Wednesday, 18 June 2025
Business of the house
Standing and sessional orders
Please do not quote
Proof only
Business of the house
Standing and sessional orders
That so much of standing and sessional orders be suspended to allow only members who did not speak on the second-reading debate on the Appropriation (2025–2026) Bill 2025 to speak on the motion to take note of the 2025–26 budget papers.
It is a pleasure speak on this motion. There are a bunch of investments across Victoria that I am really proud of in the 2025–26 budget and in my portfolio at least. I might give a couple of contributions there before I get to my electorate. We have made the biggest ever, despite what the Greens political party may say on their TikTok feed, investment of any government into the protection of biodiversity – in excess of $600 million over the life of our government. That includes a whole range of investments on public and private land.
Bush Bank is one of the most iconic long-term projects, with the aspiration to repair 20,000 hectares of predominantly private land through partnering with the private sector. That is important because less than 40 per cent – I think it is somewhere around 38 per cent or thereabouts – of all land in Victoria is held in public hands, so course if you want to protect biodiversity and you want a better future for nature and the environment, you have to have a relationship with and have a deliberate action to focus on recuperating and restoring private land as well as public land. Bush Bank helps us do that in a significant way. It is a long-term investment by our government, in excess of $70 million.
In addition to that, Trust for Nature do an incredible job in supporting effectively the same endeavour to protect private land voluntarily, sometimes with an incentive, so that private owners decide to protect a portion or the entirety of land holdings they have in future for environmental purposes. There is a covenant that they agree to take out on that property to make sure it is protected in perpetuity. They are all things that are supported by this budget in my portfolio, as well as many other initiatives.
One that I think is key for the energy and the kind of global reputation of Victoria, which some on the other side of politics like to talk down, and which has also got significant investment in this budget and in the long term by our government, is the major events part of my job and my portfolio. We consistently see Victoria in international news in terms of the big events that we land, and we do that for multiple reasons. Yes, we put funding behind it, but funding is only –
Mathew Hilakari: Lenny Kravitz in Mildura
Steve DIMOPOULOS: Lenny Kravitz in Mildura – absolutely. Thank you to my colleague for reminding me. It is not just a Melbourne play, it is a Victoria-wide play – exactly right. We had Kings of Leon in 2022 in Mildura. We have got Lenny Kravitz coming on 28 November, a Thursday night. It is important it is a Thursday night because Thursday night means it is likely people who attend –
Belinda Wilson: Will stay on.
Steve DIMOPOULOS: Will stay on, on the Friday and Saturday. Thank you, member for Narre Warren North. But what is important as a reminder of what is possible here is that with the Kings of Leon in 2022, 42 per cent of people who attended came from outside the region. As we say, they have to stay somewhere, they have to eat somewhere and they have to spend in the local economy. That is a fundamental part of why we do major events. It actually underpins thousands and thousands of jobs. Mildura, by the way, produces 90 per cent of Australia’s table grapes. The member for Mildura would –
Cindy McLeish: She’s not even here to enjoy that.
Steve DIMOPOULOS: She’s not in the chamber at the moment, but she would endorse that.
A member: And how much gets into wine?
Steve DIMOPOULOS: That I do not know. But she would endorse that, I think. It is an incredible wine grape producing part of Victoria. Fruit – it is a powerhouse in terms of being the food bowl of Victoria and in fact is the food bowl of Australia. My point about that is: people will come for Lenny Kravitz but they will stay for all the other offerings of that beautiful, beautiful city in this state of ours.
A member: What about the grand slam tennis?
Steve DIMOPOULOS: The grand slam tennis – I mean –
Members interjecting.
Steve DIMOPOULOS: My colleagues are incorrigible. I could talk about the tennis and the fact that it is the best of the four grand slams on every metric possible – literally on yield, in terms of what it produces in economic value for Victoria and Australia in fact; in terms of attendance, 1.2 million, well in excess of New York, Paris and London; in terms of the average age of attendance, at least a decade or more lower than the average age of attendance at other grand slams.
I might yield the floor to others who might want to say a few things about the budget and how impactful this is, not only for the cost-of-living frame, as we talk about in our government, which is fundamental to everything we do, but in terms of my portfolio across environment and major events. I will leave it at that.
