Wednesday, 30 July 2025

Matters of public importance

Economic policy

The DEPUTY SPEAKER (16:01): I have accepted a statement from the member for Narre Warren South proposing the following matter of public importance for discussion:

That this house notes the importance of investing in projects and government services that:

(a) do not just create more jobs, but provide well-paid and secure jobs;

(b) give families the flexibility they deserve while supporting work–life balance; and

(c) strengthen workers rights so workers and their families can build a better future.

Gary MAAS (Narre Warren South) (16:02): It gives me enormous pleasure to speak to this matter of public importance. In submitting this matter of public importance for the house to consider today it made me reflect upon the values of not only this government but indeed the values of the Australian Labor Party. I thought about the many great speeches that have been recognised by the leaders of our party. In our most recent history there was of course the misogyny speech, which was a wonderful speech given by our then Prime Minister Julia Gillard. It spoke to matters of gender equity, gender equality, gender parity and everything that goes with that – a speech which has gone down in the annals of history. We also had a fabulous speech, the Redfern speech by Prime Minister Paul Keating, a speech which was well and truly at the forefront of reconciliation with our Indigenous peoples.

There was also that great speech which was given by Prime Minister Ben Chifley to a state conference, and we here in the Labor Party in Victoria have a state conference coming up very soon. It made me realise that the light on the hill speech that was given by Ben Chifley is in many ways the mission statement and the reason of being of all Labor MPs in this place and federally and certainly of the values that we all espouse. Really, towards the end of his reign back in 1949, what Prime Minister Chifley said was that the success of the Labor Party depended entirely, as it always has done, on the people who work. But he spoke to a movement coming together of all people, bringing something better to people – better standards of living, greater happiness to the mass of people. He summed up the objective like this:

We have a great objective – the light on the hill – which we aim to reach by working the betterment of mankind not only here but anywhere we may give a helping hand. If it were not for that, the Labour movement would not be worth fighting for.

Those words said back in 1949 were no truer then than they are now. I reflect on what it must have been like for Prime Minister Chifley to have spoken to that state conference, looking at all of the people on the conference floor and knowing that he was speaking to a microcosm of the society that he was a part of in New South Wales, speaking to people who were looking to Labor for hope, looking for someone who was on their side. He knew that he was speaking to those people. I know when our Premier and our Prime Minister get up this weekend to speak to the state Labor conference they will be doing exactly the same thing. They will be speaking to people of all cultures. They will be speaking to people of all faiths. They will be speaking to people who are very proud members of the Australian union movement. They will be speaking to our LGTBIQ+ community. They will be speaking to men and women of Victoria who share the values of this great party. In terms of that wonderful mission statement that was provided, that guiding principle, that notion of the light on the hill, it is something that all of us in Labor still aspire to today.

So when we speak to the importance of government investment in projects, government investment in services, it is about exactly that betterment, that thing that we are providing to all Australians. The Allan Labor government is well and truly a part of that. We have stood and we always will stand with workers and families, and we will champion their rights. We will protect their livelihoods and we will ensure fair conditions for all. We will always make sure that jobs open the doors to opportunity, providing the means to support a family, to save for retirement and to focus on the things that matter most in life. We know that behind every job is a worker and behind every worker is their family. While those opposite fight for each other’s jobs, while the only jobs they support are those of the legal profession, our Labor government is fighting to create more jobs for Victorians and ensure that workers are protected.

Our Labor government is delivering more than 180 major road and rail projects, which employ Victorian skills and Victorian people and help create Victorian jobs. Whether it is the Metro Tunnel, whether it is level crossing removals, whether it is major road upgrades or the suburban rail link, all of these are transforming the way that Victorians work and play in Victoria, and we are ensuring that Victorian workers are the ones that are building them. It is only under this Victorian government that workers rights are protected – not only protected but prioritised. The only jobs the opposition seem to be supporting and investing in are those in the legal profession, quite frankly.

For my community in Narre Warren South and for the people across the state, I know what they prefer. They want a government that is focused on working for Victorians. They want someone that is on their side. They do not want to be out there by themselves; they want a government that understands that a job is an important key to opportunity and security, and they know that we are a government that invests in TAFE and training and schools and a government that backs Victorian industry.

We are lucky that we have support from a very strong federal partner through the Albanese government. It is terrific that this state government can work very, very closely with the federal government. But of course not all federal governments are of that persuasion. History has shown us that Liberal governments just simply do not care about workers. We saw it through the Howard government after it was re-elected in 2004 with the introduction of WorkChoices, one of the biggest blows to workers rights in our history. It was aimed at reducing union influence and made it more difficult for workers to come together to negotiate with employers through their union. I am not really sure that the Liberals ever understood that the union movement has been responsible for the very basic work rights that all of us enjoy here, things such as the eight-hour workday, sick and annual leave and penalty rates.

The Australian public sent a strong message back then to the Howard government, with many mass protests that I can remember. They were opposed to that, and that opposition of course saw then Prime Minister Howard lose his seat. But history often repeats itself, and we saw Dutton – a love that dare not say his name since 3 May this year – follow suit. There were archaic public policy practices. Public policy positions were put forward on public servants and flexible work arrangements, which would have meant those big buildings in the city closing the envelope on their rent but not really helping the average person in the street – helping mums, helping dads. Dutton’s position would have seen restrictions to working-from-home arrangements. He also committed to repealing Labor’s right to disconnect laws and rights for casual workers. These moves would have limited flexible work, in turn limiting workforce participation, particularly of women, and reducing work-life balance and productivity.

The absence of flexible work is shown as a key contributor to the gender pay gap and drives women out of the paid workforce. Women continue to perform the bulk of unpaid work and care duties. That is a fact. That means women lose out on higher paying and secure roles that do not offer the flexibility that they need to juggle unpaid work with paid work. Normalising and valuing flexible work also encourages more men to take up the option. If men are supported to work flexibly, it can encourage them to share the burden of unpaid work with women more equally. But it seems, unfortunately, that the leader of this state opposition is following Dutton’s lead. The question has to be asked: ‘Just why won’t he rule out a five-day return-to-work mandate?’

The first thing he did as Liberal leader was announce his plan to cut waste in government services. We know what that means. The nurses who care for your loved ones, the teachers shaping your kids’ futures and the workers who keep your community safe – there will be cuts in those areas. Under the Liberals, you are on your own. With Labor, we are on your side. Just as the Australian public made it clear that they did not agree with Dutton and the Liberals’ position way back on 3 May, Victorians have made it clear time and time again they just do not trust the opposition to lead. They look for leadership. They look to the adults. They look for people who are on their side. They want something that is fair, and they want hope for the future.

I have always been a very proud member of the Australian labour movement, and in particular the Australian union movement. As a former union secretary, as a former organiser and as a former industrial lawyer, I have walked on many shop floors – many of the same shop floors that my family used to proudly work on in providing a very safe and secure upbringing for me. I have seen the importance of union in helping workers level the bargaining playing field with employers and big businesses and helping in the crucial protection of workers rights, and it is in this work that I have seen the importance of government in legislating and upholding these rights.

The Allan Labor government will continue to boost jobs around the state, as it did under its predecessor government, and help to make work more flexible to boost workforce participation, close the gender pay gap and help all Victorians have a better balance in work and in life. We are doing this through major projects, which are building Victoria and building our state’s workforce. These are projects which those opposite are just adamant on stopping, halting or just opposing. We have the Suburban Rail Loop. It will slash travel times and cut congestion for busy families, delivering 70,000 more jobs closer to home in healthcare precincts and around Australia’s largest universities. It is the biggest housing project that this Victorian government is putting together.

We hear so much about the SEC. I certainly hear about it from constituents, and boy, don’t they love it. We have brought it back, and it is enshrined in Victoria’s constitution to protect it from future Liberal governments, especially the member for Narracan. The SEC will not only drive down power bills for Victorians but it will also create jobs. Brad Battin said, ‘The SEC is gone if we win.’

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Titles.

Gary MAAS: We know what that would mean: higher power prices for families, bigger profits for overseas corporations and some 59,000 jobs lost in the state. But this government will continue to invest. It will continue to invest in transport infrastructure. We have seen recent investments with many big multinational companies coming into our great state. Most recently I can think of Mondelēz, who has opened their new state-of-the-art national distribution centre in Truganina. More than 200 jobs have been created there. They are a huge multinational company, with a partnership with the United Workers Union, I might add. Their investment is a vote of confidence in Victorian Labor, in our workforce and in our world-leading food manufacturing sector.

In closing on this MPI, the Allan government will keep moving forward, keep changing, keep updating and keep responding to the issues of the day. We will keep being progressive and keep accepting and understanding and building fairness and respect into our society through legislation. Just as the Light on the Hill speech gave purpose to a party, it gives purpose to the Allan Labor government, which is doing the best that it can for all people of Victoria.

Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (16:17): This matter of public importance is about the government boasting about what they think is success. This matter tries to claim Labor are doing a great job investing in projects and government services for the benefit of families. Well, evidence says otherwise, particularly if you live in regional Victoria. This Labor government has been in power for 11 years. Over this time 62 taxes have been introduced. Victoria has the most taxes of any state in Australia. Victoria has the most debt – more than New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania combined. Every project is late, and cost overruns are the norm, to the tune at this point of $40 billion of waste, simply because Labor cannot manage projects, taking our debt, just for the state of Victoria, to $194 billion. That is $29 million in interest payments alone every single day. Some of these figures are too big for people to even reconcile.

