Tuesday, 14 May 2024

Bills

Appropriation (2024–2025) Bill 2024

Appropriation (Parliament 2024–2025) Bill 2024

Second reading

Debate resumed.

Colin BROOKS (Bundoora – Minister for Development Victoria, Minister for Precincts, Minister for Creative Industries) (14:58): Before the break there was an Acting Chair in the chair, who was doing a great job. The member for Wendouree was in the chair, and she was doing a great job chairing the Parliament. I was saying at the time that I thought that the budget-in-reply speech from the member for Sandringham – who is, as I said, a lovely guy – was one of the most low-energy budget replies, full of no policy at all and bereft of any new ideas. I was reflecting on the fact that his backbench were all either on their phones sending off emails or heads down. I note the member for Mornington in the chamber, who does a good job as Opposition Whip. I reckon he had a tough job herding all of the backbenchers in there to listen to that particular speech and that contribution.

Then I reflected on the fact that the Leader of the Nationals got up and gave a pretty solid Leader of the Nationals performance. He raised issues on behalf of regional Victoria and I think brought things back onto an even keel. He talked about infrastructure and infrastructure funding. I want to come to that, because there are a couple of graphs in the budget papers – budget paper 4, pages 4 and 5 – that I want to just reflect on. The fact is that from 2014–15 to 2022–23 Victoria received about $8.3 billion less than its population share of infrastructure funding from the federal government. That is a significant budget black hole in terms of infrastructure funding, predominantly through that period when we had the Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison governments in Canberra. That graph on page 5 shows that through those years the average difference in terms of a per capita amount was around about $100 per capita. That means that in terms of infrastructure spending, Victoria has had to do all of the heavy lifting through that period.

But also, before coming to some of the positive aspects of this budget, I just want to reflect on our friends in the Greens political party. On budget day last week the Greens went straight out of this place and said that this budget delivered no new money for public housing, affordable housing, social housing, community housing – nada. I was shocked at that because I have had some experience in the housing portfolio and I was pretty sure that this budget would have had some housing funding. But no, the Greens are quite adamant that there was no money for public housing, affordable housing, social housing, community housing – nada, to use the word that was actually used. So I had a flick through the budget papers and lo and behold without too much trouble I found on page 150 of budget paper 4 a table listing new projects under Homes Victoria and then another table that flows onto page ‍151 with existing projects where there is funding delivered for housing in this coming financial year in this budget.

Just to run through those, there are housing upgrades 2024–25, $24 million; housing renewals, $70 million; public housing revitalisation program, $72 million; Regional Housing Fund, regional, $200 million; the social housing accelerator program, which I acknowledge is federal money coming through this budget, $134 million; Big Housing Build, $398 million over the next year; family violence refuge redevelopment, $10 million; Homes Victoria ground lease model, which is all about renewing old, run-down social housing that provides more social housing for people who need it, $82 million for ground lease 1, ground lease 2 is $290 million in the budget papers; homelessness, $24 million; public housing renewal program, $10 million; refuge and crisis accommodation, $13 million. The list adds up to some $1.3 billion of investment in social and affordable and public housing. So there is either a case here where the Greens have deliberately misled Victorians about what is in the budget and what is not in the budget, or they cannot read the budget papers. I think it is important, even for minor parties, that there is a level of honesty or accountability in terms of the representations they make to the Victorian people about what is and what is not in a budget paper.

In terms of the actual budget and the outcomes for my community, and I will come to my portfolio areas in a moment, the budget has delivered funding as we have committed for Bundoora Secondary College. That program started last year, an upgrade program. The bulk of the funding is contained in this year’s budget, so that school will see the upgrade continue. I was out at the school last week to see the slab being poured for the new science building, and so that school is very excited about the work that is being undertaken. It is a school that runs a great agriculture program for a metropolitan, suburban school – a really good agriculture program to encourage young people to look at different careers in agriculture and agricultural sciences. That is on top of funding that we have provided already to Bundoora Primary School for a complete renewal of that school and a complete renewal of Greensborough College. Watsonia Primary has had an upgrade, Watsonia Heights has had a new building built, Watsonia North Primary has a building being constructed as we speak and Streeton Primary School, that I work very closely with the member for Ivanhoe on, has also had an upgrade.

I was really pleased to see the budget contain funding for a pedestrian crossing on Diamond Creek Road, which is a boundary road that I share with the member for Eltham. Unfortunately there was a young woman, a girl, hit by a car some time ago and quite seriously injured and then a further accident where the person was less injured, but obviously there is a problem there. The local community were very concerned and petitioned both me and the member for Eltham. We had a number of meetings with the Minister for Roads and Road Safety and are really happy to see a budget outcome for installation of a signalised pedestrian crossing on Diamond Creek Road as well.

I am rapt to see the $400 school payment. I think that is going to help many families in my electorate and of course right around state to take the pressure off household budgets, particularly when it comes to things like buying those essentials for sending your kids to school.

My local hospitals are both outside my electorate, but the ones that my community relies on include the Austin hospital, which of course many years ago was saved from privatisation from the Kennett government by a Labor campaign and the incoming Bracks government. We have continued to invest in the redevelopment of that hospital, and the next tranche of that sees this budget containing $41 million in the coming year across a $275 million capital program of redeveloping the emergency department there. The Northern Hospital has $48 million of an $812 million capital program for a new emergency department there. So what we are seeing is a Labor government continuing to invest in the services that people need in the northern suburbs of Melbourne and for my community in particular.

In terms of my portfolio there are some good outcomes in this budget for my precincts portfolio, including funding for work we are doing in the Arden precinct. Very shortly we will be going out to EOI for that precinct. That is a precinct that will obviously benefit from the opening of the Metro rail tunnel a year ahead of schedule in 2025. It is just one stop away from the incredible Parkville precinct, an incredible innovation precinct. People will effectively be able to, as someone said to me, go to bed in Arden and go to work in Parkville, a wonderful opportunity brought to life because of the investment in that Metro rail tunnel. Of course the Arden precinct will also involve the significant delivery of housing. I think that is a really important aspect in terms of the targets we have got in our housing statement. East Werribee precinct is a really important opportunity as well, with 600-plus hectares of government land. Through the planning work we have done we are starting to roll out the development of that particular precinct. That is off the back of investment around that precinct: three level crossings removed from that area; the Wyndham law courts, a $271 million investment in a justice precinct; the Werribee zoo upgrade; the new Wyndham police station; the Sneydes Road interchange, which is a $45 million project; and the expansion and upgrades to the Werribee Mercy Hospital. The investment in the planning work for these precincts is critical to unlocking the housing that sits within those particular precincts.

To move on to my creative industries portfolio, Victoria is undoubtedly the cultural capital of our nation. It is a wonderful $38 billion part of our economy. One in 11 workers in this state work in the creative industries, so it is an important part of our economy. We have invested some $3 billion since coming to government into our creative industries. Two billion dollars of that is in infrastructure, and a large portion of that is in our $1.7 billion arts precinct transformation. That is a complete redevelopment of our arts precinct. If you go down to the arts precinct in Melbourne today, you will see the first stage of those works being completed now. The second stage is to follow shortly after that. That will see the new Fox: NGV Contemporary gallery built – a wonderful contemporary gallery will be constructed there. There will be a large public realm between the new contemporary gallery, the existing NGV International and the arts centre. The Arts Centre Melbourne of course is being redeveloped as part of the first stage of the works, and we have got the wonderful State Theatre closed at the moment while renovations take place. It is sad to see it closed for three years, but it will open bigger and better than ever in three years time.

I mentioned the National Gallery of Victoria. It is one of our wonderful cultural agencies which are supported with funding through this budget. The National Gallery of Victoria of course hosted the recent successful Triennial exhibition over the summer months. The Winter Masterpieces exhibition is Pharaoh, which again will be a blockbuster no doubt, and then of course there is the recently announced summer exhibition Yayoi Kusama, which is going to be another drawcard no doubt.

The State Library Victoria is smashing visitation records off the back of the $88 million redevelopment and refurbishment of that library. In the refurbishment of both the library and the national gallery and arts precinct transformation I want to highlight the important role that many philanthropists have made through generous donations to help support those capital upgrades. The state library is no different. Important contributions have been made by philanthropists, and that has seen our state library become the third most visited library in the world. So it is a very popular and well used library because of the programs that are run in that library because of the investments that have been made through the refurbishment. At Museum Victoria there is the wonderful Titanic exhibition. They continue to do great work. Then there are other great organisations like ACMI, the Wheeler Centre and so on.

The other aspect of this package that I am really pleased to talk about is that I was with the member for Northcote recently in her electorate to announce the $10 million festivals and gigs package supporting our live music sector. We were at a wonderful live music venue in the member for Northcote’s electorate. She is a strong supporter of that sector. The work that we have done here is off the back of a lot of policy work that I know the member for Footscray has been involved in over the journey. To be able to announce that funding means that organisations right now can apply for funding for festivals to support them. And of course to reach our 10,000 gigs over four years commitment, people will be able to apply for venues to run up to 20 gigs a year. That is about supporting our live music sector while it is going through a tough time at the moment. That is on top of $2 million that we provided for Support Act, which provides welfare to musos and people in the music industry who are doing it tough, and $2 million for our SongMakers program, which is run by APRA AMCOS, a national body, effectively about songwriting in schools and teaching kids in schools about songwriting and getting them involved in that as well. So there is a lot happening in the cultural and creative space at the moment. I could go through a long list. I will not take up any more of that time.

I will finish with the comedy festival, which is a wonderful festival run here in Victoria, one of the three big comedy festivals in the world – they would say probably the biggest in the world, but certainly one of the biggest in the world, one of the big three. It has finished here in Melbourne this year, but it is now on its regional roadshow. What I love about the comedy festival is that they do it big in Melbourne, and then they hit all of the regional towns on this roadshow, which means it is accessible to Victorians right across the state, proudly supported with funding from the Allan Labor government.

David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (15:11): After a decade of Labor, life is certainly getting harder, and if you actually went out there and spoke to people and you said to them, ‘Are you better off now than you were 10 years ago?’, overwhelmingly you would get people saying that they are doing it tough, things are a lot more expensive and they are struggling to make ends meet. So it is very clear that this budget delivers on one thing, and that is Labor is wasting and mismanaging money, and Victorians are all paying the price. We see that each and every time. We heard it today from the Treasurer, who actually said in question time that debt is not a problem, and we should just keep on spending and spending and spending. What this government has got themselves into is an absolute debt crisis.

We have a triple threat by this government, an absolute triple threat. The first one is a housing crisis, and we know people are struggling to get into a home. We know even trying to get a rental, there are queues around the corner of hundreds of people to find a rental. This government is doing absolutely nothing, except for introducing more taxes. We have over 20 property taxes that have been introduced by this government since they came into power in the last decade. So we know that the only way this government sees for themselves to try to get out of trouble and out of debt is to tax themselves out of trouble and tax themselves out of debt. But is that happening? Is that ultimately what we are seeing? No, that is not what we are seeing, because debt keeps on continuing to rise. We have seen that in terms of what we are currently paying for debt, the highest amount of debt of anywhere in the nation ‍– in fact, more debt than New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania combined. It just continues to rise, and Victorians are all paying the price for it.

If you look at the near-on $187 billion worth of debt – almost $200 billion; we are heading that way ‍– what does that mean? That is $26 million a day for each and every Victorian – $26 million a day just to pay the interest bill. Could you imagine if you had a credit card, and you racked up that much debt to a point where your interest bill was causing you such a problem that you had to sell things just to be able to pay off the credit card? We have lots of products at the moment where banks will say to you, ‘We’ll consolidate all of your debt into one credit card and just roll it over to the next one.’ Ultimately that is what this Treasurer is doing. His debt is not a problem, we will roll over the credit card, but ultimately we are all paying for it – $26 million a day. If you look at that, the result of spending like there is no tomorrow – absolutely this government is spending like there is no tomorrow, that is what they have been doing for a decade – is that Victorians have been paying for it, and they will to continue to in the cost of living, because what that means is all the basic costs continue to rise. For example, we have seen a 9 per cent increase in food costs, so when you go to the supermarkets you are paying 9 per cent more than you were a year ago. A 12 per cent increase in housing – that is because of a building supplies shortage and the higher cost of labour, particularly with the Big Build, which I will get to shortly. And ultimately all of this taxation means less housing stock and more costs.

If you look at electricity, we have had a 28 per cent increase in electricity costs. The Minister for Energy and Resources keeps talking about prices going down, down, down. I have not met one Victorian that says to me they are paying less for their energy today than they did a year ago, not one. So this energy minister must be in fairyland. And we know that the energy minister’s absolute solution for energy costs is to turn off gas – no more gas – and ultimately that is going to affect so many people in terms of having a supply of energy and being able to make a choice. It will cost all Victorians more. On top of that we are seeing a 27 per cent increase in gas prices, a 22 per cent increase in insurance costs and, because of the cost of living, a 22 per cent increase in services from Vinnies. I spoke to the Salvation Army the other day, and they were saying to me that they are seeing more people coming to them for help now than they have ever seen before. These are not people that are unemployed, these are people that have jobs but still cannot make ends meet. They need food vouchers to top up their budgets simply because their costs do not meet their revenue. That is what this government does absolutely not understand.

We have seen in this budget such an issue when it comes to blowouts, such an increase when it comes to health. We have got a new health tax, which means visiting the GP will cost you more each and every time – $20 more to go and visit the GP. People cannot afford that. People cannot afford basic insurance. People cannot afford basic health. Ambulance costs are going up. We have seen cancer research funding going down. We have a reputation in terms of being world leaders in research, particularly cancer research, but we have a $50 million cut to medical research. This is atrocious, particularly when we are spending so much money on so many other things. We are wasting and mismanaging money, yet we will not put vital money into things like cancer research.

Transport is an absolute joke. This government is absolutely determined on their Big Build, which is resulting in a big bill that all Victorians are now paying the price for. We have seen that with the pet project of the Suburban Rail Loop. The SRL is $216 billion and counting. $216 billion – what does that buy? $216 billion buys $83,000 per household that Victorians would have to deal with the cost-of-living crisis. $83,000 would buy a whole lot of things. If you look at $83,000, which is what SRL will cost just for one small sector of the eastern suburbs at the expense of the state, let us just have a look at this SRL in terms of what $83,000 is: rent for a year, $27,000 for metro Melbourne; a child in government school for a year, $6000; public transport using your Myki, $2700; and an entire year’s worth of energy, $1300. If you add all of that up, you are still going to have near on $40,000 left after paying for all of those things in your budget. You could pay effectively three years worth of grocery bills for each and every Victorian household just for the cost of the Suburban Rail Loop. And get this: if the government wants a transport solution, $83,000 per household equates to two Teslas for every home. Each home could be equipped with a couple of Teslas to travel wherever they like, save on the environment and give two people cars. If you want to go and look at other vehicles, you could probably get yourself four vehicles for the average home if you wanted to. I am not suggesting that is what we do. What I am suggesting is the huge amount of waste on the Suburban Rail Loop means all Victorians are paying the price for this project.

On top of that, nobody agrees that this is a good idea – the Auditor-General does not, Infrastructure Victoria says it is a dud of an idea. Even the federal government have fallen short of providing the funds. We are all looking very eagerly tonight to see how much money the federal government are going to give the Victorian government to top up the Suburban Rail Loop, because if they fail then this government is absolutely, for sure, on the hook for money that it simply cannot afford and this will be another project that will not be delivered under this government. We saw the Commonwealth Games scrapped, we saw the airport rail scrapped, and now the Suburban Rail Loop – a big question mark. We know that because, if you have a look at this budget, it talks about ‘TBC’ in terms of the forward estimates – to be confirmed, to be cancelled? Who knows. But this is a pet project completely unfunded, completely uncosted and completely focused on the government’s intent to win a couple of seats at the expense of hurting each and every Victorian.

This is not a budget that is helping families. This is a budget that is absolutely hurting families. We know how much this is really hurting when it comes to cost of living. One of my interns, Isabella, has been looking at some of the budget. We have been talking about some of this cost-of-living stuff. Even the cost to students of going in to university each and every day could be 40 bucks a week – that is 40 ‍bucks a week that it is costing them in terms of cost of living and those expenses, the basics for families and the money that people are paying at the moment. We are the highest taxing state in the nation when it comes to taxation. We have got the highest costs. We have got businesses leaving the state. We have got zero business confidence. We have got more taxation. We have got 55 new taxes since the government came into power 10 years ago – 55 new taxes, when the government said that when it came into power it would not introduce any more. This is a government that is so focused on trying to tax its way out of trouble that it is ultimately hurting each and every Victorian and each and every small business. People are really, really struggling under a government that simply cannot manage money, and Victorians are all paying the price for it.

Let us delve into my electorate of Caulfield. I watched everybody in the chamber, and as soon as the budget papers were released and they received their copies they all went to their electorates and they said, ‘Great. What’s in it for Waverley?’, ‘What’s in it for Box Hill?’, ‘What’s in it for Bentleigh?’, and I looked for what is in it for Caulfield. I thought there was maybe a typo or maybe the Treasurer had just left it off by accident, but I could not find a single thing – nothing. This is a situation where the government – particularly in a cost-of-living crisis, particularly in a debt crisis – needs to deliver right across the state, not the Suburban Rail Loop for one section at the expense of everybody else but projects that are going to support the state.

I looked at a number of projects. We did our work, we spoke to our constituents, we went and got them to put submissions in to the government. We only put forward really important projects that we thought needed to be funded. We have a Caulfield Grammarians senior women’s team that have change rooms that predate the 1950s; they are really, really old change rooms. They are not fit for anybody. You would not put anyone in these change rooms. All we wanted was a basic upgrade of the change rooms – nothing, absolutely zero, absolutely bupkis. We had a similar situation when it came to our bowls club. Our bowls club does not even have facilities for disability access – Caulfield Park Bowling Club. Again, this is not squillions of dollars; this is hundreds of thousands of dollars to vitally upgrade this bowls club to provide disability access – zero, donuts. The same thing applies to Caulfield Junior College – nothing, absolutely nothing, zero.

Caulfield South Primary School was promised an $11 million upgrade before the last election. Everyone was very excited about the $11 million upgrade, an idea that we put forward, where my opposition in Caulfield said, ‘Yep, we’re going to back that.’ It was a lick and a promise – let down, with zero. Caulfield South Primary are still waiting for that money that was promised. This is what this government does: it goes out with big fat promises and gives big fat nothings, and unfortunately we are all paying for it.

The government spends money like there is no tomorrow on its mates, spends money on big, big infrastructure where it does not fit the state, and Melbourne’s north and Melbourne’s west completely miss out on infrastructure projects, all because of things like the Suburban Rail Loop. I say this is a government that is completely about blowouts and mismanagement.

I will just come back to transport and infrastructure in the last minute or so that I have got – transport blowouts and the SRL. The former Minister for Major Projects the current Premier oversaw the North East Link – that has blown out by $21.2 billion; the West Gate Tunnel, $4.7 billion over budget and three years late; and the Metro Tunnel, $4 billion over budget. These now equate to $40 billion – $40 billion worth of budget blowouts that have been overseen by the former Minister for Transport Infrastructure and major projects minister, now the Premier. This simply says you have a Premier in control now that could not manage money when this Premier was the transport infrastructure and major projects minister. She is now for certain in the main seat, and those projects have continued to blow out, so much so that Geelong fast rail – gone; airport rail – we are not going to see that in our lifetime; and the Western Rail Plan – gone. We have got people that are missing out in Victoria. This is not a fair budget. This is not a budget that is helping families. This is a budget that is hurting families, and Victorians are all paying the price for Labor’s mismanagement.

