Wednesday, 27 November 2024

Regional Victoria

Michaela SETTLE (Eureka) (17:15): I rise to grieve for regional Victoria should the Liberals ever return to government. Before I begin my contribution I would firstly like to congratulate the member for Gippsland South on his recent appointment as Leader of the Nationals, and I noticed in his contribution he wanted to talk about regional Victoria as well. My great hope is that he will take a leaf out of his predecessor Peter Ryan’s book. He was a great mentor, I read, to the current member for Gippsland South. In December 1999, when Peter Ryan was elected as Leader of the Nationals, one of the very first acts that he did was to tear up the coalition agreement and move the Nationals to the crossbenches as a separate party. I strongly hope that our new Leader of the Nationals will consider tearing up that coalition, because the Liberals really do not care about regional Victoria.

They have got a dreadful track record. It is a dreadful track record in both deed and word. From the very moment that Jeff Kennett uttered the words ‘The regions are the toenails of Victoria’, people in the regions have known how much contempt the Lib rabble have for country people. I think that really set the tone for all Liberals, be they in opposition or in government, that came afterwards and the contempt and disrespect that they show for regional Victoria. When we talk about Kennett in this place those on the other side like to say that it was a long, long time ago and that we should get over it, but I think that they would do well to remember that we have long, long memories in the regions. As I have talked about many times in this place before, I lived in Ararat on my family farm for 10 years, and I can assure those on the other side that nobody has forgotten the impact that Kennett had on our town. He ripped out the railways and he sacked the public servants that worked there, and in Ararat the population decreased by nearly half. As an interesting aside, it was that experience that led me to join the Labor Party. I realised that I had to do something to stop these dreadful people tearing up regional Victoria, which I so much loved.

The Lib rabble’s contempt for regional Victoria has not changed. Just recently the member for Brighton, while dog-whistling to his Brighton buddies, suggested that the Premier was somehow unable to lead Victoria because she lived in regional Victoria. He made a comment about the Premier making decisions when she lives 150 kilometres away from the city. I for one and many in my community are incredibly proud to have a regionally based Premier, and I am very, very glad that she leads us. The member for Brighton is obviously fixated on this particular expression, because I have heard him using it before, and it is one of the real traits of the member for Brighton that he speaks from both sides of his mouth.

The last time that I heard him use this expression was when he attended a community meeting in my patch. It was a community meeting of people who wanted more information about a proposed wind farm in the area. The member for Brighton set up a petition in what is known as ‘data harvesting’. He set up a petition which did not have any sort of Liberal insignia on the flyer and did not state that it was a Liberal Party petition. It was just a blank piece of paper which then led people to a website where, surprise, surprise, he got all of their details. It was on that website that he said that a minister – and in this case he was referring I think probably to the planning minister; it was not clear, it could have been the Minister for Energy and Resources – who lived in the city was not able to make decisions for people living in the regions.

He was completely wrong in both of those statements. We have a wonderful regional-based Premier who has very adeptly guided this state both in metro and regional, and I know that our wonderful Minister for Planning at the table, though she lives in Carrum, has a really deep understanding of the regions. We were really delighted to host the Minister for Planning in Ballarat for some forums around the new planning framework that is being created. The member for Brighton was completely wrong on both counts, but I can tell you that what is right is that an opposition MP from Brighton should not be playing politics 150 kilometres from home just to data harvest.

These are some pretty hideous reflections from Kennett’s wonderful toenails through to the disrespect that the member for Brighton has shown for our regions. Whilst they are horrible reflections, their contempt for regional Victoria sadly is even worse in their actions. They say we are talking about ancient history when we talk about the dreadful, dreadful things that Kennett did to regional Victoria, but I would like to highlight that it took years of successive Labor governments to undo the terrible toll that the Kennett slashing and axing caused in regional Victoria.

