Wednesday, 8 March 2023

Matters of public importance

Government performance

The SPEAKER (16:01): I have accepted a statement from the member for Sandringham proposing the following matter of public importance for discussion:

That this house expresses deep concern at the rising cost-of-living pressures on Victorian families and the policy failures of the Andrews Labor government, including:

(1) Melbourne being the most expensive city for public education in the country, with average costs spiking to more than $102,000;

(2) Victorians facing energy price increases of up to $1000 over this year, with the government unable to detail when power prices will be reduced;

(3) raiding Melbourne-based water authorities and the Transport Accident Commission and new threats of WorkSafe levy increases;

(4) no clear repayment plan by the Premier or Treasurer to repay $166 billion worth of state debt and tackle the annual interest bill of nearly $4 billion;

(5) increased land tax bills hitting mum-and-dad investors, and failing to advocate against federal Labor attacks to superannuation;

(6) home ownership continuing to slip further out of reach following a shock drop in the number of new build approvals, ongoing rental price increases, roadblocks to new land supply, increased taxes pushing up the price for first home buyers and reduced borrowing capacity for Victorian home buyers;

(7) no reduction to metropolitan public transport ticket prices, forcing more commuters onto the roads, adding to lengthy traffic congestion problems; and

(8) a skills crisis, with no plan to address skills shortages or the risk to free TAFE after the Andrews Labor government cut $55 million in funding from VET.

Brad ROWSWELL (Sandringham) (16:02): I rise to lead the opposition’s contribution on the matter of public importance today because I could not think of a more important thing that this Parliament should be discussing at the moment. I think it is sometimes easy for the political class to forget why they are here. We are not here for ourselves. We are here for those who sent us here. We are here to advocate for those people, to fight for those people, and at the moment there is great suffering around this state. We on this side of the house want every Victorian to thrive, not just to survive. Why? Because we believe in the inherent dignity, responsibility and potential of every single Victorian, no matter their stage in life; we believe we all have a responsibility to assist and protect those who are vulnerable or disadvantaged; we believe people should be free to pursue their goals, to create value for themselves and others and to be rewarded for their efforts; and we believe that free enterprise is the best pathway to achieving economic growth, wellbeing and prosperity.

But, sadly, things are getting harder, not easier, for Victorians, who despite their best efforts find themselves, frankly, pushing the proverbial up the hill with a fork, and the Labor government in this state’s record debt, addiction to increased taxes and culture of waste are certainly not helping. For many Victorian families it is getting harder, not easier, to make ends meet. The rent or mortgage repayments are ever increasing. Putting food on the table and paying other bills are also getting increasingly difficult, and it seems like every other day another household bill has just gone up. Disposable income is drying up, and many households are tapping into their dwindling savings just to make ends meet.

The facts are deeply concerning and should be of concern to every member of this place. The latest NAB financial hardship survey, released on 3 March this year, revealed some shocking, shocking circumstances: 37 per cent of Victorians experienced financial hardship; 8 per cent of Victorians experienced being unable to pay rent on time, the highest rate in the nation; 20 per cent of Victorians experienced not having enough when they experienced an emergency in their household; 15 per cent of Victorians experienced not having enough for food and basic necessities; 13 per cent of Victorians experienced being unable to pay a bill; 12 per cent of Victorians experienced being unable to pay medical bills; and 21 per cent of Victorians struggled very much simply to make ends meet.

Now there are lots of assumptions made in politics, and I just want to clear up one of those. I was born at the Sandringham Hospital, and I grew up in Beaumaris in what some may see as a part of the affluent bayside. But my story is akin to those hardships that are being experienced by Victorians at the moment. My mother, a hardworking person, an immigrant to this country, would take baskets of ironing, she would clean houses and she would look after children to make ends meet in our household. She taught me hard work. She taught me the value of hard work. She has been an inspiration to me: a person who strives to do their very best to achieve what they have achieved in their own life. So I think, in the course of this debate, assumptions about those on this side of the chamber and the people we represent and those stereotypes are particularly unhelpful. It is through hard personal lived experience that I stand here and speak to you about the matters being experienced by Victorians today.

It is of great distress to me and to members on this side of the chamber that Melbourne is the most expensive city in which to send your kid to school. I know this, again, because my eldest daughter Abby just started primary school this year. In Melbourne alone the average cost to send a kid to school, per child, is more than $102,000 – close to $103,000. That is 17 per cent higher than the national metropolitan average for government schools, which sits at just over $87,000. It is over $13,000 more per child than in Sydney government schools. Despite Melbourne being the most expensive city in the country to educate a child, it is of great concern to this side of the chamber that the Andrews Labor government spends the least per student of any state in the nation. Data from the Report on Government Services shows that in 2020–21 Victoria only spent $11,570 per student across all sectors. This is lower than New South Wales and Queensland and Western Australia as well. Why must every Victorian parent be forced to pay more than every other state to send their child to school, while the Andrews Labor government gets away with spending the least on every child for their education?

The back-to-school costs are ever-growing. We estimate that it costs an average of $944 per child in 2023 to send a child to school. That is broken down over uniform costs, textbooks, transportation, school camps, school equipment, excursions and the costs just keep on rising, impacting Victorian families. State schools across the state are calling out for additional state government support to meet the shortfall in school budgets. As the member for Sandringham, every year I visit each of my schools, primary and secondary, across all three sectors and catch up with the principals. Something which they have expressed to me quite clearly following the agreement of the new teacher enterprise bargaining agreement last year is that the cost of actually putting on things like school camps is going up. So the Andrews Labor government agrees to the new teacher EBA, which costs a local primary school in this state more to run because of the circumstances of that EBA, but they do not top up the school budget in order to offset the cost of the new EBA. It is my view that the Andrews Labor government should do everything it can to enable every opportunity for Victorian children within Victoria’s state primary and secondary schools, and if that means topping up budgets to give every child the opportunities that they deserve, they must consider doing just that.

On the matter of energy price increases, up to $1000 over this year alone – the average cost of household gas bills will increase by around $675, representing a 45 per cent increase. Households in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs and Gippsland are faced with the steepest rise in energy bills with an increase of up to $995. This is across households in Kilmore, Seymour, Violet Town, Nagambie, Wangaratta, Chiltern, Wodonga, the Latrobe Valley and Sale. But when asked in Parliament, Andrews government ministers could not give a date for when the rebooted SEC, which they are spending $1 billion to set up, would actually have an effect on bringing down the cost of rising energy bills in this state. Victoria’s transition to net zero carbon emissions must be affordable. We must not throw away Victoria’s competitive edge without concern or care for the significant industry skills loss and economic repercussions that may very well come from doing that. Supporting the development of more gas will deliver cheaper bills to Victorians and ultimately mean a faster and more reliable path to a renewable transition. The uncertainty as to how exactly the SEC will work is of great concern to us as well. Will it in fact crowd out the urgently required private sector investment in renewables?

On the government’s one-off power saving bonus of $250, although welcomed and necessary, it is but a drop in the ocean when it comes to the increasing cost of electricity bills to Victorian families.

On the matter of the threat of an increasing WorkCover levy, which was highlighted in this place just yesterday, of course it is Victorian businesses who now have to pay the price for the action – or inaction in this case – of the Andrews Labor government. The current levy sits at about 1.2 per cent, and the Andrews Labor government received a report in December 2020 suggesting that to make the scheme viable it needed to increase it to 1.5 per cent, representing a 17 per cent increase. So the Andrews Labor government has known for some time that WorkCover is broken. I suggest to you that the reason why WorkCover is broken is because the Andrews Labor government broke it. We all know how this runs. In yesterday’s Age Luke Hilakari, the secretary of the Victorian Trades Hall Council, the state’s peak body for unions, said:

… it was time for businesses to pay higher premiums.

“We have some of the lowest contributions from businesses, as a percentage, of any state or territory. That’s a major problem …

We all know how this works – the tail wags the dog. The unions say ‘Jump’, the government says ‘How high?’ The fact is that every Victorian will be paying the price for the inaction of the Andrews Labor government. If – sorry, when – Victorian WorkCover premiums increase it will be Victorians who are paying the price of that. Compare that to the former coalition government between the years of 2010 and 2014. When we were last in government we cut the WorkCover premium not once, but twice. Not once, but twice, and in fact we actually drew down a dividend on the scheme to provide greater service provision for the Victorian people. That is our record when it comes to WorkCover in this state, and yes, I agree with Trades Hall Council: our premium is comparatively low to other states in the nation. But that is Victoria’s competitive edge, and the risk that we have with increasing the WorkCover levy to 1.5 per cent is that that existing competitive edge will be lost.

There is no clear repayment plan for the state’s debt: just under $66 billion worth of state net debt at the moment with an annual interest bill of nearly $4 billion, which of course increased yesterday on the back of the Reserve Bank’s increase to interest rates. Net debt in Victoria is set to reach $165.9 billion by 2025–26, the highest debt of any state in the nation – in fact more than New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania combined. By 2025–26 the forecast interest repayment will be $7.4 billion. I will tell you why this irritates me. This irritates me because that $7.4 billion is paid to service a debt which the Andrews Labor government have no obvious plan to pay off – $7.4 billion that could have been spent on service delivery in this state, to get more police into communities, to get more nurses into hospitals, to get more teachers into schools. This is the missed opportunity from having no obvious plan to repay our debt.

The Andrews Labor government is addicted to waste: the North East Link cost overruns, the West Gate Tunnel cost overruns, the Metro Tunnel cost overruns – more than $30 billion in waste and cost blowouts under this government alone. And we do not know yet the impact of the government’s Suburban Rail Loop promise, but if history is anything to go by, the only way is down.

Just finally, I think this is absolutely critical and perhaps the most important part of this matter of public importance: one of the biggest issues holding Victoria back from being the top state in the nation once again, is the skills crisis, with no plan from the Andrews Labor government to address the skills shortage. Victorian industries virtually across the board have been facing a labour shortage in the post-COVID era. Victoria is experiencing a skills crisis in areas like health, disability care, teaching, plumbing, mechanics and hospitality. We know that, by the government’s figures alone, there will be a shortage of nearly 4000 skilled workers by 2025, with no obvious plan to fix it.