To enable this huge debt and to pay the interest bill the government has introduced more taxes on Victorians, with no plan to pay back the debt. There are so many taxes. Taxes on houses make up, on new builds, nearly half the cost of a new home. Homeowners cannot opt to rent out their properties, because they cannot afford the tax. Houses are being sold, resulting in less rentals. In a housing crisis, how is this an effective way to govern? The solution from this Allan Labor government is to tax holiday houses – a holiday tax, a tourism tax. There is no modelling or economic rationale behind this that can support their determination that this will work. It is just an easy grab and run.

I have had so many complaints in my office from hardworking Victorians about the land tax. People are absolutely shocked at the bills they are getting from this government, who think they can just tax land and make this the way that they can get revenue. I had an older couple in my office recently in tears. They were battlers. They had worked in normal income jobs all their life. They had saved up and bought a bush block, and they cannot afford the land tax. They were in tears because they have to sell the one luxury in their life. The government just keeps taking more money out of hardworking families’ pockets.

This tax on tourism, one of the many taxes, will be repealed by us when we are in government, which will happen in November 2026. Tourism in the regions is a huge contributor to the economy, but the government does not seem to understand this or even appreciate it. When we talk about tourism and the regions, the Commonwealth Games was an opportunity supposedly put forward by this government to bring vibrancy and visitors to our great regions – an opportunity to showcase what makes our state extraordinary. But no, they cancelled that – too hard – and that $580 million they have paid to Scotland to fund the games there just grates on every Victorian’s nerves and particularly regional Victorians’ nerves. We were promised infrastructure to soften the blow of this absolute waste of government money by sending it over to Scotland to fund the games. We could have the Warrnambool Surf Lifesaving Club, which is literally disintegrating, funded from this, but we have not seen any of these regional promises that were supposed to come after the cancellation of the Commonwealth Games come to fruition in regional Victoria. The surf lifesaving club is desperate for an upgrade and restoration, but this volunteer organisation that keeps both locals and tourists safe is completely ignored by the Allan Labor government.

All the while the Allan Labor government keeps spewing money into projects that do not have business cases and have no end costing, and higher taxes, in the end, hurt families. But we will repeal taxes, and the five we have already announced are the education tax – we will repeal it and restore choices for Victorian parents; the emergency services volunteer tax – we will repeal it and stop punishing the volunteers, who desperately want the government to listen to them and who go out and fight for our safety against fires, and the SES, who protect us during storms. This emergency services volunteer tax – do not be surprised or have the wool pulled over your eyes – will affect every home owner from border to border into metropolitan Melbourne and every renter along the way. But we will axe that tax. We will completely abolish Labor’s regressive health tax. Fancy putting a tax on sick people when we are in a health crisis. We will reform stamp duty, making it easier for home ownership and bringing affordable housing back for Victorians. That has been the dream, and that is the dream that we will restore. And of course, as I said, we will repeal the holiday and tourism tax. We will repeal these taxes, and we have already announced, 14 months out, 27 election policies through which we will reform and abolish taxes and make life easier for Victorians.

In South-West Coast I speak to business owners every week who are struggling, not because they lack vision or dedication or capability but because they are weighed down by government red tape, rising costs and delayed support, and those taxes sit at the base of all those problems. From Warrnambool to Portland, Heywood to Port Fairy, family businesses are making the heartbreaking decisions to scale back, lay off staff or close altogether. Businesses that have closed or are closing in my electorate make up a long list, but some of them are the Phillips’ Monkey Cafe in Koroit Street, SportsPower, Cheap as Chips –

A member interjected.

Roma BRITNELL: Yes, in Warrnambool – they are shutting down SportsPower. Rauerts Shoex, Phinc, Cotton on Kids, Just Jeans, Boolistic, Darrian Office & Art Supplies, Millers, Godfreys, Rivers, Katies – that is an enormous amount in a small town of 35,000. These are the very businesses that provide jobs, sponsor the local football club and support our schools, and their decline is a warning sign. ASIC’s recent figures show 4242 businesses collapsed in Victoria during the last financial year. The Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the figures were ‘deeply concerning but sadly not surprising’. The state has never been in a worse situation socially and economically, and the sad reality is that the Allan Labor government’s high-taxing and heavily regulated environment causes small businesses to fail in record numbers. This Labor government is nation leading at driving businesses out of business. Families own businesses. If they were being supported, we would not have businesses closing. This government boasts about their infrastructure investment and investment in health, but that in itself is something we are still waiting for in south-west Victoria. In 2020 we were promised a $384 million hospital.

Already, because the budget has been overrun – because the Allan Labor government cannot manage projects they have blown the budget out – they have cut vital services out of the scope of the original project. So the promises they gave us in 2020 have not been delivered because they have not even started. So they have cut from the project pathology, biomedicine, medical record facilities, a morgue, kitchens and car parking spaces. Why should the community have to endure that? This is a project that is a once-in-a-lifetime project, and we are going to have a hospital without those facilities up to a standard that is needed to attract staff and to make the hospital able to service the community. That is what the scope was put forward for in the first place, and we are not going to get that delivered. It beggars belief, and I do not understand why that is even slightly acceptable.

The Portland hospital is a very important hospital for an industrial centre – we have got an operating port and an aluminium smelter, so heavy industry – yet the services from Portland are diminishing before our eyes. We have got the theatres often on bypass and maternity services cannot always be offered, with maternity services on bypass. We are struggling to have enough anaesthetists and general surgeons. Now, this is a government’s responsibility. We can hear the government making excuses about attracting and retaining staff and how difficult it is, yes – well, that is every business’s challenge, but that is the role of government. So what are they doing? No, they are not doing that. And do you know what? I can prove it, because the ophthalmologist that used to serve Portland is still in Mount Gambier but cannot work in Portland and wants to. How does a blind man get himself to a service in Mount Gambier if he cannot drive, there is no public transport and he has to go interstate to get a service? These are just absurdities.

You would think that a person should be able to get services, but if they cannot you would think the priority would be the helipad, but this government has even closed down the helipad. We do not know why, because the government told us it was the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, the civil aviation responsible body. We wrote to them, I wrote to them, and sure enough they said, ‘No, it’s got nothing to do with us.’ The minister refuses to disclose the rationale behind it, but these are life-and-death situations. So if they are going to cut services they absolutely should provide the helipad that the community funded through hard work and fundraising and that Denis Napthine, my predecessor, worked very hard to get there, and now we do not have it. So if you are 5 hours away from Melbourne and your hospital that you have had for many years servicing you cannot service you the way it used to, you would think that would be a no-brainer, and we are talking about life and death. So why isn’t the government prioritising this? They do not care about the regions. We actually do not even know why the helipad was closed, and the government will not disclose the reasons why, let alone work on a solution, and the community is owed an answer on that.

The backbenchers are clearly puppets for the Premier’s spin doctors, and we hear it all the time. The rhetoric I hear about communities doing well is all orchestrated and misinformed. The member for Ripon was in the paper this morning misleading her community, writing to VicGrid about getting her community spared from the renewable energy zone. I mean, VicGrid has not even been set up. This is her government’s policy, her government’s action, so will she be in the chamber to vote or will she hide? These are the things our communities should be looking for. We will see on Thursday when that bill has been debated and voted upon.

This is a government claiming they are helping families, but families are struggling. They are working hard. As someone who has raised a family and run a business, I understand this. On child care, often an essential part of family operations, the Allan Labor government has let down families. They have let them down terribly, and I have been spoken to a lot in the last few weeks by women who tell me they have lost confidence in the childcare system, and this is the government’s fault, because on the table for the last three years, after a review was completed, have been the Ombudsman’s recommendations. For three years they have sat on the table unresponded to by this government. I cannot believe the government, when they heard the despicable alleged child abuse that has taken place by Joshua Brown in childcare centres, has not acted. What they have done, though, is call for a review. That is not an action. A review is not an action when it is a review on a review, because those recommendations are sitting on the table waiting to be adopted, recommended by the Ombudsman three years ago.

The government is reckless here. The Liberals introduced yesterday, in a bipartisan way, legislation that had those recommendations in it that the government could have looked at. We could have debated the bill if they wanted to amend it. We could have done that. But they did nothing. In fact they voted against the bill and said they have got a rapid review. A rapid review – it has been three years. This is a disgrace. Then we had the government today in question time talk about the money they are spending on roads. This is a government which just continually spins. Our roads are in a shocking state, and if the government is spending millions on them, it is either a shocking waste of money or it is all going into the tunnels in Melbourne. Just this morning my office was contacted by people going down the Princes Highway in Warrnambool, right through the main thoroughfare of our town, and the description was that people were weaving to miss the potholes. That is dangerous. One car was so badly damaged from the size of these potholes that the driver had to pull into a business on the side of the highway and leave it there because it was undrivable. The government is shocking. It is delinquent in its responsibilities to our roads. They are crumbling. If that is responsible governing, if that is helping families – it is not. It is costing families incredibly.

We see businesses in Portland closing down, like Mibus Bros, the business that would fix our roads. It is not because they could not manage their business, it is because the government kept slamming down barriers in front of them. This government is irresponsible, and our roads show it. We see their irresponsibility to our most vulnerable, the children. Businesses closing demonstrate it. Balance for families is not something this government can claim. It cannot even engineer it. True balance comes from freedom of choice, not rigid government formulas or one-size-fits-all programs, which is what this government uses. I stand for a South-West Coast that is resilient, free to grow and driven by local energy and initiative, not government constraints and control.

Eden FOSTER (Mulgrave) (16:32): I am proud to stand here in support of the matter of public importance that was put forward by the member for Narre Warren South, and what a wonderful contribution by the member. In particular his passion for workers and workers rights resonates with me. I am proud to be in this chamber with him, but I am equally proud to stand here today to speak to this.

