Wednesday, 16 October 2024

Government performance

Nicole WERNER (Warrandyte) (17:32): What a contribution to follow. I am really glad to hear the member for Eureka say that the Liberal–National Party live rent-free in her head. I have never heard so many comments from our members on this side of the house and from your side of the house, so thank you so much for that. Today as part of the grievance debate, starting here, I grieve that this government is driving up the cost of living across Victoria. Victorians may have noticed that there is a cost-of-living crisis going on right now. Everything is costing more, whether it is petrol, whether it is groceries or whether it is eating out, the stats are showing that Victorians are spending less on discretionary items because things are costing us more. Victorians are cutting back on extras like eating out, going out and having fun because the cost-of-living increases mean that you are spending more but getting less.

The travesty of it all is that it is about to get a whole lot worse because of what the Allan Labor government has just done. Last week it was revealed that the government-run Melbourne wholesale fruit and vegetable market in Epping will be slapping fresh food vendors with crippling rent increases of over 100 per cent over the next decade. Soon vendors will be paying more than $220,000 for space to sell their fruit and veggies, which is nearly double what they were paying. It is costing fruit and veggie sellers $1100 per square metre to sell their fruit and vegetables, which is more than what prime office real estate on Collins Street costs. But how does that impact everyday Victorians? This market supplies 35 per cent of all fruit in Victoria, from farmers to your plate. It supplies independent supermarkets, greengrocers, local cafes and restaurants.

This is the matter at hand: Fresh State CEO Jason Cooper said that this will drive fresh food businesses out of the market and that it is going to directly increase grocery prices. So the next time you go to the grocery store to buy your supermarket staples and your fresh fruit and vegetables and you are wondering why it is increasing and increasing and increasing, this is why. This is a tax on fresh fruit and veg that is going to be passed directly on to Victorians’ grocery bills. When you next go to buy fresh fruit for your kids’ lunches, when you grab that smashed avo at your local cafe and when you next buy flowers for your missus, remember that you will be forking out extra, because this government are drowning in debt and desperate to tax you wherever and however they can to dig themselves out of it.

I grieve that the Victorian government is bulldozing ahead with reckless redevelopment whilst denying locals their right to have a say in the future of their own suburbs. The government have already announced that there are 10 big activity centres, including one near my electorate of Warrandyte, in Ringwood, just next door. And what are these? They are 10 areas to be reshaped and remade as new CBDs in the suburbs. I know that is sending shivers down the spines of people in my community, because CBDs in the suburbs is not what they signed up for when they opted to live in Warrandyte. These are high-rise buildings, up to 20 storeys high, in the centre of these areas. And if that is not high enough, there are draft planning controls that have been seen by the Age that suggest that developers could be given the green light to exceed these 20-storey height limits and go even higher if they do such things as include some social housing in the project.

Let it be known here today in this chamber that I am not against social housing and that the Liberal–National parties are not against social housing. But what we are vehemently against is robbing locals of having a say in what their neighbourhood looks like. That is as plain as day; that is simple. Victorians might think, ‘Gee, that’s a lot of change to our area. Surely residents will get a say on this residential development, right – surely.’ Well, that is a big N-O. The Allan Labor government want to strip residents’ rights to third-party appeals for many new developments. Under the government’s planned changes to ResCode, the main planning code that defines how our suburbs are allowed to be developed, residents will be stripped of their rights to review in many situations. And it is not just the coalition who are calling out this injustice, but local councils have objected to these changes, including councils in my area. The government have underhandedly announced these changes while all the councils are in caretaker mode for the council elections. How is that? For now there are 10 additional major activity centres with these 20-storey buildings that residents cannot oppose. But where next? Who knows – coming to a suburb near you. Community consultation according to the Allan Labor government is now to shut up and put up with whatever the government wants to build in your backyard.

I grieve for the people of Victoria because every action that the Allan Labor government takes only digs our state deeper into debt, with major project cost blowouts one after the other. There is not a major project that this government has been able to deliver on time or on budget. Have a think about this, Victoria: if you are working a job and you blow the budget and you do not get it in on time, you have failed at your job, no? Surely, no? But not for this failure of the Andrews and the now Allan Labor government, friends. When both Premier Jacinta Allan and Premier Dan Andrews were questioned on why there have seen such extreme cost blowouts, they both answered, ‘Things cost what they cost.’ Well, Victoria, this is what they cost. We have got the West Gate Tunnel – four years late and over budget by $4 billion. We have got the Metro Tunnel – nearly $5 billion in cost blowouts. It was meant to cost $10.6 billion. It is now up to $15.6 billion, and this is including the latest blowout of $900 million last month, which the government revealed in the sneakiest way possible – when Victorians were not paying attention because it was the eve of the grand final and we were focused on that.

And then, to boot, there is also the North East Link, which has now blown out by $10 billion. Originally it was due to cost $10 billion. In 2019 that figure went up to $15 billion, and then over Christmas time last year – merry Christmas to Victoria – it escalated to a total cost of $26 billion. Absurd. Then there is the ever-delayed airport rail link, with this arbitrary timeline as to when it will ever be built, yet that is already going to be a few billion dollars over budget. That is not to mention Suburban Rail Loop East, with a price tag of $35 billion for the first stage of the government’s $219 billion pet project, with no business case, which Infrastructure Australia is still waiting on, which is already facing a $22 billion shortfall. It has, I might add, had cost overruns of $6.9 billion. The two Labor Premiers might be fine telling the Victorian public that things cost what they cost, but you know what is not adding up – how the Andrews and Allan Labor government can face the Victorian people after they have bankrupted and indebted our state.

