Tuesday, 14 May 2024

Appropriation (2024–2025) Bill 2024

Appropriation (Parliament 2024–2025) Bill 2024

Second reading

Debate resumed on motions of Tim Pallas and Mary-Anne Thomas:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Brad ROWSWELL (Sandringham) (11:54): After a decade of Labor budgets, what does Victoria have to show for it? A decade of Labor debt, a decade of Labor deception, a decade of Labor deflection. Victorians are now paying dearly for Labor’s debt-fuelled ego spending – $188 billion in debt by 2028, with more to come, and the payments have only just begun. Victorians have been forced to pay an extra $305 million for the suburban roads upgrade due to blowouts and mismanagement. Victorians have been forced to pay an extra $427 million for the Victorian Heart Hospital due to blowouts and mismanagement. Victorians have been forced to pay an extra $558 million for the Frankston Hospital due to blowouts and mismanagement. Victorians have been forced to pay an extra $3.3 billion for level crossing removals due to blowouts and mismanagement. Victorians have been forced to pay an extra $4 billion for the Metro Tunnel due to blowouts and mismanagement. Victorians have been forced to pay an extra $4.7 billion for the West Gate Tunnel due to blowouts and mismanagement. Victorians have been forced to pay an extra $21.2 billion for the North East Link. Why? Due to blowouts and mismanagement. So after a decade of Labor, with over $40 billion in blowouts and all this mismanagement, when this government provides a costing for anything, why bother believing it? A decade of Labor shows us that Labor budget figures simply cannot be trusted.

As if that list of record-breaking blowouts was not enough, another example, proving why Labor budget figures cannot be trusted, is the Commonwealth Games debacle. Labor said it would cost $2.6 billion, a figure which never really made much sense. Labor then cancelled it because it would allegedly cost up to $7 billion. In fact the Premier herself managed to say something quite extraordinary on ABC radio when she seemed to see ‘not a lot of difference’ between $6 billion and $7 billion. A billion dollars is not a lot of difference for the Premier. No wonder the books are in such a mess.

Then again, why am I surprised? These are the same people that have repeatedly said ‘things cost what they cost’. Well, no, no, they do not – or at least they should not. But it does beg the question: with that attitude, why does Labor even bother getting a quote in the first place? See, this is where the Labor government spin falls apart. After a decade of Labor, their spin cycle occasionally goes in reverse. Riddle me this: how can a government proudly boast that things ‘cost what they cost’, then cancel something when they get their numbers wrong, unless they did not get their numbers wrong and it was always just going to be the con games, played by Labor going into an election. Clearly Labor conned a lot of people, and all for the low price of $589 million. How many votes did that buy? After all, it is only Victorian taxpayers money – an absolute and utter disgrace.

Labor have not shown public money any respect in a decade so, frankly, why would they start now? When the Commonwealth Games debacle occurred, it highlighted a common theme for this Labor government: whatever they announce has hidden hooks just lurking beneath the surface. There is always a catch: public servants get a pay rise while many other public servant jobs are on the chopping block; energy bill relief while energy prices go up, up, up; the Suburban Rail Loop while growth suburbs are being crushed by the pressure of population increases without proper infrastructure; the biggest hospital project in Australian history while the government knew for at least three years that there would be a big problem with electromagnetic interference; and a 70 per cent cut to cancer research funding at the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre alliance while the government’s favourite Geelong Stadium gets a new scoreboard.

In Melbourne’s north there is a bizarre situation where the headline and the outcome for the community just simply do not add up. The Wallan diamond, which includes southern-facing ramps onto the Hume, has been promised by federal and state Labor at many elections. In 2019 the federal coalition government tipped in $50 million, and at the 2022 election then Minister Allan took the journey to Wallan to announce $130 million for the Wallan diamond. It was later revealed, after the election, deep in a Major Road Projects Victoria document, that then Minister Allan’s commitment was actually inclusive of the federal coalition’s $50 million commitment. So in fact it was only an $80 million commitment. Planning and a business case were promised to be completed by early 2024, and we are still waiting on that. You would think there would be 80 million bucks in this year’s budget, but no, there is not. One of the fastest-growing suburbs in Melbourne let down again by another Labor broken promise.

In Narracan, there is the West Gippsland Hospital, which Labor committed to delivering. We saw last year funding delivered for planning with a promise for construction to start in 2024 in line with the former Premier’s announcement. Now we see no new funding in this year’s budget, meaning the community have been left in the dark about when this critical project will actually start. Labor are so hell-bent on channelling money into Suburban Rail Loop, into blowouts, that they have simply forgotten this project – community be damned. After a decade of Labor there are so many more examples like these, and as anyone can see, it really does not take much to discover the hidden hooks beneath the surface of Labor’s headlines.

Labor had the title ‘Helping families’ on this year’s budget. So let us look for the barely hidden hooks underneath this very headline. Helping families? How is it helpful to cut wellbeing support for schoolkids by $34 million? How is it helpful to cut early childhood sector supports and regulations by $79 million? How is it helpful to cut child protection by $141 million? Is that Labor’s vision or version of helping? Victorians have no interest in seeing their version of hurting. This, coming from a government that is spending $5.1 billion annually on programs and support in their entire family, fairness and housing portfolio whilst at the same time spending $9.4 billion annually to service the debt that Labor has ratcheted up over the last 10 years.