The history of the Labor Party is one of fighting for the rights of marginalised communities to have dignified employment, whether it is on class, ethno-religious or gender lines. This fight is an ongoing one, with the encroachment of the gig economy and insecure work, de-industrialisation and the housing crisis representing just some of the many challenges that working-class communities are currently going through.

Many people within my electorate of Mulgrave have had to work hard to achieve a prosperous life. The Mulgrave electorate, similar to other areas in south-eastern Melbourne, has a large population of recent migrants, asylum seekers and refugees and others facing systemic discrimination. Unlike those opposite, this government is on the side of working people and working-class communities. The dignity of secure employment is a priority of the Allan Labor government. Without secure work, one cannot plan for the future effectively. Building a family, purchasing a home and getting married are all decisions that become more difficult with the re-emergence of insecure work and the gig economy in particular. The Local Jobs First framework, which has been discussed in this chamber just this week, is a key part of this priority. It ensures that government investment in communities not only provides benefits such as increases in productivity and improved public services but also provides long-term employment opportunities through quotas for trainees and apprentices and employment to workers in Victorian enterprises. Maybe quotas are a bit unusual for those on the other side, but we are bringing them in. Through this framework and state investment in communities like mine, Victoria has seen some of the largest employment growth in the last decade compared to other subnational governments.

The coalition, on the other hand, has a long history of cutting jobs throughout all corners of the state, particularly jobs that have historically seen secure employment for working-class communities. Schools, hospitals, the public service and the SEC have all been gutted at different points in this state’s history by the Liberal–National coalition. It is not inaccurate to say that the right of working-class communities to have secure employment is abhorrent to a coalition government. More recently, the opposition leader has announced his plan to cut ‘waste’ in government services. Of course we know which communities get hurt the most from this. It is working-class communities such as mine and those that this side of the chamber represent. We all know that it is not the communities of those opposite, particularly maybe the members for Brighton or Sandringham, that see an outsized amount of pain from these brutal cuts.

In their last time in government those opposite cut more than $100 million from the annual nursing budget, replacing qualified nurses who had worked hard to achieve stable and well-paying employment that benefits our state with low-paid, insecure health assistants. Of course it is marginalised communities without the luxury of private health insurance and the private hospital system that saw the biggest pain from these brutal cuts.

But secure employment is also about providing additional opportunities for workers to re-skill and upskill, ensuring that they have the talents that we need in a modern and changing economy. The reality is a transition from a fossil fuel dominated grid to a renewable, emissions-free alternative provides new opportunities for long-term employment but also risks the existing employment of many workers in traditionally secure fossil fuel dominated sectors. This is why the government’s priorities around free TAFE, even for those with existing qualifications, is so important. The revival of the State Electricity Commission is also key to that. Those opposite have no plan to navigate this essential transition. The Leader of the Opposition has declared that the SEC is gone if he wins government in November 2026, and the 59,000 jobs lost when the SEC was killed in the 1990s and the pain that caused families around the state should be a reminder of the risk if those opposite get their way.

But secure employment is not the only aspect that is necessary for dignified employment. In a modern economy there is no reason why workers cannot demand greater flexibility from employers. This is a matter of not only greater choice but also greater freedom – the freedom to have a family with paid parental leave, the freedom to spend time with your family without sacrificing your employment or remuneration with the choice to work from home. We in this place have that privilege. We have a great working environment for parents. Unfortunately there are people in our state that perhaps do not have that privilege. The reality is that this flexibility provides important opportunities to women in particular, who still today are forced to choose between work and family, and nobody should have to make that decision.

I speak from personal experience growing up, when my mum was a single parent raising me and working a full-time job and was told if she wanted to change her hours to come in an hour earlier and leave an hour earlier so she could get home to me in time, she would have to choose between her job and her family. This is what we on this side of the chamber fight for. We fight for workers rights. Those on the other side will often scoff at it. Without the right of workers to demand greater flexibility during the first few years of a child being raised, just like my own experience, women are often relegated to domestic labour akin to indentured servitude, with little to no direct remuneration for their labour. Those opposite clearly do not respect the right of workers to make these demands. Just a few months ago the shadow Treasurer called on this government to mandate the return to the office for public servants, claiming that they are not delivering any services for Victorians.

I would like to ask the member for Brighton why disadvantaged communities like mine, who have far fewer opportunities for stable and flexible work in the private sector, should have one of the few pathways to such a lifestyle completely removed from them. Why should women, who see the largest benefits of this flexibility, continue to be forced to make the choice between home life and their career prospects? Of course this reminds me of the comments made by the member for Brighton’s federal counterpart, the federal member for Goldstein – the current one – who has made similar statements regarding paid parental leave, saying, ‘That is not my choice that women have children.’ Just let that sit with you: ‘That is not my choice that women have children.’ For the benefit of Hansard, I just rolled my eyes. It is clear that the Liberal Party is anti-family: no working from home, no paid parental leave, worse basic services that parents rely on – the list goes on. This flexibility is only part of a broader fight for women’s rights in Labor.

When I graduated high school, the share of national income that went to female employees was 34.8 per cent, with men conversely making up 65.2 per cent of the national income – close to double the remuneration of women, according to the World Inequality Database. This ratio has improved over the last three decades to 41.6 per cent of national income going to female employees as of 2023, although still representing men as having almost a 50 per cent-high share of national income at close to 60 per cent. This government has made great strides in this field as well, such as the Building Equality Policy to create additional opportunities for women in construction, a commitment to halve the gender pay gap – I could go on and on, but I do not have enough time to continue.

Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (16:42): I am so happy to be able to rise and speak on this matter of public importance today. It is a curious thing, though, that the matter of public importance (MPI) claims to support well-paid, secure jobs, work-life balance, et cetera. Those workers – ‘Sure, we’ll support them as long as they are working in the city under a union job.’ But I will tell you what, if you are working the land out in the country, farming food and fibre, there is no respect there, there is no support there, is there? And they are some of the hardest workers ever. If they are a member of the Victorian Farmers Federation or they are driving a tractor and working the land, what about support and respect for those workers? Because without them, you are going to really struggle to get that almond latte and avocado on toast, or a pot of beer actually. In my electorate, Deputy Speaker – I am not sure if you know this – we grow beer.

Wayne Farnham interjected.

Jade BENHAM: Yes, we grow beer, member for Narracan, because beer comes from barley. We grow a lot of barley, particularly around Beulah. What about some respect from this Allan Labor government for those workers so they do not have to repeatedly come to the front steps of this Parliament to be heard or to at least even be considered. We talk about workers rights. What about the rights of those workers that are working the land to be able to say who comes onto that property and who does not. If they refuse entry to VicGrid, then they get fined $12,000.

I know some of the members on the other side just plead ignorance to this and pretend it is not happening. Well, it is, and this will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for a lot of those farmers. They have been resilient now for generations, and they have had enough. After nearly an inch of rain in our region, they should be out there spraying, but they are not. They have had to come to the city to try and be heard by an Allan Labor government that just turns a blind eye and wants to industrialise their land, with more union jobs, rolling out a reckless renewables plan through all of that productive agricultural land. How is that respect for workers? So this MPI is actually incorrect in its very context and needs to define exactly what workers we are talking about, because we are certainly not talking about workers in regional Victoria, and heaven forbid should you own a business or a small business in regional Victoria.

What about the rights and responsibilities there? They have been demonised for years now by this Allan Labor government. Let us talk about well-paid, secure jobs for other workers that are not farmers. As a farmer, as the daughter of a farmer, as the wife of a farmer, this is obviously a very big bugbear of mine right now, and it really grinds my gears.

However, I was also a small business owner and I have worked two or three jobs my entire life. I tell you what, under Labor Victorians are working harder than ever and keeping less in their pockets. The cost of living is absolutely soaring, and why wouldn’t it be now, with 62 new or increased taxes? Those taxes lead to higher costs. It is simple arithmetic. Power bills are going up. Mortgage stress is rampant. Business confidence is flatlining. I had a meeting this afternoon with some tourism boards and businesspeople, and they were talking about – I say this often as well – how hard it is to do business in this state and offer local jobs for local businesses. In my region they can simply go across the river to Wentworth shire. I tell you what, the Wentworth shire mayor has seen that opportunity, has absolutely seized it and has opened the Wentworth shire up for business. They are booming, and that is because businesses are being pushed across the river by the Allan Labor government in Victoria.

Businesses in my electorate and all of regional Victoria are being crushed by the lack of infrastructure, the red tape, the absolute indifference, the lack of respect and the lack of care that we get from this government. How secure are those jobs when businesses cannot afford to keep running anymore? Work–life balance? What an absolute fantasy. Families in my electorate do not have time to enjoy work–life balance when they are having to commute for hours on unsafe roads and when they are having to travel for so long to access basic health care because they cannot get it at the local public hospital because of a lack of beds and infrastructure investment. We are struggling to attract a healthcare workforce because they know that they are under so much pressure, while still doing an absolutely stellar job. Try balancing anything when you are waiting months to see a GP, you may be waiting months to see a specialist and you may have to be flown out of town for treatment that used to be local, mind you.

