Wednesday, 30 October 2024

Matters of public importance

Government performance

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

That this house condemns the financial mismanagement and lack of budget transparency of the Allan Labor government.

Brad ROWSWELL (Sandringham) (16:01): I do rise to address this matter of public importance. I thank you, Speaker, for accepting this matter of public importance which I submitted on behalf of the opposition, that this house condemns the financial mismanagement and lack of budget transparency of the Allan Labor government. Perhaps there should be a correction to this matter of public importance – perhaps it should say ‘the Andrews now Allan Labor government’, because Labor have been on the government benches for the last 10 years. They have been there for the last 10 years, and every single year they have introduced a new tax and increased existing taxes. That is what they do. That is what is in their DNA, and Victorians are paying the price each and every day because of the Labor taxes that this government has raised. Every couple of months there is a new or increased tax – every couple of months. You cannot see something walking by without Labor getting an idea: ‘We will tax it.’ It is in their DNA. They cannot help themselves. It is in their DNA, and Victorians are paying the price. Victoria has largest debt of any state in the nation – $188 billion, with a B, billion dollars, the largest debt of any state in the nation.

If you believe this government, and I do not, they will say that they used the state’s credit card during COVID so that Victorian businesses and Victorians would not need to use theirs. Let us take their logic at face value just for a moment. They themselves, with the COVID debt recovery plan that they introduced not in this year’s budget but in last year’s budget, say that COVID spending was around $30 billion and that over the next 10 years they will increase revenue through new taxation measures in line with that $30 billion. Speaker, I may need your help with doing the sums here, or perhaps I do not – pretty straightforward. For $188 billion of debt, if you take the government’s numbers and believe them and say there was $30 billion of debt created by COVID which now needs to be paid off through their COVID debt recovery plan, there is a difference of over $150 billion which is not related to COVID. So, please, I encourage all Victorians: do not look at what Labor is saying, look at what they do. They are not on your side. They say that they are on your side. They say that they care, but by their actions they do not. We on this side of the chamber care. We actually give a stuff about people in this state. We care for vulnerable Victorians because we think the economy matters. Over the last 10 years this lot have been absolutely and utterly reckless, and Victorians are paying the price.

I have got a message for the Premier. In question time today the member for Kew asked the Premier a pretty straightforward question: ‘Premier,’ the member for Kew asked, ‘what is today’s interest payment on your $188 billion worth of debt?’ A substantial question, and then a –

Michaela Settle: Can you read?

Brad ROWSWELL: I can read. I can read. If you just pause for a moment, I will give you the punchline. $188 billion –

The SPEAKER: Member for Sandringham, through the Chair. The member for Eureka will cease interjecting.

Brad ROWSWELL: Today’s interest payment is $17.8 million. Why? $17.8 million – I am sorry; I rushed over that. During the course of this matter of public importance this afternoon, the debt bomb is ticking over and ticking over and ticking over again – two million bucks of interest payments just in the next couple of hours. This is Labor’s debt. But the tragedy of this debt that they have racked up over the last 10 years is that they have so much disregard for the Victorian people that they will not take responsibility for their actions. They are making Victorians pay the price for the decisions that they have made through higher taxes. They are making Victorians pay the price through waste on major projects – more than $40 billion of waste on major projects in the last 10 years alone. Victorians again are paying the price for the mismanagement of this Labor government. Victorians deserve so much better.

In the last 10 years, we have had 55 new or increased taxes, just over half of which are property taxes. As I said yesterday in this place – and I will say it again and I will say it slowly, because I know some members of the government struggle to understand this very, very basic principle – if you tax something more, it does not get any cheaper. If you tax something more, it gets more expensive, and someone needs to pay for that. Fundamentally Labor do not respect Victorian taxpayers. They do not respect hardworking Victorian taxpayers and Victorian taxpayer dollars. If they did, they would not have increased or introduced 55 taxes or charges over the last 10 years, but that is exactly what they have done.

The state of Victoria’s economy at the minute, in my view – and I have described it before like this and I will do it again here today – is a bin fire. I cannot think of a better way to describe it. We have had the highest unemployment in the country now for six months running. We have got the highest property taxes in the country. We have got the highest business taxes in the country. We have got the slowest wage growth in the country. Just last year alone more than 152,000 businesses closed their doors in this state.

The government is shopping around for credit ratings. Historically you have gone to Moody’s and S&P, and of course we have got the lowest credit rating of any state in the country. But they were not satisfied with that, so they used Victorian taxpayer money to go shopping around for a third credit rating. The government is using Victorian taxpayer dollars, which I contend they do not respect, to shop around for a better answer on their credit rating. They are trying to spin their way out of this instead of dealing with the matter at hand. If you spend more than you earn year on year on year on year for 10 years, it has consequences.

The great injustice of this is this: if I in my household or if someone else in their business spent more than we earned year on year on year, I would be responsible for the consequences and that business owner would be responsible for the consequences. But in this state, this government over the last 10 years have been spending more than they have been earning year on year on year, and Victorians are the people who are paying the price at a time when they can least afford it.

We all know in this place that we are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. Victorians are already under immense pressure to try and make ends meet. Victorians are hardworking people, they are aspirational people and they are optimistic people, and they are not being helped by a government which imposes punitive taxes upon them to limit their ability to create the best possible future for themselves, for their family, in their communities. This Labor government just does not care.

And then we heard on Sunday that the government’s economic statement, which is mooted to be released in the next little while, has a raft of things in it but no tax reform.

How can you possibly bring an economic statement to the Victorian people and call it credible without there being tax reform in it? You see, this Labor government over the last 10 years have taxed and have taxed and have taxed again and have taxed some more. That is all they know. That is all they want to know. They have no intention, no aspiration, to reduce their tax burden on Victorians.

Under a Liberal–National government in this state lower, fairer and simpler taxes are well and truly on the way. They are on the way. A government that enables business to thrive is on its way – a government that will roll out more red carpet and less red tape to investors to restore investor confidence in this state, investor confidence that has been absolutely and utterly shot over the last 10 years under this Andrews, now Allan, Labor government. Over the last 10 years we have had a decade of debt, a decade of frankly dumb decisions. The Premier has changed – and we are at the 12-month anniversary of that – but the actions of the government have not. The cost of Labor is simply too high for Victorians. To the government, we say on this side: stop wasting Victorian taxpayer money and start treating Victorian taxpayer money with respect. Everyone in this building and this state knows that we on this side of the house will be the ones to clean up this mess. We will be the ones entrusted to clean up Labor’s mess. But we are not here just to critique the government today. We contend that Labor cannot be trusted to clean up this mess. We contend that they created this mess and that the people who created the mess are not the people to clean it up. They cannot be trusted to clean it up.

What we want in Victoria is a bright, optimistic future where Victorians do not just survive, they thrive, where they have confidence to put their hand in their own back pocket to invest in our state to create the wealth and the opportunity that we so desperately, desperately need. This is in our DNA. This is who we are as members of the Liberal Party, as members of the National Party, as members of this state’s alternative government. This is who we are. I say to Victorians: there is a bright future ahead of us after the November 2026 election. We will scrap Labor’s schools tax, we will scrap Labor’s health tax and we will scrap Labor’s holiday and tourism tax – all taxes on aspiration, all taxes on opportunity, all taxes on growth that do not understand the cost pressures that are on Victorian communities at the moment. We will legislate a debt cap in this chamber. We will legislate that debt cap. We will reinstate a Victorian productivity commission. We will have a credible plan to pay down Labor’s debt. We will end waste. We will shout from the rooftops to every Victorian, especially those businesses – those 152,000 businesses that have closed their doors in the last 12 months alone – and those Victorians who have left this state for greener pastures in New South Wales or in Queensland or in South Australia. We say to them that under a government we lead Victoria is open for business again.

We will govern for all Victorians, and today we announced our plan for financial integrity. We will establish a charter of budget honesty – the first state in Australia to do so. We will establish a real-time government spending tracker. We will commission Victoria’s first intergenerational report. This is our plan, which I make available to the house. We on this side of the house are the only people who can be trusted to deliver the economic prosperity and opportunity that Victorians so desperately need and so desperately, desperately deserve, but it must start with integrity. It must start with integrity. This is the first pillar of our economic plan, the first important foundational pillar of our economic plan.

The next pillar of our economic plan is to announce a financial framework to indicate to Victorians how we are going to get out of the mess created by Labor over the last 10 years. I will be frank. I want to be frank; I want to be honest with the Victorian people. I say to them it has taken 10 years. It has taken 10 years for Labor to stuff the state and the state’s economy in the way that it has. It is going to take at least a decade to stabilise the mess that they have created. I want Victorious to know that.

And the third pillar of our financial plan, the third and important pillar, is individual tax measures that will make life easier for Victorians and not harder. Our foundational announcement today is our integrity announcement. It is so, so important. This work was established in July last year. Together with the Shadow Minister for Finance the member for Kew and the Leader of the Opposition the member for Hawthorn, we announced our tax discussion paper, an opportunity to engage with Victorians on the things that matter to them, to talk to Victorians to enable that conversation to take place, to understand and to listen to Victorians about the impact of Labor government decision-making on their lives, on their businesses and on the communities, and we have listened. The Victorians that we have spoken to have made it absolutely and abundantly clear: they do not trust this government to execute any meaningful reform, any reform at all, that will touch the sides of their existence. They do not. Which is why it is so fundamentally important for us to start with our first pillar of our economic plan today, which is to sort out the integrity question and the integrity cloud over this government. I say to all Victorians: Labor cannot be trusted. They have created this mess. We will do our best to get Victorians out of it. Victorians deserve so much more.

Paul EDBROOKE (Frankston) (16:16): I remember a time when a member of the opposition would present a matter of public importance (MPI) to the house and more than nine people in their party would turn up, especially for a huge economic announcement. Where are they? Where is the support? Where is the excitement? Where is the aspiration? Where is the vision? Is it in their offices? I do not know. I am pretty sure though that there is not much support for this. I do not think there are too many people watching at home, but –

Juliana Addison interjected.