But there is an alternative. Victoria’s alternative government, we the opposition here, believe that it is the private sector that creates wealth and prosperity in this nation, not the public sector. Labor want a tax, we want to increase opportunity. We want to attract investments. We want every Victorian to do and to be their best, for them to thrive and not just survive. Every Victorian deserves better than what they are getting from the Andrews Labor government at the moment.

Michaela SETTLE (Eureka) (16:17): I am absolutely delighted to rise to speak on this matter of public importance. I would like to thank the member for Sandringham for raising this matter. The cost of living of course is a very important issue, and this gives us an opportunity to talk about the many, many things that this government has done to support Victorians. But before I go on, it would be remiss of me not to make comment, as a regional member, that I did find this MPI extraordinarily Melbourne-centric. I would remind the member for Sandringham that 25 per cent of Victorians live in the regions, and whilst we care about our folk in Melbourne, we are not impacted by Melbourne school costs and we are not affected by Melbourne Water or Metro travel. I just wanted to point that out. I mean, I can understand this lapse given that there are just as many people called David in the Liberal Party as there are regional MPs in the Liberal Party. So it is obvious that they are not really thinking about the regions when they are constructing things like this MPI.

But let us move on to the first point. It is heartwarming for me to see and hear such compassion coming from the other side for families that are sending their children off to school. The only great shame about that compassion is that it seems to be reserved for when they are in opposition. This opposition when they were last in government made some of the most appalling cuts to support for families from within the education system. I remember well when they cut the EMA, which is of course the education maintenance allowance. That was an incredibly important fund that schools used to support families with textbooks and school excursions. So to hear the member for Sandringham now tell us that this is a terrible thing – well, it was their lot that cut that EMA in the first place. But the one that really, really got to me was when they cut Free Fruit Friday. What kind of a grinch of a government saves $40 per school to take away fresh fruit from students? That is literally – literally – taking food from the mouths of babes. Those are the kind of cuts that those on the other side made. Thank goodness we got in in 2014 and wasted no time in trying to address those appalling cuts. For example, in 2016 we set up the school breakfast club, and I know everyone on this side of the house is incredibly proud of that program. I volunteered for quite a few years and I saw what it did for those kids to get a breakfast, and this week we celebrated 30 million meals. Those on the other side would cut fresh fruit from schools, and we have delivered 30 million breakfasts.

But of course, as I say, they cut the education maintenance allowance so that there was no money for families for camps and excursions. What did we do? The Andrews Labor government got in and in 2015 we invested $148 million towards the camps and excursions fund. But look, since then, on so many levels we have been supporting people at school. There is the affordable school uniforms program, the Smile Squad dental vans in schools, Doctors in Secondary Schools and the nurses in schools program. This government is investing in and supporting our schools while those on the other side save a measly 40 bucks by cutting fresh fruit for kids. It is an extraordinary difference.

But while we are on this, let us just have a little look at the wording on this MPI. It is the one that I really like. They are quoting this figure of about $103,000. Does anyone know where they got that figure from? Well, it is pretty interesting. They got it from the Futurity Investment Group. What these people do is they market educational bonds.

A member: What?

Michaela SETTLE: Exactly. So as a marketing tool they put together some figures – really fiddled with some of those figures – and those on the other side are now basically using advertising slogans as fact. Well, it is going to break their hearts when they find out that Rob was not really a dentist.

But as if their record on cutting schools was not bad enough, we have got to have a look at what they have done in energy. Now, I love this one. Watch them all jump – privatisation. When Kennett privatised the SEC – off they go. Wind it up.

A member interjected.

Michaela SETTLE: It happened under Kennett, love. In their last time in government retail electricity prices increased by 34 per cent. Under the Liberal government between 2010 and 2014 it was 34 per cent. That was without pressures internationally; that was just good old mismanagement from the other side. But the one that really, really gets to me is that during their time in government disconnections doubled. We are talking about families who had no electricity or had no gas under that government. It is outrageous. This government, however, has got on with trying to deal with this problem straightaway.

I will just break out here. The member for Sandringham in his speech set this MPI up as caring about all Victorians, but I heard again and again and again references to supporting businesses and the competitive edge. What they are really trying to do is look after their mates in big business. When he was reflecting on renewables, my heart bled for the fact that he believes that business will suffer under the chasing of the renewable energy targets, and he wants us to frack. They love a bit of fracking on the other side.

Members interjecting.

Michaela SETTLE: Well, that is where gas comes from; it’s from fracking.

On this side of the house we get on and try and find solutions. I think we can see from the most recent election that Victorians wholly and utterly support the reintroduction of the SEC. It drives them mad on the other side. They want private business; they do not think government should be involved. What does it do to people’s lives, their constant harping on for privatisation? Under the SEC, with this government, we will not only be able to protect our environment and our climate through reaching our renewable targets but we will also be able to bring costs down, unlike their government, who saw them increase by 34 per cent. Look, he was pretty glib, the member for Sandringham, about the power saving bonus.

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Berwick, member for Sandringham, you are not in your correct seats.

Michaela SETTLE: What makes me laugh about the power saving bonus is many of us on this side were really aware of printed material – DLs and so forth – that they put out to promote the power saving bonus in the last term. They were very happy to promote it.

Vicki Ward interjected.

Michaela SETTLE: Yes, it was extraordinary. They were happy to promote it indeed. So I just want people to think about what the power saving bonus does. The member for Sandringham was pretty glib about it and suggested that it really was a drop in the ocean. Can I remind you that that drop in that ocean was $425 million worth of payments that went into Victorians’ pockets. That ain’t a drop in the ocean in my book. From 24 March we will be reopening it, so I look forward to all of your printed material supporting the power saving bonus.

For me, I am really happy to tell the house that on 11 and 12 April I am getting my bus out and I am going on a tour all through my electorate to help people with the power saving bonus. Anyone in this place will know how many people came to us for support, how many people needed and wanted that support, and we were there for them. So I am going to be travelling around my electorate on 11 and 12 April, but if you want to drop in on 29 March, I am going to be at the Bacchus Marsh library all day helping people with their power saving bonuses, because that is what we do on this side of the house.

On this side of the house we always have an eye on supporting our most vulnerable, so that is why we have the most generous energy concessions in the country. Concession card holders are eligible for a 17.5 per cent discount. I suspect that on the other side they would rather see we were discounting private business but, no, for us it is about making sure we have got discounts for the more vulnerable in our community.

It was interesting, because the member for Sandringham said really the most important moment for him in this MPI was around TAFE. I nearly fell off my pew. It is extraordinary. How can they hold their heads up high in public. Twenty-two campuses closed under that side the last time they were in government.

The SPEAKER: Member for Eureka, through the Chair.

Michaela SETTLE: It is utterly, utterly extraordinary. Ask anyone who works in the TAFE sector; they associate those opposite with absolutely decimating TAFE. It was terrible to see.

It is something that is very close to my heart. Many of you know that I am a Federation TAFE alumnus. I was very proud to graduate from Federation TAFE. There was a big battle going on. I saw fantastic teachers lose their jobs under that lot because they completely underfunded TAFE. They want to talk about addressing skills shortages because of course all they really care about is their mates in business. So their concern here is around addressing skills shortages. Let us talk about addressing skills shortages. This government introduced the Victorian Skills Authority in 2021. This is an entire independent body which works with business, with your mates, and with the education sector to make sure that people are being trained in the skills that they need.

Free TAFE has been very deliberately and consciously targeted to make sure that we are addressing some of the biggest skills shortages. In Ballarat, I am delighted to say, Fed TAFE has extraordinary nursing and midwifery courses, and they have absolutely exploded, which is fantastic. They also do some wonderful early childcare courses. Now, this government is investing in health and in early childhood. You know what happens when we invest in it? We need more people to get out there and do it. So yes, there are skills shortages. What are we doing? We are addressing those skills shortages through Free TAFE. We create the jobs, we create the training unlike those on the other side who basically just cut TAFE. That was their favourite thing to do.

The other one in here which gave me a bit of a giggle was the business about the metro transport fares. From the end of this month anyone on the other side I would invite to come and visit me in Ballarat, because a return fare is going to be only $9. Not only do those on the other side forget about regional Victoria, because there are so few of them, but they actually want to increase the disparity. Their proposal prior to the election was great for everyone in Melbourne, great for getting the train from Sandringham – not so great when you live in Ballarat, Geelong, Bendigo or further afield. So I am incredibly happy and proud about the regional transport cap that is going to be coming into effect. It is not just about commuters. It is about regional families being able to go to the footy and being able to enjoy all of the wonderful events that this government has managed to attract to Victoria. I am very much looking forward to that.

On International Women’s Day it would be remiss of me not to mention one of the most fundamental and bold reforms, which is free kinder. We are talking today about the cost of living for families. That policy alone will save thousands upon thousands of dollars for families. But of course it also means that carers more generally, but often women, can get back into the workforce. In terms of addressing the cost of living I am not sure that there has been a bigger and bolder policy than free kinder, and I am going to be absolutely delighted to see the impact that it makes on so many families.

In conclusion, I am very proud of everything that this government has done to address the cost of living. We are very aware of the need to support Victorians. They like to harp on about our debt. But they forget that that was about supporting Victorians through COVID, and this government will continue to support Victorians. We are not here for big business and free enterprise. We are here for Victorians.

Tim BULL (Gippsland East) (16:32): It is a pleasure to rise and make a contribution on this matter of public importance as submitted by the member for Sandringham, and I will just clear up one little error of many made by the member for Eureka: there are more Liberal rural MPs than there are now Davids in the Liberal Party, so we will just get that on the record. This house does express its deepest concern at the rising cost-of-living pressures facing Victorian families and the policy failures of this government. The big issue here and where this government has had a massive fail is that we have massive state debt spiralling out of control and absolutely nothing at all to show for it. When you are facing debt levels, the worst that we have ever seen in the history of this state – in the history of this state – you actually want to see some other things getting better for the debt that you are incurring.