This government talks a big game about workers rights, but again, what about the workers that are working the land in this state? The government is more interested, like I said, in helping its union mates than standing up for all workers. This MPI is not definitive enough in whom we are actually talking about. Let us not forget about the SEC. There are four employees at the SEC in Morwell. The member for Morwell talks about that all the time. There are four jobs. While we are at it, let us talk about the other workers that the government has sacked in the last six weeks. I spoke about this in my last contribution. This government has closed down and defunded the mental health and wellbeing hubs that were embedded in Victorian police stations. Twelve months this ran. It was part of recommendations from the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System, from the Victoria Police review and from other reviews going back as far as 2018. They embedded these mental health clinicians in stations, which had an incredible benefit, particularly for those in the regions that cannot access that centralised referral system in the city, because (a) they do not have time and (b) a phone call is not what is needed. They need someone in the station. They had that in Mildura, and her last day is today – absolutely disgusting. There are 20 of those jobs around the state that are finishing up today. Not only are those workers losing their jobs but the workers from Victoria Police, both sworn and unsworn, that were able to access that support, those workers and employees of the government, are now without that support. How is that having respect for workers in this state? It is absolutely disgusting.

This MPI is full of platitudes but lacks any substance, and it is really grinding my gears today. If this government truly cared about jobs, cared about families and cared about rights, they would stop treating regional Victoria as not even an afterthought anymore. We cannot even say we are an afterthought, because we feel like we are just not even thought about, particularly when we are told that decisions have been made based on desktop studies. Decisions are being made without even visiting the regions. Give me a break. This government needs to stop treating regional Victorians like we do not matter, because without us, honestly – and I say this all the time – you should be thanking a farmer three times a day at least every single day, because you need a farmer every single day.

So you know what? Stop treating us and the people that work the land with utter contempt and disrespect and stop pontificating about respecting workers rights when it is simply not true. Start delivering some outcomes, not just these ridiculous slogans. We believe in real solutions at the Nationals – lowering the cost of living, empowering small businesses that offer local jobs, investing in local infrastructure, making sure every Victorian, not just those within the tram tracks, gets a fair go. Just to finish, if this Labor government want to talk about a better future, it is time to stop selling fake hope and start delivering some actual results for those of us that are growing your food.

Lauren KATHAGE (Yan Yean) (16:52): I am really pleased to rise to speak on this MPI, but before I do, I would like to address some of the assertions by the member for Mildura, who seeks less talk and real action. There was certainly a lot of talk about farmers just then, but I can say that the real and humble action of walking with farmers through drought and working with them collaboratively to design a drought package to support them through those hard times is something that the Minister for Agriculture, supported by the Premier and the broader team, has worked hard on, and I am proud of them for that work. We have had some recent announcements about deer reduction programs, and I know farmers in my area are talking about the excessive amounts of deer and kangaroo at the moment, and I am really proud to be part of a government that is acting, not just talking, when it comes to farmers. We talk about small businesses in regional areas. This is the government that has reduced payroll tax for regional businesses. These are the actions that people are interested in and these are the actions that make a difference to people’s lives rather than just talk.

When I talk about the matter of public importance around investing in projects and government services that create secure jobs and give families flexibility and work-life balance, I think about this topic in the sense of my children, which I think a lot of people do when they get to a certain age. When they think about the job market, when they think about the economy, they think of it through the lens of how something is going to affect their children. That is what I have done, thinking about my nearly eight-year-old, who wants to be a hairdresser, and my preppy, who wants to be a dentist. Together they could have me looking really good hopefully in the future if I give them a couple of decades. At their local state school they are absolutely thriving. We are looking forward to the 100 Days of School event on Friday. It will be gorgeous to see my daughter dressed up as a hundred-year-old. Not in a hundred years have we had such good school results as were announced today in the NAPLAN, the best ever results for Victoria, being first or second in 18 of the 20 measures. What a fantastic result for Victoria. This is peace of mind for parents who are sending their kids off to school knowing that they are going to get a great education. So whether they want to be a dentist or whether they want to be a hairdresser, their local school will provide them with the education that allows for it.

When we speak of peace of mind there are increasing concerns around the mental health of children. Similarly, the mental health menu that we rolled out in schools means that schools can bring in that support for students and can have a choice of what works best for their school community. That is another thing that brings peace of mind and supports families through the services that this government is providing.

But it is not all just happy rainbows; there are also happy elephants. My nearly eight-year old-daughter went for an excursion – I am getting there, Deputy Speaker; it is a long arc – to Werribee zoo to see the elephants last week, which was very exciting, but more exciting for me was the knowledge that every kid in her class at that little state school had the opportunity to go, because we have provided the Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund. No-one is going to miss out on seeing the elephants; no-one is going to miss out on seeing the new enclosure, which I am always proud of, having a brother-in-law who worked on the fencing there. So whether it is good school results, care for mental health or the ability to participate in extracurricular activities, the government is providing those important services.

Health is not forgotten. We know that the dental program and the eye health program in schools are picking up kids that maybe would have fallen through the cracks otherwise health-wise. It is interesting because it is a health initiative, but for families it is also a work–life balance issue. So for people who work long hours or whose job is a long way from home, having their children’s teeth seen to at school and having their eyes checked at school without the running around and trying to find appointments and the after-work hustle is a fabulous way that this government, through its services, is supporting families with their work–life balance, and I am absolutely here for it.

Whittlesea Secondary College, down the road from my daughter’s primary school, is having an upgrade. So the builder has been appointed, and they will be kicking off; they are absolutely ready to go, and some of the work they are doing there includes the construction of a STEAM building, which will have science and trades training happening there. So I think of my daughters, and I think of if they go to Whittlesea and if one wants to be a dentist and one wants to be a hairdresser, both of them can find that support at the local state school, whichever path they are taking. It is that balance and that flexibility that supports families and gives them peace of mind in sending them to their local school, and my local secondary college happens to be an excellent one, so I thank Kathy Mourkakos and the team, and I join with them in remembering and acknowledging the service of Sian.

So to have that work–life balance requires you to be at home, and we want to get families home faster and safer, so in my community the Yan Yean Road stage 2 upgrade – which is kicking off major works in November, married with the North East Link, which we know is tunnelling ahead and particularly the works at the end of the M80, taking away those traffic lights – is going to mean that people can get home faster to their families and will be able to have that work–life balance. So this is an incredible government infrastructure project that not only provides that benefit for families but also provide jobs. I think the North East Link has something like 12,000 direct jobs through the North East Link project, and of course we know that with supply chains there is an extraordinary amount of jobs that are also being created.

So we are happy to say that whether it is through the services we provide or whether it is through the infrastructure projects of this government, we are creating the opportunity for families to have peace of mind, to have flexibility and to have work–life balance.

But things do not always go to plan, and when that work–life balance is off kilter, when things are not working out, when the stresses of life are too much – which they can easily be – the government is there as well to support families. In my community what that looks like is an early parenting centre to support young families who may be having issues with sleep or settling, located in South Morang – the fantastic member for Mill Park is here now – and the staff there take extraordinary care of families.

Other ways that government services are there to help families when the wheels might be starting to fall off is through the mental health hubs – pun intended. With no GP referral, with no money, with no Medicare card, you can rock up and be greeted by someone who is there to listen and to care and who wants to support you through what can be challenging years with a young family. Another way that this government is supporting the work–life balance of families and ensuring peace of mind is the construction of the Mernda Community Hospital. Our community hospital, which will be open by Christmas, is going to provide so many health services close to home for families, which will mean that families do not have to trudge to the emergency department at the Northern and they do not have to head off to far-flung suburbs for specialist appointments. They will be able to receive so much care close to home. That is another example of how the infrastructure project, plus the services we will be providing through that hospital, provide that work–life balance for families. It means that this government continues to be the government of families in Victoria. This government understands families, this government is on the side of families, and we will continue to do this important work for as long as we are able.

Wayne FARNHAM (Narracan) (17:02): I am pleased to rise today on the matter of public importance (MPI) and the contribution that I am going to do now. Let us get straight into it. Part of this matter of public importance today is about jobs. It states it clearly here: ‘We are creating jobs, it is workers rights’ – it is all that in the matter of public importance today. I have heard time and time again from those opposite how much Labor care about jobs: ‘We are for the worker, that’s what we are about, this is what we do.’ What they fail to mention is at this point in time they are trying to cut 3000 jobs out of the public service, 3000 jobs that the CPSU are fighting for at the moment. There are about 57,000 public servants in this state. How many of those 57,000 are going home tonight thinking, ‘Is that job mine? Is it going to be my job that this government cuts?’ And we get this all the time from the government – ‘You cut, you cut, you cut’. Well, the government is cutting.

I just heard the member for Yan Yean talking about mental health support for parents. Guess what the government has cut that I will be doing an adjournment on tonight – Parentline, that has been around for 25 years. They have cut funding to that, another cut. In this debate today we have heard about the economic management of the government and how good they are, how good we are on projects – $40 billion in budget blowouts is not good management at all, ever. The difference between the government and those on this side is that we will do infrastructure projects, but we will not be held to account by the CFMEU.

Peter Walsh: ‘Ransom’ is the word.

Wayne FARNHAM: Ransom. Thank you, member for Murray Plains. We will not be held to ransom by the CFMEU. When we do a project, we will do it on time, on budget.

Peter Walsh: Yes, it’s rather unique, isn’t it?

Wayne FARNHAM: It is a different concept for the government. I know that is why the member for Yan Yean is giggling over there, because she cannot believe that those words actually make sense – on time, on budget; will not be held to ransom by the CFMEU and the thugs that are employed in the CFMEU standing over workers.

Here is another thing. The government say, ‘We’re about the workers.’ Bulldust. We tried to introduce a bill into the Parliament for police checks to get criminals off government worksites. The government did not support it. ‘Oh, but we’re for the workers,’ they say. Rubbish – you are not. The government had an opportunity in this chamber to get rid of the criminal element of the CFMEU to protect the workers that they so stand up for – ‘We care about workers. We’re about the workers.’ Well, why didn’t you take the opportunity to protect them, especially the women in the CFMEU? We saw the violent assaults on television. The government did not want to stick up for them. No, it is only selective, isn’t it? ‘We’ll keep the organisers in, but we won’t worry about the workers.’ Disgraceful.

