Wednesday, 5 March 2025

Matters of public importance

Cost of living

The SPEAKER (16:01): I have accepted a statement from the member for Pascoe Vale proposing the following matter of public importance for discussion:

That this house notes that the Allan Labor government is helping working families with the cost of living by making much-needed investments in health, education, housing and transport.

Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (16:01): With some indulgence, I look forward to the member for Werribee’s first speech very soon. I am delighted to rise as the first government speaker on the matter of public importance today – my first time as the member moving an MPI as well – and it is that this house states –

James Newbury interjected.

Anthony CIANFLONE: Hold your fire. We have got plenty of time, member for Brighton. It is:

That this house notes that the Allan Labor government is helping working families with the cost of living by making much-needed investments in health, education, housing and transport.

This MPI is of the utmost importance to all Victorians across the state, and of course including my community of Pascoe Vale, Coburg and Brunswick West, because cost of living is the number one issue. But as many Victorians are acutely aware, many of these cost-of-living issues have largely been driven by a number of international, national and external factors: international geopolitical conflicts and tensions, which continue to impact demand and confidence across parts of our economy through supply chains, especially global energy markets; the ongoing effects of a one-in-100-year global pandemic, which continues to impact economies and levels of inflation and spending around the world and Australia; the 13 interest rate hikes that have been unfairly imposed on Victorian households by the Reserve Bank, and even though we have had some modest relief in recent times many will still be feeling the burden of those accumulated interest rates for some time to come; the inaction, resistance and opposition by many councils, including those of Liberal and Green and Socialist pedigrees, who have opposed time and time again proposals to build more housing supply in our local communities; the ongoing disregard of the big supermarkets and banks, energy and insurance companies in providing families with any form of meaningful hip pocket relief; and a decade of underinvestment and Victoria not receiving its fair share from the previous Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison Liberal governments. These have all combined to create the cost-of-living crisis many Victorians are now experiencing.

We know there is no greater issue for workers, families, young people, retirees and indeed every household when it comes to the cost of living. It is only right that this house and this Parliament should focus all of its attention on this priority issue for Victorians, which is why I have moved the matter. But in stark contrast, while this Victorian Labor government has sought to best utilise this MPI time to focus on these issues that matter to Victorians, I am absolutely flabbergasted that the Victorian Liberal–National parties sought to utilise their time in the Legislative Council earlier today to talk about something that was entirely irrelevant. Did they use their time in the Legislative Council to talk about more jobs for Victorians? Did they utilise their time to talk about how they are going to improve health and wellbeing access and costs for Victorians? Did they utilise their time to talk about how they are going to build more homes and make homes more affordable for Victorians or anything to do with cost of living? Did they actually do that, colleagues? The answer is no; absolutely not. What we witnessed earlier today was a totally irrelevant motion moved by the recycled Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council Mr David Davis, which had nothing to do with any of these important issues. In fact it was all to do with changing the standing orders of the Legislative Council, and more specifically that ‘the following time limits will apply’ –

James Newbury: On a point of order, Speaker, as much as discussing the Legislative Council standing orders would bore all of us, I do not think it relates to the motion that the member himself has moved – on relevance.

The SPEAKER: I ask members not to raise points of order that are going to interrupt a member’s time. The member was going to get to, I am sure, the matter before the house.

Anthony CIANFLONE: That is right. Thank you, Speaker; I appreciate that. The point I was simply trying to make was that while here in this chamber we are focusing, as a government, on the issues that matter to Victorians – cost of living – in the other chamber they are focusing on something totally irrelevant. That is the point I was trying to make. Standing orders do not rank anywhere near the top-tier issues of Victorians; it is cost of living all the way. The reality is that there is only one political party in this place that can form government and can take that action on cost of living, and that is the Victorian Labor government. Whether it is on education, on health, on transport or on housing, we have been continuing to take that real action that matters to make a tangible difference to people’s lives, when standing orders in the other place make no tangible difference whatsoever. The fact is that we have never seen and we never will see the Liberal–National coalition stand up and support cost-of-living relief that we as a government have put forward.

Later this year yours truly will be turning 40. But do you know what another 40th birthday is for this year? The Back to the Future movie franchise. In the spirit of Back to the Future, in going to the substance of the motion, I would like to take us all on a bit of a trip back on Doc and Marty McFly’s iconic DeLorean. The member for Narracan, I am sure, used to ride in one once upon a time. I have obtained a copy of Grays Sports Almanac from Back to the Future, which tells us all about what you will get again if you have a Liberal government coming back to power. You only have to look as far back as when they were last in government to judge how they will carry on if they ever – God forbid ‍– get on the benches of government again in this state.

In the almanac, when I was flicking through it, do you know what I saw in an alternative reality – like Biff Tannen in Back to the Future Part II? We had someone who closed a local school and built a casino. It sounds like another party in this state once upon a time. We had the now Leader of the Opposition commit to 100 new schools, when as we heard in question time today they committed to only four before the last election, two or three of which were in his own electorate and he did not commit to. The Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, who I reckon has a strong resemblance to Biff Tannen – I reckon the member for Bulleen is a bit of a Marty McFly as well, if I may say – came out to support the $400 school bonus, which has never happened and they never committed to retaining. The Shadow Minister for Education has come out to say they are going to support the ongoing retention of free kinder, which still has not happened; they have not guaranteed the retention of it, as far as I am aware. The Shadow Minister for Education announced as well that, yes, high fee paying schools should also pay payroll tax, just like public schools have to. That has not happened either. The Shadow Minister for Public Transport, who is at the table, came out and announced that they are going to build the Metro Tunnel and the level crossing removal projects and improve the Upfield line in my community, which they actually looked at closing when they were last in government.

Matthew Guy interjected.

Anthony CIANFLONE: That was before, and it never happened under a Labor watch, member for Bulleen. The Shadow Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations has come out to call for and support pay rises for nurses, paramedics and police officers – which has never happened on the watch of a Liberal–National government. The Shadow Minister for Health has announced new upgrades to the Northern Hospital. The Austin Hospital –

Danny O’Brien interjected.

Anthony CIANFLONE: For the benefit of the deputy leader, I am actually going through all the things that the Victorian Labor government is doing when it comes to cost of living and what the Liberals are not doing. I am specifically going to the substance of the motion to contrast what we are doing and what you will never do, deputy leader.

The SPEAKER: Member for Pascoe Vale, through the Chair.

Anthony CIANFLONE: I apologise, Speaker. The Shadow Minister for Health – remember the time that they actually called out the Morrison Liberal government’s freezes to Medicare and bulk billing? You do not, because it never ever happened. Or when the Shadow Minister for Health announced and copied our policies around paramedic practitioners, the pharmacy pilot, virtual emergency departments and free nursing and midwifery studies – it never happened. It has only happened on a Labor watch.

The Shadow Minister for Energy and Resources, whoever that is these days, announced that they are bringing back the SEC and publicly owned energy. In stark contrast, they have already said they are going to sell it off again. The Shadow Treasurer, who is here as well – the guy who got promoted – has come out to announce an even bigger build of the Metro Tunnel, West Gate Tunnel and North East Link. There are the big school builds – all the schools in my community that Labor governments have delivered. There are upgrades: the $21 million Strathmore STEAM hub; the $17.8 million Coburg High technology hub, which is opening next year; the $14 million John Fawkner College hub; and the $9 million Glenroy secondary college upgrades. They never would have happened under a Liberal government, and they never will.

When it comes to energy all they are talking about is the most expensive form of energy, and that is nuclear energy, which Peter Dutton is seeking to advocate for and seeking a mandate for at the federal election. The Shadow Minister for Planning, the member for Polwarth – I am glad he is in here – has come out to announce a policy of new social community and affordable homes. We are waiting to hear about this policy. He is talking every day about housing and planning. They still have not come out with a policy to build more homes.

Richard Riordan interjected.

Anthony CIANFLONE: I am listening, member for Polwarth, and I am waiting to hear your policy. I am waiting to hear from the opposition about their housing policy that will make housing and renting more affordable. We have put the plan out there on what we want to achieve in that regard: the $6 billion Big Housing Build, the 12,000 new social, community and affordable homes, the housing statement and the Plan for Victoria. We have a vision, we are investing and we are taking action, and these guys are standing irrelevantly by the sidelines. Again, it is all in the almanac, which I am happy to provide a copy of.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Pascoe Vale is not to use props.

Anthony CIANFLONE: When it comes to education –

Richard Riordan interjected.

Anthony CIANFLONE: No, it is a policy document, thank you, member for Polwarth. You do not need to look any further than education to look at the stark difference between what a Labor government does to make education more affordable and what Liberal–National governments do to make it more unaffordable and inaccessible. With childhood, like I touched on, we are rolling out Best Start, Best Life, including free kinder for three- and four-year-olds, because we know that for children it is up until the age of five that 80 per cent of their brain, wellbeing and emotional regulation develop. We know the more we invest in their early childhood years, the more and better opportunities they will have later on in life. This is saving families $2600 per child per year for three- and four-year-olds, and the Liberals cannot guarantee that if they get into government that they would match that or retain that. To the contrary, they would cut it at the first opportunity. They are welcome to get up to the dispatch box and dismiss that and tell me otherwise, but they will not because everything is on the table.

When it comes to local kinders, they have never invested in any local kinder in my community. We are upgrading the Derby Street Children’s Centre, Pascoe Vale Community Centre, Turner Street kinder that my kids used to go to, Doris Blackburn kinder, Shirley Robertson kinder and Dunstan Reserve kinder in Brunswick West. They all are being updated by the Labor government, making kinder more accessible to more families in our community. It is also across the state. As the Minister for Education touched on today in question time, we have invested over $1.9 billion to upgrade state-of-the-art schools and facilities so all students can have access to the quality learning facilities they deserve. One of those in my community was the $18 million redevelopment of Pascoe Vale Primary School, one of the oldest primary schools in our community, which we have just completed the redevelopment of and which, again, would never have happened under a Liberal–National government ‍– never.

They are being very quiet about the school saving bonus and what their plans would be around the future of the school saving bonus. In my community it is saving significant amounts of money for local families. Across the state $136 million has been saved. In my electorate it is $700,000 saved by local families. There has been 260 grand for Coburg High, 132 grand for Pascoe Vale Girls College and much, much more. We have delivered 50 million school breakfasts at over 1000 schools. We have expanded the Glasses for Kids program for all schools. We continue to deliver the free dental in schools program, Smile Squad. Will the opposition continue that program? I just recently visited a Smile Squad at my old primary school, Coburg West Primary, last week. Locally, 7000 chair visits have been administered and seen to by the Smile Squad in recent years, delivering young children oral checks, teeth cleaning, X-rays, fluoride and varnish applications, sealants, dietary advice and free follow-up treatments. Will the Liberals discontinue that program? They are welcome to advise the house today.

