Thursday, 22 June 2023

Motions

Budget papers 2023–24

Debate resumed.

Alison MARCHANT (Bellarine) (14:50): It is great to rise again. Just before the break I was speaking about how proud I am to be the member for Bellarine and what a privilege it is to represent that community but indicating that we want to get on with delivering. The last member was a wonderful member for that community and delivered so much for the Bellarine, and we want to continue to build on that legacy – and this budget certainly does that. I was going to talk about some of those commitments that we made and that were fully delivered in this last budget, and I would like to talk a little bit about what they will mean for the Bellarine community and what difference that will make for our communities.

Sport and wellbeing and keeping our families and kids active is really important across the Bellarine. It is a wonderful place to raise a family, and we are really fortunate to have wonderful facilities. But there was always more to do, and I am really pleased to be able to commit some funding to provide some further investments and upgrades.

The Barwon Heads Football and Netball Club will receive an upgrade of $2.4 million to help redevelop their clubrooms. This will be a new facility that the community will really be proud of, but I remember being at the announcement during the campaign, when female players were saying that these would make a huge difference to their ability to play at that club when changing for feeling safe at that club. It will make a huge difference when they have seen a really considerable amount of growth in women playing sport and in their junior sides as well.

The Collendina Reserve will also receive an investment of $1 million. At the moment their club is just booming. It is actually the biggest sporting club, or biggest footy club, on the Bellarine, and they do an incredible job. They have got so many volunteers, and they are really community driven. But their ground is quite unsafe in terms of how the traffic flows around the ground and where their clubrooms are, so I am really pleased that we will be able to make an investment on that ground and at that reserve to improve the safety. I will just say: go Cobras.

One of the big commitments too that we made in this election was to make sure that the north Bellarine have the aquatics facility that they need and rightly deserve, particularly for some of the more senior people or people that were doing rehabilitation, who were having to travel quite a bit to go to other facilities. This was a $20 million commitment that we said we would put into the northern Bellarine to build a facility that would cater for those people and for children to be able to learn to swim as well. There is an outdoor pool being built there now. It is outdoors; the community did not want an outdoor pool. I will not go into the politics of that commitment – it was at a federal level. But the community have said to me that they will not use that facility. They need an indoor pool that caters for their growing communities. I said at the time it should have been built once and built properly. We have had to now step in as a state. I am really proud that we have been able to do that, and stage 2 will now be delivered and an indoor facility will be there for the community. I am really proud of that.

The Portarlington Recreation Reserve will also have an upgrade to make sure that they have got some safe accessibility and an upgrade of their change rooms as well. It is a wonderful reserve that is used by quite a number of users – the agricultural society is there as well – and so this will be a wonderful upgrade to start with. Unfortunately, we have come to a situation where the Geelong city council have frozen their support for this project and frozen the part of the funding they had committed. They have come to the state to say, ‘Oh, do you think you could keep going with the project?’ It is unbelievably disappointing, but we do want to get on with it. I want to make sure that that community get the commitment that we promised and the upgrades that they deserve, so I am working really hard with that community to make sure that that progresses and does not stall.

In my inaugural speech I said – and I have said this consistently in the electorate and here in this place – that community would be at the heart of any decision-making that we make, and I am really proud to support some of the smaller communities that are on the Bellarine. The SpringDale Neighbourhood Centre are going to receive a $50,000 grant just to help them with their continued service to their community, such as with technology; they help the seniors with public transport information, training sessions, cooking and that general social connectedness that they offer. Anne Brackley and the team there do an absolutely amazing job, and I am really pleased to support the neighbourhood house. They have also been wonderful in supporting the power saving bonus – residents can go there to have help with accessing that bonus.

The St Leonards Progress Association also will receive some upgrades to their hall, enabling them to deliver services and programs to the community. It is one of those beautiful old country town halls. This upgrade will make sure that their flooring is improved, and it is a wonderful community hub there for the St Leonards community.

St Leonards also is going to receive some money for some boat ramp upgrades and the St Leonards Pier – $2.8 million for the St Leonards boat ramp, including wave protection to make sure we are reducing the impact of waves during the boat launching and retrieval process. Safety is a big issue at that ramp, so I am really pleased that we are able to make that commitment for upgrades for the boaters there. Boating is absolutely huge on the Bellarine. On the weekends or even during the week when I am driving around the Bellarine, the car parks will be full of trailers and boats. They really love their fishing, and it is good fishing off our coastline. They are spoilt for choice though, our boaters. We have the Clifton Springs boat ramp, Point Richards, Indented Head, St Leonards, Swan Bay, Queenscliff, Ocean Grove and Barwon Heads. As you go around the whole coast, we are very spoilt for choice, and many of these have seen upgrades, with the previous member advocating for investment in those.

I just want to point out that I have been really pleased to engage with the St Leonards boaters. They have been really terrific advocates for the upgrades and have been involved in consultation, and I thank them very much for doing that consultation with me and Better Boating Victoria. The St Leonards Pier also will have a major upgrade and some rebuilding work, making sure that it continues to be an iconic pier. As you drive down the main street, Murradoc Road, into St Leonards, you then drive basically to the pier. It is very much loved. Lots of fishermen, fisherwomen and children fish off there, which is just wonderful. It is much loved, and a rebuild will be incredible.

I have spoken about this in this place before, but the Queenscliff neighbourhood battery will be an absolutely wonderful addition in the Queenscliff area. We have committed to 100 of these across Victoria, and I am really pleased that one will be in my electorate.

The Wallington Primary School will see an upgrade to their main school buildings. Having visited there, they have a wonderful country-school feel about them. They will have some upgrades to some of their classrooms and the main building, which will be much loved. The staff and the principal there just have a wonderful commitment to their children, but now they will also receive some funding to make sure they have got world-class facilities as well.

The Queenscliff marine search and rescue vessel investment means that the Queenscliff coastguard will be able to have a new boat to make sure that they can continue the work that they do to keep our community safe. Just as we may call the SES, the CFA or the police, boaters who find themselves in trouble, either in the bay or in very dangerous waters out near the rip out of Port Phillip Bay, will be able to call on the coastguard if they need it. The coastguard’s new boat will ensure that they will be able to endure the treacherous waters off Queenscliff. So I am really pleased to be able to commit to a new vessel for the Queenscliff coastguard. It will give boaters that peace of mind.

In addition, the Portarlington region – the statistical area of Portarlington, which does include the St Leonards area as well – will receive one of the 50 government owned and run childcare centres, which is really important for families in the Bellarine. We have seen a real growth in that region. The St Leonards community does not have a childcare facility at the moment. We are looking at where this may be located, but I am really pleased that one will be located in that statistical Portarlington level 2 region. Having affordable child care for families in the Bellarine is so important, giving parents, and particularly mothers, that option of returning to work and giving their children that best possible start in life in a childcare centre.

Regional Victoria has seen a lot of investment. I am really proud to be a regional MP, and I absolutely love living on the Bellarine. So many who have come from Melbourne particularly to live in our region have come for that quieter lifestyle, but it is still easily accessible to Melbourne and Geelong. I am proud that we have invested in the regions, such as with fairer V/Line fares, free kinder and upgrades to the Geelong hospital – there will be a new children’s emergency ward at the Geelong hospital. One of the women’s health clinics will be in Geelong, in our region. We have a new mental health hub being built. Youth mental health services and beds are coming to Geelong as well. In the construction phase right now is a new early parenting centre to support new families. We are supporting thousands of jobs by bringing back the SEC. There is a duplication of the Barwon Heads Road, free TAFE and free rego for apprentices, which will benefit our region. The list is actually quite long, and I have not got time to list them all. I cannot wait to see all of these projects get underway and to deliver on those commitments that we promised.

I am so proud of the Bellarine communities. They look after each other, they support one another and they get involved in their communities. We have so many who volunteer and give back to our communities, and I know that these investments that we have made are there to support their efforts. That is what we do: we support our communities, and this investment will continue to build on that community wellbeing and continue to improve the area in which we live.

James NEWBURY (Brighton) (15:02): I rise to speak on the take-note motion on the 2023–24 budget papers. It is an opportunity for members to speak to the government’s financial management of the state and the allocation of funding. This most recent budget was tagged by the government as ‘Doing what matters’. What struck me when I first received a copy of the budget and opened the budget papers was how much the government has chosen to ignore parts of the community. I will speak about financial management later, but I do want to raise the point that the government has chosen to ignore so many important community issues. As the member for Brighton I represent Brighton, Brighton East, Elwood, Hampton and Hampton East, and there are so many issues in our community that are being ignored.

Before the budget I wrote to the Premier personally, and the first issue that I spoke to was the issue of community safety. It is an issue that has been raised over the last year. The Brighton community has spoken out about safety issues in our community – aggravated burglaries, home invasions in our community. When those issues were first raised the government and the Premier himself victim-blamed one of the women in my community who raised them. He effectively said that she did not understand data on crime and that she should understand data better. Well, what we have seen proven by Victorian police, in terms of both the data and also the words from the most senior of Victorian police, is that there is a problem with community safety in Victoria and particularly Brighton.

There has been a 30 per cent increase in aggravated burglaries. Over the last 10 years in my community aggravated burglaries have increased by almost 600 per cent. We have the highest level of aggravated burglaries in this state that we have ever seen. Unfortunately – though in my view and so many in my community’s view, our community is the number one place in Melbourne – we are in the top five locations in Melbourne now for aggravated burglaries, and that is a terrible position to be in.

One of the main concerns of my community, a concern that we raised throughout the last year, is the need for increased police resources in our community, including a police station. Unfortunately the last Labor government shut the police station in Brighton, and we do not have a local police station. So our community is short on resources, and we have seen that both in terms of responses and visual presence of police. It is concerning, and it is even more concerning to see that, as a result of the concerns being raised, that is being reflected in the data. So over the last year we have seen a dramatic increase in crime in my community specifically.

