Wednesday, 2 April 2025

Matters of public importance

Cost of living

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

That this house condemns the Allan Labor government for allowing Victoria to spiral into a cost-of-living crisis as a result of:

(1) failing to manage the economy and allowing net debt to reach $155.2 billion by the end of the financial year;

(2) imposing or increasing 60 new taxes, which are driving up the costs of renting, energy and grocery prices;

(3) breaking its promise to build 80,000 new homes a year, causing housing prices to remain unaffordable for many young Victorians; and

(4) failing to implement any meaningful measures to ease cost-of-living pressures for Victorians.

Bridget VALLENCE (Evelyn) (16:01): The Allan Labor government has allowed Victoria to spiral into a cost-of-living crisis. There is a simple question that Victorians will be asking themselves now and in November 2026: am I any better off than I was back in November 2014 when this Labor government came to power? The answer is a resounding no. We only have to look at the Premier’s spiralling decline in the polls, plummeting to the lowest ever in her time. On every metric Victorians are now worse off than they were when this tired Labor government was elected back in 2014, a decade ago. Everything is harder under Labor. But you do not need to take my word for it – the facts speak for themselves. No matter how hard this Labor government tries to spin the facts, the truth will always shine through.

You do not have to look very far to see that Victorians are experiencing a cost-of-living crisis, as they are right now. The Allan Labor government’s midyear budget update, their midyear financial report, released just last month, confirmed that Victoria’s budget is spiralling further into crisis, with debt surging, interest repayments ballooning and reckless spending damaging the state, adding to inflation and adding to Victorians’ cost-of-living pressures. The figures expose Labor’s complete failure to manage Victoria’s finances, proving that more taxes, more borrowing and more waste do not help your economy. This Labor government has only made it harder for Victorians, who are already struggling every day with cost-of-living pressure. Remarkably, the midyear budget update has shown that Labor has already blown through 66 per cent of its budgeted increase in net debt. If this trend continues, which it no doubt will, Victoria will record a blowout in net debt of over $4 billion this financial year.

However, we know this government has pulled a swifty and is making Victorians pay their land tax bill twice in one financial year – dodgy accounting. It is a desperate bid by this tired Labor government to make their revenue stream look better than what it actually is. The Allan Labor government has taken Victoria from being a financial powerhouse in Australia to a state in serious decline. But do not take my word, as I said, look at what the credit rating agencies have to say. In 2014 Victoria had a AAA credit rating, which was the legacy of many reforms implemented by the former Kennett Liberal government. It was maintained by the Bracks and Brumby governments, who knew what it meant to be fiscally responsible, but this Allan Labor government decided to trash the legacy of their Labor predecessors and have run the economy so badly into the ground that Victoria was downgraded to a AA credit rating by Standard & Poor’s.

This is the lowest credit rating of any of the Australian states. Even Tasmania enjoys a higher credit rating than Victoria. This demonstrates just how broken our economy has become. What is worse is that S&P has warned the government that unless they bring their reckless spending under control and stop the budget blowouts on the Big Build projects, they will face a further downgrade.

To demonstrate how broken the budget really is, in just the last six months Labor has borrowed another $15.7 billion, pushing net debt to a staggering $146.8 billion as at the midyear update, and it is projected to reach $155.2 billion by the end of this financial year; however, dare I say that will be blown. In the 2019–20 budget Labor said it was committed to stabilising net debt at 12 per cent of gross state product. Today net debt as a percentage of GSP stands at an incredible 22.9 per cent, almost double what Labor committed to. That is an extraordinary figure, an absolutely extraordinary figure. Net debt now represents almost a quarter of GSP, and the government has conceded it has not even peaked yet. It is a disgraceful reflection of how bad things in Victoria have become, and it is completely unsustainable.

It is also an indictment on the budget papers. In recent years we have seen this Labor government allow the budget papers to be filled with rhetoric and slogans rather than detail and precise figures. Sometimes budget figures are omitted altogether – completely omitted because this government are so embarrassed that they refuse to be transparent on how much they are spending. How many times have we seen that ‘TBC’ written in the budget papers? That is just hiding the true cost of things, and that is an absolute indictment on this government. To borrow a quote from the recent Auditor-General’s report into the cost blowouts on major projects, the Auditor-General said the budget papers were ‘not useful or reliable’. That is a damning indictment also on how reckless and reprehensible this Labor government’s economic vandalism has become.

As we know, borrowing more money always comes at a price. The cost of Labor’s debt is skyrocketing, with interest expenses blowing out to $3.3 billion in just six months – a 27 per cent increase from last year. Victorians’ money is just flying out the door, and what that is doing is adding to Victorians’ cost of living. Rather than being spent on hospitals, more police, more nurses, more teachers, fire equipment or fixing roads – fixing potholes – millions and millions of dollars is being thrown out the door just to keep up with the interest repayments on Labor’s debt. In addition, public sector wages have surged by $1.5 billion, tracking now at 51 per cent of the annual budget in just six months, further proof that Labor’s spending is completely out of control. And today we are facing budget deficits across the forward estimates, with spending running well in excess of revenue. Victoria does not have a revenue problem – it has a spending problem. Debt continues to rise with no plan or strategy to pay it off. Simply put, Victoria’s economy is in a shocking state of disrepair and decay under this tired Labor government, a government that has been in for 10 long years.

Gross state product is the most accurate measure of the state’s economy, and GSP has fallen by 1.2 per cent per capita across the year in Victoria. This is the worst of any state in the country, except Western Australia, which is explained by some structural weaknesses in the mining sector. It just goes to show how poorly the economy is performing under this Labor government.

Cost-of-living pressures are hitting Victorian businesses hard too. Business insolvencies in Victoria are at their highest. Victoria has recorded the fastest increase in insolvencies among the mainland states, with 2560 businesses going under as at the December quarter last year. That represents a 63 per cent increase in comparison to the same time the previous year. That is a truly terrible statistic, to see more businesses going under in Victoria than anywhere else in the country. When Victorian businesses go under, Victorian jobs are lost, and those poor workers who lose their jobs find it even harder to deal with the cost-of-living pressures.

With more businesses closing, as I said, more jobs are being lost. Victoria’s unemployment rate is now at 4.6 per cent, which is higher than the national rate of 4.1 per cent. With an economy that is so brittle and weak as Victoria’s economy is at the moment, it is little wonder that Victorians are suffering in one of the worst cost-of-living crises in recent times. A stronger economy means improved confidence and stronger economic outcomes for Victorians. But we know that after 10 long years – a decade – this miserable, tired Labor government does not have the capacity or the fortitude to save our economy from the financial ruin that it has created.

Tax, tax, tax is the language of this Labor government. We know that Labor’s only response to its economic disaster is to tax Victorians more. The mid-year budget update showed Victoria’s tax revenue is at record levels and increased by $1.3 billion in just six months. Yet this has done nothing to fix the budget, with the government still running a $3.9 billion deficit. Instead of getting spending under control as it should, Labor continues to make wrong choices, racking up debt while delivering less for Victorians. They are really giving that credit card a shameful workout.

If a state wishes to spend more, it can only do so by borrowing more or taxing its people more. There is no such thing as public money, there is only taxpayers money. After promising on the eve of the 2014 state election not to introduce or tax Victorians more, Labor has done exactly that on no less than 60 separate occasions. That is right; this Labor government has increased or added new taxes 60 times – 60 new or increased taxes. That is an utterly shameful record, an absolutely, utterly shameful record. In 2013–14 tax revenue was at $16.9 billion. That was around $2867 per Victorian. In complete contrast, the budget update under this Labor government just recently reported tax revenue had ballooned to $38.9 billion. That has spiked to $5504 in tax per Victorian – almost double in the space of 10 years under this Labor government. If that is not bad enough, the tax take is estimated to increase to a staggering $45.8 billion over the forward estimates, translating to $6160 in tax for every Victorian taxpayer. It is an absolutely shameful record under this Labor government; when they spend more, when they spend recklessly, they tax Victorians more, and it adds to Victorians’ cost of living.

Under this Labor government Victorian households are absolutely being crushed by Labor taxes. We have also seen what the Treasurer thinks about taxing Victorians more. In true Labor fashion the Treasurer said that people with properties could afford to pay more when it comes to getting hit hard with increased taxes and the outrageous COVID debt levy. What the Treasurer seems to forget, what this entire Labor government seems to forget, is that some of the hardest working people in the Victorian community are those who worked hard and saved to purchase an investment property. These include occupations such as teachers, nurses, electricians, truck drivers and police officers, yet our Treasurer thinks teachers and nurses deserve to be taxed more because they worked hard to help create financial security for themselves.

Under Labor there is now no incentive left to work harder. Rather, the harder you work under Labor, the harsher you will be penalised with taxes. It is utterly perverse that we live in such a penal economy. Under Labor, only in the last sitting week did we see another harsh tax through the new emergency services levy – so-called. This massive new tax will see Victorians pay $2 billion more over the next three years. Labor has tried to disguise this tax by suggesting revenue will go into a new Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund, but we all know that that is just spin. This tax will be used to fund core government agencies like Triple Zero Victoria, Emergency Management Victoria, Emergency Recovery Victoria and the State Control Centre. These are public sector agencies. This comes after Labor ripped $38 million out of the Triple Zero Victoria budget in the last budget, so they are taxing Victorians more to plug the hole from the cuts in the last budget.

These public service agencies have always been funded from consolidated revenue, but now Labor is taxing Victorians more to prop up these back-office operations. Every Victorian is going to be paying more under this new tax, with our farmers being the hardest hit. The residential commercial property rates will double, the industrial rates will go up by 64 per cent, but primary producer rates for farmers will go up by a whopping 189 per cent. Farmers right across Victoria will be forced to pay massive increases in the levy. Many of them are the very people that go out and fight the bushfires when there are fires. They are the people that go out in the first place to fight the bushfires, using their own equipment that they have paid for, yet this Labor government wants to tax them 189 per cent more.

This new tax will cause extreme financial strain on local farmers in a cost-of-living crisis that will result in higher prices for fresh produce in the shops. Farmers will suffer tens of thousands of dollars of increased taxes under this new levy, and farmers will have no choice but to pass it on. This means everything that we rely on that our farmers produce; whether it is beef, lamb, chicken, cheese, fruit or vegetables, Victorian consumers will cop this new tax. It just demonstrates everything that is so wrong about this government, making the cost of living so much harder.