But it is also so many other programs. We have heard the Shadow Cabinet Secretary Mr Joe McCracken talk about this and foreshadow many of these possible cuts:

We saw what Campbell Newman did in Queensland, he cut extremely … but he lasted for one term.

So I guess it’s a really difficult balancing act of how much do you cut, what do you cut, what services can you live without …

and what you cannot.

… it’s going to have to be, I suspect, a wholesale audit of what’s going on in government, where can we make efficiencies …

Those are the conversations I think we’re having first.

They are already having those conversations. They have got a Shadow Minister for Transition to Government measuring the curtains in the Premier’s office, and all the while when they were last in government for any meaningful time they sacked 8000 teachers and they closed schools, in my community in particular. Oak Park High, Hadfield High, Coburg High, Newlands High, Fawkner Technical School, Fawkner North Primary, Glenroy High School, Coburg Technical School, Coburg East Primary, Merlynston Primary and Brunswick Primary were all schools that were closed by the Kennett Liberal government in the 1990s. That got me and many others interested in politics in the first place, to be in this place, and I will do everything I can to stop you guys ever from being in government again.

The SPEAKER: Before I call the member for Bulleen, I will remind members that interjecting across the chamber is disorderly. Members will be removed from the chamber. I remind members also to address their contributions through the Chair.

Matthew GUY (Bulleen) (16:16): Well, well – people reckon I talk fast. I reckon that was a cross between a horse racing call and a Sooshi Mango skit. I am not sure what it was, and it was fully written. Not bad, mate. Although I am really glad that the member for Pascoe Vale did talk about past governments, because I do not see that in this matter of public importance (MPI) but now he has given me the licence to do the same, so thanks for that. You have actually given me about 50 per cent more material for my skit; it is the Rasputin skit. Okay, we will give it a shot.

I am really pleased to talk about the transport element of this MPI, because I want to raise a number of points around transport. This government talks about delivery – ‘Oh, we’re all about delivery, delivery, delivery’ – until of course you mention Melton rail electrification. I get the train all the time. My son gets the train. We get the trains, everybody’s going to get the train, but of course you have to get a V/Line train, despite them promising it in 2014 and 2022. According to the MPI we are talking about cost of living. Well, it would be a lot easier to get an electric train out to Melton, but you cannot because of the big-on-deliveries skit deliverers. Where is Melton rail electrification? There is no electrification. You are still getting a V/Line train. Maybe you can get an electric train, because they also committed to do it to Wyndham Vale. Maybe we could get the electric train to Wyndham Vale.

Danny O’Brien: Is it done there?

Matthew GUY: Not done there either. Billions of dollars promised by the Labor government to these seats they have suddenly found – no Melton rail electrification, no Wyndham Vale electrification. But that is okay, because I figured, ‘I’ll go and enjoy country Victoria, because I love the regions. So, I’ll go and get the fast train to Geelong.’ Remember Daniel Andrews came into this chamber and talked about 250-kilometre-an-hour trains. They were almost as quick as the previous speaker. The 250-kilometre-an-hour trains were going to run from Melbourne to Geelong every 30 ‍minutes. Geelong was going to have this great connectivity. It would get a massive boost in population. I remember the question without notice, and the member for Gippsland South probably would too, when the then Premier came in and said you can get the fast train to the new convention centre down in Geelong – both of which lie undelivered by the current government. I could not believe it. But there seems to be a real thing about it, because I just had a meeting where were talking about trackless trams. I thought, ‘Hang on a tick, didn’t this Labor government promise’– wait for it – ‘a trackless tram from Caulfield to Rowville?’ That is right, they did. They even announced it.

Planning and designing the new route is a critical first step …

It was announced in April 2018 by none other than the current Premier, Jacinta Allan, the member for Bendigo East, who said:

This is the missing transport link for the south-eastern suburbs –

not bad –

it will connect some of our most important education, employment and shopping precincts and boost the local economy.

That it may, but it remains –

Members interjecting.

Matthew GUY: The missing link is still missing – you got that right. So is the Knox tram – the what? The Knox tram, which according to the MPI on the cost of living would make it a lot easier to get from Knox to the city. But it was committed to by the Labor government and remains undelivered. They opposed Baxter electrification. Who would oppose electrifying to Baxter when the feds are going to pay 80 per cent of the bill? This Labor government. I can go further.

James Newbury: Do.

Matthew GUY: I just might do that, member for Brighton. The current Labor government cut two carriages off the Melbourne–Sydney XPT, so it is now a five-carriage train. But of course let us go back further to when the Cain Labor government combined the Southern Aurora and the Spirit of Progress into one train and halved patronage. When the Kennett government sped up the services and brought in the XPT at seven cars, the Andrews government cut it back to five. On the VLocity trains, while the member for Gippsland South is here, let us introduce VLocity trains on the Bairnsdale line to the member for Gippsland South’s electorate – and to the member for South-West Coast’s electorate, running through the member for Polwarth’s electorate – and reduce capacity on the trains, have no sunshades on 40-degree days, have no reclining seats and have no buffet services for most of the trip. That is apparently an increased, boastable service. They are going to do that on the north-eastern line, which is now done. They are doing it on the south-western line down to Warrnambool, which is now done. You cannot even fit six-car trains into the platforms, so they have had to cut them in half to three-car trains, but apparently this is an increase in services.

It might be an interesting fact for many people in this chamber that I know a little bit about railways, and the orders for every train you see – every single piece of rolling stock that you see, apart from the HCMTs, the high-capacity metro trains, on the Melbourne metropolitan rail network – were commenced under coalition governments. Let us go back in history, like the member for Pascoe Vale did. Let us go right the way back in history, and you might not believe this one, but I actually did. The orders for red rattler trains actually began under the Bowser and Lawson Liberal and Nationalist government back in the 1900s. The orders for the blue trains, the Harris trains, began under the Bolte government. The orders for Hitachi trains began under the Hamer government. The orders for Comeng trains began under the Hamer government. The orders for X’trapolis and Siemens were part of franchise agreements under the Kennett government, who also expanded – unlike promises to expand to Melton or to Wyndham Vale – the metro rail network down to Cranbourne.

I might add it was the Kennett government that increased country rail passenger speeds in Victoria for the first time since 1937, and it was the franchise agreements enacted under the Liberal–Nationals that brought in 160-kilometre-an-hour trains. They would have come in a decade earlier, but it was the Cain Labor government that scrapped the new R-set carriages when they came in. They also scrapped‍ – I am glad there are Gippsland members here – the concept of electrifying interurban trains to run down to Traralgon as part of the Comeng order. They scrapped that and left those as decrepit country trains, but that was a Liberal–National government idea. We can go through all of these.

In fact while we are at it we will go on to V/Line, because V/Line itself, Speaker – and you would know this as a regional member of Parliament – is characterised by that original tangerine colour. That was part of the new deal for country transport, the new deal for country passengers. The whole idea was to bring in, back in 1981 under a Liberal government, brand new country trains with brand new refurbished diesels across our whole network – as I said, introduced by the Liberal government – just like when VLocity trains came in as part of the franchise agreements. That was also agreed to by the Kennett Liberal government. The orders, which were then doubled for the regional rail link because the Labor government had ordered no trains for the new regional rail link opened in 2011, had to be done by the Baillieu government. And while we are talking about the regional rail link, people might realise this is the line that runs from Sunshine down to Werribee East. When we came to government we actually found, would you believe, that not only had the Bracks and Brumby governments not ordered new trains, they also had not ordered the signals. Even my kids’ Thomas the Tank Engine had signals, but not the regional rail link – fair dinkum. And I remember it coming to cabinet. Terry Mulder scratched his head. We all looked around and said, ‘You must be joking.’ ‘No, we’re not joking.’ We had to go and order new three-position signals, colour light signals, because nothing had been ordered. This rail line, I do not know if they were going to run it as one whole section – I have got no idea – but anyway, it had to be redone. It had to be reordered. But we did it. We did it because it was the right thing to do and we had to do it.

I hear the Premier and others come in here and talk about closing rail lines – in fact the previous speaker did, and I thought to myself, ‘That is very interesting,’ because at the moment if I walk out to the front of the building I will see the tram that runs to Port Melbourne and St Kilda. Maybe the previous speaker was not born then, but do you know what – and the member for Albert Park is here‍ – they used to be railway lines. They were not tram lines, they were train lines, and they were closed by the Labor government and turned into trams. They should not have been. They were. But Tom Roper, the transport minister, also considered doing the same thing, member for Pascoe Vale, to the Upfield line. It did not happen, but the other two lines did, didn’t they? Maybe you can ask the member for Albert Park about it, because they turned them into tram lines.

While we are talking about historical rail analysis, I cannot go past a recent debate on cost of living and on this matter without talking about ticketing. I want to talk about ticketing, because I was explaining to a couple of my colleagues today what a scratch ticket was, and they looked at me and said, ‘What?’ And I said, ‘The scratch ticket. The Labor government in the 1980s brought in this thing’ ‍– and you would not believe it; it was about a third of the size of an iPhone is all I can say – ‘for those who were in the Melbourne Metro network. And what you used to do was actually scratch off.’ Apparently this was an honesty system. I will leave it at that; I was always honest. You scratched off when you were on the tram, and of course 90 per cent of the population – particularly if you know the kids going from Ivanhoe Grammar to the city that I saw get on the train at Montmorency – would not scratch anything off. They were riding for free, so – you would not believe it – network patronage, according to the fare box, plunged. What a shock. It was a disaster.

But if it was not bad enough to have one disaster on scratch tickets, the Labor Party came back for seconds, because they brought in something called Myki. You would not believe it – talk about cost of living – the first time it went to be launched the then minister Lynne Kosky launched it, and as she tapped on her Myki the reader hit the ground and broke into 50 bits. It fell apart. ‘Oh, well, there goes the Myki system.’ But at the same press conference the minister then – and she was actually a lovely lady, a decent person; I will give her that – said, and I think John Brumby was there with her as the Premier, that you were going to be able to buy a hot dog with your Myki. A hot dog? At this point the Myki reader is on the ground in 50 bits. But anyway, the Myki system today – and you will not believe it; it is not actually laughable – is the same technology as it was when Lynne Kosky launched it 20 ‍years ago.

