Thursday, 31 August 2023

Motions

Budget papers 2023–24

Debate resumed on motion of Mary-Anne Thomas:

That this house takes note of the 2023–24 budget papers.

Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (10:08): It is nice to rise again in reply to the budget take-note motion. I have said previously that this budget is one that really hits Victorians hard, especially those in regional and rural Victoria. With the new and increased taxes, honestly, is it any wonder the cost of living is getting out of control and putting pressure on Victorian families? The jobs tax, holiday tax, health tax, school tax and land tax – this budget is hitting Victorian families hard. It hits hard for mum-and-dad investors, who mostly only own one additional property – one additional to the one they currently live in. They make up 80 per cent of the rental market. Those savvy investors might be paving the way for their own retirement or for their kids’ education, or it is just good future planning as a solid investment. We talk about a housing crisis and a rental crisis – of course there is when investors like these are jumping ship at an alarming rate of knots from the long-term rental market because it has all got too hard. So let us add a land tax; let us make sure that small investors want to get out of the market and take those rental properties with them. What this budget should have done to tackle the rental crisis is incentivise landlords to keep those properties on the long-term rental market, but it has done quite the opposite.

This budget also hits hard for anyone who gets sick or injured in the Sunraysia region, with the Mildura Base Public Hospital – which I have spoken about a couple of times in this place – ignored by the Andrews Labor government since being returned to public hands. It was ignored in the election campaign and ignored in the budget, and now the public are being ignored with the hiding of the master plan. It also hits hard for GP clinics, who, despite what the government is saying, are now being hit with a health tax. I have been talking to my GP this morning to get some clarity around this in simple terms. It did not take much for him to go on a bit of a rant about this, and he has sent me some articles from Australian Doctor. It is putting pressure on GPs by putting them in the crosshairs over this payroll tax. Now, let us explain this like they did in Australian Doctor. They said they lay out factors that determine whether GPs are treated as employees, rather than contractors, for tax purposes, including leave entitlements, rostering and whether a GP can work in other practices. Given that our GPs are running a priority primary care clinic from three different clinics, that could affect that service as well. It is an absolute joke. It is putting more and more pressure on our GPs at a time when we can least afford it. This particular doctor said other states:

… are looking after and protecting GP clinics (not Vic …

He also said, and I will read from the conversations that I have had:

Stressful topics like payroll tax, auditing, legislation associated with same … all these topics add more stress and pressure to already overworked rural GP’s and takes time away from what they do best – seeing Patients …

These words are straight from a GP literally 10 minutes ago.

This budget also hits hard for those of us that drive out on crumbling, potholed roads each and every day with our families in the car and our children having to dodge trucks that are only getting bigger and bigger. Meanwhile the roads are crumbling further and further and getting narrower. I have said it before: we do not drive on the left side of the road in Victoria anymore, we drive on what is left of the road, because that is quite literally true. That is what is going on – less money for road resurfacing and road maintenance. So that old saying has never been more true.

It also hits hard if you are one of our magnificent CFA volunteers, and I want to send a shout-out to our amazing CFA volunteers, who do a wonderful job. They do feel like – again, I have been talking to some local CFA members – they have had the absolute soul ripped out of the organisation and struggle even to get a bottle of water whilst they are out fighting fires. But they understand that the CFA is the backbone of small communities. We could not be without them, because that is all we have got in small towns, and sometimes in some of the towns that you drive through in my electorate that is all that is there. In Annuello, for example, that is all that is left, the CFA station. And we need these volunteers; we should be looking after them. So I do want to send a big shout-out to our CFA volunteers, coming into what experts and scientists tell us is going to be our most dangerous fire season ever. The member for Gippsland East spoke about that yesterday, and it was fascinating, the science behind the fuel loads and how scientists are telling us it is going to be a terrible summer and we will burn again. So my thoughts are already with the CFA volunteers.

It also hits hard for businesses who have been battling WorkCover premium increases, payroll tax and other cash-grabbing exercises that this government throws at small business time after time after time. I know this from having been a small business owner previous to this role for the past 12 years and how hard it got. You literally felt like throwing in the towel after COVID, floods and the battle it is every day to run a business in Victoria. They keep getting slogged again. Rural and regional Victorians are among the most resilient people on earth, but there is only so much we can take.

When you think about the history of the Mallee, the Millewa and the Wimmera and how people like my great-grandfather and my grandfather settled and farmed there, before technology, without water and without connection to the river, it was some of the harshest, driest country in Australia. They literally got on the train and jumped off in the middle of the desert. It was hard, but they fought through it, and now we have some of the most innovative farmers in the country, both in dryland farming and in horticulture, producing the food that every single person in here eats every single day – without giving those people a second thought.

Dryland farming innovation is largely led by the Grains Research & Development Corporation and the Birchip Cropping Group in our region, who I was lucky enough to be out in the field with a couple of weeks ago. But they too need more investment. Their next flagship project, which the Nationals had committed to during the election, is the Nexus project, which will not only build accommodation suites for professionals, teaching staff and researchers but a state-of-the-art lab space so we can keep innovating in this space, because it is vitally important.

My point is that country people are full of fight, and I have said this in this place before. We are full of fight – and I say it again because it is true. We are full of fight, and we will keep fighting. We have not got a choice, although up on the border there is actually a choice and people are – we see it every day – taking their businesses and their homes over the river, where life is just a little bit easier. It is very, very easy for them to do so, because it is literally a 5-minute drive. But we will keep fighting – fighting for our right to live our lives the way we want, not the way this government dictates that we should. That is how regional and rural Victorians are feeling right now. We are full of fight because it is in our blood – against all odds, fighting and surviving. Not only surviving, but thriving, is in our blood, just like those that settled the Mallee in the first place.

This budget really is one that makes it clear that this government does not actually want you to own anything. They want you to own nothing and be happy with that. Well, we are not happy with that. We have worked too hard for too long now to throw in the towel.

Meng Heang TAK (Clarinda) (10:17): I am delighted to rise today to speak on the Victorian budget 2023–24. It is an honour and a privilege to support yet another amazing budget from the Andrews Labor government – one that is doing what matters for our great state and doing what matters for Clarinda in the south-east. It is very exciting for our community and for all Victorians.

In November last year we were very fortunate to secure some significant election commitments for our local community, and since the election last year we have been getting on with delivering on those election promises for our community – investing in what matters for the people of Clarinda. We have not wasted a day delivering the services and projects that matter for all Victorians, and with this year’s budget we are getting on with doing the things that we said we would do.

The cost of living is a major priority for my community. Utility bills, everyday bills and balancing the family budget are constantly on the minds of families in Clarinda and across the state. What is even better is that my office has been very busy assisting our constituents in applying for the $250 power saving bonus, and it is good to see the Minister for Energy and Resources at the table. Just as a shout-out, today is the last day, 31 August, and if you have not applied, you have until midnight tonight to apply for that power saving bonus.

Victorians remember the State Electricity Commission, the SEC. It meant a fair deal for power prices and good, stable jobs for workers. That is why we are bringing it back – to drive down power bills and create thousands of jobs in renewable, government-owned energy. An initial $1 billion investment in the SEC will not just mean more renewable energy, lower power bills and reduced carbon emissions; it will also help to create thousands of jobs.

In the south-east I am very proud of the commitment to our health care. It is another major priority in Clarinda. It has been an honour and a privilege to have the Monash Medical Centre in the Clarinda district for four of the last five years. The latest Victorian Electoral Commission redistributions have seen Monash Medical move to a neighbouring district, to Oakleigh district, but we have done some amazing work since 2018. You, Deputy Speaker, and many others visited the Monash medical precinct many times in the last term and have also visited this term.

We completed the $76.3 million emergency department expansion and traffic improvement plan, delivered an additional 28 emergency department beds and an extra six short-stay beds as well as refurbishing 41 adult emergency bays. Deputy Speaker, you were there at the openings a number of times. The redevelopment included the addition of the emergency department mental health, alcohol and other drugs hub, as well as a separate, dedicated children’s emergency area. This helps to ensure that patients receive the right care in the right environment.

It is an amazing facility. Monash Health is the largest health service in Victoria and sees nearly 5 per cent of the state’s emergency cases at the centre in Clayton. I would like to call it a medical hub, but many people have said to me that it is also an employment hub for many of our healthcare workers in that area. Many families in the south-eastern suburbs have a story of visiting Monash Medical Centre and receiving exceptional care. Whether it is for sickness, injury or the birth of a baby – all three of my children were born at the Monash Medical Centre – it has been there for our community. I thank each and every one of the amazing healthcare workers and staff for the wonderful work they do, and they do it day in and day out.

We have delivered and are delivering expanded and improved facilities and enhanced service delivery to meet the needs of our growing local community. That investment in the medical centre continues with this budget, because every Victorian should be able to get the health care they need when they need it close to home. That is why we are starting work on a bigger and better Monash Medical Centre through our $320 million Hospital Infrastructure Delivery Fund. This funding will kickstart planning, development, land acquisitions and other early work on the project as well as undertaking capital and service planning. This budget is also supporting Radio Lollipop, which operates out of the children’s hospital – we had a few photos taken together there – with $200,000 to provide care, comfort and entertainment to unwell children. A new comprehensive women’s health clinic at Monash Medical Centre will change the way women’s health issues are treated, providing care and support for all conditions. As we know, the hospital needs to grow and adapt to meet the changing needs of our community, and that is why we have taken the next step to make Monash Medical Centre even better.

I am extremely proud. We have committed to a significant undertaking over the coming years at Monash – a new seven-storey tower above the newly expanded emergency department. The tower will include new operating suites, with up to five theatres and 34 pre-op and post-op beds providing capacity for an extra 7500 surgeries a year. The upgrade will also deliver six extra birthing suites, boosting capacity for an additional 2400 births at Monash every year, as well as refurbishing the existing maternity ward and building a new one that will create up to 64 maternity beds. Further to this, there will be a new intensive care unit. All in all, it is very important for our healthcare service delivery for all in the south-east and across the state. It is simply amazing. I cannot help but mention the heart hospital on Blackburn Road, just a bit out from both your electorate and mine, Deputy Speaker. The facility, the staff and the research that will be done there will be phenomenal for our state.

So we are delivering in health care and we are delivering in education. Clarinda families should have great local schools to send their kids to. That is why we are kickstarting planning to upgrade Clayton South Primary School so students can get the world-class education that they deserve. We remember clearly our election commitment. I was with my good friend the hardworking member for Mordialloc when we made that announcement, and we could not forget the face of the principal at the time. He could not believe that a school like Clayton South in my electorate would get that big commitment. Those opposite only committed to a fraction of that compared to our commitment. The $12.45 million upgrade to Clayton South Primary School will see a rebuild for the main classroom wing and a new playground also. So this budget starts the school on that amazing journey towards those facilities. This builds on the almost $400,000 invested in Clayton South Primary School over the last four years. The Clayton South principal Dean Napier, like I said, is a wonderful advocate for his school and his community. This is a very well-deserved commitment and one that will make sure that local families have access to the best school facilities, supporting kids to do the best in the classroom. It was fantastic to meet with Dean, together with, like I said, my good friend, at the time, but I just would like to say not only that our local community deserves dedicated staff and teachers but also that we need to support these facilities for our families and kids. It plays into that employment cluster in the south-east.

There is so much happening in this budget. As we know, we are a vibrant and diverse community in Clarinda, I am proud to say, one of the most diverse in our state. Supporting community events helps our multicultural and multifaith communities to stay connected to their culture, traditions and heritage. In fact it is one of our greatest strengths here in Victoria. It does not matter where you come from, what you look like, what you believe in or what language you speak, in Victoria we are all proud of our cultural diversity. We welcome diversity and we also celebrate it, and we can see that very clearly in our budget. That is why I am extremely proud of our investments celebrating that diversity. There is a $100,000 per year commitment for the next four years to support the Lunar New Year celebrations in Springvale. That is $400,000 for the Springvale Lunar New Year festival to celebrate the food, music, dance, arts and culture of Victoria’s Indochinese community.

I just would like to say it is not all about food and it is not all about dance; it is also about supporting our local business community to attract tourists from near and far to visit our place, and that is very important. That is why I would like to congratulate SABA, the Springvale Asian Business Association, and its president Daniel Cheng and all the committee members for many years of commitment to serving and working with all levels of government to deliver the best outcomes to celebrate but also to support small business in our area. SABA is a really important part of Springvale and the broader community.

For the past 20 years the Springvale Lunar New Year festival has delighted and entertained, with thousands of people coming together to enjoy the entertainment and attractions, and we will continue to support these wonderful celebrations of culture and tradition. Like I said, I am extremely proud to see this commitment being delivered, recognising the important events and the importance of celebrating culture and tradition. We will support multicultural and multifaith groups across Clarinda and the south-east with $250,000 towards a temple community space upgrade at Hoa Nghiem Buddhist Temple, not far from our temple at Bright Moon that tragically caught fire not long ago; $100,000 towards the Hellenic Community of the City of Moorabbin, not far away from Clayton; $80,000 towards the South-Eastern Melbourne Vietnamese Associations Council; and further funding support towards our multicultural trading associations.

These commitments are very important. That we invest in quality open and green space is another really important priority for our community, and we hear this really often and strongly. There really is a proud history of defending our open and green spaces, particularly the Kingston Fields green wedge. We have built a strong coalition of groups and individuals working together on this. There is a great deal happening, and we can see it in the budget here with a $1 million investment for delivery of the master plan for the Kingston Fields. This is exciting for our community, especially in the Dingley Village, now part of the new Clarinda and formerly part of Keysborough, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the former member for Keysborough for his efforts, for his dedication and for his commitment for the community in that area. I am very honoured to represent the electorate and the part of Dingley Village that is in Clarinda. I am extremely proud of our record investment in local clubs and multicultural community open space. All the members of our community are included and being looked after in that way.

With this budget we are starting to work on every election commitment that we made to the good people of Clarinda, including a bigger and better Monash Medical Centre with a new women’s health clinic – world-class facilities – upgrades for Clayton South Primary School and a huge amount of green and open space and investment in our local sport. As I said, Clarinda is a proud multicultural community that has contributed so much to the south-east, and we are pleased to support them with funding for community space so that they can keep sharing and celebrating their culture and heritage. This goes for all the community groups that provide care, support and service to help our community when they need it most. I am very proud to be part of the Daniel Andrews Labor government with this budget.