Victorians now know that they cannot trust this government, a tired Labor government which is hurting people’s cost of living – (Time expired)

Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (16:16): It is a pleasure to rise in opposition to this matter of public importance (MPI), and to bring some sense back to this chamber. The member for Evelyn has moved this motion – and I acknowledge and respect that – that this house condemns the government for the cost of living and our approach to economic management; the cost of housing, renting, energy and groceries; our goal to build 800,000 new homes over the next decade; and supposedly failing to implement meaningful measures to ease the cost-of-living pressures for Victorians.

I rise on this MPI not because I agree with it but quite the contrary. You would have thought that, number one, with a federal election currently underway and a federal Liberal opposition out there campaigning to secure the support of Victorians and Australians more broadly, this Liberal opposition would be working as hard as they could to get good, quality commitments for Victorians from their federal colleagues instead of going after this state Labor government, which day in and day out has been delivering real action on the cost of living. That is point number one. There was no mention of the federal Liberal inaction for over a decade here.

Point number two: it is a motion that really alludes to the Liberals’ intention, if they were to get into government at a federal or definitely a state level, to cut, close and burn public-facing services. Make no mistake: when the Liberals cut, Victorians will pay the price. Number three: if the opposition had actually been paying attention, I actually moved the inverse of this motion exactly two weeks ago. That is the main reason why I am speaking on this matter now.

On 5 March I moved an MPI– and like I said at the time, if you look at the almanac from Back to the Future, it will be in there.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Pascoe Vale will not use props in the chamber.

Anthony CIANFLONE: It states:

That this house notes that the Allan Labor government is helping working families with the cost of living by making much-needed investments in health, education, housing and transport.

Do you know what is interesting about the motion by the member for Evelyn? She has intentionally left out the words ‘education, health and transport’ in her motion. That is because, we know, the Liberals do not believe in investing in health, education and transport. They never have; they never will. They only know how to cut health, education and transport.

There are a couple of other words I can use to describe this motion as well. Firstly, it is misleading. It is misleading about the real actions and what we as the Victorian Labor government have actually been doing to support people with the cost of living. There is a definition that comes to mind when I go to ‘misleading’, and I have got the dictionary here, Acting Speaker – Speaker. My apologies, Speaker.

The SPEAKER: Order! Speaker. And I would ask you not to use props in the chamber, member for Pascoe Vale, dictionary or not.

Sam Groth: On a point of order, Speaker, the member for Pascoe Vale, I believe, is going to defy your ruling. He seems to have a prop located on his bench there.

The SPEAKER: I have ruled on that matter.

Anthony CIANFLONE: Thank you, Speaker. I appreciate your guidance. I was literally picking up this dictionary to quote from it. I appreciate the member for Nepean’s enthusiasm, and I will get to him in a moment. The matter is misleading because it does not accurately reflect what this Victorian Labor government has been doing to support Victorians with the cost of living. The definition of ‘misleading’ is ‘to give the wrong idea or the wrong impression’, and we know the Liberal opposition leader in particular has a good habit of misleading his own party room. He did not tell them. We are talking about cost of living here.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Member for Lowan! Member for Brighton!

Anthony CIANFLONE: This is an opposition leader that just went on a cruise ship holiday and misled his party room about whether he was on a holiday or not. That is point number one.

James Newbury: On a point of order, Speaker, if the member has not got the capacity to speak –on relevance –

The SPEAKER: What is your point of order?

James Newbury: I just said, Speaker, on relevance, if the speaker has not got the capacity to speak on the motion, perhaps he should sit down.

The SPEAKER: Order! I ask you not to make a statement when you raise a point of order. Member for Pascoe Vale, stick to the matter of public importance.

Anthony CIANFLONE: I certainly believe I am sticking to it. I am specifically going to the very essence of the matter and why I believe it is very much misleading and inaccurate on many, many levels. There are quite a few other ways I can describe the matter, but one of the ways, just to skip along the way here, is to describe it as a baccalà of a motion. In Italian we have a word, baccalà, which describes quite a few things. It is an Italian fish that is enjoying extreme popularity amongst much of the Mediterranean, but baccalà is also used to describe someone who can be considered a salted codfish or someone who is good for not much, and that is what this matter really is. When you look at the definition there is also a photo of who is a baccalà –

The SPEAKER: Member for Pascoe Vale, I will sit you down if you use another prop. I will not allow you to defy my rulings. This is the third time I have warned you, member for Pascoe Vale.

James Newbury: On a different point of order, Speaker, referring to the member for Evelyn in that way is extremely unparliamentary.

The SPEAKER: What is your point of order?

James Newbury: I just said – referring to the member for Evelyn in a completely inappropriate way –

The SPEAKER: Member for Pascoe Vale, I would ask you to be mindful of not referring to members of Parliament in a disrespectful manner.

Sam Groth interjected.

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Nepean, would you like to leave the chamber? You can leave the chamber for half an hour.

Member for Nepean withdrew from chamber.

Anthony CIANFLONE: Thank you, Speaker, I will certainly be following your ruling. To clarify, it was not about the member for Evelyn, it was about the member for Nepean. I do just acknowledge that. But in all honesty, all jokes aside here, the reality is that every single motion we as a government have sought to move and progress in this chamber when it comes to cost of living for young people, for families, for workers, for older people, you name it, the opposition have actively opposed and campaigned against and talked down.

What the member for Evelyn did not get up and talk about was whether or not a Liberal state government would support the ongoing retention of the $400 school saving bonus. To date that has put $150 million in Victorian families’ pockets on new uniforms, books, excursions and the like. There has been no commitment from the Liberal opposition on whether or not they would maintain that, let alone whether they would have committed to it originally. There has been no commitment from the opposition about whether they would retain free kinder, which is saving $2600 per child per family for three- and four-year-olds. That will be on the chopping block. That will be on the cutting block, dare I say. There is no commitment –

Bridget Vallence interjected.

Anthony CIANFLONE: Correct me if I am wrong, member for Evelyn.

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Pascoe Vale, through the Chair. The member for Evelyn will cease interjecting.

Anthony CIANFLONE: There are the $200 Get Active Kids vouchers as well, which are helping so many families and local sporting clubs with uniforms, boots, shin pads and the like for participating in local sport. Again, you never would have heard that announcement from a Liberal government. The free school breakfast program – we know they cut Fresh Fruit Fridays. If they get elected, are they going to retain the school breakfast program, the free dental care in schools program, free-to-study teaching, free TAFE courses – over 80 TAFE courses – free-to-study nursing, free L- and P-plates and urgent care clinics?

We know the federal Liberal government over a decade decimated Medicare and bulk-billing, and as the Minister for Health spoke about in question time today, we know that has placed increasing pressure, record pressure, on Victorian hospital emergency departments. We have opened up urgent care clinics. Would a Victorian Liberal government maintain and grow and expand those urgent care clinics? Again, dare I say they would not.

The motion talks about energy. We have introduced the Victorian default energy offer, which is keeping wholesale and retail prices in Victoria low for families and low for businesses. The Solar Homes program – hot water, solar panels, battery rebates and loans – this whole investment we have been making through the Minister for Energy and Resources and the Minister for Environment, is about providing households with the cheapest form of renewable energy. Again, the Liberals have not, as far as I am aware, come out to match that ongoing commitment.

The council rate cap – we introduced the council rate cap. It is 2.75 per cent in 2024–25. We know some Greens councils in particular want to abolish that rate cap, which we will work to ensure does not occur.

We know that this motion really does not belong in the chamber of this Parliament, to be frank. It belongs on a comedy reality show. It takes me back to an old episode of Seinfeld where Cosmo Kramer went out the back of the NBC studios and found the old Merv Griffin show set. He brought that up to his apartment and invited his friends Jerry, Newman and George Costanza to talk about nothing. That is what this motion is about. It is basically a Liberal Party branch meeting motion where you have got Newman, the member for Brighton, and others talking in an echo chamber about what they are going to cut and what they are going to close. Because whether it is on economic management, housing, renting, energy, the cost of living or generally, we are taking all the action needed to make life more affordable and accessible.

Let us go to some of the points that the member for Evelyn spoke about in terms of our economic management. She has totally disregarded the geopolitical external factors and inflationary pressures that have happened – a once-in-100-year global pandemic – that have played major roles in terms of the current state of the international and national economy in particular. There were 13 interest rate rises by the Reserve Bank. Mind you, inflation was growing at record rates not under the Labor federal government; there was a Scott Morrison Liberal federal government when inflation was out of control – 13 times in a row rates rose, and the rate cut happened under the federal Labor government. So when you talk about economic management, talk about the facts. The Liberals do not like the facts getting in the way of a good fake Liberal narrative.

I take the house to point 1 of the motion in relation to economic management, because the fact is the Victorian government’s mid-year financial report ABS figures show that Victoria’s economy, labour market and levels of business investment continue to drive nation-leading growth. Almost 900,000 new jobs have been created since 2014 and there is record low unemployment. Gross state product increased by 1.5 per cent in 2023–24. The economy is now 11.5 per cent larger than prior to the pandemic. Our economy has grown by over 9 per cent in the last two years alone – that is according to the Deloitte report. Business investment – the member for Evelyn does not want to refer to this fact, but business investment in this state has grown by 30 per cent since 2020–21, higher than any other state and reaching a record high share of overall economic activity. Business investment also has grown by 3.7 per cent over the last year to December 2024, compared to -0.1 per cent nationally. Nationally it is going backwards, but we are going forwards in record levels. That is a fact. 108,000 businesses have opened their doors in Victoria since June 2020, an increase of 17 per cent of new businesses in Victoria, the largest growth of any state.

Let us talk about business. We have released the economic growth statement, which is all about backing businesses, cutting red tape and building the new skills that businesses are asking for, through that free TAFE, which the Liberals would never have delivered and will not maintain if they ever get in. The economic growth statement contains those things that businesses told us they wanted, like streamlining liquor licensing, which will save $7000 for hospitality businesses and allow them to open up to six months earlier. It will also look at other sensible ways to cut red tape and save money for businesses and save time for small businesses. Small business Victoria and the Minister for Small Business and Employment are doing a sensational job in progressing much of these and other reforms.

