Wednesday, 29 May 2024
Motions
Budget papers 2024–25
Motions
Budget papers 2024–25
That this house takes note of the 2024–25 budget papers.
It gives me great pleasure to talk on this incredible budget the Treasurer handed down. Part of the funding in this budget is for the Great Outdoors Taskforce. What that debate on the Sustainable Forests (Timber) Repeal Bill 2024 reminded me just before is that there are extremes in this Parliament. They exist in the Greens political party, and they exist in the Liberal–Nationals. Both parties are not fit to govern Victoria, so you need the centrist party, the Labor Party, to come in and calm down both sides, both extremes. There are the disjointed and a bit over-the-top remarks by the Manager of Opposition Business, scaring everybody about impending doom and gloom, and the extremes on the other side, in the Greens political party, scaring everybody on the other side. It just goes to show that those two parties are not fit to govern Victoria.
You need a centrist party like us to come in and say that public land should be for all Victorians. It should be absolutely for those communities that live in regional and rural Victoria. It should be for their benefit economically and their benefit in terms of their way of life, and that is what we are here to support. But we are always here to support the intergenerational benefit of Victorian public lands. You cannot have intergenerational benefit from Victorian public lands if you do not look after those public lands. We are looking after those public lands, but we will also allow activities that Victorians enjoy: bushwalking; nature observation and picnicking; camping; car touring, including four-wheel driving; trail bike riding on roads and tracks; mountain biking and cycling; horseriding on tracks and roads; and a whole range of other activities. You cannot expect it from the Liberal–National Party, whose view is effectively ‘Everything should be available everywhere on any given day anywhere. Forget nature, don’t worry about nature. Don’t worry about preserving anything for the future.’ And the Greens’ view is ‘Lock ’em up and throw away the key.’ This party is a party for all Victorians, a centrist party that says public land is for the public. What does that actually mean? It means that you look after it for future generations but you allow people to go out there and enjoy it. That is what our government is about. That is what this Premier is about, hence the establishment of the Great Outdoors Taskforce funded in this budget and headed up by the former environment minister. I could not think of a better person than the former environment minister to head up this Great Outdoors Taskforce. There is $11 million –
James Newbury interjected.
Steve DIMOPOULOS: The Manager of Opposition Business says, ‘Is she being paid?’ No, let us get people to work for free, Manager of Opposition Business. What a ridiculous interjection. He has not done a day’s work without being paid, this fellow, but apparently others cannot be paid. Of course she is being paid, as she should be, and nowhere near enough.
We have got the Great Outdoors Taskforce. We have got the former environment minister of Victoria – I could not be prouder to work with someone of that calibre – and then we have got two other people with huge environmental credentials. We have got a tourism-focused person on there from Gippsland Tourism and we have got an outdoor recreation focused person, and of course we have got traditional owners on the governing board as well. That is the recipe for a successful outcome on the Great Outdoors Taskforce. They have got an $11 million budget. They will come back to us early next year and they will tell us what the community have told them about what they want to see in these 1.8 million hectares of land that we have now unencumbered effectively for future generations of Victorians, including the Victorians who live in those areas, about what is possible in that area – as I said, tourism, outdoor recreation and a whole range of other activities – and what areas have to be looked after through conservation measures. That is what the Great Outdoors Taskforce will do, and I cannot wait for their report. They are funded, they have got the authorising environment, and they are going to do good work. Remember that what we have effectively got in this parcel of land and the existing state forest is a parcel of land bigger than the size of Tasmania. We have an opportunity here to do something of a significant nature for future communities of Victorians.
That is not all that the budget does in terms of regional communities and my portfolio more generally. I had the real pleasure a couple of weeks ago to launch effectively in excess of $100 million of funding to regional Victoria just in my portfolio – over $100 million. They cannot say the same thing. When they were in government they closed many, many services regional Victorians relied on, from rail to hospitals – we heard it all. They come here saying, ‘Do more, do more.’ Well, you should have done a little bit more when you were in power. In the last few weeks I have announced $38 million for the extension of the Regional Events Fund – $38 million only for regional events, not metro events. There is $62 million for regional tourism investment – $62 million. I announced that funding at Phillip Island Nature Parks, where they are doing work right now on a $5 million upgrade of the boardwalk. Not only are the penguins protected, they also have –
Michael O’Brien interjected.
