Thursday, 12 May 2022
Bills
Appropriation (2022–2023) Bill 2022
Appropriation (2022–2023) Bill 2022
Appropriation (Parliament 2022–2023) Bill 2022
Second reading
Debate resumed on motions of Mr PALLAS and Ms ALLAN:
That this bill be now read a second time.
Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (10:26): Last Tuesday the Treasurer delivered this Labor government’s most significant piece of economic vandalism, and that is saying something. It is the final piece of the jigsaw to confirm to all Victorians that not only do Labor often fail to deliver what they have promised—simply telling people what they want to hear—but also what they actually do will send us all broke in doing it. I will say this again. This Labor government, this Premier, is sending our state broke. The money was there, but as this budget tells us, it has all dried up. After all we have endured over the last two years our reward as Victorians is to find out that Labor and the Premier are now sending us broke. Labor cannot manage money. Labor cannot manage major projects. Despite hero promises, they have run down our health system. They have left our nurses, doctors, paramedics and health staff utterly overworked. Labor has failed our kids. They have left them vulnerable and in desperate need of catching up on lost learning. They have hurt our small business families. They have lied to our multicultural communities. And the Andrews Labor government is making life for every Victorian harder, much harder.
This state knows all about hardship under this Premier, particularly over the last two years. Victorians were told in March and April 2020 that we had to flatten the curve to get the health system fixed and ready. That was more than two years ago. We were told that home learning would not last long, and some in the government even said it would be beneficial for our children. We were told there would be ample support for small businesses and their families. We were told that endless lockdowns would ultimately be good for us. With health advice asked for but never produced, families were separated. Victorians were locked out of returning to their own state. People were banned from travelling to funerals and farewelling their loved ones. Playgrounds were chained up, curfews imposed, 5-kilometre limits enforced on every citizen.
The Premier boasted about his ring of steel around the nation’s second-largest city, a ring of steel designed to isolate and lock up 5 million people, and despite all this suffering the Labor Party tweeted adulation at the number of press conferences he did to announce these measures. It was all about one man—unchecked power on an unlimited ego—and Victorians were left as the helpless passengers in the ‘Dan show’. Yet more people died here than in any other state, and no-one—the Premier, his ministers or public servants—would even say they remembered who made the decisions to cause this unimaginable grief to so many families. The lack of decency, honesty and integrity to those families is unbelievable. And while this horror played out—people dying, Victorians under curfew and locked in their homes, businesses failing, people trying to home-teach their children and healthcare workers left overworked, depressed and tired—the government’s focus was of course on itself.
COVID management to this government was about PR management first and health second, and it was a distant second. We were promised hope from the government. Remember the 4000 ICU beds that were apparently on the way? Where are they? Remember when Victorians were repeatedly berated that our kids could get COVID and die from using playgrounds? There was no health advice to back that decision up. How about the curfews? There was none there either. It is the Dan show, and the state is trapped in it until November this year. But now Victoria wakes up to the hangover of the Premier’s one-man COVID show. In fact it is waking up to the hangover of eight years of this Premier—a one-man band, a government that is simply a one-man public relations exercise. That has been the extent of government in Victoria for eight years.
Let us take a step back. Let us see, after eight years of Labor and Daniel Andrews, where Victoria has got to.
The SPEAKER: I remind the member to use correct titles.
Mr GUY: Spending is unchecked. As the Premier says, ‘It costs what it costs’. Can you imagine a business saying this to a bank manager or a household behaving in this way? It costs what it costs—a reckless and irresponsible way to manage any state’s finances is the modus operandi of this Premier and his government. Where has the ‘it costs what it costs’ mantra got us? Major projects in Victoria have blown out to the tune of more than $27 billion. The Big Build is fast becoming a big bill. $27 billion in cost overruns—Melbourne Metro, level crossing removals, hospital upgrades. Most are good ideas, good projects, but this government has not managed a single one of them well.
In my own electorate we have the North East Link. It is not just the nation’s largest road project; I suspect it is also the nation’s largest project cost blowout. Promised for $5 billion, the build cost appears today to be around $15.4 billion. Let that figure be registered, because I bet it will not stop there. It takes a special kind of managerial incompetence to blow a budget of $5 billion on a project by more than 200 per cent. And remember that $27 billion could have built 27 new Melton hospitals—a brand new hospital as big as Melton’s in every single growth area and every regional city in Victoria. That is the price of Labor’s Big Build. If those projects had been on budget, that is what could have been delivered for every growth area and every major regional centre. Fifty-four Geelong women and children’s hospitals is what $27 billion could have got for us—54 of them. That is the consequence of an arrogant and out-of-touch Premier with an unimaginable ego and unchecked power.
Victoria is on track to having debt equivalent to that of New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia combined—just shy of $170 billion. That is a special kind of recklessness. Who would have thought in 2014 when the government changed and Labor came to office and debt levels were around $20 billion that we would genuinely be looking at putting another zero on the end of that figure within two terms of office? And let us not believe the lie that it was all for COVID. On the eve of the 2018 election Labor announced their plans to ramp up debt dramatically. An arrogant and out-of-touch Premier with an unimaginable ego and unchecked power—that is what will see debt blow out like that, and it has.
