Wednesday, 29 May 2024

Motions

Budget papers 2023–24

Debate resumed.

Tim BULL (Gippsland East) (18:01): It is good to have a bit of encouragement from the Minister for Casino, Gaming and Liquor Regulation at the table. Just before the break I was commenting that anyone who thinks that this is possibly a good budget is trying to put lipstick on a pig, and it is just under no circumstance on any measure a good budget. When the Treasurer comes in here to give his budget speech and he tells us how financially astute he is and how things are travelling really well, he has fair dinkum got to be drinking his own bathwater if he thinks that the state is going that well. It is not.

I want to work through a few of the portfolios. We will start off with health. We have a health minister saying that no more funding will be provided to hospitals at the end of the financial year should they overrun their budgets. So country hospitals that have as an absolute priority providing services to their community now have this black cloud hanging over their head that if they go over budget, they are not going to receive compensation for that. Their paramount priority is to provide health services to our rural and regional communities. They should not be asked to do that with the threat hanging over their head that if they go over budget, they will not be looked after. It has been a long-standing practice that the government of the day will meet budget shortfalls at the end of the financial year for our hospitals, and that should continue. That threat should not be put in place. Fancy making that threat to our hospitals when we are going to be paying $26 million a day in interest. We cut funding to cancer research by 70 per cent while we are heading towards paying $26 million a day in interest. That is proof that the government is not managing money well. They cannot manage money. How the Treasurer can sugar-coat that into ‘things are travelling well in this state’ is beyond anyone’s reasonable level of comprehension.

Mental health and the locals that were promised – only 15 of 50 have been rolled out. One of those is in my patch, one of the 15 that have been rolled out. It is offering telehealth appointments only. The second rollout has been put on hold. The Treasurer cited staffing and that ‘We are pausing this rollout because we haven’t got the appropriate levels of staff.’ Wouldn’t you factor that in before you made that announcement? Wouldn’t you consider, ‘Have we got the staffing levels to make this commitment to those communities?’ That did not happen, but what is annoying people most is that there are no solid plans to address the workforce shortages that the Treasurer refers to. We have only got motherhood words. We have got no secure plan to fix the staffing shortfalls. We have just pushed the opening of those mental health locals out.

We have also pushed back the timelines for the establishment of the eight regional mental health boards. Surely that has got to be a financial decision. Mental health has been in crisis for years. Every time we raised that in this place over the last four years, every time we raised mental health issues on this side of the house, we were told that the royal commission was going to come up with the answers. Well, the royal commission is now over. The recommendations are in, and it is time for action, but the government is not acting with the speed required. You have the recommendations, but you are not able to implement them. I go back to the fact that if we did not have this level of financial burden, it would be being done a lot better than it is.

The cost of living is soaring, and the response to that is taking away gas connections to new homes as an option in the market at a time of a cost-of-living crisis. I am actually with the Deputy Premier on this one. I heard the Deputy Premier’s commentary saying that he has got gas on in his house and he will be continuing to use gas. I am with the Deputy Premier on this one. I will be using it too, and people who are building a new home should be able to have the option to connect to gas, like the Deputy Premier and I have had with our own residences.

The public sector wage bill has grown. This is not what it is – it has grown $40 billion, just an incredible, incredible figure. How are you ever going to manage that level of growth? The population has not increased commensurately to warrant that level of growth in the public service. The public service growth should be matched to our population growth. Public service growth being commensurately in line with population growth makes sense. With minimal population growth, a massive explosion in the public service makes no sense, especially when we have the level of debt we have at the present time.

In my own portfolios of disability and seniors we have had significant budget cuts. We covered that off in the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee last week, but really there were no answers from the ministers in relation to what services have been cut out of those two portfolios.

Roads maintenance funding remains 16 per cent below what it was in 2020. Our roads are falling to bits; they are getting beyond repair. They really need a very, very significant investment – a massive investment. Yes, funding went up slightly – it did – but we are still not at the roads maintenance level that we were at in 2020. We have got more traffic hazard signs up than ever before. Truckies and bus drivers who have been on the roads for decades are saying our country roads are the worst that they have ever seen, and proof of that is the amount of vehicles that are being damaged. The amount of vehicles being damaged on our roads is unprecedented, and that actually proves the point that our road conditions are as poor as they have ever been. And like everything, in the out years of the budget there is no plan to fix it.

