Tuesday, 27 May 2025

Emergency services

Dylan WIGHT (Tarneit) (17:16): It gives me great pleasure this evening to rise to contribute to our grievance debate. I grieve for Victoria’s emergency services under a future Liberal government or a potential future Liberal government.

Members interjecting.

Dylan WIGHT: It will be good. If you listen, you might learn something. Before I get into the substantive part of my contribution on this debate, I just thought I would mention it was incredibly entertaining to sit in the chamber here and listen to the economic rationalism of the member for Mornington. The same guy that wants to put HECS on high school students in Victoria is sitting in here and standing in here, telling the government how they should run their budget and Victorians how the economy should run. How fantastic that would be for disadvantaged kids all across Victoria to finish high school with a crippling HECS debt. To stand here having listened to that, followed by the member for Gippsland South and the Nationals just having a conversation with each other, from what I could tell, for 15 minutes, is incredibly funny.

The Liberals will cut our emergency services and put Victorians at risk of disaster. We know that because they point-blank have said that they will. But we also know that because they have form: every time they are given the gift of government in this state they cut frontline services. We know that they did it between 2010 and 2014, and they did it during the Kennett years as well; I mean, they cut everything during the Kennett years.

The Labor government is delivering a $250 million boost to our emergency services through the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund. What this will do is it will help fund the workers and volunteers that we need to keep Victorians safe during extreme weather events, during floods and during fires. It includes the SES, which it had not previously. There are those opposite that actually believe in climate change, but let us be frank, there are not that many of them. The member for Gippsland South could not stop himself then from having a drive-by on the renewable energy sector. There are those opposite that actually believe in climate change, but I will tell you what, the member for Polwarth at the table does not. He is from that part of the Liberal party room that sit on the fringe of absolutely every issue. But unlike the member for Polwarth, those in his party room that have half a brain and that believe in climate change know that these extreme weather events – flood and fire, downpours of rain, washed-out roads – are going to become more and more frequent as the effects of climate change are borne out in Australia and in Victoria.

It is incredibly important that we have the capacity to fund the services that we need to protect everyday Victorians. Those opposite, if they wanted to be fair dinkum, instead of going out into the community and whipping up fear and lying to people, they would know that the volunteers that do this work out in the bush are exempt. They are exempt from this levy because we know that volunteers – CFA volunteers in particular – out in regional and rural Victoria do absolutely fantastic work when they are faced with natural disasters. If those opposite wanted to go out and be honest with the communities that they represent, they would tell them that volunteers are exempt from this levy. They could have been in here on budget day last week giving speeches to that effect. Do you know what they were –

Richard Riordan: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, the member is misleading the house.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: That is not a point of order, member for Polwarth, and you understand that.

Richard Riordan: Well, he needs to be relevant in speaking to the grievance today. You cannot say there are exemptions when there are not.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: That is not a point of order, and I think the member knows that.

Dylan WIGHT: Honestly, if I wanted to hear the ramblings of an incoherent person, I would go to the pub across the road – and to my point, that is exactly where those opposite were when the Parliament was in session during Tuesday, budget day, of last week. Instead of sitting in here and giving speeches and speaking to those that they represent and coming clean on the truth with them, they were over the road at about 5 pm slapping each other on the back, having a beer, telling each other how smart they were. Half their party room were not in the Parliament; they were over the road drinking beer telling each other how smart they were. I tell you what, you would have got a private room if you were that smart, instead of sitting in the main bar of the Imperial drinking piss with each other –

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Unparliamentary language.

Dylan WIGHT: when you were supposed to be in here representing your constituents. It is an absolute joke. Those opposite are a dangerous show. Everybody in Victoria should know what they are going to get when they go to the ballot box in November next year. They will get an absolutely divided, lazy rabble that do not represent mainstream views in Victoria, that sit on the fringe of absolutely everything. We know what they will do if they are ever given the gift of government again. They will cut everything that is dear to Victorians, everything that Victorians need. They have a history of it. We saw what they did under the Baillieu and Napthine governments. We saw what they did under the under the Kennett government as well. It is fundamentally in their DNA, and they will start with essential services. If they ever win government, after their first budget I can guarantee you that they will not be drinking beers with that union secretary then, because they will have cut money out of emergency services, out of essential services, because it is in their DNA.