Steve DIMOPOULOS: I will take up the interjection. The member for Malvern says, ‘How is the Boxing Day test going?’ Can I just say to the member for Malvern: we have not needed your help to curate the best major events calendar for a decade, and I will not be asking for your help now. Don’t you worry about how that is going. Don’t you worry. All you need to worry about is getting tickets for when it happens. That is all you need to worry about.
Members interjecting.
Brad Rowswell: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, the minister is on his feet at the moment. He is a member of the executive. He knows that responding to interjections is disorderly. There is a very important budget which is being considered at the moment, and surely the minister has some positive things to talk about without being so disorderly.
The ACTING SPEAKER (Daniela De Martino): In terms of being disorderly, I would say the interjections across the table have been disorderly as well. Can I please bring the minister back to the take-note motion, and can we please have some quiet so we can actually hear the minister.
Steve DIMOPOULOS: It is the best fun they have had all week. They cannot help themselves. The budget delivers a big uplift in the major events calendar, because we know under our government major events are responsible for $3.3 billion in economic activity. That is from major events.
Just for the record, the member referenced that apparently it was Jeff Kennett who brought the grand prix. Do you know who it was that set up the Victorian Major Events Company, the decades-ago version of Visit Victoria? It was Joan Kirner.
A member: Ron Walker.
Steve DIMOPOULOS: No, no. Who actually commissioned Ron Walker to form the major events company? It was Joan Kirner. It is always interesting when you hold the other side to account; they come back with a distorted view of history.
Nonetheless the other thing that I am really proud of in the portfolios that the Premier gifted to me, effectively, is the outdoor recreation portfolio. We have done an incredible amount of work in the fishing industry with recreational fishing and commercial fisheries. We have achieved a situation where we can have in this state both commercial fishing operations and recreational fishing operations. When it comes to recreational fishing the investment has been enormous, because of effectively what is a hypothecated fund through the fishing licence fees that go back into a central trust and are then used to effectively fund infrastructure and fish-stocking operations. We stock more fish in Victorian waterways; more fish is really important. The member for Clarinda and I were both at Karkarook Park. We stock more fish in Victorian waterways, both inland waterways and coastal waterways, than all states and territories combined. We hit a milestone of 10 million fish stocked about six weeks ago, two months ago. I celebrated that milestone at Lake Wendouree in Ballarat, where I met with the Ballarat Fly Fishers Club, a great club which has been around for I think the best part of 50 or 60 years. They are extraordinarily complimentary of the work of the Victorian Farmers Federation and the work of our apparatus, our investment of 10 million fish stocked in one year, and our support of fishing clubs through a range of things they do. I stocked Lake Wendouree with some trout, and I was really proud to do that. Recreational fishing is a fundamental –
A member interjected.
Steve DIMOPOULOS: Yes, I did. I didn’t actually get them on. I did it from the safety of the deck, where after a good fishing –
A member interjected.
Steve DIMOPOULOS: No, I did not go for a coffee. I was on the deck where, at the beautiful fishing club, the members watch the beautiful sun on the water while they are fishing and may have a bevvy or two. They may have had a beer or two. I did not. I stocked Lake Wendouree. But fishing is fundamentally important for families, and it is important for mental health and for regional economies. Waterways right through regional Victoria benefit from the visitations they get because of our fishing support and investments. We are really proud. Unlike the Greens political party, who diagnose a whole range of ills around this amazing initiative, I thought, every grade 5 student in Victoria got a fishing kit –
Belinda Wilson interjected.
Steve DIMOPOULOS: It is incredible. In a day and age when we try and get young people involved in healthier activities, somehow the Greens political party finds a problem with that. Anyway, that investment I am really proud of, as I am of Snobs Creek hatchery, near Eildon. I was joined by the member for Eildon – it was really good; we opened the next instalment, effectively, the next footprint of that –
James Newbury interjected.