Tax collections have increased by 80 per cent, from $16.9 billion in 2013–14 to a forecast $30.5 billion. Land tax has increased from $1.7 billion to a forecast $4.8 billion over the same time frame. That is a 192 per cent increase. Land tax is now 17 per cent of the state’s total revenue; it was 10. Land transfer duties increased from $4.2 billion to a forecast $8.2 billion from 2013–14 to 2022–23—a 97 per cent increase. Payroll tax has increased from $4.95 billion to a forecast $6.8 billion in the same time frame. And yet gross state product is up from $399 billion in 2013–14 to an estimated $494 billion in 2021–22. That is 23.7 per cent, a much smaller increase than the increase in state taxation.
Tax is up far more than the growth in the economy. What a surprise! And let us not forget the solemn promise the Premier made every Victorian on the eve of the 2014 election. That is why those figures are important, because the now Premier gave the guarantee that there won’t be any more taxes—no tax rises under a government that he leads. Let that lie stand for every Victorian to see. Forty-two new or increased taxes later, this is where the state is at. We are now the highest taxing state in Australia. What a prize! An arrogant and unchecked Premier, an unchecked power, has got Victoria back the title of being the highest taxing state in Australia.
The state government constantly tell us they are spending more than ever before on services to our 6.7 million citizens. That is great. So let us look at where our state is at today as a result of that spending: a life-threatening 000 crisis; short-staffed emergency departments; ambulances that do not have the resources to turn up; health professionals that are overworked and exhausted; 90 000 Victorians on hospital elective surgery waiting lists; people dying before they can get the surgery they need; country women having their babies on the side of the road because maternal services have closed in country Victoria; a mental health crisis with our children; kids who are in dire need of catching up on lost learning; businesses struggling to recover after COVID; high levels of office vacancies in the city area due to diminished demand and high taxation; the highest level of taxation in Australia, with 42 new or increased taxes; the cost of living for families ballooning; population decline at record levels—record levels; Melbourne losing its position as the world’s most livable city. Where will it stop?
It will stop with new leadership. It will stop with a new government, with new energy. It will stop with Victoria changing the channel from the Dan show. We have got to move on. This election Labor will have been in power for 19 of the last 23 years. That is a long time. Labor cannot evade responsibility for the difficulty Victorians find their households, their families, their kids, their businesses and their state in today. What we are living today is the handiwork of a long-term Labor government and a long-term Premier, a man whose ego says, ‘I need to be here longer than Bracks’, whose ego says, ‘I need to be here longer than Kennett’, a man motivated by a bronze statue of himself and not motivated by fixing the many problems he and his government have caused—because the Premier who got us into this mess is not the Premier to get us out of this mess.
So how does Victoria recover and rebuild from the crisis that we find ourselves in? Let me be clear, very clear, on the principles of a Liberal-Nationals government. Firstly, we want to bring confidence back to this state, and we want to make sure Victorians understand there will be no more lockdowns under a government I lead. Victoria needs that certainty. They need to hear this from their government. Definitively and certainly, they will hear that from me.
We will slash hospital waiting lists and fix Victoria’s healthcare crisis. It is our priority. It is not an agenda item, it will be our priority. We will fix the mental health crisis, a crisis that is real. We will keep our schools open. As a father of three school-age boys I know firsthand—Renae and I know—there is nothing more important than the future of our sons. No Victorian parent would think any differently, and that is why no Victorian student can have any more interrupted learning.
We will keep the cost of living down. Life is hard enough without a state government making it worse. And we will support businesses to recover, to employ more Victorians, because on this side of the house we know that business grows the economy, business grows jobs, not the government.
There is nothing more important than our health. It is why a coalition government has committed so far to build new hospitals in Melton and Mildura and a brand new infectious diseases centre. Melton needs a new hospital. Labor promised it in 2018. So far the government have done nothing more than buy a patch of land, and they have only just done that too. A coalition government will begin building within 12 months of coming to office. Melton cannot wait until 2029 or 2030 for a new hospital. Our plan is to start now—not in four years like the government, now. Mildura needs a new teaching hospital—a new centre linked to the university, central to the city, a job-generating health centre. $750 million—we will start it straightaway.
Victoria needs a new infectious diseases centre. This centre will be an Australian first, a national response centre for future pandemics so we will never have the chaos, the despair and the heartbreak that locked our citizens out of their own state and locked healthy people in their own homes longer than anywhere else in the world. Labor types like to harp on about the Fairfield infectious diseases centre. That was built in 1906—six years before the Titanic was launched. We will build a new centre that is fit for purpose in the 2020s, not the 1900s, because that is something Victorians deserve.