Mary-Anne Thomas: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, it is a bit rich to have to sit in this place and listen to the member for Brighton talk about crime in his community. This is a man –

James NEWBURY: Acting Speaker, what is the point of order?

Mary-Anne Thomas: who routinely demonstrates bullying behaviour in this place –

Members interjecting.

Mary-Anne Thomas: and I ask you to bring him back –

The ACTING SPEAKER (Meng Heang Tak): Order! There is no point of order.

James NEWBURY: There is no point of order, Acting Speaker. How appalling, Acting Speaker.

The Brighton community over the last year has seen an increase in crime, and the budget was an opportunity for the Premier and this government to invest in fixing –

Members interjecting.

James NEWBURY: It was absolutely the opportunity for the government to fix the problems in my community, to increase the resources of police in my community, and they did not do that.

I will also speak to the local schools in my community, because what we have seen reported is a 93 per cent allocation of school funding into Labor seats and a 6 per cent allocation of funding into Liberal seats. In my electorate there are a number of schools that have been well deserving of funds – schools that have not seen funding for decades. I will talk specifically first about Brighton Primary. Brighton Primary houses one of four of Melbourne’s hearing-impaired units for the deaf. It is a wonderful school that does wonderful work for children, and that school has, as I said, one of the four specialist units for the deaf. That unit at Brighton Primary is in a demountable, a 50-year-old demountable, next to a train line.

I mean, when we stand in this place, all of us as members of this place, we often stand and talk about the needs of our community and the needs of the children in our community. One of the things I think we can all agree on is the need for our children to have the best resources available and resources they deserve. I do not think anybody in here would think that the four schools that house hearing units for the deaf should not have the resources that are commensurate to the needs that they have. Unfortunately the particular site at Brighton Primary, though the school is wonderful, with wonderful staff and well-meaning staff, who try so hard and work so hard – I am sure we can all agree on how difficult it would be for staff to try to assist children with hearing difficulties as trains regularly roll past on the Sandringham line. The unit is literally metres away from the Sandringham line. It would be only fair and reasonable for that school community to have an allocation of resources. The coalition are represented by 36 per cent of the seats in this chamber and received 6 per cent of the funding.

There are a number of other schools with similar needs, and I refer to Gardenvale Primary and Hampton Primary, two schools who were promised money in the election, and not a single dollar was committed to those schools in the state budget – not one single dollar. The government went to the election committing to funding, and the budget does not include a single dollar for those schools in terms of capital works – not one dollar. Hampton Primary is a wonderful school in our community, a wonderful school, and to think the whole school community has opened the budget and has seen the forward years – the four forward years are there in the budget for the whole school community to see. And I know how many in the school community, separate to any politics, have contacted the minister saying, ‘Will we ever get any money? Will you put it in writing? You said before the election we would receive money, and then post the election we have received nothing.’ It is so terribly sad to know that these schools have not received funding that they deserve – like Brighton Beach Primary School. A recent audit found 1236 items that deserve attention, and the school has not received a dollar. None of these schools are listed in the budget for capital works.

Mary-Anne Thomas: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, I am not persuaded that the member for Brighton is actually telling the truth, and I want to make this point while I am on my feet: this man today has demonstrated that he is a bully in this house.

Members interjecting.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Meng Heang Tak): Order! One at a time, please.

James NEWBURY: There was no point of order.

Mary-Anne Thomas: My point of order was on relevance and the importance of telling the truth in this place in relation to funding to schools.

Members interjecting.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Meng Heang Tak): I need to listen to the minister at the table’s point of order. If you would give me one moment, I think I would much appreciate that. There is no point of order.

James NEWBURY: Thank you. I note that now there have been two points of order raised when I am talking about the needs of children in my community. I am talking about the needs of hearing-impaired children in my community and then have spoken about little children in Hampton and little children at Brighton Beach Primary, little children that deserve funding. Their schools deserve funding, and the government is taking spurious points of order when a member is standing in this place representing their community, calling for school funding.

I would like the record to show, and I hope the families of my school community see, what has occurred, because the facts are there to see in this place – that I am raising the genuine needs of my community, the genuine needs of my schools, schools like Brighton Primary, Brighton Beach Primary, Hampton Primary, Elwood Primary, Brighton Secondary and Elwood College. Elwood College unfortunately has significant issues with their basketball court and with their theatre – significant issues. You are talking about decades-old infrastructure that frankly is concerning. In the gym, pieces of the roof are hanging down. In the Phoenix Theatre at Elwood College, there are structural concerns with the building that require investment, and that investment has not been forthcoming. Why? It is because 93 per cent of school funding is directed to Labor electorates and 6 per cent is directed to Liberal-held seats.

These are genuine issues. There are many infrastructure needs in my community, including sporting facilities for our children. There are a number of terrific sporting clubs. In fact we have the best sporting clubs in Melbourne in my community, and those children deserve funding for their infrastructure as well. Brighton Beach Oval has a very old pavilion that deserves an upgrade. There are a number of pavilions. The Wattie Watson Oval pavilion in Elwood is in real need of funding. These are important infrastructure projects in my community that deserve investment, and that investment has not been forthcoming. The Jack Levy Pavilion at Moorabbin West reserve is a particular example. That pavilion has been promised funds for 10 years. Three times it has been listed in a council budget. It has seen no funding. Three times it has been listed to be funded and that funding has been withdrawn. It is another example of the young children in the community deserving funding and that funding not being received.

When it comes to local police resources, we have seen a significant increase in aggravated burglaries. Aggravated burglary concerns were first raised by the community before the stats had picked them up, and that makes perfect sense. If you were listening to the community, you would know the concerns that they have raised. The community raised concerns about crime which were dismissed but have proven to be true. Despite those crimes having been proved to be true, no action has actually been taken. No resources have been invested. The government members are laughing about aggravated burglaries increasing by 30 per cent – the government members are laughing about the aggravated burglary increases in the community.

It is deeply disappointing to know that there has been a spike in crime and an issue with schools not receiving the funding they deserve, and that is the truth of this budget. The truth of this budget is the government is not doing what matters, and it certainly has forgotten Brighton, Brighton East, Elwood, Hampton and Hampton East.

Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (15:18): I am very pleased to rise and speak on the budget for 2023–24 and what it actually translates to for the seat of Albert Park and beyond, because there are many benefits that transcend to the whole state and indeed to all Victorians. One thing in particular I do want to raise to start with is that we are bringing back the SEC –

Members interjecting.

Nina TAYLOR: yes, fantastic for Victoria – to drive down power bills and create thousands of jobs in renewable government-owned energy. I note that there were some comments made yesterday by members of the Greens. They were trying to suggest that social media posts are what actually effect change in terms of moving away from fossil fuels to clean energy. In fact I can enlighten them that actually social media posts are not the trick. That is not what makes real change when it comes to cleaning our environment. It is real investment. An initial $1 billion investment in the SEC will help to deliver 4.5 gigawatts of power – get this, the equivalent replacement capacity of Loy Yang A – through renewable energy projects. How about that? That is real investment driving real change for this state, not just fancy little social media posts.

This is on the back of extraordinary investment from our state and sophisticated market mechanisms to drive investment in renewables. We had the Victorian renewable energy target 1. That was so successful, that market sounding, we now have the Victorian renewable energy target 2, and the benefit of that is that is helping to move us along to 100 per cent renewable energy, which helps to clean up, so to speak, our public transport system and government buildings. I am really excited about these changes, and I know that the people of Albert Park will be as well, because they are very passionate about making sure we are doing all we can to transition to a clean energy future, and that is exactly what we are doing.

A member interjected.

Nina TAYLOR: Yes, the member for Polwarth may not be so excited about that, but on this side of the house we certainly are.

At the same time, it will help to support 59,000 jobs for the people of Victoria. Drilling back down to the seat of Albert Park specifically, we should say there is also going to be a community battery for the local LGA of Port Phillip. We know that with the seat of Albert Park we have the City of Port Phillip and the City of Melbourne that intersect. I am really excited about that, because there again we can see that we are finding modern mechanisms to be able to store energy, and this is also helping with our clean energy revolution in Victoria.

For the seat of Albert Park, we have some wonderful investment in local schools, and I should point out that we have a more than $2 billion investment in schools across Victoria. We will also, for the seat of Albert Park, begin planning to upgrade Middle Park Primary School. That is a very fine school in my local electorate, but it is an older school. It is pretty old. I think it was back in the 1800s that it was built. So it is time for it to get some real investment. This is really exciting, and I am glad to see that those planning processes can get underway for those upgrades. We are also investing to make sure students have the classrooms they need, and in particular Fishermen’s Bend is going to get a primary school as well. This is really exciting. Not too far away –

Darren Cheeseman: What were they doing in Fishermen’s Bend when they were in government?

Nina TAYLOR: Well, I do not know. I think there was a lot of development, but it did not include schools and amenity. They forgot about amenity when they were investing in planning. Who knew that amenity had to accompany planning when you are looking at planning in your local area? Never mind. Well, at least the Labor government has helped to catch up in that space, so to speak, and has put record investment into local schools, and I also pay homage to my predecessor as well in that regard, out of respect.

I should say, with the nearby Port Melbourne Secondary College already built, and this is a Labor government investment – absolutely fantastic – is that of course around schools you also need to make sure that roads are nice and safe and accommodate and support children coming to and from school, so the good news is that we are fixing the local roads around that school with our $1.5 million investment towards safety upgrades. I am really looking forward to working that through with the local community. This includes a traffic action plan and works towards improved traffic safety. It will deliver infrastructure signage and pedestrian access to get local drivers out of the traffic and home to their schools sooner and safer. This is a real positive. I know that locals definitely have wanted this, and I am pleased that we are going to be able to deliver as well.