We look at families – early childhood sector supports cut by $79 million, wellbeing supports for schoolkids cut by $34 million, child protection cut by $141 million, family violence service delivery cut by $29 million. Fancy cutting family violence and child protection at this time – at this time of all times. I mean, read the room. They are areas that need more investment, not cuts. Lowered targets on social housing builds – in a time of a housing crisis we have lowered the targets.

In tourism, a portfolio important to regional Victorians and the state as a whole – a $286 million cut to tourism and major events funding. I got an email today from the owner of a local pub saying, ‘What am I going to do, because people’s expendable revenue has gone out the door with the cost-of-living crisis? I’m getting less people coming in and having a meal. I’m getting less people coming to the pub because, simply, things have got too tight.’ So at a time that our tourism businesses need support, what have we done? A $286 million cut and a $17 million cut to the destination Victoria program. We have had a $393.9 million cut to visitor economy initiatives; those tourism cuts are part of that bigger figure. They support regional industries, regional tourism, regional events and infrastructure builds in regional areas – $393 million cut at a time when we have a cost-of-living crisis.

Agriculture has been cut yet again. You know, our poor old farmers – when they are going to need help and support we have agriculture cuts, and that has been year on year I think for at least the past two and possibly three budgets.

Then we have broken promises. Apart from mental health, the Commonwealth Games and the fast rail to Geelong – and there are many, many more that I could talk about – the free kinder rollout that was promised has been scrapped and pushed back. We had the full rollout put back to 2037. The last will be coming on board in 2037, according to the budget. Talk about kicking the can down the road. We will all be out of here by then. We will all be out of this place.

Members interjecting.

Tim BULL: Well, Kim Wells might still be here, but I doubt there will be many other members still here in this chamber when that free kinder finally gets rolled out.

We are not delivering the amount of elective surgery that was promised. We have got a 40 per cent rise in elective surgery waiting lists at a time when they said we would have action. Now, Minister Thomas said at the time – and she was widely quoted in the media on this – she would accept nothing less than the target. And now she is running away from that. She is backtracking on that and making all these excuses. But how do you go from saying publicly, ‘I will accept nothing less under any circumstances’ to now accepting something less? I tell you what, it just does not make sense. The budget also revealed major blowouts on projects, again proving Labor cannot manage major projects and cannot manage money.

We are handing out $400 credits to students of some families but giving with one hand and taking with the other – a $400 credit at your school for some families while we are taking away from you with the fire services levy, which has gone up. Waste levies are going up. Land taxes are increasing, stamp duty and payroll tax. I think the $400 credit to families was something to talk about in the budget.

A member interjected.

Tim BULL: When you have increases – I will take up the interjection – in the fire services levy, that impacts those same households. When you have waste levies, it impacts those same households. They have got to pay the waste levies. They are impacting everyday households, families with kids. Your fire services levy – everyone has to pay that. Your waste levy – everyone has to pay that. So we will give you $400 here, and we will take more off you with this hand. It makes no sense whatsoever.

My electorate also had some wants and needs, before I finish. Maffra and Orbost police stations need upgrades. We need the fire stations at Lakes Entrance and Metung, but the budget delivers nothing. There is no money for these police stations but $4.1 million for the scoreboard in Geelong. I am not sure we have got the right priorities.

Richard Riordan interjected.

Tim BULL: It is about priorities, though, member for Polwarth. This budget takes us back to the years of the Cain and Kirner governments, but the debt levels of that era are just nowhere near in comparison to what we are facing now. But we are going to have people stand up here and try to paint a positive picture, and there is just no way you can paint a positive picture on this.

I wanted to talk about the wild dog program having no certainty, which is going to have a major impact on our farmers, but I do have an adjournment coming up later so I might put that one off until then. We cannot try to paint what is an absolute shocking financial situation for this state into something good. This budget is a horrible budget.