If we are talking about work-life balance, oh my goodness, do any members on that side actually talk to people? Work-life balance – people are working harder now than they have ever done before. People are doing it tougher now than they have ever done in the history of this state. This is worse than Cain and Kirner, and that was a disaster. Oh my goodness, you sit there and you say, ‘Work-life balance – we’re doing this, we’re doing that.’ But in most households two people are working and they are working extraordinary hours just to survive. Do you know why that is? Here is an indication of what this government is about: just before the last election, in 2022, there had been 43 new taxes introduced into this state – 43 new or increased taxes. In 2025, three years on from that election, we are at 62 – nearly another 20 new taxes in three years. And what do you think happens when you tax and tax and tax? People struggle. Businesses struggle. And what happens when businesses struggle? We lose jobs. I have got a contractor in my area, a road contractor, and because of the cuts to road funding, 30 people lost their jobs. Government does not want to talk about that. They do not want to talk about their absolute mismanagement of this economy – and it is. They are the worst fiscal managers in the history of this state, and that is proven. It is simply proven by the fact that in the 159 years up to 2014 this state only accumulated $21 billion worth of debt, and what is our forecast debt going to be now? $194 billion. That is a $173 billion increase in the time this government has been in this place, paying up to, I think the figure is going to be, $29 million a day in interest when we hit it. That is not fiscal management. That is not creating jobs. That is creating a state of disaster that this government does not want to talk about. It is a budget bomb.

The member for Mildura rightly pointed out regional Victoria, and we talk about infrastructure projects and creating jobs and everything else. Well, probably the biggest infrastructure project that will happen in my electorate is the West Gippsland Hospital, and it would create jobs.

A member interjected.

Wayne FARNHAM: Exactly. How is that going? It is not. The cows are still on the paddock. The cows are back there again. They come off, they come back, they go off, they come back. It is not creating jobs, delaying the hospital. What is worse is that my community do not get the decent health care they need. We have got a hospital that is falling apart – absolutely falling apart – and I would invite the Premier to go and have a look at it. The Minister for Health has been there. I want the Premier to go have a look at this hospital and tell me that it is acceptable in 2025 – that you have got holes in ceilings, that people are put into the maternity ward after operations for recovery. At what point in time is that acceptable? At what point in time does the community of West Gippsland become less important than the community of Melton, where a hospital starts, or any other hospital over that side? I am sick and tired of the pork barrelling of this government – sick and tired of it.

We hear it all the time – ‘Oh, my hospital,’ ‘My hospital.’ What about ours? What about this side of the chamber? You said you were going to govern for all Victorians. Well, that is a load of rubbish. You are only looking after your own. You are not looking after Victorians, definitely not in my area. As I said, the fiscal management of this government is absolutely useless. A two-year-old could manage this state better than what they are doing at the moment. And they talk about the SEC – ‘Oh, the SEC is back,’ ‘We’re going to bring back the SEC,’ ‘Oh, it’s great,’ ‘It’s great,’ ‘It’s great.’ Where are the 59,000 jobs? 59,000 jobs – that is what they quoted. Where are they? The town of Morwell, the heart and soul of the SEC, lost jobs when they lost Hazelwood. A thousand jobs went. Only about 300 people got re-employed. How many jobs have been created in Morwell to date? The government will tell you from last year it is a 400 per cent increase. Do you want to know why? Because they went from one job to four jobs. That is the spin of this government – ‘Oh, we’ve created 400 per cent more jobs in Morwell in the SEC.’ Yes, four people. Big deal. How about you do what you said you were going to do? The people of Morwell have been unhappy for a very long time, and rightly so. This government have treated Gippsland and the Latrobe Valley and East Gippsland appallingly for a very long time, and they continue to do it.

We are the highest taxed state in the nation. I hear every now and again those opposite say this side run Victoria down. No, we do not. We love Victoria, because that is why we are in this chamber. We do not run Victoria down. We run the government down, because they are absolutely useless when it comes to managing this state. That is what we run down. We do not run down the people of Victoria, we run down the incompetent Allan Labor government and the budget blowouts and the state of debt. This state is in so much trouble, and they do not acknowledge it. It is just tax after tax after tax. This MPI is a load of rubbish.

Sarah CONNOLLY (Laverton) (17:12): I have to say westies are tired of those opposite trying to run us down. I cannot wait to speak and give a contribution on this matter raised by the member for Narre Warren South. I absolutely support this matter. It is fantastic and it is well timed, and that is because well-paid and secure jobs go to the very heart of what it means to be Labor in this place. That is why those opposite do not understand this matter and why time and time again when they come into this place as soon as they have to talk about the economy or jobs they start trashing Victoria. You would think that these people not only hate Victorians but cannot wait to exit the state. I would like to be able to wave them off on the border as they head north. Go to New South Wales, go to Queensland – go to another state.

Victorians want people here in this place that believe in them, that support them and that are here to govern for them and not just govern for certain sections and certain suburbs here in this state. They want people to be leaders for everyone, looking after every single person, regardless of their postcode. I would say to those opposite that westies are well and truly sick of you trashing and talking down folks in the western suburbs, whether you are talking about crime, you are talking about the economy, you are talking about schools or you are talking about roads. You tried to prevent us from having Melbourne Airport rail and the Sunshine super-hub. We saw what happened to you in the federal election when you tried that on. They voted in droves for a federal Labor government. As I said, we are the party for working families right across this state. That is something that all of us here on this side of the house feel extremely proud of, because it is not just good for workers, it is great for our economy as well.

I note that on the previous matter of public importance (MPI) that was debated in this place those opposite sought to talk down Victoria’s economy and paint a picture of a state that does not at all match reality. I have to say I do not think Victorians believe one word that comes out of their mouths.

When you look at the data, Victoria leads the nation as an economic powerhouse – ‘economic powerhouse’, two words that the shadow Treasurer absolutely recoils from. If you put ‘Victoria’ in that sentence, that is exactly what Labor has done in this state. When you look at the data over the past 10 years that this government has been in power, more than 870,000 jobs have been created and supported. That is almost a million jobs. You talk to people about that on the street. That is so many jobs. I might even have to put it on a graph to contrast it with when those opposite spent their four years in government and how many jobs they created; I am not even sure if it clocked in the hundreds of thousands – 870,000 jobs in 10 years.

As a member of Parliament representing so many of the working families in Melbourne’s western suburbs, I have to say that one of my biggest ambitions for them is to support local jobs closer to home. Time and time again I am speaking to ministers here in this place and I am out in my local community talking to big companies that have just moved into the very, very big warehouses that are being built in Laverton North and in Trug North, talking about them coming with their companies and employing locals because they want jobs closer to home. That is because in the outer west we have this alarming statistic, particularly in Wyndham, where seven out of 10 people have to leave the municipality to go to work. When we are talking about our roads being clogged with cars, we are not just pointing fingers at Geelong as they are heading into the city and coming through our municipality; we are talking about locals having to get up in the morning and brave that traffic on the freeway and local roads. People want jobs closer to home, and that is exactly what this government has done.

I am going to give a very specific example. I feel like the Premier has stolen my thunder, because I am doing a visit in a couple of weeks to the very place that she was talking about in question time as part of her ministers statement – that is, heightening the awareness around Mondelēz, which has recently opened their newest state-of-the-art national distribution centre right in the middle of my electorate in Truganina. Folks listening and a lot of locals listening in my electorate might not recognise the trading name Mondelēz . In fact when I first heard it I thought, ‘Who is this?’ But they might recognise some of the brands they own, such as Cadbury – I think everyone here in this place might recognise that little brand – or the Natural Confectionery Company, iconic chocolates and sweets that are now enjoyed by folks all across Australia. I do have to say during budget estimates we were eating packets of snakes that came from that company. Actually I digress, but I will say I was there on the weekend with a whole lot of snakes for my kid’s soccer team at halftime. These are iconic brands that we are so used to seeing and reaching for in the shelves when we go shopping and looking for sweet treats.

They have built their brand new national distribution centre right there in Truganina, and now that means our community in the west is home to the most advanced food manufacturing and distribution facility not just in Victoria, not just in Australia, but in the world, a $130 million investment in my local community that, more importantly – and this is where the good stuff is really coming forward for locals – has created over 200 jobs. For so many of those people that will work there they will be great jobs, secure jobs. They will have long-term successful careers there in that distribution centre. They will be able to work closer to home, and working closer to home means less time in the car commuting and more time doing things that you like doing with the people that you love.

Of course this is part of a wider story about Melbourne’s west. Truganina and her neighbour Laverton North are home to what can only be described as a burgeoning warehouse and industrial precinct that is driving the creation of local jobs. Earlier this year, in February, I had the privilege of turning the sod in Laverton North for a new data management facility operated by CDC. When I got the invite to this sod-turn I thought, ‘CDC – you mean the bus company?’ and my staff said to me, ‘No, it’s not the bus company,’ because they have one of their transport hubs there in Truganina as well, along Leakes Road. CDC is one of the largest private data management companies in this country.

They have invested more than $2.7 million or billion – I cannot remember – into setting up this facility, creating thousands of local jobs not just in construction but also in IT. We think about the centre being up and running and the jobs in IT, but building these facilities creates hundreds of local jobs in construction. These are just fantastic signs that, despite the challenges that those opposite might like to illustrate, highlight and constantly talk about as they try to drag down Victoria as being the worst place to live and the worst place to do business in the country, our economy is booming and we are turbocharging the creation of well-paid and well-loved local jobs close to home. Major businesses like Mondelēz and CDC are placing a vote of confidence in our workforce and advanced manufacturing, logistics and information technology.