Steve DIMOPOULOS: Acting Speaker, I am going to resist the temptation. The member for Eildon and I opened what is effectively a threatened species hatchery. It is incredible. This is, again, funded by the investments we put back in from the fishing licence fees. It is effectively a science lab which looks after threatened species not only existing right now in Victoria but in terms of preventing the death of certain communities of threatened species when there are bushfires and storms. This has the capacity to take a community of a threatened species, put them into this special facility at Snobs Creek and actually look after them while there are natural disasters going on in Victoria. I think they were talking about 10 threatened species. It is a partnership with the federal government, so we have federal government representation there. It was a fantastic example of investments in the full circle of fishing, not just fishing and fishing clubs, not just infrastructure, but looking after the actual fish themselves, including threatened species. You can do it all if you do not have the extremes which we see on the other side of politics, right? You can do it all. In fact 220 waterways are benefiting from the 10 million fish we have stocked in one 12-month period. It is an accessible, affordable activity.
This government and the Premier are all for Victorians getting out in the great outdoors and enjoying the great outdoors, but with that comes an obligation. There comes an obligation to look after the natural environment so that it is there for your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren and future generations of Victorians. There is a middle road here. That is why we have been going around regional Victoria asking people what they think, and they have been coming to us in droves.
James Newbury interjected.
Steve DIMOPOULOS: They are saying no to what, member for Brighton? Acting Speaker, exhibit A: the member for Brighton. I have just said all this about what we are actually doing, and he comes back with his Trumpesque headline: ‘You’re locking it up.’ Clearly we are not locking it up, and he has got no evidence of that. This is part of the problem with current politics on that side. It becomes binary, it becomes untruthful and it becomes really unhelpful.
We are asking Victorians what they want to see with that extraordinary gift of 1.8 million hectares of land, and they want to see tourism opportunities, they want to see outdoor recreation opportunities and they want to see conservation opportunities. When the taskforce comes back early next year, we will be able to do all of those things in good measure. We will be able to be proper and true custodians, together with traditional owners, of the lands that we have inherited and give Victorians the best of all worlds going into the future.
Michael O’BRIEN (Malvern) (15:28): I was going to start on the budget, but given I did not get the chance to speak on the forestry bill and given this budget does provide for a pitiful amount of support for soon-to-be-sacked forestry workers, I thought I would just put this point on the record. I think all members received last month a book, unsolicited, in our electorate offices from David Lindenmayer called The Forest Wars. I did notice there was a reference in that book to one of my friends and former colleagues the former member for Narracan. It says:
On 6 April 2022, I was verballed when Gary Blackwood (former Liberal Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly) used parliamentary privilege to defame me in the Upper House of the Victorian Parliament. He questioned my scientific publication record.
Well, you have got to ask about the scientific credentials and the common sense of somebody who cannot be bothered fact-checking what is the upper house of the Victorian Parliament. If these are the scientific credentials of the man that the government is basing its decision to close down Victoria’s native timber industry on, you have to ask: what on earth is the government doing? I know that Dr Lindenmayer has got a glass jaw; I know he runs off to the Privileges Committee at the drop of a hat. I welcome him to take this up with the Privileges Committee, because if he can explain why he cannot understand the difference between the Legislative Assembly and the upper house and put that in his book, which he has published and which has presumably been fact-checked and researched the same way I assume that he fact-checks and researches his own scientific publications, then this bloke has got no credibility whatsoever.
On the way out, on this particular topic, when there are only four trees out of every 10,000 that are being harvested and every one of those four trees is being replaced and regenerated it is the very definition of a sustainable industry. It is one which aids carbon abatement, as the IPCC has demonstrated, and for the government to shut that down is just an absolute disgrace.
I will leave this topic with this one quote. This is from a former Labor Minister for Jobs, Innovation and Trade, of all things. It was on 13 November 2019, and he said:
The government is not in the business of shutting down an industry which is the lifeblood of regional communities and which employs thousands of people.
Unfortunately for the timber workers of Gippsland, Mr Pakula was a big greyhound racing fan. Maybe if you could place a bet on tree logging, the government would have protected that industry too. But no, the government is very keen to protect the greyhounds – the dish lickers – but not so keen to protect good, well-paying blue-collar jobs in regional Victoria.