Chris CREWTHER (Mornington) (10:32): I rise to speak on the take-note motion for the 2023–24 budget papers. The budget is a horror budget full of cuts and taxes: cuts to education, cuts to Victorian integrity agencies, cuts to mental health services, cuts to community health, cuts to road funding and the cutting of the Commonwealth Games. You name it, and Andrews has cut it. And there are taxes – land tax increases, being a tax on renters; payroll tax, being a tax on employment, WorkCover premium increases; stamp duty increases, being a tax on buying your home; taxes on non-government schools; holiday taxes; and the COVID debt levy, a tax on Victorians for having an incompetent government. The Treasurer and this Labor government have not only displayed an incredible callousness for Victoria and Victorians but the budget is indicative of a government struggling to keep its head above water, a government where fiscal mismanagement and a rudimentary understanding of economics run riot, firing bad policy after bad policy in every direction, missing all its targets.

Let us talk about debt, to start with. What better place to begin the substance of this debate than the burgeoning debt levels that are crippling this state. Even after imposing billions of dollars in new taxes, cuts all around, pushing the COVID bill onto Victorians and delaying major infrastructure projects, this state’s net debt is growing – and growing rapidly. According to Treasury’s own predictions, Victoria’s net debt will grow from about $135.4 billion next year to $171.4 billion by 2026–27, if you can believe the government’s figures. A recent forecast by Moody’s suggests that we cannot trust the government. Moody’s predicts total debt will actually be $226 billion. That is a $55 billion difference to the $171 billion that was in the budget papers just a few months ago. With interest rates potentially rising again, this means that the cost of servicing the debt is going to be even higher, with the interest bill for Victorians expected to rise from $4.1 billion this financial year to $5.6 billion next year, or 6.2 per cent of total revenue. At the moment interest payments are around $15 million a day, which is about $625,000 per hour. This is expected to grow to over $20 million a day in a few years time.

Let us compare how many hours and days of interest it would take to budget for some of the commitments that the Liberal and National parties made for the Mornington electorate community during the 2022 election campaign had we been elected, which were for much-needed, long-overdue fixes and upgrades. An initial $2.5 million for upgrades to Mount Eliza Secondary College – that is 4 hours of interest payments. A full redevelopment of this school for $30 million could be done in just two days worth of interest payments. Five million dollars for upgrades to Emil Madsen Reserve in Mount Eliza is 8 hours of interest payments, $5 million for Mornington basketball is another 8 hours and $2.5 million for Mornington Soccer Club towards major facilities and pavilion redevelopment – that is 4 hours. A new pavilion fit-out at Civic Reserve for $100,000 is only 10 minutes. Mount Eliza Bowling Club, $1 million in upgrades – an hour and a half of interest payments. I can go on: $100,000 for bus shelters and timetables for the 781 and 785 bus route changes to give public transport to 2000 people who do not have it, including residents across two retirement villages, in approximately 10 minutes; $200,000 for Mount Martha village in about 20 minutes. And $200,000 for an expanded Main Street Mornington Festival – again, that is approximately 20 minutes of interest payments.

The government claims it is making lots of strongman, tough decisions – more cuts and more taxes for Victorians – yet one of the only things that the Andrews government is not cutting is our state’s debt burden. In fact this budget will only stabilise our debt – so much for tough decisions. Remember when the leader of the government made the tough decision to lock us down for the longest period in the world, 263 days – a decision which has drowned Victoria in debt and caused untold, unquantifiable damage to the people of this state.

This government, under this Premier, prides itself on making tough decisions. Lockdowns were a tough decision. This budget was a tough decision. The Commonwealth Games cancellation, though, was not a difficult decision, to quote the words of the Premier – perhaps evidence that this Andrews Labor government is becoming more brazen in its poor decision-making and indeed arrogance after nine consecutive years in power and Labor having been in government for around 20 of the last 24 years. The government does not make tough decisions, it makes ridiculously bad decisions.

On land tax in this budget – this is one of the worst decisions to come out of it – we had the decision to foot the bill for the government’s COVID-19 blunders to Victorian property owners and, inevitably, renters. From 1 July 2024 the threshold for Victoria’s land tax, which does not of course apply to the family home, will be lowered from $300,000 to $50,000. An annual charge of $500 will also apply to affected properties between $50,000 and $100,000 as part of the 10-year COVID levy. A charge of $975 will apply for property landholdings worth between $100,000 and $300,000, while land tax rates for properties above $300,000 will rise by $975 plus 0.1 per cent of the land’s value.

Victoria is now officially the worst state in Australia to own an investment property or to conduct business in. Victorian landlords are now evicting themselves from the state’s property market, racking up the highest share of home sales since at least 2018. In June of this year 29 per cent of sales across the state were landlords getting out, with the landlord exodus being so extreme that less than half the homes that are actually being sold by investors are being replaced by new investments. Such an exodus from the Victorian property market comes with a dramatic reduction in the supply of rental properties. It is like the government has absolutely no clue whatsoever, because this is real estate 101. The main reason why rents have risen dramatically in Melbourne and regional Victoria is because supply is low while demand remains high. Sure, the mass exodus of landlords from the residential property market might see a very short-term drop in house prices, but over the medium and longer term there will just be no or little supply, making the rental crisis even worse. I have in the last two months had, for example, a landlord contact me selling four homes, another three people selling two each and another seven selling one each. All rentals are being sold up, as there is no or little incentive to keep up with Victoria’s ridiculously high land tax imposed by this Labor government, while at the same time many often mum-and-dad investors are dealing with rising cost-of-living pressures and rising mortgage interest rates. As a local real estate agent says, ‘In 37 years I have never seen such devastation in the rental market.’ And he said, ‘Our stock for rentals is now 27 per cent down on the same time last year, with loads of landlords wanting to sell up.’

This Andrews Labor government have confirmed that they are working on a housing package that is expected to allow landlords to lift rent only once every two years, and potentially impose caps on any rent increase. Again, such a move would be disastrous for the Victorian property market. This would see rents likely lifted in advance of such a decision, higher raises every two years and decreased rentals over time as more mum-and-dad investors exit the market. Maybe the Premier should go and speak to the social democrats and the Left Party in Germany – they tried, for example, a rent freeze in Berlin in February 2020, which effectively suspended the free market for rental property in the city, stopping most price increases for five years. The result: empty flats, 60 per cent fewer flats on the rental market and the biggest rental price increases in all of Germany. In other words, it was a failure that lasted just over a year. Rent freezes or caps have been tried before, and they have failed.

On public housing, the Andrews Labor government will contribute to the housing supply, right? We will be okay, because the Andrews government has announced a $5.3 billion housing build, right? I wish that was the case, but we cannot rely on this government to do absolutely anything for us. While the government is busy punishing aspirational Victorians who own investment properties and driving down supply, public housing stock has grown by just 74 in four years in what has been a little build, not the formidable big build it was meant to be. In fact on the Mornington Peninsula, public housing stock has actually gone backwards by a net 13 over the last eight years since the Andrews government came to power, not to mention that, according to reports received by Mornington Community Support Centre, around 30 per cent of this current stock is vacant, sitting empty and not being repaired. Seemingly, not much of the big build has come to the peninsula thus far.

In addition, we have seen the Andrews government announce a $1 billion Commonwealth Games patch-up Regional Housing Fund, set to cost $770,000 per home, plus land, to build only 1300 homes. The Mornington Peninsula is classed as metropolitan, as we found out during COVID, even though much of it is further from the city and is less populated than Geelong, so I do not think we will be seeing any homes built locally under this program either. Right across Victoria we have had a massive increase in housing waiting lists due to homelessness, and 1300 extra homes in the regions will not come close to solving this problem.

On homelessness, on the peninsula we have now got the sixth-highest level of homelessness in Victoria. I have actually heard that recently it has gone up to be the fourth highest. The latest figures show that over 67,000 Victorians are waiting urgently for a home or otherwise are in dire need of relocation due to inadequate or unsuitable housing. Numerous Victorians are trapped in limbo as the wait for public housing has hit an all-time high. In comparison, the waiting list was about 34,500 when the coalition left government in Victoria in 2014 – that is more than 30,000 more people on the waiting list since then. The priority list was 9900 in 2014, and as of March this year it is over 37,000. These are often families with children, not just individuals. So much for the big build – this is a crisis.

We all know that when the Andrews Labor government are going broke, they reach into the pockets of Victorians. They seem to see us as the goose that lays the golden eggs, but we all know how that story ends. Yet they do not just come after our money through taxes, they completely embarrass and humiliate us on the international stage. Of course I am talking about the cancellation of the 2026 Commonwealth Games, which among other things caused a huge blow to Victoria’s reputation as a global events leader, likely directly impacting the number of major events and tourists coming to Victoria in the future. This decision was a betrayal of Victoria, particularly regional Victoria, and confirmed that Victoria is broke and that Victorians continue to be punished by a tired and incompetent Andrews government. While the Andrews government continues to waste billions of dollars on major project cost blowouts, like the $200 billion-plus Suburban Rail Loop, Victorians have had yet another promise ripped out from under them and will be left behind once again.

To conclude, what else does a Labor government do when they have got no money? They target our schools – just when you thought this government could not get worse. We have seen insufficient funds for local kinders and a shortfall for shires or local councils when there is a growth of places due to the free kinder program. Local community kindergartens and preschools are either at risk of closure or not able to accept the increased demand because of state Labor’s botched free kinder program. This so-called free kinder program is not being funded properly and is just another cruel hoax by Labor designed to get them through the election. Councils cannot afford the remainder of the costs they will be up for, which has already led to Knox City Council, for example, declaring that they will have to close their local kindergartens and preschools. The funding the state government is delivering is woefully inadequate for the additional services councils are expected to deliver for the community. That is why Knox made that decision. When I met with Mornington Peninsula shire councillors recently, the shire also expressed concerns about being able to fund the shortfall for local community kindergartens under Labor’s policy. The shire provides facilities for 28 sessional preschool services, but these facilities require over $53 million in upgrades to cater for the increased demand, and families will otherwise miss out on taking advantage of this free kinder program and be forced to go elsewhere.

Lastly, I note that on education funding we have seen about 93 per cent of education infrastructure going into Labor-held seats, not distributed according to need – which would include schools like Mount Eliza Secondary College and Mornington Park Primary School. So what do we have? We have a budget with a growing debt, we have growing cost-of-living pressures and we have more taxes and more cuts. This is a budget that is not working for Victorians.

Vicki WARD (Eltham) (10:47): I am far more optimistic about what is happening in this state than the member for Mornington. I think I have got every reason to be far more optimistic about what is happening in the state, because there are absolutely fantastic things happening and nothing more fantastic than of course in the seat of Eltham, this fantastic community that I have grown up in, that I live in and that I love very dearly, and I know they support much of the work of this government. I really do love being able to deliver on the commitments that this government has made to my community as well as to the wider state.

I do want to start with Eltham High School, which is a fantastic inclusive school in my community. I do not think that this state could have finer schools than the schools that I have got, but I particularly want to single out Eltham High because it really does work incredibly hard to be inclusive, and I really shout out to principal Vincent Sicari and his team for the work that they do. We are about to start work on refurbished, inclusive toilets at Eltham High, ensuring that every kid can go to the loo, because we know that there are sometimes reasons why kids will actually hold off and not go. I am really proud of my school and the leadership that they are showing. We are building on the $100,000 that we gave to Eltham High and the Eltham Wildcats in 2016 to improve change rooms.

A member interjected.

Vicki WARD: Go Wildcats, absolutely – a great basketball club. We have invested over $5 million for the sports precinct, which is used not just by the school but also by sporting clubs. I have even coached netball on the new courts there. We have also got great clubs like Eltham Football Club who have, incidentally, had a great season this year, with their women’s team performing well, and congrats to the Monty women’s for winning the grand final. The Eltham under-19 boys are heading into the finals next week; the men’s reserve finished top of the ladder and are ready for a great show in the finals; and the men’s seniors last weekend won their qualifying final against St Mary’s, going into the semifinal next weekend. Go Panthers!

Investment in Eltham High does not stop there. With this budget we are investing nearly $9 million in science building improvements, and this is going to transform this section of this school. We have got wonderful buildings out the front which were supported by our state government in previous terms in the Bracks–Brumby years. We have got Building the Education Revolution investments under federal Labor governments that have transformed Eltham High School, and with this money that we are investing in the science building, this is going to be an incredible public school that our local families will absolutely love. It is showing our community how much we value education and how much we value public education, because we on this side of the chamber absolutely do. You will never see anyone on this side of the chamber talking down our public schools, putting it out there that kids in public schools are cave dwellers, as we have heard members in the other place do. We are proud of our public schools on this side of the house, and we will do everything we can to continue to not only support our public schools but enhance them, because education is not only important, it actually influences everything that will happen for the rest of your life.

That takes me to our investment in early years. We have invested heavily in early years education because we know absolutely how important the early years are. Not so long ago I was talking to an educator who said the research that they have looked at says that when a kid is 15 you can tell whether that kid has actually gone to kinder or not. You can tell, from what is happening in that kid’s life at 15, the exposure to education that they did or did not have at three or four. This shows you exactly how important this is. But it is not even just that we want to help kids with their education, we also want to help families with the cost of living, and this investment that we have got in free kinder will save families up to $2500 per kid. That is a significant saving and will absolutely encourage families to get their kids to kinder to give their kids the best start in life.

While the member for Mornington might want to talk down our kinders and the amazing work that they do and the facilities that they have got, we are investing $400,000 into Research Preschool, because we do understand that even in small communities like Research our kids still need to have fantastic facilities. We have transformed Research Primary School, my old primary school – it has got amazing state-of-the-art buildings; it is beautiful – and we are now embarking on the journey to transform Research kinder, and I look forward to seeing all of the work that we will do.

Fun fact: free kinder for three- and four-year-olds this year will have supported around 140,000 kids with their education. This is an amazing amount, and imagine how many families we have also supported through taking that cost off them.

We also had the amazing opportunity of having the Premier visit Research kinder last week, which was fantastic. I think he was blown away by the amount of Elsas that we had out for book week. We also had a Ghostbuster, who was fabulous – one of the best costumes that I have seen. The Premier loved our kinder just as much as I do. We also had the opportunity to read Where the Lyrebird Lives, a beautiful picture book written by local author Vikki Conley. She lives in Eltham North. We have got a lot of fantastic writers in our community.