Another headline that they seem rather proud of is on delaying the train line to Melbourne’s airport. The obviously rehearsed media stunt suggesting Avalon could get funding over the airport rail is such a dishonest distraction. Set aside the fact that in 2023 Avalon served around 900,000 passengers while at the same time Melbourne Airport served over 30 million passengers – there is more to this headline. Notice how last election they were branding it the SRL Airport; that branding has been quietly dropped. Now it is the airport rail link. I guess they could not accept they are delaying and potentially threatening to cancel part of the SRL, so they renamed it. Call me cynical, but I do feel this fight is less about the best outcome for everyone and more about Labor not having money to spend. And none of this needed to happen if Labor had managed money properly.

To really drive the point home, here is a simple one: the headline – the government promised 80,000 ‍homes a year; the reality – 51,000 homes were built last year, mainly by the private sector. That pesky little fact does not stop Labor claiming them. That attitude of hook-ridden headlines proves that regardless of how Labor spin it their 10th budget is a mess, and Victorians are now well and truly paying the price.

Victorians were already paying the highest taxes in the country, and now Labor have made that even worse. Every single Victorian – every man, every woman, every child – has a yearly Victorian Labor tax bill of $5834 floating over their head. What planet is this government on when it thinks that kind of increase is okay? Labor is even doing the old double dip this year, because Victoria is getting more in GST but this government is still raising taxes on that. Real cost-of-living relief comes from lowering taxes, something that this government just simply does not get.

There is no avoiding the simple fact: Labor’s record debt is too high. Ten years ago under the Treasury leadership of the member for Malvern Victoria’s debt was $21.8 billion. After 10 years of Labor and 10 Labor budgets, Labor’s debt is now $188 billion, and that figure does not even include the true and total cost of Labor’s Suburban Rail Loop. After a decade of Labor there is no plan – there is no plan to deal with all this debt. Labor will claim that they have a plan to pay off their dishonestly labelled COVID debt, but even being generous, that plan is only dealing with about 17 per cent of the total debt.

Imagine if someone boasted about only planning to pay off 17 per cent of their mortgage, with no plan to pay off the rest. They would lose their house pretty darn quickly. They are not being honest with themselves, and after a decade Labor are simply not being honest with the Victorian people. In November 2023 the Auditor-General said:

The government have not laid out a plan for when and how the state will pay down existing and future debt.

Well, guess what, Labor still have not shown any real plan. As if nearly $200 billion in debt, with no plan to deal with it, is not enough of a concern, a lot of that money was financed at a time when interest rates were near zero. Now the cash rate sits at 4.35 per cent. How much more is that refinancing going to cost every Victorian?

We are also hearing from the global rating agencies S&P and Moody’s that Victoria’s credit rating is up for review and could be downgraded further. When the state’s credit rating fell from AAA to AA Victoria became the worst-rated state in the country. That costs Victorians millions more in repayments each year, and if it drops again, it will just keep adding more and more and more to Labor’s record debt. You see, record high debt means record high repayments, which to this government means record high taxes on each and every Victorian.

This budget is just Labor pretending to look like they are cleaning up their own mess. None of what they have announced makes any structural change to the fiscal equation; it just kicks Labor’s debt can down Labor’s pothole-riddled road. By 2027–28, $40 billion per year will be spent on public service wages alone. And, you guessed it, the increase is largely due to more senior executives and less frontline workers, meaning declining services despite a higher public sector wage bill. That is setting aside Labor’s creeping politicisation of the public service, which is being eroded by a culture of fear and secrecy, as boldly identified by Victoria’s former Ombudsman.

This budget is more of the same recklessness and irresponsible spending we have seen from a tired and arrogant government more focused on serving itself than the people of Victoria. That is why Victorians are paying more in taxes than any other state. Put simply, Labor just does not care. They do not care that it is more expensive to power your home, with the average price of electricity up by 33 per cent since Labor took office 10 years ago; they care about a loop. They do not care that it is more expensive to keep warm in winter, with the average price of gas going up by 90 per cent since Labor took office; they care more about a loop. They do not care if it is more expensive for car registration, with light vehicle rego increasing over 250 per cent since Labor took office; they care about a loop. These are the things a state government should care about, not just a loop. Instead the government have added to record debt and only care about their loop. Generations of Victorians, some not yet born, will be forced to pay more for what, a loop? That is not vision, that is vanity – vanity that will conscript Victorians into generational debt. Victorians are not being looked after the way that they should be because Labor wants a legacy. But make no mistake, Labor’s legacy will be debt.

In the lead-up to this budget we had been hearing about tough decisions being made. Everyone knew that that meant cuts – $5 billion in cuts in fact. Ambulance services and medical research funding, Labor says cut it. Community crime prevention and seniors programs, Labor says cut it. Family violence and mental health support, Labor says cut it. These are not tough decisions, these are cowardly decisions. It is very simple: these decisions did not need to be made. If money was not being wasted, programs like these would not have to be cut.

The Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre Alliance getting their funding cut makes no sense whatsoever. Meanwhile the state government spends more on SEC-branded clothing. They are spending money on costumes before cancer prevention. Why are they doing that? It is just simply wrong. Cuts to family violence support and mental health support in particular should deeply concern each and every Victorian. Other cuts include: road maintenance funding – cut; housing assistance funding – cut; disability services funding – cut; tourism and major events funding – cut; creative industries funding – cut; youth justice funding – cut; dental services – cut; aged and home care services ‍– cut; access to public IVF – cut; and Labor’s much-heralded sick pay guarantee – cut. The list goes on and on and on.

