Wednesday, 13 August 2025

Opposition performance

Paul EDBROOKE (Frankston) (17:14): I grieve today for the future of young people in Victoria if the member for Brighton is in charge of the Treasury. But I do just want to make an exception now, because it would be remiss of me not to touch on a couple of things that the member opposite just spoke about. The first would be an optic that somehow the protests that we are seeing now are like the protests that Australia saw during the Vietnam War, where 550 Australians lost their lives fighting overseas in a different country. That is a very, very different concept to what we are seeing now. We could have a discussion about that – a very reasonable discussion about that, I think – and we might disagree, but I think that is a very long bow. The second question I would love to know the answer to is how many Gandels were put out by that protest the other day? When protesting about the Gandels and them supporting the NGV, how many Gandels were put out by that protest? What message did that send – or did it just scare children and put out a lot of families who were taking their kids to the gallery? What was achieved, that is what I want to know. I say that respectfully. I believe in the right to protest, but I am a little bit tired of sitting here and almost being blamed for not taking action about what is happening in Gaza. It is a rhetoric that continues in this place, and I think it is damaging. I do not think people in this house should have to put up with that. I digress.

The opposition have somehow managed to stand in between me and you, Deputy Speaker. They have managed to conjure up $8 billion worth of a black hole. Somehow this has gone under the radar for a lot of people, but there is no way in the world that they have a plan to pay for this $8 billion black hole. We know cuts are in the DNA of the Liberals, those economic illusionists that bring us this black hole. God help us if they win power and the Liberals get their hands on the levers of power again, because we will, as sure as sunrise, see cuts to Victorians all over again. I, and I think most people on this side of the house, believe that Victorians deserve leaders who know how to balance a budget. They deserve leaders that do not cut the heart out of a state and do not cut the services that make our state so livable. We also deserve, in my opinion, leaders who celebrate our successes, who acknowledge our strengths and who do not walk into this place every day shouting Victoria down, who do not grab the megaphone and say, ‘Victoria is failing’.

In the Shadow Treasurer’s budget reply we heard we were ‘the run-down state’, and that is a dubiously uneducated statement at best and vexatious at worst. What an absolute mistruth. Victoria’s economy is growing, and according to CommSec’s State of the States report the biggest annual growth rate in the nation belongs to Victoria. Further to that, we have jumped from seventh place to third of all the states in a sign of improvement in our underlying economic activity, and proof that the plan – the five point plan that we put in place – is actually working. On top of that, the labour market is up, employment is up, retail spending is up, Victoria’s population is growing, we lead the nation in construction work completed and, in the latest NAB business survey, Victorian business conditions are 8 points up and Victorian business confidence is 6 points up. To have the opposition, whether it is the Shadow Treasurer or other minions, coming in here peddling these mistruths, as I said, is uneducated at best but vexatious at worst. It is an optic that I think is incredibly damaging, because what it is saying is, ‘You should not have confidence in this economy. You should not have confidence in Victorians to get the jobs done.’

Most alarmingly, though, in that budget reply speech the Shadow Treasurer came out and said that they were going to cut five taxes. He did not come clean exactly on how they would cut these five taxes, but when you do the maths – when you get the calculator out and you hit the reality button – that creates an $8 billion deficit, which must be filled somehow. We cannot get the Shadow Treasurer to tell us how he is going to do that. He is as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs with that one – he will not tell us how he is actually going to fill that hole. They keep on coming in here and saying, ‘We’ve done the sums. We know.’ Well, I would love to see those sums. I would love to see the crayons that is written with, because there is no way you can take $8 billion worth of taxes and fill that spot without actually making cuts. We know the real question is what are they cutting, because at the moment it feels like the Liberal dad has said to his family, ‘We’re going to go on a cruise. We’re going to have a great holiday.’ But he has forgotten that he does not actually own a boat, he has not got a passport, he has not got a ticket and he has not got any money – that is where they are leading us. This is not just an obscure mistake; it is not anything but dodgy maths. This is also about a consistent pattern from the opposition that we have seen time and time again. They dream up these multibillion-dollar schemes without any funding plan, à la ‘We’re going to cut five taxes and we will review 61 taxes further to that,’ because that is what they said. They hope nobody asks the hard questions, and when they do, they just blame the government.

This $8 billion black hole – you cannot find anywhere in their media releases how they are going to balance this budget after cutting those taxes. This is not loose change; you do not find this down the couch cushion – this is $8 billion. You do not need an economist to find this black hole, you need a miner – it is that big. That $8 billion would pay for every teacher’s pay in Victoria for a year. It would also pay for every nurse’s pay for a year, and then we would still have enough left over to pay for the entire ambulance service for a year. That is how much $8 billion is. When you talk about that $8 billion hole and when you come out and you say, ‘We’re going to cut five taxes, and on top of that we’re going to review 65 more,’ what you are really saying and what you are effectively announcing to Victorians is that you are going to cut services that they need. ‘We are going to cut services’ is what they are saying. There is no such thing as an accounting error or a rounding error this big.