Our kids need to be at school, and they need to stay at school. Our kids deserve a quality education to get secure jobs—jobs that become careers. That is why our plan is to treat schools as a bubble, to keep them open should any health issues arise. A Liberal and Nationals government does not shut kids out of schools; we find ways to keep them there, get them there and get them learning. And with the health issues over the last two years it is clear that our kids need more mental health support. That is why we have tried in this Parliament—and will after the election—to change definitions around counsellors so we can avail a further 2500 mental health workers, predominantly for our kids.
Hear this absolute commitment: a Liberal-Nationals government will introduce no new taxes. When a Liberal leader heading a coalition makes that absolute commitment, we keep it—unlike the Premier and Labor. It is in our DNA to reduce the taxation burden. Victoria cannot tax its way to prosperity, and with 42 new and increased taxes, that is what the Labor government wants to do. But the alternative is clear: no new taxes. The beginnings of our plans to reduce the taxation burden have begun even today, because reducing taxes helps the cost-of-living pressures, and with interest rates rising, Victorians need all the help they can get, particularly in housing.
We know that if this government is re-elected back to power, back will come the big new housing tax—one that every growth-area family moving into and trying to buy a new home in a growth area is going to pay. It is unfair and it is wrong. Our commitment is to ensure that the planning reforms after consultation that that tax was attached to are introduced and carried through but that the tax is not. This gives industry certainty to invest, to plan, to grow jobs, and a Liberal-Nationals government will not add to the crippling taxation burden of this government in order to make that happen.
But further, tradies and their families have done it pretty tough under this government. Unless they get to work on government debt-fuelled projects, they are on their own under Labor. Tradies have been left alone to face a rising taxation burden and slowing residential market and alone to combat their family’s and their ever-increasing grocery bills. In the state budget, fees paid by tradies for company building registration have been jacked up by up to 200 per cent—up to 200 per cent. Some annual fees, depending on the category, have risen from $288 to $644 in one year. Some of the five-year renewals have risen from $457 to over $1400. These are average suburban tradies trying to make a living, trying to get by, and it is just unfair. Is there no-one that this government will not impose a taxation burden on?
Let me be clear: every one of these increased charges—every one of them, big or small—will in the end make housing less affordable than ever before. Unlike the Premier, this side of the house believes our children should have the right to aspire to own a home. I am proud to say that home ownership and giving every Victorian in every generation a chance to own a home is a pillar of the Liberal and National parties. With up to 40 per cent of the price of a new home going straight to taxation, it is very little wonder that families and particularly younger Victorians find home ownership a diminishing chance, and it is unfair. We will unwind the tax hike on tradies. It is a small start to help, but it is a $63 million start, and it is better than adding $20 000 to the cost of a new home. This side of the Parliament will not keep adding costs to houses. We will try and ease that burden. We will try to help Victorians who want to buy a house. Easing the taxation burden on thousands of tradies and their families is one way to start, and that is what we will do.
Not only will easing the taxation burden be important to kickstarting small business in this state but so will business assistance. This side has for some years believed in a bringing manufacturing home initiative that is about the Victorian government investing in Victorians. It is a big plan, it has been a bold plan, it is a $2.5 billion plan to grow and invest in businesses here in Victoria, because this side of the house knows that business creates jobs—real jobs—not governments. With $1 billion of that quarantined for country and regional Victoria, the $2.5 billion plan is for everyone—every council, every citizen, every business, not just those ones close to Labor electorates. And it is not just money—it is $2.5 billion—it is also a change in attitude. Why did the state government focus on PPE from overseas when they could have prioritised our state’s sole supplier in Shepparton? When the Labor government will not invest in their own state, why would anyone else? The difference on this side of the house, in Parliament, is that we will invest in Victoria and Victorians. It is our plan, it is fully funded, it is fully costed, and we will do it straightaway if we are elected in November.
Victorians are desperate to change the channel. The blur, the noise, that hectoring voice—it has driven us all mad for far too long. We all want to change the channel from the Dan show. Victorians deserve better than to be treated like passengers on the Premier’s public relations bus. We deserve a lot better than to be just an audience to his self-proclaimed accolades. Victorians deserve a lot better than a Premier who has delivered a budget that is more of a PR repair game for one man than a COVID repair plan for 6.7 million of us.
The Liberals and Nationals are doing the work to repair the state. The economic vandals opposite have ruined the place twice before, and this time they are doing it on a grand scale, but this time there will not be an easier fix. Labor’s damage is far too great, far too severe, and I suspect it may even be generational. And it is not just financial, it is our physical health—undelivered health promises have had massive impacts on many of us physically. It is our mental health, our kids who desperately need to catch up on lost learning, our small businesses that have gone to the wall or come close, the thousands of Victorians who see no future here and who have left in record numbers.
After eight years Victoria needs new leadership. Victorians need a government focused on Victorians, not on themselves or a government that just plays politics. After eight years we have seen the soul of this government. It is uncaring, it is out of touch, it is one that views its political aims first, second and third. But it is time to change the channel, to get a government that sees Victorians first, second and third, and that is what a Liberal-Nationals government will do.
That the debate be now adjourned.
Motion agreed to and debate adjourned.
Ordered that debate be adjourned until later this day.