Jackson TAYLOR (Bayswater) (15:26): All right. Good to go. Excellent.

Members interjecting.

Jackson TAYLOR: Sorry, I do not look at the cameras myself normally. No-one is going to be watching this one.

It is a great pleasure to rise to speak in support of the Treasurer’s 10th budget. Can I say from the very outset congratulations to the Treasurer on his 10th anniversary, his 10th budget, a fantastic budget that continues to deliver for all Victorians. A big thankyou to him and to his team, who are always incredible. And of course right across government all government departments would have been involved and would have had a great level of input, so thank you to everyone for their input into this year’s budget, which absolutely is another Labor budget that delivers at its core for health care, for education, for transport and for jobs.

I do not normally pick up on the stuff that is said opposite, but I think the member for Caulfield was talking about delivering things in certain parts of the state. We are delivering the West Gate Tunnel, we are delivering the Metro Tunnel and a massive record investment into regional roads. We are building a hundred schools. We have got the North East Link. We have got the Suburban Rail Loop. We have got all this record spending, whether it is in metro or regional areas. Even when you look past that, you just have to look at what our base level of funding is compared to what those opposite had when they were in government, it does not even come close. We are absolutely investing more into Victoria in every part of the state. The previous member also said something about giving money to mates or something like that. I am pretty sure they were level crossings. David is a good mate of mine, clearly, because we removed level crossings in his electorate. I know that we are investing in every single electorate in this state, because that is what this government is about. We are about fairness and we are about delivering outcomes for every single Victorian and every single Victorian family. This budget is absolutely no different.

We have seen a big feature of it is, importantly, that people are doing it tough out there. It is a story that is spoken about in every single electorate. This is not a Labor- or Liberal- or Greens-specific thing, this is every single electorate. People are doing it tough. I am sure the federal government will have some responses to that tonight in their federal budget that they have already foreshadowed, and that is a good thing. They have got obviously more levers to pull. They do have a much larger expenditure than any individual state government. They have obviously a lot more revenue coming in. I know that every single Victorian and indeed Australian will be looking to Jim Chalmers, the federal Treasurer, and the federal Labor government. And I know that they are going to have some very good news to make sure we continue to help Victorians and Australians through what is a difficult period.

But our government in this recent budget announced and have funded really, really important things that everyday Victorians will and have relied upon – for example, the $400 school saving bonus. I have already spoken to a handful of principals about this, and they are absolutely pleased that this is just one less thing for many families in their school communities to have to worry about. This will help with the cost of camps, uniforms and a whole range of things. I know that this has been very well received and will go a long way to helping families who are doing it really tough.

We know – the Premier mentioned it as well today, and others – about tripling our free Glasses for Kids program, and there are more vouchers to cover the costs of kids’ sport, which is incredibly important. We continue to invest record amounts of funding into education. I think that is the single most important thing that this government does. We absolutely are the Education State. That is something that I am incredibly proud of. Of course it is more than just numbers and results. You just look at the work that they are doing in Victorian schools – the amazing work of our teachers – and you know that they are absolutely second to none. I am very, very proud of our teachers and very proud of our schools, our leadership teams and our support staff, and our government backs them in. We have got the continuation of the tutor learning initiative. This is something that started during the COVID days, and it is one of the most popular programs I have ever seen rolled out to our schools. It is incredibly important work, making sure kids who need help in the classroom are getting that important one-on-one attention and support. Our disability inclusion package, which is rolling out, has already come out into the outer eastern region that I am proud to represent, in Knox. That is making a huge difference, supporting more children with disability in the classroom, making sure they get the attention that they need and deserve.

When it comes to education, we are continuing to build schools. Of course we know the history and the context of – when I was six or seven years old – all the school closures. It was a little bit before my time, but it was a very sad feature of politics and of our state. That has meant a lot of work for our government to build lots of new schools – 100 new schools. This is a huge task. We are well on the way to delivering them. Of course it is not just about the new schools, it is about providing the school facilities that we know our kids deserve. From my perspective, in the seat of Bayswater that is my job; my job is to advocate for the electorate of Bayswater, which covers fantastic suburbs like Wantirna, Bayswater, The Basin, Boronia, Wantirna South and Ferntree Gully. We love the Gully. We love all of them. Just to clarify that, we love all of them; I will just preface that, absolutely.

Steve McGhie interjected.

Jackson TAYLOR: No, the Gully is a solid area. We have invested record amounts into school capital infrastructure in the electorate since I was elected in 2018. That has been done through priorities, and that is through the budget. A government states its priorities through its budgets, and we have invested, time and time again, into schools in my local electorate – in fact around $90 million into capital infrastructure.

Mathew Hilakari interjected.

Jackson TAYLOR: Absolutely, member for Point Cook. We have just started construction on Wantirna College. I think it is the single biggest investment into education and infrastructure in my electorate. It is a double-court, competition-grade gym and new performing arts spaces. It is a school of some 1500 kids, and it absolutely deserves every single cent of it. I was out there with principal Carrie Wallis and the students, and local elder Thane Garvey, to kick-off construction – a really, really wonderful day, so well done. They do everything so well, Wantirna College. They had engraved shovels. I felt bad chucking them into the ground. But they gave them a wash, I am sure. We have started Wantirna College. We have just opened –

Mathew Hilakari interjected.

Jackson TAYLOR: That is a good question. I am coming to that.

Mathew Hilakari interjected.

Jackson TAYLOR: Yes, true. We have just opened up the new middle and senior school buildings at Bayswater Secondary College. We have opened up the new central learning hub at Boronia West Primary School. We have just opened up the new STEM and music and arts performing space at Fairhills High School. We are about to open the new senior learning building at Templeton Primary School. It is a beautiful school. We will re-use the shovel for Templeton Primary. I have been told that the building at Templeton Primary has been nicknamed the White House. As you could guess, it is white. I guess that makes Principal McKinlay President McKinlay. I am now just going to refer to him as Mr President; I think he will enjoy that secretly – actually not even secretly. I am very happy to share a copy of this Hansard with him, and I know he will get a kick out of it. He is also a fellow Richmond supporter, so I love him that much more.

When it comes to education, we are absolutely doing plenty of work in my electorate of Bayswater. From last year’s budget, in the out years, we are continuing to fund the upgrades we promised at the last election. We are getting on and we are delivering the huge upgrades at Bayswater South Primary School, a fantastic school – one of only a few truly bilingual schools in the state, something to be very, very proud of. I am very proud to have them in my electorate. Principal Bret Mottram, significantly a great bloke and a great advocate, worked tooth and nail to secure this funding commitment, and I am really, really proud to see that. We will hopefully see work kicking off later this year, in quarter four.

We have got the new oval and the new running track at Kent Park Primary School in the Gully, Mr Kieran Denver doing the fancy footwork out there. And we are also upgrading St Joseph’s Primary School in Boronia, a fantastic Catholic primary school in my electorate, and I am very proud that we upgraded that Catholic primary school. We have upgraded St Bernadette’s Primary School as well. We are absolutely delivering for many, many schools. I believe nearly every single school has had capital infrastructure upgrades, something I am very proud of.

When it comes to education, this budget, when we also talk about putting money back in the pockets of Victorians, does something incredible: it continues to fund a revolutionary, game-changing program in free kinder. This is putting up to $2500 per child each and every single year back into the pockets of everyday Victorian families, I know making a huge difference. We are continuing to support workforces. We know we are going to need more early-years educators, and that is something we continue to work on with the sector as we are continuing to reform this space to deliver more support moving to our pre-prep program. Of course we have now got our 15 hours of three-year-old kindergarten, a fantastic initiative from this government as well.

When it comes to health care, in this budget we continue to deliver record funding, so $11 billion for our healthcare system, helping our hospitals care for their patients, and of course that is in a whole range of different ways, whether it is supporting our nurses and midwives or whether it is training them up with free degrees. That initiative is incredibly popular as well as, I might add, the free degrees for secondary teachers. I know it is encouraging so many more people into the teaching field in our universities as the Deputy Premier has mentioned in this place a number of times – a really, really fantastic initiative of this government. We are continuing to recruit thousands of new healthcare workers. A bit of a health care and education sort of thing at the same time is our dental vans. I have visited a number of schools and seen the dental vans in action. This is making a huge difference, again helping to put money back in families’ pockets. This is around $400 per child per year, so for families that have two or three children this is hundreds if not thousands of dollars of savings each year over the course of the journey in their life in school. We know that poor oral health care can be a huge leading cause of other significant illnesses later in life, so I am very glad that we have brought back dental vans. They are now in action right across the state. They are visiting schools right cross my area in Knox, they are being very well received and they are doing a fantastic job in helping that little bit extra from a cost-of-living perspective.

I am really proud we are very soon to start major construction as well on the Angliss Hospital. This is a fantastic local hospital in my electorate. It is some 84 years old – I think it is about 83 or 84 – and of course our government through its budget have delivered a major upgrade of this hospital. It will mean we are upgrading to have more and newer beds, more and newer elective surgery suites and – I will get this right – a new central sterilisation services department. It took me a few goes to get that one right; I have got it now. I am good.

Mathew Hilakari interjected.

Jackson TAYLOR: Thank you, member for Point Cook. Of course we are delivering other amenities as well, and this continues and builds on a former stage of that hospital as well that we did get on and deliver, and I know this will mean a lot to the fantastic staff down there. You can talk to anyone in the community in Bayswater, and I have got to tell you it is hard to get anything universal in life, particularly in politics and in policy and in health care, but pretty close to 100 per cent of people who have experienced the Angliss Hospital will talk about the staff and the care they receive, including me and my partner, being absolutely exemplary care, and I am really, really proud that we are delivering for them.

When it comes to health care, it is not just about the Angliss. We have also delivered the new aged care facility – 120 beds. Victoria absolutely has not shied away from public aged care. We have the highest take-up of public aged care of any state in this country from recollection, and it is something we should absolutely be proud of. I know at the last election we also made some other commitments about public aged care. I was there with the then Premier when we made those announcements. I think it is absolutely fantastic that our state and our government continue to back in public aged care. We provide first-class facilities in this place in Wantirna. It is absolutely incredible, and I am very, very proud that we are getting on and have delivered that, in addition to the works at Angliss Hospital.

We have now opened the new McMahons Road and Burwood Highway intersection, another thing funded out of a Labor budget delivering for transport. This has made a trip home on Burwood Highway safer. It is also something that, let us just say, others talked about for a long time, a very, very long time – lots of talk and not a lot of action, I must say, if I am being completely honest with you. But we have gotten on and delivered that intersection, a massive, massive project. Big thanks to Major Road Projects Victoria.

Of course Metro Tunnel comes online in 2025 and West Gate Tunnel is not far off. I drove in on the Eastern Freeway this morning – North East Link is really taking shape. They have got those barriers up in the median strip. It will be completed in 2028. I have just seen the designs for the Suburban Rail Loop stations, the five stations – is it five, member for Box Hill?

Paul Hamer interjected.

Jackson TAYLOR: Six – there you go, excellent. Beautiful, excellent. He has got a station at Box Hill. He is across the detail; we love it. It is all happening.

I am very, very proud to support this year’s budget, a fantastic Labor budget, making sure we are delivering for Victorians, delivering for Victorian families, delivering on the things that they voted for, the things that they want to see delivered, and I not only commend the Treasurer but I commend this bill to the house.

Emma KEALY (Lowan) (15:41): It is always wonderful to hear the other contributions in the house when we are speaking on legislation but particularly when we are seeing the rephrasing of the budget. It is a much different response from what they put in words and the reaction that we saw when the budget was handed down by the Treasurer last Tuesday. I cannot recall any time in my 10 years of watching Treasurer Pallas hand down his budget where there has been no standing ovation. There was no big backslap, no shaking of hands, no celebrations. There were a lot of gritted teeth. I hear there were tears in the party room because people were being told, ‘You’re getting nothing,’ and the backbenchers are starting to think, ‘I’m in a marginal seat, I’ve got nothing going on here. How on earth am I going to resell bad news to my electorate? This is not what I voted for.’

But they should know at the end of the day that when you see a budget paper, whatever it says on the front is probably the biggest lie that is going to be told on budget day. I do not think that this poor little girl ever thought that she would be linked to this budget that just hands down more debt for her to pay down into the future, because we all know what should have been on the front cover of this year’s budget paper is that Labor cannot manage money and cannot manage projects, and Victorians are paying the price. This is the problem that little girls like this will be paying for into the future because we have seen in these budget papers this Labor government turning it up. I will tell you what is turning up: the debt levels in this state. That is the big issue that I was just about to refer to, that we are looking at Victoria getting to record debt levels of $188 billion.

I want to get a visual for this, because I think it is very, very difficult for anybody to understand how much money that actually is. Just for perspective, if you put $1 into a piggy bank every second of every minute of every hour, it would take about 11½ days to save up $1 million. Now, $1 billion, maybe you do not think it is that much more. Well, I would just like to visualise this. How long do you think it would take to get $1 billion in your piggy bank?

Members interjecting.

Emma KEALY: Try nearly 32 years if you put $1 in that piggy bank every second of every minute of every hour every day. How much interest are we looking at paying every single day today? How much did the Victorian government pay to the big banks just in interest today? $15 million. Let us just think for a little while. What does that mean? For little girls like this, it means that they could have a new wing on their school built; $15 million will do a fabulous reno on a school.

It is something that we are not getting for local schools across the whole of the state. In fact this budget paper, budget paper 4, shows how far behind the government is in delivering on what it has promised. You might say that if you are pushing out and not building a school when you said you would build it before the election, you have one thing you say before the election and you do something else after. We have got so many broken promises. There are 10 pages of schools that have had promises to them broken by the Labor government on when they said they would build a school and when they are actually going to deliver it – and who knows when that might be pushed out further.

I notice there is a little bit of an eerie silence in the chamber all of a sudden, because a lot of those promised schools are in Labor seats. These people now are going back to look people in their community in the eye and say, ‘Well, I may have told you you were going to get this school, but that was before the election when I needed your vote. Now it comes to the actual reality, we’re going to break a promise. But don’t blame me, I promise I tried very, very hard in the party room. I’ve tried my best. I won’t call the government out publicly, though, will I? I won’t put it out on social media that I’m fighting for my community.’ No, they cannot do that because they know their preselection is at risk and they will not have a future. That next promotion that comes through might not be for them. They might not get that parliamentary secretary role or they might not get that ministerial role. Look what happened to the poor member for Mordialloc. He has been looked over how many times now? Thirty-eight times, and simply because he was willing to speak out. It is an absolute disgrace. Maybe this is why the Labor government have not replaced that parl sec role that became vacant when the member for South Barwon was sacked from his parl sec role and put over in creep corner. We have not seen another announcement yet, have we, and that is just keeping all of those backbenchers quiet. Make sure you do not speak out about the truth of this budget that hurts Victorian families. We know that Labor cannot manage money and they cannot manage projects, and Victorians are paying the price.

A member interjected.

Emma KEALY: I think we are getting very, very close to the bone here. How are Victorians paying the price? This is a very important point. Time and time again – and we have heard in earlier contributions today about record spending by the government – this is the problem: it is record spending and it is continued record spending, but we also have got record waste. We have got record project blowouts, we have got record interest payments to the big banks and we have got a record number of people waiting for hospital care.

We have got a record number of people turning up with mental health issues who cannot get help in their community health centres because the mental health locals are being kicked way on down the road – maybe up to 15 years, is what the local sector is being told. We are seeing mental health presentations at the highest level ever at our emergency departments, but people cannot get their support on that day, so they are coming back within 48 hours. We have got record numbers of people presenting to an emergency department who have already been at that hospital 48 hours earlier with the same mental health issues. Sadly, we are seeing this follow through in a horrific way, and in Victoria we also have the highest suicide rate on record.

It was very, very disturbing to hear today, in the other place, the Minister for Mental Health admitting that cost-of-living pressures were driving people to need more mental health support. Why then have we seen a $90 million cut to the mental health budget line in this year’s budget? Why then have we seen a key component of the royal commission’s recommendation for mental health locals cut, which are the community supports that help keep people out of hospital, that make their mental health well and that make them able to contribute to their community, to their work and to their family and their friends. Instead Labor are kicking that down the curb. But they are not only kicking that part down the curb, they are holding on to the mental health levy. The mental health levy is actually projected to increase and increase and increase, while the mental health recommendations are paused and put on hold when the demand for our mental health system is only increasing. We are at a terribly horrible position when it comes to mental health supports in the state of Victoria, and that is extremely disturbing.

We look at other metrics of how Victorians are paying the price. If we look at household bills, the things that are really putting pressure on families, they are too scared to open the mailbox because there will be another round of bills in there and they do not know how they will be able to pay that. Electricity bills since Labor have been in government have gone up by 33 per cent. We know that will increase even further as transmission projects are rolled out, and we see that on our power bills as an increase in the poles and wire charges. Gas bills have gone up by 90 per cent since Labor came into government, and that is because they have got an effective ban on gas. We saw the minister walked back from that a little bit today, but we all know it is in black and white, and we have even had a policy announced about it. We have got legislation about it – that there is a ban on new gas connections. That is a ban on gas. This is Labor’s policy in Victoria. It does not meet with what the federal Labor government is saying, and it does not match what the Deputy Premier is saying privately either, which is quite interesting.

Registration costs are up 250 per cent. We know people are paying more to go and see their GP, to see their optometrist and to see their mental health specialist, because Labor have imposed a health tax, which is putting pressure on every single part of the health system. We know that in this budget we have seen an increase in the bin tax. People are going to have to pay more to get their bins collected – a 30 per cent increase. I know what that will mean in my local area and in other country areas: we are just going to get more rubbish dumped on the edge of the road. We are already seeing an increased problem around it. This bin tax will just increase that and put more pressure on our environment. There is an increase in the fire services property levy. Those two taxes, the bin tax and the fire services property levy, amount to about $1 billion. That is $1 billion that households are going to have to pay for directly. That is what Labor do. They cannot manage money, they cannot manage projects and they pass those costs on, which means that Victorians are ultimately paying the price.

Peter Walsh interjected.

Emma KEALY: That is three, Peter. We know there are 52 new or increased taxes in Victoria, and in fact 30 of those are property taxes, which is why we see a 17 per cent increase in the average amount of rent paid in Victoria. But it is not just that. For those people who aspire to build a new home, whether it is their first home, whether it is their dream home or whether it is just a house to try and break out of the rental cycle, one-third of what they will pay for that new home will go straight to the government in fees and taxes. That is just a mind-blowing amount. We hear that products are going up – the cost of all of the timber and steel that goes into a house – and we hear about builders charging more. It is not that that is driving up new home costs, it is government fees and taxes, and Victorians are paying the price.