Daniela DE MARTINO (Monbulk) (18:13): I rise with pleasure to speak on the budget take-note motion. But before I begin, I would like to take a moment to set the record straight for the member for Malvern. In his earlier contribution, he stated with great passion and ferocity that there was nothing in this budget for the Victorians living in his electorate, but that could not be further from the truth, because for the residents of Malvern who may need to visit the emergency room, they can be assured that there is $572.5 million in this budget to expand hospital capacity, including at the nearby Monash Medical Centre emergency department. It is not that far out of the district of Malvern. Also at the same Monash Medical Centre – which by the way, I will give them a shout-out because unfortunately we have visited them a few times – we are spending $5.11 million to continue providing inpatient treatment and care for those struggling with an eating disorder. And anyone who may need surgery or is starting a family can rest assured that we have allocated $535 million in the budget for hospital upgrades, including funding for the Monash Medical Centre tower expansion project, which will deliver a new seven-storey tower with new operating suites, birthing suites and pre-op and post-op beds. On top of all of this, that tower expansion is going to create 1500 jobs, some of which may actually be for the good people of Malvern. I just wanted to clarify that.

I would like to pick up that the member for Gippsland East was listing a number of taxes and levies that are increasing but did mention payroll tax. I did interject at the time because it is not going up. It is coming down. The threshold is going up, which means those with payroll tax obligations may not need to pay it at all or may be paying far less than before, because it is going up significantly. We have accepted that. By 1 July next year it will be $1 million as the threshold. As a former employer who did pay payroll tax in the past I can tell you that is a wonderful move and that is another way that we are supporting small to medium businesses in very, very real terms. I have stood in this place before and actually pointed out the fact that when those opposite last had government for four years they had I think it was a meagre 0.05 per cent reduction in the payroll tax. That was their grand contribution towards assisting businesses who had to be slugged with payroll tax then. Over that time we have increased the threshold. As I say, it will be $1 million next year. We have also reduced the rate, and if you are in the regions it is reduced even more so. The rate of payroll tax is incredibly low. I do not have the figures to date, and I do not want to get it incorrect for Hansard. But I have spoken on this at length before.

Having clarified a few of those things, I would like to speak about the budget in broad terms and also in terms of my district of Monbulk. This is a responsible budget. It is a prudent budget. It is a budget which ensures our economy will continue to grow and thrive, with record employment and growth. This is forecast by Deloitte. This is not us sitting here in the chamber forecasting it, it is Deloitte, and their reputation is fairly stellar around the world when it comes to economics and forecasts. I am pretty satisfied that they have got a good view on this. It is a budget which responds realistically to the challenges being faced not just in Victoria and not just in Australia but around the world. It is a sensible and it is a disciplined approach. If one only listened to those opposite, one could be forgiven for thinking that our economy here in Victoria exists in its own little universe, in this tiny, tiny bubble, impervious to external pressures and forces like wars, pandemics, global inflationary pressures and increasing interest rates. These things sit well beyond the boundaries of Victoria and well beyond the remit of everyone in this chamber. These are huge external global pressures on us all.

I would like to cover some of the key economic statistics as well. The Victorian economy has created more than 560,000 jobs since September 2020, which is the highest jobs growth in the nation, and about one in three of all jobs created nationwide over this period were in Victoria. We absolutely have been and are punching above our weight. One in seven of all people employed in Victoria have actually only acquired that job since September 2020 – again, a staggering figure. This is the most jobs created by any state in absolute and percentage terms. As a result – and this is something that is a source of pride for all of us in this room – unemployment remains historically low, hovering around the 4 per cent mark, and it is near the lowest it has been in nearly half a century. That is a wonderful thing that as a Labor government we can say. And I can tell you I know what helps the cost of living: it is having a job. It is actually having an income. The fact that we have incredible employment across the state is definitely a hallmark of Labor government here, and it is one that I know collectively we all take great pride in.

The focus of this year’s budget is quite clearly on helping families, and it is delivering cost-of-living relief for those who are doing it tough. On some of those in particular, I would like to talk about the area of schools and children. It is an area obviously close to my heart, as a former teacher. The $400 school saving bonus for every student in state schools and eligible families at non-government schools is going to help so many families to cover the cost of camps and excursions – all those additional costs which really do put pressure on the bottom line. This is a great initiative. I have already spoken with many, many parents who are looking forward to this and state school principals who know that this will have a real impact. It will really help so many families across the board, even at some of my other non-government schools where they have got a number of families in need who are eligible for this. This is going have a really good impact for them as well.

