Wednesday, 16 October 2024

Government performance

Wayne FARNHAM (Narracan) (17:01): I grieve today for the people of Victoria for putting up with this incompetent government for the last decade. Victorians have had enough. Everything in this state has gone up. Power has gone up, gas has gone up and fruit and vegetables have gone up. But not everything has quite gone up. There is one thing that has come down, and that is Labor’s approval rating. It is going down – down, down, down. There is a reason for that: the Victorian public are hurting. This government has managed to stuff everything up, and now Victorians are paying the price. This government cannot manage money. It cannot manage a budget, and when they run out of money they come after yours. When I first got into this Parliament, do you know how many taxes Labor had introduced? Forty-nine. It was 49 taxes when I first came into this Parliament, and it is now at 55. That is only in a two-year period.

Look at their social housing debacle, their Big Build and their Big Housing Build. We heard it today: 466 less homes in the June to December quarter. Their vacancy rate is at 93 per cent. In New South Wales and Queensland it is 98 per cent. That 93 per cent vacancy rate is 4000 homes. When Labor took over this state in 2014 there were about 10,000 applications for social housing. Now there are over 60,000 applications, and in the last quarter that increased by another 5 per cent. The Big Housing Build is the big flop. You are going backwards on the Big Housing Build.

We have so many people now struggling to get a home. In my electorate we actually renovated four units for homeless people. That to date has put through about eight people who have transitioned, waiting for the government to get their act together. I am proud of my community for doing it because at least they got their hands dirty and did something. This government cannot do anything, and this is a state in crisis. There is no denial. We have a housing crisis. We have a health crisis. We have a policing crisis and a youth crime crisis. What this government have left as a legacy is a state in crisis, and they are doing nothing to fix it.

It is all going backwards. The government is in trouble, and that is why its approval rating is falling at a rapid rate. It has gone south very quickly. The member for Mordialloc was up here today spruiking off as he always does. He was talking about polls and swings and everything else. The member for Mordialloc at the last election was one of the worst performing Labor candidates, with a 5.2 per cent swing against him, and the way this is going I doubt the member for Mordialloc will have a job next year. He probably needs to focus on his own electorate and getting re-elected rather than focusing on the opposition. The member for Mordialloc is in a lot of trouble. I tell you what, he was talking about getting into cabinet today. He wants to get into cabinet. I think there have been 49 reshuffles and he still has not got there. The member for Mordialloc is kind of factionless. No-one knows where he sits. He is not left, he is not right; he is stuck in the middle. He cannot get in there and he gets very, very upset.

But we are a state in crisis. I mean, look at the health crisis we have at the moment. The poor Treasurer tears his hair out, you can tell. The poor Treasurer had to find another $1.5 billion. I do not know where it came from. He does not know where it has come from. But the Treasurer is saying to his ministers, ‘Tighten up. We can’t afford it.’ The Treasurer knows how bad it is. He knows that our AA rating is going to go south because Labor will not let go of the Suburban Rail Loop. Everyone is saying it is a really bad idea, but they think it is a great idea. The reality is nobody – no credit rating agency and not the Australian infrastructure agency – likes this project. The problem is our forecast debt. That is what is putting projects at risk. Look at the budget: 100 projects shelved. The poor member for Bass is on a very, very tight margin, and Wonthaggi got shelved. She could be gone at the next election. The poor member for Bass is a hardworking member, but because of the Suburban Rail Loop and because the government has tunnel vision – and that is all it is, tunnel vision – they have cost that member her seat. And there will be a lot more; do not worry about that. That is why there were tears in the caucus room at the last budget. They have all gone, ‘I’m gone. I’m not going to be here.’ The polls are going south, and they are in trouble.

Labor, to their credit, only made two commitments in my electorate: the West Gippsland Hospital and Drouin Secondary College. That was it. Guess which ones they shelved? The West Gippsland Hospital and Drouin Secondary College. They could have kept one – they could have kept Drouin Secondary College at least – but no, they did not do that. You know what is really funny about the site for the West Gippsland Hospital? Rather than an excavator being there, what do you think is on that site today? Cows. They have put the cows back on the site. I do not know, I have not seen a cow wear a surgical mask, and I am pretty sure they cannot perform an operation. I tell you what, you do not need cows on the site; you need an excavator. You need an excavator to start building the hospital. I had the Minister for Health say to me, ‘You don’t understand the difference between planning and construction.’ I know the difference. I was a builder for 30 years, and I am damn sure I have built more hospitals than the health minister. I have built more hospitals than everyone in this chamber right now. You need an excavator to build a hospital. It is really that simple. They have had a decade to plan for the hospital. It is paralysis by analysis. Nothing is happening. They are out of money, and that is why it is not happening. That is why six hospitals are being shelved – six. Unbelievable. And this next budget is not going to be much better.

