Tuesday, 20 December 2022

Economy

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (19:12): (5) President, I want to begin by congratulating you on your re-elevation to the very significant role that you have and note the good work that you did in the last period, and I look forward to that continuing.

The point I want to raise in the adjournment tonight comes directly out of the address by the Governor today. I thank her for her address, but it was what was not in the speech that worried me. I noted there was no mention of the state’s debt and the state’s financial position. We know that $166 billion is the likely debt that we are headed to in 2025–26. That is bigger than New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania combined. There was no mention of a debt reduction plan. There was no mention of a way to deal with that debt and the significant impact that that will have on taxation and the significant impact that that will have on Victoria’s future. So the action I seek tonight is to ask the Treasurer to explain why the Governor’s speech did not have any mention of debt – any outlined way to deal with the state’s debt into the future.