Tuesday, 17 June 2025

 Kim WELLS (Rowville) (15:57): If any Victorian needed proof that Labor cannot manage money and is addicted to debt, we only need to look at the debt bomb disaster that this state is facing. The Parliament of Victoria was established in 1856, with members of Parliament being sworn in on 2 ‍November 1856. Between 1856 and 2014 – that is 158 years – the Victorian government had accumulated $21 billion in net state debt. 2014 was the last year of a Liberal–Nationals government. Labor members would say, ‘But debt increased across the budget forward estimates under our stewardship,’ but once again they would be incorrect. Under the Liberal–Nationals government’s last budget in 2014, net state debt was forecast to decrease to $19.5 billion over the forward estimates to 2018. The concept of reduction of debt would be foreign to all Labor members. In just a short 11 years under the current state Labor government net state debt will have exploded to $155.5 billion this fiscal year, a more than sevenfold increase, and deeply concerning, a forecast $194 billion – $172.8 billion of additional net state debt since 2014, or a more than ninefold increase – by 2028–29.