Moving along to health and in particular women’s health, because we know that Labor are literally moving this matter from what has unfortunately been traditionally seen more as a niche issue to something getting the focus it needs and deserves, there is going to be a new, comprehensive women’s health clinic at the Alfred hospital, and this will change the way women’s health issues are treated, providing care and support for conditions like endometriosis, pelvic pain, polycystic ovary syndrome, perimenopause and menopause. I am really excited about that, because that is sort of the closest major hospital for the seat of Albert Park. It is very meaningful for women in our local area, and I am pleased that it is our government that is backing it in.

What about mental health? We know that our government has been including an extraordinary investment, a historic investment, in reforms in that space, and I am pleased that we will begin planning for a new mental health and wellbeing centre in St Kilda to ensure more locals can get the help they need and that it is truly accessible at a community level. I think this is going to be really, really important, and I am pleased that there has been funding committed to planning for that very important local community facility.

What about our surf lifesaving clubs? Well, I am also excited because the Port Melbourne Life Saving Club is going to get an upgrade to the toilet block and lift to support accessibility, which is really important. I actually know a lot of people in the club very well, and I know how hard they work. The volunteers there – oh, my goodness! – they put in hours and hours and hours incredibly selflessly. It makes good sense, however, to make sure that they have a truly accessible facility, so this is going to bring about some fantastic change for that local building.

I will talk about the Port Melbourne Bowling Club – fantastic club, all heart; the members there are absolutely fantastic. But the facility is arguably quite tired, so I am really pleased that they are getting a $1 million investment. This is going to be truly transformational for that wonderful club – people who contribute so much to the local community, spend a lot of time really bringing people together – and it really makes good sense that we are bringing about effective change there as well as helping them with their upgrades.

Talking about green space, I live in Southbank and I am particularly aware of it. But across the state arguably everyone wants green space. Open space is really, really important, and I am really pleased that we are going to be investing $1.5 million to support the creation of the Dodds Street Linear Park. This is going to be really quality open and green space and somewhere for the Southbank community to meet with friends and family and relax, because we know that there are a lot of very tall buildings there and it is really good to be able to provide a really nice open green space where people can connect in a relaxed and enjoyable way.

I should also say that the budget is providing more support for our proud, diverse multicultural communities who contribute so much to our state. We have got a $77 million investment, and it is really about supporting things like vibrant festivals that truly bring people together, events and new and improved community spaces. These indeed are spreading right across the state. I am not talking only about the seat of Albert Park, but I am really pleased to see this kind of investment, because we want to make sure Victorians practise their faith and embrace their culture free from racism and hatred, and this is certainly part of our government backing in these kinds of very meaningful support mechanisms to enable people to connect in a safe way and to honour what is truly meaningful to them.

I also want to mention community support. We have got many wonderful community organisations that do a power of work locally, and it would be remiss of me not to mention the Sacred Heart Mission. I am really pleased that they are getting a $100,000 grant, and we know that the wonderful Sacred Heart Mission provide clothing, meals and support services to people experiencing homelessness across the St Kilda and Southbank areas. It only makes sense that we back those in who are truly doing amazing work for people who are struggling in our local community.

We also have $100,000 for the Nappy Collective. This enables them to keep supporting families across the state. It is a really truly wonderful organisation, and I know that it is essentially volunteer-run. It is just lovely. It actually warms your heart to know that there are people who are giving so much time and energy to others, so it is a great pleasure that we can help to back them in, and I know that this is going to make some meaningful change for that organisation as well.

There is $100,000 for Ready Set. I visited Ready Set, and the incredible work that they do is truly transformational. We might think of clothing as a superficial element beyond that which provides warmth or keeps you cool in summer, but actually when you are wanting to apply for a job, you need to have reasonable presentation generally speaking, and this enables people to get clothing they might not otherwise be able to afford. At the same time they also help them with their confidence generally, so it is so much more. It is a great service. It is so much more than just the clothing itself. Granted, that is essential and certainly necessary when you are wanting to get back into the workforce or maybe to get a job for the first time, but also they do incredible work in building people’s self-esteem and helping them and supporting them in those necessary steps when they are actually at an interview point. So it is really inspiring to see these changes coming through as well, and this is a real positive coming out of the budget.

The budget will also make sure residents in high-rise public housing towers are comfortable all year round, with a $141 million investment to begin delivering air conditioning to their buildings. I know that there are a number of high-rise public housing towers in the seat of Albert Park, and so these changes will certainly be most gratefully received. Further, I just want to speak to some of the continuing mechanisms to help with the cost of living, because I know there have been a lot of comments about cost of living in the chamber and I think it is important to not lose sight of these, because they do benefit people not only in the seat of Albert Park but actually across the state.

Some of the measures that we have to help support household budgets include a new round of the $250 per saving bonus for all Victorians. I believe that the seat of Albert Park has one of the highest uptakes of this mechanism. I am really pleased about that because it suggests that on the one hand there is a need for it, for sure, and we know that goes without saying, but also that people recognise the benefit of it and that it can actually help them get through winter in particular, when heating costs et cetera can go up. We know that there are worldwide pressures that are driving in this space.

We also have the Victorian default offer, which in 2023–24 will still be cheaper than the price of standing offers prior to the Victorian default offer’s introduction in 2019. We are extending the solar homes and batteries program into 2022–23, with 64,000 solar rebates and 1700 battery rebates available. I am only just getting warmed up here. There is so much more.

We have capped V/Line fares, and I know even for people in the seat of Albert Park this is an incentive to go and visit regional areas as well. It is a quid pro quo. It benefits both people in the city areas and people in regional areas, and it is really exciting and means that people who might not otherwise necessarily be able to afford to do that can do that now. I think it is really driving equity in our state but is also a good incentive for those who might want to travel to regional Victoria and help boost their local economies as well.

We have free L-plate and P-plate licences and online testing. Again, this is a really good cost-of-living measure helping those who want to, obviously, get qualified so they can drive safely, so this is a really good thing. We have discounted driver licence renewals for safe drivers. That is another cost benefit. We have short-term vehicle registration and car registration discounts for eligible concession card holders. So there are all these mechanisms. When you are looking at cost-of-living measures it is never just one thing or another; it is a whole range of mechanisms throughout the budget – and ongoing, I should say, not exclusively with the budget – that enable Victorians, just helping them to get ahead in times that are really, really challenging.

I just did want to mention also the $1 billion annually in stamp duty exemptions and concessions and first home owner grants and the Victorian Homebuyer Fund, a shared equity scheme contributing 25 per cent of the purchase price. So you can see various mechanisms which are helping those who are trying to get into the market as well.

We have free TAFE to give Victorians more training and new careers. This is certainly a plus when you are looking at the benefit of education. There is a cap of one residential rent rise per 12 months – there is a power of work going on in that space overall, but just to say these are some of the measures that are in place to help support Victorians.

Richard RIORDAN (Polwarth) (15:33): I rise this afternoon to take note of this year’s budget. This 2023–24 state budget is the one that is really making country and regional Victorians pay a heavy price for the wanton waste of taxpayers money, the mismanagement of the state as a whole, and unfortunately I fear greatly, particularly for the people of Polwarth, that we will be a long time coming back from the bills, the burdens, the debt and the consequences of this investment.

We will go through this afternoon some of those issues that are really making it very hard for the people of Polwarth and regional Victorians generally. A few of the government members have talked about an opportunity for city people to get out to regional Victoria and help support our economies. Well, we always like that. I mean, that is great for regional Victoria and particularly Polwarth, with the Great Ocean Road, our beautiful coastline, the Otway state forest and so on – and national parks. However, this budget has delivered, between this year and last year, a 45 per cent cut to regional road funding. What that means for country Victorians is it is no longer safe on our roads. The cost of getting our wonderful clean, green produce to market, whether it is to the ports of Portland or Geelong or into Melbourne – transport operators from one end of the state to the other are reporting the massive increase in maintenance and costs and time delays brought about by the roads.

The roads of course are what keep country communities together, and to have such a massive cut to the funding, essentially now the whole of regional Victoria is expected to look after this vital road infrastructure on less money than what this government is prepared to spend on just one level crossing. This government trumpets the fact that it has done I think 80-odd level crossing removals. When you think about that, they have been prepared to spend 80 years worth of country road funding in just eight years, and that has come at the expense of regional Victorians. What that means for Princes Highway west, for example, is the duplication that was started back in 2007 has still not actually been officially finished or officially opened, and yet the left-hand lanes are almost undriveable. In fact local police reported that they were happy to not insist that drivers stick to the left, because it was no longer safe to do so. I experienced a drive back from Ballarat only two weeks ago when there were four cars in a row pulled over with punctured and ruined tyres because of a clearly massive pothole that had formed and was unable to be maintained. This is an unsafe and dangerous position, but of course what we have to keep in context is that money delayed last year, money delayed this year and money delayed for the foreseeable future will just mean the cost of getting our roads back to spec again will be almost beyond the state’s capacity. What worries me more than anything is that places like the Surf Coast shire and other municipalities are actually lowering their speed limits from 100 to 80 because they can no longer guarantee the safety of drivers on the road. So this government are actively encouraging an even less productive use of our roads and our road networks because they are not prepared to fund roads where they need to.

Why do regional Victorians feel so aggrieved about this? Quite frankly, they are aggrieved because we also learned in this budget that there is some $30.7 billion worth of blowouts in the major projects here in Melbourne. What country Victorians see is this endless pot of money being unleashed, a debt that when the Labor government came to power in 2014 was about $22 billion. By the time we go to the polls again it will be $170 billion-plus based on today’s estimates. That is a massive amount of money. That makes the debt and deficits and disasters of the early 1990s, when Labor was last left to recklessly take hold of the budget and we thought it was going to be a long time coming back from that – this completely obliterates what the Cain and Kirner years did to Victoria. This government has now completely broken all those records and set a whole new trajectory, which will see Victorians pay around $22 million a day in interest repayments. You know, the average punter – those out suffering cost-of-living pressures and people struggling with rising interest rates and increased taxes and costs – understands that $22 million a day is a lot less money the state has to provide essential services in health and education.