Danny O’Brien: She’s from Won Wron. She’s a Gippsland girl.

Vicki WARD: And as all good Gippsland people do, she lives in Eltham. His in-laws used to live in Eltham, but they have moved to Gippsland.

We are also investing $1.5 million in the Eltham Woods childcare co-op, a fantastic community-based childcare centre filled with positive learning and fantastic educators who are working incredibly hard, and we are going to do some wonderful work to transform and expand this childcare co-op.

We are also putting money into the Pat Cronin Foundation, something that I am incredibly happy about.

A member: Great programs.

Vicki WARD: Absolutely, great programs come out of the Pat Cronin Foundation. For those who are not aware, this is an amazingly strong and resilient project that has come out of absolute devastation. I can still see etched on the faces of Pat Cronin’s mum and dad the tragedy that they have had to go through with the death of their son through the coward punch that he received. While this happened and was devastating for my community, devastating for everybody who knew and loved Pat, devastating for the football clubs and devastating for the local schools, this family that is so involved in my local community has worked so hard to turn this into something positive. They are out there trying to transform young people, change the way that they act, change the way that they think about themselves and what happens around them and remove the coward punch from the vernacular of people, where they think that whacking someone out of nowhere – or even just whacking someone – is appropriate, because it is not. I commend the Pat Cronin Foundation for all of the incredible work that they do, and I am glad that this government is supporting them. Long may it continue.

I also want to talk about the significant investment that we have had in the Hurstbridge line. This is a bit of a passion of mine, the Hurstbridge line. It is something that I travelled on as a teenager, and it used to drive me insane because of the meandering country feel that we had, where often the department of transport would think, ‘It’s in the outer suburbs. Not many people live there. There are all the trees. We don’t need to put money into it’. Then we got a Labor government in the Bracks–Brumby years who significantly invested in this train line. They duplicated it between Westgarth and Clifton Hill. They put in a hundred million dollars to improve the signalisation and modernise it so that we did not have train guards popping out of the train with that coil thing, handing it over here and then getting back on. We actually had electronic signalling that connected everything. We upgraded the signalling boxes at Clifton Hill. We then duplicated, under the Andrews government, the line between Heidelberg and Rosanna; we got rid of the level crossing. And we have now duplicated the line between Greensborough and Montmorency and built two new stations.

We are also building a shared-use path between Greensborough and Montmorency, and we are now with this budget going to continue it from Montmorency to Eltham, which means that we are putting in the missing link, just as we are doing with North East Link. We are building the missing link with our shared-use path. We are building the missing link between the Diamond Creek Trail and the Plenty River Trail, meaning that you can have access to hundreds of kilometres of paths, which is wonderful news – and it is a game changer for my very hilly community to be able to have a path that is actually pretty flat. So I am especially grateful for this investment by the state government.

We are also upgrading the Diamond Creek dog park, and I can tell you people in my community love their dogs. I also shout out to everybody here: please go and visit the RSPCA – a bit of a segue. I went there earlier this week. There are some beautiful dogs, cats and rabbits up for adoption. Please go out there. Please encourage your communities to adopt these beautiful dogs or even foster. There are dogs that have been rescued because their owners have been negligent. They are in limbo, these dogs. Please go and foster some dogs. If you do not have a lot of room at home, just give a dog a holiday at your place for a bit. Give them a bit of love. Give them a bit of a cuddle. So we are investing in improving the Diamond Creek dog park, and we have also got $2 million to invest in better access across the Diamond Creek in Eltham North.

What I really love, though, too is how the little things matter, and we are putting $70,000 to improve facilities at the 2nd Eltham Sea Scouts. The Eltham Sea Scouts are fantastic. Eltham Sea Scouts are just such a beautiful community. I attended their wrap last week. They do amazing things. They are everywhere doing everything all at once, and I love my Scouts and the work that they do. I love my Girl Guides too. They are just phenomenal, and I really wish sometimes that I could go back and do scouting, because they do great stuff. It is so much fun.

We have also invested $500,000 in the Montmorency Bowling Club. This is a great community club. They look after each other. They support each other. They play bowls, but really it is the social aspect of bowling that is most important, particularly for this age group, where you can feel isolated. They have long been working towards a transformation of their bowling club, and I am especially pleased that this government has been able to work with Banyule council to improve and expand the facilities that are there in the sense of the reconfiguration and refurbishment, which will allow this incredible social club to use their rooms as much as possible.

We have also invested $320 million into the Austin Hospital’s emergency department, which is an absolutely fantastic result. I know I and many people here have taken our kids to emergencies at our local hospitals. I have done it at the Austin – we have managed to have three broken arms with my two kids – and the Austin have always been fantastic. I was there earlier this year, as some may recall, with a dog bite to my arm. The Austin Hospital are just amazing, and I really want to thank them for all the work that they do and the leadership that they show in my community.

Going back to the smaller amounts that matter, we have got $100,000 for healthAbility, a terrific community health service in my community, who are going to use this money well. Community health is a fantastic resource for local communities and deserves to be well supported by their MPs and by the government. I am also looking forward to the planning that is underway for the mental health and wellbeing hub at Diamond Creek. This is a terrific investment in communities in the north-east, and I know that it will be very enthusiastically received. We are also investing record amounts in women’s health, including a $220 million investment.

But I really want to, in the very short time that is left, talk about free TAFE, because we have put more than 70 courses on the free TAFE list, helping more Victorians get the skills they need for the jobs they want – and this includes pathways to the Big Build, which is creating an incredible amount of jobs. We have expanded eligibility for free and subsidised TAFE and training so all Victorians can study for in-demand jobs – we need more kinder teachers; thank you, free kinder – and we are investing in those studies. We are also supporting students to study nursing and midwifery.

I also really want to talk about bringing back the SEC, the billion-dollar investment that we have in that and the nearly 60,000 jobs that we will create, but really, it is about the $12 million to develop new VET qualifications and to fund a business case for an SEC centre of training excellence that will deliver on the Victorian energy jobs plan to map out the jobs needed and prepare the workforce to get these jobs done.

This year we recognise the fifth anniversary of the Banyule Nillumbik Tech School, and with this budget we are going to build another six tech schools. My tech school is absolutely fantastic, and I know the communities who will be receiving these six new tech schools will be thrilled to know that they are coming in and that they are going to support over 62,000 students – a terrific investment across our state. Our tech schools are critical in making sure that Victorian students are in line for jobs of the future. We are committed to creating a workforce pipeline to deliver nation-leading investment in clean energy, and this will happen across all of our tech schools in this state. It is a fantastic investment. It is looking to the future of this state and investing in the future, which is what Labor governments do.

Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (11:02): I am pleased to belatedly get the opportunity to speak on the budget and the budget take-note motion, although unlike most in the chamber, I have had plenty of opportunity through the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC), like your good self, Acting Speaker Hamer, to interrogate the details of this particular budget – and what a bad, bad budget it is for Victoria. There are plenty of members opposite who will get up and say what wonderful things have happened in their electorates. We can all pluck a few things out from the budget papers that are being funded, particularly in the first year after an election campaign when governments are looking to fund issues in their electorates, and I might come to that in a moment. But for Victorians more broadly, and particularly for regional Victorians and even more particularly for Gippslanders, this is a debacle of a budget: $171 billion, we are heading for, as state debt. To put that in context: $22 million a day in interest repayments, we are heading for at the end of this four-year period. That is going to impact on Victorians in both the services they are delivered and the facilities that they receive in terms of infrastructure.

I will go to a few of the things in my local Gippsland South electorate. Sale College is across two campuses. Both of those campuses are getting old and out of date and are in need of upgrade. The school community has been calling, for about six years now, for an upgrade and for consolidation onto one site. To his credit the former Minister for Education, Minister Merlino, actually provided $3 million funding for some minor upgrades but more particularly for master plan funding for the school. That had got so far that the Victorian School Building Authority was negotiating with Wellington Shire Council about the roads and the area around the proposed new school on the site in Cobains Road. But I did say to them, ‘I don’t know why the shire would be doing that, because it is highly unlikely, in my view, that the state government will fund it.’ Unfortunately, I was correct, because in this budget there is nothing for Sale College to get the facilities that it needs. I put it in the context of the debt and deficit that we are facing with this government – $22 million a day we are heading for in debt. That would build the new school in three days. In three days we could build a new Sale College for the amount of money that we are paying to our debtors in this state for interest repayments. With interest repayments of $22 million a day we could have done Sale College in three days. That is just the example that highlights how debt is an issue. I know the government members do not seem to think it is, because it is someone else’s debt and it is productive debt and that sort of thing. Well, a lot of it is not, because it is paying for budget blowouts where the government has mismanaged projects in particular, but most particularly it is because it comes with a cost. It comes with a cost in interest repayments, a recurrent outlay that means that other things cannot be funded.

Right through Gippsland South there are other things that were not done. I have been campaigning for seven years now for fire stations at Foster, Mirboo North and Yarram. Finally, Yarram was confirmed in the budget papers. I do not quite understand how, given that the CFA has already said that they would fund it from their capital upgrade in last year’s CFA budget, but somehow the government has come in and said ‘Well, we’ll claim that’, and it has now put it in the budget papers. That is certainly welcome. I still do not think it has actually had anything to do with the Labor government, because the CFA was doing it anyway. On the other end of the scale, because of the government clawing back funds from the CFA, the proposed funding for Foster and Mirboo North stations has in fact now been cut, I have been advised. I have raised this now with the minister because Foster has land identified. They are ready to go with building something, and now the funds that were set aside by the CFA in their capital budget have been removed, apparently because there is funding being clawed back by the government from the CFA, which is no surprise.

We have seen multiple other issues ignored. We certainly have not seen any addressing of ‘kamikaze corner’, as it is known, in Leongatha – the intersection of South Gippsland Highway and the main streets in Leongatha. There are five or six streets meeting in one spot. That is something that needs to be addressed. The South Gippsland Highway, the Hyland Highway and the Strzelecki Highway all have major issues. They are not being addressed because, once again, the government has cut the roads maintenance budget, and I want to spend a little bit of time on that.

We see in the budget this year the roads maintenance budget going down from over $700 million last year, revised to $441 million. Look at the budget papers. It is literally a 25 per cent cut there in black and white. If you compare it to the peak of roads maintenance spending in 2020, it is now a 45 per cent reduction in the roads maintenance budget. That is an indictment of the government at a time when our roads, I would say, have never been worse. Everywhere I go, whether I am the Shadow Minister for Roads and Road Safety or not, just as a local member, people tell me how bad their local roads are. People are constantly saying ‘I’ve just come back from South Australia’ or ‘I’ve just come back from Queensland, and I drove through New South Wales, and as soon as you cross the border you notice our roads are bad’. The potholes, the ruts, the broken-up shoulders – all of these things are happening because the government has turned its back on roads, particularly rural and regional roads, at a time when we are spending multibillions of dollars on megaprojects in the city and seeing major cost overruns on those projects. There is $30 billion in cost overruns on the big projects.

Already the government is spending $54 billion on just four projects in the city: level crossing removals, the Metro Tunnel, North East Link and the West Gate Tunnel, all of which are over budget. Then you throw on top of that the $54 billion of the Suburban Rail Loop, which is a hastily arranged, back-of-the-envelope project that was announced in 2018. The best we can say is that it is between $30 billion and $35 billion for the first stage. That is what the government says, let alone the Parliamentary Budget Officer, who says it is more like $125 billion for the entire length of it. Not surprisingly, the Parliamentary Budget Officer got the lemonade and sars from the government over that and many others that he had actually produced when he actually told some truths. But there you have multibillions of dollars being spent on these megaprojects in the city, and yet in the country we cannot get a new fire station and our roads are like goat tracks – and it continues to get worse. In the last couple of days I have literally had three different responses from the government on road issues, where when I have complained about a particular issue the government has said, ‘Oh, well, we’ve made that stretch of road subject to a management overlay’. What does that mean? ‘We’ve put up a new speed sign, and we’ve put some warning signs up’ – we do not fix the road, we just put up some signs, and that is a disgrace.

I want to turn to a couple of the other issues now that highlight just how far this Labor Party of today has gone from its blue-collar roots. The decision to axe the timber industry in particular is the most disgraceful public policy decision that I have seen in my time here in Parliament by a long shot – and there have been some terrible ones. When the government gave the industry until 2030 and said that there would be a phase-out, as much as we disagreed with that, as much as the industry disagreed with that, there were plans in place for mills, for harvest and haul contractors and for all the ancillary industries around it to plan for that over the next seven or eight years – or 11 years from the announcement in 2019. For the government to then come in on budget day and say, ‘Bang, sorry, all bets are off – 1 January next year you’re out’ is just absolutely disgraceful and a betrayal of the people that this government used to represent – blue-collar workers in the bush, workers in timber mills, workers hauling logs, workers with trucks and gear, multimillion-dollar investments in those businesses – and has left them absolutely hanging.

At the public accounts and estimates hearings I challenged the Premier on this and asked why the government did not actually legislate to give the industry some protection from the litigation that had been shutting down coupes around the state, and the Premier said, ‘Well, we’ve got legal advice that says we can’t do that’. What is the obvious next question? ‘Okay, Premier, please provide us with that legal advice.’ ‘Well, no, I can’t possibly do that, Mr O’Brien.’ So it is a ‘trust us’ from the government: ‘We’ve got legal advice that we can’t fix the industry.’ That is just ridiculous. If there was litigation against the government’s plans to remove level crossings or to build the Metro Tunnel, the government would legislate if it needed to to overturn that court action. It refuses to do it for the timber industry because it is more worried about those four people that sit up the back there, the members of the Greens and those others who are under threat from the Greens – and yes, I am looking at you, member for Northcote; we know you are next in line, and we know the member for Footscray is coming soon after that – than the blue-collar workers that it actually used to represent. You do not have to take it from me; take it from a good Labor person like Michael O’Connor from the CFMEU, who has highlighted that this Labor Party has just turned its back on blue-collar workers and traditional industries.

If you want any further evidence of that, have a look at the report tabled today by the committee looking into native bird hunting arrangements. This is a government that once upon a time represented blokes and blue-collar workers who like to go out and do some outdoor pursuits. If this government bans duck hunting now, it will just show that it has absolutely left traditional industries, people who like to get out in the bush and in the wetlands and undertake their traditional industries with their families. It has become completely craven to the Greens, the Animal Justice Party and all the other crazies who do not think we should be doing anything with animals, and frankly with the government’s attitude to this it needs to be warned, because do not think it will stop at ducks. Then it will be deer, then it will be killing any animals, then it will be fishing.