Paul EDBROOKE: That speech set my soul alight – it really did! I certainly value transparency in management, which is what this debate is about. I think they are broad concepts that, while we often talk about them in a financial or economic sense, do not start there. They start with good leadership, with good outcomes and with honesty. For me, management would be about how bodies organise their workflow, how they help members of their body achieve goals, working efficiently and effectively together pragmatically. I believe transparency means that you can actually keep your team in the loop, no white-anting, and sharing the good and the bad and honest feedback both to and from yourself as a leader. I guess I am really shocked standing here, I am absolutely flabbergasted, by the irony of this debate today about transparency and mismanagement, because there is only one party in Australia that are fighting each other in court right now. Literally MPs from the opposition are going to court and testifying against each other, all the way to the Federal Court. This has got to be a historic low in Australian politics.

Members interjecting.

Paul EDBROOKE: Look you can interject, but you are not going to emancipate yourself from the mess that you are in right now.

The SPEAKER: I would ask you not to refer to ‘you’; it is a reflection on the Chair.

Mathew Hilakari interjected.

Paul EDBROOKE: Well, the financial mismanagement – $3 million-plus on a defamation case in the Federal Court, member for Point Cook. I think that kind of explains it all. So the opposition today want to actually talk about principles of transparency and principles of mismanagement, and that shocks me because that would be the last thing that I would like to speak about if I was embroiled in the Federal Court at the moment in an argument, which to me is based at its very roots, at its very foundation, on a lack of transparency, on a lack of honesty and on a lack of good management in their own party. Literally while we speak here lawyers and barristers are being paid because a Liberal Party MP is suing the opposition leader for defamation, which is –

The SPEAKER: Order! I remind the member for Frankston to be very careful about sub judice.

Paul EDBROOKE: I am well aware of sub judice, and I will skirt around that, thank you, Speaker. I think the case has unwittingly documented the Liberal Party’s internal chaos at the moment and an intentional lack of transparency and an intentional lack of good management.

Emma Kealy: On a point of order, Speaker, on relevance, the matter of public importance is very specifically around the financial mismanagement and lack of budget transparency of the Allan Labor government. It does not go anywhere near what the member is currently debating.

The SPEAKER: There are words in the matter of public importance that refer to budget – budget – transparency. I would ask the member for Frankston to come back to the MPI.

Paul EDBROOKE: Thank you, Speaker. And thank you to the member for Lowan, too, because I actually did not realise I had 15 minutes. I thought I only had 10. I am so glad I took notes.

I do like transparency. I like transparency quite a bit. Let us give a bit of context to this. Secretly recording your shadow cabinet colleagues – is that transparency? Is that good management?

Members interjecting.

Paul EDBROOKE: No. The Federal Court heard of recorded meetings –

Emma Kealy: On a further point of order, Speaker, this goes to my initial point of order, which was that this is a very narrow matter of public importance related to budget transparency and financial mismanagement.

The SPEAKER: The member for Lowan is correct –

Emma Kealy: As per your previous ruling, I ask you to bring the member back.

The SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Lowan. I would ask you to state your point of order succinctly. Member for Frankston, it is a pretty narrow MPI. I ask you to come back to the MPI.

Paul EDBROOKE: I will continue talking about transparency and good governance, Speaker.

The SPEAKER: It is budget transparency, member for Frankston.

Paul EDBROOKE: We have got an opposition here today with a record of terrible management, terrible clarity and transparency on matters –

Members interjecting.

Paul EDBROOKE: Well, in 2014 under a Liberal coalition – I am pretty sure it was the Napthine-Baillieu-Shaw government that hid Ambulance Victoria response data. I am pretty sure it was our government that released it.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Member for Nepean!

Paul EDBROOKE: We released that data from Liberal captivity. How is that for transparency? We were not the government that, just prior to an election, signed secret side letters on the east–west link. That is another example of transparency that has got a lot to do with the state’s finances. I think today the irony is thick across the board. In fact I cannot even believe that this was made up as an MPI. I thought we would go somewhere else a little bit less embarrassing.

It has come to my attention, too, that only recently – and I make no allegations against any MPs here – the Hawthorn RSL sub-branch has expelled a former Liberal candidate over allegations that veterans’ data was actually shared by the Liberal Party, and Hawthorn sub-branch members received political communications –

Jess Wilson: On a point of order, Speaker, on relevance, this is a very narrow MPI, and I am not sure how this relates to budget transparency in any way, shape or form.

The SPEAKER: No, I am not sure either, but I do hope the member for Frankston is coming back to being relevant.

Paul EDBROOKE: I am on my way there. I am giving context. The RSL disputes tribunal found this Liberal guilty on several charges –

James Newbury: Speaker –

Paul EDBROOKE: and it is in their DNA.

James Newbury: Speaker –

Paul EDBROOKE: Wait till the member for –

James Newbury: Speaker –

The SPEAKER: Manager of Opposition Business, you do not need to screech at me.

James Newbury: I am not screeching.

The SPEAKER: Order! I would ask you to just stand in your place. I will see you, and I will call you. The Manager of Opposition Business has a point of order.

James Newbury: On a point of order, Speaker, the member has repeatedly used this matter of public importance to sledge. This is not the grievance debate.

The SPEAKER: What is your point of order?

James Newbury: I would ask you, on relevance, to bring the member back to the motion.

The SPEAKER: I would ask you to state your point of order at the start of your point of order. Member for Frankston, I would ask you to come back to the MPI and to tie in what you are saying, right now, to the MPI.

Paul EDBROOKE: We have seen that the opposition is very, very, very touchy today about this, and I would like to just give a bit of context about where we are coming from.

We had a plan after COVID to make sure that the state’s economy was in a place where we could generate the economy, and at the moment we are on track to be, in five years, the highest growing economy in Australia. The first step of that plan was creating jobs, reducing unemployment and restoring growth. The second step was returning to an operating cash surplus, the third step was returning to operating surpluses and step 4 was stabilising debt levels. You can add step 5 to that as well, which was reducing debt levels as a proportion of the economy, which we have seen in the latest budget that came out.

For the first time since 2017 net debt to GSP has dropped. That shows that the MPI we are talking about today is the thought that you can rock the boat and then tell people that you are the only people that can save them from a stormy sea. That is what we are seeing here today.

I think the issue for those opposite, much like their internals, is the way the public sees them. When we say ‘matter of public importance’ –

Peter Walsh: On a point of order, Speaker, on the issue of relevance, I would ask you to implement the rarely used mercy rule and sit the member down.

The SPEAKER: There is no point of order.

Paul EDBROOKE: Well, bearing that in mind, I can talk about a former member for Kew, former shadow minister, former person at the centre of the operation that you have got over there in the opposition. In the Age that former MP said this:

What voters want to see and hear from the opposition is basic competence. Broadly speaking, they also want to know what you stand for. The Victorian Liberals have failed to show these attributes for years – that’s why they continue to lose.

John Pesutto interjected.

Paul EDBROOKE: I am taking up that interjection. I will just remind the Leader of the Opposition of Sue Chrysanthou, who said the project that the opposition leader presented was no better than a project presented by an eight-year-old. So –

James Newbury: On a point of order, Speaker, we were speaking about sub judice earlier, and the member is specifically quoting a current court case. I would say that the member in terms of relevance and the sub judice rule is skirting on very dangerous ground, and I would ask you to caution him.

The SPEAKER: Member for Frankston, I remind you about sub judice and I also ask you to be relevant to the MPI.

Paul EDBROOKE: What we are seeing is that the rebound in Victoria’s economy has been strong and a testament to the resilience of the Victorian people and the economy we built together and how we worked together through COVID, through some very, very difficult times. Even when we had people who were working against our economy, we spent money to save lives. We achieved step 2 in that plan by delivering an operating cash surplus in 2022–23, and that is forecast to continue in the 2023–24 budget as well and beyond.

We remain on track to meet step 3 from 2025–26. In fact we will deliver a higher operating surplus in 2025–26 than we promised before the 2022 election. The 2024–25 budget delivered on step 4, stabilising net debt as a percentage of average GSP, and due to achievement of step 4 we added a new step, step 5, reducing debt levels as a proportion of the economy. So that 2024–25 budget projects net debt to GSP to peak at 25.2 per cent in the 2027 budget and then decline to 25.1 per cent in 2027–28. And in the Victorian budget in 2024–25 for the first time net debt to GSP has dropped since 2017.

I think what we are seeing today is what the Liberal Party are all about. There are more of them here to listen to me and have a little go, have a little shout, than there were to listen to their own Shadow Treasurer, who has made a massive announcement today, apparently. He has got his book. He said he wants to table it. It is fantastic; thanks for holding that up. But what we see is there were nine opposition members in the chamber, and now there are, with the former speaker, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12 – 13 for me! I mean, I know I am a much more charismatic speaker –

Danny O’Brien: On a point of order, Speaker, on the question of relevance – and I am hesitating because I know I am just helping the member for Frankston out, who cannot fill his time in – clearly counting is not –

The SPEAKER: Member for Frankston, come back to the MPI.

Paul EDBROOKE: For me I think it is really an exemplar to be standing up here and be shouted down by the Liberals, because obviously they do not want transparency. They have not told us what they are going to cut. So you can come out with a plan – what is the first thing that is going to be cut? Is it health? Is it education?

Members interjecting.

Paul EDBROOKE: Did you say my weight? Is it health? Is it education? Is it people’s housing? Are you not going to allow people to build homes next to their loved ones?

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! Leader of the Opposition!

Paul EDBROOKE: We know that this is your plan, and we would love you to come out in a transparent fashion and tell us about it today. I would love to hear that from the next speaker. It is one thing to have a plan; it is another thing to tell the Victorian community what is the first thing that is going to be cut. Whose jobs are going to be cut? Who has to go home to their family and say, ‘Right. We are in trouble because of a Liberal government.’ It is fine to say you have got a plan. We have heard nothing about it, and that comes to what this debate is all about today: mismanagement and lack of transparency – none and none.