In regional Victoria of course it is the roads – we have talked about the roads – but it is also other real attacks on the way we do business and the way we operate. For example, agriculture funding has been cut by 34 per cent, and that comes on top of Regional Development Victoria’s slashing. One of the things that was particularly egregious along the Great Ocean Road and for regional tourism was Daniel Andrews’s great claim to be saving Netball Australia –

Paul Edbrooke: The Premier.

Richard RIORDAN: The Premier. The Premier’s claim to be saving Netball Australia – the funds that he used to bail out Netball Australia actually came from regional tourism funds. That is a real slap in the face to regional Victorians, who are flat out trying to get people back into their area.

Nick Staikos interjected.

Richard RIORDAN: By all means fund women’s sport – it is an important role of government to do that – but not at the expense of regional Victoria, and it certainly should not be at the cost of regional tourism businesses who have struggled and struggled for the last three years with the COVID claim. And now this government is seeking to once again penalise regional Victorian businesses so that they can send even more money back to Melbourne. At a local level –

Darren Cheeseman interjected.

Richard RIORDAN: It is good to hear the member for South Barwon chiming in there. Of course he went to the electorate way back in 2018 promising a community hospital for Torquay, which is still a thistle-laden paddock in Torquay. We have gone now through multiple, multiple budgets, and they have not been able to move the dial on that. The sign is so old and tattered and faded and broken down I am sure the good people of Torquay have possibly forgotten where their community hospital was going to go.

That is actually a marvellous symbol of this government’s commitments and promises to regional Victoria. We heard of the city deal – it was back in 2018 too – when the federal government generously gave $150 million to the Victorian state government, and since 2018 they have not been able to spend a cent of it, not a cent. Some five years after being gifted free money from the federal government they have not been able to get a cafe and a restaurant done at Lorne, they have not been able to secure the upgrade and redevelopment of toilets at Port Campbell, they have not been able to organise the payment for and building of a tourist walk between Skenes Creek and Apollo Bay. In fact their management of this money has been so bad that they have had to cancel that project this year. They have cancelled that project because they can no longer afford it. With inflation running at 7 per cent per annum they can no longer build it, and they are going to cut it. It is a bit like the poor fishermen who have been operating for 70 years in Apollo Bay: they have been desperately waiting for the upgrade of their fishermen’s co-op and the fixing up of the Apollo Bay harbour, which was funded some five years ago, and not a blow has been struck.

As we speak at the moment, some iconic visitor spaces along the Great Ocean Road are sitting closed and abandoned because this government simply does not have the resources to adequately manage the state’s estate. We have got Glenample Homestead – closed. We have got the Arch, which is one of those iconic spots at Port Campbell – closed. We have the steps down to Loch Ard Gorge – closed. We have the caravan park at Skenes Creek – still closed. They opened it briefly over summer but then quickly closed it again, despite the fact they were still advertising to the community that it was open. This government has been single-handedly negligent, absolutely negligent, in looking after and supporting things that are important in regional Victoria.

There is another big issue for regional Victoria. My electorate is affected as well. Even though we do not have commercial hardwood logging in my region, we have still managed to get some value out of our state forests in our region. One of the most important ones of course is firewood. Right throughout the Otways region, whether you are in the small townships of Apollo Bay, Forrest, Colac, out at Pirron Yallock, Irrewillipe or Birregurra, wherever you may be, all these communities rely heavily for heating on firewood. This government have made a grand announcement, in order to win over some votes in the city, that they are going to stop that availability of firewood to these communities. They have called the wood merchants in and told them that as of Christmas or the end of the year, 31 December, their multigenerational businesses will be no more. That might affect those individuals, who will have lost their income – and in many cases they are incredibly proud of the great work that they have been doing in managing state forests – but this is another consequence of that: there are now going to be thousands of families who have wood heaters, who have wood stoves, who still even keep hot water in their homes through wood. These people have not been given any opportunity to transition. They are not being looked after. They have been abandoned in fact. And these are costly things to replace. They are not like the Premier and others, who have had massive pay increases this past week, who could probably easily afford a new hot water system – many people in my community cannot.

When we look at that, this government single-handedly just continues to forget about country Victorians. They have forgotten about people who do artisan work, who actually create high-value items. In the case of the Otways we have got fantastic boutique, bespoke guitars being made; we have got other people that, using simple techniques, provide artefacts and items of beauty for tourists and visitors. This can no longer be done in our region, and that is in fact a great shame and just shows how out of touch with country Victorians this government has become.

I mentioned earlier the great promises of the Torquay hospital and of road upgrades that have not happened. But there are a couple of others that have long been on the Polwarth community’s list of upgrades and forgotten and broken promises. We have got two major roundabouts – one at Tomahawk Creek Road, or the Timboon-Colac Road, and the Princes Highway; and of course the Winchelsea-Deans Marsh Road, otherwise known as Marjorie Lawrence way. These projects have been funded now for quite some time – many years in fact – and this government has just been incapable of putting rubber on the road and getting these projects done. The community is tiring of it.

We read that the road toll this year, for example, is up some 30 per cent – and that comes on a steady increase that has been going on now since 2018 – while this government has raided the TAC in order to help prop up its budget bottom line, and it certainly spent an awful lot of money in the mid teens of this century putting in wire rope barriers. It has all amounted to an increasing road toll. Victorians, and country Victorians, look at that and say, ‘Well, here are two projects – the Winchelsea roundabout and the Tomahawk Creek Road roundabout – that have been funded and could have been built and that could have helped make lives safer and driving safer in country Victoria,’ yet we are still no closer to seeing those projects realised.

In the time I have left I want to touch on the cost of housing. This budget has been brutal to housing affordability, housing availability and housing supply. When I talk around the community, both home owners and renters understand that the only way you are going to help solve the housing crisis is to have more homes, and you have more homes by incentivising the private sector to work alongside government and provide more homes. This government just cannot do the simple maths. The government has about 87,000 homes in the public estate, but there are about 888,000 rental properties in the state. The state only caters for about 10 per cent, and yet it has decided to tax and punish and make renting less possible for the private sector. All the government is doing with its new land taxes and other charges on landlords is forcing people to sell property and exit the rental market. This government does not understand that landlords need to be worked with, supported and helped, because it is only them that will truly help reduce the massive housing crisis that we have here in the state of Victoria at the moment, where we have seen just in the last 12 months an extra 4000 families added to the housing waiting list here in our state.

This budget is a disappointment. It is a let-down for country Victorians. The government has much more work to do in this space.

Nick STAIKOS (Bentleigh) (15:48): It is a pleasure to rise to speak on the budget, a budget full of tough decisions – full of sound decisions but nonetheless tough decisions – and a budget that is full of a lot of positivity for Victoria. It is a budget that forecasts a growing economy and low unemployment; it is a budget that forecasts an operating surplus at the end of the forward estimates; it is a budget that manages the repayment of Victoria’s COVID-related debt; and it is a budget that funds all of the commitments that this side of the house made to the people of Victoria at the last election.

I will start with commitments made to the people of Bentleigh at the last election, and there were a number of them. For example, we have continued the massive school building program in the Bentleigh electorate with funding to plan the $12.6 million upgrade of McKinnon Primary School, new synthetic turf at Ormond Primary School and also with $7.3 million to upgrade Cheltenham Secondary College – which was previously in your electorate, Acting Speaker Tak, but following the last redistribution Cheltenham Secondary and three other schools have come into the Bentleigh electorate. I am really enjoying working with those schools to ensure that they have what they need to lay the foundations for a quality education for their students. We have started with Cheltenham Secondary College, which already is an outstanding school. We are going to support them to do even more, and I am really proud of that.

Locally, we have also funded $3 million for Glen Eira City Council to rebuild the Mackie reserve pavilion. The Mackie reserve pavilion is home to Mackie Cricket Club. It is a big cricket club. Their facilities are substandard, and they are going to have a state-of-the-art pavilion for their club, which we are also very proud of.

There are a number of other improvements to the electorate that we have funded in the budget as well, and that includes a pedestrian crossing on Centre Road near Balmoral Avenue. Often we get criticised for putting up too many traffic lights, but the reality is our local roads especially are not just about getting from A to B, they are also for pedestrians. We have also got to make sure that our roads are safe, and we make no apologies for that.

But looking at a more macro level for our state, I think the centrepiece of our series of election commitments last year but also of this budget is the revival of the State Electricity Commission, something that everyone on this side of the house is very proud of. I know it is something that the people of Victoria have welcomed, which is why we returned after the election in such great numbers in this house. It is an initial investment of $1 billion to revive the SEC, but it is not only an investment that delivers on an election commitment; it will also deliver 4.5 gigawatts of power to the grid, it will ensure that Victoria reaches our nation-leading renewable energy target of 95 per cent renewable energy by 2035 and it will also create 59,000 new jobs. It is something that I know the other side of politics has opposed, and I certainly know that my local opponent in Bentleigh opposed it. But they are on a hiding to nothing in opposing something that is so visionary for Victoria and something that has been backed and endorsed by the people of Victoria, because at the end of the day, when those opposite privatised the system in the 1990s, multinationals made billions upon billions of dollars, but what did the people of Victoria have to show for it? Ageing infrastructure and higher prices. We are going to reverse that.

I also want to highlight in the budget our commitment on level crossing removals. Seventy level crossings are already gone under the government’s existing commitments, but the election commitment last year added another 25 to the 85 already committed in 2018. The current number is 110 to be removed by 2030, and that includes making the Frankston line level crossing free.

Paul Edbrooke: There we go!