I am also incredibly proud that we are tripling our free Glasses for Kids program. It makes a massive, massive difference and impact, and it improves the educational outcomes for children. I have heard the member for Yan Yean speak in here a number of times with great passion about how important it is for young children to have any vision issues identified early and corrected – the magic of putting a pair of glasses on and realising that all the stars in the sky actually do not twinkle as wildly as you thought they did. It makes quite a difference when you have glasses. I am really proud that we are doing that.

I am thrilled that we are continuing with our $200 Get Active Kids vouchers as well for kids from eligible families, because it is important not only for physical health but mental health to engage in sport. For families who are doing it tough, sometimes those discretionary spends are just too much. The fact that we are supporting that is a really good assistance and aid to families who need some cost-of-living relief.

I have spoken about this before, but I will say it again: I cannot tell you how delighted I am that we are expanding the breakfast clubs program across the state. It is an absolute winner. When I called some of my principals who are in schools that do not yet have it and told them that it is going to be rolled out, there was incredible delight. There was real happiness, because they know that this will make a difference for children who need it. You cannot learn on an empty stomach. I mean, we are adults here and I know that there are times when we all get a little bit distracted because we would like to go and have something to eat. Imagine if you are a child who turns up to school – and I have taught children who have come to school on empty stomachs, and I have worked with staff who went and actually paid for their lunch. This initiative is fantastic. I could not be prouder that we are rolling it out across the country. I think we have mentioned a number of times in here what happened to Free Fruit Friday the last time those opposite were in government – cut and culled. We have taken the total opposite approach, and that is what is happening. It shows our values writ large. We are a government that cares about education. We care about children, and we support families.

I am also thrilled and delighted that we are investing in our teachers and classroom upgrades. $1.8 billion is allocated in this budget to build, maintain and upgrade schools across the state and deliver on our promise to build 100 new schools by 2026. We have heard the Minister for Education in this place state how many schools were built when those opposite were in, and I believe – I am happy to be corrected if I am incorrect – it was zero. That is a sad number, that circle – zero schools built by those opposite when they had government for four years. We are building 100 by 2026. How extraordinary. I am really proud of that. I am also really delighted that we are continuing our rollout of early education reforms, including universal three-year-old kinder and supporting families with free kinder as well. There is $129 million allocated in this budget to continue doing that. There are many, many budget initiatives that continue the great work that has occurred already and will continue to take place.

In terms of my district of Monbulk, in the Dandenong Ranges, I note that this budget has got in it $302 million to support fire- and flood-impacted communities – and some of this already been spent ‍– to help them recover and rebuild for the long term. We have had extraordinary weather events occur in this state, and they do not come without cost. We are making sure we are taking care of our communities, though, where needed. I am really proud of the work we are doing there, because with the impact of climate change as we go into the future we will all be living it. At the moment I know my constituents know only too well the impact of climate change. It is very real for all of us.

I am also incredibly pleased to see that we have extended the Victorian Homebuyer Fund – $700 million to extend that. It is helping thousands of Victorian homebuyers to purchase their own home. In fact I know my son has discussed using this homebuyer fund, if he can take the time to find a place. He is thinking about it, and he is really encouraged by this fund. So this is a great initiative.

A member interjected.

Daniela DE MARTINO: $700 million indeed. There are so many things we are doing. I have spoken before in here about the importance of TAFE as well and support for skills. There is $550 million to build the workforces we need for the future, and that is in our skills and TAFE sector. That is fantastic. As new technologies arise, as the nature of work changes – AI will be doing a lot of the jobs that we do now – as new needs come along, we need to make sure we are cross-skilling and upskilling people of all ages from all different backgrounds, no matter what you do. To be able to go and participate in free TAFE to undertake a course without cost – what a wonderful, wonderful initiative. I am really proud that this government has done that, because it certainly was not happening 10 years ago; TAFEs were being closed. The closest TAFE to us in Lilydale – I remember the padlocks on that door. I also remember the day when the former member for Monbulk ensured that it was reopened, and there was great joy then and there is still great joy now. It is a thriving place at Box Hill Institute in Lilydale. I could not be happier about it.