Bridget VALLENCE (Evelyn) (10:50): I will pick up where the minister left off, on how this budget is so impactful on Victorians. The budget itself, in black and white, said how much it is impacting on the cost of living for Victorians, and it is precisely why we oppose this motion today. The motion reads:
That so much of standing and sessional orders be suspended to allow only members who did not speak on the second-reading debate on the Appropriation (2025–2026) Bill 2025 to speak on the motion to take note of the 2025–26 budget papers.
The reason that we on this side of the chamber oppose this is because we have a lot more to say about the devastating impacts of this Labor government’s budget. This Labor government’s budget is a devastating budget for Victorian people – debt skyrocketing to $194 billion, taxes increasing. We want to explore more about how the new Treasurer came in and said that there would be no new taxes and no new charges, and yet the devil is always in the detail. It is in the budget. We have uncovered a number of increased taxes and charges. The emergency services tax is but one of them, and that is a massive one – a $3 billion impact on Victorian people in a cost-of-living crisis.
If this Labor government wanted to spruik their budget and talk about how fantastic it is, why wouldn’t they want to encourage more people to have more opportunities to speak on it? The reason that they are introducing this motion is because they want to gag people on their own side from talking about the bad parts of this bill. They want to gag non-government members and opposition members from being able to talk about this budget and all of the problems and issues with the Labor government’s 2025–26 budget, which, as I said, is devastating. They are trying to put a situation where limit even the Labor members of Parliament speaking about the budget, because, quite frankly, there is probably not a lot to speak of. They know they do not want them speaking about the cuts to services and the Silver review, which has $3 billion of cuts to jobs and services. Public sector jobs are going under in this Labor government budget, and they do not want their Labor government members to be able to speak to that. They also want to stifle any opportunity for opposition members to have more of a say and to scrutinise this budget more through the parliamentary processes.
This is a house for the people here in the Parliament, here in the Legislative Assembly, and the people want to know the truth about this Labor budget. Labor budgets are all about spending – spend, spend, spend, tax, tax, tax – and it is a situation which we want to uncover and let Victorian people know about. The budget papers refer to the government’s fiscal strategy, which the former Treasurer Tim Pallas set up. He set up this fiscal strategy in response to criticism from the credit rating agencies, because we know the credit rating has been downgraded not once but twice under this Andrews and Allan Labor government, and the former Treasurer Tim Pallas had to come up with a fiscal strategy just to satisfy those credit rating agencies. We know that the new Treasurer had to fly off to New York to talk to the credit rating agencies again only a week or so ago to plead the case to not have Victoria’s credit rating downgraded again because of the dire situation presented in this budget of debt soaring to $194 billion – record debt that this Labor government will leave as a legacy for our children and grandchildren to have to pay back.
But this fiscal strategy, as I said, the step of –
Steve Dimopoulos interjected.
Bridget VALLENCE: I will take up the interjection from the minister who talks about the Suburban Rail Loop, a project that is not fully funded under this Labor government and is precisely the project that the credit ratings agencies pointed out as an issue and as a reason why the credit rating might be downgraded further – because it is not funded. We even know that on this project they have a very limited partner in Canberra, because Canberra does not even want to spend any more money on the Suburban Rail Loop. Whilst you spend money on the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister, you are unable to spend money on essential and vital services. This budget includes cuts to core services and cuts to things like 000. Just check your budget papers. This government is cutting funding to 000 and then taxing hardworking Victorians in order to fund these services. That just goes to show the financial mismanagement and incompetence of this Labor government.
The first step of the so-called fiscal strategy was to reduce unemployment. Well, under this budget, in the budget papers it says in black and white that the unemployment rate is forecast to increase to 4.75 per cent, and that is an increase of half a per cent above the national average. This means that Victorians are going to be out of work this time next year. Under this Labor government’s budget and their forecast, more Victorians will be out of work this time next year. Dare I say, it will be more public sector employees that will be out of work, because this government intends to save billions of dollars by cutting their jobs.