Sonya Kilkenny interjected.

Danny O’BRIEN: The minister at the table is not too sure. I mean, the minister at the table at PAEC would not even say whether she supports duck hunting. She would not even say whether she supports fishing, and she is the Minister for Outdoor Recreation. I mean, this government has just turned its back on those traditional supporters, and it is not a surprise that we are seeing the people in country Victoria in particular turn away from them, in places like Morwell, which relies on the timber industry and which relies on the coal industry, and that we have a Nationals member for Morwell sitting here in a seat that the Labor Party once had for nearly four decades. It is because this government has turned its back on it.

We saw other fallacies presented in the budget papers, and if you were actually sitting there listening to the hearings, you would have heard about the SEC fallacy, the greatest sham that we have seen in this term of Parliament, that we are going to bring back the SEC and drive everyone’s prices down. What we heard from PAEC is that – despite the Premier saying repeatedly that the government is interested in offshore wind, not offshore profits – well, in fact the SEC is quite open to investing with offshore companies, and the government does not have any particular level set as to what sort of investment profile it would have with some of these companies. It is 12 months down the track, and we still do not have any investment from the SEC in any project. In any event, what we also heard at PAEC is that the government says it will invest in projects that are close to fruition or things that might not otherwise have gone ahead. Well, what is the point of putting taxpayers money into something that is about to go ahead or was not commercial in the first place? This will be a disaster for Victorians. I think the government actually knows it, but it thinks it is on a political winner, so it is going to persist with this, risking $1 billion of our money, $600 million supposedly, in this year of the budget. Mark my words, just like the federal Labor Party’s commitment to reduce power bills by $270 – we all know how that has gone – this will be a failure for the Andrews Labor government.

Then we spent quite a few hours at the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee discussing how well the Commonwealth Games were going and the preparations for that. We had the minister saying they were going ahead, they were going to be great, there were going to be all of these legacy benefits, there would be thousands of tourists coming to the state, and just a few short weeks later the government came out and canned the whole thing. What a joke, what an embarrassment. How the government could have got its figures so grossly wrong is beyond me. It is just an unbelievable situation.

On top of all of those issues, I have mentioned all the debt, and when you have got that much debt, you have to try and deal with it. Unbelievably, this government has a debt reduction plan that actually sees debt go up. I have never heard of a reduction plan that actually increases something, so debt will continue to increase under the government’s debt reduction plan. As a result, we get a rent tax, we get a schools tax, we get a jobs tax, and now we are hearing that through the back door, via a little deal through the State Revenue Office, we are getting a doctors tax as well.

Juliana Addison: What rubbish!

Danny O’BRIEN: Well, if it is rubbish, tell us why the doctors are getting these new bills. That is the simple question for the government, if it is rubbish. This is a government that has sent the state broke, that has saddled our children and our children’s children with further debt, and it stands condemned for that.

Emma VULIN (Pakenham) (11:17): I rise to speak in reply to the 2023–24 state budget, and I congratulate the Treasurer and his team on what must have been an incredibly difficult job, but I want to talk about the difference this budget will make for the lives of my communities in the Pakenham district. This budget will help my communities in so many ways. Education is a cornerstone of opportunity in a person’s life. Having a great school environment really enhances the learning experience for students. This budget provides a state-of-the-art building upgrade for Pakenham Secondary College. This will be a much-needed investment for those at the college – for students, teaching staff and their families. Students at Pakenham Secondary College deserve a great college with a world-class learning environment. The $11.3 million investment upgrading block A will give these students the best start to high school. It is fantastic to get the planning underway for this project, and I look forward to regular visits with the college for updates as the Victorian School Building Authority works with the school community. This is one of the promises we made at the last election, and we are getting on and doing what matters. With approximately three families a day moving into my electorate, 21 families a week, the need for schools is critical, and we know that we have a fast-growing area because my new voter welcome letter mail-outs are very significant.

We do not just stop at Pakenham Secondary. The Andrews Labor government has been delivering primary schools since 2014, with eight new primary schools having been built and opened since 2014. I was privileged to officially open Kurrun Primary School in Officer with the Minister for Education in February. One of 13 new schools opened this year across Victoria, Kurrun Primary School has space for 525 students from prep to grade 6. It is a fantastic new school with amazing students and staff, and it has wonderful learning spaces – and a big shout-out to principal Gavan Hughes and the whole school community. I hope they are settling in well, and I look forward to my next visit. More exciting news from the Andrews government budget is a ninth primary school. Pakenham North West will be constructed to open term 1, day one, of 2025. As Pakenham transitions from a township to a growing suburb, the various estates in the north-west of Pakenham – Grandview, Worthington and Mount Pleasant – are gradually filling with new homes. This school will provide the opportunity for children living in the north-west of Pakenham to have their own local primary school and will be built to accommodate, again, another 525 students.

Even more building works are at the near completion stage, with the recently named Kurmile Primary School in Officer under construction, and it will be ready to open in 2024. I had the pleasure of announcing the name on behalf of the minister just recently. It means ‘white cockatoo’ in Bunurong. Back in May on behalf of the Minister for Education I had the pleasure of announcing Sharon Mitchell as the new school principal, and Sharon is already on the job and will be there ready for her students on day one of term 1 next year.

If you have lost track of the school building activity in the Pakenham district at this point, it is understandable. You would be forgiven, because we are building them at a very fast pace. With nine primary schools being delivered over 11 years, it is just build, build, build in Pakenham. That is a new primary school completed nearly every single year. The spend on education infrastructure is necessary to ensure the future of our children and to give them spaces to learn and grow.

Let us talk about early years education and learning. All children can now attend three- and four-year-old kinder for free, saving families up to $2,500 per child per year. Our children are getting the best start through this budget initiative, and the government is supporting the local council in my electorate to build new early learning centres. With the budget delivering free kinder, the children need new places to attend. Around 140,000 children will benefit this year, many of them living in my district. The need for kindergarten spaces, rooms for maternal and child health nurse consultations and community gathering spaces for activities like playgroups in a growth area like mine is paramount.

With the Minister for Early Childhood and Pre-Prep Ingrid Stitt and Cardinia Shire Council’s mayor Tammy Radford, I had the honour of turning the sod for the Toun-nun integrated child and family centre in Officer, which is now being constructed right next door to Brunt Road Primary School. Konewark integrated child and family centre opened in February next to Kurrun Primary School and Kurmboon integrated child and family centre opened next to Orchard Park Primary School, and when the Minister for Early Childhood and Pre-Prep again returned to visit in July, she announced that a new kindergarten will be opening next to the new Pakenham North West Primary School. Minister Stitt recently announced $9 million to construct the Thewlis Road integrated child and family childcare centre in Pakenham, a centre that will cater for 132 students. Built in partnership with Cardinia Shire Council, this facility will provide space for maternal and child health services, playgrounds and parenting programs as well as allied health services and wellbeing programs, ensuring families can have the access to services they need close to home. Can you see a pattern here? Co-location of kindergartens next to primary schools makes the student drop-off that bit easier for parents. It makes sense. It also helps children transitioning from early childhood education into primary school.

The Andrews Labor government supports all education providers, and in my electorate non-government schools have also benefited from support for learning infrastructure. In the last five years several private and Catholic schools have received non-government schools capital funding. In April I had the privilege of opening a new learning space at Lakeside College in Pakenham. The new learning spaces at Lakeside College include a new VCE recreation space, a new art and technology centre and the upper primary area. These new facilities, which cost over $4 million, were constructed thanks to a $2 million grant from the Andrews Labor government. Beaconhills secondary college in Pakenham and St Brigid’s Primary School in Officer have also benefited from the state funding support for new classrooms and learning spaces in recent state budgets.

Let us not forget about mental health. Having health and wellbeing support is vital for people in the Pakenham district. The 2023–24 state budget funds the planning of a new mental health and wellbeing local in Officer that will provide free, easy-to-access mental health care without the need for a GP referral. This is crucial for my constituents. The Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 census of population and housing revealed mental ill health as the most significant long-term health condition in my electorate, particularly for young adults and adults in their child-rearing years. Having the wellbeing local in Pakenham district will provide the supports that are desperately needed. The wellbeing locals provide support and treatment for adults aged 26 and older experiencing mental illness or psychological distress, including those with co-occurring substance use or addiction. The local service will act as a front door to the mental health and wellbeing system, offering welcoming and inclusive spaces staffed by qualified mental health professionals, including peer support workers to cater for the diverse needs of my community. The Andrews government is also providing funds to develop and deliver mental health training programs for our apprentices. This includes support for apprentices at smaller employers to access employee assistance programs and for employers to improve their mental health and suicide prevention literacy.

I have spoken previously in this place about my support for the funding in the budget for the community pharmacies to be involved in the pilot to assist with the treatment of straightforward urinary tract infections and common skin conditions and to reissue contraceptive prescriptions as well as administer travel vaccinations. Pharmacists will be able to provide this support, assisting my constituents when they need it.

I welcome the commitment to women’s health in the state budget, and I know we are celebrating women’s health next week. Every Victorian should be able to get the health care that they need when they need it and close to home. That is why this government is investing almost $58 million to create 20 comprehensive women’s health clinics across Australia, including one at Casey Hospital. We are ensuring women and their health are given the focus, funding and respect they deserve. A new compressive women’s health clinic in my region at Casey Hospital 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. While we are speaking about health, I am excited that the Pakenham Community Hospital is on its way. We are committed to building this community hospital right in Pakenham to give people access to local treatment post hospital stays and access to allied health services.

We have the Smile Squad in schools. I am very glad that the children in my electorate are receiving the dental checks that they need to maintain their beautiful smiles through the Smile Squad program. The Smile Squad will be expanded in 2026 to non-government primary and secondary schools so that everyone will be smiling big.

Like the member for Eltham mentioned before, we are investing in a new dog park. Having happy and healthy pets makes people happy. Dogs are a cherished part of so many families, and in this state budget the dogs in my district also benefit. This budget includes $400,000 for Cardinia Shire Council to upgrade the Officer District Park with dog park facilities. As a dog owner myself, I am very excited to be taking Maisie there when it opens.

Another thing I want to touch on is free TAFE. I was really happy to see that in the latest budget we are delivering more free TAFE places. The Andrews Labor government has put more than 80 new courses on the free TAFE list, helping more Victorians get the skills they need for the jobs that they want. This government has expanded eligibility for free and subsidised TAFE training so that all Victorians can study for in-demand jobs in health care, mental health, construction, early childhood and hospitality.

We have also focused on cost of living. I want to say that the $250 power saving bonus ends tonight at 11:59 pm, so I am hoping that everyone has applied, in my district in particular. We have done that. We have made a $23 million investment into providing free pads and tampons to women and girls in up to 700 public places across Victoria. We introduced the Victorian vets card, with discounts on vehicle rego and free fishing and boating licences; free car rego for young tradies and apprentices, saving up to $865 a year; along with free L- and P-plate licence and online testing. I was fortunate enough to have my daughter turn 16 this year, so she got her Ls for free. Kudos to anyone else out there teaching their 16-year-olds to drive.

A member: It’s hell, isn’t it?

Emma VULIN: It’s hard work; I feel for you.

My electorate is growing really fast. I have a vibrant and multicultural community. People have moved to the area from all over the world. With more than 35 languages spoken in my electorate, now a quarter of my constituents speak a language other than English. The number who speak another language has grown significantly in the last five to 10 years. For many in my electorate from multicultural and multifaith backgrounds, community groups offer important connections for their culture and heritage. The state government is continuing to invest in Victoria’s South Sudanese community, supporting young people and encouraging prevention and diversion away from the youth justice system. NextGen Unite will receive $50,000 in funding from the Labor government to support its efforts in preventing South Sudanese-Australian children and young people from contact with the criminal justice system. NextGen Unite is delivering a music and justice inspiration program. This program will provide a safe and supportive environment for South Sudanese Australians and other African-Australian youth. The program will allow them to develop their skills in producing and mastering music.

I think the big thing I do not want to run out of time to talk about in the last couple of minutes is what is happening with our level crossing removals and our train stations. It is fantastic. There is a lot of work going on in my area. We are removing three level crossings at Racecourse Road, Main Street and McGregor Road, and work has begun on Brunt Road in Officer. Removing these dangerous level crossings will improve safety, reduce road congestion and allow more trains to run on the network, getting people to destinations faster. A new 2.5-kilometre rail bridge will create more than six MCGs worth of open space for the local community to enjoy, with new playgrounds, parkland, seating areas and a half basketball court, which my kids are pretty happy about. It will go from a noisy and impassable rail corridor to a vibrant and usable space that can be enjoyed by everyone. But that is not the best of it. We are completely redoing the Pakenham train station; that is going to be magnificent. We have extended the rail 2 kilometres down to East Pakenham, where we are going to get another train station in East Pakenham for our growing community. I hear that there are a lot of people who are going to be moving into that new part of my electorate.

I just want to sincerely thank the residents and businesses and the wider community for their ongoing patience and support while the disruptions have been happening in the area. I know it is necessary for the construction of these vital projects, but the good news is we will be level crossing free on the Pakenham line by 2025. There is one more thing I would like to add: we have V/Line that comes from Pakenham, so I was very pleased to see that they were matching the V/Line prices with metro.

Brad ROWSWELL (Sandringham) (11:32): I also rise to take note of the 2023–24 budget. It is a topic which for some months I have been speaking about with a number of Victorians not just in my own constituency but right around the state. If there is something that is quite clear about the feedback I have received from Victorians as a result of the Andrews Labor government’s budget this year, it is that at a time when cost pressures are being imposed upon Victorians at a rate we have never seen before – when you have got education costs going through the roof, when you have got school bills going through the roof, when you have got energy costs going through the roof, when you have got grocery bills going through the roof, when you have got cost-of-living pressures going through the roof – the last thing Victorians want their government to do in moments like that is to punish them more.