But what have we got? The cost of living is out of control. We have got a health crisis, with waiting lists that are absolutely disgraceful for people who need urgent care. We have a mental health crisis, where people in dire need cannot get an appointment. I have people in my electorate who are suicidal and are told they have got to wait three weeks for a bed. We have a public dental crisis, with a waiting list of well over 12 months and in many areas of rural and regional Victoria closer to 24 months. We have got a roads crisis, where our roads are falling to bits. Our transport and trucking companies and bus drivers are saying they are the worst they have ever seen – and so on and so on. But at the same time all this is happening our debt is spiralling out of control. We are showing nothing in services on the ground for the debt that we are incurring.

But I want to get back to cost-of-living pressures and what they are doing to individual and specific families. Due to cost-of-living pressures we have got more people living in cars, and while the government cannot directly control interest rates, there is much more that they can do to assist those that are struggling financially, sleeping rough, sleeping in their cars.

But whenever we raise housing affordability and homelessness as an issue, the answer we get is that the big build is underway. Well, the big build is going to deliver 12,000 homes. Our public housing waiting list is already just touching on 70,000 with half of those on the priority waiting list. That is not going to solve the problem. Five thousand of those homes have been built and 7000 are to come, but while they are being built the waiting list is getting greater because of the mismanagement of this government. The Big Housing Build is not the short- to medium-term answer that we need. It is cost-of-living pressures that are driving people to sleep rough, sleep in their cars and couch surf. So the question is: what is the government going to do about it? Are they going to put in place more rental assistance or more short-term accommodation for families? Are they going to look at more affordable housing? But we are hearing nothing about this sort of thing – nothing at all. And many of these people that are sleeping rough have jobs. I have got one gentleman sleeping in his car near the back of my office. He goes to work every day, but he cannot afford the cost-of-living expenses. He cannot afford the rentals and the child maintenance that he has to pay. He cannot afford it.

One thing this government can do is support those many agencies that are supporting these people in our community. I was at St Vincent last week and saw the great work that they have done, but they are struggling – their volunteers are stretched, their support from government is not to the level that it needs to be. And I can tell you: it is an issue now, but in eight weeks time or 10 weeks time we are going to be getting into winter. We will have the first frosts and then will really see these people who are suffering hardship going to another level, and we need to get more supports in place.

Victorians right across the length and breadth of this state are facing power bill increases of over $1000 on their bills – $1000 on their bills. When we raise that in this chamber the answer that we get is that we are putting out another round of the $250 power saving bonus. That is good. That helps. But it is really insignificant when you are facing power bills of over $1000. We have an energy crisis that needs to be fixed, and a $250 power saving bonus will not fix it. If this government is going to just simply hang its hat on that bonus, we are in deep, deep, deep trouble. I had a look at Hansard this week, and in 2015 the minister for energy stood in this chamber and said:

Energy is an essential service for all Victorians. Without access to energy, Victorians cannot cook food for their children, wash clothes for their family and provide warmth to the elderly.

She added that this is why the Andrews government is ensuring positive outcomes. Now that was 2015. What do we think has happened with our power bills between 2015 and now? I would like to make a comparison between then and now. They have absolutely skyrocketed. Right through the period in between, we have heard time and time again how this government is going to put downward pressure on energy costs and power bills. Again in 2018 we heard the minister say that they were going to ‘cut the cost of energy for Victorian households and small businesses’. I mean, are we kidding? Where is that? Where is that? It has not happened. Ask a small business how their power bills have gone since the minister made that comment. In 2018 she said ‘the boom in clean energy happening in our state’ is ‘ultimately benefiting through more affordable prices’. I mean, where do we get off just telling these untruths? Power bills have gone through the roof. This is a minister that has committed time and time again to lowering energy prices, lowering the cost of living, and has not delivered.

I want to talk about another emerging crisis, particularly in our rural areas, and that is in relation to firewood. We have thousands and thousands of householders heat their homes every winter with firewood, but this government has locked our harvesters out of the bush. It has limited firewood contractors from getting into the bush and firewood contractors from getting the residual timber from our timber mills. They are contacting my office saying they will not be able to supply firewood to their regular customers this winter. Now, when you make decisions like you have made in relation to the timber industry, you have got to give weight to these sorts of conditions. We all know the situations where we have members of our community sitting around, you know, with the blankets over their lap, because they cannot afford to turn the electric heater on.

I was talking to the member from Morwell earlier today, where he has a family that has taken a barbecue into their house to light the gas to warm their home because they cannot afford to turn the heater on. We have got people with the oven door open – I mean, how healthy is that? – huddling around to get warm. People going to bed at 4 and 5 in the afternoon because they cannot afford to turn the heater on with the power bill.

And what are we doing now? We are dropping access to firewood, and we are cutting off access to that cheap energy supply for people. We know what happens when there is a reduction in the availability of something – the price goes through the roof. It is something that desperately needs to be fixed. What I have outlined here is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the cost-of-living fiasco this government is overseeing.

Home ownership is slipping further from the grasp of many. We have got a situation where we are paying nearly $4 billion in interest annually. What would that interest bill do to offset the cost-of-living expenses? But worst of all, no repayment plan. We are heading for a debt in excess of $150 billion to $160 billion with nothing to show for it on the ground. If you are reducing services from government, you want to see your government debt coming down. If your government debt is going up, you want to see some results on the ground that support and assist people. But we have got debt going up, a health crisis, a mental health crisis, a dental crisis, a roads crisis and everything else that is going on. They are heading down the wrong path in both directions.

What has left a lot of people really scratching their heads is how we are going to get out of this. No matter how those people on the other side of the chamber want to stand up and sugar-coat what they say and talk about these little positives and what we might have done eight or 10 years ago – deal with the here and now, and the crisis you are facing now. We have a massive, massive cost-of-living crisis in this state on so many fronts – we are heading into winter, it is going to get worse in the second half of this year with the forecast interest rate rises – it is only going to get worse. This government has got to come up with some real actions to solve these issues for Victorian families because they are doing it hard enough now. We do not want to see it getting any harder. This government simply must do better.

Paul EDBROOKE (Frankston) (16:42): It is a pleasure to rise and speak on the member for Sandringham’s matter of public importance this afternoon, and what a matter of public importance it is. It is funny that people have found their voice now on some of these issues. We heard earlier from the member for Sandringham that some people on that side of the chamber might have forgotten that they exist in a community, not just a political sphere. But I can tell you with 100 per cent certainty that no-one in this house has forgotten who they represent. These people, these MPs, most of whom were in government when COVID hit, have done more for the community and stood up more in every facet of their community than any other MPs ever in Victoria’s history. No-one on this side of the house has forgotten who they represent. My friend the member for Eureka’s brilliant speech is a hard act to follow, I will say, but I will try and touch on some of the spitball approach to MPI details today.

First of all though, can I just say that I did hear some context around WorkCover and the Victorian Trades Hall Council’s comments on that, and I would like to mention some commentary from the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which recognises that the current WorkCover system is not sustainable. The Victorian chamber suggests that while they do not want to see any additional cost to business, pragmatically they must ensure the scheme is viable. They also report that they are working in good faith with the government towards an outcome and have had several conversations with Minister Pearson to ensure that industry is heard and represented and that they can prosecute business’s position. They also recognise that there have been no premium increases for a number of years. I think that gives a different side of the story, a very different side of the story, and is not just about, as the member for Sandringham might say, the tail wagging the dog, although we do listen to unions and we work very closely with workers because workers are the unions.

Happy International Women’s Day, by the way, and we will circle back to that in a second, because there is a very peculiar point that is in this matter of public importance that I would like to raise later. But we have heard a little bit about the budget, and those opposite have zero – zero – economic credibility. These are the people that had to sell off their Liberal Party headquarters, let us not forget. It was also prior to the election that we saw their shadow minister stand up and be unable to tell us how much their election commitments cost. That is shameful, and it shows that there is zero economic credibility. On the other hand, we had 56 members returned to this house, and I think that demonstrates that Victorians know that there is an acceptable level of debt that was required to be written up on our books to make sure Victoria was safe, to make sure Victoria could keep on making progress and to protect the wellbeing of Victorians. The first step in that economic rebound is to grow the economy and grow jobs and create jobs, because we know that you cannot have a sustainable fiscal recovery without a sustainable economic recovery at the same time, and that rebound has been strong. That rebound has been very strong, and the budget demonstrates that the government is now delivering on steps two and three of that budget plan with a cash surplus forecast as well.

We have heard from those opposite – and I think again it takes a lot of guts to bring this up being a member of the opposition – that home ownership is hard. I sit here, and if you were not laughing you would cry. The people that told us that – actually, it was the member for Brighton that basically was trying to move on homeless people, and then we had the shadow minister in the other place saying that she would not want people who needed housing to live in certain areas because they might have the wrong shoes. It was a disgraceful comment and a disgraceful approach to housing, but right now in this chamber we are hearing about how this government is not doing it right. Do not worry about the Big Housing Build; do not worry about two weeks ago a $50 million commitment over 10 electorates to housing – words are very easy. Words are very easy to say, but commitments are a lot harder.

The thing I did want to touch on were the few words in this MPI that talk about why this government will not advocate against the federal government’s proposed superannuation changes. First, I mean, it is not a state decision. We all know that. But the number two reason would be that superannuation is not designed to be a tax-minimising investment or a wealth creation investment. It is a tool to make sure people can live comfortably in their retirement. But it is very poignant to raise this today because we need to ask ourselves, ‘Who would this affect?’ For anyone that has got $3 million or over in super – 0.5 per cent of the Australian population – those people will have a correction, I guess you could say, or a tax, and they will pay it, of 30 per cent over $3 million. The 99.5 per cent of Australians that do not have $3 million and over will not be affected, but they will live in the comfort of knowing that those other people will be able to pay their fair share of taxes.

But it is not all about that lens, I guess. There is a gender lens to this too, and in the context of International Women’s Day I think it just so happens that we are discussing – sorry, the opposition are supporting – a tax break that disproportionately affects men. It supports men. This could even be seen as a bit of a gendered attack, with women still sadly earning much less than men and paying less super, of course, as well. I am sure – in fact I am dead sure – that the 80,000 people with more than $3 million in their super accounts are mostly men. I know that those across the chamber aisle do not really realise that it is International Women’s Day. In question time we did not have a question from a woman, for example. I find it absolutely crazy that we are sitting here, and we have got those opposite talking about tax breaks for people with over $3 million in super. I can walk out those doors and almost bump into a homeless person on the street in Bourke Street, yet we have got people in this chamber bleating about someone who has got $3 million in super and that they deserve a tax break. On a day that we celebrate women we have actually got people in this chamber speaking amazingly about the future and how we can achieve equality, how we can do things right that have not been done well in the past.