Then you have got the abandoning of surgery targets, the abandoning of hospital builds, the promise of neighbourhood batteries but not actually delivery of them, the overpromising yet underdelivering of trainee nurses and ripping $2.4 billion away from the TAC. In addition, they are leaving the following programs unfunded: protecting children’s safety and wellbeing – unfunded; child safety reforms implementation – unfunded; mental health support for emergency services workers – unfunded; wildlife care and protection – unfunded; and the court case management system – unfunded. Despite the alleged tears from Labor members after they were told all this and more, tough decisions do not look like this. A tough decision for this government would be to put people ahead of spin, to value humans over hubris, to tend to the future and not to tax it. Instead we are left with a list of unfunded and cut programs. Labor waste, Labor tax, Labor cut, and Victorians pay the price.

That brings us to debt. S&P director and lead analyst Martin Foo warned the government to rein in their ‘infrastructure binge’. Notice how the advice was not to cut any of those programs but just to rein in the infrastructure binge. After a decade of Labor, debt in Victoria remains more than that of New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania combined. It is time to back off the bingeing, because Victorians simply cannot afford it.

To really put in perspective how monumental the debt that Labor has created is, here is something truly absurd. You see, if Labor had not created so much debt via their irresponsible spending, they could have scrapped stamp duty entirely. Instead they need that $9 billion a year just to pay back the interest payments on their debt – not to build anything or fund anything, just to repay interest that is now almost $26 million a day. Let me repeat that: if Labor did not waste so much money, they could scrap stamp duty entirely. Can you imagine what that would do for housing affordability? Imagine scrapping it just for first home buyers and downsizers. But thanks to Labor and their near $200 billion debt, it cannot be scrapped. They cannot even consider scrapping it. But it could have been a real conversation if they had managed money better.

This Labor government is so desperate for cash after wasting so much money, and that is why the cost-of-living pain is so much worse for Victorians than in fact it should be. In one year the average electricity bill has gone up by 24 per cent. In one year the average gas bill has gone up by 35 per cent. In one year the average rent bill has gone up by almost 17 per cent. People are paying 9 per cent more for a Myki than they should be. If I listed every cost-of-living increase Victorians face thanks to Labor government decisions, I would simply run out of time.

Victorians know that the cost of living is worse after 10 years of Labor. But it is not just the cost of living that Labor is hurting; it is also Victorians’ quality of living. You see, every playground in Victoria should be having its soil tested for asbestos contamination at the moment, but the government is dragging its feet and avoiding doing so, potentially leaving kids at risk. Why? Because Labor waste money. The Alfred hospital is severely run-down, with patients even seeing rats running around. The government is doing little about that. Why? Because Labor waste money. Victorian roads are in an absolute mess, particularly country roads where you could practically fit a small market garden in some potholes. In fact 91 per cent of Victorian roads are rated poor or very poor, yet Labor has no credible plan to fix this. Why? Because Labor waste money.

The surging crime rates, schools in desperate need of repair, a lack of public transport services particularly in growing areas like Clyde or Wyndham, ambulance ramping and code oranges, surgery waitlists, a jammed-up court system – and the list goes on – are the consequence of Labor’s decade of debt. It is not just about the big numbers in red ink on a page; it is the quality of life of every Victorian that is being hurt, that is being punished. When hospitals are not funded properly, fewer people get the care they deserve. When schools are not funded properly, kids do not get the quality of education that they deserve. When roads are not funded properly, people do not get the safe drive home to their families that they deserve. When public transport is not funded properly, people do not get the reliable system that they deserve. Victorians deserve all these things, but while Labor is in charge Victorians do not get what they deserve. Quality of life is going backwards in Victoria, and it does not have to be like this.

Imagine a world where Labor did not destroy the budget. What would that actually look like? What would $9 billion a year in spending look like if it was not going to pay off Labor’s debt? Let us make it a more manageable figure. Let us talk about Labor’s daily interest bill of $25.6 million. In one day you could pay for 128 ambulances. In one day you could pay for two breast cancer centres. In one day you could pay for 2715 elective surgeries. In one day you could pay the yearly salary of 315 nurses or pay for 510 Victoria Police recruits or 305 paramedics or 488 Parks Victoria rangers, but Victorians get none of that thanks to this Labor government and their debt. Instead of paying for such things every day, that money just vanishes every day to pay off Labor’s interest bill.

It is now clear why Labor ministers have haunted looks on their faces. Labor ministers are haunted by the ghosts of budgets past, present and future. So here is an idea. How about, instead of cutting funding to mental health, this government hold off building a bronze statue of their former leader. I am certain that the pigeons really, truly would not mind. Of course Labor probably will not hold off doing that – no they will not. Why? Because this government is so out of touch that they probably think the price of a pie and a can of Coke at the footy is a good deal.

Here is another idea – pause the Suburban Rail Loop. It is going to cost too much, and it is going to take too long. Victorians know it and so does every member of this government. So many people are doing it tough right now, so pouring billions into a project like that during times like these makes absolutely no sense. Pause it, prioritise people and improve quality of living instead of just infrastructure. If Labor do not start to improve quality of living, it is only going to get further and further out of reach.