We know in the last nine years that the Andrews Labor government has year on year on year been spending more than it is receiving, and we know that in a family home circumstance or in a small business circumstance, if it was the decision of a small business or if it was the decision of a family to spend more than their income year on year on year, then the people in the firing line for the decisions that they took would in fact be that family or be that small business. But when it comes to the state of Victoria it is the Andrews Labor government who year on year on year have made a decision about spending more than they have been receiving, and it is Victorians – decent Victorians, Victorian taxpayers – that pay the price for the decisions made by the Andrews Labor government. It is Victorians, decent Victorians, who are punished because of the decisions made by the Andrews Labor government not just to spend but to waste. The Auditor-General has pointed out more than $30 billion in waste on major projects alone – cost blowouts, time blowouts – and again Victorians are paying the price for that.

I will be up-front about my bottom line here, and I think that this is a truism but I will share it with the chamber nonetheless: if you cannot manage a budget, you cannot govern a state. That is my bottom line, and it is a line that I know resonates with the community, because there are people out there doing it tough right now. There is a question of trust here too. Who do you believe when it comes to understanding the true debt position of the state of Victoria? Do you believe the Premier, do you believe the Treasurer or do you believe the independent, well-regarded, world-renowned ratings agency Moody’s, who have said that our debt position in this state is not $171 billion but $226 billion, and in my humble view that $226 billion debt position of the state of Victoria is a truer representation than what those political opponents on the government side care to share with the Victorian people. What are they hiding? Why are they not being up-front with the Victorian people about the true state of Victoria’s economy? Why are they not being up-front with the Victorian people about our true debt position? We know that it will be future generations that are saddled with paying the price for decisions that we make today, and that is something that everyone in this place should take much more seriously than perhaps we do. We know that the interest bill that we are paying currently is $15 million a day, each and every day.

Juliana Addison interjected.

Brad ROWSWELL: I know it is disorderly to take interjections, but I hear the member for Wendouree – quite chatty over there, quite frankly. I would like to think that in the electoral district of Wendouree $15 million would make a difference. I know as the local member for Sandringham that $15 million in my electorate would make a magnificent difference. It would set up two primary schools with the gymnasiums that they require, the multipurpose sporting facilities that they require, for the next generation. Fifteen million dollars is what we are spending on interest payments alone just today. You know what? We are doing that again tomorrow and the day after that, and at the end of the forward estimates we are going from $15 million a day to $22 million a day in interest payments alone.

Money spent on interest is money wasted from communities and is money wasted from not doing the things that matter – are you familiar with that? – in communities, because of the decisions that the Andrews Labor government has made. A couple of proof points here: the Commonwealth Games – what a debacle, what an absolute debacle. We know that the sunk cost that the Premier is willing to share with us is 380 million bucks to cancel that contract, but what we do not know is the broader cost implications for the state, the missed opportunity. I know from the 2006 Commonwealth Games that the economic activity created as a result of that 2006 Commonwealth Games was in the magnitude of $3 billion. Sure, there is 380 million bucks that is being wasted by not holding the games and by cancelling that contract, but the missed opportunity to create economic activity not just in Melbourne but in the regions is a missed opportunity that will be felt for generations to come.

When I think of the Andrews Labor government’s budget, I think of their schools tax, their rent tax, their jobs tax, now their health tax and, with the member for Nepean in the chamber at the moment, the holiday and tourism tax – all taxes on aspiration, all taxes on a fair go, all taxes on opportunity. Of course this has been in the DNA of the Andrews Labor government time and time and time again. I will give credit to my colleague the Shadow Minister for Education in the other place and the member for Kew in particular for the campaign that they ran to get the government to wind back the schools tax. On that particular tax we did not just oppose it but committed to winding it back should we be elected in three-and-a-bit years time, and that remains our commitment today.

The rent tax will of course hit some of the most vulnerable in our community. It is not just unjust; it is unfair. For a Labor government who say that they care about people, riddle me this: if you have got a one-bedroom apartment in Pakenham, for example, that may be housing someone who is fleeing domestic violence, that may be housing someone who needs that housing accommodation more than the privileged people in this chamber, guess what, as a result of this rent tax their rent goes up at the same time as their grocery bills go up and at the same time as their power bills go up. Something has got to give. And this is at the hands of the Andrews Labor government. We are not talking about multimillion-dollar properties in Portsea; we are talking about small accommodation that provides stability, the roof over someone’s head at some of the most vulnerable stages of their life, and their costs are going up at the hands of the Andrews Labor government.

Why, oh why, would you want to employ more people in Victoria? We have heard it from some of the banks. ANZ have said that as a result of the Andrews Labor government’s jobs tax in this budget they are subjected to another $25 million in state government taxes year on year. It is no wonder that the ANZ bank is making their next investment decision in Queensland as opposed to Victoria. Now, okay, I take the point that banks are not the most loved people in the room, and yes, they have got a lot to answer for, but they do employ Victorians. When the Andrews Labor government is taxing them with an initial 25 million bucks a year, 100 million bucks over the next four years, and they as a result of that seek to make investment decisions in other states, frankly I do not blame them. But my concern with that – my concern with the Andrews Labor government’s jobs tax – is that it affects Victorians. It affects Victorians who just simply want a stable job to provide for themselves, to provide for their families and to pay their bills, and it is something which the Andrews Labor government clearly does not give a stuff about.

Yesterday together with the Shadow Minister for Health I was privileged to hold a GP summit here in the Parliament. There were some 30 general practitioners who attended, and I heard the Minister for Health in the last two question times denying that the health tax will have an impact on general practice and primary care. Yesterday I had the great privilege of hearing from a general practitioner who works in Tullamarine. His payroll tax bill is just shy of half a million dollars. This is something which historically he has not had to pay.

Juliana Addison: What’s the revenue of the surgery?

Brad ROWSWELL: For the information of the member for Wendouree, it is $1.3 million. So you can imagine that it is a pretty big impact. Just shy of half a million dollars is his payroll tax bill, which up until the Andrews Labor government changed whatever they have changed and have now imposed this upon general practitioners, he has not had to pay before. He has 40,000 patients on his books. He has gone back to the State Revenue Office (SRO) to say that he –

Members interjecting.

Brad ROWSWELL: I’ll get to the punchline, and you won’t like it. It’s a real issue, and you should pipe down and listen, frankly.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Hamer): Through the Chair.

Brad ROWSWELL: Yes, I know indeed, Acting Speaker, but this a real issue that is affecting this community and our community, and it would actually be of great service to the house if members of the government who actually make decisions about what happens in this state listened to the impacts of their decisions on communities, because it is not funny. It is not funny at all.

So, yes, he has just shy of half a million dollars payroll tax and 40,000 patients within his catchment area. He has argued the toss with the SRO on this. He has gone back and said, ‘No, I provide a service. I provide a medical service to my community.’ The SRO have, well, speaking in common language, lifted their middle finger to this GP and said, ‘No, pay. Pay by the end of this week’. Do you know what? By the end of this week Dr Hussain’s clinic will close because he will be trading as insolvent. He cannot pay his half-million-dollar payroll tax bill, which he has never received before, meaning that 40,000 patients within the Tullamarine area are going to be without a general practitioner. I just hope that the Andrews Labor government has given some sort of heads-up to the Western general hospital, because that emergency department is going to be slammed – smashed – by the patients that are going to need that primary care. The undermining of primary care in this state as a result of the health tax, imposed by stealth, as we heard yesterday, is going to hurt Victorians. For the health minister during question time – not one question time but two question times – to say that nothing has changed, that there will be no impact, that we are investing in primary care, is an absolute furphy. And it is unparliamentary language, so I will not describe it in the way that I would prefer to at this point in time.

There is a better way – there must be a better way – and this side of the chamber is not waiting for three years to try and work with the Victorian people to work out what those opportunities are. During the course of my contribution today I have tried to articulate in what I believe to be reasonable terms that taxes in this state are punishing Victorians at a time when they can least afford it. If this government cannot manage their budget, they most certainly cannot govern the state. What we are trying to do on this side is discuss these matters with the Victorian people now, which is why the Shadow Minister for Finance the member for Kew and I, together with our parliamentary leader the member for Hawthorn, recently launched our tax discussion paper. So far we have been to Bendigo, Ballarat and Shepparton. We have been to Warrandyte. We have been to Werribee. I have been everywhere, man, and we will continue to talk with Victorians about the impact of the Andrews Labor government taxes on their businesses, on their lives and on their families.

We are not going to wait for government in just over three years time to start this important discussion with the Victorian people. We are starting that conversation now because we are serious about being an alternative government. We are serious about the impact that the Andrews Labor government’s taxes are having on the lives of Victorians. We do not just argue that they are punishing Victorians, we see that they are punishing Victorians because of the feedback that we are getting time and time again. So I encourage every Victorian who is so inclined, who is impacted by the Andrews Labor government’s taxes, to visit bettertaxsystem.com.au and contribute to this very important discussion on tax reform. There is a better way, and we are determined to be part of that solution, of that better way, for the sake of the people who put us here, for the sake of every Victorian. While we are doing that, those opposite continue to be in chaos. They have simply lost control. They waste, they tax and Victorians pay.

Matt FREGON (Ashwood) (11:47): Won’t someone think of the banks? It is a great pleasure to stand up today following the member for Sandringham, who I listened to – and it is always a pleasure to follow on from the member for Sandringham – to talk about the Victorian budget 2023–24. Also, one of my distinct privileges in this house in being your deputy, Speaker, is that you are also always in the room when I get to stand, which I must admit I do a little bit less than I used to. We have got to try and be impartial in this house and make the world go around.

Members interjecting.

Matt FREGON: Order! I am watching you. My apologies, Speaker, through the Chair.

The SPEAKER: You can take the member for Ashwood out of the chair, but you cannot take the Chair out of the member for Ashwood.

Matt FREGON: We have not wasted a day in delivering the promises that we made to the electorate of Ashwood in the campaign that we held last year – rather successfully, I must add. I take this opportunity to thank every constituent in Ashwood for having faith in me. And to those that were in my previous district of Mount Waverley, which was about 50 per cent, double thanks again for giving me another go.

There is much in this budget that obviously we are all discussing, and I am going to focus on the things that come up time and time again when I am talking to my constituents. Some of those are very local and some of those are not so much – the SEC, for instance. The commitment to bring back a level of public ownership in the essential service that is our energy provision was incredibly popular, not just because it sounded like a good idea but because people really understood that over time – and it will take time; this budget is obviously the first year when we are putting in the financial dollars to get this started – to rectify what I think most Victorians appreciate, and I am not having a go at any side of politics here, was a possible error in privatising all levels of our energy sector.

I remember my cousin’s husband Tim. Back in the 1990s Tim used to work for the SEC, and when the changes happened to the poles and wires provision and stuff, one of his first jobs for the new owners was to remove all of the redundant equipment that was there for when things failed – and from a profit-taking point of view, when you are a private company this makes sense. Essentially, they decreased the amount of maintenance they had to do on poles and wires, and they got to take all that stock which was in working order and put it in a shed somewhere so that it was there to be replaced when they needed replacements. I can understand why on the balance sheet that would make sense. But when it was publicly owned, with the extra redundancy that was given by that equipment – because it was for the people in their homes that needed that ability to rely on that power – it made more sense to have a publicly owned SEC. So I was gobsmacked – that is probably a fair word – when I heard the Premier and the Minister for Energy and Resources announce that we were actually going to do this. I just was very happy to tell everybody, and I think for the most part a very significant proportion were very happy to hear it. It is fantastic that this is beginning in our budget that we are talking about today.

I had better get onto local stuff, because the clock does go rather quickly in this place. We have invested in schools. I note my good friend the member for Glen Waverley is in here, and for some of the schools that this government has invested in over the last four years he is now taking over the responsibility and doing a very good job. We were just down at Glenallen special school a few weeks ago with Minister Hutchins – and I thank him for the invitation, because it was fantastic to see our previous commitment of $8 million, I believe, to renovate that school. May I mention a shout-out to the former Minister for Education Mr Merlino, who was able to stand in this place and say that we had upgraded every special development school in this state, which no other government can say, and we are continuing to do that. In my patch of Ashwood we have the Ashwood special school, who are getting close to $10 million for an upgrade. I was just there the other week meeting their school leaders; they are going to come into Parliament. They are a fantastic school. And the Burwood East Special Developmental School are also getting money for upgrades. So I got to see Glenallen finished, and if the other schools are even half as good – and I have no doubt they will be – we are in for some very, very happy staff, students and community.

Whilst we are still on schools, Mount Waverley Primary School is a fantastic school in my patch, and Campbell McKay down there runs a very good operation. They were very, very happy to hear a commitment last year that we made to provide $5.86 million to upgrade their school. It is something Campbell and I have been talking about for a little while – he has been principal there for I think 18 months or so – and with his previous principal too we also talked about the need of refreshing that school. It is committed, done, in the budget. We are already talking to the Victorian School Building Authority – exciting.

Pinewood Primary School was one of the schools in my previous area. Pinewood is very close to home. It is actually the school that my children have gone to, and I have still got one there. When Sophie started at Pinewood Primary School – and that was 2010, 2011, something like that; she will tell me off when I get home – there were 320 kids. A small school, they got some money at the time, and credit to the government of the time, which was the opposition – opposition now, government then –

A member: Hear, hear!

Matt FREGON: No, credit to them – they upgraded Pinewood Primary School. The previous member for Mount Waverley Michael Gidley put money into that school – well done. Over the last 10 years, though, that school has grown from 320 – because it was all shiny and new – to 960 kids in a very small footprint. It is a fantastic school. Karen Jenkin does an awesome job with her team there, and as both the lucky representative and also a parent, I could not be prouder of this school. The one thing they do not have right now is a hall where all of the kids fit, so they have to have staggered assemblies and staggered lunches. It is a bit of an issue. So to make a commitment – which we did – of $8.5 million for a competition-grade gym for this school is exactly what the school wanted and exactly what we spent time talking about. I do admit I felt I had to leave it a little bit later, because it is a bit close to home, but I am so happy that the minister and the department saw the need. To commit to the planning of that, because it is a constrained site and you need to plan it properly, in this budget is excellent.

Another school that we made a commitment to was Parkhill Primary School. Actually, in the campaign this was a bipartisan agreement in commitment. It is always good to have impartiality in this place, especially in my position. We both agreed that Parkhill Primary needed a commitment. We committed $5 million, and that is in the budget. The brand new principal is there Jo Jolly – a big shout-out to her and her team. I was lucky enough to go down to Parkhill Primary just last week, because the kids did the artwork for the birthday cards that I send around to the seniors and we got to give them all copies of their cards. The letters I get back from seniors when I send them a birthday card with a little kid’s artwork on it saying ‘Happy birthday’, with rainbows and bunnies and all sorts of other things, are fantastic. The kids really enjoyed that.