But we have got in this MPI I think an argument from those opposite. They are advocating for men to increase their wealth gap and in actual effect reinforce a structural inequality between genders that already exists. It is like trying to make the glass ceiling a bulletproof one. I am not sure those people on that side of the chamber have picked up on this yet.

But according to KPMG, for those aged 55 to 59 the gender super gap is 33 per cent, while in the peak earning years – so the accumulation years – 45 to 49, the gender gap is 35 per cent. Given super is closely linked to paid work and women earn 14 per cent less, the tax break that they are advocating for is going to affect who? It is actually going to affect women disproportionately to men. I think this MPI would have been a great opportunity for those opposite, on International Women’s Day, to not just cry poor about things that they have suddenly found a conscience about but actually advocate for women and create an awareness of what we need to do to close the pay gap and the super gap for women. They have missed that opportunity. So let me take that opportunity. This data also tells us that the average balance of super for men is $359,000 and for women is $289,000, and that is about $100,000 behind what is estimated to be something that you could comfortably retire on as well.

To be clear, we have got an opposition that on one hand in this MPI have been talking about how tough people are doing it, and on the other hand are saying, ‘Let’s advocate for the 0.5 per cent of people that have got $3 million in super that they have accumulated.’ Let us be really clear: how do you get to $3 million in super? Well, on average, over 40 years you might have to pay $27,500 per year in super contributions through your superannuation guarantee, and that is a hell of a lot of money. That wage might be $250,000 and up. And again, when we talk of the gender pay gap, when we talk of the gender super gap, we are mostly talking about men who will gain from this tax not being put in place.

Now, whether we are in here talking about MPIs and waxing lyrical on MPIs – let us be honest; we are not legislating – or talking about more important things, it is always this side of the house that actually puts their money where their mouth is and makes legislation that helps Victorians.

Cindy McLEISH (Eildon) (16:52): I am very pleased to stand to speak on the matter of public importance (MPI) put forward by the member for Sandringham, and I too am deeply concerned at the rising cost-of-living pressures on Victorian families and so many policy failures by the Andrews Labor government. But I do want to begin by addressing something that the member for Eureka said, because she has her facts absolutely round the twist. It is good to be able to correct the record, because I know those on the other side believe if you say it often enough, it is true – but it is not true. Now, under Labor 73 licences for unconventional gas exploration have occurred and 23 have been approved for hydraulic fracturing operations – fracking – with no public consultation. So the only time fracking has occurred in Victoria is under a Labor government. The coalition has never, ever done that. Now, for those over there to carry on, to believe and to try and reshape the debate or reframe the debate –

Michaela Settle interjected.

The SPEAKER: Member for Eureka! You had your turn.

Cindy McLEISH: – is mischievous. This is the fact. Every time that you mention this, I will be there to correct, to make sure that the new people on your side do not believe all the spin that they are fed by the existing members.

There is so much to talk about in this MPI, and I am going to actually start from the eighth point, about the skills crisis, because there is no plan to address the skills shortages, and it is such a risk to take, with what is going on. It is no secret Victorian industries virtually across the board have faced labour shortages post COVID. It does not matter what industry it is, that has been the case. Unemployment at the same time is at a 50-year low. But despite this, there is a real mismatch between the employers’ needs and those of jobseekers, and I hear time and time again about the difficulty of getting people to work. A friend of mine said to me, ‘Gosh, congratulate me; I’ve got a new job,’ and I said, ‘Oh, what’s that?’ And she said, ‘At the age of 73 I’m now a cleaner in my business, because we can’t get anybody to clean.’ That was her and her husband, who had had an operation, and they had a staff member who left and they could not replace them. At that age they were having to increase the amount that they worked. The two of them had to do the work of three people.

We have got an absolute skills crisis, with the government’s own data showing that we will face a shortage of nearly 400,000 workers by 2025 in critical industries like health, disability care and teaching, and trades like plumbing and mechanics. 2025 is not that far away; it is only a couple of years. The government’s spin with its free TAFE rhetoric is not cutting it in the real world. Again I want to draw the house’s attention to a flyer that I have from quite some time ago. It was pre 2010 and it was a message to the local MP, the member for Bendigo East.

A member: Who was that?

Cindy McLEISH: It was the member for Bendigo East, the Deputy Premier, and it reads:

You are PRICING TAFE OUT OF OUR REACH

Going to Bendigo TAFE used to be easy.

…

Well that’s all changed.

Thanks to you, TAFE means

• High fees

Abolished concessions

Borrowing money

Going into debt …

Let us be clear that this is where things started to go bad in the TAFE sector. What the Labor government has done – you have to look in the details of the budget papers to find these things, but they are there; I am not making this up – is cut $55 million from VET to pay for its free TAFE promises.

A member: How much?

Cindy McLEISH: $55 million – it is robbing Peter to pay Paul. Pretty well that is how it is working. The most recent Report on Government Services revealed that they had slashed this $55 million from VET in 2021. And do you know what? That was the biggest cut of any state or territory, and at that time the federal funding, which was through a Liberal government, had remained steady. The cuts in the skills sector were being made by the Labor government. The reality is that less has been invested in VET per person in Victoria than in any other state or territory, and the Parliamentary Budget Office post-election report reveals that there is certainly no new funding beyond next year to deliver free TAFE. So you have got to ask why the Andrews government has slashed nearly $56 million all up from vocational education and training.

On that I am going to bring up an example that was brought to my attention the other day by the Mansfield Armchair Cinema. For some time they have offered a certificate III in business management. They have kids come, school-aged children from year 9 to year 11 usually, who are involved in doing some on-the-job training outside of school hours. Their most recent invoice for the students is more than $3000. These students, when they work, earn $14.71 an hour, so they cannot pay this. Parents are having to find the money to do this, and it is really difficult. They mention that, with the cost of living being so high, families cannot do this. I think this does not make much sense, that you have got schoolkids earning a small amount having to fork out this amount. Agriculture and hospitality and other courses are free, but not this one, and I think there are a lot of issues around that.

Let us look at the raiding of many authorities. The government has raided or will raid over the forward estimates $630 million from the city-based water authorities – Melbourne Water, Greater Western Water, South East Water and Yarra Valley Water. That means that they are going to be significantly limited in investing in vital water infrastructure, but it also means costs are going to go up, and who is going to have to pay for that? Families. It is going to be passed on to families. Rather than passing on the savings through the water authorities, what is happening is we have got this crisis and this money is going to prop up the flimsy budget that is absolutely riddled with debt and deficit.

We have got the TAC scheme that has been hammered by this government. In fact $3 billion over the forward estimates – billion, not million – is being pulled out. It is being treated like a cash cow. It is extraordinary. It is an extra $650 million on the previous year’s budget that is being pulled out. I bet the CEO and the chair really did not have a lot of good things to say to the minister and to the government about that. I worry about the impact that that is going to have, the impact that $3 billion being pulled out is going to have on the people that rely on this service. At the same time we have the road toll heading in the wrong direction. The TAC, through its own website, says:

The TAC, in consultation with Victoria Police, develops strategies to target the main causes of crashes that result in trauma, and encourage positive road-user attitudes and behaviour.

There is money dedicated to that. Well, I am suggesting that there is going to be a huge haircut to those activities. The police are not going to be able to do the work that they need to do. The TAC website brags that these are the sorts of things that the funding has allowed them to do. Increased roadside drug testing – it was going to, in 2021, conduct up to 150 tests per year. Now that is likely to be chopped. Helping with the purchase of speed detection equipment – bah bow, that will be cut too. Black spots that need to be fixed? It looks like they will be cut. Advertising campaigns to help with road safety? No, no cigar there. Telehealth funding for the clients that need it? Well, that is probably going to be cut. The community grants? I bet they have really gone down.

We have known also that WorkCover is in a very poor state and the government have only now seen, after all these years when alarm bells have been certainly ringing for the last four or five years, that things are not healthy at WorkSafe. They have received more than $1 billion in emergency payments to help prop up the system. So now they are looking at cutting support for the injured workers and hitting businesses. The WorkCover premium has been kept at a particular rate, the average premium rate, at 1.272. That is the rate that was set by the Liberals in the 2014–15 budget, and it has remained steady at that rate that we lowered it to, but it looks as though it is going to be hiked because the government have to keep raiding.

As I said, the alarm bells should have been ringing but they have not been. This government has been asleep at the wheel, certainly with regard to the TAC and with WorkCover and WorkSafe. There have been a lot of stories around, and I think the government must have had their head in the sand about the culture that is happening there, about the debt. Instead, what is happening? They are going to slug the employers. What they have also done at the same time is look at cutting some of the services. So slugging the employers, cutting the services – the government are pulling out this tax fall. If you look at the transcript from the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee last year, the minister did not even know where in the budget papers the budget for WorkSafe was, and that is pretty appalling.

Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (17:03): I rise to speak in response to the matter of public importance (MPI) that had been submitted by the member for Sandringham, but in doing so I would like to acknowledge the contributions of my colleagues the member for Frankston and also the member for Eureka.

Danny O’Brien interjected.

Anthony CIANFLONE: Fantastic. It certainly is a wideranging MPI indeed that touches on a wide number of policy areas, including education, energy, the TAC, WorkSafe, the state’s economy, housing, public transport, TAFE and so much more – all the things the Liberals are really good at being known for. In essence the MPI seeks to draw attention to the cost of living and the ongoing experience of Victorian families and households, but along with being fundamentally and extremely misleading in terms of the real action the Andrews Labor government has been taking to respond to all of these various and other challenges and opportunities, it is also an MPI with an extremely short memory that fails to acknowledge the absolute incompetence of the former Abbott–Turnbull–Morrison Liberal governments and the active role they played in fuelling many of the economic and policy challenges our nation is now confronting. It is also an MPI that totally overlooks the role that the previous Napthine, Baillieu and Kennett Liberal state governments played in totally neglecting and treating with absolute contempt the very policy issues that are specified in this MPI.