We know that there are so many records that are being broken by the Labor government, but it really does not stack up to the record amount of potholes we have got in country roads. We now are at a point where 91 per cent of our road network is rated at either a poor or a very poor condition. In fact what I hear quite often is, ‘Well, we have to pay to make sure that our cars are roadworthy. Why don’t we make sure that our roads are carworthy?’ As I said, we have got rego fees up, which apparently are supposed to be put back into our roads. It is up 250 per cent, but we have seen a cut of the money that Labor are putting into our roads by 17 per cent over the past four years, so the government are putting less money into our roads, and we see the consequence of that. And of course again Victorians are the ones paying the price. They are the ones who get their tyres flat, get their rims damaged – even horrific accidents that happen on the way through – and they often cannot claim for them through the road asset management insurance scheme because they are not high enough damage bills. Of course that impacts most of all the people who have got cars that have not got those flash low-profile rims and who are not driving expensive European vehicles. They are the people who Labor supposedly stand up for, but we know that they are the ones feeling the crunch most of all.

That is why I absolutely disagree with this title that we have got on this year’s budget, that Labor are ‘Helping families’. When you see all of those really good initiatives they said before the budget, like the Best Start, Best Life program, all of those funding initiatives around the early years centres across the state, and you look at budget cuts to child protection – as I said, there are 10 pages of schools that will not be delivered as promised because Labor have not delivered them, and that is in this year’s budget.

Families are absolutely front and centre of our communities, but Labor are doing anything but helping families. All they are doing is pushing up the cost of living. They are making sure that they get less for their taxpayer dollar, but more importantly they are putting enormous stress and pressure on individuals and families. As I said, it is something that the Minister for Mental Health actually conceded today – cost-of-living pressures are putting so much mental pressure on individuals in our community. We need to see this turn, because we simply cannot see a government that is full of policy that is putting up cost-of-living pressure, that is putting up the costs for every Victorian. We do not want to see that then cause mental health harms and other health harms.

For all of those reasons we know that Labor cannot manage money and they cannot manage projects, and Victorians are paying the price. The only way we can fix this problem is to take away the opportunities for Labor to continue to spend. We know today the Treasurer said there should be no debt cap, we should just keep on spending for ever and ever and ever. But it is little girls like this who will be paying the price. They will be paying the price not just today but when their kids are growing up and when their grandkids are growing up. That is simply unacceptable, and that is why at the next election we need to make sure every Victorian regains hope in their future, that they see Victoria can be a great place to live, work, study and do business and that they choose to vote for the Liberals and the Nationals at the next election.

Steve McGHIE (Melton) (15:56): I am excited to rise to speak on the Appropriation (2024–2025) Bill 2024 and the Appropriation (Parliament 2024–2025) Bill 2024. Firstly, I would like to congratulate the Treasurer and his team on another excellent budget. It is the Treasurer’s 10th budget, and I should congratulate him on that, such a remarkable tenure. The budget is designed to address the diverse needs of our community and pave the way for a brighter future for all Victorians and in particular our families. That is what this budget is directed at. Of course our budget reflects our commitment to ensuring this state is fair and inclusive for Victorians from all backgrounds and from all stages of life.

The Appropriation (Parliament 2024–2025) Bill 2024 allows for the appropriation of funds for agencies such as the core operations of our Parliament, the Parliamentary Budget Office, the Victorian Inspectorate, the Auditor-General, the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission and of course the Victorian Ombudsman. This essentially means that those hardworking parliamentary staff ‍– our clerks, our catering, the IT services and many more – can be paid. As someone with a trade union background, we want our staff to be paid and paid appropriately and of course we want our independent integrity agencies to continue their important work ensuring the transparency of governance in this state. As a former chair of the Integrity and Oversight Committee, I know how hard those integrity agencies work and the incredible support of the IOC by the great secretariat in the time that I spent there and also I am sure currently. I thank them for all their efforts.

The Appropriation (2024–2025) Bill 2024 allows for the appropriation of funds so the incredible initiatives in the 2024–25 budget can be put into action, and that is what we want to do as the Allan Labor government. From cost-of-living relief to schools to health care to transport to housing, this budget is about helping families and delivering what all of our communities need.

One of the most crucial investments we are making is in early childhood development. We understand that the first years of a child’s life are pivotal in shaping their future. That is why we are proud to announce the continued funding for maternal and child health services. It has been one of those issues that has been raised with me in my electorate. Through universal, enhanced and Aboriginal maternal and child health programs we are certainly ensuring that every Victorian family has access to the support and resources they need during their crucial years – their early years. Again, this funding supports the delivery of the 24/7 maternal and child health line, interpreter services, the baby bundles for all new parents and last year our free kinder program, which saved around 140,000 families up to around $2500 in fees. This saving helps with the cost of living by ensuring that cost is not a barrier to participation. Our investment in early childhood education, including the rollout of the universal three-year-old kinder and free kinder programs, is just another part of the Allan Labor government’s commitment to giving every child the best start in life, and we know how important that is.

Education remains a cornerstone of our budget, with significant investments in new school infrastructure and innovative programs to support student learning. In my electorate of Melton I look forward to seeing the construction of the new Cobblebank secondary school and also the new Toolern Waters primary school, both of which will be open in 2026. These are two fast-growing areas in the electorate of Melton and some of the fastest growing areas in the state of Victoria. I am very excited for the further expansion of Strathtulloh Primary School, which is receiving in excess of $14 million to expand that school, primarily because the school when it started three years ago started with 700 ‍students and it has now got in excess of a thousand and is growing rapidly. That area is a rapidly growing area. It is great news for Toolern Vale and District Primary School, who are receiving more than $6 million to provide a new multipurpose building, a new fence, an external basketball court, an amphitheatre and playgrounds. I know the kids at that school will really enjoy the upgrade to that school.

The Allan Labor government is ensuring that every child has access to high-quality education regardless of their background and their location within the state. I want to make reference to our hardworking and dedicated teachers, and there is $139 million for more professional development, for more mental health and wellbeing support and for trying to improve the workloads with more flexible working arrangements and additional recruitment of teachers, which we desperately need to fill vacant positions right across the state.

One of the statewide initiatives that was impressive is clearly the Glasses for Kids program, which is going to reach another 74,000 kids from prep to grade 3 across the 473 government schools. We know that a pair of glasses can be expensive and that it makes it easier for children to learn if they can read the whiteboard. There will be vision screening and free glasses for those students that require them, and that will assist them in their education process. This is a real game changer.

The other big one out of the budget was the $400 school saving bonus for every student enrolled at a government school and for those families in non-government schools that hold concession cards. This is a great investment in our kids, and it will take a lot of the burden off families who cannot afford to allow their kids to go on excursions and camps and things like that. It is a fantastic outcome of the budget.

Of course some of the other things out of the budget were investments in further supports like the African communities action plan homework club. This is important in my area because we have had an African homework club for a few years now, and they do it really well. It is really important for the local community, and that budget outcome hopefully will come directly towards the Melton homework club and again support those kids that are in desperate need of that support.

The Get Active Kids voucher program again will help families with the cost of living, and it will assist the kids in being able to play sport by providing for the costs of either uniforms or membership or things like that where previously the families may not have been able to afford for their kids to be involved in local sports programs.

There is also the Active Schools program, and this is to provide support for physical education, which is really important for all of us of course but particularly for our kids. It also provides support for swimming and water safety programs. And we know it has been such a tragic year this year in regard to the number of drownings here in Victoria – 47 people have drowned since 1 July last year. It just shows how important learning to swim is in this state, if not around the country, in particular when we have those lovely days when people want to go to the beach or go to a pool, and kids are taught how to swim through this Active Schools program.

With regard to transport, we have committed to improving accessibility and connectivity across our state, with a $996 million investment in Big Build transport projects, including the Metro Tunnel and West Gate Tunnel – and it will be exciting when they open up sometime next year. There is funding for projects like the extension of the Melton South FlexiRide bus service to Weir Views and Thornhill Park.

A member interjected.

Steve McGHIE: Yes, it is an interesting concept, the FlexiRide. There are good and bad reports about it, but it is a great initiative, in particular for the new residential developments that are only partially developed. Until you get an increased volume of usage, you would not provide a full-blown bus service to those areas. But it is great to see that FlexiRide service being extended.

Last year the Premier came out and announced the upgrade of the Melton railway station and the removal of four level crossings, three in Melton and one at Hopkins Road, Truganina, which is in my good friend the member for Kororoit’s electorate. She also announced a $650 million upgrade to the Melton line last year, which is terrific, and that will futureproof the Melton rail line for many years to come. We need those upgrades. The removal of the level crossings is going to be really important in Melton. People are really keen for that to occur because we have gridlock in Melton quite often, on a daily basis, in particular at school time because we have a number of schools that are close by to the level crossings. So that is a great injection in regard to our road transport.

Clearly there is an urgent need to address issues around family violence against women, including early intervention to keep families together. The Allan Labor government is investing $374 million to protect children and support families through these initiatives, like the Brimbank and Melton Community Legal Centres in regard to their family violence program – and they have got a relationship with the Orange Door. I am pleased to see that injection of funding for that legal service to assist our local constituents in regard to family violence. I was interviewed on Wyndham local radio today, and we discussed family violence and that we all have a big part to play in regard to reducing and eliminating family violence against women.

I just want to talk to some of the other local issues in regard to Melbourne. I did refer to a number of schools that we are going to get. The Cobblebank secondary college – that will make it the fourth public secondary school in Melton, and that will be open by 2026. The new Toolern Waters primary school, again, will be open by 2026. The Strathtulloh expansion, which is fantastic, is due to the growth there. The Toolern Vale primary school will get an upgrade. These are really important programs.

There will be replacement of 15 CFA primary urban response vehicles. In my area I know some of my local CFA stations have been seeking an upgrade to their vehicles, and I am hopeful that that will come our way. But I should say on top of all of that that our government is a government of injecting funds into education, health and transport. Just in the last three to four years in my electorate we have opened four primary schools, with another two to come by 2026 – and, as I said, the secondary school. Those schools are Binap Primary, which opened this year; Eynesbury Primary; Thornhill Park Primary; and Strathtulloh Primary.

To suggest that the Andrews–Allan Labor governments have not injected money into education is just a complete falsity by those opposite. We are supporting many of our schools. Many a school in my electorate has received funding for an upgrade, and I am pleased about that. Kurunjang Secondary College, Melton Secondary College, Melton South Primary School, St Lawrence of Brindisi primary school, Melton Christian College and St Francis college have all received money, funds, from our state government, the Allan Labor state government, for upgrades of their facilities. Al Iman College has received some money for traffic management and to provide a pedestrian crossing near the school. The other great initiative in Melton being supported by our government is the new Melton TAFE – $55 million has been committed to the new Melton TAFE. At the moment they are trying to finalise the purchase of some land to be able to locate the TAFE in the Cobblebank area of Melton.

I should also say that we have many cost-of-living support measures: the free kinder, as I referred to before; free glasses; free zoo visits; half-price camping fees; Get Active Kids vouchers at $200; period products stocked in all government schools; early parenting centres; baby bundles; prep bags; kinder kits; and the Smile Squad. We have capped V/Line fares, which has been fantastic, but what it has caused is a bit of a problem with the car parks. Our car parks at Cobblebank and Melton are now overflowing to the point that just recently the shopping centre near the Cobblebank railway station has started to tow vehicles away because the overflow parking has gone into the shopping centre, so there is a bit of an issue down at Cobblebank, but it just goes to show that people want to get on public transport, and that is pleasing to see. The whole idea of those regional fares is a big saving for commuters.

With the very short time I have got, our budget represents a bold vision for the future of Victoria, and of course it is based on compassion, equity and opportunity for all. I commend this bill to the house.

Jess WILSON (Kew) (16:11): I rise to speak on the Appropriation (2024–2025) Bill 2024 and Appropriation (Parliament 2024–2025) Bill 2024. From the outset, looking at the state of the budget and the state of Victoria’s finances, it is very clear that this is the culmination of 10 years of Labor – 10 years of Labor budgets, of blowouts, of waste, of reckless spending and of course of record taxes. What do Victorians have to show for the past 10 years? Record debt, cuts across education and health, delays to projects and increasingly declining services right across the state. What is very, very clear is that Labor cannot manage money and cannot manage major projects, and Victorians are paying the price.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Wendouree, you are not in your seat. You can leave the chamber for half an hour.

Member for Wendouree withdrew from chamber.

Jess WILSON: The member for Ripon does not have to take my word for it. The Age itself called this budget a bad news budget featuring soaring debt, stalled major projects and abandoned promises. That sums up this 10th Labor budget, in which we have seen once again debts soar, taxes rise and a decline in services for Victorians.

Let us look at the facts across this budget in black and white in the budget papers. Victoria’s net debt will increase from $21.8 billion in 2014 to a projected $187.8 billion by 2028. The total tax revenue will increase from $17.8 billion in 2014 to a projected $45 billion in the same period. Interest repayments on Victoria’s record debt will reach $26 million a day by 2028. This budget lays bare the consequences of Labor’s financial mismanagement, with hundreds of cuts to critical services at a time when Victorians can least afford them. There have been cuts to education, cuts to health and to housing services and infrastructure and major projects have been delayed. Wellbeing programs in schools have been cut, and election promises for much-needed school upgrades have been broken. Victorian hospitals, many of which are already on the brink and operating in deficit – we have seen these hospitals come to the government and ask for bailouts – will be forced to do more with less.

This government claims to govern for all Victorians, but they have deliberately ignored the electorate of Kew in their state budget, and our community deserves our fair share. Our government schools are desperately in need of upgrades. Local transport infrastructure needs updating, and the accessibility of public transport needs improving. I have consistently called for much-needed upgrades to Kew’s local schools in this place, for Kew East Primary, for Balwyn Primary, for Canterbury Girls’ Secondary College, for Kew High School and for Chatham Primary, but nothing again from this government in this budget. And, sadly, just a few days of interest payments under this government could fully fund these much-needed upgrades in the schools in Kew.

If we turn to debt and deficits under the Labor government over the past 10 years, we have seen economic conditions in Victoria continue to deteriorate, with government debt only adding to inflationary pressures in this state. Net debt is forecast to reach $188 billion by 2028, which is a blowout of $10 billion from last year’s forecast. That is nearly $47 million added every day since the last budget – $47 million added to our debt bill since the last budget. That comes down to a staggering $67,000 for every Victorian household. Every Victorian household in this state carries $67,000 worth of that record debt. And this year’s deficit has worsened by a billion dollars since the end-of-financial-year update. This is despite the fact that the Treasurer received a $3.7 billion GST windfall. We have seen the deficit deepen.

On top of the $188 billion net debt figure, the budget shows that Victorian government agencies – the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority, WorkCover, the Treasury Corporation of Victoria, TAC, the Victorian Funds Management Corporation and the State Trustees – will be $68 billion in debt by 2028 and are projected to fall into negative net financial worth by 2026. The state’s public non-financial corporations – the water corps, the ports, the housing corps – will be $37 billion in debt by 2028 and have accumulated deficits of $65 billion, paying $1.4 billion in interest. So whether it is the state’s public financial corporations or non-financial corporations, their accumulated debt is greater than when the coalition left office in 2014. This deterioration comes despite these agencies levying higher fees on Victorians, including a 43 per cent increase in domestic building insurance last year and a 42 ‍per cent average increase in WorkCover premiums in May last year. I think every member on this side of the house will say they are yet to meet a small business that only paid a 42 per cent increase in WorkCover premiums. I have heard 60, 70, 80 and 90 per cent increase on small businesses at a time when they can least afford it, at a time when they are getting hit with higher taxes and higher electricity bills. This level of debt right across Victoria’s agencies is why the ratings agency S&P expects Victoria’s gross debt to reach nearly a quarter of a trillion dollars in the coming years, with interest on Victoria’s soaring debt to reach over $14 billion per year. What is absolutely clear is that Labor cannot manage the books, they cannot manage their agencies and Victorians are paying the price through higher premiums.

Those opposite like to blame COVID for the state’s record debt, but we know that COVID-related debt only makes up 17 per cent of the state’s debt, and this year the Treasurer added a fifth step to his COVID debt repayment plan. Net debt to gross state product is the new measure that the Treasurer is pointing to. Let us take a look at those figures. When Labor took office in 2014, net debt as a percentage of GSP was sitting at about 5 per cent. In 2024–25, it will be 24.4 per cent, climbing to 25.2 per cent in 2026–27. And in what the Treasurer is lauding as his debt repayment plan working, net debt as a proportion of GSP will fall to 25.1 per cent in 2028 – a meagre 0.1 per cent decrease. That is cold comfort to Victorian taxpayers, who will be paying $9.4 billion in interest in 2028, or $26 million a day.

Imagine what that money could fund. As I said, it could fully fund the upgrades to many schools across the state in just a couple of days. If that is the government’s and the Treasurer’s answer to our soaring debt, then sadly I think we have only started to see the cuts and delays from this government. Just today we heard from the Treasurer, who wanted to travel back to the 1980s in question time. Let us just revisit net debt as a percentage of GSP when it peaked at 16 per cent in 1993 under the Cain–Kirner recession. His financial management makes that Cain–Kirner debt level look manageable. Victoria’s growing debt has serious consequences. Not only is it an intergenerational burden, with generations to come forced to pay down this debt through higher taxes and poorer services, but it means real-time cuts, delays and broken promises in last week’s budget. Let us turn to some of those broken promises and cuts and delays.

Looking to education, we have seen funding for several important education services, including vital services to support student health and wellbeing, cut – a $34 million cut to wellbeing at schools. It also significantly delays the rollout of desperately needed early childhood education and care centres and will see hundreds of hours missed for children through their key four-year-old kinder program. We are also seeing a $75 million cut to early childhood sector supports and regulations.

Then of course, as we have heard others speak to today, there are the unfunded school project upgrades in this budget. This budget lays bare the broken promises to dozens of schools across this state – 29 ‍capital upgrades that were not funded in this budget. And while Labor promises to govern for every Victorian, when you look at an analysis of both the funding commitments as well as the funding delivery to schools by electorate, it shows once again that politics trumps need time and time again. Of the schools Labor made commitments to in 2022, 70 per cent are in Labor seats and only 26 per cent are in coalition seats. And 80 per cent of those schools in Labor seats have received funding, while only 41 per cent of coalition seats have received funding. Those opposite might like to point to the fact that they have more seats in this place, but that does not equate to the funding that has flowed right across to these electorates. You cannot claim to govern for all Victorians and then funnel money to buy votes at an election.

If we turn to Victoria’s health system – a system that is already at crisis point, where ambulance wait times have blown out, we are seeing patients left stranded outside crowded emergency departments – we are seeing cuts to the health system right across the board. We are seeing the Minister for Health point to amalgamations, reducing services for Victorians who need it most. We have seen public health have a $207 million cut, ambulance services a $20 million cut, aged and home care a $43 million cut and IVF public services $42 million cuts. And then of course when it comes to capital investment we have seen health infrastructure projects delayed and cancelled – delays to the establishment of 10 new community hospitals with three sites cut entirely. We have seen the Arden health precinct cancelled. It was spruiked by this government as the biggest hospital project in Australia’s history on the eve of the 2022 election, yet that has been cut, that has been cancelled, because of the misleading advice this government has not provided to Victorians. The budget papers also revealed that the number of patients admitted from the planned surgery waiting list will be reduced from their own target of 240,000 in 2022–23 to 200,000 in 2024–25. This reduction comes despite more than a 40 per cent increase in Victoria’s urgent category 1 surgery waitlist across the March 2024 quarter, as the total number of Victorians waiting for elective surgery remains well above 60,000. If we turn to the 75 per cent cut to the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre while this government has prioritised a $4 million scoreboard in Geelong, it once again demonstrates that this government have their priorities all wrong.