I think the opposition’s economic strategy in a nutshell is hope. They hope that people do not look into this. They hope that people do not have a calculator. They hope people do not find out the truth. Past performance is the best indicator of future performance – we know that. Under the previous Liberal government of Victoria, or previous governments, we know they cut $1 billion from the health system and they went to war with nurses and paramedics. They cut more than $1 billion from our education system and left our kids and our teachers behind. They made the biggest cuts to TAFE in Victoria’s history, sacking staff and shutting campuses in the middle of a jobs crisis. They cut $130 million from Victoria Police and $66 million from fire services. They also cut first home buyer grants and made it harder for young people to get into their first home. If they won government, they would have to cut all those things again and more to fill that $8 billion budget deficit – as well as that 65 taxes review. That is another statement that seems to have slipped past the wicketkeeper. What they are really saying is, ‘Who do we cut and what do we cut first?’ That is the question I ask people in the chamber today. Is it nurses, who care for our loved ones – are they the ones who are cut? Is it teachers that shape our children’s futures, who shape our future, who shape our future leaders – are they copping the cuts? Is it the workers who keep our communities safe – are they getting cut?

We do know also that those opposite have said that they will abolish the SEC. They have actually said, ‘The SEC is gone if we win.’ The SEC, the State Electricity Commission reboot, drives down power bills and is building publicly owned renewable energy for Victorians. Previously it was sold off by the Liberals in 1990, but we are bringing it back, and that means jobs and it means cheaper power. They are going to cut it. We know that the Suburban Rail Loop, a traffic congestion cutting transformative project to our public transport system, will deliver more transport, more homes and more jobs. We have already got it on the record that the Liberals will be cutting this congestion-busting project. If they are in charge, it will be the Shadow Treasurer who actually does it. That means jobs gone and huge projects gone from our pipeline of projects.

I think this is consistent with what we know, though. Those of us who have been around for a little while know that there were these pipedream kinds of commitments to 55 intersections to be taken away during, I think, the 2018 election. I am not sure where that came from; I am not sure how it made sense. No-one voted for it. It disappeared very quickly. We had nuclear, which was a laughing matter in this chamber for some time until the former federal leader came out and said, ‘It is reality; we will be spending money on nuclear energy, and this is where it’s going to go – $60 billion worth.’ It does not add up, but economically that is what they said they were going to do. We should be worried.

The opposition like to say that they are fiscally responsible, but it is a little bit like saying a child is fiscally responsible or financially prudent because they have got a credit card that they have not maxed out yet. This $8 billion is not a rounding error, and it reminds me of a mate I used to have who had an old HR Holden. It had an engine light that used to come on all the time. It might have been low on oil or it might have been low on coolant – it was probably the first car that came out with an engine warning light, frankly – but he used to stick a piece of gaffer tape over that and say, ‘Can’t see it; it’s not happening.’ That car overheated a ton of times and it still kept on going. It was amazing. But that is the equivalent of what the Liberals are doing here. They are saying, ‘We’ll cover this up. We’ll cover the “check engine” light up. It doesn’t matter.’

Victorians do not need cheerleaders for decline, and that is what the opposition have become. Victorians need leaders who build, who invest and who grow the economy. Cutting the services that families rely on is not something you will see this government do. That is exactly what will be proposed across the aisle because they have to make up $8 billion. They have promised those tax cuts. Where are they coming from? It will be from cutting services that our community relies on.

We build record infrastructure, we build record jobs and we invest at a record level in Victoria. Meanwhile it seems like those opposite are stuck in a permanent press conference. Talking Victoria down is not harmless. It corrodes confidence, it scares off investors, it undermines the hard work of those people who work in our community sector – the teachers, the nurses, the ambos, the police – and it is a really cynical kind of tactic. I do not think it is leadership. It is more a kind of sabotage, and it is akin to what those opposite are used to at the moment. Our role is the opposite. We back Victoria and we invest in Victoria. We talk up our people because they deserve it. They cut, they cancel, they complain; we build, we hire and we grow. That is the choice, that is the contrast and that is the truth that will be presented to people in an election next year.

We can already assume that those opposite hate public services, they hate working from home and they hate housing for young people. If you are a young person trying to buy a house, if you are a young person and working from home works for you or if you are a busy mum or dad who relies on public schools and a strong public health system, we are on your side. Under the Liberals you are on your own. We know from past performance that cuts are in their DNA, and it is an economic illusion to say that they are going to cut those taxes and create an $8 billion black hole.

I have seen it personally. I grew up in Churchill and Morwell. I grew up in the days when the SEC was privatised. I grew up and saw my town die off overnight, and it is still building now to its potential with the investment from this government. I have seen what the Liberals do to communities, and we cannot afford to have that happen. This $8 billion black hole plus the review of the other 65 taxes is absolutely alarming. It would not be so alarming if there was some meat on the bone, but I have seen more meat on a butcher’s pencil. There is no detail to this. We should be alarmed about what comes first – is it teachers, is it nurses, is it public sector workers? – because they have got to pay for this promise somehow. They should have got the calculator out. They should have got an economist. They should have got someone with an abacus even to show them what this would do. It does not add up, and it stinks. I think we are heading down a very, very dark road if this happens. The Shadow Treasurer is taking us into a place where our community do not know the facts and cannot see the truth. They hear something that sounds great, but when they ask that second question of ‘How are you going to do that?’ they get no detail. I grieve for people in Victoria if this comes to pass.