I went to Sydney. I go there with my son. One of my sons likes trains – you would not believe it. Anyway, he likes trains, and we were somewhere on the T8 line, and he said, ‘How are we going to pay?’ Well, you click your phone. Talk about a cost-of-living initiative – I just clicked my phone. I walk in, click, that is my ticket. It is done. That is in Sydney. It has been there since 2018. For seven years we have been mucking around with the same technology. Now the current minister says, ‘I give you a commitment: we’re going to have it next year.’ Well, next year there will be two Melbourne Cups, or there will be something in the way. There will be another grand final later in the year. Next year Donald Trump might have done some other crazy thing, as opposed to what he always does. Who knows what the world is going to be like next year. Next year? How about next month? No, we are getting a promise for next year. Well, that makes us feel a whole lot better, given Sydney has had it since 2018.

The Labor government, which trumpets itself as the big deliverer, cannot even get a ticketing system right. So much for Geelong fast rail. So much for the Murray Basin rail or the Gippsland rail plan, which is half done. So much for the Knox tram. So much cutting of carriages on our interstate trains. So much of putting substandard interurban trains on long-haul carriers. So much for boasting about introducing new suburban trains when virtually all of them apart from HCMTs were introduced under coalition or Liberal governments. They come in here with the gall to attack the Liberal Party, who built the city loop on time and on budget. Unlike the Melbourne Metro, the city loop was on time and on budget. Who built CityLink, as opposed to EastLink, without the tolls? It was meant to be done without tolls, said Steve Bracks.

Wayne Farnham interjected.

Matthew GUY: We built the Bolte Bridge; you are quite right, member for Narracan. And there are two tunnels that you will go home through if you go west which we got from a Liberal government. There is so much I could go through it is not worth it.

At the end of the day, when it comes to cost of living, what Victorians want is value for money, and value for money means investing in projects which they can use and which are going to help their daily life. No-one out in Cloverton in the northern suburbs, in Melton South in the north-western suburbs, out in Tarneit in the western suburbs or even down in Clyde in the south-east is going to be helped by the Suburban Rail Loop, which might be a ‘nice to have’ but is not the ‘must have’. The must have is what we must put in place in our metropolitan rail network at the ends of the lines or the expansion of the electrified network. The Labor government sacrifices all of those upgrades for the sake of one pet project dreamed up on a Qantas flight to Hong Kong by Daniel Andrews and Luke Sayers. That is not the way to build transport infrastructure.

Ella GEORGE (Lara) (16:32): I rise today to contribute on the matter of public importance brought before the house by the member for Pascoe Vale:

That this house notes that the Allan Labor government is helping working families with the cost of living by making much-needed investments in health, education, housing and transport.

It is a pleasure to be speaking on this motion today, as I hear every day from constituents across the Lara electorate how much the investments that the Labor government are making are truly helping people facing challenges with the cost of living. I am proud to be a member of this government, which is committed to investing in things that Victorians really need and initiatives that drive down the cost of living.

It is so clear when you look at this government’s investment into health care. We are committed to delivering the largest health infrastructure pipeline in this state’s history, and the Lara electorate and in fact the wider Geelong community are benefiting from this. Just last week I had the opportunity to join the Minister for Health Infrastructure and my colleagues the member for Geelong and the member for Bellarine to kick of construction at the Barwon women’s and children’s hospital. This project is huge for our region, creating 1500 jobs during construction. It will enhance health services for women and children in Geelong, providing vital maternity and paediatric care so families can access topnotch health care right here in our community. With state-of-the-art, specially designed facilities, Barwon Health will be able to deliver more crucial services for more women and children. This includes the addition of new hospital beds, birthing suites, operating theatres and consultation rooms. The project will also feature a new unit dedicated to neonatal and parent care, allowing families to remain together while their infants receive medical attention, along with an upgraded special care nursery to support babies during their essential early weeks and months.

This is in addition to the public fertility care services that are now available to the Geelong community and an expanded women’s and sexual reproductive health clinic delivered by Barwon Health. It is also on top of the $20 million brand new dedicated children’s emergency department at University Hospital in Geelong. In Geelong we are also home to a new mental health and wellbeing local. This is a new service providing mental health and wellbeing support in the community, which is free, does not require referral and offers support for anyone with a mental health or substance use concern.

It is not just in central Geelong where we are rolling out more health services to provide free world-class health care for local residents. In Geelong’s north we recently opened the Barwon Early Parenting Centre – one of the many early parenting centres across Victoria funded by this Labor government and free of charge for families to access. These centres support families with children from birth to four years old with a whole range of services, from support with feeding and sleeping to helping children with developmental challenges.

Another example of our investment is the kids rehab facility at the McKellar Centre, with specialist rehabilitations for children up to the age of 18 who may have experienced a concussion, an acquired brain injury, a spinal injury, a complex neurological condition or a recent surgical or medical intervention. They also have a program for children with cerebral palsy. Additionally, the McKellar Centre has introduced a mental health and wellbeing centre which features a 16-bed acute mental health unit providing much-needed capacity to support people experiencing mental health challenges.

Under this Labor government we saw Barwon Health North built. It is a $33 million facility to deliver topnotch health services to the expanding population in Geelong’s northern suburbs and complements the Norlane Aquatic Recreation Centre, which was also funded by our government, offering a wonderful state-of-the-art health and wellbeing hub in the north. In addition to its core services, which include an urgent-care clinic, X-ray and imaging services, a dialysis program and other allied health support, Barwon Health North has recently broadened its offerings to include exceptional dental services. The community dental services here cater for a range of needs, providing emergency dental care, general dentistry and denture services. Accessing these amazing health facilities and services is completely free for local residents, meaning that when you need health care or when your family is sick you do not have to worry about how much it is going to cost you, because this Labor government will look after you.

We know that preventative health programs are just as important as funding hospitals and emergency rooms. This government’s Smile Squad program offers free dental services to all Victorian school students. Smile Squad visits schools to provide dental check-ups, treatments and oral health information, and I know that families across the Lara electorate are incredibly grateful for this. Our Glasses for Kids program supports families with the cost of eye care. The Glasses for Kids program provides free vision screening and, if needed, further testing and free glasses for participating prep to year 3 students. Eye care is something I am particularly passionate about. As many in this chamber will know – they have probably heard me complain before – my eyes do not work so well. I did not realise until I was in year 10, and sometimes I think back and think if I had had access to eye care or eye testing in school my eye condition would have been picked up much earlier and my learning would have been significantly improved.

We know that active recreation is very important when it comes to staying healthy. Our active kids voucher program has seen almost 150,000 vouchers approved across program rounds, with more than 35,000 vouchers already paid out in the most recent round, creating more opportunities for kids to get active, be healthy and have fun. In round 8 we have seen around 1500 vouchers that have been paid and reimbursed in the Geelong local government area, totalling over $270,000 worth. That is real cost-of-living relief for families, and that number will continue to grow, with voucher redemption still open for another two months. I could go on and on and on all day about what this government is doing to ease the cost of living through our investments in health care. It is something that I am so passionate about, and I know my colleagues are too. On the Labor side of this house we understand what a difference it makes when families can rely on world-class health care for free and do not need to worry about how they are going to pay for it.

But of course this is not all we are doing to support families and students in our local communities with the cost of living. We have the school saving bonus, which provides $400 in support for eligible school-age students for use on 2025 school costs. This program has already provided families in the Lara electorate with over $1.3 million in support for the beginning of this school year. That is support for textbooks, uniforms, supplies, camps and excursions, and we all know how quickly these costs can add up. For a family with three children the school saving bonus can mean a saving of $1200 per year. That is massive. That is real cost-of-living support for families.

We have also invested in breakfast clubs at government schools, which I know are at many schools across the Lara electorate, and they have gone such a long way to ensure that every kid has a full tummy before they start learning for the day. We know that makes a difference, and that is exactly why we are investing in it. And there is more investment. There is $48 million for the affordable school uniforms program, $9 million for period products in every school and a massive $367 million for the Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund so that no kid needs to miss out. We all know that the classroom is important, but sometimes what happens outside is just as important – those friendships that are built and those life skills that are learned – and no kid should miss out on those valuable opportunities.

In addition to these programs, the Lara electorate is also benefiting from this government’s commitment to capital improvements at our local schools. We recently opened the redeveloped Northern Bay Goldsworthy campus, and it was wonderful to have the Premier visit and tour the new facilities and meet students. This is a $17 million project that includes a performing arts centre, administration building and classrooms. The Northern Bay community had a tragic end to last year at their Hendy Street campus with the devastating fire that destroyed their main administration and classroom building. Students and staff moved to another campus, but I am pleased to report that all students are now back on campus. Thankfully, demolition of the fire-damaged building is on track, and planning for a new, modern main building is underway, with architects appointed and builders to be appointed later this year. I will take the opportunity to thank the Minister for Education and the Department of Education for their swift response in supporting the Hendy campus school community and ensuring that this school will be rebuilt as soon as possible.

Recently I toured another construction project fully funded by this government at St Francis Xavier School in Corio. Works are well underway on the $2 million redevelopment, which will include a new reception area, staffroom, offices, meeting rooms and a sick bay. Western Heights College is another school that has received funding thanks to this Labor government. Their $7.5 million project will deliver a major competition-grade gymnasium to the school community, enhancing their incredible sports program. New classrooms and learning spaces at Nelson Park School are open. This is a $10 million project delivering eight flexible learning spaces for students, spaces for staff, a sensory room, a STEM room and art space. These are important investments in our school communities.

When it comes to delivering for Victorians, it is the Allan Labor government and it is Labor governments that deliver. Unlike those opposite when they were in government, we are not closing hospitals and we are not cutting services; we are investing in the healthcare system that Victorians need. Unlike those opposite when they were in government, we are not closing schools or selling off the land; we are building new schools and we are redeveloping schools. We are ensuring that all Victorians can access the best education, and we are supporting families with the cost of living.

Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (16:42): It is disappointing that the member for Lara finished as she did, because I was going to give her a bit of praise because I thought that she actually spoke a bit about the matter of public importance. It was extraordinary. The member for Pascoe Vale put forward an MPI that talked about how the Allan Labor government was helping working families with the cost of living and then spent 99 per cent of his 15 minutes talking about the Liberal and National opposition.

Members interjecting.

Danny O’BRIEN: Exactly, just the Liberal opposition. You did not talk about us because we never do anything wrong, member for Pascoe Vale; that is right. It was quite extraordinary that here was 15 ‍minutes for a member of the government to get up and talk about how they are helping Victorians with the cost of living, and what do they talk about? They talk about the opposition. They talk about what the opposition is doing. It is extraordinary that this government cannot actually talk about how it is addressing the cost of living –

Bridget Vallence interjected.