Unfortunately, Victorians know that we have a shambles in opposition at the moment. They cannot trust each other. They record each other secretly. How can the Victorian people trust this mob when they do not trust themselves? How can they run a state when they do not trust themselves? How can they run the state’s finances transparently and in a manner befitting of a government when they act like this?

I thank the opposition for coming in to hear my contribution – I really do. I think we have got 15 people in here now versus, say, nine for the Shadow Treasurer and his announcement – very, very entertaining to see that happen. I am sure that I did not disappoint. I am a charismatic speaker. But this matter of public importance is based on fallacies, and it is based on sheer stupidity.

Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (16:31): The member for Frankston asked a rhetorical question about what we would cut. I think the first thing we should cut is a statue to someone that put us in the world’s longest lockdowns. The first thing we should cut is a statue to someone that drove this economy into the ground here in Victoria and has left us with nearly $200 billion worth of debt, and that same person started this.

I am glad the member for Frankston reminded me about the east–west link. Someone said it was not worth the paper it was written on. It must have been gold-plated paper, because it cost Victorian taxpayers $1.3 billion to get out of that contract, and that is where this whole mess actually started. So thank you, member for Frankston, for drawing attention to the fact that this government cannot be trusted to manage Victorians’ money. It started from day one when we when we spent $1.3 billion to not build a road that is desperately needed. If you go out on the Eastern Freeway, as I do sometimes in the morning, and see all those cars banked up coming in, they would not be banked up if the east–west link had been built when it should have been built.

This is about the issue of fiscal mismanagement and budget transparency, and it starts with the current Premier and the Commonwealth Games. In 2018 we were told – particularly regional Victoria was told – that we could have the Commonwealth Games, a regional Commonwealth Games, that would see our regional cities benefit. That dream was kept on life support until after the 2022 election, and then it was actually euthanised because the government had no intention of actually keeping that dream alive. They just wanted to keep it past the 2022 election so they could then scrap it. It was originally going to cost $2.6 billion. Somehow magically over a few weeks it went from that – because the now Premier kept saying everything was on track – to $6 billion to $7 billion, which has never ever been quantified.

For those that follow the Commonwealth Games, they will have to now pay to go to Glasgow to watch Victoria’s money actually fund the Commonwealth Games. How is that actually benefiting Victoria when Victorians’ taxpayer money is actually paying Scotland to run what was going to be our Commonwealth Games? I do not know what map they were looking at, but on the last map of Victoria I looked at, Glasgow was not in regional Victoria, but somehow now it is deemed in regional Victoria because they have got our money to run our Commonwealth Games.

The project that, again, the current Premier absolutely, totally stuffed up was the Murray Basin rail project. It has not been raised in this house for a while because the Premier is very touchy about this. She inherited $400 million of money to run that project. Michael McCormack, the federal minister, when it was first botched put in another $200 million to bail that particular project out – $600 million to have the train from Merbein actually go to the Melbourne port in a slower time than when it started.

How can someone spend $600 million to have a slower train to do that particular issue? What makes it actually worse, at the end of all this we have spent $600 million, and we actually have a train that goes slower between Mildura and the port, and the Premier put her hands up and said, ‘This is an issue for a future government to fix up my mess. I can’t fix it up.’ That is putting the white flag up on regional Victoria and on the particular project. So we now have slower trains and we now have more trucks on the road than necessary – more road damage – and that is just an absolute travesty. The same Premier that we have now oversaw all the major infrastructure projects in Victoria – $40 billion in cost overruns. Forty billion dollars is a number that most people struggle to get their head around because there are a lot of noughts in it.

Can I break it down to some simple terms for the house? As the Minister for Roads and Road Safety at the table would know, there are 23,000 kilometres of highway in Victoria, so you could spend a million dollars on every kilometre of highway in Victoria and still have $17 billion left over. That might just help fix the health system – actually it might just help us get an ambulance on time. We might actually be able to give the police, those very hard working police, a pay rise, and you would probably still have the odd million or two left over to do some other things around the state. That is the context of what those cost overruns mean. We could have had a million on every kilometre of highway in Victoria to fix them up so we would not have those people damaging their wheels, bursting tyres and doing all the things that happen on potholes. The Melba Highway is not in my electorate but is one of the worst roads you could ever drive on when it comes to highways – that could actually have a million dollars on every kilometre and be fixed. So for the minister for roads at the table, if the Premier had not blown $40 billion on the major projects in Melbourne, the minister would have had a great budget to fix all the roads. But it was not to be, so Victorians are paying the price for Labor’s mismanagement of those particular projects.

We come to the debt that the Shadow Treasurer talked about. As he said, in the 2 hours we will spend on this particular debate in the Parliament we will rack up another $2 million of interest, so for every hour that is $1 million in interest, and the next hour, $1 million – every day, every week, every month, every year into the future. That million dollars – give it a few hours and you could build a new school in your electorate or my electorate. Go for a couple of days and we could build a hospital. It is amazing what could be done with that money that is being spent on those particular projects. Again, the Premier was transport and infrastructure minister. For the Bendigo to Echuca train line there was federal money – thank you, Darren Chester, who was the minister at that particular time – of $93 million to upgrade that line. The trains were going to run faster. When you used to come down on the train, where it runs parallel to the road, the cars would pass you. I came down a few Sunday nights ago to come to Parliament, and guess what, the cars still pass you on that road, even though there is $93 million being spent on fixing up that particular line.

Danny O’Brien: Allegedly.

Peter WALSH: Allegedly. When it comes to the issue of the health system – the transparency around the health system – the fact is that all our health systems are extremely nervous about the fact that there will be budget cuts, there will be service cuts, there will be staff cuts and there will be some form of mergers. Whether they are called networks, whether they are called alignments, whether they are called wheel and spoke or whatever they are going to be called, there are going to be mergers. The CEOs and the leaders of those hospitals are effectively on notice: ‘Don’t talk to the opposition and tell them what is going on.’ If you want transparent government, as employees of all the taxpayers of Victoria they should actually be telling their communities what has been going on. But they have been read the riot act: ‘Don’t talk to the opposition; don’t tell people what is going on.’ There will be staff cuts or there will be people that will leave that will not be replaced, which is an effective staff cut. There will be service cuts, and people in country Victoria will have to travel further for health services. What is even worse is with the funding that is there, if someone wants to go get their hip done in a regional hospital, that hospital will actually get paid less to do that surgery than if they are in a metropolitan hospital.

Why should country surgeons get paid less to deliver a service?

Juliana Addison: They don’t.

Peter WALSH: They are. It is a fact. Perhaps the CEOs of the hospitals have been told not to talk to you too. They probably have been told not to talk to you too. Through the Chair, Speaker, perhaps the CEOs of those hospitals have been told not to talk to the relevant members in their particular electorate.

What we want to see on this side of the house, which the Shadow Treasurer talked about, is we want to make sure that there is transparency in the government process. We want to make sure that there is accountability in the budget process. More importantly, we want to make sure there is an intergenerational report on how all this debt that we have inherited – or are going to inherit in November 2026 – will actually be dealt with in the future. We want to have a Victorian version of the Productivity Commission that will actually drill down into the debt, will drill down into how government is run and will actually give us, as an incoming government, advice as to how to manage it into the future. Because Victorians deserve better than what they have had over the last 10 years. Nearly $200 billion worth of debt and a million dollars an hour in interest bills is not good enough. People will rue the 10 years of Labor and two more where that debt will go up and things will get worse before there is a change of government here in Victoria. Everywhere I go – and I recently spent two days at the Elmore Field Days – the constant question of people coming into the tent is ‘When are you going to get rid of this corrupt, tired, out-of-ideas government?’ Those people that raised it said, ‘We’ve had enough of this, and we need change in Victoria.’

Michaela SETTLE (Eureka) (16:41): I am delighted to rise to speak on this matter of public importance. I am delighted that the Leader of the Nationals wanted to discuss the east–west link, particularly when we are talking about matters of transparency. When Ted Baillieu stood for election, he talked about honest reporting and accountability to citizens about the things government is doing on their behalf. Within seven years he had completely destroyed that with a decision to hide the costs of all major infrastructure projects. Let me just remind those on the other side that the Auditor-General – the Auditor-General that this side respects and listens to – condemned the former Victorian government’s handling of the east–west link road project. The audit examined whether the state had effectively managed the project by assessing the total costs. The Victorian Auditor-General’s report found that Napthine government’s decision to proceed with the project and enter contracts was based on flawed advice. So you want to bring up the east–west link and you want to talk about transparency – well, you have got it right there. The Auditor-General said that there was a lack of transparency.

Baillieu announced a policy which said they would no longer disclose the cost of major projects. Those on the other side like to say, ‘Oh, you know, this was 10 years ago. It was a long time ago.’ But let us remember that the cabinet under Napthine included sitting members Kim Wells, David Davis, Matthew Guy, Michael O’Brien, Peter Walsh –

The SPEAKER: Order!

Michaela SETTLE: Correct titles – I could not remember all of their seats.

The SPEAKER: Correct titles, member for Eureka.

Michaela SETTLE: I appreciate that. But what I am trying to say here is that there are many on the other side that sat with the Napthine government and the Baillieu government when they decided to no longer disclose the cost of major projects. In fact the then Treasurer, the member for Rowville, said that the project budget had the potential to limit competition by giving potential businesses a reasonable indication of the government’s estimate. The member for Rowville was very happy to suggest that the government hide the costs of projects. So while we are talking about transparency, please hold onto that dearly.

I would go on to say that they are announcing today what they claim are going to be measures for transparency and accountability. Let us look first at the charter of budget honesty that is being proposed. We are the only jurisdiction in Australia whose budget is required by legislation to be signed off by the Auditor-General. So what we are not sure of is whether those on the other side are suggesting that the Auditor-General is not good at financial management and how we operate.