Nick STAIKOS: The member for Frankston is very excited about that, and he should be, because being at the end of the line, his constituents are going to be the chief beneficiaries of the removal of all of these level crossings – level crossings in Highett, in Mordialloc, in Aspendale, in Seaford and in Mentone. The removal of those dangerous and congested level crossings will happen by 2030, and we are excited about that as well.

Those opposite lately have been talking about non-government schools a fair bit. But that brings me to the non-government schools capital funding program, which our government has had in place for the last eight or nine years. In our first term we committed to that fund $120 million to upgrade and to build non-government schools. In our second term we contributed $402 million to that fund, and in this third term we are contributing $450 million – that is nearly $1 billion over the three terms of this government in capital works to non-government schools. Now, between 2010 and 2014 another political party was in power in this state. How much did they contribute to capital works at non-government schools? It is a very round figure: zero. Doughnuts. Zero to non-government schools. They claim to be the party of non-government schools, but when they had the chance, they contributed nothing to non-government schools. This side of the house has contributed nearly $1 billion in capital works to non-government schools, a number of them in my electorate, and I am really, really proud of that.

I said at the outset that this is a budget which features a number of difficult but sound decisions. During the pandemic our government borrowed to support the Victorian community – to resource our public hospitals but also to support business and to support jobs. That is COVID debt that amounts to around $31.5 billion, and around $21.2 billion of that was on business, economic and worker support alone. It is important that we now pay off that debt, and this budget includes a plan to pay off the COVID debt.

It is important to note the context of course in which state budgets are framed, and that is that the state government collects payroll tax and property taxes, and a lot of our GST money is allocated to other states. In fact in question time today the Treasurer highlighted that just this year $2.8 billion of Victorian GST money is going to other states. All the while within these constraints our government is funding our hospitals, schools, TAFEs, emergency services, roads and public transport and building the infrastructure of the future for a growing capital city – one of the great cities of the world. And on top of that we do have to pay off the COVID debt, and we have got to do it in the fairest way possible within these constraints.

I do want to focus on our changes to payroll tax – firstly to say that for those smaller businesses this government is lifting the payroll tax free threshold to $1 million. What that means is that 6000 businesses in our state which currently pay payroll tax will not be paying payroll tax. But we are also restructuring payroll taxes to share the burden of the COVID-19 debt by calling on those who did the best during the pandemic to support those who were not quite as fortunate. Despite the impacts and economic slowdown, throughout the pandemic we know that there were some large businesses that did well, with profit margins that were higher than usual across this period. Total business profits in Victoria over 2020 and 2022 were $996 billion. That is 24 per cent higher than in the preceding three years. Big business can and should make a modest additional contribution over the next 10 years to repay a debt that was needed to protect lives and livelihoods, and that is why the first component of the COVID debt levy is on large businesses with payrolls above $10 million. It is important to note that only the largest 5 per cent of Victorian employers will be affected. It will raise $3.9 billion over four years, and it will be a temporary measure ending in 2033.

It is important to also remember, given that this is a budget that funds election commitments, that at the last election the opposition’s election commitments on their own costings – and it was not easy to get their costings out of the mouth of the then Shadow Treasurer; he turned up to the press conference without having tallied up their costings – were $19 billion more than Labor’s. So they were going to spend more than this government in this term. The member for Sandringham in his budget reply – and remember I was here for his budget reply; I think I was one of few people on this side of the house who actually listened to his budget reply – said that they would also cap debt. So they would spend more and cap debt. He came out with this:

We say to millions of Victorian families: under the Liberal–Nationals you will be literally thousands of dollars better off every single year.

With all we know, that is spoken like a man who knows he has got Buckley’s of ever being in government. Do not look at what they say, look at what they did in government. When those opposite were in government for four years, this state had the highest unemployment rate on the mainland. Only Tasmania had a higher unemployment rate at that time than Victoria. So do not talk about being literally thousands of dollars better off. There were so many families in this state at the time who were out of work.

They were not thousands of dollars better off. They were out of work. They were not experiencing the dignity of work because those opposite, when they were in government, mismanaged the economy. There were no cranes in the sky. Nothing was happening in Victoria over those four years. I am really proud that under our government we have a historically low unemployment rate, around 3.9 per cent at the moment. It has been below 4 per cent for the past year, something that has not happened in nearly 50 years. In September 2020 – we remember in 2020 we delayed our budget, and it was very much a stimulus budget which included a jobs plan – we promised to create 400,000 more jobs. Not only are we ahead of schedule, but this government since September 2020 has created 460,000 jobs. We smashed our target by two years, Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer. Well done.

I might mention it is worlds above the meagre 39,000 jobs created while the opposition was in power for four years. We have been hard at work every day since we came to government to reduce the unemployment rate. That was at a record high of 6.7 per cent when those opposite were in government. This does not happen by accident. It is the result of a government that gets on with doing the things that matter, gets on with making the right investments.

It is all about, at the end of the day, jobs and opportunity for Victorians. That has been the government’s central mission over the nearly nine years that we have been in government so far. It is because Labor governments genuinely care about people. Labor governments genuinely care about people having jobs and opportunities in an economy that is changing. That is why it is this government that has embarked on free TAFE. I think we have got 70 or 80 free TAFE courses on the list at the moment. That is people getting the skills they need for free to ensure that they can get the secure, high-paying jobs of tomorrow. These are things that matter. These are things that those opposite will never understand, because those opposite do not believe in society. They do not believe in community. They do not believe in the government. They do not believe in the collective coming together and helping each other out and making the right investments to ensure that we lift each other up. This is the difference between Labor governments and conservative governments, and thankfully the people of Victoria have seen right through that and re-elected at the last election a government that has made the right investments to ensure that our state progresses in the way it needs to to support the people of Victoria.

Martin CAMERON (Morwell) (16:03): I rise to give a bit of a talk about how the budget has affected or been taken by the people in the seat of Morwell, the people of the Latrobe Valley. It appears that the Andrews Labor government has demonstrated its utter contempt for the Latrobe Valley and regional Victoria with a rather brutal budget that has slashed millions in funding from key areas including health, roads, emergency services, agriculture and community infrastructure, all of which affect us down in the valley. The regional development budget has again been cut, halved from $211.5 million to $106.6 million in this year’s budget. Since 2020 it has been slashed by over 80 per cent. Victoria’s debt is projected to climb to $171.4 billion by 2026–27 and interest repayments will more than double to $22 million a day. Life is getting harder under Labor. In my electorate of Morwell the fallout from this budget is already starting to be felt on the ground.

A touch before I said that the state of the roads right across regional Victoria is abysmal, and the Andrews government is set to repeat history by repeatedly underspending on our regional roads to the detriment of our local communities. This catastrophic budget has cut more than $260 million in maintenance funding from an already crumbling network of roads, including in the valley, where notoriously unsafe roads have cost lives. As of today, 22 June, there have been 134 deaths on Victorian roads this year, up a staggering 30 per cent on this time last year, yet billions of dollars continue to be splashed on inner-city-centric projects like the Suburban Rail Loop and level crossing removals for road users in metropolitan Melbourne while regional Victorians are left with shoddy roads that are not even fit for use.

As the member for Gippsland South often says, we need to have our cars roadworthy so we can drive them, but our roads are not car worthy. The roads, as I said, are crumbling, and it is a blight on the government that they do not do more for our country roads. At a time when our roads are falling apart and in need of major investment, we instead have road maintenance allocations that are at a lower level than they were in 2014–15 and down a whopping 45 per cent on what they were in 2020.

My electorate does make a lot of the steelwork for the Big Build in Melbourne, so we have massive trucks that are driving along our roadways and causing more and more grief to the substructure of the roads. We get to see this on a daily basis. There are potholes that are causing maintenance costs for cars when cars hit the potholes. Under the guise of repairs the Andrews government is sending out repair crews to temporarily patch the roads. We need the base of the roads to be changed. The whole lot needs to be looked at so that we have a safer structure for our country and regional families to drive up and down on those roads. This flagrant disregard for the safety of road users is shameful, and the chronic underspending on regional roads because of expensive billion-dollar-blowout projects must stop and must stop now. We need our roads fixed.

I will move on to the timber industry, which is at the heart of the Latrobe Valley and further into East Gippsland. Without warning and without reason, Labor pulled the rug out from under a sustainable industry that contributes millions of dollars to the local economy – some seven years ahead of its own schedule – and thousands of workers and their families are reeling. They have all of a sudden said, ‘We’re shutting the timber industry.’ It is almost unfathomable that a decision of this magnitude with such far-reaching and dire consequences for these families was dropped like a bomb on the timber workers and their families in the form of a media release. Their jobs, their lifestyles and their families’ lifestyles are going to finish at the end of this year. The suggestion that a single $200 million support package that will be dripped out over four years is enough to compensate these workers, their families and their communities is ludicrous, and the funding is woefully inadequate.

As part of the VicForests contracts, these people that work in the forestry industry were told that to be able to get another contract they had to go out and buy new equipment – equipment that is used in the actual forest for the cutting down of the trees and new logging trucks to cart the logs around. They have gone and done that in good faith, and they are now left with no timber industry going forward and all this new infrastructure, which they needed to be able to continue on with these contracts. They have mortgaged their houses. These are young people from generational families in the logging industry that have mortgaged their houses to access this multimillion-dollar machinery that they needed, and $200 million just does not cut the mustard. I spoke with one particular logger who has 50 trucks. You can add up the cost of each truck, and he has got 50 of these trucks which look like they are going to become redundant. We are hoping that he can diversify a little bit and get into some other areas, but at this stage, with the pressures of actually moving on into other work opportunities, he does not want to do that. All they want is their jobs. They do not want support packages; they just want their jobs.