Danny O’BRIEN: Because it is not – that is right, member for Evelyn. It is not addressing the cost of living. I would like to go through a couple of the things that they have talked about, because I have been around politics long enough to know that when you see a matter like this, you can pretty much read it straight out of the research, can’t you? They have used the words ‘cost of living’, and they have used the words ‘health’, ‘education’, ‘housing’ and ‘transport’. This is exactly what the government’s – well, perhaps the federal government’s – research is telling them. Maybe they just saved a bit on the most recent one given there is a federal election. ‘Hey, Albo, what are the issues we need to talk about?’ ‘Give us a bit of cost of living.’ ‘Righto, we’ll do that. Actually, we won’t do that, we’ll just talk about the opposition for the first 15 minutes.’ Anyway, when you have got nothing to say on cost of living because you have made it worse, that is probably what the member for Pascoe Vale would do.

The SPEAKER: Order! Through the Chair. Use of the word ‘you’ is a reflection on the Chair.

Danny O’BRIEN: Speaker, it was the colloquial use of the word ‘you’.

The SPEAKER: My ruling is my ruling.

Danny O’BRIEN: And I accept that wholeheartedly. I will go through a couple of the things that the government talks about in this matter of public importance, starting with health. Apparently that is going really well.

A member: Except in Albury.

Danny O’BRIEN: Yes, Albury. The people from Albury–Wodonga this afternoon would like to talk to how well the investments in health are going. But I can talk about my own electorate, where for a number of years now we have had the government talking about mergers, then talking about health service network plans, and then ruling out mergers. Indeed the Premier said only six months ago that she did not support mergers of our health system and our hospitals because that would be inconsistent with good patient care. So I was surprised to learn last week that the government was in fact backing a merger – not just of a few regional hospitals but of the Alfred hospital with Peninsula Health and, lo and behold, Bass Coast Health and Gippsland Southern. How is that going to go – Gippsland Southern, little old Leongatha and Korumburra, up against the might of the Alfred? Do you reckon that is going to result in better services for the people of Leongatha and Korumburra? I do not think so. That is one area.

The issues of ambulance ramping have been rampant, I might say, over the last couple of years. People could not get an ambulance when they called for one repeatedly over the last couple of years, and the performance measures, the actual response times for ambulances, have been appalling. On elective surgery, does anyone remember the Minister for Health saying, ‘We are setting a target of 240,000 ‍elective surgeries next year. I won’t accept anything less’? Before they even had the opportunity to try and deliver it, they cut that and dropped their target back to 207,000. They clearly could not do it.

On education, the Minister for Education today talked about the massive amount of funding that they committed for new and upgraded schools at the last election. That included Leongatha Secondary College getting $11 million that no-one asked for. The school did not know what it was for. It had no plans for it. Lo and behold, here we are 2½ years into the term and it has not got any of that money or any upgrade. Sale College likewise are still waiting for funding on that. But more particularly on the cost-of-living issue, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority only a week ago listed the cost of public education across the nation, and was Victoria last? No, Victoria was not last. It did not have the highest. It had the second highest. Victoria has the second most expensive public education in the nation. The member for Pascoe Vale talked about cost of living and education – he did not, but he put it in his MPI – Victoria has the second-highest cost of government education in the nation.

They talk about transport. Let us have a look at the state of our roads. You want to talk about cost of living? How is it when you have got to go out and get new tyres all the time, get the shockers fixed? Two years ago there were more than 2000 claims from Victorians for damage caused by the roads. It was a 414 per cent increase over three years.

Bridget Vallence interjected.

Danny O’BRIEN: It does cost them money, member for Evelyn. But the problem is that they do not actually get any money. They put in a claim. I think, of those 2000, one person successfully got a claim. That is transport. That is how they are going.

Housing is the one that I think is most critical, and it is actually a very important one for this place to talk about. There is nowhere better that demonstrates the differences in philosophy between the government and those on this side of the chamber, because we know that supply is critical. We know that when you add a tax as a cost to a particular economic function, that tax will be passed on, and the government does not seem to understand that. We had the former Treasurer two years ago say it is economics 101. I do not think he had actually ever done economics 101, because he certainly did not understand taxes, and we have had 60 new or increased taxes under this government since they came to office. Of those, 30 are on property, and let us go through a few of them: increased fire services property levy; introduction of foreign stamp duty; increased absentee landowner surcharge for foreign property; increased absentee landowner surcharge for foreign property again – a number of these are over and over in the budget; a new so-called vacant home tax; and a new stamp duty on off-the-plan purchases. Remember that one? That one was brought in in 2017, and then the government came out and made a big virtue of a few months ago saying, ‘We’re going to bring it back – for nine months. We’re going to bring back the off-the-plan stamp duty exemption that we took away in the first place.’ And apparently Victorians are going to be grateful for that because it is going to stimulate housing – unbelievable.

There is the new windfall gains tax on rezoned land; another increase in the fire services property levy; expanded land tax on unimproved residential land; the 43 per cent increase to domestic building insurance charges; increased land tax on landholdings above $300,000; introduction of land tax on landholdings between $50,000 and $300,000 as part of the so-called COVID debt recovery plan, which is not even going to deal with the COVID debt; a 53 per cent increase, again, to domestic building insurance charges; and, most recently and coming into Parliament tomorrow in the second-reading speech of the bill, the creation of the expanded Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund tax. This is one of the most egregious tax increases on this list of taxes, because the government are now trying to make a virtue of the fact that they are going to cover the SES with this new expanded volunteers fund. What they are also doing is throwing in Emergency Management Victoria, Forest Fire Management Victoria, Emergency Recovery Victoria and Triple Zero Victoria, all of which are core government services that have always been funded out of consolidated revenue. Now the government is going to try and save some money – because it cannot manage money and it has messed up the budget – and as a result it is going to tax Victorians further, particularly those Victorians with property. So for residential the rate will go from 8.7 cents to 17.3 cents per $1000 of capital improved value, a 100 per cent increase. For non-principal private residences there is also a 100 per cent increase. Non-principal private residences – who is that? That is landlords. That is rental providers. Do you think that they are not going to pass that on to renters? Commercial is going up 100 per cent. Industrial is going up 64 per cent.

Most egregiously, for primary producers it is going up 189 per cent. These are the people, in the main, that are already CFA volunteers and are already putting out the fires, doing it in their own time and supporting their community, and they are going to cop a 189 per cent increase in their fire levy under this government because Labor cannot manage money. That is a disgrace. That is where the distinction is with those of us on this side; we understand that increased taxes like these only get passed back into the community. The government does not seem to understand that. They do not understand that that is where the cost of living comes from.

I have not even got to energy because I have run out of time, and I note that the government did not mention energy. This is a government that does not understand the cost of living.

Dylan WIGHT (Tarneit) (16:52): It gives me great pleasure this afternoon to rise and make a contribution on this matter of public importance brought forward by the member for Pascoe Vale. I am so glad that he did, because it gives me 10 long minutes to speak about how the Allan Labor government is supporting people in my electorate in Tarneit and in Hoppers Crossing. Let me run through the really practical measures that this government has brought forward to support working families. There was the $250 power saving bonus – I think we did three or four rounds of that – which was incredible for people and their bills amidst some tricky times in terms of cost of living. There is the $400 school saving bonus. I see kids walking around Tarneit pimped out in their brand new school uniforms that they most certainly would not have had access to had it not been for Labor’s $400 school saving bonus. Indeed who could forget about free kinder? I had the pleasure to be with Minister Blandthorn on Monday to open another brand new kinder in Tarneit, Barayip, which is co-located with our brand new primary school, Barayip Primary School. These are world-class educational facilities for our kids in the west, because they deserve nothing less, and they get access to those 15 ‍hours per week for free. That is how you support families in places like Tarneit, and that is how you make sure that kids get the best start to their life.

Before the member for Bulleen leaves, I would like to thank him. I was in here for the journey that he took us on before, the old king of housing approvals himself. It was a long journey and it was a great journey, and I take him at his word that he is a real transport enthusiast. But I would like to just jog the king of housing approvals’ memory for one moment. He is a switched-on guy, so he will remember pretty quickly. Tarneit North is essentially a suburb in my electorate north of the regional rail link – which, by the way, member for Bulleen, does not finish in Werribee east; it runs through Wyndham Vale to the Geelong line there. If you would like to come out to the west and lie to people and tell them that you care about them –

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Member for Bulleen, off you go.

Member for Bulleen withdrew from chamber.

Dylan WIGHT: If the member for Bulleen or indeed the opposition would like to lie to people in the west and pretend that they care about them – maybe figure out where it is. The really funny and interesting part –

Richard Riordan: On a point of order, Speaker, on relevance, the member for Tarneit wanted the opposition to come and visit to understand the west.

The SPEAKER: What is your point of order?

Richard Riordan: The member for Tarneit might like to tell us how many of the members for the west actually live in the west.

The SPEAKER: There is no point of order.

Dylan WIGHT: It is hard to make a contribution while the member for Polwarth is over there shouting at clouds, Speaker. Tarneit North is a precinct structure plan with a collection of estates just north of the regional rail link there. It was a PSP signed off by the member for Bulleen when he was planning minister in I believe about 2010–12. That is a PSP and a part of Tarneit that has been planned so poorly that we cannot run a bus route through it. We cannot run a bus route through the PSP in Tarneit North because the member for Bulleen planned it so poorly and the streets are so narrow so that one of his mates could fit a few extra lots in there. The people of Tarneit North cannot at the moment access a bus. We are working in overdrive to try and retrofit solutions for it. If you are such a transport enthusiast, perhaps plan an estate where the people in it can get access to it. It is an absolute disgrace.

Richard Riordan interjected.

Dylan WIGHT: The member for Polwarth continues to shout at clouds. It is an absolute disgrace, and I will continue to work with the people of Tarneit North to get a solution.

They are a dangerous show, this mob over here – a slothful, lazy opposition that sit on the fringe of every issue. There is no policy; it is just political positioning. That is all – lazy, slothful, no policies. The people of Victoria know and have always known that when the Liberal Party in Victoria get into government it is about cuts and burning the place down.

I spoke about the power saving bonus, I spoke about the school saving bonus and I spoke about free kinder. They are the things that Victorians miss out on when there is a Liberal government in this state. They are the things that Victorians miss out on. There are the breakfast clubs in our schools. Every school in Tarneit and Hoppers Crossing runs a breakfast club. Do you know why? Because without them children would go to school without breakfast. They would go hungry, which affects their learning but it also affects their health. Every single school in my electorate runs that program, and you can bet your bottom dollar that if this mob get in, it is gone, because that is what they do when they govern – they cut, they close and they burn the show down. That is what is on the line in the next two years. They have gone pretty quiet now, because they know it is what they have always done and it is what they will always do.