I have been able to talk about that issue for the first 3 or 4 minutes because I was going to devote a third of my contribution to the government investment in my electorate of Malvern in this budget, but, guess what, there is none. There is nothing – doughnuts, absolute doughnuts. Did we get the money to reopen my local police station 24 hours a day instead of just 8 hours a day, which Labor has closed it down to? No, we did not. It is closed for 16 hours a day. God help you if you are a woman fleeing family violence and you want to go to a safe place, and you think the safe place might be your local police station and you go there and you get a closed sign on the door telling you to go off to Prahran instead. If the government thinks that is a proper way to treat women in my electorate, I disagree. There is no money for that – no money to reopen our police station 24 hours a day, which it had been for decades before this year and before Labor got its grubby hands on it. There is no money to deal with level crossings in my electorate, which are more dangerous, more deadly and cause more congestion than hundreds of others across the state. Because this government plays politics with everything, particularly infrastructure, my level crossings in Glen Iris, in Tooronga Road and Glenferrie Road are not getting touched at all. We have had hundreds of tram services cut from the Malvern electorate this year alone. My constituents work hard, they pay their taxes and they get less and less from this government every time.
I have been receiving emails from parents who send their kids to local low-fee Catholic schools, and they cannot understand why this government and this budget has discriminated against them. They do not understand how it is fair that because they have a certain faith and they send their children to a school that reflects that faith they should miss out on a $400 credit that parents who send their kids to a state school get. I will find one of those emails now because I think it is important to put it on the record. I will not mention the name of the constituent because I have not sought her permission, but I will provide the email to Hansard so it can be verified. It says:
I am very concerned by the Allan Labor Government’s $400 School Saving Bonus for all school students in government schools regardless of income, but only for Health Care Card holders in Catholic schools.
As the parent of a child in a Catholic school I believe this payment should be applied equally. Either means tested for all students or available to all students.
It should not be based on which school you attend.
Families in Catholic schools are also experiencing cost of living pressures. This announcement discriminates against my family and punishes me for choosing to send my child to a Catholic school.
This family is punished.
A member: No, they’re not.
Michael O’BRIEN: I will take up the interjection. You can be a multimillionaire and send your child to a selective entry state school like Melbourne High and you will get your $400. If you are a poor, working-class family doing it really tough but your faith is important to you and you send your kids to a local low-fee Catholic school, you get nothing from this government. This government thinks that it is fair; I call it religious discrimination. They would rather give money to Ferrari-driving spivs who send their kids to selective entry government schools than look after those who are doing it tough and happen to be families of faith, and I think that is very much to the government’s discredit.
Members interjecting.
Michael O’BRIEN: I can hear the whinges coming from those opposite, but I can tell you what – those families of Catholic and other independent schools will not forget the way this government has treated them. They will not forget it.
There is nothing in this budget for my electorate, absolutely nothing. None of the state schools in my electorate that need funding, that need refurbishment, have received a single cent. Again, apparently it is only my constituents’ job to pay taxes to this government, not actually get any investment from this government. We get nothing. We do not get a 24-hour police station. We do not get our level crossings removed. We do not get investment in our schools. We get our tram services cut. We get nothing, we get absolutely nothing. It is a disgrace; it is absolutely a disgrace.
Members interjecting.
Michael O’BRIEN: I am glad it is such a source of amusement to the Labor backbench. They think it is really funny that my families – my parents, my kids, the kids of my families in my electorate – get ripped off. They think that is really funny. It just shows you the arrogance of a government that has been in for 10 years – and 10 years too long – because that sort of arrogance is what precedes a big electoral defeat. I cannot wait for it to happen.
So where are we with this budget? Well, from a portfolio point of view, it is another great Labor budget in the Attorney-General’s portfolio because they have cut funding to the courts. The budget papers are very, very clear: $77 million worth of funding to the courts cut over the forward estimates. Again, we hear a lot of chatter from those opposite about standing up for women facing family violence. How does it help them when you increase the backlogs in the Magistrates’ Court to get access to a family violence intervention order or a personal safety intervention order? When you cut funding to the courts, you make it harder for people to get into the courts to get access to justice. How on earth are those two things consistent? How can you say you are supporting more women when you are cutting funding to the courts? Yet that is exactly what the government has done. As the CEO of Court Services Victoria Louise Anderson confirmed to the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee just last Friday, already 50 to 60 jobs have been lost at Court Services Victoria with more job losses still to come.