Of course it is not just up to the private sector to support job creation. Governments at all levels play such an important role in supporting Victorians and ensuring that they have quality employment. The public sector plays a really important role in this, because we all need to believe that our frontline services, our teachers, our nurses, our police and more should earn a decent wage and be able to support themselves and their families, and our record in that space continues to speak for itself. There is so much that I wanted to say as part of my contribution to this MPI around the jobs we are creating in education, including the 1400 new teachers that have joined the Victorian government school teaching workforce – in just over a year, by the way – as well as the amount of investment in health – the 40,000 new nurses, midwives, doctors, allied health professionals and hospital staff that have been created. There is so much good stuff to speak about here.

Then we get on to transport. Do not even get me started on our Big Build and how many jobs we are creating through those projects. As someone who has the Sunshine super-hub at the heart of their community as part of Melbourne Airport rail, which is now underway, this is a great topic for an MPI. Our economy is absolutely booming, and Victoria is the powerhouse of the nation. I commend the MPI to the house.

Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (17:22): It might surprise the previous speakers and others on the other side, but I think we would all be in heated agreement with the aspirations in this matter of public importance (MPI). We want to have well-paid and secure jobs here in Victoria, we want to support families with their work–life balance and we want families to have a better future. I think most of us enter Parliament with that aspiration very much in mind. So for those on the other side to say that somehow this side of the Parliament is against the workers is just plainly wrong.

We all have the aspirations being talked about in this MPI. The issue I take with it is that self-praise is no praise. You need external validation as to whether you are doing a good job of achieving those aspirations that we are talking about. That is where we come to the discussion about how well taxpayers money is spent here in Victoria. We all want major projects, we all want upgrades to our schools, our roads or whatever the government infrastructure is in our electorates. If you think about the $48 billion in cost overruns on major projects in the life of the Labor governments here in Victoria, that would create so much more infrastructure and it would fix so many more roads if those projects had been done on budget rather than generating $48 billion in cost overruns.

There are 23,000 kilometres of highways and freeways here in Victoria. If you spent $1 million on every one of those 23,000 kilometres of highways and freeways in this state fixing the deplorable state of those roads, it would only cost $23 billion. It would not even get to half the cost overruns on the major projects. If you think about creating secure jobs, delivering for Victorian taxpayers, we could have secure jobs for the next five or 10 years right across regional Victoria by spending that $23 billion in cost overruns on fixing all our highways and byways, let alone the local government roads.

If you think about that cost overrun, I have got an issue in my electorate at the moment where the toilets at Swan Hill secondary college are an absolute disgrace. The parents of the current students are saying they were a disgrace when they were at school there. We need $1.4 million to rebuild those toilets. We have got a situation where students are making a point of not going to the toilet during recesses and lunches but going out of the classroom to use the toilets that are closer to the principal’s office because the ones that they have to use are an absolute disgrace.

Of that $48 billion, I would just like $1.4 million to come to the Swan Hill Secondary College to actually build them a new toilet – a toilet that is probably 30 years overdue. When I went there and had a look at it with the school captains before the July school holidays, you could see why the students are complaining. You could see why the student leadership have actually put out their own video about the condition of those toilets, have put up a petition about it, have written to the Minister for Education asking him to personally come and have a look at them. I raised the issue with the Minister for Education on the adjournment in the last sitting week in June – still to get a response about that. But think about all those cost overruns. We all have things like that in our electorates where that money could have been so much better spent over that time.

We also have aspirations for all Victorians to actually build a better future. One of the great Australian dreams, for as long as I can remember, is home ownership. Most people aspire to build their own home. If you think about their life, when they own a home they are secure in retirement because they are not paying rent. They are building a capital asset. It is a great thing to do. But the gap between aspiration and home ownership is getting further and further apart. That is because of the increased taxes that are being put on the property market here in Victoria. If you think about all the add-ons that this government has done, of the 60 new and increased taxes, nearly half those are property-based taxes. Everyone says, ‘Well, it doesn’t matter. We’re just putting it on landlords.’ But landlords actually pass that through to their renters. It is an issue for the cost for a renter into the future, because the landlord has to make a return on investment. They have got a bank loan they have to pay for that particular investment. All those costs have gone into making that gap between home aspiration and home ownership so much further there. We would like to see all families have an opportunity to have a home – not just those workers but all Victorians – to build a better future and actually have the opportunity to own a home.

The member for Mildura talked about the issues for regional Victoria. We actually have got an aspiration that for people that live in regional Victoria their property rights should be sacrosanct. We should not be discussing a bill here in the future where a government department can forcibly enter their land, can cut the locks on their gates and then can fine them $12,000 for the pleasure of doing that. That is just flying in the face of a fair and just Australia, that we have got to the situation where we have got a government that is now going to legislate that they can forcibly enter your property, they can forcibly make things happen on your property that you have got no say over – that is just so un-Australian. If you go back to the Southern Cross flag and the miners riot at Ballarat, this is effectively a repeat of those sorts of things happening, by a Labor government that supposedly says it aspires to actually support Victorians into the future.

A lot of people have talked about jobs and the creation of jobs here in Victoria. Like I said, we have all got aspirations for the things that are set out in this matter of public importance. If you think about who actually creates jobs in Victoria, it is private enterprise. Government does create some jobs, particularly through infrastructure build, but that is paid for by taxpayers. If you think about a strong, active economy that creates those well-paid jobs, secure jobs that we have talked about, that have a work-life balance for those employees and give those employees an opportunity to have a better future, it is actually private enterprise jobs. It is employers that create jobs, particularly small businesses. If you go through the statistics, yes, there are big businesses investing, as has been talked about by some of the previous contributors, in major warehouse projects and that. They are great, and it is great that they are coming to Victoria. But it is small business that actually drives a lot of the employment here in Victoria, and at the moment we have a government that just seems so anti-employers, anti-small business with the increases in taxes – not only the property taxes I have talked about but the other taxes that go with employing people. Yes, there have been some cuts to payroll tax for regional businesses, but employers constantly say to me, ‘Why should I pay a tax to employ more people?’

It just seems so wrong. It seems so counterproductive. There are far too many of the state’s taxes, and even of the new taxes that have been introduced over the life of this government, that are regressive taxes. They actually slow the economy down. They do not speed the economy up. I would urge the government to rethink the whole ‘Let’s tax, tax, tax’ philosophy, and we will spend the money doing a better job for Victorians than private enterprise can do.

The best way to get value for money for government projects is to break them down to bite-sized chunks, particularly in regional Victoria, where regional businesses actually get the opportunity to bid on those projects. One of the challenges that regional businesses have is, under the current government’s rules, they do not have the opportunity to bid for those particular projects. So a big Melbourne company comes in, bids for those projects and then employs locals and subbies to do it and takes 20 to 30 per cent off the top back to Melbourne. Let us get a system of contracting out government projects here in Victoria where local businesses, regional businesses, can actually have the opportunity to bid for them. It is only a matter of a change of government policy around the turnover of that business and the value of a government project that they can actually bid for. So if we have got a school project in our electorates or if we have got a hospital project – and they are fairly rare when they come around – a local builder can never qualify for those particular projects because they are ruled out by the current government’s rules. Let us change some of those rules where those regional businesses can build capacity and build the jobs they aspire to, like in this particular MPI, and have a real opportunity for country communities, for country workers, to have a benefit out of those projects, not the city taking away 20 or 30 per cent to manage the project and then screwing down the subbies in those particular areas.

We all aspire to create more jobs, better-paid jobs and better working conditions for people, but it is about how you do it. I would put it to you that this side of politics would be able to manage those major projects so there are not the cost overruns we have seen – there is not $48 billion that has gone west in cost overruns; there are just so many noughts that no-one can comprehend it – and actually would deliver value for Victorians.

Dylan WIGHT (Tarneit) (17:32): It gives me great pleasure to rise and contribute to this matter of public importance this evening, because it is an absolute ripper of an MPI. I have listened to some previous contributions – fantastic from this side of the house, absolutely amazing. Mainly garbage from that side of the house. I mean, mainly garbage. I was pretty relaxed before I came in here, but then I had to listen to some of the dross that was stumped up, which seems like a pretty regular occurrence, particularly in MPI debates. I tell you what, if there was one person in that Liberal party room with a brain, it would be a lonely brain, because it would be the only one.

We look at this MPI this evening – and I spoke about this earlier in the week; I spoke about it on Tuesday when speaking in support of the government business program. Those opposite, and previous iterations of Liberal governments, never met a Victorian worker that they do not want to sack. And frontline workers – we are talking about nurses, we are talking about teachers and we are talking about going to war with firefighters and with paramedics. I could stand here and continue this contribution until the end of this parliamentary term, and I would not cover every atrocity and every crime to Victorian workers that those opposite and those that came before them have committed. I would not be able –

Richard Riordan: Acting Speaker, just bringing a point of order to the member for Tarneit, who seems to be enjoying sort of his own Philomena Cunk style history of the Liberal Party.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Edbrooke): That is not a point of order. Get to it or sit down, please.

Richard Riordan: I draw his attention back to the matter of public importance.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Edbrooke): That is not a point of order. The member for Tarneit will continue.

Dylan WIGHT: Let me tell you, Acting Speaker, it most certainly would not be the brain of the member for Polwarth, who just comes in here shouting at clouds every day.

