Wednesday, 31 May 2023

Motions

Budget 2023–24

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (14:17): I move:

That this house notes:

(1) the 2023–24 Victorian budget handed down by Labor will inflict further economic damage on Victoria and Victorians for years to come;

(2) that Victoria’s debt is set to reach $171 billion by 2026 and interest repayments will double to $22 million per day;

(3) the decisions and actions of the Andrews Labor government are causing fiscal damage to Victoria and harming business confidence;

(4) the government’s ongoing tax grabs are hurting mum-and-dad investors;

(5) CPA Australia, the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Independent Schools Victoria, the Property Council and the Real Estate Institute of Victoria have all raised serious concerns regarding the government’s approach to managing the state’s finances;

(6) the ongoing commentary led by the Premier and government ministers blaming the parlous state of Victoria’s finances on the Reserve Bank of Australia and COVID-19 and refusing to take any responsibility for the dire financial state that Victoria is in;

(7) the budget blowouts in excess of $30 billion on major infrastructure projects is due to gross mismanagement and waste by the Andrews government; and

(8) that due to this fiscal incompetence, it is clear that Victoria is broke, life is getting harder and Victorians are being punished for the Andrews Labor government’s incompetence.

Victorians should have a government that works for them and that makes their lives easier. Government is supposed to be an institution that protects and empowers people, but under this government it has become an institution that Victorians fear. The best that Victorians can wish for from this government is that they are not in the firing line for the new and higher taxes. Each year without fail Labor finds new ways to put a stranglehold on this economy and new ways to push up the cost of living. But this year the government has gone too far, and the Victorian public knows it. They have poked the bear. The reality has set in that Labor has played loose with the economy for too long, and now their only solution – their only solution – is higher taxes. There are 6.8 million Victorians who are going to be paying more and getting less because of this budget handed down last Tuesday. The Premier and his government are trapping Victorians with the price of their debt-fuelled spending and tens of billions of dollars in waste and blowouts. The budget reflects nothing more and nothing less than the financial mismanagement and lack of credibility and integrity of the Andrews government. This is not a budget that makes life better but one that burdens Victorians with more debt, more taxes, cuts to infrastructure and broken promises.

We believe in uniting Victoria and uniting Victorians. We believe that the role of government is to empower people to get ahead by forging their own path and achieving what they want to achieve, and instead we have a government that divides people. Labor has introduced almost 50 – they are almost at the half-tonne, at the G – new taxes since coming to government. Before last week’s punishing new taxes were announced Victorians were already paying the highest taxes in Australia: $5638 per person ‍– more than any other state. Victorians can feel their wages being overtaken by inflation. They can see it when they visit the supermarket, try to buy a home or try to buy anything, basically. Prices are going up because this government have overheated the economy, and wages are going down because this government think your pay rise belongs to them.

It is a budget that punishes 6.8 million Victorians, who just want to get ahead. If you are a business wanting to grow and employ more people, you will be slogged with higher payroll tax, and if you are looking for a new home or house and land package, you will be paying more because developers will be paying more in land tax. If you are hoping to invest in the property market to be self-sufficient in retirement, the Treasurer says that you will pay an extra $1300 per year, and you will go on paying $1300 every year for the next 10 years. And if you are a renter, you will be paying more because of the government’s new renters tax.

We even have Labor members, like member for North-Eastern Metropolitan Region – not Mr McGowan but Ms Terpstra, the gift that keeps on giving – suggesting that her government’s new taxes:

… might encourage wealthy property –

owners to –

… sell multiple properties increasing supply. Is that a bad thing? Like how many properties does one need to own …

Maybe Ms Terpstra should ask some of her own colleagues. Maybe she should ask the Attorney-General. Maybe she should ask the member for Essendon, who alongside his share portfolio seems to have quite the property investment portfolio. And as Ms Crozier pointed out yesterday in her motion, she seems to be taking several pot shots – rather unkind pot shots – at her colleagues as well.

I will just quote another Labor Party comrade – and I know a lot of you on that side have different views on him or rather do not like him – former deputy secretary Kos Samaras:

… I have a personal and moral objection to people on my side of politics owning more than their own home. My side of politics, the Left, should not own the roof over another worker’s head.

What an insult. It was a gibe across the chamber to his own side, just like Ms Terpstra did to her own side. The Labor Party say they are the party for renters, but the Labor Party are too ashamed to admit that all their increases in land tax will do is punish renters with higher prices and less housing investment, further reducing supply. It is a renters tax and they know it.

I have been taking a very active role in the current stamp duty inquiry by the Economy and Infrastructure Committee and listening to the experts and getting their views on what land taxes will do to investments. One of the experts we heard from was the CEO of the Real Estate Institute of Victoria Quentin Kilian, who said the proposed renters tax would immediately have an impact on supply. I am going to quote him directly. He said:

… supply … is where we need to be focusing … not disincentivising …

He rightly noted:

It is already difficult for many people to find a property – we see often 40 to 50 people attending …

open for inspections. He went on:

By further diminishing … supply, it is going to put further pressure on people finding … a home …

And then we see the Treasurer saying that he is open to a rent cap. The committee – the stamp duty inquiry – was urged by several policy experts in the strongest possible terms against this kind of ludicrous, interventionist policy, but those on the other side of the house just cannot help themselves with their government intervention. It does not just undermine the market and undermine investment in new supply, which is the biggest driver of rent increases, but a further shortage of supply would further dwindle our housing stock, which already has vacancy rates of under 1 per cent.

As we have seen overseas – perhaps the members could go on a study tour if they are still allowed to go overseas – in San Francisco, for example, Stanford economists found that in the long run rent caps drove rents up, not down, because they led to a number of landlords converting their housing to other uses, and this further reduced the supply of rental units.

I am completely not surprised – they are not even here – by the Greens’ lack of economic understanding in this regard, but I am terrified to hear these kinds of flippant comments and the floating of ludicrous proposals from our state Treasurer. At the very same time we now have a public housing waiting list with 70,000 Victorians waiting for a roof over their head. The security and stability that that provides is very important. These people have been left behind, and new taxes will only push that number higher.

On schools, if you are in my part of the state, families that send their kids to local independent schools do so because they struggle to get their kids into nearby public schools because of their lack of classroom space. They want to give their children the best start in life and send their kids to great schools, like Aitken College in Greenvale – they are certainly not happy with the Labor member up there – or Hume Anglican Grammar in Mickleham. Now this Labor government is hitting them with a schools tax, costing parents an extra $1000 per child every year for the next decade. They are not elite and profitable schools, as described by the Premier. If the Premier was aware of the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority guidelines, he would know schools have to run as not-for-profits. It is under the regulations that he presides over, yet he is calling them profitable.

There are fantastic independent schools that take hundreds of thousands of students from working-class families and provide them with an education. Greenvale, after decades of advocacy by the community, only recently just got a new secondary college. It does not run years 10 to 12 yet, and so parents in Greenvale really only have scarce options for secondary schooling and send their kids to a not high-fee but relatively low-fee independent school like Aitken College. Similarly with Hume, Mount Ridley College, the closest public school, is completely over capacity with 2700 students. Maybe if those on that side of the chamber, as my learned colleague says, get outside the tram tracks and visit the growth areas they actually represent, without coming across from the other side of town where they actually live, they might understand what this tax will do to working families.