Sport – we made a few commitments to sport in this budget. The member for Nepean is there – you like a bit of sport, so I have heard. For the wonderful women and men – mostly women, though – at the Waverley District Netball Association, we made a commitment to cover some of their courts. At the moment, when it is bucketing down with rain, there is no other option – they are all out in the weather. So we made a commitment to that in the budget. We are working on it; I know sport and rec will be working very hard to get that started really quickly.

What else have we got? Oh, yes, the Ashburton United football club. They play at a number of grounds in Boroondara, and there is more work to do there. I had a good meeting with Boroondara the other week, and I think it is safe to say that we will continue working together on benefits for the Ashburton United football club and the cricket clubs that use the areas in Boroondara. We have committed to – and it is in the budget once again – an electronic scoreboard and some movable player shelters that will really benefit the soccer teams as they play on the Ashburton reserve.

We also committed to a dog park in the Mount Waverley district. Everyone loves a dog park. Monash are not so keen, but we are working on that.

Mathew Hilakari: They’re barking mad.

Matt FREGON: ‘Barking mad’ – I will take that interjection, and I would have thought so. I know that departments and councils are working together, and I cannot wait to see what they come up with. We did a petition last year to see what love there was for a dog park, and I have got to tell you there is overwhelming support in the community. I know that as soon as I can tell people exactly where it is going to be – Monash, whenever you are ready – there are going to be some very, very happy puppy owners. It is not all about big commitments, though. It is not all about millions of dollars. Sometimes the smaller commitments that you can make –

Mathew Hilakari: Not everything can be a dog park.

Matt FREGON: ‘Not everything can be a dog park’ is a fair statement from the disorderly member for Point Cook, but sometimes small commitments make a big difference. Four years ago we made a commitment – and I thank the Minister for Education for all her work and the previous minister before her – via the Inclusive Schools Fund. That is another fund that is in this budget as well – such an important way of distributing funds to schools to upgrade play spaces and sensory gardens, and in our case a few years ago my area then and still my area now received some money for covered courts and resurfacing of the netball courts. A couple of children at that school have ability aid requirements, so it meant they could participate along with everyone else, whereas before they could not. That was only $250,000, which is a lot of money, but compared to some of the bigger ticket items in the budget, it is one of the smaller things but so important to that school.

Other small amounts that we committed to were for our bowls clubs – the Ashburton Bowls Club and the Mount Waverley Bowling Club, $50,000 each. I know Sport and Recreation Victoria are about to call them on 1 September. It is very good, so Minister for Community Sport, who is at the table, thank you very much. The clubs are very happy. It is going to provide decking assistance at Mount Waverley Bowling Club and some shelters for the players in the sun at Ashburton. They were ecstatic to know that we are seeing through every commitment.

I am running out of time, and I do not think I have moved from page 2, but when I look at the Ashwood district and the work that this government has done and I hear the feedback from the newsletter I just sent out which outlined all of our commitments, what I get back is: ‘Keep doing it.’

Brad BATTIN (Berwick) (12:02): That was a typical Labor speech – over time, over budget, could not finish on the right time and ended up with nothing in it that was of value to anyone. But it is actually quite interesting because I have had the pleasure of reading the newspapers recently, and I noticed a specific article that was kind of like reading a bit of comedy what was going on. One of the articles I read – and I know that that the member for Nepean will be interested in this – was that just recently the Andrews Labor government have put out they are interested in putting in for the World Cup to be here in Victoria. So they have gone out to the world and said we would love the opportunity to go and get the World Cup here in Victoria a week and a half after they cancelled the Commonwealth Games because they could not manage that. So anyone on FIFA who could have seriously had a look at – and who would not want the World Cup here in Victoria, let us be honest, who would not want it here? As a massive soccer fan myself, I would love to see some of the world’s best here, but let us be honest, if you were on the board at FIFA –

Iwan Walters: We just did. What about the world’s best women?

Brad BATTIN: We did have the world’s best women, and guess what? They played up in Sydney and Queensland because your government could not get them here to Melbourne. Well done.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Through the Chair, member for Berwick.

Brad BATTIN: We had one game in Melbourne for Australia, and you could not get the final, the best game, at the best ground in this country. You could not get it here.

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member for Melton! Without assistance.

Nick STAIKOS: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, the motion is on the budget. The member for Berwick has not even commenced speaking on the budget, and he is 2 minutes in. I ask that you bring him back to the motion.

Brad BATTIN: On the point of order, Deputy Speaker, I would be more than happy, as the Premier would offer us, to give you a briefing on how the budget impacts sport here in Victoria.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Through the Chair.

Brad BATTIN: And how the Women’s World Cup was part of the budget to be here in Victoria.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Berwick. There is no point of order. The member to continue through the Chair.

Brad BATTIN: Thank you very much, Deputy Speaker. So the government are now opting to say they want to have the World Cup when they did not have the competence to run the Commonwealth Games. When you spend $380 million to not host an event, the only thing I could think of that would go through the board of FIFA would be: ‘What a fantastic opportunity for an investment into our own account. What we could do is say we’ll give it to them. We’ll have a backup plan ready to go, and we’ll be guaranteed to be able to sue them later on and get the money, because this government does not have the competence to deliver that major sporting event.’

How does the budget impact everyday lives at the moment? I will talk specifically about my portfolios today. Police in Victoria have more than 800 vacancies, and I find it almost a comedy act when the government continue to go out and say we are increasing the numbers of Victoria Police across this state. We are seeing 24-hour stations being closed, and we are now starting to see one-man stations through regional Victoria where they are wanting to move staff out of those one-man stations, making regional communities more unsafe. We have 98 one-man stations across the state, and this government has said to the Police Association Victoria that they want to get rid of clause 184, which specifically states that we can only remove the one officer from a one-man station in the case of an emergency – a terrorist attack, natural disasters – when we could use them or utilise them in a way that is required for a safe outcome. They want to alter that to effectively make it operational. What the government wants to do is remove protection from regional Victoria, where there can be a guaranteed police officer in the town, by removing them into metro areas or Labor seats where 24-hour stations are closing. We have seen this all too often. We have seen it at Pakenham. The 24-hour police station there has been closed on many occasions. The doors are locked, so when people go to the station there is no-one there to serve them.

Let us be honest: why do you go to a police station? There is a mix of people who would come into a police station, some on bail, and when they come in to sign on on bail there is no one there to sign them in. That is unfair on the person on bail and it is unfair on the community because we are not guaranteeing the safety of the people who are or are not coming in. People might want to get a stat dec signed. If they cannot get it signed, I would love to say to them come to my office, but as many would know I currently do not have an office because we are having a few issues trying to find one of those. But I will offer the member for Pakenham’s office for that in Officer. If you need to get a stat dec signed, you can go down there, because it is not that far. It is my former office, if anyone wants to know the address of it.

We could also have people come in who want to report a crime, who are victims of crime, who may have been raped and want to come forward to a station in a safe place so they can make that report – but at the moment those doors are locked. For the government to continually hype up that they are putting more police in there when we have 800 vacancies is simply misleading the community.

Cherry Creek is the new youth detention centre that has been built out in western Victoria. For the first time we are starting to see young offenders being relocated there from Malmsbury and Parkville, and there are many, many warnings for this government about some of the concerns that have been raised around Cherry Creek. First and foremost, they are around staff safety. You must provide a safe workplace. We all know that; every person in this chamber should know that. After negotiations between the union and the government it was decided you have to have a minimum of 30 per cent experienced staff. Just to put it into perspective, because I know the Minister for Youth Justice is trying to say they have people who are trained, there is a difference between someone who is trained and someone who is experienced. An example would be – and I know the member for Melton would agree – that you would not put an ambulance out with someone who is just trained; you would always have someone who has got experience with them. As a former police officer, you would not put out two new recruits on day one together; you would put someone experienced with them.

At Cherry Creek they have got only 5 per cent experienced staff, and they were warned this was going to be a problem. How did it end up impacting: within five days one of those staff was in hospital after getting their head stomped on. Only four inmates were in there. And who did they transfer when they had the least experienced staff? They transferred people who were on sentence or remand for murder. They did not transfer the minimum-security offenders, they transferred the maximum-security offenders. Then the next cohort to come in was another five of the maximum security, who when they got there all had their security rating lowered because it suited the government’s agenda. But it did not suit the agenda of a staff member getting his head stomped on for telling an offender that he could not wear slides into the kitchen and had to put shoes on, and it will get worse. The next cohort to come through are the highest risk in the youth detention centres, and we still do not have the experience there. Even worse, staff are now asking for transfers back over to Parkville because of safety concerns.

They are transporting some young offenders from up in Malmsbury, and this is how broken the system is. They emptied one of the units and moved them down there, except one young man, who turned around and said, ‘I’m not going’. It has been a while since I worked in a prison, but I do not think you have that say. It is not your son in the bedroom, where you take the TV away. You say, ‘No, you’re going.’ But no-one will sign off for a use of force to move this young person from Malmsbury to Cherry Creek. What does that mean? It now means we have got two staff 24 hours a day, seven days a week, sitting with this one person in a unit. They have not got the staff allocation, so the other 38 offenders have two less staff sitting with them. Who does that put at risk? That puts at risk not just the young people but the staff. The union is speaking about it, the staff on the scene are speaking about it, the media are speaking about it and the minister did not even know about it. The minister in the other house did not even know about it. That is a huge problem. That is because the budget is in disarray. They are struggling to get staff where they need them, and we are not seeing these young people protected.

In the justice system, where are we spending the money? We have got the Western Plains prison. We are spending $36 million a year on security to stop people going into a prison that is empty – $36 million a year on a prison to keep people out because it is empty. Imagine if you had those security staff, who are currently sitting at a prison that is empty, available to be in Cherry Creek. Do you know what might have happened? There would not be someone in hospital today. That is what would have happened, because they would have had the protection they needed. We would have had experienced staff in the places we need them, and it is so important to make sure we do.

Worse than this, $36 million a day to protect a prison that is closed is money that could have been spent on programs to keep people out of prison. Let us focus on young people. Already in this budget there is a $10 million cut from crime prevention programs – a $10 million cut. These are programs to stop young offenders who are entering the justice system from continuing down that path and ending up long term as people who go through the justice system generally for life. We all know, anyone who has done any research, the trajectory of a child who goes into a detention centre is far worse with the outcomes than someone who does not enter it if both have committed crimes. If you can keep them out of a detention centre and give them the opportunities, programs and tools that will best suit them, then the outcomes are a lot better.

We should be having a simple focus in our justice system, particularly youth justice. We should be making sure with every person that enters the justice system, whether on detention or other sentences, that our end goal is: can we make them work ready? Can we give them the opportunity and the tools to make them work ready? Can we return them to education? Is there an opportunity, whether it is through community education, further education or back within any other system, state or private? Can we get them back to education? Third, can we return them to the services that they most need? When I say ‘the services they most need’, that could be mental health, drugs or alcohol. We have got a budget that is going to be cutting funds on what we are doing for prevention, whereas what we should be doing is looking at programs around the world, like 24/7 sobriety programs – programs that target people who enter the system and, rather than treat the crime, treat the reason they committed the crime, and it can be done. You would think most outside of these walls would go, ‘Hold on, that’s a left-wing policy’.

Let me assure you, we on this side of the house are so committed to criminal justice reform and every step of the way using these budgets so that we can then put in place programs to keep people out of prison. The more people you can keep out using the correct programs and setting them up, the more everybody wins. Why? Because we can spend less money on jails. In Texas alone by using programs like this, including drug and alcohol rehabilitation and mental health rehabilitation – stopping putting people within the prison system who they are simply just mad at and putting people in jail who they are genuinely afraid of – they have closed 15 prisons. That is billions and billions of dollars that goes back to the government. Over there – obviously a good right-wing government – they have just reduced taxes and also implemented further programs for what they need. Those programs and cutting taxes create jobs, and more jobs is less people committing crime. It is not that hard. This is simple maths. If we have less people committing crimes, we have a better outcome for the community.

I know for a fact – I do not refer to people in the gallery, but I know we have got a volunteer in the gallery here with us today who has done many years in the CFA – that if we can get people not committing crimes and supporting our community, I am sure people like Tony would absolutely love to see them come through our CFAs and come into our organisations where they can give back, go out as a sports coach, be a genuine person and contributor in our community. It is not that difficult. We have got a budget here that we can do it with, but the fear I have now is we are spending money on programs that are not coming. We are cutting money on the investments that are keeping people out of prisons. We are spending money on bricks and mortar, with no-one there. We are not investing in the staff to ensure that we can deliver programs in the youth justice centres. We are not guaranteeing the safety of the staff within those prison systems – and all of this because the Andrews Labor government let this budget get so out of control that their only focus now and for the next few years will be: how do we pay it off, how do we pay down the debt and how do we maintain just the interest without impacting services and building a better Victoria?

Ros SPENCE (Kalkallo – Minister for Prevention of Family Violence, Minister for Community Sport, Minister for Suburban Development) (12:17): I am very pleased to have the opportunity to speak on this motion that takes note of the 2023–24 Victorian state budget, which delivers on every single election commitment that we took to the people of Victoria last year. This is a responsible budget that is targeted and that responds to the post-pandemic economic circumstances and a budget that delivers across my portfolio responsibilities and in my local electorate.

Firstly, I want to reflect upon the important investments in this budget in community sport, and we all know how important community sport is to all Victorians. This government has continued to recognise that importance year after year, and with this budget providing more than $200 million for improved community sport infrastructure across more than 100 locations, our total investment since 2014 is now over $1.9 billion in community sport infrastructure. In this budget this includes projects such as $15 million for the redevelopment of Frankston basketball stadium, $15 million to upgrade Benalla Indoor Recreation Centre, $6 million for upgrades at Box Hill City Oval and $1.5 million to deliver new courts at Kyneton netball club. We are continuing important programs that support the delivery of even more community sport infrastructure projects through the popular Local Sports Infrastructure Fund and the country football and netball program.

