Wednesday, 30 July 2025

Government performance

Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (14:37): My question is to the Premier. The government claims its energy and transmission line policies are about fairness. Regional Victorians face crumbling roads, a massive new emergency services tax, cuts to the CFA and SES, merged hospitals and spiralling energy bills. Now they have to protest on the steps of Parliament to defend their own property rights. How is this fair?

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:37): Well, let me tell the Leader of the National Party just how wrong he is on each of those measures that he has provided to the house – let me tell him how wrong. This year’s budget invested $976 million – the highest amount invested in regional road maintenance, matching last year’s investment –

Danny O’Brien: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, on the question of debating, I just want the Premier to say publicly that our roads are not crumbling.

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Mordialloc, warned. That was not quite a point of order. The Premier is being relevant to the question.

Jacinta ALLAN: I was asked about roads – two years in a row, nearly $2 billion of investment in road maintenance. In terms of investment in our emergency services, what is not fair are the lies that are being told to regional communities by those opposite. Every dollar raised through the existing levy is going back into our emergency services, which means we are investing more, not less – more trucks, more equipment for our emergency services. On the reference to hospitals, I remember a time when we were talking about hospitals being closed by those opposite – 12 country hospitals that were closed by those opposite. There has been more money going into hospitals in rural and regional Victoria. There is work underway in Ballarat, there is work underway in Warrnambool, there is the new hospital in Maryborough and there is the work going on in Swan Hill as well, just to name a few of the investments that we are making in health and hospitals in rural and regional Victoria.

Members interjecting.

Jacinta ALLAN: The Leader of the National Party asks me to come back to that bit of the question where he asked about energy bills. I will tell this to the Leader of the National Party: here in Victoria we have the lowest energy prices in the wholesale market. The default offer here in Victoria –

Members interjecting.

Jacinta ALLAN: On each of the issues that was raised by the Leader of the National Party, I have demonstrated how Labor is investing, and the contrast could not be clearer on two measures. When those opposite had the opportunity, they cut funding to road maintenance, they closed country hospitals and they cut funding to the CFA.

Danny O’Brien: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, on the question of relevance, the Premier still has not got to the part about regional Victorians having to defend their own property rights on the steps of Parliament.

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Tarneit – 30 minutes, again.

Member for Tarneit withdrew from chamber.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The Premier was being relevant to the question asked, and I cannot dictate to a minister or Premier how to answer the question, as you know.

Jacinta ALLAN: On the second point I was going to make, what is not fair for rural and regional communities are the misinformation and the lies that continue to be peddled by the National Party in concert with the Liberal Party. But we know that that is their form, and what country people also know is that Labor governments reopen train lines, build country hospitals and schools and invest in the future of country communities that were abandoned and cut when the Liberal–National parties had the privilege of being in government.

Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (14:42): Labor MPs are now seeking to have their communities shielded from Labor’s flawed energy policies. When will the Premier admit her government has got it wrong and begin treating regional Victorians with respect?

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:42): I am going to take a punt: I do not think the former Leader of the National Party would have asked that question. I do not reckon he would have asked that question, because he would know that I would answer it in the following terms. Who remembers who called regional Victoria the toenails of the state?

Members interjecting.

Jacinta ALLAN: They get defensive. I say this: country Victorians have seen this not once but twice in the last couple of decades. Every time the Liberal and National parties have the privilege of being in government, it is regional Victorians that suffer from cuts and closures.

Danny O’Brien: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, on the question of relevance, the question was about the government’s current policies. I ask you to bring her back to it.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question was about regional Victorians, and the Premier was being relevant to the question.

Jacinta ALLAN: This is what respect looks like. Respect looks like a young 16-year-old in Maryborough who next year will be able to catch the train for free because we have made public transport free for kids under 18 and we opened the train line to Maryborough that was closed by those opposite.