I spoke about the practical supports that this government has put forward and has offered Victorians – the power saving bonus, school saving bonus and free kinder – but there are also the services and the infrastructure improvements that go with that. Let us start with health. The Werribee Mercy Hospital, which had a $125 million upgrade in 2018, is now undertaking an upgrade of its emergency department. That means that an extra 25,000 people in my community can go through that emergency department each year. The federal Labor government made an amazing announcement last week of $8.5 ‍billion to make sure that people could access a GP more easily. Universal and free health care is the fundamental pillar of Australia’s healthcare system, and we are making sure that people in my community – an extra 25,000 a year – can have better access to that. That is how you support people in communities, and that is what the Allan Labor government is doing at the Werribee Mercy Hospital and out in the west.

There is education as well. Every Victorian kid, Victorian child, deserves a world-class education, and kids in the west are no different. I have been lucky enough to open five brand new schools just since I have been the member – five; amazing – all world class. All of them, apart from the high school, are co-located with kindergartens, but the high school is next to a primary school with a co-located kindergarten. There are world-class educational opportunities for kids in the west – for kids in Tarneit and for kids in Hoppers Crossing. They go from free kinder in a co-located kindergarten straight to their primary school and then, luckily enough in my electorate, to their high school as well. It makes that transition through your educational years really easy, really good and really streamlined – absolutely fantastic.

There are also the infrastructure improvements. I think even those opposite will accept this and will agree with this: with improved infrastructure you get improved productivity. And what do you get when you improve productivity, member for Polwarth? You get higher wages; that is what you get. We can talk about the West Gate Tunnel. Everybody knows about the West Gate Tunnel, but what about the Tarneit West train station? It will be completed by 2026, with about a $150 million investment from this government – a new station on the regional rail link to make sure that people in Tarneit can get access to the public transport they need to be able to start their day, get to the city or get to work quicker so they can have more time with their families. Luckily enough for those people in Tarneit North that I spoke of earlier, where the member for Bulleen made that estate incredibly difficult, that train station is in very close proximity, and we will work with that community to make sure that bus routes are running from that estate to that brand new train station so they can access it. This Allan Labor government is supporting people in my electorate in Tarneit, and I commend this.

Richard RIORDAN (Polwarth) (17:02): This afternoon we are talking about the horrendous costs to families right throughout Victoria, where their hip-pocket nerves – the costs to families, the costs to small businesses, the costs to everyone to do business in Victoria – are out of control. It is out of control in health, education, housing and particularly transport in the state of Victoria. Victorians are rapidly tiring of the rhetoric of the 10-odd years now of the Andrews, now Allan, Labor government, which has skewed government spending and skewed government resources into vanity projects that after 10 years we have barely seen, apart from some level crossing removals completed. Tunnels and projects all over Melbourne have not been completed. The only thing they successfully completed was on day one when they stopped a tunnel and road project that the Liberal government in 2014 had commenced. Their only real achievement in getting anything done in roads was to stop a really sensible road project.

More important are the costs that are mounting. It was disturbing not only to myself but certainly to the vast majority of my electorate when we learned late last year that 95 per cent of the regional road funding maintenance budget had not been spent. The government in response to that came out and said, ‘Trust us; we’re now going to spend a record amount in this current financial year’ – the one that we are in now, which finishes in about four months time. In the financial year to Christmas – to halfway through, to the six-month mark – not one tender had been let to repair rural and regional roads. Why is this important? It will come as a surprise to many government members opposite who live in their bubbles and cocoons that in terms of the food that gets delivered to Melbourne and the food that goes to our regional cities – the food that is produced that we all rely on every day of the week, as every family, every household, relies on their milk and relies on their meat products, spuds, potatoes, vegetables and horticulture – all that produce by and large comes into our cities and our distribution centres from regional Victoria. Transport operator after transport operator talks about the fact that we have our 100-kilometre-an-hour roads. In the case of the road through Polwarth it is dual lane most of the way – the Princes Highway – and that road in many parts is permanently down to 80 kilometres an hour when it should be 100 kilometres an hour. That slows transport into our CBD, into our distribution centres and into our supermarkets.

Right across other regional areas, we have now got 100-kilometre-an-hour roads that are down to 60 ‍kilometres an hour and 40 kilometres an hour right through south-western Victoria, the home of the bottled milk product for most of our supermarkets. That milk every day is carted through to Melbourne. That milk every day is arriving in Melbourne more slowly and more shaken. I mean, most of us now probably do not realise or have probably forgotten what still milk tastes like because most of the time by the time it gets to Melbourne it has probably half turned into a thickshake because of the condition of our roads. That is something where one day when we have a Liberal government back in charge and our roads back to square people will go, ‘The milk tastes different. It’s no longer as thick and buttery as it seems to have been for the last 10 years of Labor.’ But nonetheless that is a massive impost. The transport operators, and most of them are good Victorian-owned businesses and enterprises, are saying the cost for their tyres and the cost of keeping their trucks and transports up to spec is a cost that is being passed on to consumers here in Victoria. That is unreasonable.

In my own portfolio area of housing this government have absolutely failed to understand that their massive increases in land tax, in vacancy tax, in windfall gains tax and in fire services levy tax, which comes through people’s rates – those four taxes in particular – have a huge impact. If it is an investment property, it is a property somebody rents – somebody who cannot afford a home – and they will now have these costs and charges passed on to them. These are costs and expenses that this government is taking from some of the poorest in the state to help prop up its budget. The government is under a misguided delusion that somehow if you put a tax on something, that will not get passed through, and we know that is not true.

More disturbingly – we talked about the added freight and transport costs of getting our food to market‍ – we have also just seen the government reveal the fact that they are putting extra on the fire services levy. These are some 200 per cent increases for our farmers, our primary producers and our food producers. These are huge cost imposts at a time when we need to maintain as much competitiveness in our food production as possible. For example, just in dairy alone, if we are not competitive, if we are not bringing to market the best and most competitive prices, other nearby markets such as those in New Zealand cause untold heartache and pressure on the market here. It is wrong for our own government to overtax our farmers and primary producers, giving a competitive advantage particularly to the Kiwis to bring their dairy products, their cheeses and their butters, into our markets. That is unfair, and that is a cost burden put on Victorian households and homes that should not be there.

Also in the home market, the government has talked a lot in recent weeks about getting more homes and having more homes available for young people in particular. It is easy to talk, but you have got to put the mechanisms in place. You have got to talk to the industry and you have got to listen to those people that know how to build homes and are bringing homes to market, and they are all saying it is too expensive in Victoria. Why is it so much more expensive to bring a house to market in Victoria? It is because of this government’s reckless budget and reckless overspending on its signature projects here in Victoria. The yet to be completed signature projects here in Victoria have come at huge cost to the taxpayer. We heard in recent weeks that its key projects are overblown by $11 billion, just this year. When you have that much extra money going into the economy, it forces prices up, it brings labour costs up, it brings the cost of materials up and it distorts the market. While this government continues to distort the natural market forces in the Victorian economy that will see homes brought to market at an affordable and fair price for average Victorians and while the government continues to allow that to happen, we will not have the affordable housing that we need in the state of Victoria.

On health costs, the government talks about what it is doing for health and about hospitals that it has proposed and announced but that it has not continued. We saw farcical scenes in question time today when the government was challenged by the community on its inability to deliver on localised health care. But in my own electorate this government and its predecessor, the Andrews government, promised in 2018 a hospital in Torquay. They repromised in the 2022 election a hospital in Torquay. But guess what: they ran out of money, didn’t they? They ran out of money, and in 2023 they cancelled it. The irony of all of this is that someone in state Labor forgot to tell federal Labor that they had already put the kibosh on a publicly funded health service in Torquay, and what have they done? They have gone and had Libby Coker, the federal member for Corangamite, come out last week – in a very, very fashionable sandwich board, mind you – and stand on the side of the road. The dignity levels have somewhat declined in Labor now as they get desperate to maintain a government at both state and federal levels. But the federal member for Corangamite, standing out on the side of the road in a sandwich board, declared: ‘Torquay needs urgent care health services.’ Well, yes, the community has been telling this government for quite some time, and in fact this government had been promising that until last year when they cancelled it. But the point is this government are all talk about providing health services at a fair and accessible price for Victorians, but very, very quickly turn their back on them. It will be interesting to see at the upcoming federal election whether the voters of Torquay will for a third time swallow a Labor promise on accessible and affordable health care in the Torquay–Surf Coast community. We have got to remember also that same community is still having to drive a good 40 minutes to get to the nearest hospital.

At the same time that they cancelled a local community health service, they also oversaw the closing of over 30 per cent of the maternity services in the Geelong region. So just in this term of government ‍–

Members interjecting.

Richard RIORDAN: Because the Geelong community have been waiting a long time to see your child and maternity health services. Geelong today, in this current term under an Allan government, has over 30 per cent fewer maternity services than what it had three years ago, and that is an indictment of this government. It proves its lack of care for community health and cost of living.

Kat THEOPHANOUS (Northcote) (17:12): I am honoured to contribute to this matter of public importance, which asks that the house notes that the Allan Labor government is helping working families with the cost of living. Right now we know many people are feeling the pressure of rising costs. Whether it is paying the bills, getting the kids through school, meeting rent and mortgage payments or keeping up with the weekly shop, the rising cost of living is a challenge, and the very real stress and anxiety of this situation is being felt by families in Australia but also across the world. Our government recognises this, and it is why we are stepping up, delivering real, practical support where it is needed most. We are making big investments that make a real difference in people’s lives, particularly for working families, who we know bear the brunt of rising living cost challenges.

I want to begin with education, because as a Labor government we hold dear and fiercely protect the right of every child to access a great public education and the right to attend kinder and school and have that support and that launching pad into a life of learning and purpose. It is this Labor government that has introduced the generational and life-changing reform of free three- and four-year-old kinder and our aspiration for a full year of pre-prep, giving four-year-olds access to 30 hours of play-based learning, saving families up to $2500 per child per year but critically also allowing more parents to be able to make the choice to go back to work after having a child.

Just last month the Premier and I had the opportunity to visit a brand new local kinder that is now co-located at Thornbury High. It is called Darebin Creek kinder, and it is allowing for 99 new kinder spots in the heart of my community. It is a spectacular new service for local families. Last week I also joined our Darebin mayor Kristine Olaris, a Labor mayor, and centre director Helen Evdokimou-Mina at Merri community kinder, where we celebrated an expansion of the three-year-old room. We gave kids a little sneak peek of their free kinder kits, filled with books and crafts to take home. These are real-life investments in my own community that our Labor government is supporting.

