Thursday, 21 March 2024

Government integrity

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (09:47): Government has enormous privilege when making decisions on every Victorian’s behalf. Some of those decisions will not always be the right ones, especially when they impact every single Victorian. Yesterday’s Victorian Auditor-General’s Office report highlighted the appalling reality of what we all knew – that in the cancelling of the Commonwealth Games, the Auditor-General said, the cost was overstated. In effect the government lied, and today we hear that our gas supplies will run out faster than forecast, with extreme risks of outages. How does that give confidence to any business wanting to set up business or to continue to invest in Victoria – let alone the impacts to Victorian households as they watch their electricity bills skyrocket. Again today we hear more stories of corruption, dodgy deals and the standover tactics done on the government’s Big Build. Not only is the extent of corruption morally wrong, it is sending the state broke. Crime statistics are out today. Aggravated burglaries are at record highs. I know that; I am a victim of one of those, so I am in the latest stats. Quite simply our personal and financial security are at risk, and yet this government turns a blind eye to all that is wrong.

We are paying $15 million a day in interest alone. Think about that. That is $105 million a week or $420 million per month. That is nearly half a billion dollars in interest alone that we are paying each month, and that is going to rise in two years time to climb to $24.1 million a day. That is staggering and it is reckless. That can pay for a lot that is needed, yet it will not. Instead, services are being cut, jobs are being lost, businesses are closing and confidence is being zapped. Labor said they could do it all; they cannot. The Premier and her government have conned Victorians again. Taxing our way out of this mess is not the answer. Tim Pallas needs to rule out raising any more new taxes in the upcoming budget.