While that might seem harsh, let us remember that is something that the predecessors of this opposition have certainly done. The friend of the current Leader of the Opposition Jeff Kennett was famous for trying to get rid of the Auditor-General altogether. Those on the other side in those days did not have much respect for the Auditor-General, they wanted to change it so that there would be no transparency. During his stint as the Auditor-General in 1996 Mr Baragwanath found the Kennett government’s misuse of government credit cards, secrecy surrounding Victoria’s private prisons and – another cracker – the use of commercial confidentiality to conceal the sale of public assets and government spending. While our interim Leader of the Opposition might like to spout that he is going to bring in some sort of charter of budget honesty, he is at the one hand going down the same track as his good friend and financier Jeff Kennett, who sought to curb the Auditor-General. I can only imagine that this step is one to curb the Auditor-General.

Another one of their fine ideas today is around debt caps. I find this one pretty extraordinary. Let us have a look at the only jurisdiction that does it so publicly, which is the US. There have been 78 different times that they have legislated to raise the limit. So basically it is a dysfunctional system, but I would also say if they would like on the other side to hold up America as some great bastion I would suggest that their debt caps would probably lead to something akin to the US health services. Debt caps just want to appease a set of figures with no respect or understanding of the impact that they will have on the budgets. Our health system is far and away in advance of America’s, but those on the other side seem to want to introduce something that has failed in America, given that there have been 78 instances where they have had to pass legislation, and they would like us to bring in a flawed service here. So the debt cap is a pretty dysfunctional idea – which could also be said of the opposition in general. The charter of budget honesty would seem to be another lech to take power away from the Auditor-General – as I say, akin to the financier and friend of the temporary Leader of the Opposition, Kennett, who sought to remove the Auditor-General’s power through legislation in 1997.

All round, what we are looking at here are some pretty strange ideas, pretty empty ideas, many of them that have been debunked. As I say, the debt cap is ridiculous. With the idea of the honesty charter, we already have the Auditor-General. They talk about waste, and yet they want to create other levels of scrutiny, which would imply that the scrutiny of the Auditor-General is not up to scratch in the opposition’s eyes. They are pretty ordinary ideas, but at the base of all of this of course is they like to tout tax cuts, and I think it is incredibly important that we remember that what we do with tax money is we spend it on services. Whilst they were all very quick to shriek that they were going to cut waste, let us face it, they are going to cut services. The last time they were in every single solitary budget included cuts to housing – that is what those on the other side would like to do. They will cut supports for the vulnerable in our community to ensure that people that own Airbnbs, for example, can make a bit more money out of their Airbnbs. That is the sort of tax cuts they are looking at.

And do you know what? Do you know where the money from the Airbnb levy is going? It is going to housing. So they can stand there and tell us they are going to cut out those taxes, but basically they are going to cut a tax that supports housing for the vulnerable and also by cutting it they will be protecting their very own, who are reaping in the bucks with their Airbnbs.

We look at this announcement from them today – we look at this MPI – that they want to talk about lack of budget transparency and mismanagement. The papers are all there. We had decades of lack of transparency from the Liberals and the Nationals. The few times they managed to get into government basically their colours showed. They cut all of the services for the general community while protecting their mates from taxpaying. They have got some pretty weird ideas about a debt cap, which has absolutely failed in America, and a charter of budget honesty, which would see the Auditor-General sidelined, because basically the problem over there is they do not understand the system. As I say, we are the only jurisdiction that goes through the Auditor-General. But would you like to see the Auditor-General curbed?

The SPEAKER: Order! Through the Chair.

Michaela SETTLE: Sorry. They would like to see the Auditor-General’s powers curbed, obviously, as did Kennett in his attempts back in 1997. I can only imagine that is the plan behind their charter of budget honesty, which is another dud.

Jess WILSON (Kew) (16:51): I rise to speak on the member for Sandringham’s matter of public importance today:

That this house condemns the financial mismanagement and lack of budget transparency of the Allan Labor government.

From the outset can I say that Labor cannot manage money and Victorians are paying the price. But our commitment to the Victorian people is the Victorian Liberals and Nationals will better manage Victorian taxpayers money.

Can I start with debt? From those opposite today, in the contributions from those opposite, we have been looking back in time 10-plus years or 20-plus years, but let us look at the here and now of what Victorians are actually facing in terms of Labor’s mismanagement under the Allan Labor government. We have had $40 billion of cost blowouts when it comes to infrastructure projects in Victoria, and let us just look at a few of these infrastructure projects. The North East Link was promised for $5 billion, then revised to $10 billion and then revised again to $16 billion, and last year the Premier came out and overnight announced another $10 billion blowout on the North East Link. On the Metro Tunnel there was a $4 billion blowout before the $888 million latest blowout under the Allan Labor government. Of course there is the West Gate Tunnel, where we have seen a $4.7 billion blowout. These have all been overseen by the Premier as the Minister for Major Projects and Minister for Transport and Infrastructure for a decade under this government. The Premier has sat around the cabinet table and personally overseen every single blowout under the Allan Labor government. Each one of these major project blowouts has contributed to net debt increasing year on year in this state – $188 billion of net debt by 2027–28. This is the largest debt of any state in this country, and Victorian taxpayers will be saddled with an interest bill of $26 million a day by 2028. That is more than $1 million each and every hour each day that Victorian taxpayers are paying for Labor’s financial mismanagement.

I asked the Premier in question time today: what is the interest bill today and each and every other day here in Victoria? The Premier could not answer the question. She did point me to the budget papers. Well, I point the Premier to the budget papers – the budget papers that she signed off on. Each and every day, for the Premier’s reference, Victorians are right now paying $17.8 million in interest payments.

Now, we know that Victoria’s debt is not very attractive to buyers. We know that the cost of Victoria’s debt is going up constantly, and that is because of the reckless management of the Allan Labor government and the reckless waste that we have seen under this government.

Previous speakers have pointed to the Premier’s oversight of the Commonwealth Games debacle. This was a project that was promised for $2.6 billion on the eve of the election. It was promised to Victorians – particularly regional Victorians – that this was going to come to a town near you. Victoria was going to take on the Commonwealth Games for $2.6 billion. Yet last year in July we saw the Premier and the former Premier come out and say that the games had blown out to $6 billion to $7 billion under the now Premier’s oversight. Victorians are now footing the bill – $380 million in compensation – to pay for the Scottish Commonwealth Games to be held in Glasgow. This is an absolute debacle, and unfortunately for Victorians it is just one example of their consistent economic and financial mismanagement.

We talk about debt and we talk about the $188 billion of debt in this state, but we do not talk enough about the consequences of debt. What does debt mean? Of course it means that Victorians are paying an interest bill – an interest bill that continues to rise – and because Victoria’s debt is so unattractive in international markets and here in Australia when it comes to the bonds market, the cost of that debt, the cost of those interest repayments, continues to go up. But if we look at the impact and the consequences of debt on our health system, earlier this year we saw that hospitals here in Victoria are actually running low on cash. For the financial year to January, 41 of the state’s 75 health services did not have cash supplies to cover operating expenses. Such cash flow problems mean that health services have to pull funding. They have to pull funding from essential support services, and they have to not fill vacant positions. This is simply because the Treasurer and the Premier cannot manage Victoria’s budget, and that is now flowing through to the fact that our hospitals do not have the cash flow to manage their own operations, putting Victorians’ health at risk.

If we turn to the education system, the education system is underfunded, it is overcrowded and of course we know it is short-staffed. In this budget we saw 29 unfunded school upgrades listed in the budget. Despite commitments made on the eve of the past election – commitments made right across the state – students in primary schools and secondary schools here in Victoria have been left without those much-needed capital upgrades because of the mismanagement of this government, the rising debt and the inability to fund those projects. We know the education minister here in Victoria has gone cap-in-hand to the federal government saying, ‘Please, please, Minister, fund our state schools more because we can’t afford to do it here in Victoria.’ Our state schools here in Victoria are the least funded compared to most jurisdictions in Australia. They have the least funding compared to other states when it comes to state government’s responsibility to provide 80 per cent of that funding. And of course we are seeing teachers leave the profession in droves – a 5000-teacher shortfall over the coming years – because this government cannot manage projects and they cannot manage money, and Victorian students are paying the price.

Finally, let us look at Victoria’s credit rating. Do not just take my word for it that Victoria’s debt is causing many issues here in Victoria, the consequences of which I have just spoken to, but let us turn to the credit rating agencies that have downgraded Victoria’s rating to the lowest in Australia. In recent times they have put stark warnings out to the government to say, ‘You need to get your financial management under control. You need to make sure that you are reining in spending and that you have a plan to stop debt growing in this state.’ We have had Standard & Poor’s warn that they could downgrade Victoria’s credit rating even further if financial mismanagement is not put at the top of the government’s agenda. We have had Moody’s talking about the fact that interest payments are forecast to be too high by 2028, when net debt is projected to hit $188 billion.

What these rating agencies have pointed to is the fact that while this government talks about a debt repayment plan and a debt management plan, they still plan to build and put in place the Suburban Rail Loop, a project that is unfunded – a project that is going to cost over $200 billion and a project for which the first phase alone has already blown out from $35 billion to over $40 billion according to the Auditor-General.

The rating agencies have said if the government continues to go down the path of building the Suburban Rail Loop, then it is very, very possible that Victoria’s credit rating will once again be downgraded. The government has not liked that too much, and so they have gone to a new credit rating agency Fitch and paid for a new credit rating so they could point to that rather than those of Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, which have put out very stark warnings to this government to get their house in order and get spending and debt under control in this state.

The lack of budget honesty and transparency by the Allan Labor government is remarkable. We have seen Treasurer’s advances time and time again. We have seen them grow from $365 million when the coalition was last in power to over $12 billion recently. These are Treasurer’s advances for what should be projects and ongoing commitments within the budget that should be made very clear to the Victorian people. That is why today we have released a robust fiscal framework to put in place economic responsibility in this state to make sure that we are not recklessly wasting taxpayer money. We will make sure that we put in place a legislative charter of budget honesty. We will put in place a real-time public expenditure tracker so that Victorian people know how their money is being spent. We will ensure that we develop an intergenerational report so that future generations understand the consequences of Labor’s record debt and the mismanagement of Victoria’s finances.