Whichever way you spin it, this is a catastrophic outcome for the workers, their families and our timber towns – timber towns that have been built by the timber workers and sustained by the logging industry. Recently I stood with timber workers outside the Hazelwood power station when the Minister for Environment visited to commission one of the new batteries which are being put around the place. Workers respectfully asked for a conversation with the minister, but instead she snubbed them and drove out the back door. They were at the front gate, just wanting to have a talk to say, ‘Why are you trying to do this to our families and to the timber industry?’ They got no acknowledgement there. It is one of those new batteries which, with all the figures that have come in, is going to service 75,000 houses when the battery is fully charged but only lasts for 1 hour – 1 hour of power – so we can see how big this issue is.

Victoria’s mental health crisis now means more than half of the people that come into hospitals with acute mental crises are languishing in an emergency department for more than 8 hours while waiting for a bed. Is this going to continue on now we are adding the timber industry workers into this category? Because, yes, they are going to need some mental health support, so we must make sure we can do that. Labor claims it wants to treat people with mental health issues before they reach a level of acute crisis, yet it appears pleas to increase funding to Lifeline Gippsland, which I have been asking for since I have become a member, have fallen on deaf ears. Calls to Lifeline’s 24-hour crisis line have skyrocketed by 45 per cent, yet demand has increased and the funding is not adequate. Lifeline Gippsland triages 11,000 calls per year at an estimated cost of $430,000. Their yearly funding from the government at the moment is $150,000, so it does not even touch the sides and they are forced to recruit funds through fundraising. Crisis phone lines like Lifeline Gippsland help provide critical support for the mental health of Victorians and keep them well enough to stay out of hospital, yet Labor has shamefully turned its back on Lifeline Gippsland and ignored their urgent need for an injection of funding under this budget, and it is everyday Victorians who will wear the cost of this.

Latrobe Youth Space, also down in the seat of Morwell in the Latrobe Valley, have 500 members – and when we say 500 members, it is 500 youths from the ages of 12 to 25. The funding has been pulled from underneath them out of the budget. It had been ongoing money that was coming in. They have been up and going for two years, but the budget funding is no longer going to be there for them at the end of Christmas, when this finishes. Youth Space has only been open for two years but has made huge strides in our community and established itself as a really safe place for young people aged 12 to 25. Many of these young people are transient and rely on Youth Space for a hot shower and food as they couch surf around at friends’ houses or are without a house and on the streets. The fact of the matter is that by shutting down Youth Space the Labor government is sending at-risk kids back out onto the streets, and we need to do more for them.

Our local CFA is another one. The Tyers CFA, which I have asked for funding for many a time in my short stint here inside Parliament, is no longer fit for purpose. Volunteers are forced to house their rapid-response four-wheel-drive vehicles off site some 20 kilometres away, so if there is an incident out around Tyers or up into the hills around Walhalla, they are forced to drive to the local airport in Traralgon, to the SES building where the response vehicle is housed, get into that and then go and respond. They are the first responders out around that area now, as the Tyers bridge is still shut and a new bridge is in the process of being put in. They are our first responders, and our first responders now have to go and travel 20 minutes into Traralgon and then 20 minutes back out again. They have a new fire truck – they do have one – but unfortunately that fire truck does not fit in their shed, so we wanted more funding for that.

We have talked with interest about the SEC. Labor has touted its plan for the reinstatement of the State Electricity Commission as a miraculous cure for all skyrocketing power prices and the environment. By giving power back to the SEC, this is going to fix it – by bringing back the SEC. But in the Latrobe Valley, where we have powered the state for more than a century, the people did not vote for this. They see it for what it is. We are the original home of the SEC. The people down there in the Latrobe Valley know that this version of the SEC is nothing like what the government tried to sell it as. Before Labor handed down its budget, the pie-in-the-sky idea to revive the SEC was bereft of detail. Now the budget has been released and we are still none the wiser. The budget contains no independent costings, and a vague mention of an initial investment of $1 billion does nothing to allay the concerns that it will be another massive cost blowout plunging the state even further into the red. Under questioning by my colleague the member for Gippsland South in the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearing, it was revealed that the SEC office and its 29 staff were actually going to be located in Melbourne, when it had been said it was going to be located in Morwell. The Minister for the State Electricity Commission refused to answer questions about whether the SEC would be based in Morwell or not.

On community infrastructure, I will just touch on a couple of our community clubs. One close to my heart, the Traralgon Football Netball Club, was devastated by floods two years ago. They are still out of their change rooms because no work has happened. We have asked for money in the budget for that. It did not appear. They support young men and women playing football. Same with the Churchill Football Netball Club – their rooms do not comply now, and they too have both male and female footballers and netballers that use these rooms.

The budget down there has been brutal. Latrobe Valley residents have had an absolute gutful of the lip-service and empty promises dished out by the Andrews government, and this budget does nothing for them except confirm what they already knew: Labor does not care about regional Victoria and the people of the Latrobe Valley.

Michaela SETTLE (Eureka) (16:18): I am delighted to rise and speak on the take-note motion for the Appropriation (2023–2024) Bill 2023. I am particularly proud to stand up as a regional member. I have got some fantastic colleagues in the region – my good friend and colleague from Wendouree – and what I would really like to make a point of at the moment is that this government has more regional MPs than any other party on this floor, in this chamber – twice as many as the Libs. This confected idea that this budget in some way ignores our regional cousins – all I can say to you, Deputy Speaker, is, would you say no to the member for Wendouree? I would not, and certainly they do not when they are doing the budget. We have strong, proud members who have fought at every point to make sure that this budget looks after regional Victorians. Do you know what, that is why we have got twice as many regional members, because people in the region know that this government, the Labor government, stands and defends regional people. This is just a line that is delivered by those on the other side of the house to give themselves some sense of relevance, because basically in regional Victoria they are irrelevant.

But let us then have a look at this wonderful budget and what it has done for my community of Eureka – a really gorgeous regional seat that picks up some of Ballarat, all of Golden Plains shire and all of the Moorabool shire pretty much. It is a gorgeous and diverse community. What I am most proud about in this budget is that it understands where we are and has made some really strong and concerted efforts to work on the budget towards budget repair but all the while maintaining what are our very basic and strong principles on this side of the house.

I think all of my colleagues believe very strongly that education is the great leveller. We know that, and that is why this government has always invested in education. This is how we make it a level playing field for all Victorians, and of course this budget goes a long way to continuing that support. Our Best Start, Best Life program, which is going to deliver free kinder and pre-prep, is just an extraordinary piece of policy and funded in this budget.

I was really delighted a couple of weeks ago to visit the West Maddingley early years centre that is being built in Bacchus Marsh in West Maddingley. I went with the Premier, and it was just lovely to see all of the people who work in the early years centres for the local council really engage with the Premier. They were delighted to speak to him, because they know that he respects their work and supports their work. We do it through things like the Best Start program, but also we see it in the education programs that we roll out. So it was really, really lovely to be there with him.

It was last year that I visited Woodmans Hill college, a fantastic school in Ballarat, a really wonderful school, and we committed before the election that we would invest $8.59 million. What I love about this is the most wonderful principal there, Stephan Fields – and I give a nod to him – wanted to prepare a space for that really difficult transition period for kids from primary school into senior school, so his vision was to create a year 7 centre. The idea is it is not just a hard transition for the kids, it is also a bit rough on us parents. You know, you are used to walking your kid into class and having that really direct connection. Suddenly they are at high school and it is this great big centre, and they jump out of a car and that is that. What is nice about this vision is to have a year 7 centre where parents can still engage that bit more. It was fantastic to see that it was fully funded in the budget.

There was this wonderful young man. The Premier was going to come up and visit a while ago but could not come – because of the death of the monarch, in fact – and there was this young student who it had been arranged would meet with the Premier. He was absolutely heartbroken that the Premier did not come, so I was really delighted that months later, when he did visit, the Premier took that extra minute to go and chat to him and do a photo with him. That is something that that young man will remember for many, many years, and I hope one day to see him in here as well.

But of course it is not just government schools – though this government invests very heavily in government schools – the budget also provided money for independent schools. There is a school in Bacchus Marsh, St Bernard’s primary school, and in the budget we committed $3 million for a very big expansion. I went to visit last week, and I am sure my colleagues will agree with me that one of the nicest things you can do is go and visit a local school. We were there to get excited about this $3 million but also to promote the Premier’s reading challenge. I had a really lovely day being shown around by Sister Mary and also being able to read to all of the kids. It was really special.

But in this budget as well we live our values through our really deep, deep commitment to equality and giving voice to women. This government has been extraordinary in both the promotion and support of women amongst our own ranks, but of course what that more importantly leads to is the differences in policy that that can create. For example, in this budget the free tampons campaign has been funded. That is an incredibly important program. I think every woman in this place would know a time when they have been caught short, and it is really pretty distressing. Someone else was doing a contribution this morning, and I was delighted that we even talk about periods, we talk about endometriosis and we talk about women’s issues on this floor. That is a consequence of having such strong women in cabinet to develop those policies. Locally what has come out of that are the extraordinary women’s health hubs that were committed to. We are going to be having a women’s health clinic at the Ballarat Base Hospital, and I know the member for Wendouree and I were very proud to stand with the minister to talk about that and how important it is going to be for women in our electorate. Womanhood is a lifelong thing, and there are many different experiences that we go through.

A member interjected.

Michaela SETTLE: Absolutely, but for someone who is of a certain age there are issues – at the other end – that need to be addressed in different ways. Just to have a clinic that is dedicated to those issues for women is an extraordinary win not just for Ballarat but absolutely for the wider region.

I talked earlier about how important it is to have regional representation. What we know from the voices of so many regional MPs is the importance of local communities and local clubs, so one of the things that I was delighted to see was that investment in those clubs. Often the sporting club is the absolute heart of a community; certainly it is that in my neck of the woods. I know you are not allowed to have favourite things in the budget, but there is $1.5 million for the Teesdale recreation reserve change rooms. Teesdale is a smaller community in my electorate. They do not have a seniors team, but they have a corking juniors team. What this means is that we are going to be able to provide facilities that are going to attract more people, and I look forward to being there when their seniors team is launched. This is not a word of a lie: I got the loveliest email this morning from someone saying, ‘What you’ve done here is generational change,’ and I was really, really warmed. $1.5 million to a small sports club means the world, so I am very, very glad. I will be going there on 28 June. I am putting on a sausage sizzle for the whole town, so if anyone is around, come and celebrate with us. You are all invited.