There was a budget reply speech today, and the Shadow Treasurer –

Richard Riordan interjected.

Dylan WIGHT: It was fantastic. I was enthralled. The Shadow Treasurer has already forecast that a future government that he may be part of would cut four different revenue streams, along with the stamp duty announcement that they made today. That is all well and good. I mean, it is all a bit haphazard. They still have not really brought the show together with a cogent offering as to how they can improve the lives of Victorians, but those revenue streams are forecast to bring in several billion dollars into the Victorian budget over the forward estimates. It might be about $4 billion or $5 billion, I believe. So those opposite have to come clean. If you are going to cut those revenue streams whilst also saying that you are going to have budgets in surplus, then you have to be honest about the essential services that you are going to cut. You have to be honest with the Victorian people. Those opposite cannot honestly think that they are going to go to an election in 2026 with a $4 billion or $5 billion budget black hole and not be honest with the Victorian people about the essential services that they are going to cut after the election. Some amongst them have at least been honest with the Victorian people that they plan to cut services after the election. Do not just take my word for it, because I brought receipts. The internet is an amazing thing, unless you are a member of the Liberal Party room that clearly cannot think:

Newly promoted Liberal MP Joe McCracken –

I had to Google who Joe McCracken was; apparently he is a member of the upper house –

has publicly foreshadowed plans to cut … services …

if the Liberal Party wins government. Do not say the quiet things out loud, Joe. It is in this mob’s DNA to cut essential services, and that is exactly what they will do if they are given that precious gift of government ever again. God help us that they are not.

They walk into this place – the Shadow Treasurer, the member for Brighton, does it all the time – and say they are going to cut revenue, they are going to fix every road, they are going to cut stamp duty, they are going to reduce debt and they are going to produce a budget surplus. Give me a break. How can you possibly do that without cutting essential services? How can you possibly do it? You cannot. And they have a history of doing it. This McCracken fella has already said that they are going to do it. Let us look at their history – TAFE cuts during 2010 and 2014. We won government in 2014 and literally had to rebuild a TAFE system from the ground up. We had to go to TAFE campuses with boltcutters to get the chains off the fence, because they had closed them. And who does that affect? That affects Victoria’s most vulnerable people.

We saw between 2010 and 2014 the former government go to war with our paramedics and our firefighters. I remember in 2014, when I was 24 years old, at a pre-poll leading into the 2014 election, standing next to paramedics and firefighters who were actively campaigning for the victory of a Labor government because the incumbent Liberal government at the time had gone to war with them, did not respect their work, did not want to engage with them and bargain in good faith, did not want to pay them a decent wage, did not respect work–life balance – did not respect any of those things. That is exactly what a future Liberal government will do as well, because they cannot deliver the things that they say without cutting essential services. They have got no idea how to grow the economy, so it cannot be about that. All they can do to keep a budget in surplus, to reduce debt and to stop those revenue streams will be to cut services.

I will go on. Liberals tore the heart out of Victoria’s social housing – $500 million out of social housing between 2010 and 2014 – once again affecting Victoria’s most vulnerable people. Five hundred million dollars they cut from housing: that means that less Victorians, less vulnerable Victorians, had the security of their own home and a roof over their head under the previous Liberal government. And one from the archives, Deputy Speaker, which I know you will love: in the 1990s hundreds of school closures hit Victoria. We will never, ever forget what Jeff Kennett did to Victoria’s public school system: closing local schools, sacking teachers and closing hospitals. Let us be honest, for most of the people in that party room he is still their hero; they want to be Jeff. So how could Victorians possibly trust them not to cut the things that matter most to them?

Make no mistake, in 2026 it will be a binary choice between a Labor government that will do the right thing for insecure Victorian people and those opposite, who will cut everything that is important to Victorian families and disadvantaged Victorians.