Frankly, this is a motion that has been written in an alternative reality. I actually feel like Marty McFly. In Back to the Future Part II he inadvertently flew his DeLorean into an alternative reality where Biff Tannen had suddenly found his moral compass by replacing the humble Hill Valley library with the Hill Valley casino, Biff’s paradise casino, because of all the times we can vividly recall hearing from so many distinguished Liberals: Alan Stockdale when he announced record investments into expanding public education and building new schools all over the state, or Barnaby Joyce when he stood up to commit to renewable energy to combat climate change, or Jeff Kennett when he announced Victoria would be expanding the SEC to help keep profits on shore and keep energy prices down for Victorians, or the time Michaelia Cash flew down to Victoria to say that a Liberal government would be supporting workers through a better WorkSafe and a better WorkCover scheme.

Or there was the time Stuart Robert announced the Liberal government would help mums and dads with things like free kinder or free TAFE – robo what? Or there was the time Josh Frydenberg stood up to fight for an increase in compulsory superannuation to 12 per cent and to protect super for what it was actually designed to do – for retirement. Or how about the time Scott Morrison took a stand to fight for the NDIS or paid parental leave and to build more social and affordable housing for Victoria? Or what about the time the Liberal Minister for Women, Tony Abbott – true story – was in Melbourne for International Women’s Day to announce major commitments around women’s health and wellbeing, including the rollout of free tampons in schools? Or how about the time each of the Liberal Party prime ministers from New South Wales came down to Victoria?

Cindy McLeish: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, I know the member on his feet is particularly animated, but the MPI, although it is broad ranging, is about Victoria, not about the federal Parliament and attacking the federal Liberal government, and I ask you to bring the member back to the MPI that is before him.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: This has been a very wideranging debate and very detailed. If the member can come back to the MPI at hand and continue.

Anthony CIANFLONE: Thank you, Deputy Speaker. There is a lot to remember of what the Liberal Party has done to this state nationally and locally, so forgive me for referring to some notes to remind me of those failures – like the time when the Liberal prime ministers from New South Wales all came down to announce major commitments to the Suburban Rail Loop or to help us remove dangerous level crossings, or the time Joe Hockey as Treasurer stood with workers in the north-west to support the workers of Ford, Toyota and Holden to back manufacturing jobs in the north-west. Do you remember that? I remember.

Members interjecting.

Anthony CIANFLONE: Yes. Or – talking about the state level – there was the time that Jeff Kennett actually stood in the northern suburbs to open more TAFEs and protect TAFEs. Or there was the time – last but not least – that Peter Dutton came down to Melbourne for dinner in the CBD and stood in solidarity with the African community and the multicultural communities to back in our multicultural communities. To be honest, Deputy Speaker, I do not know if it is just me –

Cindy McLeish: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, you have counselled the member on his feet already and asked him to come back to matter before us, even though it is wideranging, and he has strayed very much again.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is quite a lot in this detailed matter of public importance. The member to continue. There is no point of order.

Anthony CIANFLONE: To be honest, Deputy Speaker, I do not know if it is just me, but just like Marty McFly and the number of times – he lost count of the great things that Biff Tannen did for Hill Valley. I think this motion should just make like a tree and get out of here.

But the reality is that Liberals have never said or announced any of these things – that is the truth – and they never will; they will never change. In the context of that, let me now turn to the substance of this matter from the member for Sandringham. Firstly, it talks about public education and investment and the cost of public education. I am the proud product of our local public education system across the northern suburbs. In this respect, when the Liberals get up to talk about public education in my community it brings back a lot of memories for a lot of people, because when it comes to improving education and access to and affordability of education the first thing that any decent government should do is invest in, back in and expand good quality public education in local communities. That is why since 2014 Labor has been investing record amounts to make Victoria the Education State, whether it is through the affordable school uniforms program, the breakfast club program, covering VET course materials, free school camps, doctors in schools and so much more – all things to alleviate the cost of education. That is why also in my community we have invested a record $150 million to upgrade every school across our community. Combined with our Merri-bek North Education Plan, these investments will help ensure local families continue to have good quality access to local education now and into the future. But in stark contrast, when the Liberals were in office under Jeff Kennett they closed at least 12 local public schools in my community and the northern suburbs in my electorate to subsidise your ‘Victoria – on the move’ agenda. Let me name those schools. They need to be named in this chamber: Oak Park High School, Hadfield High School, Coburg High School, Newlands High School, Hadfield Primary, Fawkner Technical School, Fawkner North Primary, Glenroy High School, Coburg Technical School, East Coburg Primary, Merlynston Primary and East Brunswick Primary School. These are all schools that were closed by the Liberal Party. And they want to stand in here and talk about investing in the cost of education. Give me a break! The very concerning thing as well is that it is not just the historical decisions by the Liberal Party, it is current decisions as well by the current Liberal Party. Before the last election they actually announced, with the member for Croydon, that they would commit to delivering a Merri-bek North education plan for my community. Really, when you look at the detail of it, in the Liberal tradition it would continue to undermine and compromise local educational opportunities and outcomes.

Firstly, the member for Croydon stood outside John Fawkner College with not one single dollar being committed by the Liberals for that school as they announced a ‘plan’, in inverted commas. It was a very low-key event because it was a very low-key and hollow announcement that had no real money attached. In stark contrast, Labor’s education plan was announced to the fanfare of the whole John Fawkner school community as Labor committed $14.5 million to upgrading John Fawkner as part of the real education plan. Secondly –

Cindy McLeish interjected.

Anthony CIANFLONE: Well, the Greens supported your education plan. I am going to get to that in a second, actually.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Through the Chair!

Anthony CIANFLONE: Secondly, the Liberals’ education plan specifically excluded Coburg High School from being considered as part of future education planning and investment, an absolute disgrace. Furthermore, at the time of being announced the Liberals’ education plan did not even include one single dollar towards any upgrades at Coburg High. In stark contrast, we made a $17.8 million investment commitment to build a new science and tech hub. Thirdly, and most concerningly, had the Liberals won in November the Liberals’ education plan, which was supported by the Greens – they supported it –

A member interjected.

Anthony CIANFLONE: You supported the education plan for Merri-bek North that the Liberals put out, and I will get to that in a second –

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Through the Chair.

Anthony CIANFLONE: I will get to that in a second. They sought to review the very future and very existence of the only government girls secondary school in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, Pascoe Vale Girls secondary school. Some of you may have heard my constituency question yesterday to the Minister for Education when I spoke about the leading role Pascoe Vale Girls has played in educating generations of young women from across the north since 1956. However, the Liberals’ education plan sought to review the future of Pascoe Vale Girls and in essence consider taking away the only choice for families, particularly those from culturally and linguistically diverse communities from across the north, to send their daughters to the only government girls school in the north. As stated by the school council and parents of Pascoe Vale Girls College in their letter to the Minister for Education, to me and to the member for Broadmeadows in November 2022, they strongly supported Labor’s education plan:

… we’d like to express our appreciation and gratitude for your support of our girls school.

…

With strong enrolment numbers, the College continues to be a safe place for girls from diverse backgrounds to excel and become confident, independent and successful future leaders.

We look forward to participating in the plan … to get the best results for girls of Melbourne’s North.

Today, on International Women’s Day, I am proud to say the Andrews Labor government supports women’s and girls’ education; we support Pascoe Vale Girls College, and our education plan makes provision for that. It does not compromise its future. With only 10 seconds left on the clock, there are so many other things I could get through on this motion from the member for Sandringham. I would love an extension of time if I was given indulgence, but, you know.

Tim McCURDY (Ovens Valley) (17:13): I am delighted to rise and make a contribution on the matter of public importance which was submitted by the member for Sandringham. I know the cost of living is affecting all of us. I know that people in the Ovens Valley are really hurting, and I sense all Victorians are really feeling the pinch as well. Yes, there have been interest rate hikes. There are multiple reasons why the cost of living is going up, but what is really hurting are the new taxes introduced and increased by the Andrews Labor government for Melbourne and also the cost shifting by the Andrews Labor government, this out-of-touch government.

Let me begin with interest rates. I will touch on that just briefly. That affects all Victorians. We know if you have got a mortgage it will certainly affect you as the interest rate goes up, but even if you are a renter, rental rates are directly connected and linked to real estate prices and also interest rates. It is a direct correlation, so we cannot just say home owners are the ones that are most affected. Also renters are affected, so that is starting the ball rolling and people are really feeling that pinch, but it is the other costs of living that are really causing the concern. I want to focus on some of those living pressures that are a direct result of this state government.

As we know, the Premier of this state on the eve of the 2014 election stared down the barrel of the camera when he was asked, ‘Do you promise Victorians here tonight that you will not increase taxes or introduce new taxes?’

A member: What did he say?

Tim McCURDY: He said, ‘I make that promise to every single Victorian.’ That turned out to be a big fat lie. How many taxes do you think –

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! That word is unparliamentary.

Tim McCURDY: It might be unparliamentary, Deputy Speaker, but it is the truth. I understand what you are saying –

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! I advise you not to use that word again.

Tim McCURDY: I just want to ask: how many taxes do you think have been introduced or increased? Is it 10? Is it 20? Is it 30? Forty-four new taxes and counting have been introduced since he stared down the barrel of that camera and said, ‘I make that promise to every Victorian.’ It is no wonder Victorians are feeling the pinch, because this government continuously raids the pockets of Victorian families and communities.

Let us look at education. It costs more to send a child to school in Victoria than any other state in Australia – so much for free public education. Families cannot sustain the increased cost of sending their children to public schools in communities like Wangaratta, Moyhu, Bright and Katamatite. Something has to give, and sadly we are seeing more and more families going without basic needs because the bills are just too high.