We have committed to halving the number of business regulators by 2030, saving small businesses up to $500 million over five years by decreasing bureaucracy and other costs. We have also worked on a major program of tax reform, including increasing the payroll tax threshold, abolishing business insurance duties and reforming commercial and industrial stamp duty, which I remember the Liberals spoke against in this chamber, basically. We listened and made those payroll taxes fairer for businesses, because the payroll tax threshold of $700,000 we knew was too low. To better support small businesses across our state from 1 July 2024 we have raised the threshold to a $900,000 tax-free threshold, with a further $1 million from 1 July 2025. The reforms will save 26,000 Victorian businesses up to $14,550 per year, and around 6000 of those businesses will stop paying payroll tax altogether.

In relation to our expenditure, which the motion also talks about, we are creating those jobs and we are building that infrastructure through kinders, schools, hospitals, community facilities and social services. There is $12.8 billion in the midyear budget update towards infrastructure, which is about the Metro rail tunnel, level crossings and North East Link. Locally, for my school community there is an $18 million new rebuild of Pascoe Vale Primary School, a $17.8 million COVID technology hub, $14.5 million for John Fawkner secondary college, $11 million for Pascoe Vale Girls College, $10 million for Glenroy College and much, much more. The money is going to things that we need and that should have been done, and we continue to deliver going forward.

But it is also about the population. If things are so dire, as the opposition want us to believe, why do people want to keep moving to Victoria in record droves. They are moving to Victoria in record droves. Our population is growing at the fastest rate in the nation – 130,000 more people in the last 12 months – with 2 per cent growth compared to New South Wales’ paltry1.3 per cent growth. But there are also the major events. Two million people attended Victorian major events – international, interstate and intrastate visitors – with record crowds at the at the grand final and 200,000 people at the Avalon airshow. Speaker, if the state is in such dire a situation as the Liberals are claiming, why are more people moving here? Why are more people investing here? Why are more jobs being created here? Why are more businesses opening here? Victoria is the best state in the nation to live in.

The SPEAKER: I cannot answer those questions, and it is not appropriate to ask the Speaker questions.

Emma KEALY (Lowan) (16:31): I speak in strong support today of the matter of public importance raised by the member for Evelyn. It is clear that there is an enormous disparity between facts and reality. I challenge the members opposite to get out into their communities and speak to real people on the ground, to speak to women who are struggling to pay for food at the supermarket and put food on their family’s table and to speak to the people that you hear from, the mums in tears who are having a sandwich in the pantry and telling the kids, ‘No, don’t worry about it, just eat without me. I’m busy doing something’ or ‘I had something earlier today’ because they could not afford to buy enough food to feed the entirety of the family at once.

These are the people that Labor members are just dismissing outright in saying it is something that only the Liberals and Nationals are talking about. These are tears that are being shed by Victorians each and every day who cannot afford to live here anymore. They cannot afford their groceries. They cannot afford to keep up with their energy bills or with their gas bills that keep on getting higher and higher and higher. They cannot afford to pay their rent. They have written off their idea of a dream home because it is being taxed beyond their reach. They simply cannot afford to live in Victoria and live the life that they desire and the life that they deserve. Their hopes and aspirations are what I and my National and Liberal colleagues believe can be reinstated in the state of Victoria. We can rebuild Victoria so that it is again a place of hope, where we actually look at the outcomes of media releases and budgets rather than just putting out media releases on the day saying, ‘These are the numbers. These are the inputs. This is how much taxpayer money we are throwing at this, and yet we still have a situation which has got dire outcomes for Victorian families right across the state.’

It is not just me saying this. All of the data that you look at points to the incredible cost-of-living crisis that every single Victorian is facing. This is of course because – what have we had in Victoria for the last 10 years that is consistent? We have had a Labor government. And we know that Labor know how to spend, spend, spend taxpayer money. It is not their money; it is taxpayer money. It always is Victorians that pay the price. It is Victorians who are waiting longer for health care, for an ambulance, for their school to be upgraded and for that pothole to be fixed to make sure their road is safe so they can get to work, take their kids to school and go to footy and netball training, and it has never, ever, ever been delivered by Labor.

In fact life is getting so much harder under Labor because they cannot manage money, they cannot manage projects, and it is Victorians that are paying the price. Demand for food banks is going through the roof, with 65,000 Victorians a year looking for support to feed their families. That is up 30 per cent in just one year. Grocery prices are up 30 per cent – it is costing a fortune to feed your family. In the last six years alone groceries have gone up 30 per cent. Food prices overall have gone up by 17 per cent since 2020, and this is set to increase even further with Labor’s new volunteers tax that specifically targets farmland, the people that are growing our food to put on the supermarket shelves. What do you think will happen to food prices if Labor is slugging them with a massive, massive new tax that will increase by 189 per cent for farmers alone?

A member: How much?

Emma KEALY: 189 per cent for farmers. These are farmers that are already living on the edge. These are the same farmers that have been dealing with an incredibly dry season this year. These are the same farmers that spent their time on either CFA trucks or private appliances fighting bushfires this entire summer bushfire season. These are the people that deliver the service, and they are going to be the ones that pay for it, and gee they are paying for it. They are paying for it big time and they are pushing back. It is Victorians that will pay the price, because it is not just the farmers, it is anybody who consumes food in this state, and you know what, that is every single Victorian. They will all pay the price for Labor’s great big new volunteer tax that just puts extra pressure on those volunteers who will turn out when we need them. I thank them so much for all that they have done over this summer because there has not been a lot of support from the government. We have still got businesses who cannot access the $5000 bush recovery support from the government, because while they announced it on 11 March, submissions are still closed. You can put an expression of interest in, but you cannot apply. That money has been locked down in a box and is not flowing to my community, and that is simply not good enough.

This is a government that does not care about people at the end of the day. You have forgotten where you come from, Labor. Labor have completely forgotten where they come from. They have become used to the life of having ministerial drivers and lovely dinners and all of these free tickets – grand prix or Taylor Swift anybody? All of these high-end functions – what about the person who could not even think about taking their daughter to Taylor Swift because they would not be able to afford it? What about those families that could not even think about going to the grand prix because they cannot afford school uniforms to put on their children’s backs to make sure that they can turn up and not be embarrassed at school? These are everyday working families that Labor have turned their back on. These are the families that are paying the price for Labor’s mismanagement and incompetence and just taking the micky out of every Victorian.

Power bills are up 22 per cent since 2021. The average household bill is up $1667. You think a $250 little grant every so often will fix that? It does not even touch the sides of Labor’s absolutely botched transition of energy. You cannot keep on cutting back the sources of energy and not expect there will be a massive increase in prices because demand is outstripping supply. It is simple economics. I think I learned that in year 8, but somehow we have got highly paid ministers who are making decisions that are just making Victorians pay the price. It is simply unacceptable.

Housing is becoming less and less affordable, with over 1 million Victorian households under mortgage or rental stress. There are 15,500 fewer rentals in Victoria in the past year alone, and this is government changes. This is changes to laws that mean that landlords are not interested anymore. They are pulling out of the market. You have made it harder to get a rental. Labor have pushed up the cost of rentals for all Victorians. There are more than 60,000 Victorians on the public housing waitlist, and Labor made a promise to Victorians before the last election that it was going to build 80,000 homes a year.

A member interjected.

Emma KEALY: They have desperately failed that. More than 25 per cent fewer homes have been delivered. In fact in Victoria we have the lowest house building rate in 30 years.

People cannot save for a deposit. They cannot afford to save for a deposit because all of their money is going out the door to these increased cost-of-living pressures under Labor’s cost-of-living crisis. Regional housing is even harder, because the cost of regional homes has gone up 45 per cent in the past few years alone.

On health care we are just left abandoned in regional Victoria, where we are seeing massive amalgamations of hospitals. We have worse health outcomes anyway in regional Victoria, but in my region of Lowan, where a lot of my bigger hospitals are being merged in under Ballarat, we are seeing fewer local jobs, with the laundry services being shut down. These are some of the lowest paid hospital workers, and they were told on Valentine’s Day they were going to lose their jobs. There are fewer jobs locally. There are fewer health services locally. It is not fair at all on those hardworking hospital staff who are doing their best that they cannot make a decision locally because all the money is being siphoned to Ballarat under Labor’s completely botched hospital services plan. It is the wrong way to go, and our Victorians are worse off out of it.

This could be fixed. The government are good at putting a hand in your pocket when they run out of their own money. They have introduced 60 new taxes since they came in over 10 years ago, and what did Andrews promise before he came into government last election? No new taxes. Well, that is 60 reasons that you should never, ever vote for Labor again, because you cannot trust a thing they say before an election. What they will only deliver is more pain in the hip pocket for every single Victorian. You want to fix what is happening in Victoria? Never, ever vote Labor again – only put a number 1 in the box for a National Party member or a Liberal Party member.

The SPEAKER: I remind members to direct their comments through the Chair.

Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (16:42): It is interesting, I think the opposition speak with forked tongues frankly when it comes to expressing all this will and desire about expanding housing and housing affordability in our state, because every chance they get they take the opportunity to block, block, block. We saw protests in Brighton. We have seen protests in Hawthorn. I have had pushback in my seat as well. Here we are, but thankfully we have been able to cut through and that bill is well underway, because we know that for younger Victorians in particular, but not exclusively, they want to have the opportunity to get into the housing market. I have many people, millennials and down, who are deeply concerned about their ability to get into the housing market, save for the housing statement, because after that announcement we got so much feedback. I can speak personally from my seat, where younger people were saying, ‘Thank you, you’ve actually considered us,’ in making sure that we are providing a mechanism for them to get into the housing market.

But it is not only younger generations, though that is incredibly important. It is also making sure for mature generations as well, when they want to downsize et cetera, that they do not all have to go out to the broader areas of Victoria necessarily unless they want to. If they want to do a sea change, well that is part of the concept as well. When we are talking about the housing statement, it is giving Victorians the freedom to live where they want to and do what suits them.

