Wednesday, 14 August 2024

 Brad BATTIN (Berwick) (10:10): My community do not need me to stand here and tell them that the state is broke, because they are seeing it every single day through Casey and Cardinia, whether they drive on the roads and see potholes that are so ridiculously big now that you could actually use them for training for the 50-metre swimming for the Olympics – they are so deep that you could use them for diving here in our state, and this is not just regional roads anymore, this is on roads through Casey and Cardinia, where people are getting their tyres damaged – or if they travel on the Monash Freeway and see that nearly every sign that has an exit sign to go off is now covered in graffiti. There is no funding to clean that off, and the worst thing is that we have got no police to police it. We have got a thousand vacancies across the state. The government, pretending they are going to build the Clyde North police station, do not have the resources to fill the vacancies already left at Narre Warren and Cranbourne, meaning crime is continuing to be out of control.

You can go past the Casey Hospital almost any time of the day or night now and there are 15 to 20 ‍ambulances ramped waiting to drop patients off. We have seen reports recently where those paramedics are now being used as nurses and doctors, effectively, to treat those patients while they are waiting in the back of vehicles, taking them to the toilet and bringing them back to the vehicles. It is getting out of hand here in our state.

The free kinder program is basically gone throughout Casey and Cardinia because this state cannot afford it. School maintenance is out of control, and schools are falling down around people’s ears. Crime continues to increase. We need to get the budget back under control, and the way we do that is by ensuring that we have a fair tax system where people pay and we ensure the delivery of projects in an affordable manner.