Sarah CONNOLLY (Laverton) (17:02): I too rise to speak on this motion and speak against this motion put forward by the opposition today. I am quite overwhelmed because I do not know where to start or who to start with. The type of nonsense that has been coming from those opposite this afternoon has been quite extraordinary, and I do find it amusing. I always have a laugh; I always find it amusing. It started there with the member for Sandringham, and I am so glad you have come back in the chamber, member for Sandringham, because you will like this one. You always give me the giggles. I am always impressed by your performances; you give it a great go. I sat there confused in the beginning as to why the Leader of the Opposition was not leading this matter of public importance as the first speaker and speaking for 15 minutes about this grand plan that he has for Victoria. That was not why I was laughing, member for Sandringham. I was laughing because I love hearing Libs talk about their values and how passionately they feel about them. They always talk about the people who have money in their back pocket and how those people deserve a fair go, and they do deserve a fair go. But that is where the plan stops and that is where the member for Sandringham stopped. They never talk about the rest of Victoria that may not have a couple of dollars in their back pocket and what their plan is for them. I have heard none of that today.

I listened to the member for Kew give her contribution this afternoon. I know that asking a question during question time can always be quite daunting. I think it was the Premier who responded to the member for Kew on this about a question of interest and debt and expenditure. The Premier responded with what expenditure in this state has been spent on, and I am going to remind you here this afternoon about what it has been spent on. It has been spent on our level crossings, and I am sure someone will shout out how many we are going to do and how many we are up to so far. I cannot keep count. There are so many. Victorians’ money has been spent on removing those level crossings. The Werribee line is going to be level crossing free. I always like to throw in that little bit with the western suburbs – level crossing free.

A member interjected.

Sarah CONNOLLY: You say Melton is going to be level crossing free. That expenditure has been on things like –

Brad Rowswell: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, I just think the member for Tarneit deserves to be heard in silence. There is a bit of audible noise in the chamber at the minute.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is no point of order.

Sarah CONNOLLY: I am looking around for the member for Gippsland South, who I think has left. He would be used to me saying, ‘Shh!’ See how quickly it gets quiet in here? Victorians’ taxpayers money has been spent on things like the West Gate Tunnel. That will open next year, 2025. Member for Brighton, I hope that you will have your GPS on and that you are one of the first ones to drive across. That will cut travel times by at least 20 minutes for westies – that is 40 minutes.

You guys talked about $40 billion of debt – or interest – and this will cut 40 minutes at least per day for westies travelling.

Let me keep talking about this expenditure. We are also spending money, yes, on the Metro Tunnel. That is going to open in 2025. That will benefit every single one of the folks living here in Victoria. That is an extraordinary project, an extraordinary investment in Victoria’s growing population and predicted future population, which will be the size of London’s in years to come. That is about building for our future. This is not just small stuff that has to be done. We are also doing that. The member for Kew also talked about how there is no money for school upgrades. Well, schools are being upgraded in my electorate. A lot of them, I have to say, have already been done, and there are still more underway. I was at Sunshine Primary School recently with the Premier and the Minister for Children to celebrate $11 million to completely transform one of the oldest schools in the western suburbs into a first-class facility where kids will get a world-class education. Right next door, well and truly under construction and well underway to open its doors for term one in 2025, is Sunshine Primary School kindergarten. A kindergarten – who would have thought? That is one of 50 onsite kindergartens that we are building at our primary schools – one of 50. So do not talk about taxpayers money not being spent on things in this state; that is absolute nonsense. There is the $1.8 billion western roads upgrade program, which upgraded many of the country roads in one of the fast-growing corridors in this state and this country, inside my electorate. The expenditure has been spent on stuff that matters.

The member for Murray Plains, the Leader of the Nationals, ended his contribution by saying that we are a government that has run out of plans. Well, I have to say, and I am going to say it – and I know everyone behind me will think, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s right; I told you so’ – in case the Leader of the Nationals missed it, we have made major announcements every day this week about housing and how we are going to tackle Victoria’s housing crisis. Maybe he missed that. That is not, as he was saying, a government that has no plans for the future. We are not stopping there. We have made announcements today about renters.

Obviously the Leader of the Nationals needs to get back to reading the Herald Sun or whatever newspaper he gets his information from to understand that we are a government that is making announcements each and every single day. But we do not just make them for folks in a particular part of town, folks who have a particular amount of money in their bank accounts or folks who come from a particular postcode; we are a government that is interested in governing for all Victorians. I would say to the Leader of the Opposition and those opposite: that is why you sit on that side of the chamber and that is why we sit on this side. It is a little story I like to tell on election day about what you believe in, the society that you want to raise your children in. Do you want a government that is going to govern for all Victorians and fight for a fairer, more equitable Victoria, or do you want folks that are just interested in how much money they have in their bank account?

Members interjecting.

Sarah CONNOLLY: Apologies, member for Nepean. It is just that that the member for Sandringham is busy doing something else.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I remind the member that ‘you’ refers to the Chair as well.

Luba Grigorovitch: I think the member for Laverton is doing a great job.

Sarah CONNOLLY: Thank you, member for Kororoit. The member for Kororoit would know that her electorate has benefited immensely from the type of infrastructure that Victorian taxpayers money has been spent on. There is not one punter on the street that you could stop that could not name one project that this government has undertaken that they have benefited from, and for folks in the western suburbs, it is going to be the West Gate Tunnel. That is one of my favourite projects.

In the short time I have got left I am not going to go through the full list of things that we have invested in, but what I will say, which has not been mentioned in this place and I cannot finish my contribution without pointing out, is the budget is in the position it is in as a result of really tough decisions – and I was around for those tough decisions – that our government made four years ago when we faced one of the greatest challenges to our state in our history.

A once-in-a-generation global pandemic came onto the scene, and our government chose to do the right thing: it chose to prioritise saving lives, protecting jobs and supporting local businesses, supporting those local businesses that those opposite continue to talk about time and time again in this place as though they are the only ones that support and represent those businesses.

I still remember those times and the debates we had in this place. I like to think it is blurry and far away, as it may seem now, but I remember the daily press conferences, and I remember the enormous sense of pride I felt when Victorians banded together, did the right thing and kicked COVID out of Victoria. For two years we fought this thing while Victorians put their community first, got vaccinated and did the right thing to get things back to normal. We supported local businesses who were doing it tough, and yes, it did cost a lot of money. The amount of times we have talked about that here in this place and being in the position we are in and our four-step plan to get out of it, and those opposite deny it as though it never happened.

There are a lot of deniers here in this place. Member for Nepean, you were not here and maybe you did not hear them – there were a lot of deniers on your side of the house when it came to the COVID pandemic. But the Treasurer has worked tirelessly to get things back on track, and I would ask those opposite to start telling the truth about stuff. Stop fearmongering in our community about this situation. That is really why you are sitting on that side and not this side of house. This is a ridiculous motion to bring up at this time, this week, to debate as an MPI topic, and I strongly speak against it.

Chris CREWTHER (Mornington) (17:12): I rise today on this matter of public importance moved by the member for Sandringham:

That this house condemns the financial mismanagement and lack of budget transparency of the Allan Labor government.

This Labor government have blatantly neglected Victoria, including the Mornington electorate, through their absolute financial mismanagement, lack of budget transparency and disastrous budget earlier this year. Debt is now approaching $188 billion. Taxpayer-funded interest on this debt will soon be $26 million a day; that is over $1 million every hour, and it is also over $180,000 during this 10-minute speech that I will give right now, which is more than most family incomes. There is an undeniable need for funding for basic service delivery; however, because of the Allan Labor government’s culture of reckless waste and blowouts they are not providing the much-needed services and investments we need. Hundreds of constituents are contacting us requesting that Labor fix our roads, like in the member for Mildura’s electorate in places like Robinvale or with potholes and craters in some cases which are now everywhere, with infrastructure, public transport, schools like the 50-year-old Mount Eliza Secondary College, hospitals like Rosebud Hospital in the member for Nepean’s electorate, local sporting facilities and much more; you name it.

Surely it is clear to any sensible member opposite, if there are any, that Victoria has been neglected and many are not better off than they were 10 years ago when Labor first came into government, despite the mental gymnastics and budget opaqueness that Labor try to engage in. Victorians are now suffering under what will soon be 23 out of 27 years of Labor in power in Victoria, power that seems to have gone to their heads. The member for Frankston before asked about what we would cut in government. How about this? Cut waste, cut taxes, cut red tape, cut corruption, cut unemployment rates, cut the amount of potholes, cut ambulance ramping, cut debt. These things have all gone up under Labor. Maybe the member for Frankston has seen the light – he has joined our side of the chamber right now – has seen the light that this Labor government have overseen debt, corruption and more.

Now let us go to this debt, something that is increasingly a barbecue conversation – Victoria’s Himalayan levels of debt. As noted, Victoria’s debt under Labor is skyrocketing towards $188 billion. Some people have described the debt as a mountain, yet this is unfair as there is no downward slope and no distant peak. Instead we will potentially have generational debt that will be difficult to pay down.

And who do we have in charge of the state coffers? A Treasurer with the air of a kid who has just been given his mum’s credit card to go to the shops to purchase a few basics but returns with 5 kilograms of chocolate, packs of lollies and a brand new Hot Wheels set. A Treasurer who has doomed this state to its current parlous financial circumstances. A Treasurer who says, ‘What money? What debt?’, and puts it all on red, because that is exactly what the Treasurer is doing. He argues:

… as your economy grows, your capacity to service your liability massively improves.