The Ararat line – I bring it up again because it was very close to my heart – was restored under the Bracks Labor government. My son, who is now 23, was a two-year-old and he rode on the first train back into Ararat. He was very excited. We started work way back then. Then the Mildura hospital, which Kennett flogged off, was brought back into public hands by the Andrews Labor government. It has taken many successive Labor governments to try and undo the dreadful, dreadful things that the Liberals did to regional Victoria.

Of course the Liberal attacks on regional Victoria did not stop with Kennett. The next time the Liberals got in, in 2010, the Baillieu government oversaw the most enormous loss of jobs across regional Victoria. The Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed that in two years at the helm they lost 14,700 jobs across regional Victoria, and the regional unemployment rate shot up to 6.6 per cent. I just want everyone to remember that these are statistics, but behind every statistic stands a person and a family. These were people who were put out of work under the Baillieu government. It was outrageous, and it hurt the regions so badly. By comparison this Labor government has cut regional unemployment by nearly 3 per cent since November 2014.

It is now at 3.8 per cent, so it is over 2.5 per cent less than how the opposition left it. In fact, despite governing through a pandemic, there has not been one month when this government left the regional unemployment rate as high as when those opposite left.

This dramatic improvement of course comes about through many things. There were the wonderful policies, like the regional payroll tax, that this government introduced, but of course it is also about investing in our regions. Over the 10 years of this government we have spent around $45 billion in regional Victoria, so that averages out at about $4.5 billion per year. I just really want to highlight that the previous government invested $7.2 billion over four years, so that was an average of $1.8 billion a year. Let us just compare $4.5 billion to $1.8 billion. I know who regional Victorians prefer.

This investment of course really saw regional Victoria boom. Nearly 150,000 new jobs have been created since 2014. Those opposite love to talk and love to lecture, but they never, ever deliver. They are all hat and no cattle, as the expression goes. We have got no clearer indication of the way that regional Victoria feels about this government than by going to talk to the good people of Ripon. They were very, very happy to elect our wonderful, wonderful colleague the member for Ripon.

Not only did the Libs cut government investment – they short-changed the regions through government investment – but they also stopped private investment. Following the implementation of the coalition’s planning restrictions in 2011 we had 14 wind farm projects abandoned. Renewable energy jobs were slashed by 25 per cent, and $4 billion in investment was lost. Those figures come from the Clean Energy Council. They do not put the money in, and they stopped everybody else investing in regional Victoria as well. By comparison, we have created over 5000 jobs in large-scale renewable energy since we were elected, and there are 2600 people currently employed in the rooftop solar industry right across the state.

Even in opposition the Liberals managed to insult the regions. In September 2017, in an extraordinary slap in the face to people in regional Victoria, the once and future king of the opposition, the member for Bulleen, and the previous Leader of the Nationals abolished the regional development portfolio from the coalition’s shadow cabinet. Even in opposition they thought so little of the regions that they were happy to get rid of the portfolio that works so hard to support and develop our regions. It is time to call out the Libs for their record of short-changing the regions. I have seen the terrible damage firsthand of what they did to my communities in Ararat, and I grieve for Victoria if that rabble ever get elected for what they will do to our regional towns, our regional communities and our rural communities.

I was delighted to represent the Minister for Agriculture on a tour of farms in the south-west just last week. I spent two days meeting with many farmers and visiting the National Centre for Farmer Health, which I would like to highlight we have continued to fund and support all the way through, whereas the previous coalition government nearly destroyed the centre by cutting such critical funding. People in the regions know who is there for them, who has got their back. We have supported them with investment through government. We have grown jobs. We are there for farmers in the tough times. I am so proud that the Minister for Agriculture visited many farmers recently to announce the drought package.

People in Ripon spoke loudly, and I think there will be a wave across many regions, because people in the regions know which side of the house has their backs. It is this government. We do not refer to the regions and rural Victoria as the ‘toenails of the state’.

We are proud of our regions. We stand proudly, and I guess there is no greater sign than the fact that we have over 18 regional MPs in this government. That is right, 18 regional MPs. We are a strong, strong party representing the regions, and they vote us in for that very reason. We do not call them the toenails.