I know from speaking to a lot of younger voters in particular, a lot of them – and I will not speak for all – do not necessarily want to be reliant on cars. Many of them – and I pay full credit to them – want to have more active transport and want to use public transport, and therefore they want accessibility. This is what underpins the activity centres and the planning around them for Victoria – making sure that we have the convenience that Victorians want and need, because that means that they can actually take public transport if they want to. They might want to bike ride, they might want to walk, they might also want to use other mechanisms to be able to travel that are far less expensive than necessarily having to use a car. Of course if they want to use a car, that is fine too, but we know that the only way to reduce congestion into the future is to make sure that we facilitate good public transport, hence major infrastructure investments.

Those opposite see any money that is generated and contributed to by Victorians as simply a waste, when in fact we know things like Metro Tunnel and the West Gate Tunnel for instance are actually going to massively help in terms of facilitating Victorians to get where they need to go faster, cutting time in their commutes, which is so much better when you are looking at also accessibility to jobs and having that freedom that they all deserve.

But it all depends how you frame it. If you frame every expenditure of the state as simply a waste, then you are belying the fact that, for instance, we will have built a hundred new schools by 2026. Are those new schools considered a waste by the opposition, or do they deem Victorian students as having the right to a full education and the infrastructure that they need and deserve close to where they live? I am putting that question out to the opposition because I would say, and certainly it has been reflected in my community, many schools we know back in the Kennett era were closed. I am just saying we had to rebuild, because that is what Labor governments do. We do not just say it is all too hard and it is too expensive; we know that Victorian students need somewhere to be educated and at an optimal standard, hence South Melbourne Park Primary School and South Melbourne Primary School. We also have Fishermans Bend primary school coming. We have Port Melbourne Secondary as well. These were all delivered by the Labor government. I put that question: would the opposition deem those a waste, or is that a good investment in terms of public expenditure by the government? These are the questions that we should actually be talking about. When you just talk about waste and red tape it is very easy to dismiss absolutely valid and valued investments in community, but at the end of the day that is what it is all about.

If we come back to that question of housing, we are reforming our planning system, clearing the backlog of planning permits and giving builders, buyers and renovators certainty about how long approvals will take and a clear pathway to resolving issues quickly if those timeframes are not met – cheaper housing closer to where you work. There is nothing worse than spending 1½ hours, 2 hours a day in the car when you could be at home playing and having fun with your kids or just resting, reading a book – I do not know – shopping, cleaning and doing all the things people have to do. I know as a Southbanker that we have many families living in high-rise. I live in a 37-storey building. People look at me and go, ‘How can you live in this situation?’ There are plenty of families there, and they go to, guess what, South Melbourne Primary School, which was delivered by our Victorian government. What they love is its accessibility to the arts quarter. They have got all that at their fingertips – great sporting facilities, Albert Park and JL Murphy. When you are looking at the overall lifestyle, this is about choice, isn’t it? Instead of looking aghast and saying, ‘Why should people live in apartment blocks?’ and looking down on it, we should say this is about giving choice for people. This is about giving choice.

On the other hand we have given greater certainty because also there are families who want to live in other parts of Victoria; they might want to live further out or might want to have acreage. They want to have that choice, and that has been an important part of the plan. I am not here to imply that a person should live in one or the other situation, but the fact of the matter is that for every dollar you spend when you are talking about uplift in the inner burbs it is $4 when you are going in the outer areas when you are thinking about what you can deliver for community. Every time you open a new suburb you are having to look at new ambulances, new police stations, new fire services, new schools, new electrical infrastructure et cetera, and we do invest in those services. But you also have to preserve our beautiful forests, certainly when we are thinking about climate change as well, so there is a delicate balance there. The point of me raising that issue is that there is a good imperative on so many levels – and this is what is built into the housing statement as well – to make sure that we do not increase urban sprawl to an extent which makes it no longer livable and amenable for Victorians but at the same time find that right balance so that they can have affordable mechanisms to live where they want to live and have a reasonable commute to their work or school or other areas.

I know that, for instance, when we were looking as part of the housing statement at how we would be facilitating these changes when it comes to housing, the 10 pilot activity centres will deliver more homes. The plans for each have evolved in response to feedback from the community. I joined the Minister for Planning at one of the local feedback sessions. Actually there has been extensive engagement with community, contrary to what was proffered in the previous discussion that was raised by the opposition. I should say that there has been extensive discussion because, contrary to what they might think, actually people do not necessarily all want to live in big, grand homes. They can be expensive to look after and they can also be onerous with all of the cleaning, maintenance and all the other things. It is about choice. It is not about saying one or the other and it is not about being snobby or looking down on people who live in apartment blocks. It is about choice.

James Newbury interjected.

The SPEAKER: The member for Brighton will show some respect to the member on their feet.

Nina TAYLOR: This is really important. For instance, under the previous draft plans all proposed catchment areas had a four-storey height limit with scope for up to six storeys on larger blocks that are more than 1000 square metres and have 20 metres of street frontage. Under the updated plans, catchment areas will be split into two, inner and outer. Inner catchments will be closer to the core and will have the same four-storey limit or up to six storeys on larger blocks. Outer catchments will be farther from the core and will have the new three-storey limit or up to four storeys on larger blocks. There is a lot more information that needs to be shared on this matter, but I do not have the time in this chamber and it has already been shared publicly.

A member: Extension.

Nina TAYLOR: No, no, that is fine. That is all right. There is plenty more that other people want to say, I am sure. Some of the fearmongering by those opposite has been very destructive because it is not fair to community. Community deserve to have reflected what is actually being delivered for their benefit through consultation, with community being taken on the journey.

Nicole WERNER (Warrandyte) (16:52): It is good to be back and to rise to support the member for Evelyn’s matter of public importance:

That this house condemns the Allan Labor government for allowing Victoria to spiral into a cost-of-living crisis as a result of:

(1) failing to manage the economy and allowing net debt to reach $155.2 billion by the end of the financial year;

(2) imposing or increasing 60 new taxes, which are driving up the costs of renting, energy and grocery prices;

(3) breaking its promise to build 80,000 new homes a year, causing housing prices to remain unaffordable for many young Victorians; and

(4) failing to implement any meaningful measures to ease cost-of-living pressures for Victorians.

The truth is that Victorians are worse off under Labor. Under the Allan Labor government everything is costing more. This is what it looks like in real terms for Victorians in the last few years. Health care is up 10 per cent. Food and grocery costs are up 12 per cent. Education costs are up 12 per cent. Housing costs are up 14 per cent. Rents are up by 17 per cent. Insurance is up by 19 per cent. Electricity is up by 32 per cent. Gas, although they want us to not be able to use it, is up by 34 per cent. The truth of the matter is that Victorians are living in a cost-of-living crisis that has been created by the financial mismanagement, ineptitude and recklessness of the Allan Labor government. The truth of the matter is that those opposite are pure economic vandals on a frenzied spending spree with Victorian taxpayers money on their pet projects, jobs for mates and lining criminals’ pockets through the CFMEU.

To add insult to injury, not only is everything costing more in Victoria but also Victoria is the most taxed state in the country. The Allan Labor government has introduced 60 new or increased taxes in the course of its government. In a cost-of-living crisis, in a mess of its own making, the Allan Labor government figures, ‘Yeah, all right, you know how we’ll fix this? Let’s slug ’em with more taxes,’ again and again and again and again – 60 times over.

Victorian homeowners, businesses and farmers are to pay $2.1 billion more in tax thanks to Labor’s fire levy – yup, you betcha. Victorians are paying more property taxes than any other state thanks to soaring land tax and stamp duty – all yours. The solution to the cost-of-living crisis in Victoria from the Allan Labor government is more taxes for every man, woman and child. And how is this, according to Labor’s new Treasurer, Victorians can afford to pay more.

Just last week the Treasurer claimed that rental providers can afford to pay more in tax. We know who these rental providers are, because the ATO has the figures. The Australian Tax Office says that there are 561,600 property investors in Victoria, and 403,000 of them only own one property. We are not talking about multimillionaire, multibillionaire land barons in Victoria. We are talking about, and the data shows it, people that own one property, and they are teachers, nurses, tradies and police officers. I mean, give it up. The Allan Labor government is worse than Robin Hood. They are not stealing from the rich to help the poor – they are robbing Victorians of their livelihoods by taxing them through the nose at every single opportunity to be able to pay off this eye-watering debt of $187.8 billion by 2027–28. It is scandalous. State debt, as I said, is set to reach a record $187 billion by mid 2028. This is something I am acutely aware of, having recently, as I mentioned before, had my first child. It is really good when you are sleep deprived to be able to stand in the chamber and say all these things.

James Newbury: You sound better than them.

Nicole WERNER: Thank you, that is very kind, member for Brighton. My son Bobby is 11 weeks old today and he is absolutely the light of our lives, he is wonderful. As I have said before in this chamber, I am the daughter of migrants, migrants who moved from their home country of Malaysia to Australia, to the lucky country, to make a better home for their future family. As a new parent I now have a deeper appreciation of why they did this for us. Every parent wants a better life for their children than they have. Every parent wants to provide for their children the best opportunities that they can. Every parent is aspirational for their children, their futures, their lives, their success. But the reality for my child being born into Victoria is that he has been born into the worst debt of all of Australia and what was once an economic powerhouse is now being labelled by economists as the poor state.

As our first child, our baby was given, as many first children are, so many gifts from friends, family and community members, but the gift that he received from the Allan Labor government for being born in Victoria is his share of this $187 billion debt. At 11 weeks old, here is a bill for you, buddy: $25,000 – that is your share of this state’s skyrocketing debt. We are talking about that being the truth for every single Victorian – intergenerational debt that our children and their children’s children will have to pay off, state debt per person in Victoria amounting to $25,000 for every single man, woman and child in our state – 44 per cent higher than the next highest taxing state, South Australia. This financial mismanagement has bankrupted our state. Twenty-six million dollars is paid in interest on our debt – every single day we pay more than a million dollars for every hour that goes by thanks to the Allan Labor government’s squandering of our taxpayers money on their pet projects, corruption and incompetence. Every single Victorian is paying the price.