Of course in Bacchus Marsh there is the bowling facility. This is an interesting one. There is $2.9 million for a new bowling centre, but when you live in the community what you understand is there have been two groups that have been in the middle of town, and this is about bringing those two groups together and giving them a spanking new facility. It also means that the land that the council has in the middle of town that has previously been their bowls club can also be a much more activated space for the centre of Bacchus Marsh. It is a really, really fantastic project. Then there are the little ones that matter so much – $250,000 for netball upgrades across the Moorabool shire. That is a great investment in women’s sport, and I am delighted.

There are the bigger issues as well that I think we really need to look at. Of course climate change is real, and we can only address that through renewable energy to get to net zero. Bringing back the SEC is an enormous commitment – many people have spoken about that – but for me locally there is also the commitment to the Asia Pacific Renewable Energy Training Centre. My electorate is home to many wind farms – soon we will have one of the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere – and what I want to see is that those jobs remain in the region and that locals get to benefit from this. The investment in Federation Uni’s Asia Pacific Renewable Energy Training Centre of $6 million is really going to mean that local people can get in there and learn about and have specialised training in turbine maintenance and blade repair. It is really going to make a difference to local people if they can harness that.

We have got the lowest unemployment figures virtually on record. There was just something put out today; we are down to 3 per cent in regional Victoria. Those on the other side like to say that we do not care. We have driven down unemployment in regional Victoria. We are at an absolutely historic low, and that is because this government has continued to invest in regional Victoria. It is things like making sure that the money goes locally. We have the wind farms, we support those, but we also support local people to be able to work for them, and that is why we have got this extraordinarily low unemployment rate in regional Victoria.

I think one of the things that is why probably all of us joined the Labor Party is looking after working people and working people’s rights, and this government just continues to do that on so many levels. I look at the work that is in this budget around apprentices, which is extraordinary. There is the support around the discount on their motor vehicle registration. That might not mean as much to the city folk on the other side, but those of us on this side from the regions know that their cars are their jobs; they need that rego to get to work. So it is those really practical things. And then of course we are making sure that we are supporting mental health for apprentices. There is a big, big investment in this budget in supporting the mental health of apprentices. We really need to look at the whole lifetime of working people and how we can support them.

I am running out of time. There are so many wonderful things that have happened in my electorate, but I really do just want to go back to this idea of regional Victoria. This government stands by regional Victoria in an extraordinary way. They like to say occasionally that we only represent the bigger areas, but when you look in the budget there are programs like Tiny Towns. Now, hold on to your hats, that is going to be one fantastic program when it rolls out. It is really about making sure that we invest in all of regional Victoria, and we will continue to do that.

I do just want it acknowledged that in this budget there is $45 million worth of dedicated investment into regional development programs. I am really, really proud to be the Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture. I have had the absolute honour of being able to travel across Victoria doing an agricultural review for the Minister for Agriculture in the other place. The difference that this government has made to those regional communities I think is absolutely exemplified in the regional rail cap. What a cracker of a policy for all of our communities, because on this side of the house everybody in Victoria is equal. We do not promise one fee for the city folk and another for people in the country. We have made it equal, comparable. We will pay no more to get around this wonderful, wonderful state.

This budget is full of so many good things for my community and so many good things for regional Victoria, but at the same time it is a sensible and guiding hand into the future and really stands by our Labor values.

Jess WILSON (Kew) (16:33): I rise to speak on the motion to take note of the 2023–24 Victorian budget. This is a budget that sees our net debt rise by 47 per cent to record highs. This is a budget that sees the deficit deepen. It is a budget that results in taxes rising, with tax revenue rising by 28 per cent. It is a budget that results in the public sector wage bill rising by $3 billion, despite the fact that there are going to be 3000 or more jobs cut from the public service. Only under a Labor government can you see the public wage bill rise while you are cutting jobs. This is a budget that sees unemployment in fact rise over the forward estimates. It is a budget that sees economic growth in Victoria fall to 1.5 per cent next year, and it is a budget that no doubt in any form punishes Victorians across the state for what has been economic incompetence and financial mismanagement by the Andrews government.

Victoria is broke, and for all the talk about the debt repayment plan by this government, it is very, very clear from the numbers in the budget that the deficits are getting deeper and the debt is getting higher. The new taxes from this government, the $8.9 billion worth of new taxes in this budget – a jobs tax, a schools tax and a land tax increase that is essentially a rent tax – do not actually come close to even covering the new spending in this budget.

So the spending is growing and the taxes are growing, but the taxes are not growing faster than the spending. That is why we are seeing Victoria’s net debt projected to climb to over $171 billion by 2026–27. That represents, by the time we get to $171 billion, a whopping 25 per cent of the economy. That is compared to a much, much lower figure when the Andrews government took government earlier in the decade, and now we are seeing, as a ratio, 25 per cent of net debt to the size of the Victorian economy. As we know, repaying the interest alone to service that debt is going to rise to $22 million a day by 2026–27. On this side of the house, many of us look at what $22 million each and every day could fund in our own electorates. We have heard the gloating from those opposite about how easy it is to get spending commitments in their electorates – new spending commitments for schools, for local sporting clubs and for community organisations. Yet when you look on this side of the house, whether it is the Liberals or the Nationals or the Greens, that funding is not flowing into the seats. So for a government that claims to govern for all Victorians, it seems to only govern for the seats that it holds.

Victorians are being slugged with three new taxes that they are saying are necessary for the COVID pandemic: a jobs tax, a rent tax and a school tax – a tax on enterprise, a tax on aspiration and a tax on chalkies. It is very clear that this is a budget that is aimed at actually dividing Victorians: pitting property owners against renters; small businesses against medium and big businesses; and very sadly, government schools against non-government schools. These taxes are just a blatant attempt at covering up their own waste and mismanagement. COVID-related expenditure, as the Shadow Treasurer repeatedly has pointed out, only makes up a quarter of the debt that Labor has racked up over the past eight years. Yet all the focus is on paying down the COVID-related debt. Unfortunately, the rest of the debt, three-quarters of the debt, is actually the result of infrastructure blowouts – over $30 billion worth of infrastructure blowouts – and the government’s financial mismanagement over the course of the past two terms. As a result, Victorians are paying the price.

Those opposite like to cast back in time. If we cast back to the post Cain–Kirner recession, net debt as a percentage of gross state product peaked at only 16 per cent in 1993. Victoria’s current level of net debt compares to the post Cain–Kirner recession peak of $18.8 billion in 1995. That is only equivalent to around $35 billion in today’s currency, so today we are a further $100 billion in debt than at the worst time in our state’s history. In order to tackle that debt and really for those opposite to only focus on the COVID-related debt, as they say, we have seen three particular new taxes – a jobs tax, a rent tax and a schools tax – and the Parliamentary Budget Office has confirmed just in the past couple of weeks that Victoria is the highest taxed state in the country. The report by the PBO, the state’s independent budget watchdog, found that Victorians are paying over $5000 per person in taxes. That is considerably higher than all the other states, and that is going to rise by at least another $400 per person in the next couple of years.

I will turn to each of these new taxes briefly. The rent tax: ABS figures show that Victoria has the highest reliance on property-related taxes compared to all other jurisdictions. It is equivalent to nearly two-thirds of the total tax revenue, and Labor is hiking land tax up again in this budget, just months after property owners have felt the shock of Labor’s previous land tax increases. I know that many on this side – I know the member for Sandringham and the member for Nepean in particular – speak to constituents regularly about the fact that their investment properties that they put on the rental market, which they have saved for and which they might only own one of in order to save for their retirement, have been hit over the last couple of years. They can no longer take the hit and they are looking to put those properties on the market. That is only going to have the consequence of taking rental stock out of an already undersupplied rental market. There is no mistaking that a hike in land tax will be felt first and foremost by renters, by tenants already doing it tough in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. Looking at how we have got a housing affordability crisis in the state, which has been fuelled by a lack of housing supply, we are looking at a situation where the government is changing the land tax requirements so that 860,000 investment property owners in Victoria will pay an additional $4.7 billion in extra taxes over the next four years through cutting the tax-free threshold from $300,000 to only $50,000 for low-value properties and mid-value properties. These are the properties that actually are critical to our rental market, critical to providing lower rents in the rental market, and they are being hit with a new tax that will see that flow through directly to renters.

Those opposite like to say that this is a tax that only hits those rich property owners, those people that deserve to pay more tax. It is a blatant attempt at class warfare, as we have seen from this, the schools tax, the jobs tax. According to ATO data, 72 per cent of people who invest in real estate own only one investment property, and a majority of these investors, over 50 per cent, have an income of less than $100,000 a year. So these are hardworking nurses, firies and tradies. They work hard and have been pursuing what has always been the Australian dream: to own property, to buy property and then to put that on the rental market, to serve the rental market – for tenants to take. Then they will be hit with a new tax which will flow through, in a cost-of-living crisis, to renters and to tenants.

Victoria’s residential vacancy rates currently sit at a very, very low 1.2 per cent. We have a real supply problem in the market, and that in turn is causing an affordability crisis. This is a simple demand-and-supply equation. If you continue putting pressure on property owners at a time when mortgage rates are increasing, when everything is just getting a little bit more expensive – whether at the supermarket, petrol prices or school fees – then the only option will be to turn to putting those properties on the market and taking them out of the rental market. On this side of the house we want to see lower rents. We stand for lower rents, but that will only result if we see more supply coming into the rental market. Looking at some of the representatives in this area, Keith Ryan from the Housing Industry Association has said:

We need to keep in mind that a lot of the providers of rental stock for housing are mums and dads, people who might own a house or two who are doing it hard with interest rate increases, further regulation, extra costs, and for them a rental freeze would be disastrous … I appreciate the superficial attraction, but ultimately it would lead to a lack of supply of homes for rental, and that cannot be great for tenants.