That is obvious. It is obvious to all of us. But our economy has been pumped prime by record levels of government spending and waste. So this Treasurer says, ‘To service the debt, spend more money.’ Yet experts say that the only way the debt stops rising in dollar terms is by running cash surpluses, and as the member for Sandringham, our Shadow Treasurer, would attest, there are no operating surpluses forecast in the next four years, with revisions since the budget only making the bottom line worse. Labor in response has tried to tax its way to prosperity, with 55 new or increased taxes. We have seen increased land tax, schools tax, holiday tax and more. Increased taxes will only push our economy backwards. Increased land taxes see rental providers sell up and invest elsewhere, reducing rental stock, pushing up rents and making it even harder to secure stable accommodation for so many individuals, couples and families.

On the back of this we have over 61,000 people on the public housing waiting list, increasing levels of homelessness and more. Indeed, on the Mornington Peninsula we now have the fourth-highest level of homelessness in this state, and that includes people like Kon, who are now homeless, living in their van on the Frankston foreshore, as the member for Frankston is aware, due to Labor’s and the member for Frankston’s lack of bailing out of Culcairn Drive residents, who have been victims of Labor’s failed building regulations.

In contrast, if we were to reduce taxes, such as reducing land tax, people would flock back to invest in Victoria and, ironically, we would raise government revenue. The Allan Labor government is increasing taxes while at the same time cutting essential services like road maintenance, with a 45 per cent cut to the road maintenance budget since 2020, and hospital funding. Where, for example, is Pakenham hospital or, as I mentioned before, Rosebud Hospital’s much-needed redevelopment? As well, there has been recklessness and reckless use of taxpayer funds, like with the $40 billion of cost blowouts on major projects, or their white elephant, the $216 billion Suburban Rail Loop.

As mentioned, growing debt and interest has meant Labor introducing over 55 new taxes and charges, driving businesses and jobs out of Victoria. As the member for Sandringham pointed out, over 152,000 Victorian businesses closed in 2022–23. I know the member for Frankston is aware of all those closed shops in Frankston right in his electorate.

Victoria’s new business registrations have also flatlined in comparison with other states. This also means the government has less to spend on schools, hospitals, roads, public transport, tackling crime and more. This includes the Mornington electorate. My electorate has seen little in terms of funding for the environment, public transport, crime prevention and enforcement, schools, homelessness, roads and more from this state Labor government, all because of their financial mismanagement combined with their disproportionate expenditure on Labor- over Liberal-held seats, such as we see with education infrastructure funding. We are also seeing negative real wage growth, and the Allan Labor government has no plans to address it.

Also on crime, due to Labor’s financial mismanagement we are seeing cuts and more cuts to tackling crime and ensuring community safety, such as with the 1000 police shortage we have at the moment. In Labor’s budget, this included an $11 million cut to community crime prevention, a $466 million cut to emergency management capability, a $34 million cut to youth justice custodial services and a $37 million cut to prisoner supervision and support.

This means less funding, resources and support for police, including Mornington police, making it very difficult for them to tackle the increased crime wave on the Mornington Peninsula. This, combined with a reduction in reception hours for police stations across Victoria – including Mornington police from 24 down to 16 hours across multiple days each week – and weak bail laws and consequences, means police need to keep arresting the same offenders over and over again, which is simply demoralising for them and the community.

In December of 2023 the Mornington Peninsula was reported as one of the state’s top five youth crime hotspots. This has since got worse. On the weekend a Herald Sun article showed aggravated burglaries are up by more than 17 per cent, vehicle thefts are up 30 per cent, stealing from shops is up more than 70 per cent, and overall crime on the Mornington Peninsula is up 22 per cent over the last 12 months. Victims have been left scared due to the increasingly brazen activities and actions of criminals. Victims are afraid to go home or be home, and children are having nightmares about intruders. Concerned constituents continue to contact me about this increasing issue.

At the same time, in contrast, the coalition today announced a legislated charter of budget honesty, a real-time public expenditure tracker and a Victorian first intergenerational report to be completed by a newly established Victorian productivity commission. In short, we will be more transparent, we will lower taxes, we will cut waste, we will cut red tape, we will be very careful with our spending, we will reduce debt, we will grow investment and we will grow our economy. We cannot trust this Labor government and we need a change.

Nick STAIKOS (Bentleigh) (17:22): Of course I am going to contribute to a matter of public importance (MPI) moved by the member for Sandringham. The member for Sandringham is in the house.

Brad Rowswell: What story are you going to tell today, mate?

Nick STAIKOS: Hello, member for Sandringham. I know you love it when I tell the stories from our days at St Bede’s. The member for Mornington just said that this MPI is barbecue conversation. What sorts of barbecues does the member for Mornington attend? But it got me thinking. It is pretty weird, really; it did get me thinking. Imagine a barbecue with the member for Mornington, the member for Nepean, the member for Sandringham and the member for Brighton. Who else has put their hand up for the leadership? The member for Rowville, the member for Berwick and the member for Bulleen – John would not be invited. Did you notice, though, that there were not any women mentioned?

Wayne Farnham: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, on relevance, could you bring him back to the MPI?

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I think the debate has become rather a wide debate. I thought you might have said ‘correct titles’, which I would have upheld.

Nick STAIKOS: The previous speaker was talking about barbecues. Those gentlemen will be flipping the sausages. There were not any women mentioned as potential future leaders – they will be inside cutting salads and sipping moselle no doubt – because that is their attitude.

Wayne Farnham: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, on relevance, could you please bring the member back to the debate?

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I am sure the member is coming to the relevance of the MPI before us, and as I said, it has become rather a wideranging debate in the last hour. The member is to continue on the MPI.

Nick STAIKOS: I am responding to the previous speaker, who was talking about barbecue conversations. I thought I would lean into that given the trouble they have had, particularly over the last couple of months, on that side.

But considering this MPI, I have got to say the lead speaker, the mover of this MPI, the member for Sandringham, said, ‘We care for vulnerable Victorians.’ My experience of Liberals is that they only care about themselves – nobody else – and there is a mountain of evidence to demonstrate that they only care about themselves. As we speak, they are busy opposing new housing in their electorates.

Sam Groth interjected.

Nick STAIKOS: Listen, member for Nepean, you may be all right on a tennis court; you are not that good here, let me tell you.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Through the Chair.

Nick STAIKOS: But I will say to the member for Sandringham that he cares for vulnerable Victorians as long as they do not live anywhere near him.

Brad Rowswell: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, that is not very nice. I am personally offended by that, and I seek an immediate withdrawal.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Does the member withdraw?

Nick STAIKOS: No, I do not.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I would encourage the member to withdraw given that personal offence was taken, apparently.

Nick STAIKOS: For the benefit of the house, I withdraw. But I think there is a mountain of evidence to demonstrate that they do not care about vulnerable Victorians. They pay lip-service; that is all they do. I spoke about this yesterday on the housing legislation. The member for Sandringham actually has an opportunity in his electorate, with the Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) beginning in his electorate, to welcome in many, many, many young people who will be able to set up their homes in the Sandringham electorate. The member for Sandringham lives in the area in which he grew up, yet he wants to deny that opportunity to many other young people. Why does he want to do that? He has been spending the last month running around not just opposing the Suburban Rail Loop but opposing the housing that is going to come with the Suburban Rail Loop.

I spoke about this yesterday. He is opposing high-density housing on the Highett Gasworks site. The Highett Gasworks site is on Nepean Highway. It is between two activity centres. It is not just going to be on the Frankston line, it is going to be on the Suburban Rail Loop, connected to the largest jobs hub outside of the CBD. It is between two industrial precincts. So if you cannot actually put this sort of higher density housing in that location, where can you put it? Where? This is the trouble we have got. When you say you care about vulnerable Victorians, you are demonstrating that you just want them to live out on the urban fringes or that you really do not care if they have got a roof over their heads. That is what we hear time and time again.

The member for Sandringham also pretended to be concerned about people’s wages. The fact is, without the labour movement there would not be a minimum wage. Let us call a spade a spade: if we did not have unions, if we did not have a labour movement, if all we had were the Tories opposite, there would be no minimum wage, there would be no 8-hour day, there would be none –

Mathew Hilakari interjected.

Nick STAIKOS: Gina Rinehart did have something to say about that, member for Point Cook. But there would be none of these protections for workers. So if ever you hear a Liberal say, ‘We’re worried about people’s wages; we’re worried about wage stagnation,’ they are not genuine, because they do not believe that Victorians should have decent wages.

The other thing I would say about those opposite is that they care very little about intergenerational inequality. They care very little about what Victoria is going to look like in the 2050s because, as I said at the start of this contribution, Liberals only care about themselves. The reason why those opposite oppose this government’s efforts to secure the future of Victoria, to secure the future of Melbourne, which by 2050 will be the size that London is today, is because they do not – we will all be retired from politics by the 2050s, yet on this side of the house we care about what Melbourne and Victoria will look like in the 2050s. We are building for the future.

Wayne Farnham interjected.

Nick STAIKOS: Rowville might still be here, but the rest of us will not be. I can guarantee that – the rest of us will not be. That is the difference between this side of the house and that side of the house – we care about what this state and what this great city of the world will look like in the 2050s, and more to the point, we care about the opportunities that Victorians will have in the 2050s.

Wayne Farnham interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Narracan!

Nick STAIKOS: Centre Road in Bentleigh, is that right? Have you ever been to Bentleigh? I do not think you have.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Through the Chair.

Nick STAIKOS: Member for Narracan, in my electorate we have the SRL structure plan and we have got the Moorabbin structure plan.

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Member for Bentleigh, through the Chair. Member for Narracan, stop interjecting.

Nick STAIKOS: My electorate is going to do its fair share. I am not worried about more housing in my electorate, let me tell you – unlike the member for Brighton, unlike the member for Sandringham and unlike a number of those opposite.

Because there is actually a greater good here that we need to strive for, and that is to ensure that we are building for the future. All of these major housing announcements that we have seen over the last couple of weeks and all of the major infrastructure that this government has invested in over the last 10 years are all about the future.