Although maybe, just maybe, the Labor government is listening to our advice. You see, the costings for the Suburban Rail Loop are still labelled ‘TBC’. When Labor say ‘TBC’, do they actually mean ‘to be confirmed’ or maybe it actually stands for ‘to be canned’. One can only hope, and I suspect this government’s federal colleagues wholeheartedly agree. Even if the government are not listening to our advice, I wonder if they will listen to the advice of their federal colleagues. The Labor federal government seems to understand the importance of gas, even though the Labor state government does not. The Minister for Resources Madeleine King said:

Gas plays a crucial role in supporting our economy …

She went on to say:

Ensuring Australia continues to have adequate access to reasonably priced gas will be key to delivering an 82 per cent renewable energy grid by 2030 …

Reasonably priced gas – I wonder who has been calling for that in Victoria. You see, federal Minister King went on to say:

… it is clear we will need continued exploration, investment and development in the sector …

I certainly hope the Victorian Labor MPs are listening to their federal colleagues. This contradiction between state and federal Labor highlights just how broken things are in Victoria. There is a simple solution to slightly easing the cost of living for Victorians. The federal government can see it, but the state government here ignores it. Every member of this Labor government simply ignores it – instead, the state government just simply increases taxes on Victorians at a time when they can least afford it.

Victorians have now been hit with 55 new or increased taxes thanks to this Labor government. That is quite the increase, considering that on the eve of the 2014 election the then Leader of the Opposition Daniel Andrews promised that there would be no new taxes or increased taxes on coming to power. Labor’s budget last Tuesday saw an increase to two taxes: the fire service levy and the waste levy. If you go to the tip, you will pay more to get rid of your rubbish. The other increase pushes up council rates, which will add to the cost pressures on families. But Labor, they are not done with taxes – there are more coming. There is the holiday and tourism tax, which would make taking a holiday in Victoria more expensive, and that is imminent. What sort of government would tax a Victorian family for wanting to take a holiday? Then there is Labor’s new home ownership tax, a new building levy across all postcodes, meaning that building any residential property will become more expensive. This is on top of Labor’s more than 30 new increased property taxes in the last 10 years – and they wonder why we are in the middle of a housing availability and affordability crisis. Well, if you tax something, it becomes more expensive – it is as simple as that.

When MPs go out and talk to people they get an idea of what is really going on. If members opposite have actually been outside since the budget was released, they will also have heard the truth that so many Victorians are worse off because of this budget and this government. There is not a corner of the community that is not hurt by Labor’s decisions, but Labor simply do not care. This Labor government prioritises nothing but itself. That is what this budget is and that is what this budget shows ‍– dodgy decisions made not for the betterment of Victorians but purely to serve Labor, with the Victorian people paying for that privilege. A budget shows a government’s priorities, and Labor’s priorities are quite simply all wrong.

Victorians do occasionally ask me, ‘What would you do?’ Firstly, we would grow Victoria’s economy by incentivising investment and providing policy certainty rather than forcing businesses to simply pack up shop. For example, we would support Victoria’s incredible defence industry to pitch for the opportunity that AUKUS presents. Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland and New South Wales are welcoming the opportunity of AUKUS to get their manufacturers, service industry and cyber and security industry into the global supply chain of the United States and of the United Kingdom. It begs the question then, doesn’t it: why hasn’t Victoria done the same? Instead, Labor have raised the white flag of surrender, leaving Victorian industry without the government support they need to take Victorian-made products and services to the world. We already have a recipe for success in contributing to the defence industry in this state. Take, for example, Marand in Moorabbin. They are part of the global supply chain for the Lockheed Martin F-35 joint strike fighter. From their Moorabbin facility they produce vertical tail fins for the F-35. These tail fins are assembled in Moorabbin, put on the back of a truck, driven down Nepean Highway and shipped out of Tullamarine airport for the F-35 global assembly line.

We have done it before, so let us do it again. To those businesses and to those investors who are considering leaving Victoria because of the pressure of Labor’s taxes, I say to them: please, please stick with us. Labor will not always be in charge; it will not always be like this. The next election in Victoria is 2½ years away and change is coming. Lower, fairer, simpler taxes are coming. A government that enables businesses to thrive is on its way, a government that will roll out more red carpet and less red tape to investors.

To those people considering leaving Victoria because of the quality of living under Labor, I say to them: we will better fund schools so that kids are not exposed to toxic mould like they have been recently at Balnarring Primary School. We will better fund hospitals so that patients do not have to wrestle with rats for a bed. We will better fund roads so that they are safer to drive on for all Victorians ‍– no more playing dodge the pothole in country areas. We will reduce red tape and get out of the way of more homes being built to help with the housing crisis, not to make it worse. We will have better procurement processes to ensure value for money and to help prevent waste. We will not prioritise a loop – we will prioritise people. That is what a coalition government will do.

What does Labor give Victoria? A decade of debt, a decade of dumb decisions. The change in Premier has clearly changed nothing. The cost of Labor is too high in Victoria. To the government we say: stop wasting so much money. Everyone in this building, in this state, knows that we on this side of the house will be the ones again to clean up Labor’s mess. And we will clean it up. We will make sure hospitals and schools are not neglected any longer. We will scrap Labor’s schools tax. We will scrap Labor’s health tax. We will make sure people feel safe again on the roads and in their homes. We will help the community, not hinder it. We will legislate in this chamber a debt cap. We will reinstate a Victorian productivity commission. We will make housing more affordable. We will maintain frontline services. We will have a credible plan to pay down Labor’s debt. We will end waste. We will axe tax. We will shout from the rooftops to every Victorian, especially those who have recently left our state, that under a government we lead Victoria will again be open for business. We will do all these things while Labor put a loop before people. Labor can try to spin all the headlines they like, but only we, the coalition, Victoria’s alternative government, will in fact govern for all Victorians.

