Thursday, 18 April 2024

Cost of living

Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (17:12): (826) The action I am seeking from the Treasurer is for him to ensure that regional communities receive cost-of-living support in the upcoming budget. Last year the Victorian Greens cost-of-living survey painted a heartbreaking picture of profound distress right across regional Victoria. Regional Victorians told us how they are struggling to afford their rent, bills, food and health care. They told us about the negative impact this is having on their mental health due to constant worry about paying rent and bills. Many told us of impossible decisions, choosing between putting a roof over their heads, putting food on the table or accessing health care for themselves or their families.

While these are common experiences across Victoria right now, in regional communities this is often compounded by distance and isolation, higher travel costs, smaller rental and housing markets, limited choices in supermarkets and healthcare providers and a lack of access to child care and other support services. Regional inequality has been on display recently in evidence presented to the education inquiry. Teachers have described the reality for many students at regional public schools who are up against it before they even arrive at the school gates, families living in tents and caravans with no cars to drive their kids to school and no alternative transport options, kids arriving without breakfast or lunch, no local food relief options and a lack of access to affordable paediatric and allied health care, which if they can access at all, they have to travel to Melbourne for.

These problems have not arisen overnight. They are the result of chronic underinvestment in public services and a failure of government regulation. When sharing their stories in our survey, people made it clear they want to see direct government action to stop unfair increases in rent, bills and food. The groundwork is being laid for an austerity budget, but that is a choice that government is making. Labor could instead choose to raise revenue by, for example, making big corporations like the banks, the gambling industry and property developers pay their fair share. They could choose to redirect government subsidies for fossil fuel and racing industries to services in regional areas like public housing, community health services, schools, childcare services and public transport. They could also choose to use regulation to make essentials more affordable for people, like regulating the supermarkets, preventing unlimited rent increases and regulating the short-stay industry to free up housing stock. Budgets are about priorities, and the upcoming budget will show what the Victorian Labor government is choosing to prioritise. I call on the Treasurer to choose to support cost-of-living relief for people in regional communities.