This tax is immoral, and I am very pleased that not only will the Liberals and Nationals oppose this immoral tax but we will repeal it when we come to government in 2026. When Labor taxes schools, parents pay. Let me be clear: we will oppose Labor’s school tax, Labor’s rent tax, Labor’s job tax and Labor’s debt tax, and we oppose these taxes because we are for Victorians. We say to millions of Victorian families: under the Liberal and National parties you will be thousands of dollars better off each and every year. Under Labor, Victorians will continue to owe $171 billion – that is $25,000 for every Victorian man, woman and child – and they will pay $22 million a day, each and every day, just to pay the Andrews government’s interest bill. What kind of future is that setting up for our youngest Victorians – paying off the debt of a government they were too young to vote for?

Under Labor Victoria is broke and our roads are broken. Labor has been punishing Victorians with a $380 million reduction in annual spending on roads maintenance since 2020. That is a massive 45 per cent cut. Our roads maintenance budget has now been cut by a further 25 per cent in this budget to just $441 million. This is less than the last budget of the former coalition government in 2014, and that is before you factor in inflation, which has been made worse by this government with project cost overruns and mismanagement. Nothing personifies the lack of investment in roads more than when back in February the people of Wallan in my electorate had had enough of potholes on the Northern Highway, a state arterial road which VicRoads is meant to look after. They created a makeshift garden bed on the Northern Highway, put a tree in it and named it ‘Wallan Botanical Gardens – sponsored by VicRoads’.

I asked the minister about this. I asked her to review the maintenance schedule. She came back to me several months later – four or five months later – and here is what she said:

In this instance, the pothole itself was not classified as an immediate hazard according to DTP’s Road Management Plan and was therefore not included for scheduled repair with other defects to be fixed in future.

However, when the pothole was altered it become a high priority hazard due to the increased risk to road users and was addressed accordingly.

Isn’t that interesting? Because there was a tree planted, it got fixed. Apparently it was not a high priority even though at least six people reported serious damage to their cars going on to the Northern Highway. You basically need a four-wheel drive to get to the Leader of the Government’s electorate office on the Northern Highway. Otherwise you will be in deep trouble. Maybe –

A member interjected.

Evan MULHOLLAND: Yes, exactly. I will take the interjection from Mrs McArthur.

But we also saw health cuts in this budget, as I know Ms Crozier knows. Our local hospitals are underfunded, yet the state budget continues to confirm the Andrews government will cut $1 billion from the health budget. This follows a $2 billion cut to health in last year’s budget. Worst of all, the budget figures confirm Labor’s $4 billion in 2022 state election commitments for hospital upgrades remains less than 8 per cent funded over four years. That is a $3.7 billion shortfall for developments at the Royal Melbourne and Royal Women’s hospitals.

Residents in my electorate of Northern Metropolitan have the right to feel dudded. Labor promised an over $1 billion package for northern hospitals – for the Northern Hospital and the Austin Hospital – and this remains 92 per cent underfunded, with only $320-odd million committed to over six hospitals ‍– not just the two but over six hospitals. I know my colleague Wayne Farnham in Narracan is pretty annoyed about the commitments of the government towards the West Gippsland hospital, as I know my colleague Dr Heath is as well. This budget is making it harder for Victorians in the northern suburbs to get decent access to health care.

This government is tired. This government has run out of ideas. Labor has run out of an agenda and it has no money left in the bank. It has actually given up on governing. We are almost halfway through the year and the government has only passed 10 bills. As I pointed out last week, we finished up at 3:30 last Thursday when they decided that governing was all too hard. What message does it send to working families that Labor is throwing into the wall in this budget? They have not addressed the cost-of-living crisis – they have poured petrol on it – and they are not even willing to do a full week’s work to justify their decisions.

There were plenty of cuts to essential services, cuts to infrastructure, cuts to schools and cuts to hospitals, but there is one thing that was not cut in this budget, and that is the government’s spin team. They have been hard at work doing the best they can to cover for the fact that the government has nothing new to announce and is just recycling the same projects over and over again. The spin team in the Premier’s private office are hard at work. The Premier’s office has more staff than the Prime Minister. Daniel Andrews has never justified why he needs, in the state of Victoria, more staff than the Prime Minister of Australia. You have to watch with a microscope to see any progress inching forward on these announcements, but that does not stop the army of spin doctors from doing their best.

Look at the Wallan diamond in my electorate, for example. At four separate state and federal elections the Labor Party has announced they are building the Wallan diamond, an essential piece of road infrastructure that needs to be built to provide a fast connection for residents of Wallan to the Hume Freeway as they are stuck in ever-increasing traffic. As a Liberal member for Northern Victoria was pointing out before, we still do not know answers to this. They said a while ago that they were undertaking planning, but then they said recently that they are undertaking a business case. They were undertaking planning and now they are undertaking a business case. They have moved any sort of start or completion date to ‘TBC’ because the federal government’s infrastructure review means all infrastructure projects are on hold. We have not seen any members, whether it be the member for Yan Yean, the member for Kalkallo, other members for Northern Metro, other members for Northern Victoria or the federal member for McEwen, fight to keep the $50 million that was budgeted by the former coalition government for Wallan, because they do not actually care about our growth areas.

They do not actually care about what they are doing. Just ask the residents of Kalkallo who were out at the Hume Community Market on the weekend who spend an hour and a half in traffic every morning because the government has bungled their planning system. They cannot actually get out onto Donnybrook Road because it is a single lane, even though they have been warned for almost a decade while they have been in government that Donnybrook Road needs to be duplicated – still nothing in this budget for Donnybrook Road. This is happening all across our state. Whether it be in Point Cook or whether it be down in the south-east, the government is not investing in our growth areas and the road infrastructure that we need.

The unfortunate reality is that for as long as this government is in power, Victorians will continue to pay more and get less because this government simply cannot manage money. It has run out of an agenda. It is now spinning its way through every week rather than tackling the serious problems facing our state. Victoria deserves better. Victoria deserves a government that backs it and delivers for it.

Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (14:36): I also rise to speak on this motion. I do thank the member for raising the 2023–24 state budget, as it allows this house to discuss the critical investment that this budget is delivering. However, I emphatically do not support this motion, which is incorrect in its assertions. It is something that seems to be a bit of a pattern amongst those opposite, making some incorrect assertions. The motion disregards the vital investment in needed services that will hugely benefit this state. This budget is responsible and considerate of the impact the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has had on our economy and the measures that were necessary to adequately respond to it. The revenue measures in this budget are carefully considered and are an important component of the debt recovery plan being implemented by this government as it gets on with the job of doing what matters.

This budget has delivered on what matters for my constituents in the South-Eastern Metropolitan Region and many others by supporting the services that our growing communities require, providing transformational investment to improve our society and delivering on the Andrews Labor government’s election commitments. This budget has delivered meaningfully for my region, building upon the continued investment of previous budgets to ensure that our communities are supported and receive the services and infrastructure that we need in my fast-growing part of Melbourne.

Each budget too in the previous Parliament delivered significant reforms and groundbreaking investments. For example, previous budgets included the $5.3 billion Big Housing Build, the two budgets that provided $5.1 billion in critical mental health reforms and almost $5 billion to support universal three-year-old kinder. These transformational programs provide the support Victorians need, and they deliver on what matters.

This year’s budget is responsible, and it provides ongoing support for the programs that benefit Victorians and are supported by Victorians. The Andrews Labor government continues to deliver critical funding towards substantial investment in new and upgraded schools, hospitals and health care, early childhood education, transport infrastructure, TAFE, sports and communities. The budget is delivering for my constituents, providing the services and investment in communities that my region needs. New schools are being delivered. We have got new schools: Thompsons West and Clyde North ‍– both primary schools – and Casey Central primary school. We have also got the new Clyde North secondary school. These are of course on top of the schools already being built in that part of my region. There is also funding in place to upgrade and plan to upgrade schools across my region, including Cheltenham Secondary College, Cranbourne East Secondary College, Cranbourne Park Primary School, Hallam Secondary College, Keysborough Gardens Primary, St Jude’s Primary School and Carrington Primary School too.