I grieve for young Victorians who cannot afford to buy a house because of the financial mismanagement of the Allan Labor government. Many young Victorians are wondering why it is so hard to buy a house. I am proud to be one of the youngest MPs in this Parliament. I am proud to be the youngest woman in fact in the lower house, in this chamber. But I grieve with young Victorians and young people who cannot achieve the dream of buying their first home. What Victorians might not realise is that in Victoria 44 per cent of a new house and land package in greenfield development areas in Melbourne is made up of government taxes, fees and charges, according to the Urban Development Institute of Australia – 44 per cent. Talking about a new house for a young Victorian, nearly 50 per cent, nearly half, of that house cost is government taxes, fees and charges. That is ludicrous. For example, for a $600,000 house-and-land package in a new area, that is over $250,000 that is gone to taxes, fees and charges. That is wild.

The great Australian dream has now become the Labor government’s great tax grab. It was just over two years ago that former Premier Dan Andrews said on housing, to quote him specifically, that ‘ownership is not such a big thing’ to young people. He certainly does not speak for this young person and certainly does not speak for the hundreds of young people that I speak to in my community and across Victoria who say that this is the number one issue for them, to be able to afford a new home and to be able to achieve this great Australian dream. How out of touch is that, and how very typical of Labor. As I said, I speak to young Victorians every single week who are struggling to achieve their dream of buying their first home. I speak to young Victorians every single week who can barely get into a new rental property for their growing family, and I know because I have heard from members of my community who line up week after week, weekend after weekend, with lines that run 30, 40 ‍people deep, waiting to simply inspect a rental property, because it is that hard in this environment to get a new rental, let alone to buy a new home.

This government’s policies and taxes are making it harder and harder to own a home. It is famous that Daniel Andrews on the eve of the 2014 election promised Victorians on statewide television that under his government there would be no increased or new taxes. Well, 55 new or increased taxes later, here we are, Victoria. How is that for the truth? Of these 55 new or increased taxes, guess how many are on property and household: 29. Over half of those 55 new or increased taxes are around property and housing, and we wonder why it is so hard for young Victorians to buy their first home. Recent reports show that 70 per cent of young people think that they will never be able to own a home. Victoria, we need a government who actually cares about home ownership. We need a government whose first reaction to everything is not to introduce yet another tax. We need a government that recognises that home ownership is a big deal to young people and will be willing to fight for it.

I grieve that the Allan Labor government has let Victorian roads decay into disrepair, neglecting our suburbs and regions in favour of their city’s pet projects. According to the government’s own condition assessments, 91 per cent of Victorian roads have been rated poor or very poor, road resurfacing works have plunged by over 65 per cent on regional roads and over 25 per cent in metro Melbourne over the past three years, and this week the government announced a road upgrade spending blitz, congratulating themselves. But the budget for road maintenance is still 16 per cent lower than in 2020. They are celebrating themselves for doing the bare minimum like it is a big deal. Pat on the back for the roads minister for doing the most basic of her jobs. You certainly do not hear them in council celebrating every week that they take in our rubbish and take it to the depot. We have local roads that are in disrepair. We have potholes that locals are hosting two-year birthday celebrations for. We have intersections that locals are begging to be fixed, including Five Ways, which I have now raised by mentioning it 11 times in this place – and it is still not fixed – and including Tortice Drive and Ringwood-Warrandyte Road, which I have raised in this place time and again. The government are so busy patting themselves on the back you think they would be in danger of having a shoulder injury, all for doing the bare minimum that taxpayers are paying them to do.

Finally, it is my pleasure to celebrate my first year in Parliament as one of the newest members here. Around the time that I began this first year that I have spent in Parliament was also the day in which we had a new Premier sworn in, so here we are celebrating one year of Labor failures under Premier Jacinta Allan. This must be one of the saddest anniversary celebrations ever, because we are celebrating higher taxes, skyrocketing debt, crumbling roads, a health system in crisis, energy insecurity, major events leaving the state, a housing crisis and of course CFMEU corruption on the government’s watch. How exciting!

Let us start with financial mismanagement. When it comes to borrowing, everyone else in Australia has a AAA credit rating whilst we are the only state to be lacking and left behind with lesser than. We have got a decreased credit rating, which will increase the cost of paying back the state’s crippling debt. Speaking of debt – we have spoken about it before – it will surge to reach $187.8 billion by 2027–28. That means that we will be paying in interest every single hour $1 million. Just tick that away as we go on and speak – $1 million of interest in debt that we are paying every single hour because of the financial mismanagement of the Allan Labor government.

We are also celebrating – not really – a surge in youth crime. This is something that has impacted my electorate so deeply. The number of home invasions has gone from one every three days in 2015 to 3.4 per day this year, which is nearly a 1000 per cent increase since Labor came to government in the last 10 years. In addition, the answer to that is for Premier Allan to weaken bail laws as of March this year. That was great! We are looking at a state that is in record debt, with our health system crumbling, our roads full of potholes, a housing crisis, a youth crime crisis – happy birthday.