Families in my community have also directly saved now over $1.1 million since the start of the school term through the $400 school saving bonus. It is probably more now since that calculation was made. But that is kids going home with new school uniforms, with schoolbags, with textbooks. It is kids being able to participate in excursions and school activities like swimming and sport, and it is families with an extra bit of buffer to spend on their other priorities.

We know that schools are these special settings that allow us to have meaningful interventions and supports for children and for families – supports that reflect our Labor government’s commitment to social equality. That is why our government has expanded free school breakfast clubs to every government school for the first time. It is why we deliver the Smile Squad free dental care, the free Glasses for Kids program, the Get Active Kids $200 sports vouchers and free period products in schools and in public places. I spent some time with students at the Northern College of the Arts and Technology last November talking about that fantastic initiative and how important it was to those students to have access to free pads and tampons – items that are a necessity, not a luxury. The truth is that the Liberal Party would never in a million years prioritise these sorts of investments. It is just not in their wheelhouse. They have not committed to retaining these initiatives. They have not said they will keep free kinder, not once – a transformational economic reform, and they have not said that they will keep it. But as families in my community know, these are initiatives that materially assist people in meeting living costs.

So too are the many, many things our Labor government is doing in the health space. As Parliamentary Secretary for Women’s Health I have spoken to countless women and girls about the cost barrier to accessing health care. That is why our $153 million women’s health package is delivering a public health system that will be unmatched in Australia: 20 dedicated women’s health clinics, 20 sexual and reproductive health hubs, a virtual women’s health clinic, a mobile women’s health clinic and an Aboriginal women’s health clinic. These are life-changing investments and reforms designed to deliver free specialist care for Victorian women and girls, which has been needed for far too long, for conditions like endometriosis, PCOS, menopause and incontinence – conditions that can be very costly, I might add, to treat. It complements our investments into urgent care clinics, into public IVF, into the pharmacies pilot and into the virtual emergency department. What a fantastic initiative that is. What will the Liberal–National coalition do if we ever have the horror of witnessing them take the reins of government again? If the past is any indicator of the future, it will be cuts and closures and families left without services and supports. We have absolutely no guarantees that the Liberal–National coalition will continue any of the initiatives that our Labor government has put in place to help Victorians.

Last week I joined the Minister for Finance at the new social housing our Labor government has built in my community on Oakover Road in Preston. We were welcomed into the home of Tom, an 80-year-old resident who has been living there since May. Tom told us about his early life on sheep stations and showed us pictures of his late wife and the family. He told us about what it meant to him to have his apartment – an affordable, modern, secure home. It is cosy, clean and filled with his things ‍– a place of comfort where he can listen to his radio, wander down to the Woolies, do his weekly shop and pop into the art gallery that we built as part of that development on the lower level. Tom’s apartment is one of 99 in the building and one of 12,000 social homes we are building as part of the Big Housing Build – homes that the Greens political party still oppose as recently as today, railing in this chamber against building more social homes. At a time when the cost of housing is one of the biggest issues facing Victorians, the Greens want to put the brakes on and keep people living in housing stress because that makes for a better slogan. We know that demand is driving up the cost of housing, and that is why we are getting on with approving and building more homes than any other state and we are slashing off-the-plan stamp duty.

Our government is making renting fairer too, something I am working on as the Parliamentary Secretary for Renters. It means banning no-fault evictions and all types of rental bidding and making sure that rentals meet the minimum standards before they are being advertised. It means a portable bond scheme to help alleviate the stress of outlaying two bonds at once. It is establishing Rental Dispute Resolution Victoria, a fast and free way to resolve rental disputes that will speed up processes and get things settled more quickly.

Recently I had the pleasure of meeting with Financial Counselling Victoria at Banyule Community Health to discuss what an impact free financial counselling can have when someone is feeling overwhelmed by their financial situation. I spoke to Cathy, who is a financial counsellor who speaks with people every day who are concerned about their bills, who might be falling behind and need that little bit of advocacy and advice to turn things around. That is why our government is also investing another $15 million over the next three years to expand financial counselling services.

In energy, Solar Homes and the Victorian energy upgrades program, what a difference they are making to my community and so many communities across Victoria for families that for the first time have the chance to upgrade their heating or hot water, have the chance to reduce the costs of their energy bills, to put solar on their roofs, to install a battery and to contribute to the climate action we need to leave a sustainable state to our kids. Those are real up-front rebates available to Victorians right now. It is our government doing it, driving down the cost of bills at scale, helping families to manage their household budgets. There is the container deposit scheme. I could go on. We have not talked about that yet, but I do commend the member for Pascoe Vale on putting forward this important matter of public importance. I finish on this: it is Labor governments that will help Victorians; the Liberals will not.

Jess WILSON (Kew) (17:22): I am pleased to rise on the matter of public importance submitted by the member for Pascoe Vale. Do not get too excited, though, member for Mordialloc. I think I might take a little bit of a different direction to the talking points we have heard today from the Premier’s office. There are not too many different speeches from those opposite. The talking points were clearly distributed widely. We have heard a lot from those opposite today about the fact that Victoria claims to be the Education State, but the claim that those opposite make is laughable. On most meaningful measures, under the Minister for Education’s watch Victoria is in freefall when it comes to education. Despite overseeing – and sometimes it seems being blindsided by – crisis after crisis in his own portfolio, rumours continue to abound in this place that the Deputy Premier is counting numbers in the Labor caucus to replace the Premier. Whether or not the minister is successful in that pursuit, Victorian families would be forgiven for wondering why the minister in charge of education in this state has not made improving our education system his priority.

Where to begin on the Education State under Minister Carroll and the Allan Labor government? The VCE debacle, the teacher shortage crisis, indeed high-risk youth offenders in Victorian classrooms and overcrowded crumbling schools. Let us just look at a snapshot before diving into some of that detail. Our teachers are the lowest paid in Australia. Our state government funding per student is the second lowest in the Commonwealth. The cost to send a child to a government school in Victoria has increased year on year, with Victorian families paying the highest fees, charges and parent contributions in the nation at a primary school level. Almost 30 per cent of Victorian students are failing to meet basic standards in English and maths. Victoria was the last state to adopt phonics in the teaching of reading, despite the weight of scientific evidence behind structured literacy being clearly best practice. Victoria is the only state or territory where student attendance was lower in 2024 than two years ago and where over half of high school students, years 7 to 10, attend school less than 90 ‍per cent of the time. These are just some of the metrics where Victoria is far from best in class under the education minister’s watch.

But let us dig a little deeper on some of those issues. Let us start with learning outcomes. As I said, almost 30 per cent of Victorian students are failing to meet basic standards in English and mathematics under this government. The 2024 NAPLAN data has confirmed that for Victorian students spelling, grammar, punctuation and numeracy outcomes fell for year 9 students compared to the previous year. Overall, outcomes are ranked first or second in 11 out of 20 categories, down from 16 the previous year. Nearly two-thirds of year 3 Indigenous students are failing to meet standards in grammar and punctuation, and almost seven in 10 year 9 students whose parents did not finish year 12 are underperforming in punctuation and grammar. Those opposite like to cry about the wonderful NAPLAN results in this state, yet under the Allan Labor government those metrics, and the fact that nearly one-third of students in this state are not meeting basic standards when it comes to literacy and numeracy, are an absolute disgrace.

And it is not just the NAPLAN data we need to look at. Let us look at the program for international student assessment data, which has highlighted that education outcomes in Victoria for 15-year-old students are the worst reading literacy results on record, with one in five students classified as low performers. They are the worst mathematical literacy results on record, with more than one in four students classified as low performers, and they show a stagnant result for scientific literacy, which was virtually equal to 2018, the poorest result on record. The PISA report states that low performer students have:

… not acquired the skills and knowledge to allow them to adequately participate in the 21st century workforce and contribute as productive citizens.

Concerningly, half of all Victorian students are now not achieving a proficient standard in mathematics, a foundational skill that is going to be absolutely essential to employability in a modern, technologically advanced economy. So it is not just the NAPLAN data, it is the international data that shows that under the Allan Labor government learning outcomes are at record lows in this state, and it is Victorian students that continue to pay the price.

Those opposite will say, ‘We’ve put programs in place. We’ve put programs in place to address these outcomes which are in freefall.’ The Tutor Learning Initiative is just one of those programs: a $1.2 ‍billion initiative by the Allan Labor government. Yet, let us look at what the Victorian Auditor-General had to say about the Tutor Learning Initiative just last year:

… the initiative did not significantly improve students’ learning compared to similar non tutored students.

In fact the Auditor-General said – wait for it:

… we found that students who received tutoring learnt less than those who did not receive tutoring.

That is the standard of tutoring and programs aimed at addressing our learning outcomes in freefall in this state.

If I turn to the state of our schools, we know that they are overcrowded and in desperate need of capital upgrades. My colleagues know from speaking to their local communities that there is toxic mould, there are walls that are falling down and students are being forced to learn in unconditioned classrooms every single day. Yet what we see from this government is another inability to deliver on their commitments. In last year’s budget 29 promised school upgrades were not fully funded. They have been given a share of $24 million of ‘planning’, with no detail as to when those promised upgrades will be delivered. Of course the promised upgrades for those schools were promised on the eve of the 2022 election – election commitments that we have seen time and time again not delivered by this government.

Looking at some of the commitments that were made that have not been delivered, let us look at Manorvale Primary School in the electorate of Werribee, which has not had its capital upgrade delivered, and Mordialloc College in the electorate of Mordialloc and of course San Remo Primary School in the electorate of Bass. We know this because the member for Bass has indeed sponsored a petition to her own government, to her own minister, to get that upgrade delivered. That is the state of the books and the fact that the rising debt in this state means that these school upgrades are not going to be delivered under this government.

Today there are over 1000 vacancies for teachers in this state. The teacher shortage crisis is one that continues to worsen by the day. We know by looking at the department’s teacher supply and demand reportthat there has been a 48 per cent increase in the rate of both primary and secondary school teachers leaving the profession. Once again the government will say, ‘We’ve put in place programs, policy, initiatives to tackle this problem.’ Indeed $1.6 billion the minister likes to talk about. $1.6 ‍billion to deliver what – 1000 vacancies today for teachers in our classrooms. And what does that mean? That means that students do not have permanent teachers in the classroom. It means they are forced to learn in doubled-up classrooms, and VCE students at schools across this state are being sent home at lunchtime because they do not have a teacher to take their VCE class.

While we are on the topic of VCE, let us just turn our mind to the VCE exam debacle, and where do we even begin? This is the third consecutive year that this government have absolutely done their VCE students a disservice by stuffing up the VCE exams. Over 65 exams were compromised this year, putting students’ hard work at risk, jeopardising their results to get into the course at university or the pathway they want next. It is unacceptable, and the minister knew about it from the beginning and was complicit in the cover-up.