The budget delivers for women, with women’s health clinics at Casey Hospital, Frankston Hospital and the Monash Medical Centre, part of an almost $58 million investment to deliver 20 women’s health clinics across Victoria, which is part of a larger $153.9 million budget package. In addition, Dandenong Hospital and the Monash Medical Centre are sharing $320 million to upgrade hospital infrastructure to deliver better care for families across the south-east. Various local projects, road investment grants, sporting facilities, transport funding and other funds and projects are being delivered across Victoria.

I would be very happy to spend the rest of my contribution going over the rest of it, but I will also leave some time for others to go over theirs as well. But I do want to mention two more in my region: the $70 million vital upgrade to Clyde Road at the intersection of Thompsons Road, and we are delivering on our election commitment to provide $1.2 million for a pavilion upgrade at the Grices Road recreation reserve in Clyde North. This is part of a broader $201.2 million program being delivered by the outstanding Minister for Community Sport, also the member for Kalkallo, who has taken a keen interest in this project.

I must say it is extremely disappointing that whilst we are delivering on our election commitments for the south-east we have others out there making things up and saying that we are not delivering them. Two days after the budget the local member for Berwick on the front page of the Berwick Star News was out there spreading untrue things about the budget, saying –

Members interjecting.

Michael GALEA: Well, it is a fine newspaper. Unfortunately –

Nicholas McGowan: On a point of order, President, I believe I saw a prop, but I could be mistaken. I would ask you to rule that props are not appropriate in this place.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: I think the member was referring to a newspaper article, and he is not required to table that, but I would remind everyone that the use of props in the chamber and the wearing of badges et cetera is not acceptable.

Michael GALEA: Thank you, Deputy President. I am happy to respect that. I am happy to table it. It is in the public domain of course too; it is the front page of a local newspaper. But it seems that those opposite do not want attention drawn to this. The quote is:

Mr Battin said the Berwick Churches Soccer Club was another promise broken by the State Government, with $1.2 million pledged days before the state election.

“There are no new sports facilities planned in the Berwick electorate by Labor …

Well, we have delivered it. We have put the full amount of $1.2 million in funding in this project. I know that the adjacent local member, the member for Narre Warren South, who has been an outstanding advocate for this project – he has seen this from start to finish – has been dealing with the local sporting clubs, sporting clubs who have been distressed because their local member is telling them that they have not got it, but they do. So let us stick to facts if we can.

On the subject of facts, other members are saying that there is zero dollars in funding for schools in the Rowville electorate. Well, there are two schools being upgraded, public and private, in the Rowville electorate in this budget. So let us stick to the facts if we can.

Across Victoria there is a wide range of commitments that are being made in seats in my region and beyond. In the North-Eastern Metropolitan Region, where Mr McGowan is from, in Warrandyte we are putting $300,000 into the Warrandyte Cricket Club. I am not sure who the next member for Warrandyte will be. If it is from the Liberals side maybe the former member for Kew will come crashing back into the Parliament, maybe even we will have some others interested, maybe some of your friends, Beverley – Mrs McArthur, I should say. Maybe an adviser to Dr Bach Tristan Layton will put his hand up for it. Who knows? There could be all sorts of people lurking in the shadows for that seat that is being vacated not six months after a state election – six months – abandoning the people of Warrandyte. It is very sad to see.

But across the state – across South-Eastern Metropolitan Region in Berwick, Clyde, Rowville and Frankston; in Warrandyte; and across other parts of the city as well and parts within and outside the tram tracks – this is a government that is delivering for Victorians, and we will continue to prioritise the most important things we can in this budget to deliver and continue to deliver for Victorians.

Beyond the south-east and beyond other parts that I have mentioned, it is important to mention some statewide initiatives as well. It is not just about local projects, in contrast to the narrow and negative perceptions of the opposition, who are intent on denigrating the support being delivered for Victorians. Members on this side are focused on delivering the things that matter to Victorians. That includes things like bringing back the SEC – investing $1 billion in cheaper energy and cleaner energy through a state-owned energy company that will actively participate in the energy market.

The budget also looks towards the future, supporting Victorians to get the skills that our communities need and encouraging and supporting the future generation of skilled workers by delivering a 100 per cent discount on vehicle registration for eligible tradies and apprentices.

Members interjecting.

Michael GALEA: Apparently those opposite do not care about giving 100 per cent discounts for tradies on their registrations. They can keep shouting all they want, but we are still going to deliver. We are going to deliver that, doubling the 50 per cent discount that is already in place.

We all know that more skilled and trained workers are needed in various areas, so it is also good to see funding in this budget to train and deploy 25 paramedic practitioners to respond to and provide urgent care in the community. In addition, there is also funding to train 40 new MICA paramedics.

The Andrews Labor government supports aspiring and existing nurses. The last few years have reinforced their importance to us all. I applaud the government enshrining nurse-to-patient ratios and making it free to study nursing in this state. I am further pleased to see funding for more nurses and midwives for resuscitation bays, maternity night shifts, intensive care units, high-dependency units, coronary care units and aged care residential in-reach facilities.

It is more than adult education being supported. The government continues to deliver on our transformational program to provide universal three-year-old kinder, and I know the minister is very excited about that as well. In addition, there is funding to create 10 new bilingual kindergartens and eight new toy libraries and to establish an extra 150 extra bush kinder programs each year. The fact is that this government is investing in the future of our state and delivering what matters. In my last few seconds I will say that I do not support this motion.

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (14:46): I am very pleased to be able to rise and speak to Mr Mulholland’s motion because this goes to a very significant issue that the state is facing, and that is our economic situation. What we hear from government MPs the entire time is just the trotting out of the spin lines and all of the rubbish that keeps coming out of this government, but the reality is that this state is in deep, deep financial trouble: $171 billion in debt with $10 million being paid in interest each and every day, rising to over $22 million in just a couple of years time. Those people on the other side keep saying there is free this and free that – nothing is free. The taxpayer pays for it. For goodness sake, stop putting out that everything is free and that you are getting on and doing this because that is what is helping Victorians. Every Victorian is going to pay for the fiscal mismanagement undertaken by the worst Premier this state has ever had and the irresponsible ministers and the backbench that form this government.

There is no doubt at all that this budget is confirmation of an abject economic failure and mismanagement. It is astounding the numbers that keep coming out of government – the projections. Yet, as Mr Mulholland said, where is the narrowing of the staff within the Premier’s office, the spin doctors that keep going out there and telling Victorians absolute rubbish? At some point you must take responsibility for the ongoing economic failures and mismanagement of this state. Stop blaming COVID, stop blaming the RBA, stop blaming the former federal government. It is pathetic.

This government was running up massive debt before COVID. Look at the figures. Go and look at the budget figures. Go and look at the performance figures in health – they will tell you. Look at what we are getting. We are no better off – it is getting worse. The outcomes are getting worse despite the waste and mismanagement, and we know where that is happening – it is in these massive infrastructure projects, over $30 billion.

Nicholas McGowan: It is disgraceful.

Georgie CROZIER: It is disgraceful, Mr McGowan, utterly disgraceful and an abuse of taxpayers money, and we have seen this week the rorting that has occurred throughout these projects. Where is the accountability, where is the responsibility from the government? It is nowhere. We saw it through COVID: nobody took responsibility for the hundreds of Victorians that died because of the decisions made by your government.