Another interesting thing came out from the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee last Friday when the Attorney-General was before it: two years ago now this government received a report from the Victorian Law Reform Commission on stalking. Stalking is a problem which, sadly, overwhelmingly affects women rather than men, and it leads to death in many cases. This law reform commission inquiry was established at the impetus of Aggie Di Mauro, who is the mother of Celeste Manno, and I am sure members are familiar with the tragic – absolutely tragic – murder of Celeste Manno by a former work colleague who stalked her. She was failed by the system, and that failure that allowed that stalking to continue and to escalate to murder is what led to this VLRC report. This government has been sitting on this final report and its 45 recommendations for two years now – the government received it in June 2022 – and on Friday the Attorney-General said, ‘I’m not going to respond to the recommendations.’ The Attorney-General said, ‘I’m not going to respond to the recommendations; I don’t have to.’ What a slap in the face to victims of stalking. What a slap in the face to the memory of Celeste Manno. What a slap in the face to her grieving family, especially Aggie Di Mauro. To say they are going to deal with this tragedy by commissioning the law reform commission to undertake an inquiry and then turn around and say they are going to sit on this report for two years and not even respond to it is an absolute disgrace. It demonstrates that all the rhetoric we hear from the government, from the Premier down, about making changes to improve safety for women in this state is just that, rhetoric, because when it comes time for the rubber to hit the road, when it comes time to deliver on outcomes to make this state safer for women, the government could respond to any of the 45 recommendations in that VLRC report and instead the government has said it is not even going to touch them. That is an absolute disgrace.
Our courts have got bad backlogs, the worst in the country. The government has cut funding to the courts. The government will not be responding to the VLRC recommendations on stalking. The government has also cut funding in real terms for IBAC. The government has cut funding in real terms for the Victorian Ombudsman. The government has cut funding in real terms for the Victorian Inspectorate. Any integrity agency in this state gets its funding cut in real terms because this government hates scrutiny. This government know it engages in bad behaviour. It does not want it to be exposed, so it cuts the resources of the integrity agencies and the watchdogs in this state.
In terms of the overall budget, can I say, as the most recent Liberal Treasurer of Victoria, I just need to put a few facts on the record, because when you see the state of the books it shows you what 10 long years of Labor budgets have led to. When the government was elected in 2014 Victoria’s state debt was under $22 billion. It is now on track to be $188 billion. Daily interest was less than $6 million; it is on track to be $26 million a day in interest. Just one day of interest on Labor’s debt could fix up every single state school in my electorate – every single one. But no, that money has got to go to paying off the interest on Labor’s debt, not to actually improving the education of the children in my electorate.
State tax has gone from under $18 billion to over $45 billion. Land tax – I know that members opposite think that everyone who pays land tax must be some sort of rich robber baron. It is not the case at all. This government seems to think that people who want to own an investment property to provide for themselves in retirement are rich robber barons. Any family who aspires to have a holiday shack to get away is some rich robber baron. Well, land tax was under 10 per cent of the state tax base in my last budget. It is now 20 per cent – it is double. The fire services property levy was $600 million in our last budget; it is over $1 billion in this year coming up – money going to government so they can pay off their mates in the United Firefighters Union.
And look at the credit rating. We used to have the strongest credit rating of any state in the country – a stable AAA credit rating. We have now got the worst credit rating of any state in the country, down to a miserly AA. And what does that mean – when you have a lower credit rating, you pay higher interest rates on your debt. That is the way it works. Your credit rating assesses how much you have got to offer in interest to get people to buy your bonds. That is where we are. After 10 years of Labor government, this state is not better off. My electorate is not better off.
Our kids and their kids face a bleak financial future paying back the accumulated debt from the bunch of wastrels that we have seen in charge of the Treasury benches over the last decade. While speaking to one of my local schools last week, I apologised to them. I said, because of what this government has done, it is going to be your generation that is going to have to pay this back. You are the ones who will have higher taxes, you are the ones who will have fewer services, all because of what this government has done over the last 10 years. If there is one thing that we can say about this Treasurer, the current Premier and the former Premier, it is this: Victorians will be forever in their debt.
Meng Heang TAK (Clarinda) (15:43): I am delighted to rise today to speak on the budget take-note motion. Today is a very exciting day for me and my community in Clarinda and for all Victorians, especially Victorian families, because we can see that the Allan Labor government’s first budget is dedicated to helping families in Clarinda and across Victoria. This government’s priorities are clear to see here: whether it is helping with the cost of living, making sure that our kids can be at their best, record funding for our healthcare system or continuing to invest in more of the services families rely on, the 2024–25 Victorian budget invests in our community.
