Tuesday, 20 May 2025

Ministers statements: budget 2025–26

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (12:44): Today our Labor government will deliver a budget that backs working people and backs families. It will strengthen frontline services. It will make responsible decisions and provide real cost-of-living support when they need it the most, because in these challenging and uncertain times working people and families want security, and we are making sure that they get it. That is why this budget will deliver the biggest investment of cost-of-living help in our state’s history: $2.3 billion in targeted support to every corner of the state, made possible by responsible decisions and a clear focus on what matters most.

We are also, as we have said already today, helping with those everyday pressures – free public transport for kids, the $100 power saving bonus targeted at those who need it the most, and free care at your local pharmacy. There is the work that the Deputy Premier mentioned, doubling the school camps and excursions fund and making sure that kids are not left on the sidelines with the Get Active Kids vouchers. Then there is, for the second year in a row, nearly $1 billion that will be invested in our road network, with a significant amount of that funding going into our regional network, because not only are we investing in the suburbs and the city, we are investing in regional Victoria as well.

From a new hospital in Maryborough that has opened up to schools all across the state to the important work in backing our regional food shares, this is a budget that is focused on what matters most for working people and Victorian families.