This is the track we are now heading down. As a result of hiking land tax and putting a tax on renters, the government is now looking at doing a deal with the Greens to put rental caps in place, which will further fuel our housing supply shortage.

Turning to the school tax, this is one of the most blatant attempts in recent memory of targeting hardworking parents to shoulder the burden of budget repair. This is an attack on school choice. It is an attack on the right of parents to choose where they send their kids to school, a school that reflects their faith and their values. This government has arbitrarily put in place a fee threshold, a fee threshold that none of us are actually any clearer on and none of the schools are any clearer on. The Minister for Education does not seem to be any clearer on it either. This could cost families around $1000 more per child to send their kids to a school of their choice, schools that take an enormous burden off the state system. We have heard how this government are putting funding into state government schools only in electorates that they represent and that suit them.

Sam Groth: Ninety-three per cent.

Jess WILSON: Ninety-three per cent of funding –

Juliana Addison interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member for Wendouree, you are not in your seat.

Jess WILSON: is flowing into Labor electorates. And if I can –

Juliana Addison interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member for Wendouree is warned.

Jess WILSON: The school tax will have a disproportionate impact on my electorate of Kew, and I can speak to one of the schools that wrote to parents recently and said:

The … preliminary position is that we will be forced to pass through the majority, if not all, of these levies and taxes to … parents and families.

Genazzano is a terrific Catholic girls school in the electorate of Kew –

A member: Isn’t it in Warrandyte?

Jess WILSON: No, it is very clearly in the electorate of Kew, and it is a wonderful Catholic school. It is going to cost them, this new schools tax, in excess of $1.3 million in additional cost to the college. Genazzano has pointed to the pressure of trying to absorb that additional cost, a cost that will be put in place without any warning next year. They said:

The … cost … would require a reduction in our educational programs and subject offerings …

and it will

hinder our ability to offer future scholarships and bursaries.

We have heard from those opposite today around the funding that is flowing to non-government schools – well, for Genazzano:

It appears that our annual payroll taxes and levies will exceed the annual funding support we receive from the State Government.

So the funding that they receive from the state government, the payroll tax they have to pay back, will have to be paid.

With my final time remaining I will just turn to the jobs tax in this budget. I received an email from a local constituent that runs a business that employs more than 400 young people, mostly from my electorate and those surrounding, and they talked to the fact that they just cannot take any more price increases or insurance premium rises, particularly highlighting the WorkCover premiums. How are they going to survive in this environment? She points to the fact that she and her husband have worked very, very hard for a long time and saved money, and unlike the Premier and the Labor government they have always tightened their belts when required. That has not occurred, and in this budget we are seeing the consequences of not managing the budget, of net debt rapidly increasing and of new taxes being put in place – a tax on jobs, a tax on rents and a tax on schools that will not serve the people of Victoria.

Lauren KATHAGE (Yan Yean) (16:48): I am so glad that the member for Kew has raised the topic of schools. Just yesterday the principal of Doreen Primary School Glenn Simondson was here to meet with the minister and share some of the knowledge he has gained in his decades as a principal and teacher in our local state schools. While he was here, he shared with us the story of Doreen Primary School and how he as principal fought to keep the school open during the era of the Kennett cuts. I am so glad that that school managed to stay open during that era.

Other schools in my electorate were not so lucky. I think of Kalkallo Primary School, which was cut by Kennett. But never fear, because the member for Kalkallo is gladly welcoming and pushing along all of our brilliant new schools in that area. We are looking forward to the high school, which is on track. We have got a specialist school coming. We have had Gilgai Plains Primary School, and other primary schools are coming, so we are more than making up for the cuts of the Kennett era. When the member for Kew says that Labor spend too much money on schools, that we show too much support for the schools in our area, I say long may it continue.

Sam Groth: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, I think the member for Yan Yean is misquoting the member for Kew.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! There is no point of order. It is a matter of debate. The member for Yan Yean to continue unimpeded, please.

Lauren KATHAGE: Thank you, Deputy Speaker. The principal of Doreen Primary School was here to talk about the upgrade happening at the school which was funded in last year’s budget, and that was advocated for by the former member for Yan Yean, who was a great advocate for our area. I recall after that funding was received she was fond of saying, truthfully, that in Mernda and Doreen every school was either built or upgraded by a Labor government – every school in Mernda and Doreen. I am so pleased to be able to say that this budget continues that history.

In this budget we have funding in Doreen for Hazel Glen College, for an upgrade of their sports facilities. What is great about state schools is that in many cases their facilities are available for community use as well. So when we invest in our local state schools, we are also investing for our community, and that is the case with this $800,000 sports upgrade at Hazel Glen College. This will provide new sports courts not just for the students but for the community, and we know that the City of Whittlesea has a deficit of netball courts, which our government is working hard to address.

Another way that we are addressing that deficit of courts in the Mernda–Doreen area is through funding the next stage of the Mernda regional aquatic and sports centre. For those in the room, that might sound like just another project, but I can tell you that this project has been on the front page of our local paper for years and years as the council worked through their issues to get this project off the ground. We were so pleased when they finished their business case last July, and Labor was quick to commit funding of $20 million in the campaign to get that project moving. When complete, this project will include six indoor courts, including competition-level courts, eight outdoor courts and a full aquatic centre. I checked with council last week to make sure of something that is important to a lot of families – that there is a play or splash area included inside, as they have in Craigieburn – and I was so pleased that we will have that fabulous facility for our families.

Continuing then on the theme of schools, my first election commitment, which I am so pleased to see delivered in this budget, was for an upgrade for Whittlesea Secondary College. We saw a few weeks ago the woodwork, or the manual arts – I am not sure of the correct term these days – teacher receiving an award for 40 years service. This college has been part of the community for such a long time, and the history of the college is part of the history of many of the families in that community. In fact I believe I met the mother of that teacher when I was out and about during the campaign.

The upgrade of Whittlesea Secondary College will see their facilities improved, and let me tell you, they deserve it. They are a fantastic group of teachers, students and staff. The principal Kathy Mourkakos speaks passionately and advocates strongly for her school, and so she should. Referring to what I was saying earlier about Mernda and Doreen, something she said to me was, ‘I see the schools in Mernda and Doreen, and I’d like our college to be at that same level of world-class facilities.’ I am really proud that with this budget we are making that possible. I pay tribute to the wonderful student leadership team there, who I have had the privilege of meeting on a few occasions, particularly a young student, Sophie, who has a keen interest in politics – and perhaps one day we will see her in this chamber.

Another school which is being supported through this budget is Wandong Primary School, and this school is a cracker. It definitely performs well above its weight in terms of the focus on literacy for its students, the fantastic teachers and the principal Kelly Morrow. This upgrade will see improved facilities for not just the students but the teachers as well, with new administrative and meeting rooms for the teachers, because we know that teachers do a fabulous job, and teachers deserve to have the best facilities. I am really glad that we will be able to provide additional and better facilities for the teachers at that wonderful school.

But when you are not at school you need to have some fun. There needs to be not just the three Rs – reading, ’riting and ’rithmetic – but opportunities for families and children to enjoy some recreation. So I am really pleased that this budget is delivering on our commitment of $500,000 towards a regional play space in Doreen. I think we have seen that the member for Mill Park has delivered a similar facility for her community. For us a little bit further north this was something that we needed. Families have been travelling to Mill Park or across to Wallan, which was another project which was supported under the Growing Suburbs Fund by this government, so I am so pleased that by working together with the federal government, a very cooperative federal government, and the local council we are going to be able to deliver a play space for the community which will include a splash park and which will be for all abilities. Every child deserves the opportunity to play, and in this budget we are making sure that children in Doreen have that opportunity. I recall on the hustings meeting a mother who had told me about the Mill Park all-abilities playground and how she travelled with her young son, who was the same age as my daughter, down to use that playground regularly. I am so pleased to know that for her and her son there will be a local option for recreation in the near future.

A problem that families have faced repeatedly in our area – it might seem like a wee problem – is that we do not have a toilet at the Laurimar shops.

Members interjecting.

Lauren KATHAGE: Thank you. I am here all night. I would meet many families or people who were visiting the area when I was on mobile stalls at the shops. They would ask me where the toilet was, and I would have to tell them that unfortunately the shops had not provided a toilet that was open for families to use. Little kids were doing bush wees down at the park because there were no other options. It may seem like a small thing, but it is actually going to make a huge difference to people. I did speak to a father, who has been speaking with me about this, about his child who has bladder issues and who he has not felt confident and comfortable to take to the shops, because there was nowhere to go to the toilet. I am so glad that we are delivering what matters. We are delivering things that others may not deign to think about or think are important, but we know what is important for people in our electorates, and so I am so glad to deliver funding for a bathroom in Laurimar.

From the very small to the very big: I would like to speak about the delivery of the ramps onto the Hume from our community in Wallan. This project is absolutely huge for our community. I drive on Watson Street every day, and every day families on the way to school and people on the way to work are lining up to get onto the Hume. They have to drive right through the centre of Wallan to do that, so the delivery of these ramps means that the traffic will be taken straight out of Wallan and families will not have to queue up to get to where they need to be. It has always been dispiriting driving past the line of traffic waiting to get to where it needs to be. This project is already under the community engagement process, and community members are giving their input into how they want the ramps and associated amenities to be. This is going to change things completely for our community. I think if you did a tally of all of the front pages of the –

The SPEAKER: Order! The time set down for consideration of items on the government business program has arrived, and I am required to interrupt business. The member will have the call next time the motion is before the house.