Water costs – I mean, a UN committee has stated that everyone has the right to accessible and affordable water. Well, not here in Victoria. We have seen that water authorities are just another revenue raiser for the Victorian government. Recently we caught the government out red-handed looting money from water authorities – $630 million, to be exact. Melbourne Water, Greater Western Water and Yarra Valley Water were forced to pay their profits to the government to the tune of $630 million, cleverly disguised as capital repatriations. This has been going on since 2015. Not to the same fiscal scale that it did last year, but these repatriations are being reinvested back into cost overflows and blowouts that this government has on their Big Build – or their big spend. The Treasurer and the Minister for Water have signed off on ripping millions of dollars out of water corporations when they are in desperate need of massive infrastructure investment. This money should have been reinvested into new technologies in these water authorities to make water cheaper and the water network more reliable and to make new ways for recycling water. Instead, as with all things, the government swung the axe through profitable agencies in order to prop up their waste and overruns, leaving the average Victorian worse off and with higher water bills.

Energy prices – many of the speakers in this house, particularly on this side, have spoken about energy prices. There are increases this year of up to $1000 per household, and that is absolutely shameful. That does not include what has already gone up in the past and what will go up in the future. We are talking just this year. Like the member for East Gippsland, I regularly visit people in their homes. Older people, because it is quite chilly in northern Victoria in the winter months, cannot always get out. I visit them in their homes, and I cannot believe the amount of people who have got two rugs over their legs because they simply cannot afford to put the heater on. They sit there with rugs over their legs, and the house is absolutely freezing. I walk in with a jacket on, and I nearly need to put a hat on once I walk inside because it is so damn cold. Again this government has let down Victorians when it comes to energy prices, particularly older Victorians, and they are paying a very heavy price. This is a direct result of pandering to those latte sippers in Fitzroy who want to green the universe today. They do not want to transition over time, they want to do it today. The Labor government relies on Greens preferences to get many of their candidates elected in Victoria, and that is why our pensioners cannot afford the heating in the wintertime, because Labor have done a deal with the Greens.

Let us look at finance. It is clear that the government has failed Victoria completely. They have dropped the ball on the financial future of this state, with debt sitting at levels not even the combined debt of New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania can match. The Andrews Labor government is running this state bust. They talk up their building credentials, yet one only needs to look at the overruns – $30 billion in overruns and blowouts – and now they are greedily taxing struggling Victorians, selling off and privatising anything that is not bolted down and ripping profits from fiscally responsible government agencies. This government simply cannot manage money. We know that.

Infrastructure can be built without blowing the price out by double or triple. This government needs to rein in the flow of uncontrolled capital, most of which seems to benefit their union mates – not all Victorians. With no clear plan to repay the debt that does not involve privatising VicRoads, I am waiting to see what is going to get sold next.

Regional Victorians are left to suffer. We do not have the money to invest in schools like Yarrawonga or health services in Cobram and Bright and Wangaratta, nor do we have the money to give to our councils so that they can fix up our regional roads. Regional Victorians voted overwhelmingly in favour of the National and Liberal economic plan that would get us out of debt and deliver fair amounts of funding to the regions – 25 per cent of funding to regional areas. Instead we are left with a Labor government that has completely lost control of the budget and repayments and spruiks their regional spending credentials by investing in Geelong, Bendigo and Ballarat.

Let us not forget it was Joan Kirner who started privatising the SEC by selling off Loy Yang. And do you know why that was? It was because there was a decade of Labor under Cain and Kirner that drove Victoria broke. Much like the dying days of the Kirner government, Victoria’s budget is heading to the wall. The government are being forced to privatise and sell in order to fund their irresponsible spending plans, with no clear plan or direction to change this outcome.

If the government were serious about housing and regional Victorians, they would be doing more. Instead the Andrews government is funnelling billions and billions of dollars into the Big Build in Melbourne, ignoring the near decade of neglect under this government. For a Premier who likes to talk up his country roots he seems to have a great deal of trouble finding where those roots are. Housing prices in regional Victoria are soaring, forcing many homebuyers either away from their communities or out of the market. Even the rental price in towns like Bright – beautiful Bright – has shot up by $75 a week in the past month alone and almost 70 per cent in three years, costing prospective homebuyers almost $10,000 extra in rent each year. In Yarrawonga, Wangaratta, Cobram, Myrtleford, and even in small towns like Mount Beauty, median house prices have doubled or even more, meaning buyers need bigger deposits and are paying larger mortgages and greater interest, or are unable to save the deposit because of the increased rent. Too often I am hearing stories of people who are being forced out of their rental and, despite having impeccable credentials and applying for and visiting dozens of rentals, they are forced to couch-surf at a friend’s or family place or into crisis housing. This is happening far too often.

We need to do better by our regional communities and better by our youth. The only reason they are content to rent is because they have been fed a mistruth by the Premier and the government. They are so desperate and dejected that they cannot believe they will be able to own a home one day. They still believe in the great Australian dream, and those of us on this side of the house do too. It is time for the government to stop giving up on these young Victorians, especially in the regions, and give them hope again. Let them believe again in the great Australian dream and support them, and they can pursue it. A house is a home, and it is so important to creating a family. The security of owning your own home is second to none and will give Victorians the peace of mind that they deserve.

Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (17:22): I am very happy to speak to this matter of public importance, and I was reflecting on the various points or the various elements of the MPI and I was thinking, ‘Either there’s some amnesia or they’re trying it on.’ Take your pick. I would say they are trying it on, but anyway, good luck, because they absolutely gutted TAFE. They gutted TAFE. Matthew Guy’s Liberals closed 22 TAFE campuses, cut hundreds of critical, job-ready courses –

Brad Rowswell: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, I know the member on her feet is new to the Assembly. But referring to members by their correct titles is the appropriate form of the house, and the member just did not do that.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I would encourage all members to refer to members by their correct titles.

Nina TAYLOR: Yes, I note this. I am very, very happy to be corrected on such things, and I shall take that on board. Nevertheless, it does not take anything away from the fact that the Liberals gutted TAFE, does it? Whomever you refer to, we know the Liberals absolutely gutted it. Those opposite ripped over $1 billion out of the TAFE system. They shut 22 TAFE campuses. They sacked thousands of teachers. Yet they have the nerve to turn around and look at us and say, ‘What are you doing about skills shortages? What about funding for TAFE?’ Well, let us look at you. Let us look at what you did over there. I think they are trying it on, because I think they know very well what they did. It is on record. There are no secrets here. I think they are trying it on, but we are not copping that, because we are going to say the truth, the absolute truth, as we have all throughout this MPI, as we do every day, day in, day out, just telling the truth to the Victorian people, because at the end of the day they are the ones who rely on us to make the right decisions for their futures and to invest in skills.

In stark contrast, the Labor government’s free TAFE initiative has saved students almost $300 million in fees. Get that.

A member: No way.

Nina TAYLOR: Yes. Since the Labor government introduced it in 2019, removing the barriers to training for a great new career for more than – get this – 180,000 Victorians.

A member: How many?

Nina TAYLOR: 180,000.

A member: Say it again.

Nina TAYLOR: 180,000. Three times: I think they might hear that. They were trying it on, but the facts speak for themselves, don’t they? You cannot argue about the numbers, round numbers: one, eight, zero, zero, zero, zero. There we go. It is in Hansard. It is there, and hopefully they might read it back, because they may not take it from me but they might take it from Hansard. You never know your luck.

But we will not be accused of denying students VET by those opposite. Thousands of Victorians are on the way to getting the skills they need to secure jobs in high-demand industries. The Andrews Labor government has enrolled nearly, get this, 200,000 students in free TAFE courses since the program began in 2019. You can see I am repeating a little bit here, but it is because we have had a little bit of poetic justice with this matter of public importance. They are throwing some stuff out there, seeing where it lands, seeing what we do with it. We are just going to push the facts right back at them. I think that is the best solution, don’t you? I think that is what we are here to do.

And we have added more courses to the free TAFE list so there are now, get this, 70 free TAFE courses available. Is that not brilliant? This is helping to support Victorians to get where they need to go – that is, to fill those skills shortages. We have directly put systems in place to facilitate this. Instead of gutting TAFE, which is what those opposite did, we are rebuilding TAFE for the benefit of all Victorians. This is what our government is all about, because we look after the most vulnerable, and we take away the barriers to people getting into the careers that they want and that they love – good jobs for Victorians.

I want to just bust some myths as well. There are a few. Where do you start? Take your pick – there are plenty there. I want to address the question around funding. Let me speak to this very specifically. Total government real recurrent expenditure was $1.7 billion, consistent with the pre-COVID years of 2018 and 2019. Let us get to the heart of this. Extra funding was provided to TAFEs during the COVID lockdowns in order to support them through this difficult time. This accounts for the differences in funding amounts. While those opposite during COVID had their heads in the sand and were hoping it would go away – ‘We just want to be popular. What do we say today? What do we say tomorrow? I don’t know’, not about doing the right thing, head in the sand, just denying it was ever there – we faced it head-on. We did the right thing and, guess what, we are back here. We are back here in government.

Victorians knew that we were doing the right thing. Those opposite was muddying the waters and distorting the rationale and the reason and not looking for the rationale and the reason in the funding. They were just twisting it around, making it look like a blunt negative for Victorians and frightening Victorians with these figures. We are not going to do that. We are being factual about this. We are being absolutely factual because it is not fair and this is what happened a lot during that period – they played with Victorians, didn’t they? They played with them emotionally during a very difficult time. They did. It was tortuous. But we are not going to do that; that is not who we are. We did the right thing. We looked after the health of Victorians, and here we are.

To address the skills shortages late last year the Andrews Labor government expanded the eligibility criteria for free TAFE in order to ensure more people have access to free training, not less. I heard someone opposite say we are not doing anything, that we are doing nothing to address skills shortages. Well, let me tell you, we are doing an awful lot here. We are doing an awful lot here on so many fronts. I am happy to unpack that so those opposite are not trying it on, as they do. Under the changes the government has removed the upskilling rule for access to all government-subsidised VET training and free TAFE courses in Victoria, which had prevented people enrolling in a free TAFE course if they had previously completed a higher qualification. Can you see here that we have been removing barriers? We are enhancing the ability of Victorians to get the training they need to get into those vital jobs that are needed to take Victoria forward.