There are some great local wins here, and I would like to talk more about them, particularly for Clarinda students and their families. We want young Victorians to have what they need to have success in classrooms, and as a former teacher, Acting Speaker De Martino, you know very well the support that this budget will provide. That is why this budget invests in upgrading schools across the state, including, in my electorate, the Clayton South Primary School. This upgrade will deliver $12.5 million to rebuild the main classroom and build a new playground, ensuring world-class spaces for kids and that our hardworking teachers at Clayton South deserve. I could not not talk about the time that I and the member for Mordialloc delivered the news to the former principal at the time that we had committed to an election commitment of $12.5 million. I could see on the face of the former principal at the time that he could not believe it, but to know that now it is coming is even more of a blessing.
We were very fortunate to secure some significant election commitments for our local community, and certainly Clayton South Primary School was one of those commitments. Since the election we have been getting on with delivering on those election commitments for our communities, investing in what matters for the people of Clarinda and the services and projects that matter for all Victorians. This is a fantastic outcome for Clayton South Primary School. There have been several principals and acting principals over the journey of this funding, from Greg Clement to Dean Napier and now principal Craig Pauwels. Each has given and brought a lot to the Clayton South community and each has been a very strong advocate for this funding and for these upgrades, which will have really important benefits for our students and for the local community. So I say thank you to each of them as well as to the hardworking teachers and staff and volunteers at Clayton South Primary School. This is well deserved.
The good news continues for school families across the Clarinda district with the $400 school saving bonus to help cover costs. With the current cost of living, covering supplies and extracurricular activities can be hard on families that are doing it tough. Uniforms, camps and excursions – it all adds up. That is why we are providing the one-off school saving bonus to help cover those costs. This $400 bonus will help make sure that our kids have everything that they need for school, supporting families with children at government schools and families at our non-government schools who need it most. This is very welcome support for families in my electorate, dedicated to help cover the cost of learning essentials and the extracurriculars that make school fun. We will work with schools to make it available for the start of the 2025 school year.
We are also tripling our free Glasses for Kids program. This is another great program, and I was previously delighted to join the prep to grade 3 students at Westall Primary School for their vision screening onsite. I would like to take this opportunity once again to thank State Schools’ Relief and their partners for coming down to Westall Primary School. State Schools’ Relief’s dedicated work has ensured that vision impairments in thousands of Victorian children has been detected and treated early. Importantly, the program has introduced tens of thousands of students to the importance of eye health at a very early stage.
Some of the Westall Primary School kids were really excited; I was there to see and talk to them and to their parents. It will make a huge difference to the learning outcomes for our youngest students. It was great to hear about the difference it will make not just in school but also in everyday life. So it is fantastic to see that initiative being tripled, making sure that even more young Victorians can be at their best in the classroom and beyond. Having already helped 34,000 kids across our state, this investment will help 74,000 more, providing free vision screening and prescription glasses for students who need it most. It is a great outcome for our kids, our communities and our families.
Also being extended is the Get Active Kids voucher program – more great news for families, because we know that learning is not limited to the classroom. We are investing $6 million to extend our Get Active Kids vouchers, providing up to $200 to help eligible families with the cost of sporting club registration, uniforms and equipment. That is more welcome news for Clarinda families.
It is a big win for families and education, with more than $1.8 billion invested to continue building the Education State and building a better future for Victorian children, and these are really important initiatives for the cost of living, which is a major priority in my community. Utility bills, everyday bills and balancing the family budget are constantly on the minds of families in Clarinda and across the state. These initiatives – the $400 school saving bonus, Glasses for Kids and the $200 Get Active Kids vouchers – are important assistance for families in my electorate and across the state.
Moving on, in the state’s south-east I am very proud of the Allan Labor government’s strong commitment to our health care. It is another major priority in Clarinda. It was an honour and privilege to have the Monash Medical Centre in the Clarinda district several years ago before the latest Victorian Electoral Commission redistribution, which saw the Monash move to the Oakleigh district. But for sure my constituents in Clarinda would have the benefit of visiting and seeing the amazing work that has been done since 2018 on the Monash Medical Centre. We completed the $76.3 million emergency department expansion, delivering additional emergency department beds and extra short-stay beds as well as the mental health, alcohol and other drugs hub and the dedicated children’s emergency area, which is fantastic for our youngsters. It is an amazing facility. I have been there many times with the former and now ministers for health. It could not be any better.