As I said earlier, there has been a lot of noise from those opposite. I would like to put to them, though, that I am happy to hear what their record of investment in the state was from 2010 to 2014. I fancy it is a rather short list. My list is so long that 15 minutes is nowhere near enough. I have so much more that I can talk about here, and I will. I will continue to talk about a few more things, because I think it is really important that we actually acknowledge what this budget does contain.

There is also – this is a staggering figure – $11 billion for our healthcare system to help our hospitals care for patients and to continue to recover from the impacts of the pandemic. Today on the other side of the chamber – I am not sure if it was an interjection or a contribution; sometimes it is hard to differentiate – I did hear it claimed that we cannot stop talking about the pandemic. Actually we need to continue, because this is like being in a postwar phase. The pandemic and the disruption from that pandemic which – yes, ‘pan’ means world – covered the world impacted on all of us, and the impacts are still there. We are still in this recovery phase post one of the biggest disruptors to our lives in this country in a century. We have had war come close to our borders – I have learned a little bit more about that from some local military historians – but we have never experienced anything in the last century that is equivalent to the pandemic. So when we say we still need to recover from it, we are not being trite, we are not making excuses; it is indeed a fact, it is a reality, and for those opposite to decry that shows a lack of knowledge, understanding, depth and maturity, may I say.

I notice that the time now is winding down on the clock. Again I say it gave me pleasure to speak on this motion, the take-note motion on the budget, and I commend the Treasurer and all his staff on the work they have done.

Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (18:28): Labor’s 2024 budget is a budget that demonstrates Labor’s promises and commitments are false, misleading and deceptive. On election night in 2022 the then Premier Daniel Andrews said, ‘We will deliver each and every element of our positive plan to benefit each and every Victorian, no matter how you voted.’ Well, hasn’t that proven to be wrong. First the state budget reneged on its promise to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games, then the budget revealed that the long-awaited rail line to Melbourne Airport will be delayed, and yesterday the western intermodal freight terminal was also shelved. Not only those but the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Royal Women’s Hospital were shelved as well.

And what about for my electorate? The tech school – just in the last meeting I was in the minister said it will be delivered in Warrnambool by 2026, but there is nothing in the budget for the Warrnambool tech school promised at the election in 2022. Like all the other promises, it is false, it is misleading and it is deceptive. Unless this is a government that is going to use its contingency plans to promise these things again and deliver them just before the election to fool the people of Warrnambool –

The ACTING SPEAKER (Iwan Walters): Order! The time has arrived for the joint sitting to fill the Senate vacancy. I ask the Clerk to ring the bells to call members to the joint sitting. The Assembly will resume after the joint sitting is concluded, and the bells will ring again at that time.

Sitting suspended 6:30 pm until 6:37 pm.

Roma BRITNELL: Before the last election in 2022 the net debt for Victoria was at $99.98 billion. Not too much longer after that now it has blown out to $188 billion. That is reckless spending by a government that has no cost control measures. This is a government that has made our debt higher than Queensland’s, New South Wales’s and Tasmania’s put together – $188 billion. This is a government that has $40 billion worth of cost blowouts from projects that it cannot manage, because they are overruns of projects that should have cost an amount but have blown out, and we have got a collective amount of $40 billion in cost blowouts.

What does that mean for South-West Coast? When you look at the roads in South-West Coast, the roads are in a disgraceful state. But this government, as I said earlier, with its misleading, false and deceptive language, is trying to say that it is investing more money in the roads. We heard it after the last budget in 2023, and we heard it again in this budget. We heard about $105 million of new initiatives. It is really hard to work out in the budget when you compare one year to the next, and that is a deliberate ploy by this government. They want to fudge it so that you cannot figure it out and compare apples with apples. But let us just look at that new initiative of $105 million. It actually costs about $1 million to patch a kilometre of road. So if we take that $40 billion I spoke about in cost blowouts and overruns that the government has wasted, that $40 billion could have been used to fix all the rural roads in regional Victoria. There are 23,000 kilometres of rural roads under the state’s responsibility, so if it costs $1 million for 1 kilometre, then we could have, from that $40 billion, 23,000 kilometres of roads fixed, and we would still have $17 billion left over to fix the health system.