When we came to government in 2014 we made a commitment to Victorians: we were going to be a government that built things, and we were not just going to be a government that built things, we were going to be a government that provided secure, well-paid jobs for Victorians in several industries, and that is exactly what we have done over the previous 11 years. The previous speaker spoke about the fact that you cannot just pat yourself on the back, you have got to have outside validation for what you are saying. I would say to the previous speaker: is the best economic growth of any state all across the nation enough outside validation? What about the hundreds of thousands of jobs that we have created for working Victorians since we came to government? Creating jobs, putting food on the tables of Victorian workers and turbocharging economic growth with the projects that we have undertaken, two of the largest of which are going to be opened towards the end of this year and towards the end of the term – level crossing removals, new train stations; there is going to be a brand new train station in West Tarneit which is going to employ locals and help put food on the tables of residents in Tarneit.

I said at the outset of this the contrast between what we do as a government, what we have done as a government since 2014 and what they have done when given the chance, when given that precious gift of government, could not be starker.

Richard Riordan: Like balancing the budget?

Dylan WIGHT: Yes, good on you. The hundreds of thousands of jobs that we have created, as opposed to the cuts, the closures, the sackings of local teachers, the closing of hospitals, the sacking of nurses – it was not even a situation with the previous Premier, Jeff Kennett, where you might get redeployed or something. Your school got closed, you were a teacher and you got sacked. If they really want to come in here and contrast between us and them, I think that is a conversation and an argument that we will have any day of the week. As you could imagine – I have mentioned a few, but I have also brought some more receipts just here that perhaps I will go through during the rest of my contribution.

We had the previous Baillieu government, which attempted to – and did – bring in its own iteration of the Australian Building and Construction Commission. They got a little bit of inspiration from their federal mates and they thought as a government what might be a fantastic thing for them to stand for was going to war with workers in the construction industry and going to war with unions. And they talk about government expenditure – in what world is it responsible government expenditure to employ people to go around and check if they have got union logos on their hats? They want to talk about responsible economic management; why don’t we have a conversation about that? Absolutely ridiculous, and it shows their true colours. I will continue to repeat: they never met a Victorian worker that they did not want to sack. I have spoken about this guy McCracken that is in the other place before. He has already come out and said the quiet things out loud: if they were to get elected, cuts, cuts, cuts. What that means is that Victorians will lose their jobs and working Victorians will not be able to put food on the table.

What we have also seen, and I do not know if they come up with this position at their weird national conference when they sit around a fire and sing – well, they do not sing Kumbaya because they try and kill each other most of the time at their conferences. An attack on Victorians being able to work from home, an attack on Victorians trying to have flexible working arrangements so perhaps they can meet their caring responsibilities easier – flexible working arrangements have really been a thing in modern awards for a long time. But that has really been I think a positive thing that we could say has come out of the pandemic, employers being more open to those flexible working arrangements.

In February the member for Brighton, old winter glow up himself, came in here and called on the state government to mandate a return to the office for public servants, claiming this government is expert in paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to back-office bureaucrats who are not delivering any services for Victorians. The Leader of the Opposition later said that he shared the member for Brighton’s concerns but was not convinced the mandate was the right approach. We see some tension there, don’t we? Given the winter glow up, I think the member for Brighton may have some aspirations, perhaps of a higher position. They have gone quiet on it now because we saw this absolute dross get rolled out during the federal campaign by then leader of the Liberal Party Peter Dutton. They had to reverse their position, because basically no woman in Australia decided they were going to vote for them. So they have gone pretty quiet on that, but this sort of stuff, this sort of garbage, is in their DNA. They might just be smart enough to zip it and not say this sort of ridiculous stuff leading into an election, but given the incompetence, I doubt it. So, we have seen that – a complete attack on Victorians who work from home. They have got some new mates in union land, and we have seen that, I think, over the last couple of sitting weeks. But I would remind their new mates of their absolute opposition to the Firefighters’ Presumptive Rights Compensation and Fire Services Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2019. They care so much about firefighters, but if they get cancer, they do not want them to be insured. They should remind their new mates about that. What else did they do? They voted against the Workplace Safety Legislation Amendment (Workplace Manslaughter and Other Matters) Bill 2019. They also voted against our Wage Theft Bill in 2020. At every single turn those opposite endeavour to commit crimes against Victorian workers and to come in here and try to contrast themselves with us. I mean, give me a break.

Rachel WESTAWAY (Prahran) (17:42): I would like to rise today to speak on the matter of public importance submitted by the member for Narre Warren South. It is a really important topic that I am delighted to be speaking on, and I am also delighted to be up earlier than I expected. I understand that the Greens have not even bothered to turn up and speak in their speaking spot on an issue that is vital as far as I am concerned. We may disagree with approach, but the Greens cannot even contribute to the debate – the debate in regard to the importance of investing in projects and government services that do not just create jobs but actually go to providing well-paid and secure jobs, giving families the opportunities that they deserve to have a flexible working environment, and strengthening workers rights. Well, I am afraid the Greens have not even bothered to represent their electorates in this particular instance, but I am delighted to speak to it.

I rise to speak today on this, and at the outset I want to say wholeheartedly that I agree with the member for Narre Warren South on the importance of investing in projects and government services. I would like to say that I do disagree with the member for Tarneit, in the sense that governments set the landscape to create jobs; they do not create them per se.

Unfortunately, after more than a decade in government, it is clear that Labor, in my view, have let Victorians down. In the most recent state budget, there was not a single cent of funding dedicated specifically to my electorate, the seat of Prahran. It is outrageous that a seat that is a jewel in Melbourne’s crown is totally disregarded. Prahran boasts a significant trading strip, the beautiful botanical gardens, an arts precinct, tourism hotspots and a significant medical precinct. But in my view, the Allan Labor government simply does not care. And this is an opportunity to create jobs, to support Victorians and to ensure that their lifestyles are better and that they have a quality of life that they deserve.

With state government debt hurtling towards $194 billion and major projects blowing out by more than $40 billion since Labor came to office, the people in my electorate of Prahran and in Victoria more broadly are paying the price.

When it comes to government services, nothing highlights the failure of the Allan Labor government more than the seat of Prahran, where we have got persistent problems of crime and homelessness, mental health issues, drug use and the poor condition of our roads and the Chapel Street precinct. Local police in my area are at their wits’ end. We desperately need investment. Prahran police station is still in need of an upgrade to a more modern, purpose-built facility that the community are still waiting for. Prahran police are 20 headcount down and simply do not have the numbers to maintain a presence in key areas across the electorate to deter antisocial behaviour and be able to respond to crime when it occurs. Week after week we hear about aggravated burglaries, home invasions, car thefts, arson attacks and stabbings. In the 12 months to March 2025, criminal offences increased by up to 18 per cent, while the crime rate per 100,000 is over 20 per cent in Stonnington, Melbourne and Port Phillip. Investment in our police station is desperately needed – more police and an updated facility. This creates jobs and it improves everyday life, and this is what we are after.

Since being elected the member for Prahran, I have asked the Allan Labor government for more police, more CCTV and more drug and mental health facilities, and we just have not seen anything at all. We need more to deal with crime and antisocial behaviour, and we need to make quality of life for the people of Prahran and the people of Victoria better. So far these requests have not been met and there is no indication that they will be. Similarly, I have been advocating for the crumbling roads to be fixed. Commuters have a right to expect decent roads as a key service responsibility of government when they drive to the jobs that Labor so desperately want them to have, with a better lifestyle and better quality of living with a home- and work-based scenario. You cannot even drive without hitting the potholes. In my local area people are telling me that they are simply getting car tyre problems time and time again and paying for more tyres because the roads are crumbling.

When it comes to jobs, as the member for Narre Warren South talked at length about in his contribution, I note with sadness that 181,000 Victorians are now unemployed as Victoria stretches to a record 16 months as the state with the highest unemployment in the country. The most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics data released shows Victoria’s unemployment rate worsened by 0.2 points to 4.6. For the 16th consecutive month Victoria has held the highest or equal highest unemployment rate in the nation, and that is a shame on the Allan Labor government. This 16-month streak is the longest in almost 50 years of ABS collection of comparable monthly labour force data, and it has a direct impact on my electorate of Prahran, where cost-of-living pressures bite and unemployment remains an ongoing concern.

Cost-of-living pressures have been exacerbated by the Allan Labor government’s taxes and charges, including the expanded and increased congestion levy, which has had a direct impact on the seat of Prahran. This has already caused rising parking costs across Stonnington as their costs increase, resulting in increased parking costs to constituents and businesses of up to 79 per cent per hour. Whilst it would be great to think people can walk or catch public transport to work or the shops, for those that live outside of my electorate that are looking to go to the seat of Prahran to work – and it does have a lot of hospitality workers – they may not necessarily be able to walk or catch public transport. We absolutely need more cost-effective parking, not this ridiculous congestion levy.

Since Labor took office, they have introduced or increased 61 new taxes, fees or charges. This blows my mind: can I say very clearly that overall tax revenue has increased by 183 per cent since Labor was elected, whereas workers’ incomes have only risen by 38.5 per cent. And what are we seeing for it? This has been overseen by a party that claims to be for workers and for their pay conditions. I am sorry, but I do not see it, and the people of Prahran do not see it. Victoria now leads the nation in tax collection, particularly the property taxes that are strangling investment in seats like mine. When a single person or couple is looking to buy their first apartment in Prahran, what are they facing? More and more taxes and charges imposed by the government. Stamp duty, land tax, development levies – this government has turned home ownership into a luxury that fewer and fewer can afford. Working from home – if you cannot afford a home, you cannot work from home.