More than 50,000 people have started courses in health care and social assistance since the launch of free TAFE, and over 10,000 have started their free TAFE journey in education and training, including early childhood, to help them support the rollout of the Labor government’s ambitious Best Start, Best Life reform. This is not only great for the children in early childhood education, it is also good in terms of having educators who are actually provided with high-quality training so that they can then in turn bring the best out of the children of Victoria for the future as well. So it is a win-win – it is a win in terms of having high-quality educators, but also kids are getting the best possible outcome and the best possible experience in their early childhood education too. Because the Labor government always have a holistic approach, don’t we. You cannot just take one convenient little component that is good on a little media spot, a little doorstop – just take one little segment and paint it as a cut or otherwise – and conveniently leave out the facts that underpin the decision on the particular element that is being put forward on that particular day.

Anyway, the once-in-a-lifetime limit – I just want to go further to explain the removal of the barriers – when enrolling in free TAFE courses linked to priority pathways such as community services, nursing, agriculture, early childhood, and building and construction has also been removed. These reforms are designed to address critical workforce shortages, so I hope I can allay the concerns of those opposite, because we are deliberately removing the barriers to ensure that those critical workforce shortages are addressed by opening the door for more people to get the skills they need in priority industries regardless of their previous qualifications. I can see I have only got a few seconds left. To round it off, those opposite gutted TAFE. We are rebuilding it. We are helping Victorians to get the training they need – we are removing the barriers to the training they need – to fill those critical workforce shortages.

Sam HIBBINS (Prahran) (17:32): I rise, and, look, I am a bit disappointed that the member for Ovens Valley has not stayed in the chamber, because I reckon you can get a good latte in the Ovens Valley – is it Bright, I think? Last time I was in Bright I reckon you could get a very good latte. I do not share the sentiment of the inner city towards rural Victoria that the member for Ovens Valley and other Nationals talk about, with their ‘grumble-grumble, inner-city Greens’ schtick. As everyone knows, people in the inner city and right across Melbourne absolutely love our regional areas, love visiting them, love local produce and are really keen to see those regions thrive. I know it is part of the Nat’s schtick to do the ‘You’re all against us’ sort of thing, but it really does not match up with anything that is in reality.

But this is a serious matter of public importance put forward by the member for Sandringham in regard to the cost-of-living crisis. Costs are massively, massively rising across the board, and workers have experienced the biggest real-wage cut on record – back to 2010 levels. People are being pushed even further to the margins. Those on the margins are being pushed off the cliff. Poverty is rising, more people are requiring material support, like food, like clothing. Homelessness continues to rise, and people are struggling to pay the rent, pay the mortgage, pay the bills, put food on the table or access health care. And even prior to the current crisis, so many people, particularly young people, were in a precarious position, with unaffordable housing, costs like schooling and low wage growth. In addition to this we now have the current high inflation – yes, driven by, obviously, the economic upheaval following the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, but importantly what has been found is that it certainly has not been driven by wages but in fact has been driven by corporate profits, sustained low wage growth over years and sustained corporate profiteering. And it is absolutely galling that as this crisis is hitting people at home, where increasing corporate profits are part of the cause – you have got Coles and Woolies putting up prices, you have got banks profiteering off interest rate rises – the solution on the table from the Reserve Bank is to simply make things worse for people at home and give the big banks even more of a chance to profiteer. And the risk they cite is not even more corporate profits adding to inflation but perpetuating this myth of a wage-price spiral.

And so people are rightly angry at the Reserve Bank of Australia for putting up interest rates. But more than that, people are fed up with a broken and unfair economic system – an ideology, a neoliberal ideology, that for far too long was favouring the big end of town, the people who have the most, perpetuating this myth of trickle-down economics instead of creating a society that we actually want to live in.

As I said, even outside of this cost-of-living crisis, a society like ours should not have people without a safe and secure place to call home. It should not have people going hungry. It should not have people living in poverty. It should not have people unable to access health care, mental health care and social services, people who cannot travel to work, education and training. Poverty and the society that we live in is a political choice, and the government’s role is central, is absolutely central, to making sure that everyone has what they need to live a decent life.

Now, I think it is only fair in this debate that we put solutions on the table, and to be honest, I have not heard many that have actually been put on the table beyond the bickering between the two parties. There has been lots of raising of complaints and issues but very little in regard to solutions. I think we need to absolutely guard against this myth that with the upcoming budgets there is no money, that the government cannot afford what we need, that the government is going to have to cut back because the budget is tight. The government could be raising billions of dollars of revenue from making the profiteering big banks, the property developers and the gambling industry pay their fair share, and it could be saving billions by moving away from the policies of mass incarceration and embracing real criminal justice reforms. One of the things that I have found appalling, certainly in my time here, has been the billions of dollars that has been spent on creating new prisons whilst we are in a housing and homelessness crisis – what a failure of social policy.

Now, I do want to mention at the federal level this is the case even more so. When you look at Labor and Liberal, they are in lock step over these stage 3 tax cuts on track to essentially what is very close to a flat tax system whilst leaving the rate of income support, which keeps people below the poverty line, unchanged. Increasing the low rate of income support should be a state issue. As I said to the Premier last week, he does not back away from advocating in federal policy areas when he thinks it is in the interest of Victorians. Leaving the rate of income support, leaving people in poverty, not only is that bad for people – we are keeping people in poverty – but it is a massive example of cost shifting from federal to state, because obviously people in poverty are then having to access already overstretched housing and homelessness services, already overstretched social services. People are landing up in crisis in our hospital system. This government should be advocating to the federal government, to the Prime Minister, to lift the rate of income support and to abolish the stage 3 tax cuts and reinvest that money from people who have the most to people who need it the most.

Now in regard to state issues that can address the cost of living, of course no doubt the housing crisis has really been a key focus for myself and the Greens for many years now. That is why on day one of this Parliament I introduced a private members bill to make housing a human right, to set a target for the building of public housing homes and to set a target for the funding of homelessness services. And that bill would have an aim to end homelessness by 2030. I do believe that is something that is achievable as a state, and it should be an aim for our state. The reality is there is not enough public housing being built. The waiting list continues to grow. Homelessness services do not have enough funding. They are having to turn people away.

I mean, cutting the From Homelessness to a Home program – this was supposed to be an example of what could potentially be used to end homelessness. The minister at the time said so himself, and if we can have a program like this during a pandemic, we can have it outside the pandemic.

We need to be much more interventionist in the housing system. We do need rent controls to stop these massive rent increases. We do need proper regulation of short-stays to free up housing supply. The government does need to reform stamp duty. We are seeing this taking place in the ACT; New South Wales is going in that direction. It is a reform that needs to happen in this term of Parliament to lower the up-front costs of housing.

Wages need to increase. It is extraordinary that in a time of low wage growth and high inflation we have already seen that this idea of wages adding to inflation is just not the case, and that the government has an official policy to keep wages low, representing a massive wage cut, a real wage cut, not just for public sector workers. It is clear that the government having an official wages policy that is low sends a signal to the private sector that they can keep wages low as well.

I want to touch on health. We have got the potential collapse of the bulk-billing system across the country. Now, the Premier is right to raise it as an issue, but he seems to be ignoring that the state government also has responsibility for some primary care. We have got massive waiting lists for things like public dental. The community health services are crying out for more funding, and they can provide more free GPs, more free dentists to people who need it most.

And of course when it comes to bills, we have got to get houses off fossil fuels and off gas, make the transition to cleaner, greener more energy-efficient homes and certainly not drill for more gas. So look, this is possible. We can have the society that we want to live in. We can end poverty. We can end homelessness. And we can make sure that everyone has what they need to live a decent life.

Nick STAIKOS (Bentleigh) (17:42): I rise to make a contribution on the matter of public importance submitted by the member for Sandringham and note some people in this house might be aware that the member for Sandringham and I attended the same school; we are both St Bede’s alumni. It was casual dress day one day, and the member for Sandringham turned up in a Liberal Party T-shirt. It was year 12, and he disappointed me greatly that day. But he has made up for it with this MPI. He has made up for it with this MPI because it is one big, long Dorothy Dixer. They say practice makes perfect. You know, when you are a little kid and your parents are teaching you to ride a bike, you start off with the training wheels and they just say, ‘Come on, practice makes perfect’. Eventually the training wheels come off and off you go. Well, it is just like in opposition, except in this opposition practice does not make perfect. They have been in opposition eight years, and they just get worse every single day.

Point (8) of this MPI talks about a skills crisis. Every day I sit in this chamber I am staring at a skills crisis right in the face. You know, this would have to be the worst opposition in this country, probably second only to WA, but the Liberals in WA have just two members. This is an MPI that just gives us an opportunity to talk about things like free kinder and free TAFE and to talk about what those opposite did to TAFE. It gives us the opportunity to talk about the Education State, to talk about how those opposite when they had the chance ripped out the education maintenance allowance from our public schools so that our schools could not afford to assist those most vulnerable in our school communities. We could talk about a whole host of other things. We could talk about the power saving bonus that this government introduced. We could talk about the fact that this government is bringing back the SEC – as I said, one big, long Dorothy Dixer.

Over the eight years that this government has been in power, I think its central mission has been to give dignity and opportunity to the people of Victoria. That is through a number of things, and I will start with stable housing. This government has embarked on the Big Housing Build – 12,000 new community, social and public housing properties.

Just recently I was out in Cheltenham, where we had the opening of the newest such development funded out of the Big Housing Build. I was there with a former Labor member for Bentleigh Rob Hudson, who is currently with the National Affordable Housing Consortium, and it has been his life’s work – the pursuit of social and affordable housing. I met with some of the tenants at this new building over in Cheltenham, and these were people who are able to rebuild their lives because they do not have to worry about having stable and secure housing. Because they have stable and secure housing they can go and join a free TAFE course, or they can pick up that university course that they were studying on and off because they did not have secure housing. They can actually go and get a job. This is life-changing, and we heard the member for Gippsland East during his contribution on this MPI lament the state of public housing in Victoria and also bag out this government’s record on that matter. Can I just say, if anybody wants to bring a claim into this house that those opposite actually support public housing, they will be challenged on it, because I with my own eyes have seen some disgusting campaigns that those opposite have run on public housing developments over the years and their absolute denigration and vilification of public housing tenants. It is disgraceful. Those opposite have never supported public housing, and frankly for them to come in here and for the member for Gippsland East to start talking about those issues, it is really just an act of hypocrisy.