This is a government that is failing in every possible way, and the roads in South-West Coast are one indication of that. They are so bad at managing these roads that they have changed their performance targets. Two years ago the performance target for resurfacing was set at 12 million square metres. Now they only aim to be able to resurface 340,000 square metres. That is 12 million square metres two years ago to 340,000 square metres now. What a poor performance that they have reduced their target to such to a degree. In fact they have invented a new performance target: it is called ‘road area major patched’. This reminds me of when we drive along and we see the potholes and all we are seeing is patching. We are not seeing resurfacing and getting the road back to a shape and a way that it should look in a newly formed road. It reminds me of the Depression, when people were not able to go out and buy new socks; they had to get out the darning needle and darn the hole in the socks. That is what we are seeing from this government. They are in such a perilous state of affairs that they are totally ignoring the state of our roads.

This is a government who have been wasting money and who have been spending money in the city without even looking at the country. Despite the fact that we have 25 per cent of the state’s population in the regions, we are seeing from this government an infrastructure budget of $98 billion put forward for the next 12 months. Only 2 per cent of that – $2 billion – will go to the whole of regional Victoria. So despite the fact we have 25 per cent of the population of Victoria in the regions, the regions will only get 2 per cent of the infrastructure spend. This is a government that is so city-centric. They are wasting money and not taking responsibility for their financial management.

While they have increased the debt and increased the taxes with no plan to reduce that debt, what they are still unable to do is manage to deliver services. We are seeing cuts to services like elective surgeries. The minister actually got up and said publicly, ‘I will accept nothing less than a target of 240,000 ‍elective surgeries under my watch.’ Embarrassingly, within a few short weeks the budget had a figure of 207,000 elective surgeries. That is a cut, and that leaves people in pain and desperate. There are cuts to dental health. We know that the waiting list for dental health in South-West Coast is over two years, and yet this government sees fit to cut dental health programs and make people wait in pain even longer. We are seeing the disability sector suffer cuts. The family violence programs which this government keep saying they really do want to see a better outcome from in addressing family violence ‍– well, you cannot do that if you cut the programs. Mental health programs in my own electorate – we have seen the mental health beds promised by this government and put forward in budgets or in election promises, but they are not delivering the mental health acute beds to South West Healthcare. They are also not delivering the mental health locals, which are a community service to keep people well and keep them out of acute beds so that they can actually be assisted before they go into crisis. These are very important preventative measures when our community really does need an injection of assistance with mental health programs, not cuts.

They are cutting the youth justice program. Don’t we want to invest in our youth? If they are on that trajectory into crime, we need to be wrapping services around them, not cutting them. In the portfolio I hold of child protection we are seeing cuts of $140 million – in an area where we are seeing children in out-of-home care who are being exploited by sexual predators, who are dying in care and who are entering the criminal system. One out of two children in out-of-home care are entering the criminal system. These are damning figures, and we should not be seeing cuts, we should be seeing support.

Unfortunately, the government do not seem to understand that bad fiscal management, which they seem incapable of managing, results in less. When you go from taxing and receiving income from tax of $17 billion to $45 billion, you will actually see people struggle. You will not be incentivising them, you will be harming their ability to contribute more to the state. One of my constituents Jeff Vick said to me the other day that if local councils were behaving like this, they would be put into administration. He suggested that perhaps it is time to put the state into administration, and I think he is probably quite right. I look at the promises – more deceiving. More false promises and more promises that are not being delivered – deceiving, misleading and false words by this government.

The kinders that were promised – the four-year-old kinders that were promised have been put back so far. In Portland that means that the 30 hours of four-year-old kinder that were promised will not be delivered until 2030. The childcare centres were promised in 2022 at the election. For nearly a year I asked the government what the timelines would look like and when Portland would get their childcare centre, and it was announced at the end of 2023 that they will be building it at the Portland South school. Just this week, or eight days ago, I saw on the website that the forecast for this, which was promised to be in 2026, is now pushed out till 2027. But they are also saying that this is just a forecast and subject to change, which makes me concerned about those childcare centres, because mothers and fathers and families in South-West Coast are desperately pinning their hopes on that childcare centre being built at South Portland. I sincerely hope the government is true to their word and not false and misleading like we have seen right throughout this budget.