Renee Heath: Shame.

Georgie CROZIER: Absolutely shameful. We had the Coate inquiry – the farcical Coate inquiry, where no-one could recall or remember – and yet you have the audacity to blame COVID for this rising debt that we are going to be saddled with. It is not us. It is our children and our grandchildren that are going to be saddled with this debt. At some point you must realise this, government, or are you so blind, are you so hopelessly inadequate with any understanding of prudent fiscal management ‍–

Michael Galea interjected.

Georgie CROZIER: Mr Galea, I think that is –

Bev McArthur: You can’t just keep blaming COVID.

Georgie CROZIER: You blame COVID for everything. You blame COVID for the elective surgery waitlist. Well, they were at record numbers prior to COVID – fact. You say you want the facts; there are the facts. You say that you are delivering for all Victorians, but you are not; you are divisive. We have seen that with the schools tax and with the land tax – all of these taxes that are going to flow on. Confidence is going to sap from this state – it is. How many times have I gone out in the last week and spoken to people who are seriously worried? They are worried about their kids’ futures. They are worried about whether they will be able to get jobs. This state government does not create productivity, it just spends.

You do not get it. We need innovation. We need entrepreneurship. We need confidence in this state to bring industry back, not drive it out, because the taxes being put on business are enormous. The taxes being put on schools that have never had these taxes applied before are going to flow through to those hardworking parents and hardworking Victorians. They are not elite. They are not sitting on a clifftop like the member from Kororoit does on the weekend or in the penthouse in my electorate of Southern Metro in the Capitol building. She does not even live in her electorate. No, we are not talking about those elite people. We are talking about mums and dads, Victorians, who have worked so hard, sometimes in two jobs, to put their kids through what they see as a better education system. Look at the literacy, look at our standards in education – they are falling. They are appalling here in Victoria. The shadow pandemic, the mental ill health of our children, is because of what has happened in this state because of your government, your MPs and your Premier’s decisions. Shutting down schools was not a federal government decision; that was a local state government decision, and it was an appalling decision that is going to impact our children for years to come.

You cannot hide from the facts. This Premier, who is so autocratic in style, who wields so much power, who you are all just puppets to – he pulls the strings.

Members interjecting.

Georgie CROZIER: You are. He is so autocratic, you do not have any say. We heard that from former ministers Hennessy and Mikakos just the other day. The tentacles go everywhere from the Premier’s private office. They go right into every agency. They go everywhere in this state. This state is corrupt. It is broke.

A member: In their speeches.

Georgie CROZIER: It is everywhere – in their speeches, in their talking points. This motion is incredibly important, because it actually spells out why we are in so much trouble and why Victoria is really going to struggle. You cannot just keep taxing your way out of this debt. As Mr Mulholland said, there are almost 50 taxes. Daniel Andrews looked down the camera to Channel 7 reporter Peter Mitchell and said, ‘I give you my word, no more taxes,’ or words to that effect. That is what he said on the eve of the 2014 election: ‘No more taxes.’ We have had nearly 50 new or increased taxes, so you cannot believe a word Daniel Andrews says. We saw through COVID how it played out with many of those decisions. And the Treasurer says nothing. He stands by it; he is one of the puppets that I am talking about. Andrews is so autocratic.

Members interjecting.

Georgie CROZIER: Well, Ms Stitt, you may laugh.

Ingrid Stitt: I’m just laughing at how ludicrous you are. How did it go for you in November?

Georgie CROZIER: It is not ludicrous – $171 billion in debt. There is no accountability. This debt is bigger than that of New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania combined, and it is rising – $10 million a day in interest. And you are blaming everybody else but yourselves because of the mismanagement and the incompetence – the gross incompetence.

Ingrid Stitt: We’re getting on with it.

Georgie CROZIER: No, you are not getting on with it. You are actually sending the state broke, and that is the problem. You keep talking about free kinder, and you do not get it. The taxpayer pays for it, Ms Stitt. It is not free; somebody has to pay for it.

Ingrid Stitt interjected.

Georgie CROZIER: You are laughing. It is the mums and dads who are working hard and who are paying their taxes. It is the small business –

Ingrid Stitt: It’s about priorities.

Georgie CROZIER: Yes, priorities. Your priority is to spend, spend, spend without any accountability. The mums and dads who are working hard, who are paying their taxes and who expect better services are not getting them. They are not getting better health services. You cannot even get a hospital bed in this state, and you cannot get an ambulance when you need one. Children’s literacy standards are falling. Job confidence and business confidence are declining. Look at all the stakeholders – the Property Council, the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Victorian Farmers Federation, CPA Australia, Independent Schools Victoria and the Business Council of Australia. All of these stakeholders have said this budget is appalling. It is bad for Victoria. It is bad for Victoria’s future, and it is simply shocking that those opposite can mock the situation we are in and have no regard for what the taxpayer is trying to do – get ahead. All they are wanting to do is try and get ahead, yet you are taxing them into oblivion. It is clear that life is getting harder under the Andrews government, and Victorians are being punished for Labor’s incompetence. I urge all in this house to support this motion.

John BERGER (Southern Metropolitan) (14:56): Today I rise to speak on the motion on the budget from a colleague opposite, Mr Mulholland. In making this speech, I rise to say that I know a little bit about family budgets. In fact I am a renter, Mr Mulholland. Did you hear me? I am a renter, and as a father of six, I know a little bit about what you need to do to make ends meet. I also know how important it is that our economy bounces back from one of the most financially uncertain times in recent history.

I was proud last week to visit some of my local organisations, schools, not-for-profits and more. The motion says the budget means that Victorians are being punished. This budget means that we will honour our election commitments and deliver on them, and that is what I did for four organisations that I visited last Tuesday. Last week I had the privilege of attending four deserving organisations to let them know some good news.

First I visited the Camberwell Primary School, where I met Principal Gale, school council president Stuart Lindsay and parents association president Christina Woods to let them know that we are kickstarting planning on upgrades to their fantastic school. Then I visited Vision Australia, where I announced we will provide a $60,000 grant to help them continue delivering key information to our community. After that I met with Suzie from the Water Well Project. I was proud to announce that we were giving them $100,000 to support the health and wellbeing of the migrant, refugee and asylum seeker communities. Finally, I visited the amazing team at Port Phillip Community Group to confirm that we will be committing to our election commitment of $55,000 to support their efforts – promises made, promises kept.

This budget is sensitive to the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. This budget is a very typically Labor budget – one that sticks to our values, one that does the fair thing and the right thing. It addresses the key areas of government work and funding, the fundamentals that change lives: development and infrastructure, health and education. But there has also been one overarching theme in the budget – mitigating the cost-of-living crisis. When times are tough we need a budget that is compassionate but considered, and that is exactly what this budget is. We are in a hard place right now – everyone is. The cost-of-living crisis is not localised just to Melbourne. Belts everywhere must get pulled in and get a lot tighter.

Before the pandemic, we were faced with a very different climate. Economic growth and employment were particularly strong, averaging 3.3 per cent and 2.9 per cent a year respectively over the five years to 2018–19 – the highest of all states. The unemployment rate had fallen to a 10-year low of 4.6 per cent in 2018–19. The Victorian economy was experiencing an extended period of strong jobs growth, with over 468,000 new jobs created between November 2014 and March 2020 – more than any other state or territory. We were leading the nation. This does not mean that we will turn our backs on the people that need help through this most tough time. This does not mean that we can bury our heads in the sand but that we face the reality. I am committed to ensuring that hardworking families – those families that are doing the hard work, the right thing – are rewarded.