Paul EDBROOKE (Frankston) (12:28): Well, we have heard from the Rowswell opposition. It was a scattered argument. It was messier than a painter’s radio, I reckon. We heard no alternative plan. We heard not even the mention of COVID once during that. We will get to the opposition in a second. I think it is fair to say that times are tough for many around the world, and Australia is no exception. We hear our communities’ concerns about inflation, interest rates and the cost of groceries, bills and petrol, and that is why this budget is focused unashamedly on helping families. From the cost of living to investments in education and health care, road and rail, we want to make it easier. This is a budget focused on fiscal discipline and making sensible decisions that respond to the challenges ahead. Of course we have the gender-responsive budgeting overlay on this budget as well.

This budget considers two large issues that I guess give us some unique economic issues that I have not seen in my lifetime. They are basically the result of high inflation and workforce shortages. We have got record unemployment, which gives us workforce constraints, and labour and materials costs at 22 per cent higher than in 2021. Just on employment, for the sake of credibility in this debate, in September 2023 Victoria recorded the lowest unemployment rate in the nation at 3.5 per cent – the lowest in 50 years. The unemployment rate is currently below 4 per cent. Now, I do not want the Shadow Treasurer to think I was not listening. We heard about some metrics between 2010 and 2014, but debt is not the only metric the economy is measured by.

If they were given the responsibility to govern again, we have heard what they would do, but let us have a think about what they did. When the Liberals were elected in 2010 the unemployment rate was 4.9 per cent. By the time of the 2014 election, unemployment had risen to 6.8 per cent. In 2014 the Andrews Labor government inherited the highest unemployment on the mainland in Australia. In contrast, since we have been in government our budgets have been fertile land for 800,000 new jobs to be created in Victoria, including 560,000 jobs created since September 2020. The opposition, in contrast, despite what they have just spoken about, created just 39,000 jobs in four years between 2010 and 2014. I refer to this not to bash the opposition but because unemployment is one of the many key metrics in measuring an economy and measuring the success of a government and this is the coalition’s record. Regardless of what they say they will do, the record shows us clearly what they have done.

We want our prosperous economy to stay strong, and this is the budget that does not just consider tomorrow, it gets in front of tomorrow. With that being said, we are shrinking the size of government as a share of the economy. Expenses are growing at 2.2 per cent a year on average in this budget, below the average nominal economic growth at 5.3 per cent. We are also responsibly managing our capital program, with new capital investment lower than in recent years. In fact infrastructure investment is expected to decline from a peak of $24 billion in 2023–24 to $15.6 billion by the end of the forward estimates. We are progressively returning the capital program to pre-COVID levels to better align with the ability of our economy to deliver.

Indeed if there was a misunderstanding about a post-COVID budget, it is that funding must be brought back to pre-COVID levels. During COVID the most important step was to let the Victorian government’s balance sheet absorb the blow of the pandemic, protecting jobs, businesses, family and the community. Good governments are able to adapt to and overcome unexpected issues, and that is what we have done. We have achieved an operating cash surplus in the 2022–23 budget, which continues over each year of this budget and forward estimates, and this budget forecasts an operating surplus in 2025–26 that is higher than previously predicted. The government is forecasting operating surpluses of $1.5 billion in the 2025–26 budget and $1.6 billion in the 2026–27 budget – an improvement from the 2023–24 budget update. The operating surplus is then forecast to increase further to $1.9 billion in the 2027–28 budget. As a proportion of gross state product (GSP), net debt is projected to be 24.4 per cent in June 2025 before reaching 25.2 per cent at a high and then declining to 25.1 per cent in 2027–28.

At its core, financial management is the practice of making a business plan and then ensuring you stay on track. The state budget is no exception to that, and we are on track. Economic indicators show our plan is working. Our economy is now estimated to be almost 11 per cent larger in real terms than before the pandemic. That growth is predicted to continue, with Deloitte Access Economics forecasting Victoria’s economy will outpace all other states over the next five years. Let me repeat that: Victoria’s economy will outpace all other states in the next five years.

The disciplined and sensible decisions that we are making now mean that we are able to deliver on the next step of the post-COVID financial management plan – stabilising net debt as a percentage of GSP. That is the first time that has happened since the pandemic and the next step is obviously the reduction of net debt to GSP. This updated fiscal strategy is right for our times, with a firm focus on driving new growth across the state while also acting to reduce debt. To put this into perspective, our economy is worth about $600 billion today, but by the end of the forward estimates it will be worth nearly three quarters of a trillion dollars. The strength of this growth is helping drive a reduction in the net debt to GSP.

The opposition have seized as usual on the most emotive media targets they can. I have found myself correcting people who have been peddled some fairly innocuous mistruths. I guess the ones that I have been hearing about have been about funding for health. I often wonder who actually looks at the budget papers on the other side, because we have heard that the Frankston Hospital had a blowout. As the Shadow Treasurer said, riddle me this: how can a project be accused of a blowout in this budget when it is reflecting the figures in the budget papers from last year? That is, budget paper 4, page 69, in the 2023–24 budget. You cannot have a blowout if it was reflected in the previous budget. That is fiscal illiteracy. It should be made very apparent to those opposite that they need to individually have a look at their budget books. You cannot say there has been a blowout in this budget; it was reflected in last budget. It is not how it works.

Also with this in mind, regarding discussions on cancer treatment and funding I say eight years ago it was the Labor government who opened the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre. The five-year survival rate for Victorians diagnosed with cancer has increased from 59 per cent in 2017 to 71 per cent in 2021. We clearly support our health professionals and their delivery of the best for our community. On cancer treatment, we have heard about reductions in funding. There is no reduction in base funding, and what is not mentioned is that a previously funded extra $40 million for a strategic cancer plan is complete and therefore not recurrent in the budget.