We then have agriculture. Agriculture is very important to South-West Coast. It brings in a huge amount of income to the state with the exports. We have exports going to over 49 countries just out of South-West Coast. We have manufacturing from agriculture in South-West Coast. It really does punch well above its weight. Yet we do not even have the word ‘agriculture’ in the department’s name anymore. What we have seen is a cut of 30 per cent to funds to the agriculture department. This government put out so much spin that within a week of that announcement of a 30 per cent cut they announced $20 million to exotic disease management. If we have an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in this country in the next short while – those cuts of 30 per cent resulted in over 100 people being lost from the department last year, and there will be more this year with these cuts – we would not have the manpower to be able to roll out the support needed to make sure we stop and halt the exotic disease. It is very disappointing. We all know in farming that it is not a matter of if, it is a matter of when, and we need to be prepared as a nation. To lose our agricultural capability through something like foot-and-mouth disease because we have not got the manpower and we have not got the preparedness because we have been cutting budgets is nothing short of shocking.

We have seen tourism to South-West Coast cut at a time when we need to actually grow our regions, not harm them. We have lots of events happening in Melbourne, but it is not just Melbourne this government is governing for, it is South-West Coast as well as Melbourne. We have wonderful events that need to be supported, and these cuts do not do what they need to do. They do not help the regions.

What is really quite disturbing, though, when we see cuts to services like those I have already identified ‍– mental health, disability, family violence programs and the like – is that we have heard just in the last few days that this government has a $75 billion contingency plan. That means that when they want to win some votes and influence some people to vote for them closer to the election, they will pull out some of the money from this and they will fund some things that they want to win some electorates over with. Just yesterday we heard of another $12 billion from the Treasurer’s advance. That is an increase in that bucket of money of 3200 per cent on more than a decade ago. That is a very sneaky and inappropriate way to govern Victoria. When people are struggling and cuts are occurring, to have something like that so the government can try and win people over when they have cut $23 million from cancer funding and they have got a contingency bucket of money of $75 billion, one has to feel a little bit disgusted by that sort of very low-level behaviour.

So we have cuts in South-West Coast that will really harm people, but we also have budget requirements that have not been funded. The Lookout is the only place in the state that does not have a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre. The local upper house member for Labor sidled up with the organisation WRAD six months ago and said she supports WRAD. Well, where is her government’s money that will fund the Lookout? There is nothing in this budget, nothing for the people of South-West Coast, who do deserve to be able to be rehabilitated at home surrounded by people they love and who will care for them.

South West Healthcare – in 2020 we had $384 million promised for the rebuild. The government will not be honest. They will not say how we can possibly build that project to scope without an increase in funding. Costs have gone up by 30 per cent in construction, yet our budget has not been increased by the government. It should have been in this budget, and it needs to be. Out of that contingency fund we need to see another significant amount – $50 million or more – so that that build can be built to scope. The minister cannot keep misleading our community in Warrnambool and saying it will be built to scope but not giving extra funds. Extra funds have been given to all the other builds across regional Victoria and metropolitan Melbourne. It is simply misleading, deceptive and false that the government continue to maintain that that hospital will be built to scope.

Whether it is roads, whether it is hospital funding or whether it is talk of mergers, this government need to stop being false, misleading and deceptive and come clean with Victorians and start governing for the whole of the state of Victoria from border to border, not as the city-centric government that they are proving to continue to be.

Bronwyn HALFPENNY (Thomastown) (18:51): I rise to speak on the take-note motion on the 2024–25 budget, and it is so good to be standing up here to talk about this Labor budget, which of course builds on the previous Labor budgets, which really have been all about doing things to make people’s lives better. I want to just do a little bit of a shout-out to ALP branch members from the Pascoe Vale branch that are here today visiting the member for Pascoe Vale, because I think when you look at budgets and the things that we do in here, it is really because of the support of branch members. Whether it is through the motions of branches keeping us honest, whether it is policy committee work, whether it is volunteering work or whether it is giving us the feedback that we need, from that we can get budgets like we have got at the moment.