We are also providing opportunities for Victorians, young and old, to get involved and to participate in the sports that they love, with almost $12 million towards a suite of participation programs. Among them is $4 million for the continuation of the popular Get Active Kids voucher program, a Victorian first established by this government in 2020 to address cost being a barrier to participation in sport. We have already delivered on our original commitment of more than 100,000 vouchers through the program, and in 2023–24 the voucher program will provide even more opportunities for tens of thousands of Victorian kids. Across the next four years the budget also delivers continued funding for the important Vicswim initiative, the emergency sporting equipment grants program, support for the Get Active travel program, and it continues the Together More Active program.

We are also providing long-term funding to the Western Bulldogs Community Foundation, with $3.2 million over four years, for them to deliver programs that support community health and wellbeing and a range of important programs that unite communities across Melbourne’s west through sport. We are proud of our investment in community sport since 2014 and in this budget because, as I said, we know how important it is to all Victorians. Participating in community sport is incredibly important for health and wellbeing, and our investments go to increasing participation by removing barriers, by supporting inclusion and by providing appropriate adequate infrastructure right across the state so all Victorians can participate in community sport. This budget builds on our work to do exactly that.

In the prevention of family violence portfolio the budget continues to deliver on the government’s commitment to ending family and sexual violence with a further investment of $117 million over four years. This includes more than $77 million directly in the prevention of family violence portfolio, along with close to $40 million in a suite of initiatives across government that support the prevention of family violence. This includes the continuation of specialist family violence legal assistance at courts and addressing family violence for older Victorians.

Earlier this year I was pleased to announce the acquittal of the 227 recommendations of the Royal Commission into Family Violence, but as was noted at the time, there is more work to be done. The investment in this budget builds on our work and on the $3.7 billion that has already been invested since 2017, which is more than in any other jurisdiction in the country. Some of the initiatives in this budget include more than $25.5 million for Aboriginal frontline family violence services and $5.5 million for Aboriginal-led sexual assault support services. The budget also provides continued support for victim-survivors of family violence to stay safe, to recover and to thrive with funding for the continued delivery of family violence crisis brokerage and family violence case management support. There is also $2.6 million for the provision of specialist support for women with complex needs and the extension of the personal safety initiative. Keeping people who use violence engaged and accountable is critically important, and we are supporting this work with over $23 million for the continued delivery and development of accommodation-based interventions for perpetrators of family violence and the continued delivery of vital men’s behaviour change programs. Young people who have experienced family violence or sexual harm are also supported in this budget with almost $7.5 million towards the adolescent family violence in the home program, the sexually abusive behaviours treatment service and sexual assault support services, and as mentioned at the start of my contribution, we are delivering on the commitments that we made and took to the Victorian people, with funding to establish the Continuous Voices survivors memorial in Ballarat and funding to support the terrific work of McAuley Community Services for Women and Good Samaritan Inn.

Melbourne’s suburbs certainly have some unique challenges, but they also have terrific opportunities, and this budget continues to deliver for the portfolio of suburban development. The budget ensures that the voices of people in Melbourne’s suburbs remain front and centre, with a package of $19 million to support our suburbs to thrive. This investment includes support for our suburban revitalisation boards to keep identifying and working on local priorities in six priority locations across Melbourne. The boards will continue to work with local communities to develop suburban revitalisation priorities and deliver infrastructure improvements, place activations and place-based planning. The work of the metropolitan partnerships continues to be supported, with a renewed focus on outer suburban and disadvantaged communities. These partnerships provide a conduit for business, community organisations and councils to identify key issues that matter to local residents and to provide governments with important grassroots insights.

We are also continuing the Growing Suburbs Fund, with $10 million to support the delivery of critical local infrastructure in Melbourne’s fastest growing communities, supporting social and economic participation. As a local member of Parliament I have seen firsthand the benefits of the Growing Suburbs Fund, ranging from new sports pavilions to local community hubs in new communities, which are continuing to grow rapidly. In the months since last November’s election, the Kalkallo electorate has grown to more than 56,000 electors, and it now has the largest number of electors in Victoria. This is why our government’s investment in critical infrastructure across Melbourne’s outer north is so important, and I know that my neighbours in the outer north, in the electorates of Greenvale and Yan Yean, share that sentiment as well. This is why we are getting on with delivering much-needed infrastructure in that area, including the much-needed Watson Street diamond interchange along the Hume Freeway in Wallan; we are upgrading the Donnybrook Road and Mitchell Street roundabout, with a continuous left-turn slip lane; and of course we are continuing with the delivery of the Craigieburn Road upgrade.

We have also seen a record investment in new schools in my electorate since 2014, and this budget is no different. Since 2014 I have opened nine new government schools locally. With Banum Warrik Primary School in Kalkallo and Yubup Primary School in Mickleham both now under construction and set to open to students in 2024, there will soon be 11 new government schools locally opened. But we are not stopping there. As promised during the last election campaign, Lockerbie secondary college and Lockerbie specialist school will both welcome their first students at the start of the 2026 school year. This will of course then make it 13 new government schools. We are also contributing $5 million towards a new campus for Kolbe Catholic College for students in Mickleham from the Non-Government Schools Capital Fund to continue to provide and support choice for families in the outer north. These significant investments mean more families will have the opportunity to access a quality education in state-of-the-art facilities as our community continues to grow.

Grassroots sport and recreation is another big winner in the Kalkallo electorate. We are investing $5 million towards stage 1 of the Greenhill recreation precinct in Wallan, and this multisport integrated facility will be a game changer for Wallan, with facilities that are suitable and accessible for everyone to use. We are also kickstarting a new recreation reserve for the growing community of Beveridge, with funding going towards the delivery of a master plan for that site, and both of these projects will be warmly welcomed by the local community. I am looking forward to continuing to work with Mitchell Shire Council on the delivery of both of these really important projects.

I know how much people love the splash play space at Livvi’s Place at Anzac Park in Craigieburn, which is why I am so pleased that as part of this budget we are delivering another one, along Donnybrook Road. With $450,000 to provide this splash park, it will be a brand new water play space for families to enjoy close to home.

As I previously mentioned, this is a responsible budget that is targeted, that responds to the post-pandemic economic circumstances, that delivers on our election commitments and that delivers across my portfolio responsibilities and across my local electorate, and I commend it to the house.

David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (12:28): As we know, all politics is local, and as the local member for Caulfield, each and every day I come in here fighting to ensure that we get our fair share, but there is no question when it comes to this budget, Victoria is broke. And when Victoria is broke and we are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, each and every Victorian pays the price. They pay the price through an absolute cost-of-living crisis when it comes to our energy bills, when it comes to fuel, when it comes to water, when it comes to groceries and when it comes to just putting food on the table and meeting each-and-every-day costs.

They struggle, certainly Victorians and constituents in my electorate of Caulfield, when it comes to basic housing – housing affordability, being able to get into the market, being able to rent. You only have to look at some of the open for inspections in the rental market to see that literally hundreds of people turn up to an inspection just to see if they can get a place, a roof over their head. So Victoria is in a really tough spot at the moment, and that is not by coincidence, because the government has had now a number of years – they are in their third term – to be able to wrestle these important issues, and unfortunately has done an absolutely poor job of it.

When you see Victoria now moving to $226 billion worth of debt – $226 billion worth of debt – it is an interest bill alone of $15 million a day just to pay that off. It means that we are not getting basic services that we all deserve. It means that things need to be readjusted. It means that major projects are cancelled. Things like airport rail, which was promised before the election, are now gone. It means the Western Rail Plan is now gone. It means Geelong fast rail is gone. It means also, because the government has not been able to manage these projects properly, huge blowouts. We see the minister for major projects, the Deputy Premier, literally mismanaging some $30 billion of budget blowouts, which is absolutely atrocious because when you have $30 billion of blowouts, it means you cannot deliver the projects that you promised and it means we are all paying the price.

We saw that accumulate with the Commonwealth Games, which was in the budget. It was an expectation. It was said that it was going to cost $2.6 billion. Then, magically, because of the Ukraine war and other external factors, so called, it blew out by over $4 billion to $7 billion and then to a cancellation. This is an absolute classic of a government that cannot manage a single thing. They cannot get one thing right when it comes to managing money. The old adage that Labor can’t manage money has come home to roost, and we have seen it now with the Commonwealth Games. That is why Victorians have finally woken up and said, ‘What have we elected here? We’ve elected a government that promises one thing and does another.’

You only have to look in electorates like mine, Caulfield, that have been neglected even though we fight really, really hard to get things done. You look at things like Caulfield Hospital. It is over 100 years old and still has a breezeway that has not been upgraded since the First World War. You look at the rehabilitation pool that was closed for years and only opens at selected times because it does not have the resources to open up. We promised $500 million for the upgrade of that hospital. In the middle of the health crisis, I think Victorians deserve hospitals like Caulfield to be upgraded, and certainly I will continue to fight for that each and every day.

A number of our schools also need upgrades. Many of those schools in Caulfield – Caulfield South Primary School, Caulfield Junior College, Ripponlea and Elsternwick, a number of our schools – were all promised an upgrade. They were all promised, certainly, new builds. We have not seen that. We have not seen the schools that are over 100 years old and still have antiquated facilities be upgraded. We have got to have the quality teaching. We have seen issues in terms of our NAPLAN results, but we have also got to provide the resourcing to ensure that the kids have a great environment to be educated.

Open space is big issue that I talk about each and every day. Certainly Caulfield in Glen Eira has the lowest amount of open space in Victoria when it comes to parks, play spaces and the like. One of the jewels in the crown that I talk about and have spoken about a lot is Caulfield Racecourse Reserve. I am very proud of the fact that we advocated to ensure a new trust and act of Parliament, which we now have, to ensure that that reserve is an independent reserve that can be managed through the Caulfield Racecourse Reserve Act 2017, ultimately for the people, not just the people of Caulfield but all people, to enjoy. It is not just a racecourse, it is a public park.

Unfortunately there has been no money to go with it. We know that the trust is verging on being broke. Having a fantastic market once a month run by Caulfield Rotary, which I am very proud to be a member of, is great. Caulfield Rotary’s volunteers do a wonderful thing, but that market will not pay anywhere near even the board directors’ fees, let alone the upgrades that that reserve deserves. We have got to be able to get funding to upgrade it. We had the Minister for Environment promise a whole lot of dough. Nothing has been forthcoming. We have had minister after minister turn up, cut ribbons and take photo opportunities – Labor ministers take photo opportunities at Caulfield Park. No more photo opportunities. Let us get some action. Let us get Caulfield Racecourse Reserve upgraded. That park, the jewel in the crown – let us get it upgraded so all locals and all Victorians can appreciate and enjoy that facility.

There are so many other elements that we need to be able to deal with locally. One of the things that has been a real issue and we have mentioned in this Parliament, particularly amongst the Jewish community, has been the rise in antisemitism. There was a report that was recently produced by the Australasian Union of Jewish Students, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, and the Zionist Federation of Australia, ZFA, looking at the upward spike in antisemitism on campus. We have got to do something to arrest the increased attacks on minority groups and on ethnic groups. We have got to do what we can. I know that laws have been passed in here, which is very, very important, including the ban on the Nazi swastika and those symbols. I know that a law has been introduced in this sitting of Parliament this week around the salute. But the other part of this is not just laws but resources to educate people. The education piece is really, really key. The community was promised $3 million from the government in this budget to actually ensure that there are programs to support education around the rise of antisemitism. That money has not been forthcoming yet. I know Zionism Victoria and the Jewish Community Council of Victoria have been talking to the government. The time for talk is up. We are now a number of months into this budget, and we have seen nothing, so we do need to see that money now.

We cannot just be passing legislation to actually have consequences when people do the wrong thing; we have got to stop them from doing the wrong thing in the first place. You do that through education. You do that by educating kids right at the very early stages. We have seen issues at Brighton Secondary College where there have been antisemitic attacks on kids. That is with the Federal Court at the moment; we are waiting for hearings there. We have seen things at primary schools. All of this can be stomped on if you have got education programs and resources to educate people, especially kids, at the earliest level. So I plead with the government: get that $3 million out of the government’s bank account, get it into the community and let us wrestle with the issues that we are all fighting with in terms of combating antisemitism and educate those people that do not know better to ensure that they do know better and do not actually make it hard for many of those people that are suffering from those kinds of attacks.

Can I also make mention of some of the broader issues, some of the environment elements and some of the energy issues, as I said right from the very beginning of this contribution today, in terms of where the government is going and the uncertainty. We saw a report today around energy security, going into one of the hottest summers that I think we will have seen for a long time. Energy security is really important. I know the government had a $250 power bonus to help people that were really struggling. That bonus has run out. What is the government going to do about extending that bonus for those people that really need it? On top of the $250, what are they going to do? I know that they are cutting gas off in many homes. A lot of people are asking me, particularly those that rely on gas, what happens with that going forward.

Members interjecting.

David SOUTHWICK: The government can interject and carry on all they like. But I know particularly in the Chinese community and in the Indian community, who rely very strongly on cooking with gas, many want to build a new home, and in new homes particularly there will be no gas for them. I had a constituent of mine from the Chinese community show me a campaign that has been out there on WeChat that pretty much says that they will not be able to continue to cook using gas because they will not be able to have it in new homes. Those are the facts. The government can run a mile from all of that, but effectively if you are in a new home or a renovated home, no more gas – in an energy crisis, no more gas.

Members interjecting.

David SOUTHWICK: The government can jump all they like, but they know that they are wrong. The government have wasted and mismanaged this economy like there is no tomorrow. We are in a cost-of-living crisis. At a time of a cost-of-living crisis, when energy bills are through the roof, we are paying more for our energy than any other state. We have an absolute energy crisis. The Australian Energy Market Operator mentioned today in a report on the front page of the paper that our energy security is the most vulnerable that it has been. What does the government do – cuts gas off, just turns it off, ‘See you later, bye-bye, no more gas’. We have got to have energy security going forward, and this government is not providing energy security. They are not providing choice. They are not providing a transition into renewables. We know that many of the gas suppliers are looking elsewhere because there is no security in terms of gas and gas supply going forward because of the government policy. This is government policy. This is ideology over price, over affordability, over cost of living at a time when Victorians cannot afford it.

We are absolutely in Struggle Street in Victoria. People cannot afford the basic needs – they cannot. We hear it each and every day: cost of living is the single most important issue. And this government quite frankly could not care. They spend money like there is no tomorrow. We have the highest taxing state in the nation. We have more debt than New South Wales, Tasmania and Queensland combined in terms of net debt. We have got Moody’s readjusting our rating and suggesting that we are at future risk in terms of losing further ratings.