Education is one of the most important things the government can invest in, and it is a massive investment to support families. Education can make the difference between having opportunities and being left in the dark. It opens doors. The Andrews Labor government believes in committing to ensure that our education system offers students across the state pathways to a future they want. This encompasses all levels of education, and we are investing in every level of education from kinder to tertiary education. This budget follows through on the commitments that were made in last year’s budget and promises we made to the Victorian people in the 2022 state election.

One of those commitments is the ongoing funding of the free kinder program. All young Victorians deserve to have a leg-up, and free education, free kinder, is exactly how. The government knows this. With free kinder, families of all backgrounds will be able to access much-needed child care.

We are also transforming our specialist schools, with a $235 million package for specialist schools in Victoria to enable them to deliver services better fit for students living with a disability. I visited Belmore School the other day, where a lot of students are disabled, and the facility that is being built there at the moment for those young kids is going to set them up well for the future. We look forward to seeing that building when it is complete. I will speak a bit more about that facility later on today.

Students living with a disability and their families often feel like the system is set up for their failure, and this is not good enough. Our systems should be established to support these people they cater to, and with over $200 million our state’s education system will be moving closer to a fairer, more inclusive model. I know this firsthand, having visited the Belmore School – a school that helps those in need, a school that works with those with the most complex issues, both physical and mental.

The Andrews Labor government is also pulling schools into the future by funding more energy-efficient schools. Schools deserve to be aligned with the future, so it is important that we address emissions from them. I am proud to be part of a government that believes in building our schools up rather than shutting them down. In my electorate of Southern Metro I was proud to announce last week that we will be supporting the planning process for upgrades to Camberwell Primary School, and there are countless other schools across the state also benefiting from the Andrews Labor government’s budget.

But we know that this must all be paid for. That is why the COVID debt repayment plan will balance the necessary public spending with the appropriate fiscal restraint. That is why our budget is being implemented in a fair way, a balanced way. Revenue measures are aligned to the size of businesses by payroll, to the land owned by commercial, industrial and other investors. We will not compromise our economic growth and we will not compromise our prosperity. It is vital that households and small businesses continue to be supported to drive our economy. Their role in the economy and jobs growth is critical and will remain so as the economy navigates global challenges of high inflation and rising interest rates. That is why we are investing in households.

A responsible government recognises that it is important to invest in health and support families. It means greater outcomes for all Victorians. There are a couple of key areas that we are really focusing on in this budget. Women’s health is a key issue in this budget. We believe that all Victorians’ health issues should be taken very seriously, regardless of sex or gender. That is why we are funding $65 million for 10,800 additional laparoscopies to treat debilitating endometriosis, which affects one in every nine girls and women.

We also recognise the unique struggles that First Nations women face, which is why we have set aside $58 million for 20 new women’s health clinics and a dedicated Aboriginal-led women’s clinic. This will help overcome some of the barriers to treatment that women face, such as costs, confidentiality, geographical location of services and cultural and communication differences. Additionally, $12 million is going into research initiatives that will directly benefit women’s health, such as an inquiry into women’s pain management and early work to establish a women’s health research institute. I am proud to say that this involves clinics and health providers across my great electorate of Southern Metro, with part of the funding that is going to improve women’s health going to the Monash Medical Centre in Clayton and to the Alfred hospital on St Kilda Road.

We are also working hard to establish mental health clinics across the state, especially in Southern Metro, with one of them popping up in St Kilda and one in Malvern. We are funding the planning of these mental health and wellbeing centres as part of the $95.7 million package to address mental health in Victoria.

There is much concern over the repayment of our COVID debt. As our Treasurer explained last Tuesday, the Andrews Labor government heeded advice and borrowed money to financially protect vulnerable Victorians. Ask any economist and they will tell you there is good debt and there is bad debt. Good debt is the kind that we have got. It is the debt you get from building for the future for the people of Victoria, and it is the kind of debt that turns into something meaningful. It is an investment, but it is time we started paying it back.

It is the work of the Andrews Labor government that is pulling this state into the future, and this budget just confirms that. That is why there will be a range of savings and efficiencies implemented across government, totalling $2.1 billion over four years. This includes reductions in corporate and back-office functions, reductions in labour hire and consultancy expenditures and efficiencies across public non-financial corporations and public financial corporations. These savings are designed to make government more efficient while maintaining frontline services. This budget does what a budget should – support the people of Victoria. We are addressing the debt we accrued over COVID without harming Victorians, and we continue to do what matters. We are doing what matters to bring back the SEC, doing what matters in health and education and doing what matters for Victoria.

Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (15:06): I also rise today to speak to this motion that has been proposed by my colleague Evan Mulholland. I think it is fantastic that we are paying attention to what this budget is actually doing. The 2023–24 Victorian budget handed down by Labor is going to inflict further economic damage on Victorians for many years to come, and we happen to know that the debt that we already have is bigger than three states – New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania. All of their debts put together are not as big as the Victorian debt. That is a major failing of this government, and we cannot blame all of that on COVID. Even if we do, we have to think about the fact that we were the most locked down city in the world. That did not help our economy at all. We also have to look at point (2) that he has in the motion:

that Victoria’s debt is set to reach $171 billion by 2026 and interest repayments will double to $22 million per day …

That kind of rising debt being left to my children and my children’s children is just unacceptable. It is no wonder that so many people are leaving Victoria and moving to other states – and have already left Victoria. If we think that this is not going to hurt businesses further, then we are just kidding ourselves. I can tell you that in the south-east right now we have so many empty shops. You only have to drive down the main street and into the central shopping areas of Frankston and you will see many shops that have been vacant for a very long period of time. Go to Mordialloc, go to Carrum or go somewhere up near Fountain Gate and you will find empty shops. People’s businesses have gone broke, and they are not even able to get tenants in these places. Meanwhile renters are competing for places to live in, and they are going to continue to struggle.

This budget is a horror budget. It is going to hurt aspiring Victorians, and it will punish them and make their efforts as they struggle to get ahead more punitive. The budget sets up the 555,544 people in the South-Eastern Metropolitan Region with taxes that are going to make them worse off. I can start by talking about an area that is actually in my electorate in Dandenong. Locally I am really disappointed that the promised $295 million upgrade of Dandenong Hospital announced in October last year has been significantly underfunded. This is a hospital that actually reaches out to many sectors of the community and many different multicultural groups, and yet what has happened in a safe Labor seat? It has been underfunded. What a surprise. Labor’s financial mismanagement of the health system means that Greater Dandenong patients are not getting the health services that they need or that they deserve. In fact elective surgery waitlists remain high and ambulance response times continue to cost lives.

I am a former teacher. I value education, but there will be a cost to local families and children because of Labor’s new schools tax. Schools in the south-east may be affected, and I am going to include schools that are in neighbouring areas and regions which people from the south-east do travel to. Let me just give you a little bit of a run-down of some of the schools in the south-east that may be affected by this payroll tax change for schools: Haileybury college, St Margaret’s, Mentone Grammar and Mentone Girls Grammar, Woodleigh School, Huntingtower School, the Knox School, Beaconhills College, Waverley Christian College, Maranatha Christian School, Hillcrest Christian College, Lakeside College, Casey Grammar School, Mazenod College, Chairo Christian School, St Bede’s College and Heatherton Christian College. It may also eventually impact schools like Belgrave Heights Christian School, Lighthouse Christian College, Kilbreda College, Heritage College, John Paul College, Nazareth College, St Peter’s College, St Francis Xavier College, St John’s Regional College, Bayside Christian College, Minaret College, Killester College and Cranbourne college.