Sometimes we do not think about this enough, but one of the most important things to make a person’s life better is to have a job, a good-paying job. This budget continues on from previous budgets in providing a pipeline of work through government projects with very strong local content requirements so that we can encourage and support local businesses, and of course those local businesses support local people. I know in the Thomastown electorate, for example, there are so many tradies that are working on things like the Keon Park level crossing removal. There is the duplication of Epping Road from Memorial Avenue right up to Craigieburn Road East. These are the things that of course give us great infrastructure and provide great benefits to local residents in how they get around the area, but they also provide the jobs that everybody needs.

There have been also of course Labor budgets that continually supported research and development. I know another resident of Thomastown, and I will just give a shout-out to Santosh, who is working really hard in getting around to look at medtech to develop apps that are going to make hospital treatment much easier and to be able to do it in your own home.

That gets me on to the Northern Hospital. There has been a huge investment in the Northern Hospital, and that continues in this budget. For example, in this budget we are working on, after building an eight-storey tower, building the next stage, which will have further beds as well as a 40 per cent increase in the emergency department. There is going to be a whole revamping of the area, so the hospital will really look like the great tertiary hospital that it has grown to be. We have the women’s health clinic that has now been established and the free IVF. These are all things that have come from this budget and previous Labor budgets to support local people in the area. There are grand plans for Northern Health to continue to expand and provide support even in some of the further northern areas. For example, there is an arrangement with Kilmore hospital. That hospital was unable to get staff and was having trouble providing services for local people, and the Northern Hospital is now in a partnership with the Kilmore hospital, providing staff that go there on a rotational basis to provide specialist services as well as GP services, which again those people within the Kilmore area need. Of course that means they are not having to travel to the emergency department of the Northern Hospital and they can be treated closer to home. That also frees up further areas for those living closer to the Northern Hospital that are required to go there.

We are continuing to build schools. Thomastown has the older, more established areas as well as the new outer suburbs, so it is a balance between ensuring that we redevelop and rebuild the older schools while also providing for new residents the new schools that are needed for the population explosion in that northern area. In this budget we announced the building of the new school in Wollert, which is called at this time Wollert Andrews Road primary school. This is the fourth school to be built in the Wollert area. Of course we have just recently announced that a children’s early learning centre will be built there as well, and it will be built on the same site as the Wollert Andrews Road primary school. Hopefully they will be able to be built at similar times with a design that fits and integrates both of the learning centres. We have got Wollert Secondary College. Again because of growth, the school is pretty well full for the buildings that it has at the moment. The next stage of that secondary school has been announced and will start building this year. That will allow further secondary school students to go to school close to their home in a school that really is first class in its teachers, its principal and its staff as well as the actual buildings and the environment in which the students are learning.

There are also of course some of those smaller cost things that make a big difference to people’s lives. For example, we are continuing to invest in cycle paths so that residents can travel both for work in safe areas, so on bicycle paths rather than some of the pretty busy roads, and for recreational purposes to encourage people to get out and have nice places to ride their bike along the Darebin Creek – but also going into the Epping station if they want to use their bike to commute to work and get onto public transport and hopefully then reduce the demand on car parks. These are all the sorts of things that the budget is providing for residents of the Thomastown electorate.

We can also look at things such as of course the great support for the SEC and for the Allan Labor government bringing back some control over electricity generation by continuing to provide and invest in clean energy and also innovation. Through this of course there are jobs as well; it is good for the environment, for our kids and for future generations, but it is also good for supporting businesses with incentives in order for them to become cleaner and greener. I have to say in the last couple of weeks I have been with my friend and neighbour Minister D’Ambrosio and also my friend Minister Hutchins visiting local businesses where support and incentives have been provided to them in order for them to continue to do the great work they are doing, whether it is in the clean energy space or in providing new industries that can take up some of the slack from when we lost the whole car industry because of the Liberal federal government and their appalling decisions without any care for the massive job losses that were created and all the skills that were lost when the vehicle industry was closed down.

It is really difficult that I have not had my whole 15 minutes to speak, because there are so many more things that I would like to talk about. There is the West Lalor Tennis Club, a really thriving club. We are now providing –

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! I am required under sessional orders to interrupt business now. The member for Thomastown will have the call when the motion returns to the house.

Business interrupted under sessional orders.