Victoria has greater debt than any other state in the nation – more than Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania combined; if you are wondering why as early as 2021 the Australian Financial Review identified Victoria as the worst state to do business in; and if you are wondering why businesses are packing up and leaving the state in droves – 152,000 in the past 12 ‍months – this is why, Victoria. It is because a corrupt and complicit Allan Labor government has enabled the gangsters, the criminals and the bikies in the CFMEU to run this state. In fact criminal thug Harry Korras was caught on tape explaining where the money goes, saying that one-fifth of every dollar spent on a construction site goes directly to the kickbacks of the criminal thugs. Shame on you, Allan Labor government. Shame.

When people vote for the Greens, they might mistakenly think that they are voting for a party that is all about helping the environment, saving the trees, utopia and all of that. But the CFMEU protests around Australia have actually shown and revealed what the Greens political party’s true colours are, and that is that the Greens are the same as the CFMEU thugs. At the CFMEU protests there were deplorable signs being shown of MPs with Nazi symbolism on them. The Greens member for Griffith was there campaigning with union powerbroker Michael Ravbar, who was fined more than $225,000 for breaches of the Fair Work Act 2009. I say to you: when you see CFMEU thuggery in your neighbourhood, the Greens protect it; when you read stories of how the CFMEU bully people to death, the Greens defend it; and when you read about the CFMEU getting in bed with bikie gangs and organised crime, the Greens do not condemn them – they rally to support them. I read that John Setka has got a new tattoo on his neck which says ‘God forgives; the CFMEU doesn’t.’ What I am wondering is whether the Greens voters across our state will ever forgive the Greens political party for getting in bed with the criminal and thuggish CFMEU. Allow me to highlight this quote from a very famous former Labor MP, who said this union’s:

… complete disdain for the law, their frequent resort to practices of thuggery and physical coercion, have no place in our society.

He added that this union:

… has demonstrated nothing but contempt for the system and values of Australian society. There should now be no basis upon which it can hope to elicit any measure of protection or support from our society.

Bob Hawke was able to say this of the Builders Labourers Federation, the precursor to the CFMEU. Why can’t the Greens political party?

Let me give you a timeline of how the CFMEU and the gangs took over this state. In 2003 the Cole report was handed down, detailing 392 instances of unlawful activity in the CFMEU, and recommended 23 union officials face criminal charges. In 2010 Victoria Police revealed strong ties between the Hells Angels, the CFMEU and drug importers. In 2014, 7.30 revealed again the links between organised crime figures in exchange for construction contracts. In 2017 then CFMEU Secretary John Setka publicly threatened to target the home addresses of building watchdog inspectors and lobby local footy clubs so that their kids ‘will be ashamed of who their parents are’ – deplorable.

In 2019 John Setka pleaded guilty to the harassment of a woman, and his mate, gangland boss Mick Gatto, reached out to offer his support. In April 2022 Jacinta Allan as Minister for Transport Infrastructure was sent a letter from an Indigenous labour hire firm claiming the union’s officials were threatening violence on state-funded projects, and then she took one year to reply to them. On 14 July 2024 an exposé revealed so much criminal activity that the government was finally forced to act – only after the Premier came out of hiding three days after the fact. The Premier wants you to think that the connection between organised crime and the CFMEU is a recent development, but anyone who lives in this state knows that the Allan Labor government has known all along and that they are absolutely complicit and absolutely corrupt.

In closing, sometimes in my community people reach out to me after watching question time and say to me, ‘All the government does is yell and attack and hurl childish insults. I can’t believe my taxpayers money is paying for this.’ Fair enough, that is a very fair question. Although it is hard to believe, your taxpayer money is actually funding worse than that. As reported in the Age, Labor-funded senior CFMEU –

Lauren Kathage: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, I just note that the correct way to refer to the Acting Speaker is not ‘you’.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Edbrooke): Thank you for the point of order. I remind members in the house not to refer to the Speaker as ‘you’.

Nicole WERNER: As reported in the Age, Labor-funded senior CFMEU Indigenous organiser Joel Shackleton repeatedly threatened to violently bash an Indigenous worker at a taxpayer-funded Big Build site. Joel said to this Indigenous man that he would:

… f---ing end you c--- and you know it, don’t f--- with me. I’ll f---ing take your soul and I’ll rip your f---ing head off, don’t f--- with me, c---. F--- you, you’re a f---ing dog.

This is Victoria under Labor: an Indigenous man abused, his life threatened and Labor’s response to this, of course, a 20 per cent pay rise. Well, these are the people who love funding the Labor Party. And the Premier and that side of the house, my goodness, don’t they love to visit a government-funded Big Build site? Don’t they love dressing up in a hard hat at the CFMEU construction sites for all of the photos for their social media? Well, I will remind the Premier and that side of the house that the standard that you walk past is the standard you accept, and when you walk past abusive CFMEU worksites, you accept their behaviour.