I am just putting out a few names for you to consider of schools that could end up in an area where people are already struggling to pay their bills, already struggling with the rising cost of living and will now have to fork out more for education. Why do they have to send their kids to these schools? It is because some of the government schools are either overcrowded or not sufficiently funded and do not have the resources they need, or they are not happy with the curriculum and the options that are offered to their kids. So what? We are going to hurt them in the south-east where people need the most support. Isn’t that typical. Because nine of those 11 seats happen to be Labor seats, the government is really looking after their own here.

If we consider Dandenong’s vulnerable communities, they are also going to be hard hit with higher rents because of Labor’s new property taxes, and $100 million will be cut from vital health programs that many rely on.

Since 2014 Daniel Andrews has introduced more than 20 new or increased property taxes, and each hike has made home ownership more out of reach for Victorians. He has now introduced what we would like to call the renters tax, because new taxes on home owners will ultimately be passed on to the people who already are struggling in the rental market.

This ongoing mismanagement of Victoria’s residential building sector is further restricting the supply of homes. Let us consider Porter Davis, for instance. This was a significant builder around Berwick, Clyde, Cranbourne, Sandhurst and Pakenham, and now it is gone. And what about Rawdon Hill builders? What is going on in our state that the lucrative building industry is now buckling under the pressure caused by the Andrews government bowing down to the impossible to compete with terms and pay conditions of the union–government building projects. It is absolutely impossible for some of our tradies to get ahead with their businesses when they are self-employed. People do not want to work for them because they cannot afford to compete with government projects and all of their workers are wanting to leave and go and work in government projects where they are being paid phenomenal amounts of money to do the same job. It is simply not sustainable. If we want to look at what is going wrong with our debt, let us take a look right there, because that is a major problem where we have cost blowouts. This is just one of the major issues.

What does that do to our younger Victorians who are trying to save and sacrifice, and many of them have done this for years. They deserve a fair shot at making their dreams of home ownership come true. Many of them are now struggling in the rental market, which has become more and more competitive and is going to become more difficult as homeowners have to pass on those costs to the rental market.

This budget has provided shocking taxes on those who are struggling and striving to get ahead. Where is Daniel Andrews’s commitment to supporting young Victorians’ dreams of home ownership? Where is Daniel Andrews’s commitment to supporting those who are going to be renting as we see the prices are only going to go up? Let us take a look at things like the TAC. The TAC is constantly having $3 billion taken out of it – it is being used as a cash cow – and distributed amongst other areas. How is that good management? If we were actually caring about what happens on our roads, with our traffic and with our accident prevention, we would be considering how we use that money in the budget. This is just appalling, the way it is being done.

Let us take something like emergency services. Do you know they did not even provide the costings for the 000 emergency service? In fact the costings for telecommunications were not provided, and we are still concerned about response times. Dispatch and response times have not been provided, overall expenditure for emergency services has gone down, CFA volunteer numbers are dropping and we are not hitting those recruitment targets. In fact if we look at back-burning measures, they have also been omitted due to being discontinued in their current form – so they say. The list just goes on.

I will take one more area of my portfolio, WorkCover. Well, everybody knows that we are now looking at a 42 per cent increase on premiums. This government has just got to be kidding. And do you know what, there are hints that that is not where it is going to stop. Have you any idea what that is going to do to businesses? If you hit WorkCover premiums, that is actually going to run more businesses into the ground – more empty shops, more people leaving Victoria, less taxes and less money in the system, because you are not stimulating the economy with a budget like this.

So how are we going to get ahead? Well, all I can say is that I am going to be supporting this motion, because it is an absolute disgrace to have budget blowouts of $30 billion on major infrastructure projects. It is an absolute disgrace to be taxing payroll for teachers. Schools are going to have to make tough decisions in their curriculum and the way they set up their schools – what they put their money towards – because they will have to find that money to pay for it all. That means what? Less excursions, less hands-on learning, less camps – (Time expired)

Jacinta ERMACORA (Western Victoria) (15:17): I am pleased to speak on the motion brought by those opposite, which does not aim to do anything productive. It is merely framed to unfairly critique the government on what has been a once-in-a-generation fiscal event. The aim of this budget is to follow through on election commitments and to do the responsible thing and put in place a plan to pay off the COVID portion of the state’s debt, which after all is the non-productive portion. Without a plan and some tough decisions in place, it will not be paid off.

The main mechanism in this budget is to ensure that the COVID debt is paid off via the introduction of a temporary and targeted levy. This levy is targeted to those who are most able to pay. Not everyone did poorly during COVID; in fact some businesses were able to achieve significant increases in profits, and certainly property owners have experienced significant increases in value over the last four years. Certainly I could give one example with the federal JobKeeper: Harvey Norman was a very well known example of doing extremely well out of COVID.

I congratulate the Treasurer Tim Pallas on taking the tough decisions to pay this debt off. It is never easy to take responsibility, but that is exactly what this government is doing. Ensuring that the levy is targeted at those who have multiple homes and those most able to pay is the fair thing to do in the current cost-of-living environment. This government is not shying away from keeping Victorians safe during the pandemic, because COVID-19 did have a real and profound impact on Victorians, and the government has not sought to minimise that.

In 2020, while Victoria was in the midst of the pandemic, the government set a strategy to keep Victorians safe, and a part of this plan involved the government investing $44 billion to fund the extraordinary needs of the health system in response to COVID. We had vaccination centres. We had additional hospital wards. We had extraordinary amounts of PPE. We had ventilators. We also had the cost of the science involved in the invention of the vaccine, although that was a joint global effort. The government also acted to protect jobs and support vulnerable Victorians. We did not cut TAFE and education or sell off public housing. We spent money to keep people alive, knowing this was a once-in-a-lifetime event. An immediate priority was to save jobs. As Labor, we understand the importance of a low unemployment rate and fostering opportunities for people to enter the workforce. I stand here proudly stating that our pledge of creating 200,000 jobs at the end of 2022 was a raging success.

We cannot ignore the financial cost of the COVID pandemic, but we also cannot ignore that the COVID pandemic was a once-in-a-lifetime event. No government around the world was fully prepared to brace against the economic impact of COVID. So we did what we needed to do: we borrowed money to protect lives and support families, workers and businesses during the global pandemic, as most governments did around the world. We also used the money to help small business and tourism across our state. We provided just under $1 billion in payroll tax relief to businesses by providing refunds and waivers for small and medium-sized businesses. Our grants supported hospitality, entertainment, tourism businesses, non-essential local retail and other small businesses such as florists and garden suppliers.

This government has a plan to rectify this COVID debt. Unlike most governments, we have instituted a COVID debt repayment plan, which ensures we repay the COVID debt. This is in addition to the budget’s plans to keep its promises, boost jobs and grow the economy to return to an operating surplus by the 2025–26 financial year. The COVID debt repayment plan will balance the necessary public spending with appropriate fiscal restraint. The measures in this budget are being implemented in a balanced and fair way.

To comment on regional Victoria alone, which is where my electorate falls, the unemployment rate as of this month is 3.4 per cent. I must say this unemployment rate in regional Victoria is around half of what it was at the last change of government, in November 2014, when those opposite were in government. Overall, jobs have grown by more than 340,000 since September 2020, the worst point in the pandemic economic downturn. So there is no doubt that the Victorian government navigated the economic challenge of COVID successfully.

Turning to the motion’s claim that the budget will inflict damage on Victorians, I disagree with this proposition. More broadly, across the state the budget has focused on health, education, training and jobs because we recognise that, in order to maintain a strong economy, the work starts from the ground up in every community. This includes following through on our kinder reforms, renewable trade training and free TAFE.