We see nearly 5 per cent of the state emergency cases at the centre in Clayton, which is not far away from my electorate, and as always I would like to say another thankyou to each and every one of the amazing healthcare workers and staff at Monash for the wonderful work that they do. They do it day in, day out, and we will continue to support that amazing work, delivering expanded and improved facilities and enhanced service delivery to meet the needs of our growing local community. That means expanding the Monash Medical Centre, with new operating suites, bigger maternity care facilities and a new intensive care unit, ensuring local families have the care they need close to home – a fantastic outcome for Clarinda and for the south-east region.
Since we came to government Victorian public hospitals now employ over 5000 more doctors and over 13,000 more nurses. During the pandemic, when our healthcare system was stretched like never before, we acted decisively, providing record funding to bolster our healthcare system. Since the pandemic the cost of running our health system has continued to increase, but every cent is worth it to keep Victorians healthy. That is why we are making the biggest multiyear investment in our healthcare system in Victorian history. It means that our hospitals will have the long-term certainty they need over the coming years. These investments are very much welcomed in my district and by Clarinda families in particular, and we will continue to invest in and support these vital health services that families rely on.
We are delivering in health care, in education and of course in public transport. The Metro Tunnel will transform the way we move around our city and our state. It will be the most transformational public transport project since the city loop more than 40 years ago. This budget invests more than $233 million getting passengers ready for day one. I would like to talk more about my local community and how public transport will connect passengers travelling on the Cranbourne–Pakenham line to the five metro stations with more trains more often for families in Clarinda. It also means the Frankston line can go back into the city loop, improving services for passengers. Buses also play a very important role in our public transport network. It is an important resource for Clarinda, helping to connect community members to work, school and each other from various parts of my district, from one destination to another destination. This budget builds on our investments with $29.7 million to improve public transport services, including improved weekend bus services to and around Chadstone shopping centre. We all love Chadstone, one of the biggest shopping centres in the south-east. This is a great result for our locals with the introduction of the Sunday service and an extended service into the evenings on bus route 800, which is very popular locally.
In my remaining time I would like to touch more on our local wins. The first is the win for our local community legal service – and I also would like to share and commend the effort of the hardworking member for Mulgrave – the South-East Monash Legal Service. The community legal centre does an incredible job, making sure that Victorians can access the legal support they need. We are supporting this important work with $28.8 million for community legal centres and specialist legal services, including the South-East Monash Legal Service. Funding will support the Sporting Change program. This program partners with schools in Melbourne’s south-east to teach young people about the justice system and supports access to justice with the school lawyer integrated into the school wellbeing team. It is an amazing project, and I am really looking forward to catching up. I commend the motion to the house.
Tim BULL (Gippsland East) (15:57): It is a pleasure to rise and talk on the take-note motion on the 2024–25 budget papers. With only a couple of minutes before we break, I look forward to coming back and completing my contribution after the grievance debate this arvo. But in relation to this budget, where do you start? This is undeniable proof that we are in a horrible, horrible mess financially in this state. The government simply cannot manage money. Net debt is forecast to hit $188 billion with interest repayments of $26 million a day – $26 million a day; you almost cannot comprehend that. But we have people stand up in this chamber and read off their speaking notes that the world is all good, that there is nothing to worry about because the Treasurer gave his budget speech and the Treasurer said everything was absolutely fine and dandy. Well, the newsflash that we have got is that things are not so good – they are not so good at all.
We hear government members stand up on that side of the chamber and cherrypick the few pieces of apparently good news and read from their provided speaking notes about everything being fine. But the reality of it is we all know that it is just putting lipstick on a pig. This government has sent us into an absolute complete financial crisis. I read there were tears in the caucus room there at one stage because people were told that they were not getting what was promised prior to the election. I can sort of understand that, because when you are told you are going to get something you do not want things kicked down the road into oblivion. I think we all come in here wanting to deliver for our individual communities. I can certainly understand that. But it would be nice, as I said on the timber bill a little bit earlier, if people came in here and spoke about what the true situation really is rather than coming in here and holding the lipstick and trying to get it on that pig.
The budget papers actually do not outline that things are ever going to get any better. Those in marginal seats, I would have thought, would be very, very nervous just at the present time, because things are not looking good in the out years. Our state debt is forced to go up and our interest payments are going up again. Things are simply not okay at all.
Business interrupted under sessional orders.