The second step was to return the budget to an operating cash surplus. Well, back in March the Department of Treasury and Finance was predicting a $1.8 billion cash deficit. Now this figure has miraculously turned around to a $620 million cash surplus in this budget. It just goes to show you cannot trust what is in the Labor government’s budget. Of course the Labor government’s budget and this $620 million cash surplus relied on the revenue that this government expects to take in from the $3 billion emergency services tax. And we know of the community uproar, from farmers, from emergency services volunteers and from the protests on the steps of Parliament about this emergency services tax. Only a week after the budget was actually brought into this chamber by the Treasurer, they did a bit of a backflip – but only a little bit of a backflip – to give a reprieve to farmers for just one year. Already, that $620 million cash surplus is completely obliterated by that.
Again, you cannot trust what is in the government’s budget papers. Such a massive turnaround of course does deserve closer interrogation, because it is not because this government all of a sudden, in trying to come to this $620 million cash surplus, adopted any fiscally responsible measures and put in place any structural reforms in this budget. Of course this budget does not include any reasonable or responsible structural reforms. The turnaround, as I said, is a result of the deception of this budget. Not only did the government receive a massive GST windfall, many property owners received their land tax bills earlier this year. So instead of being required to pay their land tax bill in August like every other year, they were forced to pay it the week before the budget. People are usually meant to pay their land tax bill once per annum, but this Labor government did a dodgy and required people to pay their annual land tax bill twice in one year, and that was just to prop up this Labor government’s dismal budget. You think it could not get any worse, but this government stooped to a new low, and this is a clear example of how this Labor government penalises hardworking families and hardworking Victorians and cheats Victorians to doctor the numbers in their budget.
The budget papers at least do not seek to hide this con job at all, because they state the change in position, again in black and white in the budget papers. They do not seek to hide this con job because they state the change in, and I quote from the budget papers:
… the timing of various receipts such as land tax.
This government are so bad with their financial management that they increase the land tax. They then require and force Victorians to pay their annual land tax bills twice in one year, and they actually go and write it in the budget that the reason for the situation is ‘the timing of various receipts such as land tax’. So they know they are doing the dodgy on Victorian people, and it is Victorian people who suffer. This government is seriously a one-trick pony. Making Victorians pay their land tax bill twice in one financial year just is really an absolute disgrace.
How can the government say it is helping with the cost of living when it is forcing Victorians to do this? It is not helping the cost-of-living crisis, it is actually exacerbating Victorians’ cost-of-living crisis. Not only are they introducing this whopping hefty new emergency services tax, which will hurt every home owner, every renter, every farmer – and then in turn it will translate into the higher cost of groceries on the supermarket shelves – it is going to hurt every business, every hairdresser, fitness gym, cafe and restaurant. It is going to hurt our manufacturers, and that is the emergency services tax levy that is going to be expanded and increased. And of course there are the massive increases to land tax. This is in a cost-of-living crisis, and this Labor government is sadly impacting people’s cost of living at the worst possible time.
The third step in the government’s fiscal strategy was to return to operating surpluses, and again, this is another fail from the Allan Labor government. This government have not recorded an operating surplus since 2019, and they repeatedly demonstrate they are incapable of making financially responsible and hard decisions, and they are also incapable of introducing any real structural reforms to the budget to curb spending and to eradicate waste. We know from reports in the media in the last week or so that the new Treasurer has gone over to America to plead with credit rating agencies and say that she is going to be cutting spending, but there are only really meagre spending cuts indicated in this budget. We cannot trust this $3 billion savings figure in this budget paper, because if you look at last year’s budget paper and the promised savings measures in the 2023–24 budget paper, this government actually only delivered less than 4 per cent of that savings target. If you go to the 2023–24 budget papers and the promises that this government made about saving money then under former Treasurer Pallas, that translated into less than 4 per cent. What the output was, what the delivery was was less than 4 per cent of that savings target, so how can any Victorian believe that this government will save the $3 billion promised in this year’s budget? They have no credibility when it comes to savings, and in fact all they are doing is recklessly spending more on the Suburban Rail Loop, which is actually unfunded. It is totally reckless, and it is sending our budget into a massive debt situation which is only going to hurt Victorians into the future.