When we look at where the spending is going, the reckless spending by this government, there is $40 billion in waste and cost blowouts on infrastructure projects – the North East Link, a $21.1 billion blowout under this government. In one day alone last year the Premier announced a $10 billion blowout on that project. The West Gate Tunnel has a $4.7 billion blowout, the Metro Tunnel has a $4 billion blowout, and now we know that the airport rail link is delayed at least four years, costing Victorians, I might add, $67 million just to demobilise that project in the meantime. All while these projects blowout and are delayed because of the mismanagement of this government, we are of course seeing the prioritisation of their pet project, the Suburban Rail Loop, which has a ‘TBC’ next to it in terms of funding in the budget. Once again they are not being up-front and transparent with the Victorian people about the true cost of their mismanagement.

We have seen taxes rise in this budget once again, after we saw last year taxes on business, on rents, on schools and education, and of course we see the public service wage bill blow out time and time again. We have seen over the past 10 years the Labor government once again cook the books in terms of how much the public sector wage bill is going to cost, missing that target every single time.

This is a culmination of 10 years of Labor, a culmination of reckless spending and complete disregard for taxpayers money. It is a culmination of waste and mismanagement. Labor cannot manage money and they cannot manage projects, and Victorians are dearly paying the price.

Dylan WIGHT (Tarneit) (16:26): It gives me great pleasure to rise this afternoon to contribute to the Appropriation (2024–2025) Bill 2024. As many of my colleagues have said before me and of course as we said on budget day, this budget is all about Victorian families. It is all about investing in critical services and ensuring a strong future for Victoria, and indeed it is all about helping Victorians with those cost-of-living pressures that they are facing at the moment.

It is about education and making sure that all Victorian students, irrespective of where they live and the family that they come from, have the best opportunity to get a fantastic education. We do not call ourselves and we do not get called the Education State for nothing. It is because of the outcomes that you see in the budget this year. It is all about prioritising health care. It is all about prioritising infrastructure, and it is all about –

Jess Wilson interjected.

Dylan WIGHT: Settle, you’ve had your turn.

The SPEAKER: Member for Tarneit, that is inappropriate. Through the Chair.

Dylan WIGHT: Yes, I withdraw. It is all about prioritising infrastructure and indeed prioritising community infrastructure. We have heard from those opposite in this contribution, but we hear from those opposite week after week, sitting week after sitting week, and day after day after day, that Labor cannot manage money and that Labor cannot balance the books and indeed talk about spending in particular and talk about debt. As I have said in this place before, let us not forget that those opposite took to the last election $20 billion of new spending, which was twice as much as what we on this side and the government at the time took to that election. They took $20 billion of new spending to the last election with no plan as to how they were going to balance the books to be able to do that. They also did it while saying that they were going to legislate a debt ceiling, a policy that every financial institution and, frankly, everybody in this place that had a clue what was going on knew was horrendous policy. Then day after day, time after time, they come into this place and lecture us about spending.

We have spoken at length and the Treasurer has spoken at length about this budget being about sensible and disciplined decisions. There are a factor of combinations that have put pressure on the Victorian budget, on the Victorian balance sheet and on the Victorian economy, but as I said and as every marker shows, the Victorian economy is tracking along fantastically and is in fact the best in the country.

But there are a combination of factors that have made this budget complicated. Historically low unemployment is one of those. We have gone through a two- or three-year period now since COVID when we have had close enough to full employment in Victoria as we have ever had. In fact we are at an unemployment rate at the moment of 4.1 per cent, which is historically low. We have had high inflation, and it is not just Victoria that is experiencing high inflation – Australia as a country, as a nation, is experiencing high inflation and in fact most countries in the Western world are the same. That is because of a combination of factors. There are obviously a couple of conflicts on the other side of the world that are putting serious pressure on oil prices, which are reflected then in petrol prices. There are also shipping costs in the Northern Hemisphere, which are driving up prices at supermarkets and retail stores and driving up everyday costs for Victorians. There are also, obviously, the continued impacts of COVID-19, which are creating challenges, both workforce challenges and materials challenges as well.

As a state we need to balance the competing challenges, and now is the time to recalibrate. The International Monetary Fund’s recent report on Australia advises governments to implement infrastructure projects at a more measured pace due to supply constraints. We all know that we have a significant pipeline of infrastructure here in Victoria, and we have done this since 2014: we have built a reputation as a government that builds things, that delivers projects that it says it is going to deliver and that gets things done. But due to this advice from the International Monetary Fund, that infrastructure pipeline has been moved back some years. That does not mean that we are coming out and cancelling projects; that does not mean we are coming out and changing our mind and not doing things that we said we were going to do. We have just had to move the start or finish dates of some of those infrastructure projects back a few years to enable the workforce capacity – and help with the constraints around that workforce – for those projects to catch up. That is an incredibly important thing.

This budget addresses the challenges of low unemployment, high inflation and that post-pandemic recovery. It also, as I just said, focuses on recalibrating of some of those infrastructure projects. As I said earlier, there are a combination of factors, most of which are outside of this government’s control, that have put pressure on this budget. But make no mistake: irrespective of that, Victoria’s economy is performing as well as or better than any other economy in Australia. We have created over 560,000 ‍jobs since September 2020. As I said, we are as close to full employment, and have been over the last few years, as we have been in this state for several decades. That does come with some challenges; it comes with some workforce shortages, and that is why it is incredibly important to recalibrate some of those infrastructure projects, to allow some of that workforce capacity to catch up.

We have returned to an operating cash surplus, just as we said we would. We returned to an operating cash surplus in 2022–23, and we are on track for continued surpluses and economic growth in the years and budgets to come. We are also stabilising net debt – the first time there’s been stabilisation since the pandemic – with a focus on reducing net debt to GSP levels.

But it is not just the stabilising of debt, it is not just the recalibration of those infrastructure projects and it is not just how well our economy is going. As I said at the start of his contribution, this budget is all about delivering for Victorian families, and it has done that in several ways. I think one of the biggest ways is one of the fantastic outcomes to come out of this budget. As I said earlier in this contribution, we are not called the Education State for nothing. It is the $400 school saving bonus for eligible families. If you are a family at a government school or a family with a healthcare card at an independent school, you will be eligible for that $400 payment for each student that you have in school. Essentially what that means is you get $400 that you can put towards uniforms, you can put towards camps, you can put towards fees or you can put towards excursions.

At the end of each year or during the year when those excursion costs come, when those uniform costs come and when those camp costs come, they are incredibly difficult for so many Victorian families. I know they are incredibly difficult for some of my constituents through Hoppers Crossing and Tarneit. I know that because they have come to my office and they have spoken to me about it. We have run fundraisers to be able to help children from schools go on excursions. That is what this is all about. It is being able to contribute to those cost-of-living pressures that so many Victorian families are feeling right now. Like I said, we are not called the Education State for nothing, and I think this is one of the great initiatives that I have seen in my time in this place and in fact one of the great initiatives since we have been in government since 2014.

There is also record investment into health care: $11 billion to enhance hospital care and recovery from the pandemic. There is education investment in terms of capital works as well. There is the $400 school saving bonus, which helps families with cost of living, but do not underestimate how incredibly important school facilities are in educational outcomes. Curriculum is important, being able to go to excursions and afford uniforms et cetera is important, and we have done the heavy lifting on that over a period of time, but do not underestimate ever how important world-class facilities for kids are to educational outcomes. There is $1.8 billion to build and upgrade schools, with a commitment to 100 ‍new schools by 2026. That is an enormous investment and will pay absolute dividends in the education of our kids in the future. It will pay absolute dividends to Victorians in the future with those educational outcomes.

I am pleased to say amongst all of that that Tarneit did not miss out. Tarneit did really well in this budget just as it has in previous budgets as well. For my community of Tarneit, in fact this reserve is in Hoppers Crossing. The Wyndham Rhinos are a Rugby Union club out in Hoppers Crossing. For anybody who has not been out to the west to Hoppers Crossing there is a very large Pasifika community through Tarneit and Hoppers Crossing. In fact it is one of the largest Pasifika communities in all of Australia. There is $100,000 for a brand new digital scoreboard at Mossfiel Reserve. I was lucky enough to go out to Mossfiel Reserve and meet the committee and some of the players and the club there at the Wyndham Rhinos. I was absolutely blown away by the participation. Games start at 8 o’clock for juniors. They run all day all the way through and finish at 5 o’clock after their seniors play, which I think have a start time of 3:20. There were hundreds if not thousands of local players and families there enjoying the day. I was lucky enough to get on the microphone and make the announcement, and honestly you would have thought that I was giving them $10 million. They were so happy as a community to have $100,000 for their brand new scoreboard, and I know how important it will be to that community.

It was very convenient for me. At the exact same reserve at Mossfiel there is the Hoppers Crossing Netball Association. There is also $75,000 for upgraded lighting for the Hoppers Crossing Netball Association. Also a huge attendance at that netball association – I think they have something like 70 ‍teams that play over a couple of days. There is training every single evening. There are courts there that have some lights and there are courts there that are unable to be utilised at night for training because they have no lights. Seventy-five thousand dollars will go a long way to making sure that young boys and girls in Hoppers Crossing can play netball and can train adequately.

There is also the safer Victorian faith-based schools package, which is a $6 million total package for security improvements which will focus on Jewish and Islamic schools. I have one of the larger Islamic schools in Victoria in my electorate of Tarneit, the Islamic College of Melbourne. They have spoken to me over the last little bit of safety concerns for some of their kids arriving and leaving school, and this $6 million will go a long way to ensuring Islamic kids’ safety in Tarneit.

James NEWBURY (Brighton) (16:41): I rise to speak on the state government’s 2024–25 budget and the associated appropriation bills. A budget should set out the vision for this state; that is the purpose of a budget. What we saw this year was a new Premier, and even the opposition came into this place expecting to see the Premier set out her vision for the future of this state, her vision having taken the premiership after 10 years as a part of the government. Her leadership should have been stamped onto this budget. By the end of the Treasurer’s speech, what was clear was, as has been written, the Premier is at best pedestrian. There was no vision in this budget.

The budget included one thing. Obviously somebody devised a budget, drafted a budget, put a budget forward and said, ‘But hang on, there’s no announceable. There’s nothing in this budget.’ So someone came along and said, ‘Why don’t we take core business of government’ – that is, providing, effectively, capital required funding into schools – ‘rebrand it, rebrand core business of schools, put a badge on it and make that an announcement?’ That is what this budget does, and that is the only announceable in this budget.

It is shameful to think that a new Premier has not taken the opportunity to set out her vision for this state – and that is what is clear. What is clear is that the Premier does not have a vision for this state. What we know from this budget is that the mismanagement of the last 10 years is now recognised both nationally and internationally through the ratings agencies. Ratings agencies are calling out the impact of this budget on the nation and the mismanagement thereof. That is clear. We also know that the economic vandalism of this government is now coming to a point that requires punitive tax measures which are killing investment in Victoria.

You only need to talk to the property sector to understand the damage that has been caused because of the government’s tax regime. In fact it is a regime that was described on budget day as hostile. This budget has shown the clear issues in terms of the government’s mismanagement – the economic vandalism – but also the blatant pork-barrelling. We have seen for year after year the way that funding is directed straight into Labor electorates over need. So when an assessment measure is done by the department, ministers are overruling those assessments and pork-barrelling funding in some of the worst ways we have ever seen. We have seen government member after government member get up and talk about funding going into their electorates. Of course they have received funding, because the government is pork-barrelling investment in Victoria. If you do not live in a Labor seat, you do not get government funding; that is the way it now works.

It is appalling when it comes to schools especially. Our children are receiving funding based on the political affiliation of the seat they live in. It is absolutely outrageous, and the statistics show it. Before this year’s budget 93 per cent of capital investment in schools went into Labor seats – 93 per cent. You almost have to get up in the morning with a red pen if you are the minister and actively try and cross out any proposal for funding in a seat that is not a government seat to get to 93 per cent. I mean, you have to really work hard to make sure that you do not share out funding in the way that it should be shared, and that is what this government is now known for. All of the things that we have known about this government have now been put on display for all to see, and that is what is so clear about this budget. Because it lacks any vision, there is no cover for the truth behind what this government is doing in terms of its economic vision and strategy, or lack thereof, for the future of our state.

I do want to mention for a moment one of the most important issues that should be considered by policymakers and government in this state, and that is housing affordability and the capacity for people to get into a home, because it is clear that more and more young people do not believe that they can get into a home. They do not believe that their dream of owning a home is achievable. Before he left, former Premier Andrews identified the need for improving the number of homes available to Victorians as a key priority for his government. Since he made an announcement – an announcement that will never be achieved – of 80,000 homes a year over each year for the next 10 years, you could not have seen that stone drop quicker into the water than has been the case when it comes to housing. I have not seen an example of the Premier talking about or prioritising this issue to the level that it deserves. It is almost as if the former Premier left and took the commitment with him, because we know that over the coming year there will only be 51,000 homes built of the 80,000 promised, so we are 30,000 short of the promise. It is little wonder that the government has walked away from its promise. The projections show that over the next two years less than 55,000 will be built in each of those two years. So it is no wonder that the government has completely walked away from its promise and its commitment and changed its language. It has gone from talking about 80,000 homes each year to a total of 800,000 in the 10th year, so I suspect that what we are going to see at some point is a year when the government will walk up and deliver us all of those missing homes in that year. We know that is not true. We know that this government has dropped the ball on one of the most important issues facing all Victorians, and that is delivering homes to Victorians.

We know that the government will be unable to deliver on their promise. I referred to the property council talking about the tax regime as hostile. We know that the budget confirmed $21.5 billion in property taxes. Almost half of state tax take is made up of property taxes – 29 of the 55 new or increased taxes over the last decade have been foisted on the property industry. So is it any wonder that the impact of these new or increased taxes, 29 of them, is crippling the sector? The government could not have its hand deeper in the pocket of the sector. What that means is that on the cost of a home – on the cost of an apartment in an urban area – roughly 30 per cent of the cost is tax. Almost 30 per cent of the cost is tax, and in greenfields areas it is 45 per cent. When you buy a home, almost 45 per cent of the cost in a greenfields site is tax. When you go to buy an apartment, 30 per cent of the cost of that apartment is tax. These taxes are causing incredible damage in terms of housing affordability, and we know that these taxes are parasitic. That is what they are. They are parasitic. These 29 taxes are parasitic, and the government is causing the biggest movable damage to the sector through these 29 taxes.

I also want to speak about some of the funding issues in my local community. I note that this budget has walked away from the promise to deliver upgrades to 29 schools. Of those 29 schools, two are in my electorate. Hampton Primary School and Gardenvale Primary School were both promised funding and told by the candidate that that funding would be delivered in the first year after the election. That is what the schools were told. How outrageous to rip away that promise. We know that when it comes to the schools that were promised in the election to be funded, 70 per cent were in Labor seats – of course they were – and 26 per cent were in coalition seats. When it came to ripping away the funding, 80 per cent of the schools that did get the funding were in Labor seats and only 41 per cent of those in coalition seats that were waiting for funding were funded. When it comes to Hampton Primary School and Gardenvale Primary School, hundreds of children have been ripped off by this government.

They are not the only schools that need funding in my community. I have spoken about it in this place before, but I refer to Brighton Primary, where we have 14 demountables. In those demountables we have one of the few assisted hearing units in Melbourne. Those demountables are placed next to the train line, so you have kids with genuine hearing difficulties who are learning in demountables that are 40 years old next to a train line. It has been over 40 years since that school received any capital funding. It is absolutely abhorrent that the government pork-barrel in the way that they do.

There is another school, Brighton Beach Primary School, which has not been reported. There is mould in that school, and we know how dangerous that is. The government has known for six months about the mould – the open mould – which has now been sheeted over to try and stop children taking it in. Six months that mould has been there with children walking past. What an absolute disgrace. That is a clear health and safety issue for those primary school aged children. It is an absolute disgrace, and for the government to have known for six months and done nothing about it is an absolute shame.

Budgets should set out a vision. This budget we saw a new Premier, who should have walked into this chamber with her Treasurer, and the two should have announced a budget with some vision, with some sense of purpose, with some sense of direction. Not that I was a fan of his in any way, but I am absolutely sure the former Premier would not have allowed a budget to be delivered this way. I am absolutely sure the former Premier would not have allowed a budget to be delivered in the way this budget was delivered. The new Premier walked in, and a budget was announced that was at best pedestrian – kindly put, beige – and they had found one announceable to take in when in fact it was a budget with mismanagement, economic vandalism, pork-barrelling but, more than anything else, a lack of vision. This government is now hurting Victorians, and that is on display for every Victorian to see. It is time for the Labor government to go.

Nick STAIKOS (Bentleigh) (16:56): It is indeed a privilege to speak on the state budget 2024–25. Ladies and gentlemen, for those of you watching from home, you can turn your volume right up now, because that loud rant is over. I am looking forward –

Matthew Guy interjected.

Nick STAIKOS: The former and next Leader of the Opposition has just interjected from the table; I am not sure what he said. But here we are, with the state budget 2024–25, a budget I think characterised by sensible and responsible decisions. We can ignore what we have been hearing from those opposite today because it does not paint an accurate picture of what this budget and this government are all about. This is a budget that forecasts continuing record low unemployment, not the high unemployment we inherited when we came to government – the highest unemployment rate on mainland Australia. It continues to record and forecast low unemployment. It is a budget that forecasts an economy that is outpacing the rest of the country when it comes to economic growth. It is a budget that forecasts massive business investment, and it is a budget that forecasts operating surpluses into the forward estimates. It is also a budget that forecasts a stabilisation and then a reduction in debt.

If we think to the last budget, something very significant has happened since the last budget, and that is that this government released its housing statement, a big, bold and ambitious plan to build 800,000 ‍new homes over the next 10 years. This has been done against the backdrop of a housing crisis and also a cost-of-living crisis. If you do a bit of travelling, next time you are speaking to a cabbie overseas, ask them what the big issues are in their country, and they will say it is about being able to afford a home and it is the cost of living. Victoria is not immune to these global issues. Post pandemic there is a supply chain slowdown. There are workforce issues. There is a post-pandemic cost-of-living crisis and a housing crisis. Victoria is not immune to any of these things. The government has been proactive and has released a plan that sets out how we are going to deal with this unprecedented housing crisis. It is also a matter of actually being able to identify that now is the time to recalibrate, and that is what we see in this budget.