In Western Victoria alone, I was thrilled last week to announce several budget initiatives that do the opposite of inflicting damage on Victorians; rather, they help them. South West TAFE in Warrnambool will benefit from a new tech school that will provide school students in the district with opportunities to explore cutting-edge and emerging technologies to see what prompts their interest in a career. Some of the learning areas include robotics, automation, coding, AI, drone technology and other emerging technologies, including STEM. South West TAFE are also receiving a new building innovation and design centre, including a large trades workshop with specialist equipment for initiatives like green plumbing, solar and battery electrical systems, sustainable integrated building designs and new construction technologies, boosting Victoria’s already growing renewable economy.

Then there has been a strong focus on providing women with the health services they need. In my contribution yesterday I mentioned how the augmented comprehensive women’s health clinic in Warrnambool is already changing the way women’s health issues are treated, providing care and support for conditions like endometriosis, pelvic pain, polycystic ovary syndrome, perimenopause and menopause.

I also mentioned Warrnambool Base Hospital and the PET machine. That scanner will provide cardiovascular diagnoses, cancer diagnoses and neurological disease diagnoses closer to home for country people. These periods of time are extremely stressful, and to have a PET scanner in Warrnambool will mean that many people do not have to travel anywhere near the distance they had to previously.

The budget also awarded $5 million worth of upgrades to Our Lady Help of Christians Primary School in Warrnambool. This is going to involve six brand new classrooms, because the school is growing. An additional $100,000 has been awarded to the Warrnambool Community Garden, who have been including the community across Warrnambool in a gardening experience that is educational, demonstrating sustainable gardening and healthy eating. And $1.25 million has been awarded to upgrade facilities at the Portland Gymnastics Club. The Portland gymnastics facilities are too small. In actual practicality the roof is too low, and when some of the senior gymnasts spin around on – whatever it is, I am not sure what the –

Tom McIntosh: The bars.

Jacinta ERMACORA: the bars, yes, they have to bend their knees in order to not hit the roof. You only need to walk in there to see that that money will be very well spent on a club with 200 members in a very much outer regional community.

And so the evidence is irrefutable: the government keeps its promises and Victorians can be assured that the government’s debt reduction strategy is fair, temporary and targeted.

Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (15:26): I rise to speak in support of Mr Mulholland’s motion, and it is probably clear where I am going to start. Since coming into government in 2014 the Labor government has waged war on regional jobs. First it was the power industry: with the closure of Hazelwood a thousand jobs were lost, and we were promised that those jobs would be replaced, yet we are still waiting. Now there is the native timber industry, and once again thousands and thousands of workers’ jobs are going to be lost and families will also be hurt due to that decision. Labor has no plan for the thousands of jobs they are ripping out of the community, and free TAFE just will not cut it; that is not a sustainable pathway from a full-time job or a career. Some of these people are from families that have worked in these industries for three generations, and that is the option they are faced with.

I have to say I find the time for an ideological decision like this so strange. The state does not have the money to compensate the communities, because the state is drowning in debt. I have said it many times in this place, but because of the $171 billion in debt that this government has racked up, we are paying $10 million per day in interest alone. May I remind you that there is no such thing as government money – there is taxpayer money, and it is the private sector that funds the public sector. So you would think that this government, which is funded by the community that it is meant to serve, would show the native timber industry a little bit more respect. We should not be shutting down industry, we should be encouraging it and we should be boosting industry, especially when we find ourselves in a financial crisis like we are in right now.

The regional development budget – and may I remind you the purpose of this budget is to ‘build prosperous and livable regions’; that is the purpose of this fund – has been cut in half. What an interesting time to cut this fund in half. The decision to make the native timber industry close will instantly make these regions less prosperous and it will make them less livable, and we can tell this because there are literally thousands and thousands of families that are going to have to move out of these regions. You cannot paralyse the private sector and then expect that the government can continue resourcing the jobs that they are meant to do – and some of these jobs are just bare minimum, like fixing potholes in roads. Our roads are in a terrible state of repair, they are not fit for purpose and we cannot fund that. Basic upgrades in schools: we cannot fund that at the moment because the state is broke. Healthcare infrastructure: our communities are growing yet our health infrastructure is not; it is paralysed, it has to stay the same, because we have no money to fund it.

Agricultural funding is down 34 per cent from last year, from $687.3 million to $454.8 million. I said before that this decision to close the native timber industry is not practical, it is ideological, and please allow me to share some facts to back this up. Ninety-four per cent of public native forest estate is locked up in parks, reserves and water catchments. Six per cent is available for timber production, and around 0.3 per cent of that area is harvested each year. That is four out of every 10,000 trees, and they are replanted. Our native forest resource is renewable. All areas that are harvested are replanted, and we know that only new growth can store new carbon. Timber products store carbon, and trees that replace them are removing more carbon from the atmosphere. Our native forest industry is environmentally and ecologically sustainable. Prior to harvesting, all of these areas are subject to preharvesting surveys to identify the presence of threatened species, both flora and fauna, and if they are found, the areas are set aside from harvesting. There has not been one species of animal that has become extinct because of timber harvesting in Victoria. But no-one talks about that, do they? Old growth has been set aside from harvesting for many years, and currently regrowth from the 1939 fires is what we are harvesting.

I will continue. The alternative to harvesting a small area of our native forest in Victoria is importing the same products from overseas from countries that do not have the same standards and may not be replanting or environmentally or ecologically sustainable. In my opinion, that is absolutely disgusting. What we are doing to the environment because of this decision is so hypocritical, because there has not been anything made extinct because of the native timber industry, and the impact of closing down our native forest industry will be felt most by communities in my area, like Gippsland, which are still recovering from the closure of other industries.

Recently I spoke about this, and I just want to return to it. One thousand jobs were lost with the closure of Hazelwood, 600 jobs will be lost with the closure of Loy Yang A, 200 jobs with the closure of Loy Yang B and 500 jobs with the closure of Yallourn, and we are getting a replacement of 200 to 400 jobs with the renewable energy project. I just think that is absolutely ridiculous. We are sick of excuses. After the delivery of this horror budget, the Labor government have tried to blame everybody but themselves. The Reserve Bank of Australia they have tried to blame. COVID they have tried to blame – and even the federal government. Economists have repeatedly rejected the poor excuse and have just labelled it financial incompetence, and I would have to agree.

When Labor runs out of money, they come after ours. They come after our communities, and they are paralysing the economy. Labor’s addiction to taxes is destroying this state, and it is at a time when Victorian families can least afford it. Under Labor you have higher energy bills, higher grocery bills, higher water bills, increased school fees and higher rents. My colleague in the other place the Shadow Treasurer Brad Rowswell put it perfectly. He said:

… I say to every Victorian: you deserve better. You deserve a government that backs you and delivers value for money with your hard-earned taxpayer dollars.

I completely agree with that. Under good government, people prosper. Under the Labor government, people suffer. Victoria is worse off under this budget, and Victorians are worse off under Labor.

I am just going to turn my attention quickly to health care. The state Labor government made over $4 billion worth of healthcare commitments in our state. We saw in this budget that what they have actually delivered is $320 million allocated across this whole budget, which to put it into perspective is 7.95 per cent of what they promised. That is unbelievable. If they could not afford it, why did they promise it? Health care in our region is vitally important, and I have spoken about this in recent weeks. Why is it so important? As our communities grow in the regions, the health infrastructure to support them must grow too. According to Pancare Foundation:

Evidence shows the further from a metropolitan centre a cancer patient lives, the more likely they are to die within five years of diagnosis.

