Wednesday, 27 November 2024
Grievance debate
Government performance
Government performance
David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (17:30): We are just approaching 10 years of hard Labor, and Victorians need to ask themselves: are they better off under Labor? Clearly the answer is no. We have a health crisis, we have a crime crisis, we have a cost-of-living crisis, we have a housing crisis and we have a debt crisis. Everywhere you look, no matter where it is and no matter what it is, Victoria has a crisis. There is only one common thing about this and that is the leader, Premier Allan. Many people will think that Premier Allan has just become the Premier in the last 12 months and therefore the crisis that we have had over the last 10 years is not Premier Allan’s fault because she has just inherited the job in the last 12 months. This Premier was the Deputy Premier and the minister for infrastructure for the 10 years. She has had her hand right in the cookie jar for the last 10 years. And, guess what, there are no more cookies left. They have all been taken. They have all been eaten. The Labor Party leave nothing for anyone else. They take it all themselves and eat it all themselves, and they are all gone.
Victoria had the pride and joy of Melbourne being the most livable city. Then we had the longest lockdowns that we never had to have, but we were told we had to have them. Labor told us we had to have the longest lockdowns. We went from being the most livable to the most leavable city. People left in droves; they could not get out of the joint fast enough. They left their lights on – not that you can do that, because we cannot afford it in terms of our power crisis and our energy crisis. That is another one, by the way: an energy crisis thanks to this incompetent, hopeless Labor.
But let us not stop there, because I thought I might delve down, and being a former DJ, I thought I would have a look at a few songs that might be appropriate for this hopeless Allan Labor government – 10 years of failure. Let us start with number one: Friends in Low Places by Garth Brooks. Guess who Labor’s friends in low places are? The CFMEU. The ‘big rotten build’ according to Nick McKenzie. The big rotten build about which Premier Allan has been saying, ‘How great is this? Let’s cut some more ribbons, and let’s give a bit of a kickback to John Setka along the way.’ Because that is what has happened – good old Johnny Setka, there you go mate, away you go. It has not been one way either, because Johnny Setka and the CFMEU have been donating very, very gracefully to the Allan Labor government. In fact, as our opposition leader rightly says, ‘How much?’ Over $300,000 in 2022–23. $300,000 – here is the cheque, off you go, good luck for the election. Then the Premier has the gall to say, ‘We’ve got to do something about this,’ once it has been found out that she has friends in low places.
But let us not stop there, because we have also got other great songs: Highway to Hell or Road to Nowhere, AC/DC and Talking Heads. Great songs – Highway to Hell or Road to Nowhere. The state of Victoria’s roads – an absolute highway to hell. 91 per cent of our roads rated poor or worse. Speed limits on 480 kilometres of road have had to be reduced. You would think as we go further we would have more efficiency and be able to use the normal speed limits. We have had to reduce them because our roads are in such poor condition. Forget about regional Victoria with our roads – come down to Caulfield. Come down to Dandenong Road and I tell you what, you need to play Holey Moley because the holes in those roads are pretty, pretty deep.
David SOUTHWICK: Exactly as our Shadow Treasurer says – I did not have this song, but it is a good song – this Premier and this rotten Labor government is all about A Little Less Conversation and no action. It is a good old Elvis song – a little less conversation and no action, because there is no action by this government.
But let us continue. The roads are hopeless. They have been neglected. Do you know why? Because there is one thing that the Allan Labor government have known how to do, and that is to spend money, money, money. That is what they have done. A great ABBA song, Money, Money, Money, but Victoria has none of it. It has got none of it, because our debt will be $268 billion in 2028.
David SOUTHWICK: I like that. As the Leader of the Opposition says, no cash on premises because it is all gone. You do not need a sign at the front of the shop, because there is nothing in the cash register. It has been spent.
There will be $268 billion worth of debt in 2028, up by $33 billion since 2014. One thing this government knows how to do is spend other people’s money. That is what they are very good at, spending other people’s money: $25 million a day just to pay the interest bill alone, over a million dollars an hour. In this grievance debate today there is a million dollars that we could have actually spent on schools, hospitals, roads and infrastructure. Instead, it has been wasted, because we have got this huge debt. And that will not pay down the debt; that is just to pay the interest bill. The debt keeps skyrocketing because this government is incompetent, and this Treasurer and this Premier are the most incompetent. I tell you what, for Christmas, I have a present for Premier Allan, and that is an abacus. I am going to give Premier Allan an abacus, because she can actually go over summer and do some calculations and hopefully learn how to add up, because as you know –
David SOUTHWICK: I will get to you, member for Melton. I visited Melton last week, and I tell you what, the constituents of Melton are very angry with you, Melton. I will get to you in a minute. Let us continue on.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Melton is warned.
David SOUTHWICK: This is what many of the Allan Labor government, their members and ministers, would have you believe, because this song, What a Fool Believes by the Doobie Brothers, is about how the Victorian economy is good. We heard the Treasurer get up today and say the Victorian economy is going gangbusters. I tell you, what planet is this mob on? They are on a completely different planet, because we know in every single measure, at every single level, Victoria is going south. We keep spending the money, and unfortunately the kitty is almost bare. There is nothing left.