The budget makes it very clear that since 2021 in Victoria the cost of construction has gone up by 22 ‍per cent, and that is why this government is bringing annual infrastructure spending back to prepandemic levels, which will free up capacity for the private sector to build more homes. That is what we want to do, and it is a centrepiece of this budget and the housing statement. My electorate of Bentleigh is part of the middle ring of Melbourne. It is an electorate that should accommodate more homes. It should accommodate more people to live in suburbs like Bentleigh, McKinnon, Moorabbin and Cheltenham, and we are doing just that. One of the major activity centres identified in the housing statement is Moorabbin. Moorabbin is already starting to accommodate more apartment living, and it should accommodate more in the future. Then just down the highway over at Cheltenham, the Suburban Rail Loop East precinct as it is now known will also accommodate more housing around the Suburban Rail Loop station. These are all important measures to secure Victoria’s future.

But what is in the budget? There is $11 billion for our healthcare system, a record investment in our healthcare system. We have heard a bit from those opposite about health today. It is a bit laughable, because I sat in this chamber during the pandemic and, you know, the ‘Let it rip’ mantra from back then really does not match up with the rhetoric today. But we in this government are proud of the investment we are making in our healthcare system in this budget, which also includes $1.7 billion to build and improve our hospitals and health facilities. One of those hospitals is Monash Medical Centre. This budget invests $535 million in Monash Medical Centre, including a new seven-storey tower above the emergency department, which this government expanded, and it will include new operating suites, birthing suites and pre- and post-op beds. We talk about outcomes: this upgrade will allow for an extra 7500 surgeries each and every year.

The budget also includes $1.8 billion to build, maintain and upgrade schools across our state and deliver on our promise to build 100 new schools by 2026. We are spending $1 billion on the remaining 16 new schools to get to the 100 new schools that we promised. That is 100 new schools for a state that is growing and for a capital city that is going to be larger than Sydney in a few years time. One hundred new schools: if you contrast that to the last government, they built zero new schools. Our government is taking a much different approach. In fact over the last 10 years this government has invested a total of $16.7 billion on school infrastructure – $16.7 billion. That is for new schools and also upgraded schools, and that includes, I should point out, nearly a billion dollars on capital for non-government schools over three terms of this government. That contrasts with zero dollars from those opposite when they were in government – quite a stark contrast.

If I am specific about my electorate of Bentleigh, I am really proud that over the last 10 years there has been a massive investment in schools in my electorate of about $230 million.

Paul Edbrooke interjected.

Nick STAIKOS: Not a bad member, member for Frankston, even if I do say so myself. Around $230 million: that includes the second campus of McKinnon Secondary College, and that is one of the 100 new schools built by this government.

The budget also includes $996 million to switch on our Big Build transport projects. One of those is the Metro rail tunnel, and I know members on this side of the house are really, really excited about the Metro Tunnel. Thinking back to the 2014 election campaign, it was very much a key issue, including in my own electorate, because it is that one infrastructure project that is going to change the way we commute in and out of the city. The Metro Tunnel will mean that the Dandenong line – the Pakenham–Cranbourne lines, which are just over the border of my electorate – will be connected to the new Metro Tunnel, which will connect that line to currently disconnected parts of the city.

You think of Anzac station, you think of the new Parkville station where the university and hospital precinct is located, you think of State Library station, of Town Hall station and of Arden, which will no doubt be a significant residential inner-city area in the future. This will be a game changer for my constituents who commute on the Pakenham–Cranbourne line. But because the Pakenham–Cranbourne line will be connected to the Metro Tunnel, it will mean that the Frankston line, which is in my electorate, will connect to the existing city loop tunnel. That will be a significant boost to rail services for my electorate, and we are very much looking forward to that. Melbourne is a global city, it is a great city of the world, and it warrants this important transport infrastructure that is befitting a great city of the world.

There is also in the budget $129 million to continue the statewide rollout of our early education reforms, and that includes universal three-year-old kinder and also free kinder. When we talk about cost-of-living relief, I think saving families up to $2500 per year per child with free kinder is significant cost-of-living relief. I know it has made a difference to families in my electorate.

There is also in the budget $18 million to build and upgrade community sport infrastructure and create more opportunities for Victorians to get involved. I am very pleased that in amongst that $18 million there is $325,000 for the Highett Reserve pavilion. What we are going to be doing in partnership with the City of Kingston at Highett Reserve pavilion is upgrading the umpire rooms, because I think sometimes, when it comes to planning new pavilions or upgrading existing pavilions, we do forget about the umpires. The umpires are very important, and I am really, really proud of the Southern Football Netball League, because we have got increasing numbers of women who serve as umpires. But it is fair to say, when Highett footy club showed me the conditions that our umpires change in over at Highett Reserve, we can do a whole lot better than that. I am really pleased that in partnership with the City of Kingston we will be delivering the best possible umpire facilities, because they deserve no less. I have already got the Instagram reel planned for that; we will be filming next week.

In addition to looking forward to the state budget each and every year, I also look forward to the budget reply. The member for Sandringham is in the chamber; I watched his budget reply speech from my office. He said a few things, and I do want to do a bit of a fact-check in the last 3½ minutes that I have left of this contribution. I do not know, I think he spoke for about half an hour, and he tried to suggest the Victorian economy is weak. But in fact ABS data shows that the Victorian economy grew by 9.1 ‍per cent over the past two years – more than New South Wales, more than Queensland, more than Western Australia, more than Tasmania – and the economy is also forecast to continue outpacing every state over the next five years. The Victorian economy is now 11 per cent larger in real terms than before the pandemic. He also pleaded with businesses to stay in Victoria, because he said that businesses are leaving Victoria. In fact business investment grew by more than 13 per cent in the last calendar year, the largest increase of all the states and almost 6 percentage points higher than national average growth. Then he doubled down and said people are leaving Victoria. In fact I only know members of the Victorian Liberal Party who are leaving Victoria. I know of at least two former members of the Victorian parliamentary Liberal Party who are now in the UK. But the fact is that Melbourne is going to be bigger than Sydney in just a few years time. Then, if that was not enough, he decided to talk about Dan’s statue, like that is the biggest issue. Well, the former Premier lives rent-free in their heads, it is pretty clear.

I also happened to listen to a bit of the member for Caulfield’s contribution. He asked: are you better off now than you were 10 years ago? Well, when I drive around the member for Caulfield’s electorate do you know what I see? Four former level crossings. Do you know why they are former level crossings? Because we removed them, and the reality is we have done that despite the member for Caulfield. The people of Caulfield could have elected a cactus and we still would have actually removed those level crossings. We have done that despite them. The member for Caulfield asked the question: are you better off than you were 10 years ago? Well, for all those people who were out of work when those opposite were in power, over four years only 39,000 new jobs were created in Victoria. The people who enjoy the dignity of work now who did not 10 years ago, I would say they are better off under a Labor government.

At the end of the day, I think we as a government recognise that this state is the best place to live on the continent. We are pro-Victoria on this side of the house, and we also are the custodians of a very fast-growing capital city, Melbourne. It is a great city of the world, a global city which in a few years will be bigger than Sydney. This government is making the right investments to ensure that we are keeping pace with that growth because we are proud of this city and we are proud of this state. This is a sensible budget. It is a responsible budget. I commend it to the house.

Sam HIBBINS (Prahran) (17:11): I rise to speak on behalf of the Greens to the 2024 state budget, a budget that is coming for the second year in a row at a time when so many people are looking to their governments to do all they can to tackle the housing crisis, to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, to tackle the fact that people cannot afford food and health care or pay the bills, and to improve the dire and shocking circumstances that so many people find themselves in.

The difficulty that so many Victorians find themselves in is stark. There is not a single home on the private market that someone on youth allowance can afford – not even a share house. For someone on the minimum wage working full-time, less than 1 per cent of homes are affordable. People are having to pay on average $200 more rent a week than they did before the pandemic. The public housing waiting list has grown by over 120,000 people. The most vulnerable on it, such as women fleeing family violence, are having to wait nearly two years. Thirty thousand Victorians are experiencing homelessness every single night. Over a third of all households are facing hunger and food insecurity. People who have never faced food insecurity are now struggling to afford groceries, skipping meals or going without. They are worried, anxious that food will run out. Community service organisations are overwhelmed with requests for food and material aid. Calls to Lifeline are going through the roof because of the cost-of-living pressures people are facing.

Could there be a clearer, more striking example of a failed economic system, a failed economic ideology that for too long has put the interests of those doing well – big corporations, wealthy property investors, people who own multiple homes, developers – ahead of the interests of everyday people, that has treated housing as a commodity rather than the fundamental human right that it is, a system that treats big corporations that people rely on for essential services like banks and supermarkets as untouchable and that has left it up to the private market to decide how much people should pay for essentials.

This budget represented a momentous opportunity for the government to turn the corner, to break with the status quo. It was an opportunity for government to be bold, to step in, to stand with everyday people, to make sure that everyone has a safe and secure place to call home, to make sure that people can afford to feed their families. At a time when the problems are so clear, so obvious, the needs of people so significant, so urgent, it is not a time to stand still or to stand back or to go backwards or to continue with the status quo, but that is exactly what we got from this government with this budget – a do-nothing budget.

So much of the commentary around this budget has been around the size of the debt. How far would the budget go in reducing it? But the number one issue that this budget should have addressed is how well does it tackle the massive social deficit Victoria is facing. People who cannot afford to pay the rent or pay the bills, pushed into homelessness, stuck on the public housing waiting list, unable to afford basic health care, living in poverty, living in disadvantage – these are the biggest economic and social problems facing the state.

A generation is facing lower living standards than the previous one. A generation is locked out of ever owning a home, locked into housing insecurity and economic uncertainty. To those who say it is the time to shrink government, to make cuts and to go into austerity, I say you are wrong. To people who are struggling, who are living everyday through the housing and cost-of-living crisis, I say to you there is an alternative, there is another way. The Greens have put forward a very clear path, a very clear vision, one where the government steps in to make housing affordable, steps into make food and groceries affordable.

Our vision is one where the government steps in to freeze rents. If a rent freeze had been put in place 12 months ago, Melbourne renters would have saved on average $2500. Just think of what that would mean for someone who is struggling to keep their head above water and is potentially a rent rise away from homelessness. That is money straight out of a property investor’s pocket and into the pocket of a renter. The government could have joined governments around the world that have implemented rent freezes – Ireland, France, Berlin. Instead it continues to rule it out as if the unintended consequences are worse than the very real and devastating consequences of allowing unlimited rent rises. Now the government does have a chance to change course and support the Greens rent freeze bill that is being debated in the other place tomorrow. The Greens’ vision would have seen thousands of short stays being pushed onto the rental market and put an end to the practice of potentially thousands of homes being used exclusively for profiteering through platforms like Airbnb. They could have, again like governments around the world, put a cap on the number of nights a home can be made available on short stays. But again the government are standing on the side of investors with multiple homes instead of renters.

The Greens’ vision would see a massive build of public housing, housing that would be there for people in need. It is something that governments used to do, something that governments used to see as their core business – to build houses for people. Instead, in the middle of a housing crisis there is a budget with no new money for public housing, and the government continues down its path of knocking down and privatising our public housing estates for a measly uplift of 15 social housing homes a year while swathes of public land are used for private housing. In my electorate in Prahran public housing residents are forced to stuff newspapers to plug gaps in windows. Vast numbers of units in towers have gone unrenovated for decades despite government promises. And we are expected to trust a government that refuses to do the basics but is going to knock down an entire estate to have public housing residents’ best interests at heart.

This budget was an opportunity for the government to finally take action on the supermarket duopoly. Every time someone goes into a supermarket they are faced with massive unfair price hikes on basics like bread and dairy. It is next to impossible to do a cheap shop anymore. This is all happening while supermarkets are posting massive profits and increasing their profit margins. We are hearing a steady stream of evidence of outrageous behaviour from the supermarket duopoly, from screwing over consumers, farmers and workers to locking out would-be competitors. If ever there was a time for the government to use the powers it has – that previous Labor state governments have used – to stop the supermarkets from price gouging, to regulate prices and to get out-of-control groceries prices back under control and to see groceries as the essential service that they are, this is it. Instead the government continues to wash its hands of responsibility. The Treasurer in his budget speech said this budget considers how best to manage inflation but then did nothing to actually bring the price of essentials down.

The Greens’ vision is one where profiteering corporations pay their fair share of tax. The government could have raised billions from profiteering corporations like the big banks, like the gambling industry and property developers, revenue that could go towards paying for things that people need, to urgent cost-of-living relief. With so much commentary around this budget around Victoria’s financial situation it is staggering that this budget contains no major revenue initiatives: a big bank tax, one that recoups the effective subsidy that banks are given because they are too big to fail, could have raised $5.3 billion over the forward estimates; develop a windfall profit tax, $8.2 billion; a social housing levy like the one Labor abandoned after pressure from the property industry could have raised $760 million and gone directly into funding public houses; and doubling the online gambling tax, $600 million. The idea that this needed to be a budget that needed to rein in spending is patently false.

Victorians have every right to be profoundly disappointed in this budget by the Labor government. At a time when they needed government the most, they have been let down. Whole generations are looking to government to do more, to do better. They wanted an end to fossil fuels, not an expansion and exploration of new gas. They want a stand taken against the war in Gaza that has killed thousands of civilians and children, not secret agreements with a military that is under investigation for genocide or agreements with weapons manufacturers whose weapons are being used to kill civilians. They want secure jobs, good pay and good conditions, not for casuals to have their sick pay guarantee taken away or for injured workers to be kicked off workers compensation. They want to be able to access mental health support when they need it, not to have recommendations from the royal commission to go unfunded, delayed or later abandoned. They want the murder of women by men to be seen and acted upon as the national crisis it is. They want progressive drug law reform that saves lives, not a government that walks away from another safe injecting room and refuses to implement pill testing. They want animals treated humanely, not a government again that are walking away from their own recommendation to end duck shooting.

People have a right to be disappointed, to be frustrated, to be angry, not just in the government of the day but in the apparent alternative in the opposition. There is hope: the Greens are showing there is a different way. There is an alternative to the economic straitjacket that the old parties have put themselves in. The Greens are on the march in Victoria and across the country. To all those who are looking to their governments to stand up for them, I say: we hear you and we will never stop fighting for you.

Mathew HILAKARI (Point Cook) (17:22): I rise to speak on the Appropriation (2024–2025) Bill ‍2024 and the Appropriation (Parliament 2024–2025) Bill 2024. I follow the Greens, and I have got about 15 minutes of speaking time and I appreciate that. The member for Prahran had a full hour as the lead speaker on this budget and unfortunately could just muster up 10 minutes. It is what I would think is a fairly ordinary performance. He had more time. You could have gone again; you could have gone for 50 minutes more. I know for the Greens that my concern always when they raise public housing and social housing is that they have not supported it anywhere but in their words. When they have had the opportunities to support it – and they have all left now, because why would they stay – they have continually blocked social and public housing. He went through a cavalcade of issues that he had in his community, and yet he does not support improvements being made. I was disappointed to hear that, as well as the statements about austerity when this budget continues to deliver building across our state. We all experience that every day whenever we are getting around the community, whether it is by public transport or by road or by the infrastructure that we just continue to build, so I am disappointed that he has mischaracterised the budget in the way that he has.

I would like to thank the Treasurer for delivering his 10th budget – an extraordinary thing. I think many of us would just be incredibly proud to be part of a decade-long government, but he has been Treasurer for that entire time and delivered 10 really good budgets, this one the most challenging of them all, and I want to just pay tribute to the staff that he would have had over this decade and their efforts in it, because politics is a team sport and the member for Werribee has been ably supported over this time by many great people who have worked in his office as well as in the department and by other ministers and their staff who have put so much effort into this budget.

There are some really good things both in this budget and in previous budgets for the communities that I represent, the communities of Altona Meadows and Seabrook and Point Cook and Werribee South. I just want to touch on, firstly, some of those projects. I hope I have enough time to then talk about some of the more statewide issues as well. But the really big delivery in this budget is for Laverton Creek and a user path, a 60-metre bridge in fact, across Laverton Creek. I see the member for Kororoit is in the chamber. She is a person who knows exactly how important this is. It is called a creek, but it is pretty wide – 60 metres at that point. It is more of a river, really, in terms of the size of it. It is incredibly important because it connects communities.

In the inaugural speech that I made to this Parliament, I did note that the Treasurer, in his own inaugural speech, had talked about building bridges. I let him know that I was keen on building bridges as well, so I am glad he has heard that call and the call of the community more broadly, because many people have spoken to me for a long time about just how important this shared user path is. The bridge is not safe for pedestrians or for cyclists to travel across, and the alternative arrangement is to go a great distance out of their way. The connection between Altona and Altona Meadows is significantly diminished by not having this bridge in place, which is why I am so glad to hear that it has been announced in this budget. I thank in particular the Minister for Public and Active Transport for her support of this project – a really good minister. But I have been hearing about this project since before being elected and have been advocating for it since that time. Another big advocate who has been on this path is of course Minister Horne, the member for Williamstown. Both she and I have recently run a petition to see this piece of infrastructure get built. It is so popular in the community that just over a couple of weeks we saw more than 1100 members of our community say, ‘Yes, we too want this bridge, and we’ve signed up to it.’ This is one of those really great pieces of infrastructure. It is alongside the Altona Sports Centre. Hundreds of kids every week are going down to play basketball and netball, and to play at the soccer ovals there, so it will be well used and really great for the safety that our community needs.

I want to reflect on some of those other projects that we are building across the community and that are part of the budget and previous budgets. One I would like to bring to the attention of the house is at Point Cook Road and Sneydes Road. We are on a really great journey there of making that intersection safer, because there is this really critical need for safety at many of the roads that have just got busier and busier in the communities that we represent, the communities of the south-west of Melbourne. I should say that the work that we have already been up to at the Point Cook Road–Sneydes Road intersection has been really significant.

I want to draw the house’s attention to a few matters: 904 metres of new electrical cable have been installed, as have 109 metres of new NBN cable, 579 metres of new water pipe and more than 16 ‍kilometres of new and existing telecommunications cable, because you have got to get the underground works done right. Not often enough have they been done right in some of the communities that I represent. We are just at the very final services move – that is going on right now ‍– which is 176 metres of new gas piping. If you come down Point Cook Road after 9 pm, at the present time you do see those gas works being undertaken. That is the very last of the underground services that will be relocated. Then we are getting on with the main works above ground, and we will deliver for this community a safer intersection, with lights there and with double lanes going in both directions from Jamieson Way to Gramercy Boulevard. It is a matter that members of the community raise with me all the time. It is about safety because that intersection – I myself do avoid it – has not been safe enough. That is why we are getting on with that work.

There is another intersection on the same road – Point Cook Road. Members in this place will no doubt at some point get sick of me talking about Point Cook Road, but this is an outstanding piece of infrastructure work that we need to do. It is at Point Cook Road and Central Avenue. I appreciate the Minister for Transport Infrastructure, who is at the table, has taken such a strong interest in this particular project as part of the Big Build – an election commitment that was delivered by his predecessor, the now Premier, who is a strong advocate of making sure that we get the Big Build up and running and delivered so well.