But regarding those opposite and their concerns for their communities’ health, I actually found myself thinking on the way in here today: how many people went without cancer treatment and how many people died due to late diagnosis when their hospital closed down? I look across the aisle and I wonder how many of those opposite were not Liberal Party members when Kennett’s coalition closed hospitals in Eildon, Koroit, Mortlake, Murtoa, Red Cliffs, Macarthur, Clunes, Beeac, Birregurra, Lismore, Elmore and Waranga. What happened to the thousands of those patients who had cancer treatment at their local hospitals and it was taken away from them, just like that. This was former Premier Kennett, who is fanboyed by some of those across the aisle and still held in high esteem. This is the former Premier that I think still influences some of the decision-making across the aisle. He was urging the feds to abolish Medicare up until 2001. Can you imagine what happens when you do not have subsidised screening for people who need a cancer diagnosis? Yet not one of those opposite will reflect on that, but they act like they are holding our feet to the flames as we still repair some of the damage that happened back then.

There is a different way to balance the books. A government could have, for instance, sold off $33 billion in public assets to the highest bidders. We could have redirected more than $1 billion in services to private contractors. We could have cut 45,000 jobs from the state’s bureaucracies. We could have slashed hospital funding and closed down hospitals. We could have closed more than 300 ‍government schools. We could have abolished 7000 jobs in education and stripped a range of entitlements from state-based industrial awards. But who would do that? Well, the question is actually: who did that? Because those statistics form the coalition’s response last time they were governing our Victorian economy under fiscal pressure. When Victoria’s economy was under pressure from a string of financial collapses and the heat coming out of the 1980s speculative bubble, this is what the Kennett government did. And some who are still sitting in the chamber today are fans of that Thatcheresque-type accounting. So any commentary coming from those whose manifesto is still, it seems, to cut health is just embarrassing – and to have the gall to be up here today and say that Labor does not care.

But you will not see that in this budget. Under an Allan Labor government you will see the health system supported; hospitals, schools and major projects being built; and housing of course, and that is while driving a reduction in net debt to GSP. It is these projects that also provide jobs. I find it very confusing that the opposition will talk about supporting Victorians through cost-of-living pressures while at the same time saying they will cancel projects and blow up industrial relations, with anti-union policies again, because without a job the average Victorian’s battle with the cost of living just gets a lot harder.

For anyone asking themselves right now, we heard from the Shadow Treasurer, but what we did not hear really was a feasible alternative plan. They have got a lot to say and they look angry, but if they were in government throughout COVID, what would they have done when they finally cleaned up their mess based on that easy option of ‘Let it rip?’ Well, I guarantee – and history tells us the story from the 1990s – if the coalition were delivering a 2024–25 budget it would be no different to the 1990s: there would be no balance, it would be slash and burn.

Budgets provide us a multitude of choices, and the choice that our Treasurer has made, the choice that this side of the aisle has made, on this enormous and difficult piece of work delivers a sensible and balanced budget focused on families. Locally for Frankston the budget reflects the enormous growth in my beautiful community funded by the state government. We have got the Village 21 Kids Under Cover housing project and the hospital – I think we were all surprised to see a supposed ‘funding blowout’ for it for this year of $1.1 billion even though it was in last year’s budget papers. We have got the Chisholm stage 2 soon to open, the 500 free car parks at the commuter car park at Frankston train station and upgrades to schools at Mount Erin secondary, Mahogany Rise Primary School, Aldercourt Primary School, Naranga specialist school, Overport Primary School and David Scott School. We have also got the Pines Football Netball Club, and that building is looking amazing. We will open that soon. We have got a new justice department, which means jobs and obviously custom for Frankston. We have got an improved Fletcher Road crossing coming, as well as a tech school, an early parenting centre, what will be an amazing Frankston & District Basketball Association project and some potential bus route changes with the cross-peninsula bus route plan.

As many people have talked about in the chamber, we have also heard about the $400 school bonus. We did hear a member of the opposition say before that it is not cash so people do not care about it. Tell me they do not care about it when the bill comes in for that school camp, those uniforms or an excursion and they do not have to pay it because it is already credited to their account at their school. They will not have to put their hand in their pocket. We have also got those free brekkies for kids. I know the member for Sandringham loves a free brekkie, but we still have those cost-of-living measures that we had put in place and are supported through this budget. I will just run off a couple: we have got the council rate capping, free nursing degrees, free priority care clinics, free dental in schools, brekkie clubs and state schools relief funding. We have tripled Glasses for Kids. We have the camps and sports fund, free access to pads and tampons, kinder kits for three- and four-year-olds, free Zoos Victoria entry on public holidays – I know the member for Bayswater took his little man George to the zoo for the first time, and he liked the elephants – free learner and P plates, short-term car rego, safe driver discounts, the Victorian Eyecare Service, free rego for young apprentices, health care in Victoria for dental health care, pensioner concessions, the veterans card, reduced regional rail fares, a rental increase cap, the Services Victoria Savings Finder app, the first home buyers grant, expansion of the community pharmacy pilot, the energy compare program, previously the $250 power saving bonus, free kinder, the utility relief grants, free TAFE – which now offers 80-plus courses – and of course the Victorian default offer.

Can I quickly thank the Treasurer, the Treasurer’s office and Department of Treasury and Finance for their work on this budget. Working as part of that team gives you a real insight into the dedication of a team working on an enormously difficult piece of work. They put their heart and soul into delivering a sensible budget focused on families, as it should be, and I commend it to the house.

Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (12:43): The 2024–25 Labor government budget in Victoria just reinforces the view that Labor cannot manage money, Labor cannot manage major projects and Victorians are paying the price. If you think about the major project component of that statement, who was the minister that oversaw that $40 billion in cost blowouts of major projects in Victoria? Who was the minister? The now Premier oversaw $40 billion in cost blowouts on major projects here in Victoria.

What is a billion dollars? A billion dollars is 1 million thousand-dollar piles. Forty billion dollars is 40,000 million dollars. It costs a million dollars to upgrade a kilometre of highway, so that is 40,000 ‍kilometres of highway we could upgrade in Victoria. I have done the arithmetic – you can check it if you like – and 40,000 kilometres of road could be upgraded. That is more than five times to Darwin and back that could be upgraded with the cost blowouts on those major projects. To put it in a Victorian context, there are 23,000 kilometres of freeways and major arterial roads in Victoria, so we could upgrade all those roads and have $17 billion left over to fix the health system or to get more police or to get more ambos so we do not have ramping.

We could upgrade all the major highways in Victoria and we would have enough money left over to fix all the other issues. That is what the cost blowouts mean in the context of this budget. That is why we say Labor cannot manage money. That is why we say Labor cannot manage major projects. And Victorians are paying the price with roads that are dangerous. We are paying the price with roads that damage cars. We all have people come to our offices saying, ‘We’ve smashed a rim, we’ve blown a tyre,’ because the roads are as bad as they are. That is the cost that Victorians are paying just from those major project overruns here in Victoria.

This budget also perpetuates three of the greatest lies in state politics here in Victoria. The first of those lies is when Peter Mitchell on Channel 7 asked the then opposition leader, the former Premier: ‘Do you promise Victorians here tonight that you will not increase taxes or introduce any new taxes?’ The then opposition leader, former Premier, looked down the camera, looked all Victorians in the eye through the camera on the Channel 7 news, and said, ‘I make that promise to every Victorian.’ What have we got now? We have got 55 new or increased taxes in Victoria and more taxes to come with the legislation we will see in the future. We got an absolute lie, and that is being perpetuated in this budget. It is absolutely deceitful.

In this budget there are two taxes that most people will not know they are paying. One is an increase in the waste levy, or the bin tax. Everyone is now going to pay more to have their rubbish picked up when that rubbish goes to a municipal waste dump because there is an increase in that charge. If you go to the budget papers, there is millions and millions of dollars in the waste levy stored away in the budget to help prop the budget up. It is not actually being spent for what it was supposed to be spent for; it is being used to prop the budget up. But they are going to increase it. There is more money stacked away in there, and people are going to pay more for their bin tax. The bin tax will be on the rates notice; people will see that there and they will blame the council. But it is not actually the council’s fault; it is the Labor government’s fault.

The other one is the fire services levy. If you read the footnote for the fire services levy, it says there that they are taking it up to the maximum amount allowable. They are taking it all the way to the top, not because people are going to get better fire services but because they need the money to pay for the things that they promised. If you are a CFA member, you will still not have your fire trucks on time, you still will not have your CFA sheds upgraded, but the government will have money to pay for the United Firefighters Union’s demands for the metro fire sheds. Those two new taxes that came into the budget we are talking about today will be buried in someone’s rates notice. They will blame the council, but it is actually the Labor government.

If you think about the cost-of-living pressures here in Victoria, it is not international circumstances – it is not the Ukraine war, it is not the conflict in the Middle East – that are driving cost-of-living pressures here in Victoria; it is actually the Labor government’s policy decisions and those 55 new or increased taxes that are doing that. They are embedded into people’s cost of living. The policy decision to ban natural gas in Victoria has put gas prices through the roof. A policy decision by the Victorian Labor government means that your gas bill is ridiculously higher than it was before.

The other great lie that is being perpetuated in this budget is Labor’s claim that young people are no longer interested in home ownership. What planet was the person that made that statement living on? Young people want to get a foothold into the property market. Their parents and their grandparents are desperate for them to get a foothold in the property market. For those on the other side, go and google it and just see who did say it from your government, because it is one of those lies that is perpetuated. Why can’t young people get into the property market? If you actually look at the cost of a new home, more than a third of the cost of a new home is charges and taxes of the Victorian Labor government – more than a third of the cost of a new home is actually taxes and charges of the Labor government. If you look at those 55 new and increased taxes, 27 of those taxes are property-based taxes. That drives up the cost of a home.

Imagine how easy it would be for young people to get a foothold in the property market if they did not have to pay more than a third of the price of a house in tax. And that does not talk about the fact that it now takes years for a property developer to get a subdivision to market, so they have the holding costs on doing that because of all the red tape and restrictions that are there from this government. The holding cost of land means the price of a block of land has increased. We met with some property developers recently. They actually said the cultural heritage charges, they believe, actually put $10,000 on a block. So for someone that is buying a house they have got the red tape, they have got the green tape and they have got the cultural heritage tape, which costs $10,000 a block in this state. That is where the third of all government charges and taxes come into the cost of a house.

The third great lie in this budget that is perpetuated is that Victorians do not have to choose between infrastructure and investment in health. We had a government that said, ‘You can have both. You can have the infrastructure, you can have the health system upgraded and you can have the elective surgery waiting list reduced, because you can have both.’ If you actually go to the budget, we have now got neither. Major infrastructure projects, except for the Suburban Rail Loop, have been stalled – no rail to the airport or major projects in regional Victoria. If you go through the budget papers the completion date of all those projects has been pushed out because the government want to extend the payment structure because they cannot do it. If you actually look at some of those big promises around infrastructure and health – to justify Melbourne Metro and the Arden Street station, the government said they were going to do a major rebuild of the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Royal Women’s Hospital. Both those are no longer being proposed, so the business case falls over. In reality, we have built Melbourne Metro. We have got a station there, but we are not going to have the precinct built that goes above it, because the government has run out of money. So this promise that you can have both infrastructure and health is just a perpetuation of a lie.

