Thursday, 31 October 2024

Committees

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee

Report on the 2024‒25 Budget Estimates

Nick McGOWAN (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (09:36): Pursuant to section 35 of the Parliamentary Committees Act 2003, I table a report on the inquiry into the 2024–25 budget estimates, including an appendix and minority report, from the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee, and I present the transcripts of evidence. I move:

That the transcripts of evidence be tabled and the report be published.

Motion agreed to.

Nick McGOWAN: I move:

That the Council take note of the report.

I will pass this opportunity to the other committee members; they may wish to contribute.

Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (09:37): I will kick things off. I will begin with a thankyou to all the staff who put in a mountain of work preparing what ends up being a very, very long report. It has been a really enlightening process, being my first time on the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee and looking at the state budget. On behalf of my colleagues, our thoughts on the budget itself are quite well summarised in a lengthy minority report submission that can be found at the back of the document itself, so I will not go through all of that. I have instead prepared a poem to reminisce on the times that were PAEC this year:

At PAEC, we gathered to reflect,

On the budget we aim to inspect.

But with the government’s deck,

Our efforts they wreck,

And our questions they always deflect.

Sixty-one portfolios we reviewed,

Seventy-one hours, nothing accrued.

As the truth they elude,

Our inquiries subdued,

And the budget remains misconstrued.

I dubbed Outdoor Recreation’s role,

“The portfolio for killing animals” LOL.

An odd party trooper,

Called me a “grouper”,

Though its meaning eludes me in whole.

The budget could ease our plight,

As housing costs soar out of sight.

Rents at record highs,

Supermarkets we despise,

While big banks profit left and right.

The Greens aim to balance the scales,

With a chair not from government’s trails.

For transparency’s sake,

A stand we must take,

Ensuring accountability prevails.

Amend this process, we must,

Or we’re left in a state of distrust.

It’s time; spill the tea,

Set transparency free,

So the budget serves all of us.

The PRESIDENT: I am going to spend all of next week looking at previous rulings about original poetry and how I might be able to knock them out.

Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (09:39): I rise to give a far less interesting report on the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee’s budget estimates this year. I cannot compete with Mr Puglielli, so I will not even attempt to.

Budget estimates are a very important part of our parliamentary process and indeed the flagship part of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee. Along with Mr Puglielli, Mr McGowan and Mrs McArthur in this place, we did spend many days locked upstairs in the Legislative Council committee room, engaged in, as Mr Puglielli referenced, 61 ministerial portfolios across the range of government spending.

It is a very good opportunity to look at the budget. It is a budget that is delivering for all Victorians, especially those working Victorians who are doing it tough in these times of cost-of-living pressures. We saw most particularly of all the $400 school saving bonus, a bonus which is now already coming into play, from term 4 this year, and the impact that is having on Victorian families. It is one of many cost-saving measures being implemented in this year’s budget, which we had the opportunity to scrutinise and critique as part of our estimates process. As always this is a very thorough, very robust report, and I wish to thank the secretariat and Caroline Williams as well as all of the staff in PAEC for their tireless work to put this together for the committee. I indeed acknowledge as well members in the lower house, including our chair Sarah Connolly, who very effectively and efficiently guided us through what was a very long process.

I do encourage all members to read the report and, again, this is a very critical time for PAEC to be looking at the budget as we move to recover from the COVID-era debt but also, most importantly, to put Victorians at the heart of what we do, because there is no strong economy without strong Victorians.

Motion agreed to.