It was not even in time for the last budget that we started work on that and the community consultation. The Big Build came back and said 95 per cent of the community want to see improvements at this intersection, and 100 per cent of businesses. I spoke to the department at the time, and I said, ‘This can’t be right, only 95 per cent saying they want it. I know it’s 100 per cent.’ But fortunately to the department’s credit they came back and said, ‘No, the 5 per cent just want it to go even further and do more.’ So 100 per cent of our community was in support of these projects and 100 per cent of businesses were in support of these projects. In those community consultations they did almost 800 ‍surveys and a further 120 connections with the community in the electorate that I represent. We are now in the planning phase, and I just cannot wait for that to be finalised. We have a brilliant plan to improve that intersection, so Minister, I thank you and your staff for all the work that you have been doing in delivering that project, because it is going to be a real game changer for the community that I represent.

Further on roads, this budget delivers what is one of the really important projects for the south-western suburbs of Melbourne, which is around East Werribee. Several budgets back we put $2.8 million into planning to kickstart that process. The community of Wyndham already has more people living there than Geelong, so it is a huge community, and it is going to keep on growing. This is about making sure that we have great jobs locally. For people who know that area well, they will know that the law courts are being built there, the Wyndham law courts, which will be the largest law courts outside of the CBD. That is alongside the police station that has already been built there, which again is the largest outside of the CBD, and that is going to bring great legal jobs to the community that I represent.

Many in the community are really excited to see that happen, but on top of that investment and effort, in this budget we put $20 million towards services and roads to start to bring that community forward. That includes the support for a special development school, because you need to build the roads and the pipe and the infrastructure to get them started into an actual school site. The special development school is supported here. It is one of the budget commitments. Of course we are committed to building 100 new schools across the state, of which 75 are already built. There is another billion dollars just in this budget alone to see those election and ongoing commitments reached. On that site there will be a specialist school as well as a new P–9, much-loved schools across our community. One of those schools that is much loved already is Alamanda K–9. It is a really big school, and it is a really big school for a good reason – great teachers, great leaders delivering great education. It is a much-loved school, and we have been doing a lot of work there. Just over a month ago I visited the school to see stage 1 coming out of the ground, and the concrete footings were in place. I went back there just last week and already the walls are going up, so they are doing great work on that stage 1 project, which we committed more money to in the last budget, but in this budget is $28.8 million for the next stage of works. That will replace single-storey portables, because it is a constrained site, so we are willing to put the funds in to make sure that we can go up and give those kids who need more space in their play areas more space. We are going up and getting rid of some of those single-storey portables. It is a really exciting project for the community I represent, and that is in addition to Saltwater P–9 receiving $37 million in the previous budget as well.

I do just want to talk about some of the zone changes that are going on in the community of Altona Meadows. Altona Meadows, as a community which is quite compact and a really great community, was distributed across four different high school zones, and it is really hard when your kids mainly are going to two schools, and a few to a third primary school, to see those communities broken up. So I thank the Minister for Education and his office for making sure that the zones are what they should be. The zones should take Skeleton Creek as being a hard boundary between the community of Point Cook and the community of Seabrook for high school. We are now down to two zones, to Altona secondary college as well as Laverton P–12. That is a really big win for the community. I failed, actually, to thank them for the Laverton Creek support as well, but I want to thank the mayor of Hobsons Bay Matt Tyler and Cr Diana Grima, who have both been advocates for both of those things, for making sure that schools are delivered well in Altona Meadows and that people have access to the schools that they need to go to as well as access across Laverton Creek there. I want to do a bit of a shout-out to both of them and thank them for that work.

I give another shout-out to a minister in the other place, Minister Blandthorn, who accompanied me to Jamieson Way kinder, where we are building an additional room to complement the great program we have got around three-year-old kinder and supporting parents back into the workplace and making sure that kids get a great education and a great start to life – saving $2500, no less, every year for every child involved in kinder. I was there with the rosella and indigo groups at that kindergarten, and they are just so excited about the construction works that we are doing there to build that new room and build up that community centre into something even better than it is right now. We have committed $2.75 million to that, alongside council’s really handy contribution there as well.

You know how kids are – they just love the construction sites. Well, they are going to be loving them at Williams Landing train station as well. The member for Laverton, who is such a great advocate for public transport across our community, is just fantastic. We were there at Williams Landing on Wallace Avenue, on the Point Cook side. It was fine to be on the Point Cook side. They are putting in place a Parkiteer because the Parkiteer is just so well used on the Williams Landing side of Williams Landing. They just love it. It is one of the most well used across the state – fantastic advocacy from that member to get that in place. I am certainly so pleased to see that we are going to have a Parkiteer at Williams Landing, as well as a lift, making access to the station so much better.

I have got very little time left and I have got so much to say, but we are doing amazing things in Point Cook with the support of budgets exactly like this. I commend its speedy passage so we can get on with building the state.

Matthew GUY (Bulleen) (17:37): Imagine gloating over a budget that leaves and encumbers our state with $200 billion – a fifth of a trillion – of debt after coming to government a decade ago when it was just $20 billion. This was a point aptly made – very, very powerfully made – by the member for Sandringham earlier today: we now spend $26 million a day on servicing that debt. Imagine coming in and gloating about that. Imagine coming in to gloat about a budget that spends more on servicing debt, 30 per cent or 40 per cent of which is from project overruns – gloating about that – than you spend on the mental health crisis which your government declared. Now you are spending more on servicing debt than on a mental health crisis.

Imagine coming in and gloating about a budget that cuts in half the number of schools that just a year and three months ago you promised you would upgrade; gloating about massive infrastructure that has been removed, cut or abolished because you have run out of money; gloating about a budget that has to lower speed limits on roads and puts in place pothole repair rather than resheeting roads in rural and regional Victoria, as the member for Ovens Valley will tell us, because again you have run out of money. It is a budget that cuts money to remove graffiti; that cannot replace road signs that are tired and worn out, because you are running out of money; that forces rural hospitals to amalgamate because you cannot pay their administration staff anymore; that breaks promises to multicultural groups, like the Indian community on their Gandhi park, which was a big promise of the then Premier in 2018; that presents figures that are totally inconsistent with national governments on growth; and that lies about expenditure, nominal spending figures, simply to get your books in order.

And then to have the conscience to come in here and gloat about that – I find that absolutely and utterly stunning. This is the product of a government that has run out of money. Again, as the member for Sandringham said, Labor just cannot manage money, and their only plan to fix this mess is a coalition government, because we have done it two times in the last 50 years. I sadly suspect we are going to be called on for a third time to come in and look at the books left by a tired old Labor government who have literally destroyed the state and the quality of services that Victorians can rely on.

I can talk about debt, which, as we all know, many have for very good reason. The school saving bonus – it is just completely disingenuous for local Labor members to be saying that this is a payment to parents. It is not. It is what happens in a cost-of-living crisis when many parents, sadly, cannot afford to pay voluntary school fees in public schools and you need to top them up. So you top them up and then use a government spin doctor to say, ‘Oh, it’s for the parents.’ And it is not. It is money that schools just have to make available because the parents cannot afford to pay it, because we are in this cost-of-living crisis. When you have to cut cancer services and your own public IVF services – what does that say about the state of Victoria today? And then the government, the Labor Party, come in here and gloat about this. As the member for Sandringham said: after a decade, is life easier under the Labor Party in Victoria? Is cost of living easier? Is crime lower? Why are business numbers declining? It is all because this government cannot manage money. But when they cannot manage money, it then flows on to affect all of us.

In my area as the Shadow Minister for Public Transport it has affected a number of key projects which will impact many of us in Victoria. Let us go back to 23 November 2017. I would like to read, if I can, from a speech given in this chamber actually – not in the Parliament, but in this chamber when the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) had a summit. I am going to read a couple of paragraphs from it, from 23 November 2017:

By the time the Metro Tunnel is completed in 2026, construction work will be well underway on an airport rail link.

…

In our view, the airport rail link has the potential to unlock Western and Northern Victoria.

It can create the extra capacity that we need in the congested rail corridor between Melbourne and Sunshine ‍–

Which means we can untangle the regional and metropolitan network on the Geelong and Ballarat lines.

And finally it can give Melbourne’s booming west access to electrified metro rail services.

Ultimately, that means we can deliver real, high-speed rail to regional Victoria.

…

The dream becomes a reality.

Beginning with Geelong, and then Ballarat –

Our plan will look at how to deliver real, high-speed rail to connect Victoria.

Imagine travelling from Geelong to Melbourne in under 40 minutes.

It would change the way people work and live.

And it would change the face of our state forever.

…

A plan … to reshape Victoria …

said then Premier Daniel Andrews to VCCI on 23 November 2017. To go through his speech again: the airport rail link – scrapped by this government. The airport rail link, which had the potential to unlock western and northern Victoria – scrapped. And when the government scrapped it, I might add, the now Premier said, ‘Oh, this was an idea of Scott Morrison’s.’ Remember when she said, ‘This wasn’t funded by us. It was a Scott Morrison idea,’ in order to re-spin? But in fact, a year before Scott Morrison even became Prime Minister, here was her former boss coming in here to gloat about –

Dylan Wight interjected.

Matthew GUY: Have you got something to say? I thought you were the concierge, sorry. I do not know, I thought the three-piece suit man was the concierge. Sorry, I would like a glass of water, if you do not mind.

Dylan Wight interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member for Tarneit is not in his chair.

Matthew GUY: He is a funny one, isn’t he? We have in that speech the talk about the airport rail link, which, as I said, will never occur under this government certainly, because it has been scrapped. Of course it was Morrison’s idea when it was scrapped. It was launched by Daniel Andrews. It was going to go to Ballarat as well – 250-kilometre-an-hour trains going to Ballarat. And of course in that speech he mentioned the western rail upgrade, which is the Melton line electrification, the Wyndham Vale electrification. They are currently being serviced by three- and six-car VLocity trains –

Dylan Wight interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Tarneit is warned.

Matthew GUY: which are not built to service metropolitan traffic. These are country trains, which are ordered as country trains, which are geared as country trains. They are not there to accommodate metropolitan traffic, but that is what they have to do because we do not have a metropolitan rail plan to electrify – as was said on 23 November 2017 – Melbourne’s western suburbs. That is what the eastern suburbs have got, it is what the southern suburbs have got, but of course it is not what the western suburbs have, yet they were promised that they would be able to get that with the Melbourne Airport rail link.

Let us have a look at the Melbourne Airport rail link again. The Melbourne Airport rail link as planned by this government, which was again mentioned by the member for Sandringham, was correctly going to be part of the Suburban Rail Loop. SRL Airport I think it was rebranded as, which is interesting because the Suburban Rail Loop East that is being supposedly built by the current government now is not going to be a broad-gauge 5 foot 3 service, which is what the airport rail link was being planned and built by the current government as. If you draw that line – despite the map the government spin doctors are putting out – it goes from Cheltenham all the way around Melbourne, comes to the airport and goes down as a continuous link, but of course it cannot because one set of tracks in the Suburban Rail Loop East is 4 foot 8½ apart and the airport rail tracks are 5 foot 3 apart. One has an overhead which is a DC current and one has an overhead which is an AC current. One has a loading gauge akin to Sydney metro and one has a loading gauge akin to the Victorian broad-gauge system. Where do they join? Where do they link? And of course they are not going to ever link because the whole thing is a hoax.

It was never planned to link. It has never been properly thought through. This kind of detail has never been answered by the government, because the line was never planned to go beyond the one small line in the eastern suburbs. The government’s entire plan is to pump every cent it has got into a railway line with no connectivity to the existing urban rail network. What kind of insanity is that, to build an entirely new line, not even a network, just one line from Box Hill to Cheltenham, which has got a different rail gauge, a different system for the overhead, different size carriages, which is driverless, which has got no connectivity to the current metropolitan rail network, to totally screw up every bit of connectivity that we have got in the network today simply for the sake of politics? It is hard to believe that the government would press ahead with congesting our city rail network into the future when we have got every option to decongest it at this point in time. Some of those options would be an airport rail link, part of that would be the Wyndham Vale electrification, the Melton electrification, which this government announced on 23 November 2017 to the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in this chamber but then reneged on because they have run out of money.

The point of all of this is that bad governments make bad decisions, and there are consequences for bad management. Whether it is cancer research, whether it is IVF, whether it is the western rail electrification, whether it is fast rail to Geelong or whether it is the airport rail link, the consequences are that Victorians will suffer, and they do suffer, and they will suffer, because someone has to service that debt into the future. It will not be the current Premier, it will not be her predecessor and it probably will not be the current government, but encumbering our state with such an enormous financial burden ‍– it is almost criminal that you could do this to future generations with no qualms about what is being done, with no qualms about lying to people.

Look at those budget figures. The nominal figures for spending in health and justice are absolutely almost insultingly, stupidly wrong. There is no way that with a population that is growing, in the figures put in the budget itself, that we are going to reduce that spending over time. It will be greatly expanded, but the government’s surplus is built off those nominal figures. It is ridiculous. To actually look at growth figures in there, which have got no correlation to anything that has been put out by federal Treasury, is completely and utterly ridiculous, but this is what the government is basing a supposed surplus or a reduction in debt to gross state product ratio off. It is completely false but there are no qualms about it, and for this government they will feel there is no consequence about it. They just think lying and misleading and breaking promises –

Danny Pearson: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, the member is using unparliamentary language.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member does know that word is unparliamentary, and I ask him not to repeat it.

Matthew GUY: That is okay, Deputy Speaker. The member for Essendon might want to put it in any other way he likes. It might be unparliamentary, but it does not mean it is not true. When the former Premier – of which he was a minister in that man’s government – walks into this chamber and at a Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry summit and talks about travelling from Geelong to Melbourne in under 40 minutes, changes the way it is going to work and says, ‘It’s not a promise, it’s happening now’ – there is his VCCI speech – and two or three budgets later it is all being scrapped because it was misleading, what other words can we think of? Untrue? Disingenuous? Any others? Incorrect? Deliberately incorrect even? What more? Or you could take the person out of it and use it in a generic term – maybe just another Labor lie? Can I say that one? No? Whatever it is, it is unfair to the people of Victoria, and they deserve better than this. They deserve a government that does not tell them deliberate untruths and gives them the services they deserve, a government that manages their money with responsibility so that we can get the lines to Melton and Wyndham Vale electrified, so that we do not have members who come in here and think it is all a big joke to lie to multicultural communities about funding in their own seats.

Danny Pearson: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, the member is defying your ruling. Those terms are unparliamentary.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I uphold the point of order, and I ask the member not to use that word.

Matthew GUY: Whatever you need me to do I will do, but I just cannot stand Sir Les’s interjections over there, because at the end of the day he is part of the government that is screwing the state’s budget, and he will stand condemned at the next election.

Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (17:53): I am very happy to rise to speak on the budget, noting of course, yes, families and households more broadly are facing a significant number of challenges: you have got rising inflation, post-pandemic challenges, the war in Ukraine, supply costs and low unemployment. It is actually a positive of course to have low unemployment, but nevertheless all of these factors mean there are delicate challenges that have to be balanced. Having said that, we have created more than 560,000 jobs since September 2020, leading all states and territories in both absolute and percentage terms. What is more, more Victorians than ever before are in work and business investment has surged to record levels. So we are not going to trash talk our state. We know Victorians are absolutely fantastic at doing their very best, and therefore we think this is a terrific place to live even if the opposition think otherwise and talk down the great people of Victoria.

There was something I did want to pick up and it is actually further to some commentary from earlier from Minister Brooks, so that is the member for Bundoora – I am sorry, I should have said that. Anyway, just to pick up on a point, I have been hearing a bit of a refrain from the Greens political party trying to assert that there is nothing in the budget for housing, which is really quite astonishing, because when you look at the budget and you look at the line items you can see line after line of investment, really significant investment, in housing for our state. For instance, here I am at 150 on the Victorian budget 2024–25 budget paper 4, ‘State Capital Program’, and we can see ‘Public housing revitalisation program’ – look, there is investment from our government in public housing; ‘Regional housing fund’; and ‘Social housing accelerator program’.

Wow, they are new projects and actually in the 2024–25 budget. Now, I should say with the social housing accelerator program that there is an injection there from the Commonwealth government. But isn’t that great? We have got the state government and the Commonwealth government working together to get more Victorians safe and secure housing.

Talking about safe and secure housing, particularly for instance the renewal of public housing and social housing in our state, we are taking buildings that were built back in the 1950s and 60s – built pretty cheaply. They cost a bomb to heat and cool and are not fit for purpose in terms of accessibility or true amenity. So it has made really good sense to totally renew in those spaces so that Victorians get to have the standard of housing that we have come to expect. Because let us face it: building standards in the 1950s and 60s have truly evolved. What we expect now is fit-for-purpose and accessible housing. We want climate-friendly housing standards so that it is much cheaper to heat and cool. That makes really good sense, particularly for those who are most vulnerable in our community, so I am not sure why the Greens political party are so opposed to these kinds of investments. In any case, we will soldier on because we want to get more Victorians into safe and secure housing. I just thought that I would speak to that.

I should say that those are new projects, and of course there are ongoing projects, which are listed here, which are really upgrading and supporting people in our state to get more safe and secure housing. I hope that clarifies that for the Greens political party, that we are truly investing in housing in our state for Victorians and certainly some of the most vulnerable Victorians in our state.

Putting that aside, I will talk about more broadly some of the many, many cost-of-living measures that are in the budget which are truly helping so many across our state, including in my seat of Albert Park ‍– for instance, the one-off school saving bonus to help cover costs, because they can really add up, whether it is for uniforms or school books or otherwise, for parents starting the school year. We are thinking about them, we are thinking about the pressures that they are under, and this is why this kind of funding is being provided – to support people with legitimate cost-of-living measures. Those payments are going to be made. I do not know what the member for Bulleen was trying to assert in that regard, but it is factually correct. We have announced this. This is part of the budget; it is going to happen. I hope that that might allay some of his concerns with regard to that.

Also, we are tripling our free Glasses for Kids program. As someone who has worn glasses since grade ‍3, I can tell you that they make the world of difference in being able to concentrate and to read. I have a stigmatism I think in my left eye and so forth, and I am afraid my eyesight is not quite what it was even in grade 3. Nevertheless, with the great help of optometrists et cetera I whack on the glasses in the morning and – yes, hey presto! – I can actually read my mobile phone. I am forever grateful for that. I would hate to think that there are kids in our community who might be actually held back, who might be compromised, in their ability to read, so it is really, really important that we are supporting this very legitimate cost-of-living issue.

Then of course there are the Get Active Kids vouchers, and I think of all the wonderful sporting clubs in my electorate and indeed across the state.

A member: What sport did you play?

Nina TAYLOR: I actually did ballet. No, I did play volleyball in primary school. That is a sport. That counts, right? It totally counts, yes. I enjoyed that. But in any case, less about me and more about the people of Albert Park. Anyway, the Get Active Kids vouchers – I will try to articulate that a little more clearly – I think are just so fantastic and so well received. There may be some families in the community who have to make the decision: ‘Do I put my kid into sport or do I not?’ In this way we are backing them in and making sure that those kids get the opportunities that they truly deserve. We know with our sporting clubs that it is about getting fit and also about discipline, but it is actually a really important social connection, and often kids can make friendships that last for a lifetime. It is also a social connection for the parents as well. It is kind of an all-family, all-in sort of experience. Every little bit that can be done to help support kids getting into sport and staying fit has got to be a good thing.