I was interested in the member for Frankston’s contribution about what happened last century. The member for Frankston spent quite a substantial amount of his time talking about what happened last century. Victorians are actually interested in what is happening now and what is going to happen in the future. They are not interested about what happened last century. He talked about hospital closures. Those on the other side would do well to read the reports of the government’s plan to merge and close a whole heap of regional hospitals. I have read the proposal from December, which is being updated now. You are going to find in my electorate all the hospitals in north-west Victoria are going to be run out of Bendigo – so no CEOs, no directors of nursing, no boards, no community involvement, but all being run out of Bendigo. And there is a footnote there that says, ‘We might actually have advisory committees.’ What is an advisory committee going to be able to do for a country hospital when it is being run from hundreds of kilometres away – driving across those roads that are absolutely useless?

If you think back to a lot of those hospitals – I take my home town, but everyone here could talk about their home town, their local hospital – and to when those hospitals were first built, they were built with the community raising money. They were built with the community running cake stalls, running raffles and running events to actually build those hospitals. What we are going to find – because the minister has put out a letter saying ‘We are not going to give those hospitals any more money into the future other than what they have been promised now, irrespective of how many people walk through the door, irrespective of what it costs to deliver those services’ – is those hospitals that started with the community raising money to build them are now going to have to have community cake stalls again just to keep a hospital in their town because the government is not going to fund those hospitals properly in the future. That is an absolute travesty for regional Victorian people. They do not want to drive 200 kilometres, with the condition of roads we have here, to get to a health service. They actually want a health service in their own town, and they do not want it run from a major regional city where they do not care. Those who watched this happen with Grampians Health, where all the hospitals and health services west of Ballarat were merged into one, know what has happened to their hospitals and the services that have been stripped out of them. That is what regional Victoria, tragically, has got to look forward to in the future.

Like the Shadow Treasurer mentioned, people say, ‘What would you do differently?’ The key thing that the Victorian Labor government has lost sight of is that the more taxes you put on business and the more restrictions you put on business, the more private capital will not invest. Private capital is actually leaving this state – 8000 businesses have left Victoria in recent times. That is 8000 families, let alone the employees and their families. They have gone interstate because they see other places as better to do business. We have got a housing crisis in Victoria, and we have got a rental housing crisis in Victoria. People are selling their rental properties in this state because of the tax system and investing in other states. That is one of the reasons we have a housing crisis here. The thing that a Victorian Liberal and Nationals government would do is we would put in place an investment framework and an investment climate, and we would make Victoria open for business again, making sure that private capital wants to invest to solve the issues of this state. If you want to see investment in housing, you need to make it attractive for people to invest capital.

The Labor Party somehow think that they can tax and tax and tax and people will keep investing. They will not do that; they will take their investment somewhere else in Australia, because it is more attractive to do that. Government is not a good investor. We have proven with the cost overruns on major projects that the Victorian government cannot manage major projects and cannot manage money. Victorians are paying that price. Let government get out of the way and let private business build the things that this state needs, and then we will have a much better place to live in the future. At the moment Victorians are paying the price of the inability of the government to manage money and manage major projects.

I will just finish off on some of the cuts in the budget. Regional Development Victoria is a shadow of what it was before. If you go back to when the Liberals and Nationals were last in government, we had the $1 billion Regional Growth Fund that put money into country communities to upgrade sporting facilities, to upgrade community halls and to make sure those communities had the livability that we needed for people to live there. There are none of those programs in this budget. There is no money effectively for Regional Development Victoria to administer, and effectively most of the staff have been made redundant. What was once a proud part of the Victorian government system is effectively no more, and regional Victoria is paying the price for that. Labor cannot manage money and they cannot manage major projects, and all Victorians are paying the price.

Colin BROOKS (Bundoora – Minister for Development Victoria, Minister for Precincts, Minister for Creative Industries) (12:58): I look forward to the budget and reply every year because it gives an indication of the plans that an opposition might have after a budget has been handed down. As previous speakers on this side of the house have said, this has been a tough budget. We have had to look at the spending that occurred during the COVID period and have a really responsible pathway to get the budget back into surplus, and the Treasurer is doing a great job in delivering on that.

But I tell you what, the member for Sandringham came in here – I was so surprised, because the member for Sandringham is a nice bloke – and he put everyone to sleep. There were people on their phones at the back looking for some way to get out of here and there were people doing their emails. I have never seen anything like it. Even the journos up in the gallery were looking to get out of the place. It was a non-event. It was lucky we had the Leader of the Nationals get up straight after that. It was not inspiring, but his line and length are always there. He was just back to the old lines about regional Victoria, and I think he steadied the ship a little bit. But if people are looking for a bit of vision from the opposition or if they are looking in a forlorn way for some sort of policy from the opposition, they are again going to be very deeply disappointed.

I will no doubt continue this after the lunchbreak, but I will come to the budget papers because I want to point out a few important facts in the budget papers that I think highlight the reason that there is pressure on infrastructure here in Victoria, and I want to take to task statements that were made straight after the budget was announced.

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

Business interrupted under sessional orders.