The fourth step of this so-called fiscal strategy was to stabilise debt. Well, the government said it was going to do this by introducing a COVID debt levy. You might recall when the former Treasurer introduced the fiscal strategy that the pillar that he was relying on to stabilise debt was the COVID debt levy. The former Treasurer said it was necessary because some people did better out of the pandemic than others. I certainly have not known any Victorian to date, certainly not in the electorate of Evelyn, that did better out of the pandemic and therefore could find extra money. Our businesses, our cafes, our restaurants and our manufacturers were forced to close in COVID, and now they are required to pay again with the COVID debt levy. And this COVID debt levy – I mean, COVID finished years ago.
We had the worst results from COVID. We had the worst lockdowns, the worst number of transmissions, the worst number of deaths and the highest number of businesses going under and suffering in COVID, and now the government’s strategy to stabilise debt is to tax Victorians more with a COVID debt levy to pay down. They are forcing every property owner and every employer to pay this COVID debt levy on top of payroll, on top of land tax. Even though, as I said, COVID finished a couple of years ago now, in terms of the pandemic, Victorians are still forced to pay this, in this budget, until 2033. This Labor government is going to retain this COVID debt levy until 2033, in this budget, despite the pandemic having been called off a number of years ago.
Instead of stabilising, debt is increasing. This government cannot be trusted. They are saying that they are going to have their fourth step of the fiscal strategy, to stabilise debt, when their budget papers have debt increasing to a whopping $194 billion. Of course we know that the legislation that was debated in the chamber yesterday, the Financial Management Legislation Amendment Bill 2025, was providing this Labor government a get-out-of-jail-free card to not have to do a budget report or financial reporting in 2026, the election year. This Labor government is actually changing the law so that they do not have to do a budget update or financial reporting in an election year. It says it in black and white in that legislation. They do not want to have to own up to the Victorian people. They do not want to have to share the truth, because this 2024–25 budget has debt soaring to $194 billion. It is going to be vastly worse, and this Labor government knows that it will be so much worse in the election year. They do not want to be required to report on that.
It is quite something for the Premier to have said not long ago, defiantly claiming when they put out the budget and they were seeking to spruik this pretty dismal budget, on radio that they were stabilising debt. She actually said they were stabilising debt when the budget papers said that debt was increasing. It is phenomenal, their financial incompetence and again misleading Victorians, which is absolutely why they can no longer be trusted. Debt is completely out of control, and it is crystal clear that this Labor government has absolutely no plan to tackle it. There was a fifth step in the fiscal strategy added on last year by the government to reduce debt as a proportion of gross state product, GSP. Currently, debt as a proportion of GSP is 22 per cent. It is kind of strange that the government has introduced a new fiscal strategy step to reduce the ratio or proportion of debt to GSP at the same time it is actually going up. We have got it at 22 per cent at the moment, and instead of it reducing, this 2024–25 budget forecasts the proportion of GSP to debt to increase to a staggering 25.1 per cent in the 2025–26 year. That means that net debt now makes up a quarter of our entire gross state product.
If that was not shocking enough, the budget forecasts it will remain at 24.9 per cent in 2028–29, so this government is forecasting debt as a proportion of GSP by 2028–29 will still be a quarter of Victoria’s economy. Back in 2019, Labor promised to stabilise net debt at 12 per cent of GSP. Instead, Labor has broken that promise and more than doubled debt as a proportion of GSP. I will say that again: only a few years ago, in 2019, this Labor government promised to stabilise debt at 12 per cent of GSP, and Labor has now broken that promise. They break many, many promises and have broken that promise, and debt is soaring to $194 billion.
That equates to around $71,000 for every Victorian household. And what comes with that debt – an interest bill that must be repaid. Interest to service Labor’s debt will increase by $10.6 billion. That equates to $28.9 million a day or $1.2 million an hour. Just think what we could all spend in our own electorates across the state with $29 million a day: we could have extra police, we could have extra nurses, we could upgrade hospitals, we could upgrade emergency departments, we could get new equipment for our SES or CFA, we could upgrade schools, we could fix dangerous road intersections, we could fix potholes and we could make our communities safe. But instead all we are doing is paying $1.2 million an hour on an interest bill because this government cannot manage money. Labor’s fiscal strategy is not worth the paper it is written on.