Also of course we want Victorians to succeed in the classroom. I know I am truly appreciative of the wonderful education that I have received in this great state. I think every one of us can remember at least one or two of our wonderful teachers who have helped us along the way to be able to really perform at our best. I am really excited about this budget, particularly with Middle Park Primary School receiving $8.8 million.

Paul Edbrooke interjected.

Nina TAYLOR: Yes, it is absolutely fantastic for stage 1 of their master plan. I popped in yesterday for an assembly. It is so great these days with the school leaders – you know, they are only about grade ‍5 or 6, but they get up there and they run the whole program. I do not remember doing that when I was in primary school. I just think it is so fantastic what they do these days, building that real confidence and that ability to organise and run a really slick –

Paul Edbrooke interjected.

Nina TAYLOR: Yes, that’s right – budding leaders of tomorrow. They did a fantastic job yesterday when I popped into the school and were really, really happy that we are backing them in and we are helping them to be able to achieve stage 1 of their master plan.

Last year, I should say, our free kinder program – I am switching now, because they get to primary school, but prior to primary school is free kinder, and we know those first years of life are so very important, so we have really got to make sure that parents are backed in to be able to get their kids into kinder – saved around 140,000 families up to $2500 in fees. I mean, that is real dollars when you look at that. That is helping with the cost of living per se but also making sure that there are not unnecessary barriers holding kids back from getting those vital skills that are going to help them with that transition when they actually go to primary school.

I am going to come back again to the matter of housing. Of course it is absolutely vital. Our Big Housing Build is giving more Victorians the security and stability of a home. More than 9000 social and affordable homes are already under construction or complete. We know there is more work to do, and there is more work to do, and it is ongoing. This budget also includes almost $197 million for frontline homelessness services to continue reaching and supporting Victorians who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. This includes funding for the wonderful Sacred Heart Mission in Albert Park to supply meals and other essential items to people sleeping rough in our community. I have visited Sacred Heart Mission a number of times, and it is just wonderful to see how they produce these really healthy, nutritious and actually tasty meals. It is wonderful for people to have that dignity – not only do they need the nutrition, but they need the dignity of a meal that actually tastes good. Also it provides a mechanism of engagement as well, an important non-confrontational mechanism, for people to get the kind of support services that they may need, because of course Sacred Heart Mission is looking after some of the people who are most at risk and certainly extremely vulnerable in our community.

The Metro Tunnel – oh, my goodness, that is really coming along. We had a visit there, I should say, the other day to see the progress on the tunnel. There is going to be that unique interchange between the trams along St Kilda Road, and it is so very efficient and effective. Also whenever we have events at the shrine or the botanical gardens or otherwise, it is just going to create a much more efficient network. But I think predominantly for the day-to-day interchange – not only, I should say, for residents of Albert Park and surrounding electorates but of course for the residents from further out and the outer suburbs that are having to come into the city – it is going to be so much more efficient in terms of the turnaround times. They are just going to have less time transiting and hopefully more time with their families and with their friends doing the things that they need to do to help nurture themselves on a day-to-day basis. That is coming along, and pardon the pun, it is on track. It is doing really well. It is looking fantastic, but of course it is the functionality that really matters in that space. I am really happy that it is going along well and that we have been able, along with a number of colleagues, to see for ourselves that kind of high efficiency in terms of transiting around our community.

We know that public transport as well is obviously critical, because aside from people doing the most active transport, which is of course cycling and walking, public transport is a key method in terms of reducing congestion on our roads and also making sure we reduce emissions as well – noting that we also, as part of our cleaner energy future, are making sure that we can transition to renewable energy when it comes to offsetting government buildings, public transport, schools and so forth. It is all part of the renewable revolution in Victoria. Anyway, I got excited about that.

Now I am going to hop along to the matter of health, because obviously if you do not have your health, what have you got? It is absolutely vital. We are truly investing in our health system. In this year’s budget we are upgrading the Alfred, ensuring local families can get the care that they need when they need it. I say the Alfred because that is geographically the closest to the seat of Albert Park. This includes $118 million for critical capital works to make sure the hospital can keep providing world-class health care for Victorians. Of course we know how important frontline services are for patients and their families. Since we came to government Victoria’s public hospitals have now employed over 5000 more doctors and over 13,000 more nurses. This is obviously fundamental when we are looking at the structural elements of supporting the best health outcomes for our state.

There was one other matter. I am nearly there, but I do want to talk about some investments in terms of energy. I did allude to energy before, but I want to get a little more specific. In the budget there is $38 million to continue the success of Solar Victoria with an extra 35,000 energy-efficient hot water rebates. I get really excited about energy efficiency because it is not only about generating the energy, which is obviously vital, but also about saving energy where we can. By switching to a heat pump or solar hot water system the average household will save up to $400 on their electricity bills each year. When you think about school costs, health costs, heating costs, energy costs – a big one – your house, your rent, your mortgage et cetera, it all adds up. This has all been factored in fundamentally, so there is a real target, a real focus on these key cost-of-living levers and measures to help households in Victoria to be able to get the best possible outcome for themselves or, obviously if they have children, for their children, or if they are single or whatever the situation is. So I say ‘households’ to be able to cover the spectrum of Victorians and particularly the seat of Albert Park. On that note I think I will commend the bill to the house.

Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (18:08): Labor cannot manage money, and it is Victorians who are going to pay the price. We are already paying the price, and we are seeing it on every single page of the budget papers that were delivered last week. We are seeing it constantly in the reports that are coming through as the budget is digested by people. I must say I am a little bit disappointed to be getting up and giving my budget speech now and not in a couple of weeks time, when we will have had the opportunity through the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee process to actually get into the weeds of this budget, because the little bits and pieces that I have seen in my own portfolio and in my own electorate just highlight that Labor cannot manage money and it is Victorians who are paying the price.

The purpose of a state government is to provide services and infrastructure to the people of this state, and we have an ongoing debate in this place between those opposite and the Liberals and Nationals with respect to financial management. Sometimes it does get a little puerile. There is no doubt that debt can be a good thing. Debt put towards productive infrastructure is a good thing, and it is quite appropriate that future generations pay for some of the infrastructure in particular that they will utilise. But it is all about balance, and it is about making sure that you have got that debt under control and that spending under control. The failure in this budget, after 10 years of this Labor government, is that this Labor government has completely failed to get that balance right.

It has lost complete control of its spending, it has lost complete control of its debt, because Labor cannot manage money, and we are seeing that right throughout these budget papers. We are heading, by 2028, for $188 billion of debt for the state of Victoria.

Tim McCurdy: How much?

Danny O’BRIEN: $188 billion. Debt will become 25.2 per cent of the gross state product of this state – that is, Victorians will owe a quarter of what they produce every year. To put that in context, I think the Cain and Kirner government disaster in the early 1990s got to about 16 per cent, so it is not insignificant in a historical context and it just reinforces that Labor cannot manage money.

We all have debt. We all borrow to build a home, we all borrow for a business – whatever it might be. Where that issue comes in for debt is in what it ultimately costs you and what it stops you as a government from being able to do. By 2028 that $188 billion of debt will be costing Victorians $9.3 billion a year in interest, which is $26 million per day. To put this in context – and I am pretty sure those opposite probably have not looked at this – $9.3 billion a year in interest payments is more than the entire budgets this year for the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, the Department of Government Services, the Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions, the Department of Premier and Cabinet and the Department of Treasury and Finance. All those departments have a budget this year of less – in most cases far less – than the $9 billion we are headed for terms of interest repayments.

What does that mean? That means the services and the infrastructure that the people of Victoria need are going to be removed, because we will be spending so much on interest payments – $9.3 billion a year, $26 million a day. There are consequences for that spending. There are consequences for the fact that Labor cannot manage money. You have seen it in this budget. You have seen it in cuts to airport rail – the airport rail that we have been promised for decades that this government said it was finally going to get on and do. The former Premier said it was going to be his thing; now it is put off for another four years. We are seeing community hospitals that were promised two elections ago – three of them, at Eltham, Torquay and Emerald – totally on hold, probably never to happen, because the money has gone. We see through the budget papers community crime prevention down 46 per cent, a 46 per cent reduction; early childhood supports down 11 per cent, an 11 per cent cut to the budget there; environment protection, a 37 per cent cut; and waste and recycling, a 44 per cent cut. That is notwithstanding that at the same time the government is actually upping the waste charge, so the tax increase is there but the waste and recycling budget will actually go down. How could that possibly be? I can only assume it is because the waste and recycling charge is going to prop up the bottom line. We are seeing child protection – child protection – down $140 million on last year, home and community care support for young people down 19.8 per cent and the public health budget down 33.8 per cent.

I heard the member for Bentleigh and many others talk about how well the jobs market is going. The jobs budget in this budget is cut by 70 per cent. Then we have seen things like the government’s signature policies, like the sick pay for casual workers. Remember, everyone sat over on this side and got lectured by the government about how important this was and how this was a Labor Party delivering for casual workers. It is gone – just cut. Absolutely gone.

We have got hospital waiting lists. We saw in the Sunday Age this week that the government’s commitment, announced to great fanfare and with a huge amount of money just a couple of years ago, that they were heading for 240,000 surgeries per year – that target has been cut before they even reached it. They did not even get close to it.

The minister at the time said she would not accept anything less than 240,000 surgeries a year. They are now expected to perform 207,000, and the target has gone back to 200,000. That is not numbers; that is not budget figures.

Bridget Vallence interjected.

Danny O’BRIEN: It is people, member for Evelyn – people with hip surgery that they are waiting for, with knees, with all of those things that our constituents come to us with all the time. The government, with great fanfare and billions of dollars, announced they were going to do these 240,000 ‍surgeries and get well beyond what the surgery target was before COVID, and in this budget it is just cut, because Labor cannot manage money.

We see it affecting everything else. We have got the public housing lists. We have seen the so-called Big Housing Build of $5 billion, and yet we have still got something like 60,000 Victorians on public housing waiting lists. In my electorate in Latrobe city, Wellington shire and South Gippsland shire there are less public and social homes now than when this government came to office. Notwithstanding a $5 billion increase in spending, there are less in those shires across the Gippsland South electorate.

We have seen the failure to deliver in mental health. We have seen the failure to establish the lived and living experience agency as recommended by this government’s own royal commission, which was meant to be delivered this year and in this budget – not going to happen. Two thousand supported dwellings for Victorians living with mental illness and 500 medium-term supported housing places for young people – neither of them are delivered in this budget as expected. And finally there is the delay of the rollout of the next tranche of the local mental health and wellbeing services, again put on the backburner because Labor cannot manage money. That includes a mental health and wellbeing local in my electorate of Gippsland South in Leongatha, because the Labor government cannot manage money.

We are seeing in education more money over the last 20 years – more money and less outcomes for our students. We hear the government talk about all the schools that they are getting – well, I have still got Sale College unfunded. Despite the fact that it was given $3 million three years ago for a master plan, it is still unfunded. Foster Primary School – still waiting for it to be finished. Leongatha Secondary College actually did not have an ask for money and did not have a master plan but was given a commitment by the government before the election of $11.7 million, which of course we would welcome – except, because Labor cannot manage money, that too, along with several dozen other schools, has also been put on the backburner.

We are seeing cancer funding cut by 70 per cent, dental services cut in this budget – dental services; we have already got a two-year waitlist in Latrobe Regional Health for public dental services.

The member for Nepean has gone on about the tourism promotions that have been cut, and we come to the crux. I think the member for Bulleen put it pretty well: we all remember the debate about the Suburban Rail Loop and the health system at the last election, and the former Premier put up the Old El Paso TV ad, remember: ‘Why don’t we have both?’ Well, now we are not getting either, because the Arden hospital, the so-called biggest hospital promise in the nation – gone. We are not doing that anymore, apparently for some electromagnetic thing: ‘Oh, actually, we knew about that three years ago.’ But it is a very handy excuse for us to just shelve the whole thing because we cannot afford it anymore.

We are not doing airport rail. We are not doing the Melton and Wyndham rail. We are not doing Geelong fast rail anymore. But we are going ahead with the $125 billion, $200 billion, $250 billion – whatever it is – Suburban Rail Loop that no-one ever asked for. I heard one of the members on the other side before say people voted for it. People voted for the Arden hospital too. I am not hearing anyone mention that one. They also voted for the airport rail. They also voted, Acting Speaker Farnham, for the West Gippsland hospital. Did you get any money for that? I cannot put you in that position when you are in the chair, Acting Speaker, but those are things that people also voted for. People also voted for the sick pay guarantee for casual workers. That has been dropped. So do not stand there and tell us people voted for the Suburban Rail Loop when you have dumped all the other things that people voted for because Labor cannot manage money.

We are seeing this in my portfolio of roads. We now have a roads maintenance budget that is 16 per cent less than it was four years ago. Not only that, we have got a whole range of performance measures that the government has introduced, and they are failing to meet some of the old ones. They are introducing a new performance measure of ‘road area major patched’. That does not make literal sense. Is it patched majorly, as opposed to the minor patches they are doing? I do not know. They are bringing this in, ‘road area major patched’, and of course the targets are there this year but they are irrelevant. If you are patching potholes, that is not a measure of success in fixing roads, it is a measure of failure. Why have we got that? Because also on that same page, page 128 of the performance measures, we have got the ‘road area resurfaced or rehabilitated’ performance measure. In regional Victoria the target two budgets ago was 12 million square metres. What was achieved this year was 340,000 square metres – a 90 per cent failure on what the target was two years ago. The target for this year is 3 million square metres, so the government is absolutely abandoning any concept of actually looking after our roads, and our roads are in the worst shape they have ever been.

The government’s own statistics have shown that 91 per cent of our regional roads – our roads across the state indeed – are in poor or very poor condition. They are like that because the money is not being spent on them because Labor cannot manage money. We are seeing that everywhere in the services that we are missing out on, in the roads that are not getting fixed and in the preventative maintenance. That performance measure includes resurfacing. We do resurfacing to make sure that a road is sealed and that water does not get in and we do not create potholes. The government has cut that to such an extent that there has been virtually no resurfacing program undertaken this year alone, and that is just a disgrace.

The government’s $26 million in spending on interest rates per day is leaving us without the ability to deliver the services that Victorians want. In my electorate that $26 million a day is three Mirboo North fire stations or Foster fire stations or Korumburra fire stations. It is four Foster Primary Schools. It is half of Sale College in a day. This government has lost control of the finances, and it is Victorians who are suffering the consequences. Labor cannot manage money. It has got $180 billion worth of debt, heading for $26 million a day, and that means services and the things that Victorians need will not be delivered.

Lauren KATHAGE (Yan Yean) (18:23): I am so pleased to rise and speak about how this government’s budget will be helping families in my electorate of Yan Yean. That is what I see when I see this budget. I see all the help there will be for the many, many young families that I represent in Yan Yean. Raising kids is fantastic. It is rewarding and it is wonderful, but it can be very expensive.

I would like to start just by reflecting on something that the member for Albert Park also reflected on, and that is the Glasses for Kids program that is run in our schools. This is one that is really close to my heart, with my daughter being in glasses since she was 15 months old and us sort of not realising before then that she did not have good vision and she could not see us properly. We have always been really glad that we were able to catch it early, to pick it up early, so that it was not a barrier for her. So to think of the children that will be in our schools receiving assessments by optometrists and all the extra kids that will be in glasses as a result just makes me so happy that they will have that barrier removed. We know that with this $6.8 million tripling of the glasses program we are going to reach another 74,000 kids. Another 74,000 kids are going to have their eyes tested, and the reason that is great for families is not just that it is good for their kids’ health and learning but it saves parents money at the optometrist. We know how hard it is, the weekly hustle, the Monday to Friday that goes past in a blur and before you know it, it is the weekend. Families do not want to be at the optometrist on the weekend, so I am so glad that we are delivering this additional Glasses for Kids program.

It is great to have the Minister for Community Sport here in the chamber because the Get Active Kids voucher program is just so important for my community, and it means so many kids can participate. Last week I was at Auskick in Wandong – 65 kids. There were 65 kids there at the Wandong Auskick, and I have never seen a harder thing to manage. So a very big thankyou to the president, Stuart, and all the volunteers that were there helping get these kids into line. Talking to families that were there, we talked about the cost of the registration, but parents were also saying that there are other costs that come with sport that people have to work into their budget. We were talking about where to get cheap footy boots and the like. Having this help with registration and costs like that is really important for getting kids into sport, and I know that is especially true for my area.

In the same way, Brodie and Kathy, the team at Laurimar Netball Club, have got the NetSetGO running at the moment, and it is going really well as well. It is a very popular sport for young people. As we heard, it is not just about physical wellbeing but it is also about social wellbeing, the social development of children and opportunities for parents to mingle. In the new estates, in the new areas, for things that bring the community together, sport is chief amongst them, so removing barriers from families participating in sport is absolutely brilliant.

The school saving bonus of $400 is, again, helping families – removing barriers from participation in excursions and camps and the like. We want all children to have amazing experiences. I know one of my local schools this Friday has a special science incursion with an external private provider coming in to run something that is promised to amaze and excite the children in terms of STEM. I imagine there will be a volcano – there usually is a pretend volcano. It is important for kids to have exposure to all the other things that go along with school, not just the three Rs.

Kids just grow and grow and grow, and their feet never stop growing. It seems like new shoes are required all the time. The difficulty with school shoes is they are not really something you can get second hand. A lot of families support each other by passing around school uniforms, but you cannot really do that for shoes.

A member interjected.

Lauren KATHAGE: The shoes fall apart; that is right. So it is good that we also have that additional support for families that require it, with the State Schools’ Relief program, so that kids can turn up proudly to school, ready to learn. With the expansion of the breakfast program for kids, they will be absolutely ready to learn. This is absolutely removing barriers for families in my electorate to have their children reaching their absolute best potential. We do not want mum and dad stressed out and worried. I do not know about you, Acting Speaker Farnham, but certainly I have noticed an increase in people reaching out in rental stress: ‘I need to leave my property. I’ve only got X amount of weeks. Has anyone seen anything available? I’ve applied everywhere. I can’t find anywhere. I can’t afford the properties that are available.’ This just seems to be becoming more and more common, and it seems to be very common, or more common – I hear it a lot – with single mothers who only have one income and are caring for their children. The rental stress is something that really worries me. So I am really glad that this budget has the rental stress support package, which will provide funding to organisations to support renters in the private market, giving advice, advocacy and legal assistance. I guess it is another step forward in our housing statement commitment, where we said that we would develop a package around rental stress.

Families are really at the centre of this budget, and so are learners – little and big learners. Learning is a theme throughout the budget in many different portfolios. We all know about the Building Blocks program and funding streams, and in this budget we have the improvement and inclusion grants for refurbishment of kinders. We have got some fantastic kinders that have been around for a long time. I am thinking about the Whittlesea kindergarten, which has clocked up decades and decades and decades of service. I am thinking about the kinders that are still running that my husband went to when he was little, so these ones do need a bit of a facelift, especially with the additional children that will be attending. This funding builds on Building Blocks funding we have had previously. In my area that has funded the construction of Murnong Kindergarten; we paid towards the Marymede kindergarten ‍– that is with the Catholic system; the Eucalyptus Parade Kindergarten we constructed; and the Orchard Road kindergarten. So we have been very busy building kinders in the electorate of Yan Yean and people have been very busy creating babies, so it just works out really well – we just get on perfectly. It is fantastic to see those facilities full of happy children. I was speaking with a kindergarten teacher at a community event on Sunday night – I am sadly moving from a kindergarten in my area to Kalkallo, so my loss is Minister Spence’s gain – but she just loves being a kindergarten teacher. She loves those kids, and they are really lucky to have her. The way that we are backing in families for kinder is really important.