This just scratches the surface, but even if we turn to the bureaucracy, take the Victorian Institute of Teaching, overseeing the teacher registration program, and the backlog there; the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, as I said, overseeing when it comes to the VCE crisis year on year; and of course the Victorian School Building Authority, which is bogging principals down in red tape and making it harder and harder to deliver.

Under this government, under the minister, this state is anything but the Education State. Whether it is on learning outcomes, whether it is on our teacher shortage crisis or whether it is on our crumbling schools, this government cannot manage money, and the students are paying the price.

Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (17:32): I am very proud to stand and to speak to the many ways that the Allan Labor government is focused on and actually saving money for families in Victoria, for households in Victoria – for everyone across the board, I should say. This is on health, education, housing, transport and more. But today I think I am inspired to talk about education to follow some of the stuff I just heard, which nearly made my ears burn. My ears were burning, let me tell you. They were burning, because I was like, ‘What are you talking about? You dare go us?’ The opposition dare go us on investment in infrastructure in schools. We are on track for 100 new schools by 2026. What the heck are you talking about? They dare go us when last time they were in government they closed 350 ‍schools and ripped a billion dollars from the education budget. Take them apples. I mean, goodness me, when people are in glass houses, be careful when you are throwing those stones, because we are going to bark back, I will tell you what, just with the facts – just facts, so do not worry. It is nothing to worry about. Or maybe do worry, because we are not going to fudge it. We are going to tell you the truth, as we always do. Now, over $136 million –

Members interjecting.

Nina TAYLOR: Are you denying this? Are you denying that $136 million has been saved? Over $136 million has been allocated to families through the school saving bonus, delivering cost-of-living relief for families in 2025 – $136 million. That means in their pockets, and that means anything from uniforms and textbooks to swimming lessons, camps and excursions. These are the real costs that people have to deal with day in, day out. Maybe the opposition does not think that is helpful, that people do not need these kinds of real-life supports, but on this side of the house we know that they are meaningful supports for people who are dealing with everyday costs in their lives to keep their households running. In fact I was actually really lucky to be able to attend with the member for Hastings a nice roundtable with some local parents, and guess what they were telling us – exactly how they were allocating the funds they have been using to save themselves money or to reallocate money in different ways because they saved on some of those school costs and were therefore able to spend in other ways for their families, which was really, really wonderful to hear. We could see how incredibly strategic and careful they were able to be because these cost-of-living savings have been put in place, have been rolled out, have been implemented.

I should say we have invested extensively in over 50 million – I had trouble, almost, reading it, because when you look at the numbers you are like, ‘50 million!’ – free breakfasts at over 1000 government schools in the state, and we will have a school breakfast club program in every school across Victoria by July 2026 for schools that want to opt in. On the one hand it is making sure that all kids have an equitable start to the day and that they can actually focus because they are getting a nutritious breakfast ‍– and they do not have to feel left out either. I know that for me, if I do not have those oats in the morning, nothing is happening. It is only fair. I am not basing it on me, but I understand the value of keeping the blood sugar load that you need to get you through the morning. It is simply unfair when you think that there are those kids that but for this program would not be able to eat. But we are making sure that they can, with free nutritious breakfasts and lunches, snacks and take-home food packs also being provided for those in need. Over 1000 primary, secondary and specialist schools across Victoria participate in the program. One hundred participating schools also provide healthy food packs and practical cooking classes for families through school holidays – there is more – making sure students have healthy, affordable and tasty meals at home as well as at school.

Feedback from schools has shown the program has had benefits beyond making students happier and healthier. It has led to greater social outcomes for students and the school community, improved student engagement and concentration, stronger staff-student relationships, enhanced social skills and better academic performance. If you listened to those opposite, you would say the whole education system was dying and everything was moribund, but the opposite is in fact the case. It was part of a $69.5 million investment in the Victorian budget 2023–24, and the program will only grow, helping more students than ever to get the most from their education by providing healthy, nutritious meals. In 2023 the Labor government provided $2 million in grants to participating schools to purchase kitchen appliances such as fridges, freezers, microwaves, toasters, sandwich presses, blenders and rice cookers – because of course if you are going to teach kids those necessary skills of how to cook for themselves, you need the appliances there as well. That has all been thought through. I should say that the school breakfast club program, delivered in partnership with Foodbank, is just one of a suite of initiatives the Labor government is providing to support busy and hardworking families with the costs of living and learning. You can see infrastructure investments but also the practical delivery of healthy food. I wonder what those opposite would do about that. I would be a bit concerned, because they certainly cut out the –

A member: Fresh Fruit Friday.

Nina TAYLOR: Yes, they cut it; that is exactly right. They certainly cut the – what was it – free fruit Fridays or something? They got slashed. That was just fruit. I mean, fruit is a good thing, do not get me wrong, but that is not a full breakfast, so I do not know; I would be worried.

Glasses for Kids – I should say I have had glasses not only in the last year or two; I have had glasses since grade 3. I have astigmatism.

Members interjecting.

Nina TAYLOR: Yes, longstanding. I must say that I honestly cannot focus properly without the glasses. If I had not had them at that point in time, I hate to think. My parents worked really hard. They were able to go and get me that test, but I hate to think of the kids that do not have that opportunity. What an inequitable way to get through school. That is simply unfair. But the Labor government, true to our values, have expanded the Glasses for Kids program with a further $6.8 million investment, making them available for thousands more students across the state. An extra 70,000 Victorian students will benefit from vision screening and free glasses as part of the program. If you are not able to see clearly what you are reading, I reckon that could also have significant behavioural impacts or confidence impacts. There would be so many ways in which it can impact a human being.

Because we know of the challenges that Victorian families – not only Victorian but Australian families, but we are focused on our state – are going through, we do not want any student to be left behind. This is of course why we are making these kinds of really practical and tangible investments, not fluffy or airy-fairy ones. Having good vision, or the best possible vision that you can, is really, really important, and we recognise this. Certainly this is an important part of ensuring that families get that extra support so they can actually get by and hopefully get ahead and do some fun activities and other things with their kids as well. I did think it was a bit rich, having a go.

There was another thing I wanted to say when it comes to a point made about our investments in literacy et cetera in our state. I should say there was an announcement back in December 2024 that we are:

… making best practice common practice in the Education State with new resources to support student literacy with systematic synthetic phonics in every classroom

The Deputy Premier and Minister for Education Ben Carroll announced $5 million in funding for primary schools to fast-track the transition to the mandated Victorian reading approach a year earlier. So you can see absolute conviction in the approach to accelerating this really important literacy method in schools, speeding up the transition of the phonics rollout from three years to two, with the funding enabling primary schools to purchase resources such as mini whiteboards, letter tiles and decodable texts, which are key to setting up a successful literacy program. I can assure you this program absolutely works. In South Melbourne Primary in my electorate they are gunning along with this. They are absolutely nailing it and are really a beacon. Not exclusively, but I am just saying – and they were on the telly as well because they were doing so well with this more modern education method, which is proven. It is also enjoyable for the kids. I know I have even had parents feed back to me just how rewarding it is to see the kids and how well they do under this method.

Tim McCURDY (Ovens Valley) (17:42): I am delighted to rise and make a contribution on the matter of public importance on the cost-of-living crisis by the member for Pascoe Vale. There is no doubt that the cost-of-living crisis lies firmly at the feet of the Allan Labor government. That is where we differ on this side of the house to the other side of the house. Those in government agree there is a cost-of-living crisis, as we believe, but at the same time they will not admit where that cost-of-living crisis is coming from. It is part of many of the policies that they are creating and have made, and the taxes, which have created that cost-of-living crisis. It has been an own goal in that respect, but certainly one with some assistance from the Prime Minister of Australia. There is no doubt about that. He gets a goal assist for his efforts in this space as well for the cost-of-living crisis.

We are spiralling down. We are going downhill, down the garden path, and we know how we got here. The guy who was in charge for a while, who is no longer with us – I cannot wait until that bronze statue comes along one day, as long as it has got a mask on it so that pigeons can rest on it, and we can tell our grandkids how we got into the mess that we are in here. It will remind us –

A member interjected.

Tim McCURDY: I am not after a statue. It is about making sure we have got a mask on that statue so that we can remind our grandkids who got us into this mess. Hasn’t he passed the baton on well? He has passed the baton on well to the current Premier. My word, what a star pupil she is turning out to be. The same narrative, the same tired ideas and defence of the union mates – ‘We’ll lock in the Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) and get a pipeline of jobs for the next 10 years.’ She is looking after her mates there, but it is a shame she was not looking after her mates on the backbench. Her mates on the backbench need a bit of looking after because they are the people who put her there and supported her and who stand behind her, and they are the people that say the opposition is negative and the opposition is dreadful. Fear not: many of you will not get to see opposition, so you will not have to worry about having the frustration that we have sitting on this side, watching those making fools across the aisle, because you will not be in opposition. Many of you will be gone. You will be rewriting your CVs, dusting off your resumes, talking to former employers, saying, ‘Could I have my job back, please, because I’m no longer wanted at Spring Street.’ Anyway, we will see how that goes. But you can change that if you have got the guts to stand up to your Premier. Be like Ben.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Through the Chair, member for Ovens Valley.

Tim McCURDY: Sorry. The Deputy Premier – be like him. He is prepared to stand up and not throw you under a bus. He wants to get rid of the SRL, but your Premier wants to throw you under a bus. It is bad enough when it is someone who despises you, but when it is your own leader it must be so humiliating to get thrown under that bus. The definition of getting thrown under a bus is to blame or abandon a person for selfish reasons. That sounds like the Premier. The other definition of getting thrown under a bus is to cause someone else to suffer in order to save oneself. Well, do not look now, backbenchers, but I think it is happening to you right here, right now, every day. At your margins you must walk out of here wondering, ‘Will I be here next term or not if we continue on with these policies? This Premier is throwing us under a bus.’

The cost-of-living crisis – we know our power prices are absolutely killing us in regional Victoria, and I expect it is the same in metropolitan Melbourne as well. Power prices that used to be $600 to $700 are now $1300-plus in terms of an annual price, and I see today energy prices are due to double in the next five years. That is going to be very difficult. We have got a cost-of-living crisis now, and I cannot see us getting out of it if our electricity prices are going to double in the next five years. That is because of this Allan Labor government, and certainly the federal government, and their bloody-minded attitude to have renewables at any cost. Wind turbines, solar and the battery energy storage system are free, they say. It is free energy, member for Mordialloc. It is free. I can give you a tip: it is not free. It is costing us a fortune, all of us. The Allan Labor government’s infatuation with renewables certainly has turned our power bills from being affordable, viable and sustainable to excessive, unrealistic and unaffordable. ‘But we are saving the world because we are going to put all of these renewables in’ – I will tell you what, you should ask the people in Dederang, who turned up in their hundreds the other night. And I really thank the five courageous councillors who voted to vote this battery energy storage system project down, because it really is not the right project in the right place. I understand we have had 795 submissions. From a town that has a pub and a corner store, there were 795 submissions to say that they do not want the BESS where it has been located. If you need any further encouragement about that, get onto YouTube and look at Moss Landing and see what has happened in California where that BESS plant caught on fire and the damage that has done.