But it is not just our investment in the Big Housing Build, it is also stamp duty concessions and exemptions to first home buyers – we have paid those out to 44,000 first home buyers – but it is also the government’s shared equity scheme as well. These are all things that are making a difference, but this government has also introduced universal three- and four-year-old kinder but also free kinder. Free kinder from this year is saving families up to $2500 per child per year, which is a significant saving but also a significant economic reform in many other ways, because when you think about investing in our people it is the best thing our government can do. Whether it is free kinder, universal kinder, whether it is the Education State, whether it is investing in the best possible public education, whether is investing in free TAFE, this is the best possible economic reform because it is investing in the skills of tomorrow, and that is what this government is all about.

If I can just stop on the issue of TAFE, because part (8) of this MPI does talk about the skills crisis and talks about TAFE. I think it has been well canvassed during this debate today that the former government really did take the axe to TAFE. We have heard that they cut more than $1 billion out of the TAFE system and closed 22 campuses, but let me go through the impact on the students themselves. During that time enrolments at TAFEs in Victoria dropped by 33 per cent. That was the effect of this massive cut by the former government, and the number of students in apprenticeships and traineeships was down by 40 per cent – then those opposite talk about a skills crisis. There was a 29 per cent decline in young people aged 15 to 19 in government-funded training, and the number of regional students in training fell by 19 per cent. It is well known that this government over eight years has taken a different approach to TAFE, and we are proud of that.

Of that very exhaustive, that long free TAFE list, one of the most popular free TAFE courses is the diploma of nursing. That is run out of Holmesglen TAFE’s Moorabbin campus. Holmesglen TAFE, in addition to running the diploma of nursing for free – prior to this reform it cost about $13,000 or $14,000 to get your diploma of nursing – Holmesglen is also the only TAFE institute in Australia to offer the bachelor of nursing. So if you are a Holmesglen student in Moorabbin, right in the heart of my electorate, you can complete your diploma of nursing for free, you can then move on to a bachelor of nursing – thanks to this government – currently for free and you can then do your clinical training on site at the Holmesglen hospital.

That is what our TAFE system can achieve when you have a government that backs it in, not when you have a government that just rips the guts out of the TAFE system, and that is exactly what those opposite did. We could go on about a whole lot of other things, because this is quite a lengthy MPI. It says stuff in here about debt. When I read the reference in here to debt –

Brad Rowswell interjected.

Nick STAIKOS: Yeah, yeah, I will come to that briefly; I have got just over a minute left. We remember 48 hours before the last election the then Shadow Treasurer – they have upgraded, I am happy to say, but David Davis was the Shadow Treasurer prior to the election – came out and did not know what his costings were. He came out to announce his costings 48 hours prior to the election and did not know what the costings were, so what credibility have they got opposite?

As I said at the outset, this is a mob that after eight years just gets worse. Do not take my word for it. The numbers do not lie. Every election – 2014, 2018, 2022 – they have just gotten worse. They are the second worst opposition in this country, beaten only by the Western Australian Liberals. They do have a lot of soul-searching to do on that side of the house. They need to address their own skills crisis before they come in here and lecture this government on a whole raft of things, including the cost of living, education and things like public housing. None of us believe that those opposite care one dot about any of those things. This really is a ridiculous MPI. I am, however, grateful that it was submitted because it has given those on this side of the house the opportunity to talk about the fantastic achievements that this government has made on behalf of the people of Victoria.

Jess WILSON (Kew) (17:52): I am very pleased to have the opportunity to speak on this matter of public importance submitted by the member for Sandringham. The member for Sandringham did ask for input – as he does; he is a very collegiate colleague – on this MPI today, and to be honest it was hard to stop at just eight points. The eight points on this MPI today around the cost of living are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the pressure that Victorians are under.

Cost of living is no doubt the number one issue raised with me in my electorate. Whether it is energy prices skyrocketing, the cost of sending your kids to school or just going to the supermarket to buy basic groceries, it is getting harder and harder to make ends meet. This is at the same time that the Andrews government presides over record debt – net debt that is set to reach over $165 billion by 2025–26. The Premier and his government clearly have no plan as to how to pay down this massive debt. It will be generations of Victorians – generations that come after me – that will be burdened with this massive debt. They will be burdened with higher taxes. By 2025–26 the forecast interest repayments on the debt are $7.4 billion a year, and with every RBA interest rate rise like yesterday – the 10th in a row – we are seeing hundreds of millions of dollars added to that interest repayment bill. This net debt is a result, in many ways, of $30 billion of major project cost blowouts. That is a huge amount. Imagine what that money could have been spent on.

Just one example of this is the North East Link, a project that will have significant ramifications for the electorate of Kew and that my constituents do not feel they have been heard on. It was promised to the people of Victoria at a cost of $5 billion. It is now expected to be one of the most expensive transport projects in the history of this state at a record $18 billion.

Brad Rowswell: How much?

Jess WILSON: $18 billion, member for Sandringham. That is a $13 billion blowout on one single project. This is just not sustainable. No family would run their household budget in this irresponsible manner, and Victorians expect their government to do better.

We have heard over recent days some quotes from the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry from the other side, and I thought I would read this one in today. This is from the chamber’s budget submission released a couple of days ago for the Victorian budget. The chamber states:

The Government should also focus on fiscal repair to reduce the State’s debt via cost reduction and project control. It’s imperative that the forecasted path to budget surplus is met …

Well, we on this side of the house could not agree more with the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. And it is important to remind those on the other side of the house that this debt, this mismanagement of the state’s finances, this overspend on projects is spending Victorians’ hard-earned dollars. This is taxpayer dollars, and they want to see value for that money.

As the Shadow Minister for Home Ownership and Housing Affordability on this side of the house, I want to spend some time talking about this problematic area for many Victorians. Housing affordability has long been a topic of conversation around the barbecue, as I am sure many of us know in this place, with tales of lost auctions and disbelief at listed auction prices and then the final price. While the current moderation of housing prices in Melbourne and regional Victoria helps those wishful owners put together a deposit, with each interest rate rise we see the capacity to borrow fall. And this week, as I have said, we have seen the 10th straight interest rate rise adding more stress to household budgets and putting home ownership further out of reach.

The rate of home ownership has been in decline for decades, especially amongst young Victorians – those first home buyers that are looking for their little piece of this great state. It is not because, unlike those on the other side like to believe, this cohort no longer wants their own piece of the Australian dream. Just like previous generations, they too want the financial and the social security that home ownership brings. It is because incentives are not aligned to affordability. Let us start with the obvious. Housing affordability is an issue because house prices are increasing quicker than purchasers’ incomes are increasing. The Australian housing-price-to-income ratio has increased more than one-third since 2015, according to OECD data. As of June 2022, ANZ reported that the proportion of annual household income required to service a new mortgage increased to 43.1 per cent in Melbourne and 42.8 per cent across the rest of Victoria. This is up from 40.2 per cent in Melbourne and 30 per cent in regional Victoria in March 2020.

It is obvious who benefits from higher house prices – owners, investors, banks and real estate agents. What is less obvious are some of the biggest winners of all – state governments. State governments are relying on property taxes, and Victoria is one of the worst offenders. Under the Andrews Labor government at least 20 separate property-related taxes have been introduced or increased. Stamp duty and land tax, as I said in my first speech in this place, now make up almost half of all taxation revenue in a given year. Previous data from the Housing Industry Association reveals that Victoria has the highest stamp duty burden in the nation. Of course I am sure that many of us are hearing from our local constituents – I know that we on this side of the house are – that land tax is a real hit to many mum-and-dad investors, and the massive 25 per cent increase in land tax revenue this year will mean rents will have to increase yet again for many Victorians who are already struggling to pay their rents. The CEO of the Real Estate Institute of Victoria has said that skyrocketing land tax bills are hurting the battlers and that:

… 80 per cent of investors into rental real estate across Australia are people who own one property and earn under $90,000 …

It is clear that there is an inherent conflict at the heart of housing affordability and home ownership policy, especially when the state’s finances are in the red.

Not only is this government putting up taxes and making home ownership and housing affordability more and more out of reach, but there is a shock drop in the number of new build approvals, making it even harder for home owners. We saw recent data released from the ABS that shows the total of dwelling units approved fell 38.6 per cent for the month, well above the national average, and we are down 11.9 per cent for the 12 months to January 2023. A fall in dwelling approvals means a decrease in new housing stock coming onto the market, which only places more pressure on prices. These latest figures confirm that the continued fall in housing affordability under the Andrews Labor government makes it harder and harder for Victorians to own their home, particularly for first home buyers.

Turning back to the cost-of-living pressures that this MPI is focused on, we heard from my colleagues on this side of the house that Melbourne is the most expensive city for public education, 17 per cent higher than the national metropolitan average for government schools, with over $13,000 more per child in Melbourne than Sydney in government schools. We heard that the average cost of household gas bills increased by around $675, a 45 per cent increase, in the year ending January 2023, and households in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs and Gippsland faced the steepest rise in energy bills, with an increase of nearly $1000. All of this adds up to the fact that Victorians cannot make ends meet, and we are constantly hearing that from our constituents.

I will finish where the member for Sandringham started. NAB’s recent financial hardship survey, released earlier this month, shows that 37 per cent of Victorians experience financial hardship, with 8 per cent of Victorians experiencing the inability to pay rent on time. This is the highest rate in Australia. Twenty per cent of Victorians experience not having enough for an emergency situation, while 15 per cent of Victorians experience not having enough for food and basic necessities. This is unacceptable, and as we have spoken about today, this is the result of poor financial management in this state – whether it is on education policy, where Victorian families are paying more than any other place in Australia but the Victoria government is spending less on their children’s education or whether it is on energy policy, where we are seeing bills increase, whether that is for households or for small businesses. We are seeing that when it comes to housing affordability. We are seeing the lack of investment in skills and training. All of this comes together to mean it is a little bit harder to do life in Victoria, and we on this side of the house will continue to stand up for hardworking Victorians.