The fact is Victoria has now become a poor state. For the first time, this year the government is to receive more from GST revenue than we contributed. According to economist Saul Eslake, fundamentally what the GST system is meant to do is to redistribute revenue from rich states to poor states. After nearly 25 years of contributing more to the GST than we get back, being the second largest state with a historically strong economy, we are now that poor state. We used to be the economic powerhouse of this country. Now we need all the help that we can get, and other states have to bear the burden of propping Victoria up.

We should be able to have pride in our state’s economy and industry. For decades we have led the country in sectors such as manufacturing, financial services, agriculture and education. We have the oldest Parliament in the country, we are the home of the 8-hour work day, and as far back as the 1850s gold rush we were the economic powerhouse of our nation. But sadly much of that greatness is now fading away.

Our businesses and households are the most taxed in the nation, our manufacturers are struggling to compete because of the cost of electricity and gas and our government is wallowing in state debt. We need to return to being a state that leads, not lags, a state that contributes, not one that begs for crumbs. It does not have to be this way. Victoria does not have to be the poor state. We have the people, we have the potential and we have the ability to turn things around. What we need is a government with the discipline and economic credibility to turn things around. And Victorians have that chance just next year, in November, to make a choice to vote in a coalition government to boot out this mob of corruption and incompetence and financial mismanagement, to boot out this mob that care more about jobs for mates and care more about buying votes in regional Victoria than actually delivering for Victorians in regional Victoria. They have the opportunity to vote out those that would make a promise at election time, only to seek to break it right after at a cost of – how much was it? – $559 million. So Victorians have that choice come November 2026 to vote out this corrupt, incompetent state government.

John LISTER (Werribee) (17:01): I rise to speak on this matter of public importance, or what seems to be an opportunity for the Liberal Party to record some grabs for their social media. It is a bit disappointing, as someone who is new to this house, to see what they are spending their time on today. But it is a good chance. It is like groundhog day, as my colleague the member for Pascoe Vale alluded to before. It is a good opportunity to go back and have a look at some of those cost-of-living measures that we are investing in.

I do refer to my dictionary when I look at point (4), where the matter of public importance refers to failing to implement any meaningful measures to ease cost-of-living pressures for Victorians. I refer to my dictionary that I got from my learned colleague. Of course, I am not looking up salted fish; I am looking up the definition here of the word ‘meaningful’, and the definition is ‘serious, important or worthwhile’. I want to challenge those opposite by asking whether or not these particular programs that the Allan Labor government has initiated are meaningful.

I would like to first start with congratulations to the member for Warrandyte on the arrival of her new bub. It is fantastic to see so many bubs around here in Parliament. One of the initiatives that we are doing to support young families is the baby box, and that baby box – for anyone, regardless of income, regardless of where they are from – provides those important first things for parents when they head home from hospital. Is that meaningful? That is the question that we could ask – not reflecting on the Chair.

The other thing that I would ask is: is it meaningful, the Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund, which helps many people in my electorate and many young people to be able to go on important excursions that help shape their education but also help them build and grow as young people?

The other thing that we have invested in to help young families and families generally when it comes to cost-of-living support is the school saving bonus – $4.8 million has been invested in this just in my electorate alone across schools that I have worked with and worked in, and that is available to families in those state schools and eligible families in the Catholic sector. The member for Lowan previously characterised these sorts of programs as the government ‘throwing money at’ these programs. I think that is a little bit insulting when we think about it. Are we throwing money at the opportunities for young people to go on those camps or sports or excursions, or are we throwing money at kids being able to have a proper uniform and a good start to the school term? I think it is pretty cynical for those opposite to say that we are throwing money when these programs are having a real impact in communities like mine, in Werribee, Wyndham Vale, Manor Lakes and all in between.

We have also provided cost-of-living relief through our active kids grants. Our active kids grants make sure that those kids that would normally not be able to access sport programs in communities like mine do get those things. We have provided – and this has been a key thing for this Labor government ever since we have been in – the free TAFE program, making sure that more young people and people trying to transition into a different career can get access to that sort of program. I do not know – is that throwing money away or are we investing in communities like mine?

The member for Evelyn mentions, in point (3) of the matter of public importance, housing. If the Liberal Party seriously cared about building new homes, they would not have their members, including the member for Brighton, out there protesting against doing exactly that. They need to look in the mirror, and they will be able to see what our biggest barrier to housing affordability is in Victoria. They are opposing new homes in Hawthorn. They are opposing homes in Malvern. They are opposing homes in Brighton. They are blocking good projects to help provide housing for young people and people looking for affordable housing near good public transport and services.

When those opposite have the gall to cross the West Gate and venture into Wyndham, they may notice a whole lot of houses being built at a nation-leading pace. Over 2700 planning approvals have been granted in the City of Wyndham in the financial year to January. It is my community and the communities of the member for Point Cook, who I see has just joined us, and the member for Melton that are doing the heavy lifting when it comes to housing availability in our city. It is about time the communities those opposite represent do more of this heavy lifting too. In fact in the City of Bayside, which the member for Brighton represents, a little over 800 planning permits have been approved in the financial year to date, which is cute compared to what we are doing in Wyndham.

I want to tell a story of how a young person from my community who grew up in Wyndham Vale has been supported to move to an apartment – in the electorate of the member for Caulfield, no less. Look, while I was sad to see them leave the amazing community of Wyndham Vale, they wanted to move closer to those services and move closer to those jobs that are in that community. I am sure we are all aware of the Help to Buy scheme. We have recently had a discussion in this house on that. In Victoria we have seen the success of our own shared equity scheme, the Victorian Homebuyer Fund. For many Victorians, the homebuyer fund has been a game changer – the difference between owning a home, being forced to rent indefinitely or not being able to move out of their family home. With the government contributing 25 per cent of this young person’s deposit, they have saved up another 5 per cent in order to avoid costly lenders mortgage insurance. With this they were able to buy an established apartment in the member for Caulfield’s electorate. Of course this did mean that I lost them, but it is fantastic to see that they get to live where they want, close to work and close to friends from university.

This government has also released a housing statement with a focus on these key areas: good decisions being made faster, cheaper housing closer to where people work, protecting renters rights, more social housing for Victorians and a long-term housing plan. As part of this we are building homes around high-frequency train lines with our activity centres program, giving people the opportunity to live near established public transport routes. While we do a lot of hard work in our outer-western suburbs to provide that infrastructure, we know that it already exists and there is capacity for people to live in these inner-city suburbs.

Our housing statement is not just about buying a home. I am one of the few members in this house to rent their home. This government has the back of people in my situation. Renters make up a huge chunk of our population – around 18 per cent of the Wyndham community, according to the last census – and it is telling that we rarely hear the opposition speak up for them. In stark contrast, this government is committed to ensuring that renters like me feel secure in their homes. We have minimum rental standards in Victoria and we have established a rental taskforce, who are cracking down on rental providers and real estate agents who do the wrong thing. The taskforce has conducted weekend inspection blitzes across Melbourne, including in my electorate of Werribee, to make sure that renters are not having to put up with conduct that is not only unfair but also illegal. We support renters through Consumer Affairs Victoria to challenge unreasonable rent increases. I myself used this service last year to successfully challenge an unfair rent increase that was well beyond market value, and this is something that I was able to do to set an expectation in our community that we cannot go unfairly increasing rents and pushing people out of good houses.

To make this rental system fairer we also have Rental Dispute Resolution Victoria and the portable rental bond scheme, which I was able to access not too long ago when I moved house. There is plenty more that we have done for renters rights in this state, and I am proud that renters like myself are ensured protection and dignity under these laws.

I want to conclude my remarks with this: as people in the western suburbs, it is always amusing for us to see the Liberals remember every few years that there are communities living on the other side of the West Gate Bridge. Werribee is a great place to live, work and raise a family. Whether it be in established areas in Werribee and Wyndham Vale or in our new estates further out, people choose to call these places home and are proud to do so. We do not necessarily need to hear those opposite tearing down our communities. We need to see them supporting our communities by taking their fair share of housing and making sure that we have a balance of housing across our entire city, rather than being out there standing with protesters, while we continue to take all that housing in the area I represent. The Allan Labor government is committed to supporting families in communities like the one I represent.

I want to end by reflecting on what I started with: whether or not those programs that I have described are meaningful and, most importantly, whether or not they are likely to be cut by those opposite if they have the chance. These are so important to my community, and we need to make sure that they are safe.

Rachel WESTAWAY (Prahran) (17:11): Let us get back to the basics. This is a matter of public importance submitted by the member for Evelyn: ‘That this house condemns the Allan Labor government for allowing Victoria to spiral into a cost-of-living crisis’. We are seeing a $155.2 billion debt. It is extraordinary. Have my colleagues across the other side of the chamber forgotten what real life is? I am one of the newest members in this Parliament, and I can tell you now that the people of Prahran are over it, absolutely over it. The spiralling cost-of-living crisis was a major issue in the recent Prahran by-election, where voters overwhelmingly rejected the economic failures and policies of the Labor government and the Greens. Whilst I am on the Greens, may I say what hypocrites they are. We are talking about a cost-of-living crisis. We are talking about the cost of rent. Where are they? The three amigos are not here at all to even contribute to this discussion.

Every day on the campaign trail locals told me just how tough life was for them. They were struggling to pay their rent or their mortgage, they were struggling to put food on the table and pay their household bills, including their power bills, and they were struggling to keep afloat. Some had lost their jobs and others were working reduced hours and earning less money as Labor’s mismanagement created a massive economic crisis in this state. Since the by-election people have continued to highlight to me the financial problems they are struggling with and the consequences of these problems, which include rising mental health issues and more homelessness, which we see constantly in Prahran. All I need to do is walk down Chapel Street. Not only do I know these homeless people by name – it is really extraordinary – but they are there day in, day out because there are not sufficient facilities that are covered by this government because they do not have money because they have misspent. We have got a rise in mental health issues, an increase in homelessness and an increase in crime and unfortunately we are seeing more and more family violence.

Labor’s 60 new or increased taxes have made life even tougher for Victorians. At a time when they are looking for relief the state government is whacking them even harder with more taxes, leaving them with less money to pay their household bills. With 30 of these 60 taxes being property related, this government has made it even tougher for renters. More than half of the residents in Prahran are renters. Any increase in property taxes is directly passed on to these people by landlords. Labor and the Greens seem to think they are attacking landlords with more regulations –

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: If members would like to have conversations, they can do it outside.