As I said, governments, both state and federal, are determined to get rid of coal. Let us look at coal plants around the world. In the EU itself there are 468 plants and it is building 27 more. Türkiye has 56 ‍plants and is building 93 more. South Africa have 79 plants, and they are building 24 more plants. India – 589 coal plants, and they are building 446 more. China – bless their cotton socks – has 2363 ‍coal-fired plants and is building another 1100. So that gives us a total of 3834 just in China alone, and in Australia we are going to shut down all six remaining plants to save the world. That is what will do it: we are going to save the world by shutting down our six plants.

Our energy costs have gone through the roof. Nobody is against moving to renewables, but we have to do it at a speed and a rate that is reliable so that we actually have a system where the lights are not going to go out. It is really important that we move towards renewable energy, but at the same time I would like to see the Prime Minister come good on his offer that we were going to have power prices that were $275 cheaper. I believe he said that at the last election, and we are nearly at the next one. We do not know when it is, but I know it is just around the corner, and I can assure you that we do not have $275 cheaper energy prices at the moment.

In the interest of being current, I have letters to the editor. There were two today in the Wangaratta Chronicle. One of them talks about renewable energy, and this is from Bob Simson from Oxley:

These projects are increasing the cost of electricity with the result seeing a panicked government allocating even more of your taxes to off set the higher power prices. It’s ludicrous.

He went on to say:

The rush to renewables is putting pressure on your cost of living and also costing the nation dearly. Remember it is your tax dollar that is enabling this folly.

That is the coal.

I am running out of time. If you would like to give me an extension of time, I would be more than happy to go on. I do not want to go into the member for Werribee’s maiden speech, but I would be happy to take an extension of time. Member for Lara, if you would assist? There is silence. No, it does not sound like it is coming, so I will just keep moving.

The fire services levy is a real slap in the face to our rural communities. Farming communities pay the levy like everybody else, and it is about to be doubled, but they are also the ones who put out the fires. They are also the ones in substandard equipment as they go around to these fires, and their tax is being doubled. On top of council rates, which have gone through the roof, their fire services levy is going to get doubled. There is another article in today’s paper, in the Wangaratta Chronicle, which I am very briefly going to touch on if I can find it. Here it is: ‘Levies hike unfair on primary producers’. This is from Lachlan Heywood of Markwood. He said:

AS a farmer in the North East, I find it extremely disheartening the new proposed variable rates for the primary production fire/emergency service levy, effective July 1 …

He went on just to say:

Local councils can’t even manage their own roadside fire risks, which means farmers are essentially paying for their own service, volunteering to protect themselves and neighbours.

These are not my words; this is the community speaking. In every community I go to, people talk about the cost-of-living crisis. They talk about their energy prices, and they talk about our fire services levy. As I say, those on the government benches talk about the cost-of-living crisis as well, so we all agree there is a cost-of-living crisis. But at the end of the day we have to look at who created that cost-of-living crisis. There is no doubt: we say it lies firmly at the feet of the Allan Labor government and the policies that they have put in place to get us where we are today. I could talk for an hour on land tax. I will not. It is a tax on people who strive to do better. It is a tax on mums and dads who want to make a better life for themselves and on families and a tax on hardworking Victorians. We can look at rental providers. Although the government benches call them landlords, they are rental providers; 71 per cent of rental providers in Victoria only have one property, and the highest number of rental providers by occupation is schoolteachers. Not very far below that are nurses. I mean, Labor are now coming after their own and taxing their own. I will take this opportunity to wind up very quickly and to also wish the member for Werribee a good maiden speech this evening.

Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (17:52): What a way to warm up the member for Werribee’s first speech coming up, just to bring up the last stocks of the matter of public importance (MPI) and to follow on from the member for Ovens Valley, who had an extraordinary contribution. He read out a stack of listed countries that have coal-fired power stations but failed to then say what on earth the coalition would do with such a thing. It reminds me of the great Liberal candidate for Frankston in 2018 who said, ‘Well, we’re not opposed to coal-fired power stations.’ When asked by David Speers at the time who would build them, on six or seven occasions they went through ‘would it be market-led’ or ‘would it be funded by the state’, and after panicking they said it would be market-led. Well, guess what, those opposite: no-one is building new coal-fired power stations. When you talk about coal and renewable energy and talk that down, you have to open up about what your plans would be, and the absence from the member for Ovens Valley was astonishing – that word ‘nuclear’. What is it going to be? What is the cost going to be? The impact on our state is conveniently excluded. We know that the transition to renewables is so important for cost of living in our state and for a cleaner and more inclusive energy mix in the future. So to say that that is to blame was just absolutely astonishing.

This is a group that consistently offers opposition and opposition after that – the blockers and the knockers – and no alternative policy whatsoever, and we see this across key areas. I talked about this before on the bill on housing, and you see it consistently. A generation of young Victorians are priced out of the housing market. It is nine times more expensive now to get a home. A couple of decades ago it was three times your median wage; now it is nine times. We are building more in growth corridors, but that cannot be the only answer, so 70 per cent of the growth will be in existing suburbs. This is one of the most important cost-of-living measures, and what do we get from those opposite? Block, oppose, oppose our rental reforms – never an alternative policy. They are the knockers and the blockers of policy over and over again, and do you know what it is time and time again? When you have got muscle memory of opposition, that is all you ever know. All you ever know is to oppose and not come up with any vision or any values for the future.

In this cost-of-living frame I want to cover off a really important topic that the Andrews and Allan governments secured in this state: free TAFE. This is a game changer for people in our community. When you think of the skills shortages that we are experiencing in Australia and Victoria at the moment, where would we be as a state and nation without the free TAFE policies targeting skilled industries with the jobs that we need so critically in our state? These are policies that support women into work and transition people back into work in the future. Again, that free TAFE measure was opposed by those opposite and talked down. They left TAFEs on their knees for their ideological lens of absolutely smashing public vocational education. To think that people today have the opportunity to front up and get a skill and training and support now to go on to the job and career that they want, and we know that is so important to mental health and wellbeing – the skills they need and for them to be able to support their families. Those are Labor values writ large. When those opposite criticise policies like that it goes to the heart of what they care about and what they prioritise in our state. When they smashed TAFE and literally put the padlocks on TAFE institutions across our state, it took a Labor government to save that and it took a Labor government to put those policies in place.

Then you come to early childhood education. Isn’t it extraordinary, free kinder? It is one of the best things in our state. I was Parliamentary Secretary for Education, and one of the biggest things you can do is provide free kinder and support for our youngest Victorians. It should be a right of every single Victorian child in our area to get access to free kinder. Those opposite chastise, belittle and oppose our investment in early childhood education. You get a consistent pattern here. We have policies that offer vision and value and create hope and aspiration for the next generation, and we see in this MPI no other visionary policies, no alternatives of what the coalition would do instead.

Bridget Vallence interjected.

Tim RICHARDSON: Instead we just see opposition and opposing consistently time and time again. The Manager of Opposition Business, who has got a hit rate on points of order of about 10 per cent at the moment, interjects ‘It’s your MPI’. That is right. You have heard vision and values from our side time and time again. You have heard the member for Pascoe Vale lead an MPI about what we are doing with cost of living. What have we heard from those opposite?

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Evelyn! Member for Polwarth!

Tim RICHARDSON: Come in, spinner, member for Nepean. We have got some form for you, my friend. What have we heard? We have not heard any alternative policies at all. We have not heard what those opposite would do differently. We have only heard them oppose and the very simplistic, very juvenile comments of the member for Ovens Valley, who says that the cost-of-living crisis that is facing our nation is a construction of the Labor government in Victoria. Are you kidding me? The rate rises that went up in our nation, if you were to be so partisan, happened under a coalition leadership back to 2022. It has taken a Labor government that came in with inflation near 7 per cent to drive that down into the high 2 per cent range. It has been that grind and that toil, and the political impact that that has had has been writ large. But you have to do the right things, like Labor did federally during the global financial crisis, to save jobs and to support the economy. We have done what is necessary and tried with tax relief federally and support for vulnerable people to get them through.

Sam Groth interjected.

Tim RICHARDSON: What does the member for Nepean think about that? Well, he will let you know. He cannot get a question over that side. I mean, when the member for Benambra gets a question before the member for Nepean, you know how far out of the stocks the member for Nepean is. When the member for Nepean has to do policy via South Australia, you know how much of a heavy hitter the member for Nepean is in the Victorian shadow cabinet. We get to see this. I wish this was just a bit of a snippet on the TV cameras. When the member for Nepean brings in a point of order, you just see the look from the Leader of the Opposition: ‘Oh, here we go again. What’s he getting up for now? What’s he doing?’ It is not about you, legend. Give someone else a go, because that is what it is really about – what we saw during the Christmas and new year period when the member for Hawthorn was traded with such disdain and contempt on the edge of Christmas and new year, when they just rolled the show through. It was not about what was going differently. And the member for Sandringham was discarded – the doppelganger for Mordialloc; we get mixed up a bit. What was the absence in that discussion? To the credit of the member for Hawthorn, it was not a policy deficit. It was never a policy deficit for any of those on that side who got rolled. It was about power. It was about control for control’s sake and who had their name on the door in the Comcar going out. That is what it was really about. It was about power and control and not about policies. That is the form of those opposite: muscle memory in opposition, and those that are more comfortable about being on the opposition benches than being in government and doing the hard work of leadership.

Bridget Vallence: On a point of order, Speaker, we know the member on his feet is auditioning, but he has gone nowhere near the MPI.

The SPEAKER: That is not a point of order.

Tim RICHARDSON: I am a bit of a stats person. I think the 10 per cent hit rate has just gone down to 8.5 per cent.

This MPI and the depth of contributions, led by the member for Pascoe Vale and those who have followed, show our care and compassion for Victorians. We do what is necessary, we front up in a challenging environment that we see has federal factors and we know that an Allan Labor government has always got the back of Victorians each and every day. They trust us with our policies, they have endorsed our policies and we will get on and keep delivering for Victorians. Now I hand over to the magnificent member for Werribee, John Lister.