There is a major concern, as I mentioned earlier in this contribution, around the credit rating for Victoria and the real risk that it will be downgraded once again. After delivering a budget that forecasts net debt will increase by $38.5 billion over four years and with a Suburban Rail Loop that is not fully funded, the Treasurer had to go to the US. We actually would like to see some public reporting of what went on there and some actual transparency about what was discussed in that meeting with those credit rating agencies, because I think the credit rating agencies can actually see through it. They can see that the $3.25 billion of so-called savings initiatives in this budget are actually not real. Again, we will wait to see the Silver review, which is going to be handed down on 30 June, in only a couple of weeks time, and actually see what comes of that review and also if the Treasurer fulfils her promise to the Victorian people that she will make the recommendations of the Silver review public and come out and publish what the government’s response will be to that review.
We oppose this motion to gag or to stifle the opportunity for more members of this Parliament to represent their communities and to talk about this devastating budget that is going to be sending Victoria into skyrocketing debt, record debt, taxing Victorians more, cutting services and cutting jobs. We think that more people ought to have an opportunity to represent their communities, to talk about how bad this budget is and to talk about how few things in their own electorates are being looked after: the basics, like the schools that are not being upgraded in people’s local electorates, the schools in my electorate that are not getting upgraded, and the roads, like the Warburton Highway in Seville East, the Maroondah Highway in Coldstream and Hull and Mooroolbark roads in Mooroolbark. These are known dangerous roads. This government know they are dangerous roads, and yet they are doing nothing to fix them. And that is only in the Evelyn electorate.
I am sure that so many more members of this chamber would like the opportunity to highlight what this budget lacks in terms of providing for Victorians in their own electorates and call for more support for people across their electorates, whether it is more police or more nurses – I mean, look at the Maroondah Hospital. This government promised to upgrade the Maroondah Hospital in the 2018 election and in the 2022 election, but still not a single cent has been allocated to capital funding to upgrade the Maroondah Hospital in Ringwood, which is the closest public hospital for the residents in my community. Now there is talk of a lot of the services being shut down altogether and moved to Box Hill. What does that do for people in the Yarra Valley? They have to go further, into Box Hill.
What we would like is to have more opportunity, but all this government wants to do is stifle debate. They want to stifle debate on this budget. They moved a piece of legislation yesterday to stop them being required to do a budget update or financial reporting in an election year. They want to pull the wool over Victorians’ eyes. Well, Victorians deserve the truth, and we oppose this motion.
Assembly divided on motion:
Ayes (50): Juliana Addison, Jacinta Allan, Colin Brooks, Josh Bull, Anthony Carbines, Ben Carroll, Anthony Cianflone, Sarah Connolly, Chris Couzens, Jordan Crugnale, Lily D’Ambrosio, Daniela De Martino, Steve Dimopoulos, Paul Edbrooke, Eden Foster, Ella George, Luba Grigorovitch, Bronwyn Halfpenny, Katie Hall, Paul Hamer, Martha Haylett, Mathew Hilakari, Melissa Horne, Natalie Hutchins, Lauren Kathage, Sonya Kilkenny, Nathan Lambert, John Lister, Gary Maas, Alison Marchant, Kathleen Matthews-Ward, Steve McGhie, Paul Mercurio, John Mullahy, Pauline Richards, Tim Richardson, Michaela Settle, Ros Spence, Nick Staikos, Natalie Suleyman, Meng Heang Tak, Jackson Taylor, Nina Taylor, Kat Theophanous, Mary-Anne Thomas, Iwan Walters, Vicki Ward, Dylan Wight, Gabrielle Williams, Belinda Wilson
Noes (27): Brad Battin, Jade Benham, Roma Britnell, Martin Cameron, Annabelle Cleeland, Chris Crewther, Wayne Farnham, Will Fowles, Sam Groth, Matthew Guy, Emma Kealy, Tim McCurdy, Cindy McLeish, James Newbury, Danny O’Brien, Michael O’Brien, Kim O’Keeffe, John Pesutto, Richard Riordan, Brad Rowswell, David Southwick, Bridget Vallence, Peter Walsh, Kim Wells, Nicole Werner, Rachel Westaway, Jess Wilson
Motion agreed to.