Rachel WESTAWAY: higher land tax and other property taxes. It is of no consequence for those who are renting properties from these landlords.

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member for Prahran has a right to be heard without interjections.

Rachel WESTAWAY: The Labor government and the Greens think that they can defy basic economic reality. Every time you increase taxes and charges on landlords, these costs are passed on to renters in the form of higher rents. Let me say it again: for the people of Prahran, over 50 per cent rent, and they are hurting.

As taxes and charges keep going up, landlords are getting out of property and they are selling their rental properties, usually to owner–occupiers, meaning there are less properties available for rent, which again leads to higher rents. The consequences of the government’s tax grabs and ever-increasing rents are hitting the people of Prahran very hard, and it is making it even tougher for them. According to realestate.com, the average rent for a unit or apartment in Prahran has gone up by 5 per cent in the last 12 months. That is about $525 a week people are paying. Likewise the average rent for a house in the area is now $855 a week, a 4 per cent increase. These increases far outstrip increases in salaries over the same time, and a large part of the blame for these increases lies with the outrageously high property taxes that this government has imposed on Victorians.

It is renters in Prahran and across Victoria who are paying the price for these new and increased taxes. ABS stats show that the Allan Labor government’s economic mismanagement and higher taxes and charges have led to inflation in the Melbourne area being higher in 2024 than in any other capital city except Perth. People tell me that it is not just rent and the cost of housing that is going up; food prices are going up, electricity prices are going up, transport prices are going up, insurance is going up – almost every household bill in this state is going up, and we are all feeling the pressure. State government fees for public transport and car registration are also going up to feed this government’s addiction to higher taxes and out-of-control spending. At a time when Victorians are crying out for some relief from rising costs, this government simply makes it harder for them.

The great retail strips in my electorate like Chapel Street, Toorak Road, Commercial Road and Inkerman Street are suffering as a result of this government’s appalling economic mismanagement. The tale is sadly similar across the whole state. People are finding it tough to keep a roof over their heads and put food on the table. They have reduced their discretionary spend, therefore hospitality is hurting, the entertainment industry is hurting, the rag trade is hurting, and as a result many retailers cannot even make ends meet. When they inevitably close their doors, as I have seen on Chapel Street, rising property taxes, especially land tax, make the rents unaffordable. With less shops in the area to attract customers, foot traffic drops, impacting on the profitability and viability of existing businesses.

The state government is smashing small businesses, and as a result the government is destroying jobs for all Victorians. According to the ABS, in February 2025 Victoria had the highest unemployment rate in any state in Australia, at 4.6 per cent. That is much higher than the national unemployment rate of 4 per cent. It is tough enough for people who still have jobs to deal with the cost-of-living crisis caused by this government’s reckless economic mismanagement. The challenge becomes almost impossible when people have lost their jobs. The social consequences of the government’s economic failures are devastating across this whole state, but these consequences are highly visible in my electorate. They are in your face when you walk around, with more homeless people appearing every day on our local streets, rapidly rising levels of crime, brazen drug abuse in public – I recently posted about it – and in local parks and the continuing increase in family violence. These are the high-profile, highly visible consequences.

But behind closed doors there are financial problems causing increased mental health issues for many families. Mothers are telling me how their financial struggles are badly impacting on their children, who see their parents struggling to pay the bills and who sometimes have to give up their much-loved pets because they simply cannot afford to feed them. The impacts on these children can be devastating and long lasting. But as the cost-of-living crisis spirals out of control and as the social consequences of this crisis manifest in my electorate and across Victoria, this heartless government carries on and pretends that these very real issues and serious problems simply do not exist. ‘Nothing to see here’ is the mantra of this government. They continue to run massive deficits and they continue to increase taxes and charges.

They are already suggesting that there is more pain to come in the May budget, but for Victorians there is no gain at all from this pain. Despite the massive deficits, the government is not investing in more police to deal with rising crime and antisocial behaviour. It is not providing more crisis accommodation, especially for women and families fleeing domestic violence and for people facing homelessness, with waiting lists for priority housing blowing out rather than decreasing. The government is not investing in more mental health services or in more drug treatment facilities to allow people struggling with these problems to access the help that they need in a timely manner.

The member for Albert Park spoke about investment in schools. I would like to tell you about St Kilda Primary School. If this government had sufficient money they would be investing in a community hall for my local primary school. The 500 kids in my local primary school sit on the asphalt when they have an assembly, and if it is raining they have nowhere to sit. I would like to know where the investment is in my electorate. We need to pull down –

Members interjecting.

Rachel WESTAWAY: It is not funny, my colleagues across the other side of the chamber; it is a disgrace, to be frank. You are allowing the sale of the Windsor community childcare centre, affecting 100 families. In a cost-of-living crisis, how are those families expected to work if they do not even have basic facilities for child care or when people have got mental health issues? It is absolutely disgraceful. I have got friends in the school community that have had to move their kids out of the local area because they simply cannot afford to live in this local area. It is disgusting.

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The house will come to order.

Dylan WIGHT (Tarneit) (17:22): I will just stand here for the next 10 minutes whilst they interject if they want.

Peter Walsh interjected.

Dylan WIGHT: I tell you what, Walshy, it will be better than any contribution you have ever made, mate. You have been here for 20 years – wowee.

Wayne Farnham: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, the member knows to address people by their proper titles in this house. It is especially disrespectful for –

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I encourage all members to use correct titles. It is very hard to hear over the interjections, so the member to continue without assistance.

Dylan WIGHT: I cannot hear myself think, Deputy Speaker.The height of rudeness – wowee. It was quite a contribution by the new member for Prahran. I thought she had run out of puff about halfway through, but she brought it home strong, the blue vein coming out of the forehead and all. It was really Warrandyte-esque, to be honest.

The member for Pascoe Vale should be somewhat offended. If you are going to steal somebody’s homework, at least change it slightly. Two weeks ago we were debating a grievance exactly in reverse. I could pretty much open Hansard and word for word just speak the speech that I did two weeks ago. Honestly, when I opened this up yesterday evening I thought those opposite were taking the P155. They walked in here today with a matter of public importance that addresses cost of living in the same week that they came into the same chamber and voted against giving working families in Victoria rights over dodgy builders to save them from financial ruin. They come in here and they talk to us about cost of living. I mean, well, well, well, how utterly absurd: they have the audacity to come in here and give this government a lecture on cost of living when they are happy to see working Victorian families hit the wall and see their dream utterly destroyed because they want to protect some people in the building industry who are doing the wrong thing. I mean, really, it speaks volumes about this opposition. It speaks absolute volumes.

It is always great when the opposition stump this sort of stuff up because it just gives me a chance to speak for 10 minutes about how the Allan Labor government are supporting Victorian families. There are usually some interjections; I might go for 8½ minutes or so, but it gives me a whole bunch of time to talk about how the Allan Labor government is supporting Victorian families.

Let us start with our fair fuel policy. On 20 January this year the government announced its fair fuel plan, which included the launch of a new fuel finder app to address cost-of-living pressures. What we know is that shopping around is important, because data from the ACCC shows that Melbourne motorists could save up to $333 a year. The member for Melton has spoken on this many, many times and on what happens there in Melton.

What we know is that some, not all, fuel providers, service station operators, are surging their prices. You can travel 10 kilometres between service stations that have bought the fuel at the same price and there will be a 30-  or 40-cent-per-litre difference. We know that fuel prices go up before every single long weekend. You can bet your bottom dollar that before the Easter long weekend, fuel will be up around $2 a litre. What have we done? We have made it easy for Victorians to compare fuel prices to make sure that they are getting the best deal and that they are getting the cheapest prices at the bowser. That is how you support Victorian families. That is how you support with the cost of living.

We can go on to the Victorian energy upgrades. We know that right now, like it or hate it, electricity is far cheaper as a fuel than gas is, so we have incentivised Victorians by, when their gas appliances are coming to the end of life, making it cost effective and incredibly cheap for them to move to electric appliances. If you have got an old gas hot water service that comes to the end of its life, through our incentives you can replace that with an electric hot water service, for very little electrical work, member for Narracan –

Wayne Farnham interjected.

Dylan WIGHT: because I have seen it, right? It costs no more than what it would cost to replace your existing gas hot water service with another gas hot water service. It costs no more. This whole nonsense from the member for Narracan about three-phase power – what, to replace a hot water service? Give me a break, member for Narracan.

Wayne Farnham interjected.

Dylan WIGHT: Give me a break, member for Narracan. I mean, you clearly were not a sparky, mate. You were a chippy, no dramas.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Through the Chair, without assistance, member for Narracan.

Dylan WIGHT: To replace your existing hot water service – to try to stand up here and lie to us that you have got to rewire your whole house – I mean, give me a spell.

Wayne Farnham interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Member for Narracan.

Wayne Farnham interjected.

Dylan WIGHT: Kick him out, Deputy Speaker. He has been going all day.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Without reflections on the Chair please, member for Tarneit.

Dylan WIGHT: Indeed. Let us move on to our Victorian school saving bonus, which I have spoken on in this house many times, with $400 for each student to help with those costs of uniforms, of excursions and of textbooks. I have seen all the way throughout my electorate kids in the west, kids in Tarneit and Hoppers Crossing pimped out in their brand new school uniforms. A lot of these families would most certainly not have been able to afford those school uniforms.

I have spoken about a young girl that I spoke to at the Grange. She is one of five children in both primary school and high school right now. She does not come from a family of means. She is one of five kids. That means that for each of those kids the family has $400 to be able to spend on school supplies and those school uniforms. Without that they do not have a new school uniform. Without that they do not have the capacity to go on excursions. The $400 school saving bonus is absolute gold in my community, because it means that kids in Tarneit and Hoppers Crossing that may not have had the opportunity to do so can participate in school fully. They can be proud of their brand new school uniform when they walk in the door and when they walk through the school gate. They can go on excursions and they can have textbooks. I have said it before. In 2026 – at the end of next year – if people have not figured it out, this is what is at stake.