This is just criminal. We need to be supporting healthcare infrastructure in our regions.

Tom McINTOSH (Eastern Victoria) (15:36): I am delighted to stand and be able to talk about the budget. However, I do so while opposing the motion that has been put forward by Mr Mulholland. I am delighted to talk about the election commitments that the government is delivering on, whether they are in schools and TAFE, infrastructure, health, what we are doing to support our community organisations, support with cost-of-living pressures, innovation or our sports clubs. I have a variety of investments the government is making across Eastern Victoria I want to speak to. But that gives you an understanding of the flavour of the investments that the government is making. I am absolutely proud we are doing so.

I want to start off by talking about schools and TAFE. There is so much to talk about, and I have got limited time – I understand I have only 5 minutes – so I am going to have to move quickly through this. We have got planning upgrades, which are absolutely massive for a number of schools across Eastern Victoria: Mount Eliza North Primary School, Eastbourne Primary School in Rosebud, Lakes Entrance Primary School, Paynesville Primary School and Leongatha Secondary College, not to forget $200,000 for a new playground at Rye Primary School. This is massive for the kids, for the families, for the local communities and for the future employers in these areas. Additionally, on the TAFE front there is $5 million for the clean energy centre at TAFE Gippsland. We know there are tens of billions of dollars of investment coming down the pipeline for offshore wind, and we want to make sure that we have the workers equipped to meet the massive demand that is coming to the region and to Victoria.

On infrastructure, there is $10 million to rebuild the Dromana Pier. I was there with community members just last week; we had a great turnout. There was howling wind and it was raining, but we had a really good time being there together, enjoying and celebrating what is going to be great for the area. That morning I also met Minister Kilkenny at the Schnapper Point boat ramp in Mornington, with another $1.6 million for that. These investments are not only great for locals but it is great for all Victorians to be able to get out and enjoy the beautiful coast that is there off those piers and jetties.

There is $3.2 million for a new CFA station in Yarram, and I can tell you that there has already been great feedback from the community that that investment is coming. Perhaps Acting President McArthur might like to join me and bring a skateboard down and get around this one: Dromana is getting $1 million for a new skate park, which I am sure will be very much appreciated by our youth in Dromana. I look forward to celebrating that with them. Additionally, there is $500,000 to upgrade the Capel Sound foreshore reserve campground. We know how busy it is on the peninsula come holiday time, with campers and people enjoying the foreshore, so this will be a very welcome investment.

With health I want to start off talking about the $70 million that is allocated for Maffra for the upgrade to aged care at the Maffra Hospital. This is huge for the town. We have made other investments in the town, whether that be through the local gymnasium, which is absolutely booming, or whether that be with the Maffco Brewery that I spoke about in my members statement this morning. But this is another huge, huge investment for Maffra: $70 million. There is the West Gippsland Hospital, the new comprehensive women’s health clinic at Frankston Hospital and Latrobe regional hospital – massive, massive investments. I also want to raise the new mental health and wellbeing local in Leongatha and planning for a new mental health and wellbeing local in Sale, which are going to be incredibly valuable assets to the community.

Some of the smaller grants, which I do not think we can overlook the value of, are: $100,000 for Olivia’s Place to support families in Gippsland; $100,000 to Kaitlyn’s Kitchen in Orbost; $100,000 to Rosedale Neighbourhood House; $50,000 to Leongatha Community House; $50,000 for Southern Peninsula Community Support based in Rosebud, who do an incredible job supporting the community and particularly supporting those in hardship; $50,000 for Fusion youth support on the Mornington Peninsula, who also do incredible work supporting some of our youth in the most disadvantaged positions, supporting them in accommodation and within their lives; and $30,000 for Peninsula Home Hospice for specialist palliative care. I dropped in there the other day, and they are a beautiful bunch of people doing incredible work helping people at the end of their lives. They are not helping just those people but also the community, loved ones and families.

I also want to talk about the free rego for trade apprentices. I was an apprentice, and this is a fantastic initiative. When you have got to use your own car to get to and from work and take your tools, there can be heavy loads. It is sensational.

In innovation, there is $250,000 for Victoria’s first Indigenous-run oyster farm at Lakes Entrance, and I am very much looking forward to getting down there and having some of those oysters. And for sport, there is $800,000 at Lakes Entrance for the indoor sporting facility, $400,000 for netball upgrades at Buchan Football Netball Club, $350,000 towards a pump track extension at Lions Park in Sale, $150,000 for upgrades at the Bairnsdale Clay Target Club and $120,000 for equipment upgrades for the Mallacoota gymnastics club.

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (15:42): I would like to say thank you for the contributions given to this debate, particularly by my colleagues – especially Ms Crozier, who I think made some insightful points about how when Labor says that something is free, every Victorian should be worried, because while it might be free for them, free for them is actually opening up the wallet of hardworking Victorians and taking their money for their own personal preferences. I want to thank other colleagues as well: Dr Heath, who spoke passionately about the timber industry and jobs in her electorate that have been lost – the government promised retraining, but they have not come to the table really on that – and also my colleague member for South-Eastern Metropolitan Region Mrs Hermans, who is just the exact kind of advocate the people in the south-east have been crying out for, because they are certainly not getting representation from their local Labor members of Parliament.

One thing that a lot of colleagues on the other side of the chamber were quick to point out is that this is just COVID debt. This is just COVID debt we are dealing with, and they want to forget the fact that almost as high as the COVID debt, which is just over $30 billion, there is $30 billion of infrastructure waste and blowouts. But let us have a look at what they defined as COVID debt. ‘What was COVID debt?’ one would ask. Let us have a look at some of the things they spent on, like the zero emissions vehicle subsidy, which was part of their COVID spending. Electric cars were subsidised at $3000 a car starting 1 July 2021 during the pandemic. Almost everyone buying a new electric vehicle is on a high income. Who else can afford $70,000 for a sedan? Labor wants to talk about their COVID debt and COVID spending, but this is upper-middle-class welfare.

Tom McIntosh interjected.

Evan MULHOLLAND: I very much doubt that many of those in the Eastern Victoria Region, which Mr McIntosh represents, can afford a $70,000 vehicle, which the government was subsidising through its COVID spending that it now has to repay.

What else was there? There was also the $15 billion sponsorship of Netball Australia. There is another COVID spending the government has to recoup out of the wallets of hardworking Victorians. Let us see: we saw a job advertisement for a manager of inclusion and diversity at the Suburban Rail Loop Authority on a salary of up to $238,000 – that might be part of the 10 per cent cut they are wanting to recoup from the public service! – and we saw a $96 million package, including $1.5 million to give each school-age child a fishing rod. This is the kind of COVID spending that members opposite –

A member: But didn’t they ban fishing for a while? You couldn’t go fishing.

Evan MULHOLLAND: Exactly. So they want to talk about it like it is COVID debt, but we are seeing spending they wrapped up in COVID debt. They want the Victorian people to think that this COVID debt was all in keeping people safe during lockdown or it was all going into vaccines, but it was actually a slush fund for fishing rods, for electric vehicles, for high-end salaries for suburban rail loop authorities, and they want to cover it literally with the mask of COVID by saying, ‘This is just COVID spending,’ even though they know that the debt trajectory prior to COVID was just as bad. The government could not say no to a single project. They have not had any sort of fiscal constraint since they came to government. They did not learn the lessons of the Cain and Kirner era of big spending, and now they have got Victoria into an even worse position fiscally, so they should be condemned for this budget and the house should support this motion.

Motion agreed to.