They have opposed every piece of that infrastructure agenda. They opposed the Metro Tunnel. In fact they shelved it for four years when they were in government. They opposed the level crossing removals. Georgie Crozier was marching up and down Centre Road, Bentleigh, collecting signatures on a petition against the level crossing removals in Bentleigh. What a genius move – opposing the West Gate Tunnel. Now they are opposing the Suburban Rail Loop. For the last 20 years I have either been a local councillor or a local MP. When we talk about new development people say, ‘Where is the infrastructure?’ We are building the infrastructure, and we are building the housing above the infrastructure. We are builders on this side of the house; they are blockers.

As for barbecue conversation, I reckon they are such a divided rabble on that side, let me tell you. They all hate each other. They are all leaking on each other, and they do not even need to leak anymore. It is open hostility. At the moment they are just the opposition. The Leader of the Opposition does not have control of his party room, and if he were ever to be Premier, he would not have control of his government.

Sam GROTH (Nepean) (17:32): I rise to support the member for Sandringham, the Shadow Treasurer, and his matter of public importance today that the house condemns the financial mismanagement and lack of budget transparency of the Allan Labor government. When you talk about barbecue conversation, member for Bentleigh, I would be very curious about what conversations members on that side of the chamber have with people outside of this place, because we get very, very caught up – when you sit around with your friends –

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Through the Chair.

Sam GROTH: When you sit around with your friends and have a discussion about the current state of Victoria, how on earth do you say to them that us being $188 billion in debt is a good thing? How do you honestly sit there and have that conversation and say $188 billion of debt is a good thing? As the Shadow Treasurer said in his contribution, we are paying $17.8 million a day in interest as it currently sits, rising up close to $26 billion in the forward estimates. How can those that created the mess that we are currently in be trusted to be the ones that are going to fix it? How does taxing anything more make it more affordable, cheaper and better for the public? The answer is it does not.

The member for Eureka is no longer in the chamber, and she had a lot to say about the Victorian Auditor-General. I do remind members on the other side of the house, including the member for Eureka, that the Victorian Auditor-General had plenty to say about this government’s handling of the Commonwealth Games earlier in the year, and it is very, very relevant to the MPI on which we are speaking today. The member said they accept everything that the Auditor-General says, which I am going to say is absolute bollocks when you hear the next comment. The Victorian Auditor-General said the costings on the Commonwealth Games were overstated and not transparent. The Leader of the House, the Minister for Health, in reply to that said, ‘I do not accept the premise of that.’ You cannot on one hand say you accept what the Auditor-General has to say and what a fantastic job they do and then not accept the findings of the Auditor-General.

Victorians are paying the price for the mismanagement of this government. They will continue to pay the price for the mismanagement of the finances from this government for a long, long time. The member for Bentleigh said that we do not care about vulnerable Victorians. Member for Bentleigh, just yesterday in the chamber I raised an issue about public housing; community housing; the needs of the homeless, which the member for Mornington touched on, on the Mornington Peninsula; and the fact that there are more than 400 current public and social community housing dwellings that are sitting empty through either not being maintained or the stock not being accounted for. Is it because they cannot afford to keep the stock? Is it because they do not care about the vulnerable people on the Mornington Peninsula? Is it because even though we are part of metropolitan Melbourne we are outside of the tram tracks and we are outside of the areas that are represented by the Labor Party? We do not have trains. We have minimal public transport. We do not have a hospital that is currently meeting the needs of our community, which is an older community.

We are not seeing the investment in our roads, in health. We are seeing no investment on the Mornington Peninsula when it comes to supporting the most vulnerable and those that need it. When you talk about supporting the vulnerable, maybe look just for once outside of your own seats.

We know Victoria is broke. State debt is projected to climb to $188 billion. Interest payments, as we said, are up over $20 million a day. We need to make sure that this government is starting to make some sort of financial contribution, a sensible contribution, to actually paying down some of that principal debt. We have continued to hear today from many members about a once-in-100-year pandemic that has put us in the current situation that we are in. Well, when you talk about a one-in-100-year pandemic, when your debt levels are $188 billion and only $30 billion of that is related to COVID, how do you explain the other $158 billion of debt? Not a single member on the other side of the chamber has had an answer for a long, long time, including the Premier today in question time, about where that debt has come from, how they are going to pay it and what the interest payments are.

In my electorate recently – I will say I thank the Minister for Outdoor Recreation and Minister for Environment for coming down and having the discussion on drownings, because it has been a huge issue. Something my community has put to the minister and to Parks Victoria is to put life rings onto piers. It would make sense. Let us put life rings on piers and stop the drownings that are happening. We were told that there is currently not the money or that it is not financially viable to put life rings on piers because of the ongoing cost of when they get stolen and the maintenance. It is not seen as a priority or seen as being financially viable. I would have thought, with the number of drownings in my electorate recently, that putting life rings on piers at the small cost of $100 a ring would have been an easy task to take on. You just question, because of the current financial mismanagement of the state, is something like that, which is genuinely going to save lives, such a burden on the state’s finances that we cannot even look after that?

We heard this week from the government a whole range of announcements, like removing stamp duty for properties. Well, once again, the people that created the mess cannot be trusted to be the ones to fix it. Back in 2017 this government removed those stamp duty concessions that were there not for 12 months but to help all of those Victorians that wanted to buy a property, and now the solution is that they are going to go, seven years later, and remove those again. You cannot be trusted to fix the mess that you created.

We heard also this week that Victoria is open for business. I might be wrong, Shadow Treasurer, but you tell me: when did we close? When did Victoria close up shop for business?

Brad Rowswell: Ten years ago.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Through the Chair!

Sam GROTH: We have been closed for 10 years, and now all of a sudden we have a Premier – who has been here for 12 months, who has not been able to step out of the shadows of her predecessor, who has not been able to define who she is as a Premier – who has all of a sudden used the September break to come out to try to redefine herself. She is going to redefine herself with opening up for business but not cutting any business taxes, not cutting any red tape for business, not doing anything to bring business back to the state and not picking up the phone, like we have seen other premiers around the country do who have been chasing business away from Victoria. You cannot just put out a press release or go and do a press conference and say ‘We are open’ without genuinely having some sort of policy around how you are going to make that happen. You cannot do it without actually having a policy to do so.

Let us talk about road maintenance: budget cuts to road maintenance are absolutely horrendous. It is something where when we talk about them in those barbecue conversations I would struggle to think that there is a single member in this chamber who has people coming to them talking about how fantastic the roads are in Victoria. The member for Laverton mentioned the fantastic project, she said, the West Gate Tunnel. It might have been a great project at $4.7 billion, but when it has blown out to $10.2 billion, more than double the cost of the original project, you have to question the government’s ability to manage the finances, to manage major projects – and it is not the only one.

There is a long list of projects where this government has continued to show financial incompetence and absolute mismanagement when it comes to it. The Metro Tunnel – blown out by more than $10 billion. The mentioned West Gate Tunnel – more than $5 billion. North East Link has blown out by more than $10 billion. Level crossing removals – well, we can argue those – are $5 billion over budget. The Suburban Rail Loop, originally costed at around $35 billion to $50 billion, is now looking at over $200 billion. And a project that the Victorian people actually want, airport rail, is now being pushed out to 2033. You all scoff about airport rail – it is probably going to be one of the biggest projects for Victoria to get people to and from the airport. You are going to go and build a new convention centre out in Geelong, which we have debated here recently. How are people going to get there?

Brad Rowswell interjected.

Sam GROTH: Well, there is one member on the other side of the house who agrees that it is a project that should go ahead – it is the Deputy Premier.

So if you cannot manage major projects, if you cannot manage timelines and you cannot manage budgets, how can you stand in this place and try and convince Victorians that you are the people to get us out of the mess that you have created?

A member interjected.

Sam GROTH: It has been touched on – the Commonwealth Games has been touched on, and I will touch on it very, very quickly in my last 30 seconds. $600 million was wasted for an event that will not go ahead. I tell you what, they spent $380 million in compensation and more on the cancellation – up to $600 million – to send an event to Glasgow. Australian athletes will have to go over, compete away from home on foreign soil in a reduced games, all because this government cannot manage money, they cannot manage the budget and they cannot be trusted when it comes to fixing Victoria.

Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (17:42): I tell you what, I wish the opposition would not talk down our magnificent state. We have so many wonderful businesses – small businesses, large businesses, exporters, importers – and they are so happy to talk them down, which ultimately is not good for those businesses. I am sure they do not appreciate them discrediting the wonderful businesses that contribute to our great state.

But just getting started, anyway, let us look at these debt caps. I did see the little, I think it is a three-slogan thing that they have got going, which is their magical solution to everything that they believe Victoria needs. So, debt caps. They are calling for a debt cap, and what is that really? What is that code for? That is code for cuts, cuts, cuts. And I would really like to know what they are going to cut and what frontline services they are going to compromise.

If Victoria had a debt cap, we would not have been able to use the state budget to protect household budgets in a time of crisis. Now, I know they never believed in the pandemic. They never thought anyone was ill or dying. They never thought about the poor medical professionals and the nurses that were working around the clock. That was never important to them, and I remember because I was in the upper house, where the constant repudiation of any of the skills of any of our medical profession was a continuous theme. It was absolutely disgusting, but it was all because it was just so inconvenient. But unfortunately – or fortunately – health is actually really, really important for human beings, so making sure that we are there as a government to support people in times of need is actually significant and recognised. If we had had a debt cap, this would have meant no rapid health response, putting lives at risk; no business support – they claim to be the party of small business, but if they had a debt cap, how would you help business – costing Victorians tens of thousands of jobs; and no economic recovery packages, slowing the recovery and exacerbating the pandemic’s impact on jobs.

That is what a debt cap actually means. It might sound like a snappy little slogan, but what it actually translates to is hurting your own community, particularly in times of crisis, in times when they need government to back them in. And we know from the US experience exactly what a debt cap results in: cuts to vital public services and extended government shutdowns. I mean, it is hard to fathom. We have all seen those shutdowns in the US and public servants not getting paid. This is just ridiculous – yes, and public servants being furloughed, I should say, and not paid. Furloughed and not paid – that is what it means. Not paying nurses, police officers and teachers is not the Victorian way.