Despite what the Premier is telling you about our economy being strong, back on infrastructure, the Metro Tunnel is $4.7 billion over budget. And I will tell you what about what fools believe: when the Metro Tunnel blew out by another close to a billion dollars, on grand final eve we had the minister going out and saying, ‘It’s blown out by close to a billion dollars because of the Gaza war and because of what’s happening in Ukraine. All these external factors – that’s why Victorians are paying more.’ And that is all about what fools believe, because this government has no idea about managing money. The North East Link is $16 billion over budget, and the West Gate Tunnel is $3.9 billion over budget.
I tell you what, it just goes from bad to worse. Again, this is a Premier that was responsible for every one of those big builds that have cost Victorians $40 billion in blowouts, member for Point Cook. And I tell you what, when I went to Point Cook, many of those constituents were saying, ‘What are we going to get for the Suburban Rail Loop?’ An absolute doughnut, Point Cook. And I tell you what, they are worried about their roads, they are worried about their schools, they are worried about their hospitals. The people of Point Cook are worried about crime and they are worried about all the crises that I am talking about because the member for Point Cook is not standing up for them. He is standing up now, but he does not stand up for the electorate.
Mathew Hilakari: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, I think the member is lost again like he was the other day – and lost in Laverton, not Point Cook.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
David SOUTHWICK: Thank you, member for Point Cook. When I send this speech out to the electorate, I will also make sure that I include Point Cook residents so they can see how incompetent and hopeless you are.
Let us continue on, because another great song is Reckless (Don’t Be So) by Australian Crawl. Don’t be so reckless as to sign up to the Suburban Rail Loop with no money and with no guarantees. We have bupkis, absolutely bupkis. And this Premier went out and signed the first contract only two days after we found out that the North East Link was blowing out by billions of dollars.
There was an Auditor-General’s report – billions of dollars worth of blowout on the North East Link, and two days prior we had a signing of this contract. Why would you sign a contract when you have budget blowouts? Why would you sign that contract when you do not have federal funding? Why would you sign contracts when the value capture has not been fully disclosed? You know why – because every single Victorian will be paying the value capture of $11.5 billion in a new housing tax. That is what the Suburban Rail Loop will be, and that is why the Allan Labor government have not spoken about this as part of the Suburban Rail Loop, because everyone is going to be on the hook for a new Suburban Rail Loop housing tax to fill the hole of $11.5 billion. Only yesterday the Premier was out on radio and said they are not even sure whether the federal government is going to give their $11.5 billion – two-thirds of the money not there. That means that money has to come from somewhere – the $22 billion value capture, a new housing tax that every single Victorian will pay. This would be the most incompetent, hopeless decision that any government have ever made in their history. This is the largest infrastructure project in Victoria’s history, and this Premier has signed contracts without having the money. You do not sign up for a house if you do not have a housing loan, and this is what this government has done – they have signed Victorians up to record debt without having the money in the bank. It is absolutely hopeless.
But let us continue, because Bon Jovi says it all. It is a great song, Livin’ on a Prayer, because that is what we have got at the moment. We are living on a prayer, and we are only halfway there. We are two years in and we are living on a prayer because there is no money. There is no money, so all we can do is pray and hope to God we can get through to 2026. There is no money. All there is are fake promises, empty promises, nothing there, and Victorians are saying, ‘Please bring on 2026 so we can get rid of this hopeless, this reckless, this incompetent government that are spending taxpayers money and wasting it like it’s their own.’ This is almost a fraudulent government, an incompetent government. You know what, if this was a private company, the directors would be in jail. The Premier would be in jail, the former Premier would be in jail – red shirts, incompetence, the whole lot. This is the most corrupt, incompetent, hopeless government that we have ever seen.
But let us continue on, because we have also got the big issue here of ‘What about me? It isn’t fair.’
David SOUTHWICK: You would know about this, Point Cook. ‘It isn’t fair. I’ve had enough and I want my share. Can’t you see, I want to live, but you just take more than you give.’ That is what you do, and that is what Labor do. They take more than they give. That is what they do, and you know all the backbench are saying, ‘We want our share. It isn’t fair’. The Suburban Rail Loop, 26 kilometres in the east of Melbourne – you get nothing, you get nothing, you get nothing.
David SOUTHWICK: Even Albert Park over here, she gets nothing in her electorate – nothing in terms of the Suburban Rail Loop. They have all been let down, and that is why the backbench are knocking on the Premier’s door and saying, ‘Pause the Suburban Rail Loop. Pause it, cancel it, give us our fair share.’ And this incompetent Premier is so pig-headed that she will not cancel it, she will not pause it. She is doubling down and spending the money we do not have. That is why we are almost broke, and that is why people have had enough and they want to see the back end of the Premier and they want to see the back end of this incompetent government. They want to because they need to, and every time we go out and we talk to people – not in our own electorates, but we go out to Werribee and Hoppers Crossing and Point Cook and Essendon and Niddrie. In all of these areas – Bentleigh, St Albans, Carrum – they all tell us, ‘Get rid of them. Please get rid of them.’
But it goes on from there, because I tell you what, at the moment there is a big SOS – the ABBA song SOS. It is Victorians crying out for a new government: ‘Where are those happy days? They seem so hard to find.’
There is one song that we all know, and that is ‘Hang on, help is on its way’. We will be there as fast as we can. John Pesutto and the Liberal–National team will deliver a great government. We will fix the mess, and we will fix the incompetence and the waste and mismanagement, because that is what we need to do. But I know that we have many people in Victoria that want to see the back end of this government, and the song that they want to bring on – well, they want an angel, and the Angels song they want is Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again. That is what they will be saying, and the answer will be – (Time expired)