The major problem facing Prahran and all of Victoria remains Labor’s addiction to taxation and not to investment. Labor’s taxes are driving up the cost of living as it attempts to paper over its financial mismanagement, meaning meaningful investment in projects and government services simply suffer. There are more taxes being collected but no investment in services that are desperately needed in my electorate. And when it comes to failures to deliver local services, not even our schools are spared. St Kilda Primary School does not even have a school hall for assemblies or sporting facilities since the previous one was demolished for works on the ground many years ago. And this basic responsibility of government is not a luxury; it is a basic responsibility to fund schools. If you want educated Victorians to actually go into employment, then you actually need to fund a state school. This is a basic thing in my view, and this is not happening.

While I am talking about schools, I do want to acknowledge the Inner Eastern Local Learning and Employment Network because their vital school-to-work program operating in my electorate does a fantastic job. It has forged partnerships with secondary schools in Prahran, creating genuine pathways from education to employment. I want to acknowledge that there are nine employers in the seat of Prahran who are making a real difference in this space in young people’s lives. They offer a committed structure for work-based learning and a work experience program, and these are the sorts of investments that we need to see in the seat of Prahran. However, this organisation still has not had confirmation of whether or not it will get funding for next year. These are the sorts of investments that lead to jobs and a better quality of life for the people not just of Prahran but of Victoria.

I remind the house of some points I made recently. The Business Council of Australia’s review of taxes and regulations released in December found the Victorian Labor government had the nation’s worst business setting and the most work to do in improving its business fundamentals. It is a shame on this government. You talk about investment, you talk about wanting a better work–life balance for people, but if we cannot even be rated by external organisations as a great economy, then what is left for the state of Victoria?

Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (17:52): It is a pleasure to rise and speak on a matter of public importance (MPI) that the government is making and to hear in this place who puts Victorians first while those opposite whinge and carry on and scream at the clouds about how bad Victoria is, talking down our great state and the jobs and engine room of this nation’s economy. Nothing can be further from the truth than some of the rantings that we have heard today.

Let us just go through the shopping list. Here we go: 870,000 jobs created since Labor came in. Guess the number of major projects of those opposite – strategic projects that required local content. Those opposite, including the member for Narracan and the member for Murray Plains – what did they say? ‘We managed projects better and to budget.’ Oh, really? Let us just go through eight strategic projects that had local content requirements in the four years that they were in government. If you look at the record of the Andrews and Allan Labor government: 396. One of those eight strategic projects was the commissioning of the stickers they put at Southern Cross to find the airport rail that was coming in 50 years. I heard that they were printed by some of the Liberal headquarter printers to make sure the jobs for their Liberal printers were guaranteed. Remember when Premier Napthine put out the stickers. He just laid them all out with the little arrow. It was just absolutely extraordinary. That was one of the strategic projects, and the rest were just absolutely atrocious because they were in a state of paralysis. Yes, you can manage to budget projects when you do not deliver a project. You just do not have a project.

Lauren Kathage interjected.

Tim RICHARDSON: As the member for Yan Yean says with a score assist, 100 per cent of nothing – that is exactly what they have got right over there. And what do we see when they talk about debt and deficit? They have got a curious way of just forgetting about the history. The member for Sandringham had the former Premier and Treasurer of New South Wales down for a powwow fundraiser a little while ago. What did that great leader of New South Wales Dom Perrottet – you know the bipartisan approach that they had with Chris Minns, the Premier there. They both rode a train together. What did they say about the billions of dollars of cost escalations they confronted? ‘This is a symptom of the eastern seaboard, and when you are underway with projects, you have to push through, because these are the intergenerational projects that will define our communities and a nation.’

You never hear them talk about that. They get Dom along for a little fundraiser every now and then and a bit of a powwow chat. I am sure when they have their national celebration Dom gives a bit of a speech and they all roar with applause. But he had an important characteristic that when states are competing like Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria have, some of these big intergenerational government projects see challenges over that time. They have add-ons, like we have seen on the level crossing removal projects. But one thing is always true that is not true of Liberals in this state and in New South Wales: local content is critical. Job creation is critical, making sure that we have the trainees and cadets supported on these major infrastructure projects so we can build the Victoria of tomorrow and the next generation of workers, and there was never a truer example than standing out at the Suburban Rail Loop Clayton station site the other day. A guy who I know from the level crossing removals at Parkdale, which was an extremely great project, was one of the managers there. We were having a bit of a yarn, and we love a gasbag. We love a bit of a chat, this chap and I. He said to me, with a four-week- or five-week-old baby, ‘You know what? I reckon I can see my lad on this project in the future.’

Intergenerational infrastructure projects that look into the future are what our community needs and what create that investment pipeline, not those opposite, whose major projects were sticking stickers on asphalt – no, that is not our legacy – or opposing Metro Tunnel. We literally lobbed them up a score assist. They could have claimed Metro Tunnel. John Brumby had it packaged up, the former Premier – ‘$50 million. There you go.’ Baillieu could have come in, without even any intellect or thought at all, and gone, ‘That’s our project now,’ and claimed it all. We literally gave them a score assist, and they opposed it. They completely opposed it because it was something that came out of a Labor government. That is why they opposed it – because it was absolutely the top-flight priority for our state. Now we are a few months away from opening one of the biggest transport projects in our state, with few rivals across the nation. Former Premier Daniel Andrews said, when he announced that project, that he might not actually open it. He was right. He will not have the opportunity to open that. That will be Premier Allan. I am sure he will get an invite, because it was his great work and legacy. But you look at that and you go, ‘You’ve got to make those decisions, not just in the short term.’

This is the critical thing for those opposite: when they oppose such significant infrastructure projects, what they are saying is they do not have a plan in the alternative, because they have not come up with any alternative. There is literally nothing. I can narrate this in our community, where they oppose extra housing, where they oppose the Suburban Rail Loop, and then they try to con our communities to say, ‘We’ll just oppose it, stop everything, stop growth and turn everything down.’ That is basically their policy – or they do not answer the question. We put out the question and we ask, ‘What else would you do?’ There was one alternative. Remember that Peter Dutton moment in state politics? Remember when Peter Dutton announced nuclear and then did not talk about it – $650 billion. We have got a contemporary example. The member for Caufield might know this, because he was in shadow cabinet at the time. I do not know if he promoted this, but remember in the lead-up to 2018 the intersection removal policy. Do you remember that little nugget? That was extraordinary, that one. Were you there, member for Murray Plains? No, they did not have the Nationals along for that one, because they would have known how mad that was. Remember that policy where you get 200 metres down the road to get to another traffic light intersection? It would have cost like $25 billion to do. For the one in my area we estimated that they would have had to acquire maybe a thousand homes just to get the width of roads, the off-ramps and the freeway-level detail. The member for Bulleen announced it, and we were like, ‘Okay. How’s this going to drop in the community, this infrastructure that no-one’s ever talked about or ever asked about?’ It had just come up as an alternative to level crossings.

But they did not know either. They never talked about it during the campaign again. They had this transport infrastructure project, intersection removals, these economic wizards over there who know so much about managing projects. They had it costed at something like $7 billion when the real cost was $25 billion. Then they never talked about it during the campaign again. There were a lot of reasons for the Danslide, but goodness me this one was an absolute ripper, where they had to put it on their budget line and then say that was their project. I cannot cop and none of us will cop that those opposite are anywhere near economic credentialed or managers – when I saw that policy rolled out, when we saw the former opposition leader nationally Peter Dutton announce a $650 billion project and then not talk about it, besides some 2004 clip art vision of what that project would be.

That is not serious governing. That is not serious accountability in what we need from our leaders in this state, and nothing has changed. We see the backgrounding that is going on by those opposite. They are getting a bit anxious. I know the numbers man for the Leader of the Opposition is at the table here; he looks very comfy in the big seat. It suits you, member for Polwarth; you have just got a bit of an aura about you. Do not doubt yourself. Do not always be the numbers person, member for Polwarth, you have got so much more to give. But we know all the backgrounding that is going on. There is a bit of angst, there is a bit of feeling, and one of those things is the deficit of ideas and policies. At least the member for Hawthorn, who was liked by himself – he had one vote going and maybe the member for Caufield; that is it – had some ideas. This one out of Berwick has not had an original thought. All you had to do was listen to how he talked about John Howard and Jeff Kennett. When asked about why John Howard was his hero, he fumbled this thing about economic management that any Young Lib would say on the first day that they ever found a script to the Liberal Party. There is no depth to the member for Berwick. There is no thinking whatsoever. He is a see-ball, hit-ball populist. He will read the Herald Sun clips at 5 am, and his policy thought is there by 8 am. That is literally what we get from the member for Berwick. At least the member for Bulleen, who is a bit of a gunzel, has some sort of policy cred, even though the intersection policy was a blunder.

It is coming up to the end of July the year before the election: it is time to reheat the east–west link. Christmas in July comes through: it is time to bring the east–west link roll in. Yes, it is like, ‘Here we go.’ Remember those little drops that they do into the Herald Sun: ‘Oh, we need one of those east–west links,’ that people have denied for three terms over and over and over again. Then you get the member for Bulleen. He just gets up and about, he gets on MPIs and you see the momentum – it is time. And whoever backgrounded to Shannon Deery at the Herald Sun that it is Matthew Guy’s time and it could be third time coming – and I am sure he does not do his own backgrounding, the member for Bulleen – well, we are up for it, because someone has already started the momentum. The member for Berwick does not have an original thought. The member for Bulleen has millions of thoughts – some of them cannot be confined. We know then that those over the other side have no thought for Victorians. It is a Labor government that continues to deliver.