So you cannot just make that little slogan without attaching the inevitable consequences that would flow from making what I would call a blunt instrument. It may flow and it may resonate with their base, with Young Liberals, I do not know, it might sound really sexy or something. But for the real world, for the Victorian community that we care about deeply, we have to think about the consequences of these kinds of slogans and what it would actually mean for them.

They did make an official announcement. I really hope they are not going to go down that track, but it seems like they think that is the cure-all. Looking at the spending tracker, and I wonder if the opposition leader can name a single, comparable jurisdiction with a real-time public expenditure tracker. No. There might be a reason for that. I should say, our state publishes quarterly financial reports, much like many public companies. There has been no suggestion that these are deficient. Is there any single public company that does the same? Does the lack of examples perhaps indicate that it is just a porous idea and a poor use of taxpayer funds? Just putting it out there. Well, know one else is doing it and your record is not great when it comes to cuts, and I will get to that a bit later.

Now the charter of budget honesty – a nice little tagline. I will give you something for the tagline.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Through the Chair.

Nina TAYLOR: Sorry, with respect, Speaker. Victoria is the only jurisdiction in Australia whose budget is required under legislation to be signed off by the Auditor-General prior to publication. I did hear the previous discussion on that, but we could flip that around because there are two questions that flow about this charter of budget honesty and inferring that the current system is not meeting their requirements. Is the Liberal Party impugning the honesty of the Auditor-General and their ability to ensure the budget is a fair and accurate representation of the state’s accounts? Because you cannot have it both ways here.

Members interjecting.

Nina TAYLOR: Well, no, because you are saying that the Auditor-General is not enough. You are actually impugning them with –

Members interjecting.

Nina TAYLOR: No, that is exactly what you are saying.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Through the Chair.

Nina TAYLOR: Sorry, with respect. Or do they simply not understand the existing legislation, the role of the Auditor-General and how financial management operates in Victoria? Just putting it out there, because if you are going to put out the slogan, you have got to own all that flows from that. You cannot just –

Members interjecting.

Nina TAYLOR: I know, we all use social media, and I respect that. You have got to do quick little grabs, but beyond that we then have to unpack what that actually means for the Victorian community and what the Victorian Liberal Party is implying about the capacity of the Auditor-General to do their job. It is a little bit unclear, and they might want to clarify that position at a certain point in time.

The other thing that I was going to say, because there is so much that could be said on this topic – oh I am getting to 3 minutes. Anyway, what about jobs? We have created more than 850,000 new jobs since November 2014 through our investments to support the economy – so government investing in our community, because that is what services do. If you cut them, actually jobs can get cut. The member for Kew said in this place that governments do not create jobs. This is correct, but only when applied to her side of the chamber. I did not hear much from those opposite prior to the last election when the federal coalition projected Commonwealth gross debt would reach $850 billion. Did not hear anything from them then. That is okay though, that is fine. That would equate to about $40,000 per Australian. It is interesting, there is a bit of different standards for different folks, but in any case, the opposition managed to only create 39,000 full-time jobs in their entire four years in government. Of course having a job is really important if you are to have disposable income to be able to buy things, so this is why we are support Victorians.

And I should say just as an example I was thinking of Starward, which is a wonderful distillery in Port Melbourne.

A member interjected.

Nina TAYLOR: Yes. They produce world-class products. I was down there a few months back when they won some fantastic awards. Not that I am a whisky drinker myself – I am really not – but I have heard it is absolutely fantastic from reliable people. We provided grants to help businesses like them, and also to help train up other distillery providers around the state so that they have the proper occupational health and safety and other skills to make sure they do it safely but also can deliver a quality product for the community. So that is the circle. That is where government can be really helpful when it comes to generating the economy but also helping businesses in our great state, which they cannot wait to talk down every second that they get the opportunity to do so.

In terms of delivering, I was thinking about my local electorate. We have got the wonderful St Kilda Pier redevelopment, which is coming along really well. Again, this is great for the local economy because it actually draws visitors. It is not only for locals. It is fantastic for locals, but also international visitors. So these are the kind of investments – and also protecting those dear little penguins as well. I just have to put that in there; that is obviously of paramount concern – just saying.

Metro Tunnel – absolutely fantastic. It is just a game changer for our state, literally untangling the loop, so to speak, and actually creating so many opportunities for people whether they are going out to the outer suburbs or coming into my area and into the city et cetera. It frees it up, because you know to get from A to B, the faster you can get there, the better off you are. On that note I commend the MPI – or our argument, anyway.

Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (17:52): I do not generally believe in mercy rules in sport, but gee whiz, we could have called one in then. Penguins! Let me address a few things first – the unemployment rate. We will talk about jobs. The member for Albert Park got hung up on that for a little while. Victoria has had the highest unemployment rate for six months running. There are all little bits of information –facts, not just information, facts. Some will take what works for them and leave what does not.

The other thing I want to address straight off the bat is the member for Bentleigh’s contribution. He referred to the member for Mornington’s barbecue quip – what is barbecue conversation? The member for Bentleigh might be served very well by attending a few social barbecues. And I will not say I got personally offended because I do not offend easily, but I did note that he said that the men would be out there flipping the sausages whilst the women are inside making the salad. Now, I would hazard a guess, given that I have been shown nothing but the utmost respect by the men on this side of the house since I got into this place almost two years ago, that if I asked any man on this side to make a salad, he would.

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Members on my right.

Jade BENHAM: See – I just think for that side of the house that talks about gender equality, misogyny and male chauvinists, I am not even quite sure what that was. But gee whiz, I mean, double standards.

Anyway, let us talk about other double standards. There has been lots of talk from that side of the house today about waste and what would – no, sorry, they are not talking about waste; they are talking about cuts and ‘What are we going to cut?’ First of all probably a few of the backbench is what we are going to cut, and then it will be waste. The member for Murray Plains spoke about not having a statue for someone that put this state in the dire economic situation that it is in. When we talk about Victoria being open for business –

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The level of noise!

Jade BENHAM: what an absolute load, to quote the member for Nepean, ‘what an absolute load of bollocks.’

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Point Cook is not in his chair.

Jade BENHAM: I was one of those small business owners that was put out of business during COVID, and that is one of the reasons I am in here today. So do not tell me that Victoria is open for business. Those of us that live in border towns can see every day businesses leaving the state in droves. But you know what is really sickening about this?

They will go over to New South Wales – because they can, it is right over there – because there are no major hospitals in the northern part of the state. On the New South Wales side, within safe distance, they live and work and set up their businesses, paying tax revenue to New South Wales, meanwhile sending their kids to school in Victoria. They are using our hospitals and our healthcare system – so they are using all of our public services – meanwhile that tax revenue, because they cannot do business in Victoria because it is too hard, is all going to New South Wales. And do you know why? Because it is much easier to do business over there than it is in Victoria. Not only that, the member for Lowan and I border South Australia. Again, we can see them jumping the border to South Australia. I mean, come on – South Australia. I do not even want to visit there, but my husband’s business operates out of South Australia because it is so hard to do business in Victoria. The member for Mornington made a really good point about barbecue conversations; it would serve members on the other side very well to just go and have a chat to people at a barbecue, go and have a coffee with them, hang out and actually talk to real people, because those of us that live in the real world and have done for most of our lives understand the landscape of business and what communities are going through. We understand it better, obviously, than those on the other side.

When we talk about the lack of budget transparency, when we are hiding budget contingencies and we are not giving $76 billion worth of contingencies, when we are paying, what, $17.8 million dollars in debt today – you give me three months and that builds an entire new Mildura base public hospital, which we desperately need now. You give me one day and there is an extended emergency ward. We are so desperate, because all of those people in New South Wales just on the other side of the river who have left because it is too hard to build, too hard to develop and too hard to do business are coming to our emergency room. That kind of waste is what we will cut, and that is what this announcement today was about – budget transparency – because, you know what, at the end of the day real people who live in the real world just want a bit of honesty. They want to know where their money is being spent. They actually want to know that.

Might I also add we need gas for barbecues, even if they are inside. We need gas for that, and you need to be able to turn them on. But there is a culture of reckless waste and budget blowouts, and that has been made abundantly clear. Two ears, one mouth – they should be used in that order. The government actually needs to listen to the real people and talk about and listen to what the real people are saying, because Victorians are paying the price for Labor’s financial mismanagement every single day and they will be for generations – my kids will be, my grandkids will be, my great-grandkids will be. That is what this announcement is about today. It is skyrocketing – it is out of control – and for those on the other side to talk about how things are all smiles and rainbows is ridiculous. Member for Murray Plains, let us go back and talk about the Murray Basin rail project. That was a few years ago now, where $600 million was wasted on the Murray Basin rail project so that we now have a longer train that takes longer to get to port then we started with. That does not make any sense. Surely common sense at some point has got to prevail, but I fear those on the other side do not even know how to spell it, so we are going to be waiting at least another two years for that to occur.

There are so many things that you could talk about when it comes to financial mismanagement. We could talk about the 55 new or increased taxes. What I have spoken about in droves this week are those like Indulge Apartments, who are an operation who manage apartments in different locations. They own them. They are short-term executive-style apartments, and they are going to be slugged with a 7.5 per cent increased tax. They are worried. Those of us in tropical north Victoria have a booming tourism sector, and people like Sarah and Simon Cox, who run Indulge Apartments, are really scared. This is a small business.

Business is just so hard, particularly small business in this state, and I know that firsthand, because the poor policy decisions of the Andrews Labor government and now the Allan Labor government are exactly what put me and many like me out of business during COVID and post COVID. Guess what? They do not care. When you have got over 150,000 businesses closing down, that is not ‘Victoria is open for business’; that is ‘Victoria is shutting down for business’ so that the Allan Labor government can have a say in everything. What people actually want is for the government to get out of their way so they can just live their lives. Right now we are in incredible financial debt. We are in dire straits, and it is all because the Labor government cannot manage money. Victorians are paying the price, and they will do for generations. I commend the member for Sandringham on this matter of public importance.