In terms of where we are seen on the international stage, we saw what happened with the Commonwealth Games. What does that do to our reputation? What does that do after years and years of having to deal with a government that has already challenged us internationally in terms of where we were with all of the lockdowns and everything else? What we were meant to do was come out of this and provide security and provide confidence, and there has been none of that. I mean, fancy cancelling a Commonwealth Games, going out there in the regions – Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong, Shepparton, Gippsland, into those five regions – and saying to them, ‘We’re going to give you a Commonwealth Games. Have we got something for you – these fantastic stadiums’. The member for Bendigo East, the Deputy Premier – the table tennis association have not even had communication with her after they were promised facilities. They have got nothing. The aquatic centre, Geelong – they were promised things, got nothing. Hockey – they were promised things, got nothing. We are talking about basic service. It is little wonder why the government have now promised things in the budget on one hand and taken them away with the other hand. I will tell you why: because Victoria is broke, and Victorians are paying the price because of Labor’s waste and mismanagement.

Labor cannot manage money, and if you ever wanted an example of that, just have a look at the $4 billion blowout of the Commonwealth Games. This government should be ashamed of themselves. Each and every one of them should be ashamed of themselves. They have got smiles on their faces at the moment. They are all smiling at the moment. Do you know why they are smiling – because they are all being paid. They are all being looked after while their constituents are all struggling, because this government have left Victoria in a mess, and Victoria is broke because of them.

John MULLAHY (Glen Waverley) (12:43): I rise to take note of the 2023–24 budget papers and the excellent outcomes this budget will have for my community and Victoria as a whole. In May this year we were presented with the comprehensive details of the state budget. First and foremost, I would like to thank the Treasurer, the Assistant Treasurer and their dedicated teams for their efforts in delivering this budget. It is a true Labor budget that continues deep investment into our community across health, education and transport, all the while creating quality jobs for Victorians.

During the election campaign the Andrews Labor government pledged $10.9 million for much-needed upgrades at Forest Hill College, and this budget delivers on that promise. Forest Hill College is one of the many outstanding public schools in my district, providing an excellent education to over 600 students. I have had the privilege of visiting the school on many occasions, and it was great to have the Minister for Education out to visit in October last year to tour the school and see all the great work that is done by the teachers, the students and the parents at the school. The minister enjoyed her visit so much that she returned to the school in November with a promise that a re-elected Andrews Labor government would deliver $10.9 million for a rebuild of blocks A, D and M, and I am so happy that in this budget we have been able to deliver on this promise to my community.

I commend the minister and her team for their diligent work in enhancing education facilities across the state, including the schools in my district. It was great to get down to Forest Hill College during NAIDOC Week to see the work that the students and staff are doing around reconciliation and to see the important learnings taking place in the school on First Nations issues. My recent visit was also a great opportunity to discuss the upgrades with principal David Rogers and assistant principal Nicky Buckingham. These conversations included the plans that they have for what this $10.9 million investment will do in creating enriched learning spaces for the students. Earlier this year it was great to sit down with the Forest Hill school council to talk with parents, and I would like to thank the school council president Rob Nash and the rest of the council members for volunteering all their time and efforts to make the school a better place.

Last November my volunteer team and I embarked on a doorknocking and letterboxing campaign to inform the residents within the Forest Hill College zone of our commitment to the school funding if the Andrews Labor government were to be re-elected, and the reception to this announcement was heartening. It was rewarding to learn that many voters chose to support the Andrews Labor government for the sake of their children and grandchildren, who will benefit from the improved schooling facilities. Education is paramount for the next generation of our community, and I welcome this budget commitment. I look forward to working alongside the minister and the college community to deliver these essential upgrades.

The second election commitment for Glen Waverley was a grant of $50,000 to support the Waverley Woodworkers, a group that you know well, Deputy Speaker, as you used to represent them as the member for Mount Waverley. It is a remarkable local organisation that provides a creative and safe environment for members of our community. Last month I had the Minister for Disability, Ageing and Carers Lizzie Blandthorn from the other place join me in visiting the Waverley Woodworkers, which is located at Central Reserve in Glen Waverley. It was great to catch up with president Ray Ffrench, John Watson and all the other members who were there to discuss the needs for their space and the great impact this $50,000 grant will have on their organisation. This budget allocation will enable Waverley Woodworkers to acquire additional machinery and improve the infrastructure, further empowering their members and their creativity.

On this visit, as well as last year’s visit with you, Deputy Speaker, I witnessed firsthand the significance of their work and the positive impact that they have on our community. Although the Waverley Woodworkers is a men’s shed, their organisation is also open to women, and it was great to talk to the women who are members about how and why they got involved. The woodworkers also put their efforts to good use by building toys for children in need. I am proud to be part of a government that supports community organisations such as the Waverley Woodworkers, and I would like to thank the minister and her office for the work they have done to support this integral community organisation. Without grants such as these, these community organisations may struggle to operate, and it is great to see the minister and her team making sure that we support our local community organisations.

As I address the house, I am proud to speak on another excellent budget allocation for my constituency. Under this budget we are allocating $750,000 to the Vermont Reserve, and I think it is something that the member for Nepean can get behind. This funding will be used to build female-friendly facilities onsite, including the change rooms. Currently the change rooms and the bathroom facilities are not fit for purpose. They were built decades ago, when there was little support for women’s sport, especially in football and cricket, both of which are played at Vermont Reserve. I would also like to thank the Minister for Community Sport, who is at the table today, for all her advocacy on this project.

Ros Spence: I’ve been out there.

John MULLAHY: And she has been out there. It was an excellent visit, wasn’t it? This allocation is part of a larger commitment the Andrews Labor government has made in supporting and including women in sport. I am proud to be part of this government that values equality in community sport.

On that note, I would like to say a huge congratulations to both the under-16 and under-18 girls teams at the Vermont Eagles junior footy club for recently winning their grand finals. These wins have made club history: they are the first-ever girls premiers for the club. It is great to see such high-performing women’s teams in our area, and it is just another reminder as to why we need to continue supporting women in sport.

Furthermore, a part of this grant will go towards the purchase and installation of LED lights for the ground. With numerous training sessions and matches held at Vermont Reserve, LED lighting will allow for more games and training sessions and keep up with the demand for community sport in our area. Vermont Reserve serves as the home for the Vermont Cricket Club and the Vermont Football Club, both of which are instrumental community sporting institutions. In the past year I have engaged in discussions with the executive members of both clubs, along with the Whitehorse City Council, to explore potential upgrades for Vermont Reserve. In these meetings I have emphasised the importance of providing change rooms and bathrooms for women’s teams and players. It was great to have the Minister for Community Sport out at Vermont Reserve last month to formally announce the $750,000 grant. It was also great to have executive members from both clubs attend, including Danny Ross, president of the Vermont Football Club; Rob Wilson, the secretary of the Vermont Football Club; Trent Touhy, the president of the Vermont Cricket Club; as well as Don Parsons from the Vermont Sports Club. It was a great opportunity to share the promising news with the executives. Both clubs are thrilled about this budget allocation and the positive impact it will have on their facilities and members. We were also joined by Whitehorse City Council CEO Simon McMillan and deputy mayor Prue Cutts to celebrate the occasion. I am looking forward to collaborating with Whitehorse City Council as well as with the Vermont football and cricket clubs to deliver this project.

It is great to witness the ongoing discussions about gender equality in sport, and I am fully committed to working with local sporting clubs to foster an inclusive environment. I extend my gratitude to the Minister for Community Sport and her team for their dedicated efforts in maintaining our local sports facilities and promoting sports participation irrespective of age and gender. I look forward to achieving successful outcomes for other community sports in my electorate.

Our budget also places significant emphasis on the healthcare sector to ensure Victorians receive the quality healthcare services they both deserve and require. The Andrews Labor government has committed $320 million to the Hospital Infrastructure Delivery Fund, aimed at planning, developing and initiating early works for the Monash Medical Centre and Maroondah Hospital. These healthcare facilities play a pivotal role in catering to the health needs of countless Victorians, including those residing in my electorate. In addition, we are allocating funds to establish women’s health clinics, recognising the importance of specialised health care for women, covering areas from contraception to conditions such as endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome.

Another crucial investment is in the planning for a new mental health and wellbeing service in Glen Waverley. This service will extend support to individuals aged 26 and above, addressing mental health struggles, psychological distress and addiction. It will stand as a welcoming space for members of my community facing these challenges. Following a similar model to the Orange Door program, it will be specifically dedicated to mental health. Qualified mental health professionals, including carers, will staff the service, ensuring accessibility to those in need, without the requirement for referrals or eligibility criteria. I am sure many of my constituents will be pleased to know that this service will be free of charge, eliminating barriers to access and contributing to destigmatising mental health. The Glen Waverley service will be one of 50 local mental health services established by the Andrews Labor government, reaffirming our unwavering commitment to mental health services and the wellbeing of our constituents.

Considering the pressing need for advanced healthcare services, our budget allocates $46 million to training future paramedics, including specialised paramedic practitioners, which I am sure the member for Melton is fully behind. This endeavour aims to provide essential assistance to Victorians even before they reach a hospital, potentially saving lives. To further enhance our healthcare services we are investing $167 million to support our dedicated nurses and midwives. This initiative seeks to strengthen nurse-to-patient ratios, ensuring that all Victorians, including those in my constituency, receive the highest quality medical attention. I would like to thank the Minister for Health and her team for their tremendous efforts in bolstering our healthcare system and safeguarding the wellbeing of all Victorians.

This budget also delivers for our TAFE sector. In Glen Waverley we are lucky to have the Holmesglen TAFE on Waverley Road. The Glen Waverley Holmesglen campus provides courses in early childhood, floristry, landscaping, hospitality and many other areas, including many of our free TAFE courses as funded by the Andrews Labor government. It was great to have the Premier as well as Minister Tierney from the other place join me in visiting Holmesglen TAFE, Glen Waverley, earlier this year for a tour and to see all the great work that happens at the TAFE. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the minister for her tireless efforts to ensure that our TAFEs are properly funded and to make sure that Victorians are receiving a funded, quality education for in-demand jobs.

It is great to see that this budget is delivering $186 million to expand the eligibility of courses, including free TAFE. This means that more Victorians can get the skills they need for the careers they seek, which plays a vital role in supporting our economy not just now but for the decades to come. These free TAFE courses are for in-demand sectors so that we can fill the gaps in the economy while providing Victorians with a quality education. Furthermore, we are investing $90 million in numeracy, literacy and digital support services for those at TAFE studying one of our free courses. This will assist students in their studies and teach them transferable skills that they can use in their careers in the future. We are also putting another $90 million into the TAFE sector to provide job placement opportunities and priority skills and to support the mental health and wellbeing of TAFE students. I am proud to be part of a government that supports and values our TAFE sector. We know that education is vital to our economy and our communities, and it is why we are dedicating millions of dollars to our TAFEs in this year’s budget.

While I am speaking on the importance of education, I would like to highlight the allocations made in this budget to support kindergartens and early learning. This budget allocates money to ensure the continuation of our free kinder program for our three- and four-year-olds. It is something that I know well personally, as my daughter Órla, who I have mentioned before, got to experience three-year-old kinder last year as one of the first intakes of three-year-old kinder and this year is enjoying the four-year-old program, and for free. So it is a wonderful program, and you can see the benefits on a daily basis when she comes home from kinder. We know that kindergarten gives our children the best start to life and prepares them with the skills that they need for primary school and beyond. Furthermore, our free kinder program is one of the many cost-of-living measures our government has put in place. Making kindergarten free ensures that there is no barrier for kids to attend kinder. No child should miss out on an education just because of cost, and it is why we are making sure we continue our free kinder program.

Since being elected to this Parliament late last year I have been able to visit many of the excellent kinders and early learning centres across my district. We have got so many excellent kinders and early learning centres, such as Syndal Preschool, Tally Ho Pre-school, Waverley Kidz Children’s Centre and Barriburn Preschool, and I have been able to talk to the wonderful staff about how their kinders are doing. I have heard great feedback from the teaching staff on the importance of the free kinder program, and I am sure they are glad to hear that this funding is continuing under this budget. Earlier this year I also had the great opportunity to visit Bambou Early Learning Centre on Blackburn Road in Glen Waverley with Minister Stitt from the other place. The minister and her team have done a great job in ensuring that our free kinder program has been rolled out smoothly and making sure that early childhood learning is a priority not only in this budget but for the government as a whole.

One of our significant election commitments was to reinstate the SEC, and we have not hesitated in fulfilling that pledge. The budget allocates $1 million to revive the SEC, delivering government-owned renewable energy. To facilitate this revival $12 million has been allocated to establish the SEC centre for training and excellence, aiming to train a new generation of SEC workers and generate thousands of jobs for Victorians. The funding will also facilitate the establishment of clean energy courses, ensuring a smooth transition to sustainable and secure job opportunities. Additionally, the centre will actively participate in career nights at government schools, inspiring the next generation to pursue a career in renewable energy. Furthermore, we are investing $16 million to create two new worker training centres dedicated to renewable energy. These investments represent a firm commitment to renewable energy jobs creation and skills to benefit all Victorians.

I am running out of time, so I commend this budget and look forward to working alongside my colleagues to ensure its successful implementation. My constituents and I are looking forward to seeing the results of this budget.

Annabelle CLEELAND (Euroa) (12:58): Today I am saddened to reply to this tired government’s budget, full of high taxes for hardworking Victorians and a fairly bleak economic outlook. I must say I did think that many of us would have had this opportunity earlier, and as we have heard today, there are still 61 members waiting to speak on this dire budget. However, the benefit of this delay is that I can discuss several additional cuts to our industries, broken promises, new taxes and even more abject failures by this government.

I will try to cut through the spin and fluff of the Premier and his government, instead speaking with honesty about what this budget says about the Andrews government’s priorities. For people in my electorate of Euroa, unfortunately, not much of what this government does comes as a shock anymore. This budget again reflects a government passionate about neglecting what really matters to regional Victorians and a government with a leader afraid of leaving Melbourne, confronting voters and explaining how this government are in any way doing what matters, as they claim. The objective scoreboard is quite clear: this government has the worst debt position in the nation by a country mile, the highest taxes in the nation and the worst COVID record in the country.

Sitting suspended 1:00 pm until 2:02 pm.

Business interrupted under standing orders.