Do you think those opposite care enough to be able to provide a $400 school saving bonus to every Victorian schoolkid? Absolutely not. Do you think that those opposite, who still have many climate change deniers amongst them – I am not saying it is anybody at the table right now – are going to continue with the Victorian energy upgrade? No, they are not. What that means is that when an appliance comes to the end of its life, you are going to have to replace it with a gas appliance and you are going to be paying more for power every single month. That is what is at stake. What about free kinder? We are making sure that every Victorian child has access to three- and four-year-old kinder, because as the Victorian government we know, and all the research shows, that those early childhood educational years are absolutely paramount. The member for Werribee knows, because he is a local schoolteacher – and a CFA volunteer of the year, if you have not heard. The member for Werribee knows. Without a Victorian Labor government, do you really think that those opposite are going to continue with free kinder? Do you think they are going to continue with school breakfast clubs, making sure that every Victorian kid, regardless of how much money is in the bank, goes to school with a full stomach? We know that kids with a full stomach are able to learn better; they can concentrate and have better educational outcomes. All of these things – that is what is at stake at the 2026 election.

They can bang on about cost of living all they want. They have not had a cost-of-living policy in their life. They believe in government so small that I am surprised that any of them run for it. We have been supporting Victorian families since we came to government. We know that those opposite will not, and that is what is at stake in 2026.

Will FOWLES (Ringwood) (17:31): It is my pleasure to make a contribution to this matter of public importance put forward by the member for Evelyn. One of the matters raised in her submission is of course around housing, and it will not come as a surprise to anyone in this chamber that that is what I will be focusing my commentary on today. I am very pleased that the shadow housing minister is at the table and very pleased that a former housing minister from the government side is at the table as well, because the problems we have in this sector are substantial, and whilst the government has made some inroads, there is so, so, so much more to do.

The reality is that permits do not build houses and press releases do not lay foundations, and a housing target without the follow-through is simply a broken promise. Victoria does not need more plans and processes, it needs more homes. Whilst the 80,000 homes target was ambitious, it was also, in my view, a necessary target. I would much rather have a government with some ambition putting a target out there and working towards a target, even if they have fallen short, than to have no target at all. But the reality is there is a shortfall, and the shortfall has significant consequences – consequences for families without shelter, families without safety, families without certainty. The 80,000 homes target from the government has made a difference but not anything like the substantial difference that we need. We need more shovels in the ground. We need the construction. We need houses and hallways and hope and not permits and paperwork and pain. We need real action that will create more homes for more Victorians. It is as simple as that. So I will be spending a little bit of time today talking about the things that are being done and the things that can be done to improve the situation.

These homes need to be built to increase supply, largely because supply of homes is one of the main catalysts for changes in price – supply goes up, prices come down. We want homes to be more affordable. I do not think there can be any doubt about that. Indeed, Alan Kohler’s essay in Quarterly Essay recently spoke about the very simple fact – we all know it – that the median house price has now risen to about seven and a half times the annual household income. We are talking about circumstances where household income typically reflects two wage earners now, whereas once upon a time it reflected one or maybe one-point-something wage earners. That seven and a half times household income is up from three and a half times household income when Alan Kohler bought his first house in 1980 – from three and a half times what was probably a single income to seven and a half times what is probably a dual income.

Stockland, one of the biggest developers in the country, responsible for a very large number of greenfield housing estates, have said that their average first home buyer – a Stockland estate is very much the middle of the market within greenfields; not exorbitant, but also not the absolute entry level – is 32 years old.

Fourteen years after completing school maybe you get into a house in a greenfield estate. This is simply preventing under-30s from entering the housing market. It is institutionalising a generation of renters. It is creating a circumstance where a whole generation risk having no wealth to retire into after a lifetime of working. The current housing system presents a major change to how wealth is created and how it is passed on, or not passed on, generationally. This is an enormous economic challenge, it is an enormous social policy challenge and it is enormous cultural challenge. It is literally tearing at the fabric of what we understand it is to be Australian, what we understand it is to be Victorian.

The other thing is it is not enough to build more homes; we need to make sure that those homes are quality homes. I am very pleased that the Building Legislation Amendment (Buyer Protections) Bill 2025 is in this place, without in any way anticipating debate on that – I can see your screwed-up eyebrow there, Deputy Speaker. I am very pleased that the bill is before this chamber, and I will say no more. It is important always to have integrity in the construction industry, particularly if you are proposing to build 800,000 homes in a decade. But you need certainty for the industry, you need certainty for consumers. I have referred in this chamber to a recent experience with constituents of mine who bought these apartments and they have suffered major defects – water ingress, major structural problems, emergency and safety systems that simply have failed – and the developer has used his controlling numbers on the owners corporation to thwart any attempt to get those rectifications done. Any bill in this place introduced today will likely have prospective effect, not retroactive effect, and it is important that we recognise that there are a whole bunch of problems that have crystallised already in the construction industry. We need to be live to making sure that those people are assisted as well as making sure that future purchasers of apartments do not run into the same issues.

I want to talk also about homelessness. Where the Shadow Minister for Housing and I might disagree is to what extent the private market is going to solve the shortage of rental properties. I heard Michael Sukkar speaking at a conference just yesterday and he railed against, to some degree, faceless corporations being your landlord. I think the build-to-rent sector is a very promising sector. I think it is delivering actual homes that people can live in where the structure of those buildings and the structure of those communities is far more conducive to long-term rentals than some of the other offerings we currently have in the market, particularly the offerings at the most vulnerable end of the market.

For as long as Australia and Australians treat housing as an investment class, not as a social good, you will continue to have problems. You will continue to have problems with the private market not being able to meet the needs – the very reasonable, the very explicable, the very defensible needs – of a whole bunch of Australians to simply have a place to call home, security, safety, stability and certainty. These are absolutely fundamental factors, and the needs of the private market are not always going to be consistent with those needs of the end user. We need to understand that housing is a social good, not just an investment class. Negative gearing – I heard Mr Sukkar say that you can negatively gear a share portfolio, so why shouldn’t you be able to negatively gear a residential property? That analysis holds true if you think that residential property is just an investment class, but it is not. At the end of the day you do not need to own BHP, you need somewhere to live. The fundamentals are that these economic imperatives and the social imperatives are not the same, and I say to the shadow housing minister that the private sector has not got all the answers here. I say through you, Deputy Speaker, to the shadow minister that the private sector does not have all the answers. They will have some of the answers for sure. It might well be through build-to-rent. It might well be through exploring land lease models. It might well be through a bunch of other factors.

I want to talk specifically about a constituent that came into my office this week, a young mother in distressed circumstances – deadbeat dad, her mother had died. Her mother was evicted from her house the day after she died, and she, who had been looking after her mother, was facing homelessness.

She had a two-year-old and a five-month-old, and there we were in my office busily ringing every support service in the electorate, every church, every agency to try and find her accommodation for that night. Now, we were able to cobble together some short-term solutions and are in the process of putting together a solution that might look after her needs for a while, but to face the very real prospect of sleeping rough, sleeping in a car with a two-year-old and a five-month-old, is this really, really where we are happy to be as a city, a state and a nation, with all of the wealth and all of the opportunity that we have? It is an appalling set of circumstances that these things are even contemplated, let alone the lived reality for people not just in my electorate but right across the state. I am sure members right across this chamber can speak to circumstances of people finding themselves homeless that do not fall into the typical stereotypes about homeless people. These are people who have done nothing wrong. Circumstances have conspired against them, and to face the very real possibility of looking after a two-year-old and a five-month-old in an overstuffed car because we cannot even get them emergency accommodation – this crisis is real. The threat to people’s long-term – and short-term, but clearly their long-term – welfare is real.

I have exhausted maybe a third of the notes I brought up to the chamber on this topic, and I could comfortably go for half an hour. Mercifully for members here, I will not. But let me say this: housing should be where you rest your head at night, it should be where you can raise your family and it should be a safe place, not an investment class. That is what the government needs to focus on.

Ella GEORGE (Lara) (17:42): It is a pleasure to rise tonight to make a contribution on the matter of public importance raised by the very hardworking member for Evelyn. It is a shame she is not here, because I was hoping she would enjoy my contribution this evening. But I am delighted to have this opportunity once again to speak to all that this Labor government is doing to help Victorians with the cost of living and ease pressure on household budgets. In particular I would like to focus initially on the fourth point raised by the member for Evelyn, that the state government has failed to implement any meaningful measures to ease cost-of-living pressures for Victorians. This cannot be further from the truth. In fact I wonder where the member for Evelyn has been, because if you have been paying attention, there is no way that you could miss everything that this Labor government is doing to ease cost-of-living pressures for Victorians. In fact we were speaking about this in the chamber just two weeks ago, and as the member for Tarneit mentioned earlier, in his contribution, he could repeat the speech that he delivered then and still be speaking to this matter of public importance and I could do the same. However, I will not. I thought I would take this opportunity to talk about some other things that this state government is doing to ease the cost of living, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to remind the member for Evelyn and all those opposite who are in the chamber with us right now of all the things that this government is doing to ease the cost of living for Victorians.

When it comes to supporting families our $400 school saving bonus for every government school student is going down so well. This means that parents have $400 to spend on school uniforms, on textbooks and on excursions and camps and other activities. It is $400 that they do not have to find from the rest of their household budget. It is $400 that they do not need to worry about. One of the best things about this is that for families where you have multiple students, it is cumulative. So it is $400 for every student. If you have got three kids, that is $1200 in your pocket, $1200 that you did not have last year and $1200 that you certainly would not have under a coalition government. When it comes to kinder, we are supporting families with free three- and four-year-old kinder, saving families up to $2500 per child every single year, delivering that extra year of early childhood education for kids before they start their learning in school. Again, this is having a huge impact on household budgets.

We are also helping families who love the great outdoors and want to take the whole family out for a camping trip, whether it was over the summer holidays this year, the Easter holidays coming up or, if you are really brave, during the winter holidays later this year by making camping free in every national park and state forest in Victoria.

This is going to save families over $7 million in booking fees. You can pack up the car, get your tent, get your swag or whatever it is and you do not have to worry anymore about having to pay to book a site. That is massive news for families, delivering even cheaper, affordable holidays for Victorians when they want them.