Let us reference our roads. Oh my goodness, aren’t they in a good state. The member for Gippsland South yesterday in question time flipped commitment after commitment after commitment – six press releases, it was, about roads. ‘Oh, we’ve done this, we’ve done that and we’ve done that.’ No, you have not. You have not done anything. Our roads are rubbish. In my electorate there is an intersection in Bunyip, the Hope Street intersection, where it is accident after accident after accident. You would think this would be a priority for the government, because one day there will be a fatality. I have spoken to the minister for roads about it, and I have spoken to local council about it. It needs a realignment. It needs a roundabout. It needs something done, but nothing – absolutely nothing – has been done. Why do you think we get nothing? Because we have got no money.

Gumbuya World now is a very big tourist attraction in my area, and there have been six fatalities at that intersection – six deaths. No investment, none – that is pathetic. That is why I grieve for the state of Victoria, and that is why I grieve for people in my electorate. I have got the Thorpdale slip halfway up the hill to Thorpdale; they still have not fixed it between Trafalgar and Thorpdale. Seventy per cent of Australia’s brushed potatoes come off that hill, and this road keeps falling down the hill. What have they done? Nothing. Why have they done nothing? Because there is no money.

There is a forecast debt of $188 billion, with an interest bill of $15 million today, going up to $20-something million in 2026, and that is if we keep the current credit rating. But the credit agencies are saying we will not keep that while we continue down the path of the Suburban Rail Loop. They have been very clear about it. I do not know why the government has blinkers on and is blind to advice given to it by people who know. Why do they say it is going to be downgraded? Because of the ability to repay the debt, and the government are proving they do not have that ability. They do not know how to manage money. When the interest bill is outstripping the revenue by the taxes you have introduced, you create more debt. It cannot manage money. This government is absolutely hopeless.

I will call it the autocratic Allan Labor government. We are taking away choice after choice from people. Planning choices have gone. People do not have a say in planning anymore. The government come in and say, ‘We’re going to do this. Bad luck, you don’t get a say.’ Communities now do not get a say in what is going to happen in their electorate. Box Hill is going to have 70-storey high towers. No community gets a say. In my electorate, in Warragul – and I am going to bring this up again in the adjournment tonight – when the community did try to consult, they got totally ignored by the minister, and this is happening across Victoria. It is not just planning. You are taking away people’s right to use gas. Tomorrow a bill comes into Parliament, and you will take away people’s right to use gas. That is the next thing for this autocratic Allan Labor government, and that is what it is now: a dictatorship by a different leader. You keep taking away people’s rights, and that is why the people of Victoria are grieving today. I will talk about that other bill tomorrow, but that is another instance where we see rights stripped away from everyday Victorians.

When the government starts to figure out that you cannot live in a tunnel, you cannot treat outpatients in a tunnel and you cannot educate people in a tunnel, this state will be better off. It is that simple. You are pouring all the money into one project, and everything else is suffering. We have police shortages. We have teacher shortages. We have ambulance ramping day after day at hospital after hospital. Acting Speaker Edbrooke will know how important this is. In my electorate, with a population of the size that I have between two towns, between Warragul and Drouin – it is about 43,000 people; it is a lot of people – how long do you think we have a MICA paramedic for? You would assume for 40-something thousand people you would have 24-hour MICA care. No – 12 hours. People in my electorate, I will say this to you: do not have a heart attack after 10 pm, because there is no MICA paramedic. They have got to come from Traralgon or they have got to come from somewhere else. That is pretty pathetic for one of the fastest growing areas in Australia over the last decade. That is a lack of investment. I asked the Minister for Emergency Services for another ambulance for the Drouin ambulance station.

Steve McGhie interjected.

Wayne FARNHAM: I cannot believe the member for Melton is defending the government on this. You used to be the head of the ambulance union or the secretary – whatever you were. What a goose. I cannot believe you are mouthing off to this. The Drouin ambulance station needs another ambulance. They have got the staff, but they do not have the equipment. When that ambulance goes, there will be no ambulance there. That is not an unreasonable request, surely. Surely, we can have an ambulance. Oh, no, we cannot, that is right, because they are ramped at the hospitals. We cannot get them off there.

This is the problem with this government, and this is the reason why Victorians have had enough. This is the reason why the Premier’s approval rating is now at 30 per cent. It went south. This is why their approval rating is at 49–51, two-party preferred. This is why our leader’s approval rating is going north. This is why the coalition’s approval rating is going north, because this government has totally managed to stuff this state in the last decade. The roads are a disgrace. Every basic service in this state is under pressure because this government cannot manage money. It just has tunnel vision on the Suburban Rail Loop. It is an absolutely pathetic excuse of a government, and it is no wonder the poor Treasurer has a hairline like mine, because no-one listens to him. He is saying to tighten up, but that side of the house does not tighten up. Just remember, Victoria, when they run out of money, they come after yours.