Last year with our free kinder program 140,000 families were saved up to $2500 in kinder fees. That is huge. That is a huge amount of money for a family, up to $2500. That is a lot. It is good that, again, especially with three-year-old kinder, we are removing that barrier for people to send their children to kindergarten for that social and play-based learning, giving mum the chance to go back to work if she wants to.

The next stage up then, primary school, we were really excited to announce recently our new school in Wallan East, so that is opening in 2026. The funding is there in this budget for the construction of that school. It will have 525 students. There will be a kindy onsite. The local community centre is being constructed next door, with another kindergarten. Like I said, we make a lot of babies in Yan Yean. That is going to be a fabulous school. I cannot wait for the builder to be appointed, which will be mid-2024. I cannot wait to see that school open, and I know it is going to be a really important part of our community there.

Then on to the high schools, Whittlesea Secondary College will be upgraded with the funding in the budget there. I know principal Kathy Mourkakos was really happy to see that. It is a fantastic school with fantastic captains there – Caitlin, Will, Amy and Matthew – who do their school very proud. It is a school I am very proud of for its excellent musical productions. Last year was Chicago, and I hope I am not talking out of school when I say that this year’s production is Flashdance. I cannot wait to see Flashdance in the flesh at Whittlesea Secondary College. They are absolutely top-notch.

If people want to go on to TAFE, then we have got great support for TAFE in the budget as part of our $555 million to build the workforce. But teachers are really at the core of all of this – kindergarten teachers, schoolteachers, high school teachers. So they are not left behind in this budget: there is $139 million there. If you speak to teachers – and I am from a family of teachers, so I do a lot – around my electorate of Yan Yean and all the different schools, teachers’ workloads we all acknowledge are just really high. Teachers work so hard. They give so much for their students and so much to their schools. If I think of all the work that they do outside, I am glad that this $139 million is going towards improving workloads as well as professional development and wellness for our teachers. They absolutely deserve it, and I know everyone on this side would agree with me on that.

Learning is so important, family togetherness is so important, but it is all built on a foundation of health, so families and children need to be healthy to be able to enjoy the benefits of learning and community sport that we are talking about.

I was really humbled recently to host, last week actually, a women’s pain forum in Doreen where women from across the community gathered to talk about their experience of pain. One of the women as she was entering said to me, ‘I’ve never been to a women’s pain forum before.’ And I said, ‘Neither have I. I don’t know what we’re doing either. This is new. Let’s just try it and see what happens.’ In that room women were so courageous and so generous in sharing their stories of pain and how they had felt ignored and dismissed for so long. I am so proud to be part of a government that is working to address what has been just treated as less important. Something that is really tangible and helpful for the women that were there and for many women in my electorate is the opening of the comprehensive women’s health clinic at the Northern. Something we heard at the pain forum was how important it is to have specialists of all different stripes together to help women address complex issues, and that is exactly what this women’s health clinic at the Northern will do.

But people might not recognise the Northern when they go in future years because we are having a massive redevelopment. We are going to have a new emergency department at the Northern with a new paediatric section, just for kids. We are going to have a new mental health space there, a new alcohol and other drugs hub and additional inpatient beds. The Northern deserves it. It is a fantastic hospital. I met last week with the director of the emergency department Daniel Crompton, and he is so excited about the funding that is coming. I know that everybody in the northern suburbs is absolutely thrilled to be having a new emergency department. My father-in-law happened to be there on the weekend, unfortunately, through the emergency department and overnight in the Northern. Like many people, he absolutely raved about the staff – the fantastic nurses and doctors that we have got there at the Northern. They absolutely deserve and our patients deserve the very best in facilities as well, so I am so proud and so excited that we are delivering a new emergency department for the Northern. I cannot wait to see it get off the ground there.

We are going to have nurses that are working there who have studied free under a scholarship from this government. We will have GPs referring people there and those GPs will have benefited from a $30,000 top-up first-year payment to stay as a GP. GPs are so important to our system, and we will continue to find ways to support them through reducing their workload and supporting them with their studies and their exams. This budget is for families, and I am for families, and I am very happy to commend the bill to the house.

Brad BATTIN (Berwick) (18:38): Before I start – it is really important – I need to get something off my chest when it comes to this budget. First and foremost, I have to declare my conflict of interest. I am a mad, crazy Geelong supporter. I love my football club. They are a brilliant club. But I cannot understand any government that would put $4.5 million towards a scoreboard for an AFL club at the same time as cutting funding to cancer research in our state. That, to me, makes no sense. And I would guarantee I could go to nearly every Geelong supporter and say, ‘Would you give back the $4.5 million for a scoreboard that we didn’t need so we could put that money into cancer research here in Victoria?’ and overwhelmingly we would have a yes answer. The only people that would tend to answer no to that would be the Victorian Labor government, and that is a problem we have got in our state.

I have heard many on the other side talk about rental stress and some of the concerns that they have with people coming into their office and explaining to them they have got concerns when it comes to paying rent, particularly out in the growth corridors at the moment. Or if you drive through the inner east or inner west, you will see queues and queues of people trying to get a home, or a place they can rent and call their home. Yet at the same time, we are increasing taxes, regulations and putting pressure on people who are investors here in our state and driving them and their money away from Victoria. I met with our real estate agents locally to have this discussion because I know how important it is and what we need to do to ensure that we can make sure that every person that wants to have a home has the ability and the access at an affordable price. And it is not an answer for the government, it is an answer to ensure that we can involve the private sector who have done this for many years.

With rents increasing, this government want to demonise them. The reality is it is not about demonising them; they continue to tax them. Of every three investment properties out in Casey and Cardinia that go on the market for sale, only one of them on average is coming back as an investment property. So each time three houses go on the market that were investor properties and one returns, what do you think it is going to do? It increases pressure in the market, and therefore prices go up. At the same time, interest rates have gone up. At the same time, this government has put land tax on these properties. The landlords, who are there to ensure it is an investment, will pass most of those costs on to those people who are renting those houses.

Many landlords – most landlords – do not want to pass on these cost increases, and they wear them for as long as they can. But they are all written off as this rich, wonderful group rather than the mum-and-dad investors that they mostly are. There are actually statistics that say some of the most common investors here in Victoria are our emergency services workers; they are some of the most often to own one investment property here in our state. So those that are being punished by those opposite are actually those that they keep talking about being there to protect. We all know that is simply not true, and we need to make sure that our investment market is safe. We need to make sure that there is confidence, otherwise we will continue to see people go and invest in other states, and that is a negative outcome for this state.

At the same time, when the government say they are going to increase public housing but we know the results in Casey and Cardinia have effectively seen net growth of near zero public housing since this government has been in, you have got a real problem, because you have driven out the private sector. The government is not taking up any of that slack, and that is why rental properties through those areas have skyrocketed in price and people are living in cars. It is not just people who have traditionally been in that position; working families are living in cars because they cannot get a property, and we need to see that change.

We have seen out in the Casey–Cardinia area that one of the other issues has been – because of this government – that over a long period of time we have had a massive increase in crime. Some of these crimes that are increasing through our area are particularly around violent crime. I note the member laughing, but if you go and speak to the victims who have been involved in armed robberies, people coming through their houses with machetes, I am sure you would not be laughing. We have seen too many home invasions in Berwick – 96 in the last 12 months. Ninety-six families have had someone or some people come into their house with weapons to steal their cars and effectively take away their rights in their own home. We need to make sure that we have police services and resources available to respond to that as quickly as possible.

How would you do that? The first thing you would do is deliver on your own promise that if you were in government you would build a police station in Clyde North that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to respond to those crimes. That was promised before the 2018 election with the absolute, rolled-gold guarantee they would have it up and operating in the first 12 months to two years of being in government. They put a sign up. To give them credit, the sign said they would have it all going. The only thing that has changed since that date is it has vanished from the budget. There is no longer a line item at all, and the sign was updated to say 2025. So they have updated the sign in Clyde North to say they will not be delivering it on time, and I am actually not even confident they will deliver it by 2025.

I note the member for Cranbourne said the money is still there. It is probably sitting next to the funding for the FRV station in Clyde North, also promised by the Victorian Labor Party. That is not there either, and the money has gone from there. If you want an example of why that station was important, you might want to ask the family who lived just 100 metres away whose house caught on fire. They had a CFA station respond from Clyde and an FRV station respond from Cranbourne. These people should have had a truck there effectively 2 minutes after that fire started, which most likely would have kept it to the room of containment, being one garage, not damaging other garages and other houses and putting people at risk in that community.

On top of that, this government with the Thompsons Road and Berwick-Cranbourne Road upgrade came out and were more than happy to be on the front page of our local papers, all with their big smiles to say, ‘How good are we, getting on with the job,’ yet it is about five years away in the budget. We are seeing how many seats are growing in this area – how many new people – and the population is growing.

Pauline Richards interjected.

Brad BATTIN: I note the member for Cranbourne commenting. We know how many people are moving into our area down here. How many people are using that road because they have not got public transport because the rail was not built down to Clyde? They have to rely on the fact they have got one intersection, which is already packed daily and is going to have thousands of new people come onto it. Yet the solution from the Labor government is ‘We will fix it in five years time.’ Why does this happen? Why does this happen out in our area? It is quite simply because Labor cannot manage money, and when you cannot manage money the consequences are felt throughout the entire community.

I spoke about crime before. One of the other major concerns we have is community crime prevention. We know how important that is, and we now see that the budget for crime prevention here in Victoria has been slashed by 48 per cent, when crime in the community is at an all-time high. How can a government sit aside and literally say ‘We’re going to cut funding’ when it comes to crime prevention? It is not only funding. They have reduced the staff in the crime prevention unit by around 80 per cent. That means we have got the minimal amount of numbers – such a minimal amount they did not even have an opportunity to put forward a submission for what they would like to do to prevent crime here in our state for this budget because they do not have the capacity that they used to have. The Victorian Liberal and National parties were very proud to introduce Australia’s first crime prevention minister. It was Ed O’Donohue in the other house. We started the process; the reality is that whilst those opposite talk about it, we did it. We know that crime prevention is better than apprehending, arresting and putting in jail. It is cheaper, the outcomes are better for the community and people stay safer – all things that I think we should all back here in this house. But to cut the funding by 48 per cent because you cannot manage money is something that is going to impact every single person in the community, whether it is down here in metropolitan Melbourne or all the way up in Mildura, which actually had the most aggravated burglaries in the last 12 months.

The youth justice custodial budget has been slashed by 14 per cent. This is at a time when we know young people are coming out of the system worse than they were going in. We have got young people going down to Cherry Creek, and staff are not safe. The amount of violence we have had within the youth justice system is simply appalling and is putting staff continuously at risk. What we do see is that the increase in funding, any time that it has been for staff in youth custody services, is all towards management, so we are increasing the number of managers and we are increasing the number of supervisors. At the same time, we are not increasing the numbers of those that are working one on one with young people to give them the best opportunities – the tools that they need – to have improvements in their life. Acting Speaker Farnham, I know you have heard me say it: it is not about rehabilitation, it is about bringing kids out so they are ready to return to education or ready to return to work, or it is about ensuring that they go to the services they need. Unless one of those three outcomes is met, those kids will end up back in our detention centre or, worse, will effectively graduate to our jail system. The cost to hold a young person in the justice system here in Victoria is over $5500 every day – $5500 every day to hold a young person in detention here in Victoria. If we could keep one of those kids out for 12 months, we could re-fund the community crime prevention programs and ensure that we keep more kids out longer term – quite a simple solution. If you manage your money better, you can make sure that money is invested in the right spots, and it is so important.

Victoria Police, we all know, have had the roughest few years, particularly over COVID and then coming up to now, and some of the respect in the community for them has declined. That is because they were put into positions that no Victoria Police officer wanted to be in. The ring of steel – no police officer wanted to stop someone going from Pakenham to Longwarry. The border patrol – no Victoria Police officer wanted to stop a person coming back from New South Wales into Victoria. Going out to parks in Melbourne and arresting people – no copper wanted to go in and arrest people who were just out having a glass of wine or kids wanting to use a skate park.

That was not what coppers wanted to do, but the reality is the government forced them to do it. The result of that, and this is a huge risk to us, is we have seen satisfaction and confidence in Victoria Police decline to 58 per cent. It is the lowest of all time. And I will tell you now, a future government of Liberals and Nationals will do everything we can to build that respect again, because we know, understand and love the work that they do. We know that to have a community which is safe we need to have a Victorian police force that people can trust, and that comes from management down, from policymakers down. For those that go out in the media and are quite happy to bag the Victoria Police or put them out to do dirty work that is unnecessary and not within their normal duties, we need to reverse that now and let the community know that I, and I am going to say most people in here, respect Victoria Police for the job they do. They have a tough job, and it is time that the government and the Parliament got behind them.

The other thing we have seen, and we know this is very big out in the growth corridors, is a $207 million cut in the public health budget. This is a huge issue when Casey Hospital already has massive waiting lists. People are already being ramped when it comes to ambulances coming into the service. We heard just recently of a person dying while waiting at Maroondah Hospital. How the hell are we going to fix the system when the government is absolutely paramount on cutting these funds? And they have a choice, because they are putting funds into the Suburban Rail Loop. They could put the funds back into health and ensure that our health system is where it should be.

I know, and I have got the member for Nepean behind me, we have got $286 million slashed from the tourism budget. While some out there will try and paint this as ‘Getting rid of the tourism budget’s not the biggest issue in the world’, the reality is that tourism is one of the cornerstones of our budget. It is a cornerstone of our business, and we see it every time when we have things like the grand prix, proudly brought here by Jeff Kennett, making sure that our major sporting events are bringing people in. If you want to know when taxis are busiest, taxis are busiest during the two weeks of the Australian Open because the tourists are here for a long period of time. That is essential. How can a government cut the funding on their tourism strategy? What we are going to see now, and we are already starting to see it, is WA is going to increase its budget to come after our projects. They will be looking to try and get some of those major events across to Western Australia, and that is a huge problem.

But I will finish where I started. Governments have choices, and this government, whilst it might sound minor, chose to put $4.5 million into a scoreboard that no-one needed, no-one asked for and no-one would care if it was not there instead of putting $4.5 million into cancer research in Victoria. That is the sign of a bad government, when it cannot manage money.

Michaela SETTLE (Eureka) (18:53): I am delighted to rise and speak on these bills. But before I do go any further, I would just like to make some comments about the contributions from some on the other side. It has been a fairly extraordinary display of sort of flip-flopping through whether they think we should be spending or not spending money. The member for Brighton talked about the Premier having no plan. All I can say is the opposition seem to have absolutely no plan for how to talk this through. It is whether we want to spend or not spend – they really cannot work it out. But the most extraordinary contribution, the one that really takes the cake, came from the member for Bulleen, and someone really needs to tell him that a soufflé certainly does not rise three times.

What is really getting to them is that we have the fastest growing economy in Australia. Deloitte Access Economics is forecasting Victoria’s economy will outpace those of all other states over the next five years. Business in 2023 alone increased by 13 per cent. Unemployment remains historically low, at around 4 per cent, near the lowest in 50 years, and it is even better in regional Victoria. We have got a plan. We are the only state that has a plan to work with the budget that came from the COVID pandemic. You know what, they love their four-line slogan, and I would say to them, ‘Now that’s managing money.’ We know how to do it. We have got an economy that is the fastest growing in Australia, and that is how you manage money.

But I would like to talk about this budget and the really wonderful things in it.

Bridget Vallence: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, on relevance to the bill, I think the member may have missed a couple of other stats, which are the highest debt in the country and the highest taxes in the country.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Wayne Farnham): That is not a point of order.

Michaela SETTLE: How extraordinary, when they do not like statistics – this is why they keep flopping around. That is managing money, as we grow at the fastest rate of any state in this country. That is a great job by our Treasurer. What I love most about this budget is that this government knows that we need to work on that economic balance, and he has put the work in. It is a fine line between that and delivering the services that people need. I would like to thank our amazing Treasurer for the 10 budgets he has delivered, and all of his staff who have worked so hard to make sure that we are continuing to grow our economy but also that the services we need are there.

Of course we know that across Australia and indeed across the world we are all feeling the impacts of the cost of living. From rises in interest rates to inflation, many are doing it tough. A Labor government will always stand side-by-side with our communities. We will not cut their free fruit just to make our budget balance. We will make sure that we walk the line of looking after the economy, encouraging growth and supporting those who need it most.

This budget continues our work of helping families with cost-of-living pressures. The $400 schoolkids bonus will help make sure our kids have all that they need for a good day at school. One close to my heart is rolling out breakfast club to every government school. I know it well from having been a volunteer, and I have seen the real difference it makes to kids’ learning. We are not cutting their fruit; we are making sure they have got full bellies every day that they go to school, and of course we are tripling our free glasses program. We know that learning goes beyond the classroom, and the Get Active Kids vouchers are an incredibly valuable contribution to families, certainly across my electorate.

I think I would like to focus locally here. What I really love about it is that it is a sensible budget that continues to support the most vulnerable. Locally, for me that means funding for Youth Live4Life, which supports kids with their mental health. It means support for McAuley House for homeless women. It means funding for our mental health and wellbeing hubs in Ballarat. It means continued funding for legal services for women at maternal health clinics across my electorate. These are really important programs that are looking after the most vulnerable in our community. Those on the other side would have them cut so that they could gloat about some sort of budget surplus. We want to make sure we walk the line where we look after our communities and continue with economic growth.

A real game changer for me is the funding for the mental health, alcohol and other drug emergency hub at Grampians Health. This is going to provide a dedicated support service for people who are struggling with addiction, but it also means that it will free up the capacity in the existing emergency department. It makes EDs safer for us all.

Another one of the wonderful contributions I heard from the other side – from the member for Murray Plains – was the suggestion that regional development had somehow been gutted under our government. As the Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development, I was really surprised to hear that. He suggested it was a shadow of its former self, and he wanted to glorify the days when under his government it was used as a pork-barrel bonanza. I want to get some facts straight. Regional Development Victoria will deliver close to $3 million over the next 12 months, marking the portfolio’s biggest investment in recent years. This increased investment is driven by the rollout of the expanded $20 million Tiny Towns Fund. They can still have their community halls, but we are doing it with a view to economic development in the region. I would like to point out there have not been staffing cuts. RDV is actively recruiting to support its renewed focus on economic development and investment. That is what is so special about this budget – it is walking that line and making sure that we are growing the budget. Our roads have never seen such investment. We are investing nearly double what those on the other side did, on average, between 2010 and 2014. That is country roads for country people. This budget loves regional Victoria.

The SPEAKER: The time set down for consideration of the remaining items on the government business program has arrived, and I am required to interrupt business.

Motions agreed to.

Read second time.

Third reading

Motions agreed to.

Read third time.

The SPEAKER: The bills will now be sent to the Legislative Council and their agreement requested.