We have tripled the Glasses for Kids program. This is something I am really passionate about as someone who cannot see very well. Sometimes I think about: would I actually be good at maths if I could have read the whiteboard when I was in primary school and secondary school and maybe got my eyes checked before year 10 when I realised something was really wrong? This is massive for kids and families who need a bit of extra support with eye care in terms of providing free check-ups and also free glasses for kids, because glasses are expensive. Those costs rack up.

Of course there is our free breakfast clubs program that we are expanding to every single government school. This is on top of 40 million school breakfasts we have already delivered. All of the government schools in the Lara electorate are part of the school breakfast clubs program, and can I tell you that families love it, schools love it, students love it and teachers love it. They all love it for the same reason really, which is that kids are learning on a full tummy, and we know the difference that makes. It is not just the difference it makes to a child’s education and their ability to learn in the mornings; it is also the difference that makes to a household budget. Imagine if you have got five kids and you suddenly do not have to worry about feeding them breakfast on school days because that is going to get taken care of at school with the school breakfast club. That is the exact kind of policy that Labor governments like this state Labor government are delivering.

Excitingly, with the school holidays coming up, we have delivered free zoo visits and Melbourne Museum entry for kids under 16. I know some of my colleagues have had the opportunity to see the new elephant enclosure at Werribee Zoo. The member for Wendouree and the member for Point Cook are big fans, and I am sure they will be visiting with their families and their kids over the school holidays.

Mathew Hilakari interjected.

Ella GEORGE: Already done, member for Point Cook? I hope your son really enjoyed that.

Of course we have got our Get Active Kids $200 vouchers for kids who are participating in sport. Again a really simple thing that governments can do is to support active recreation and to support families with those costs that come along with playing footy, playing soccer or playing netball – covering costs for uniforms, for equipment or for special shoes that you need. We all know that kids grow quickly and they grow out of those expensive shoes, so to have the ability for families to apply for this voucher in every single round is amazing. I know it is something that is taken up so widely across the Lara electorate.

Another area where we are doing so much work in terms of easing that cost of living for families and for students in particular is around providing cheap, accessible public transport. This is so important for young people, in particular in the Lara electorate. I am thinking about all those school leavers who have just finished year 12 and are thinking about university. We do have a great university in Geelong in Deakin University, and we have an amazing TAFE in the Gordon. But sometimes there are courses and programs that Geelong students want to access in Melbourne, and what we have done is we have made that cheaper. It is around $5 a day now to travel up to Melbourne, so that is about $25 a week if you are heading there five days a week on a concession. If you have to pay full fees for your tickets, maybe as someone who is a bit older and working full time in Melbourne, that trip is now $10 a day or $50 a week. Two years ago that was $150 a week. That is a massive saving of $100 if you are travelling from Geelong into Melbourne every day for work. That is real cost-of-living relief.

Real cost-of-living relief is what we are delivering on this side of the chamber and what those opposite do not have a plan for, they do not have any ideas for. They put up a matter of public importance about this, on an issue that we spoke about two weeks ago. Like I said, I am really pleased that I have this opportunity to speak on this again and to raise some of the other things that this Labor government is doing to ease the cost of living for Victorians, for young people, for families, for every household.

Again, for young people we have got free L-plate and P-plate licences and online testing and free 60-minute driving lessons for Victorian L-platers between 16 and 19 years of age. That is massive for families who might be struggling at the moment, might be finding things a bit tougher than usual. To be able to have access to those free lessons and free tests really, really makes a difference.

I have a confession to make. When I went for my Ps I think it actually took me three goes to get them. It did. I was not very good. It is a bit embarrassing, isn’t it? But I got there eventually and it is safe to say that I am an excellent driver now, so maybe I just needed a little bit of extra practice at the time. Practice does make perfect. I actually have a question for the minister, which I will raise with her at a later point. If you fail your P-plate licence test that is free from the government, do you get a second go for free? I am not actually sure, but for someone like me who failed a couple of times that might be a great policy to introduce.

In other initiatives that we are doing to address the cost of living we have introduced free TAFE courses. Thousands and thousands and thousands of students are accessing these. We have introduced free midwifery and nursing courses and free teaching degrees so that students who are interested in these careers, where we need workers the most, do not have to pay their HECS debt. But that is not all, and I am conscious that I only have a minute left. I really could speak all day about everything that this government is doing to help Victorian families with the cost of living.

We had a really exciting announcement today around affordable school uniforms, and the Premier and the Deputy Premier announced changes to student dress codes to ban school logos on shorts, pants, skirts and socks in Victorian government schools. This is a fantastic initiative and one that I know will go down so well in the Lara electorate. It is again something small that we can do to help families with the cost of living. But all of these different things really add up when you think about the entire package of cost-of-living relief that we are delivering on this side. All of these initiatives make a difference, because on this side of the house we have a plan. We have a plan to address the cost of living. We do not have a silly matter of public importance that is not going to get us very far and that we all heard about two weeks ago.

Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (17:52): Once again I find myself in the last place for this vitally important matter of public importance, and that gives me the chance to listen to all the other speakers. We are taking the Melbourne International Comedy Festival into the chamber it seems this week. There have been a couple of very comedic performances. The member for Tarneit was one. I thought, ‘He’s obviously been to a comedy show last night.’ With the member for Pascoe Vale, there would have been a red flag or two go up with the props that he presented. Some questions might need to be asked about his obsession with the member for Nepean, with a whole scrapbook being presented. Again, I do hope security have noted that little red flag and look into that. Also, while we are on it, he brought up the mother tongue of our people, the Italians. I have a few more Italian words; I am not sure you would consider them parliamentary, so I might see how the rest of this goes and then bring them up.

But this is a vitally important matter of public importance. In fact, according to Victorians on the ground, it is the most important issue that we have by a long, long way. Cost of living and crime, make no mistake, are issues that have come about because of poor policy decisions by the Allan Labor government. There is no other cause for this. It is poor policy, and then to brush over these cost-of-living pressures with little token bonuses of $400 for school or electricity, when your electricity bill has gone up, according to the ABS, 30 per cent in the last year, a measly little payment here and there, a little bit of an offset or a little tip here and there does not offset the pressures week to week when people are living pay cheque to pay cheque.

Should I start on small business? I spent 12 years running my own small business before entering this place, and every year, particularly toward the end and through COVID, it got harder and harder, to the point where it was near impossible to operate a small business in this state, especially when you have 60 new or increased taxes and have all of the extras. Depending on the industry, it is just so hard. I hear this on a weekly basis. Small businesses feel like they are being pushed out of business in this state, and rightly so, when it gets so hard.

Mind you, they can go and set up in New South Wales 5 minutes away and have access to the same market, the same Victorian infrastructure and those things that taxpayers are paying for, but it is much easier to do business in New South Wales.

While we are on it, let us talk about agriculture and how hard it is to produce food in this state. In the electorate of Mildura, which is the food bowl of this country – I know the member for Murray Plains thinks his is, but honestly. While I am on the member for Murray Plains, while the member for Tarneit was performing his comedy show skit before, I noticed I was actually personally offended. I do not want to get all mother-like on the member for Murray Plains, but there is one person in here that can get away with that. Sorry, you just cannot have a go at the member for Murray Plains; I take offence at that. You cannot do it; that is my job and mine only.

Getting back to agriculture, I hear this day in, day out. In Mildura last week we had a delegation from India, who are our major export partners for the almond industry. We grow 60 per cent of Australia’s almonds in my patch. The other 40 per cent comes from the Riverland just over an hour away in South Australia. There is a reason that almond growers are corporate farms, to be fair, because it is so expensive to grow any food – for table grape growers as well. This was a conversation that was had the entire time last week, the entire week – the cost of audits, the increasing cost of the workforce, the issues with the Labour Hire Authority, water and illegal housing.

The Labour Hire Authority has created its own emergency, and it will occur very soon, with illegal housing construction. I have written to the minister about this – illegal extensions to house people on top of one another, making it incredibly unsafe, because the labour that is needed is vast, because we grow so much food at an incredible expense. But the housing that they are kept in now is insanely unsafe, and there will end up being a fatal disaster. I had a 52-year veteran of the CFA take me out to have a look at some of these houses last week, and it is horrific.

This leads me to the CFA and the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund and that levy rate increase of, as the member for Lowan said, 189 per cent. This is another levy. Particularly farmers, who can have multiple blocks, are faced with a 189 per cent rate increase. That is going to literally strangle some growers. They have already talked about it.

Meanwhile we have got long-term rental houses coming off the property market. We now have generational farms going onto the property market, and who is there to buy those generational farms? No-one, because you cannot get into farming. It is too expensive, and those generational farmers are walking off. What does that do for food security? They are growing food. The policy decisions of the Allan Labor government want to not only rip up the farmland to put in power lines, wind turbines, solar farms, batteries – if we stay there, the rates we have to pay on that land are simply not viable, and you have also got supermarkets that do not look after the farmers. It is just getting so, so hard.

Then we have got our CFA volunteers and SES volunteers, who do such amazing work. They are the backbone, the spine, the stomach and the heart of regional and rural communities. It is the 80th anniversary of the CFA today; it is right that I give them a shout-out on their 80th anniversary.

But they have had the guts ripped out of them. They struggle to get a bottle of water when they are out there fighting bushfires or grassfires. Things are dry out there. Farmers cannot afford to spend the chemical to spray. I implore members on the other side to leave the city every now and then. Honestly, come and have a look. I will take you for a drive. Come and have a look at how dire things are at the minute. There is life beyond the freeways, I promise you. That is where we are growing your food, and I know it will hurt when you cannot get your almond milk lattes and your avocado on sourdough bread, because we grow all that but at the moment it is drying up.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Through the Chair.

Jade BENHAM: It is far too expensive to grow the food, which means it is far too expensive for people to buy the food. Here you are talking about how you are giving Victorians this much here and that much there –

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Through the Chair, member for Mildura.

Jade BENHAM: That is just insane and people are frustrated, which is why when you ask Victorians in this state what their biggest issue is they say cost of living.

The member for Pascoe Vale, who I am disappointed is not in the chamber right now, mentioned – I think he was referring to the member for Nepean – another Italian word earlier. I said I have got a few others. When I talk about this there are quite a few Italian words that come to mind, most of which I cannot say, Deputy Speaker, and I will not. But every Italian in this state at the moment is thinking ‘stronzo!’