Wednesday, 15 October 2025

 Sarah CONNOLLY (Laverton) (16:46): I have to say I too grieve for the Victorian families who would have to put up with and continue to put up with the Liberal Party and the National Party talking them down – talking down our amazing, amazing Victorian community and talking them down time and time again. I lament how this would continue even if – I mean, God forbid – they ever did see their way back into the light, out of the wilderness and into government. It has been nearly seven years that I have been in this place, almost seven years, and I can tell you what: I have never heard those opposite – and I sit here, and I try to think of a time – actually say anything good about Victoria or good about Victorians. Take the contribution from the member for Kew, now the Shadow Treasurer, and her talking about getting Victoria back into shape. Oh, here it is: ‘Let’s make Victoria great again.’ Victoria is an amazing state, and I say that as someone who was born and bred not in Victoria but in New South Wales. Victoria is an amazing state, and if you do not like it – I say as someone who was recently in New South Wales visiting family – the border is open. Go north, because this state and Victorians deserve so much better than a party of those opposite that absolutely laments everything about Victoria and what Victorians stand for.

A member: They talk it down.

Sarah CONNOLLY: They talk it down. Now you have got the Shadow Treasurer talking it down again and again and again. They have never said one thing that they like about Victoria, and more concerningly – and this is what I am genuinely concerned about – they are bereft of any kind of positive vision of where they want to take Victoria. There is nothing to inspire Victorians about the future of our state under that party. Whether it is on transport, whether it is on housing or whether it is on health or education, you name it, there is nothing even resembling a ‘We’d like to see this’. It is just endless, endless, endless negativity for Victoria and Victorians from the Liberal Party.

More people than ever have been looking for work, and they have found it here in Victoria. We are the only state on the east coast of Australia to deliver an operating surplus in this year’s budget. I will note again that this was a key component of our much-loved former Treasurer’s plan to manage our state’s debt. In fact we are the only state in this country with a plan – a fiscal strategy – that aims to deliver surpluses in the future and tackle debt as a proportion of our gross state product, and whilst we are continuing to deliver the infrastructure and services Victorians need, we are tackling debt.

We are doing it while we complete major projects – major generational transformational projects like the Metro Tunnel and the West Gate Tunnel. They are two huge projects, and after almost 10 years of having a federal Liberal government that did not put one cent into these projects, the Metro Tunnel and West Gate Tunnel are about to open. I do not think I have ever felt prouder sitting there and watching the Premier announce that they are going to be open in early December. People are absolutely beside themselves with excitement and happiness that this project is going to open. I know for all of the commuters in their cars – and I have to say there is a bunch of us in Melbourne’s west – we cannot wait. We cannot wait for the Allan Labor government to get on and open the West Gate Tunnel. That project is all about getting people out of traffic and getting them home sooner to do the things they like with the people that they love. Whenever you hear those opposite talk about how they would manage state debt, their answers are always the same: it is all about cuts, cuts and more cuts. I recently saw a video made up by their new Shadow Treasurer this week where she spoke about tax reform. If you have listened to these people over the past couple of years, you will know what it means when they talk about tax reform. It means cutting taxes that by and large affect the wealthiest Victorians and biggest corporations here in this state. It is so out of touch. It is actually depressing to watch videos like this and hear them talk in this place. After seven years it is depressing. It is depressing to know that after seven years they continue to dwindle away out there in the darkness of the wilderness. It must be so lonely to be them.

I truly believe that you cannot say you are the party of lower taxes. They love to use that line at all levels of politics: ‘Taxes will always be lower under a coalition government.’ I can hear that for the next election, because I remember the federal Leader of the Opposition running that one around again and again like a madness mantra about a year ago when they were asked about opposing the Commonwealth stage 3 tax cut changes. They cannot say they are the party of lower taxes and then go on about government debt the way they do. The only way to balance that is by making deep, savage spending cuts that hurt thousands of Victorian families. That means you cut critical services from the front line in our communities, in communities like mine. You put people out of work.

Let us look at some of the things that those opposite have said they would cut. Because the member for Morwell mentioned it in his contribution, let us start off with the SEC, because if they are going to defend anything, these people will defend Jeff Kennett’s legacies of cuts and closures – it is in their DNA. We know that doing that will not just mean fewer jobs, including regional jobs in places like Morwell, but it also will plainly mean – if we are talking about cutting the SEC – more expensive electricity bills, which I am not sure that the member for Morwell quite understands. If he is lamenting for people in his community, I wish that he would give people in his community my electorate office’s phone number and we can certainly shed some light and truth on what is going on when it comes to electricity bills. There is one thing they will not tell you: Victoria actually has the lowest wholesale electricity prices in the country. It is almost half – yes, it is almost half – of what it is anywhere else, and it will remain below states like Queensland and New South Wales well into the future. The SEC is a big part of that, and those opposite have said time and time again they want to scrap it.

Speaking of Queensland, I used to spend quite a bit of time up in Queensland. My kids were born in Queensland, much to the horror of my father. It actually matters if you live on the border of New South Wales and Queensland in northern New South Wales. But speaking of Queensland, I would be entirely remiss if I did not mention Mr McCracken in the other place – gosh, this made me laugh. I laughed and laughed and laughed. He suggested looking into Campbell Newman. I remember Campbell Newman so well. I think he was the mayor of Brisbane City Council and then he ran in the state election.

I was there at the time. Now, Mr McCracken is talking about looking to Campbell Newman of all people as a model on how the coalition could address Victoria’s debt. If you cast your mind back, this is – it just gets so funny. When I was living in Queensland and Campbell Newman was the Premier – I remember what it was like to have friends, right, friends that I sat with at the time at Energex – it has now got a different name, it is a government-owned corporation, a GOC. I had friends in Energex, plenty of Libs, saying, ‘I am voting for this guy’. I said, ‘Don’t do it, you’ll lose your job, there’ll be cuts and closures.’ No, no, no – so they voted for him. Those people sitting beside me lost their jobs, 14,000 public servants were cut. There is a reason that Queensland Labor back then went from just enough MPs to fit in an SUV to being back in government after just three years. If that is the example that those opposite want to follow in government, they will probably suffer an even worse election defeat than they already have multiple times, if it is even possible at this stage.

The next big-ticket item on their list of cuts is the Suburban Rail Loop – or is it? I am kind of confused, because I was there when I heard the member for Bulleen completely flip what has been their policy and their line on SRL for so many years, and they have not been really clear on that lately. Is it cancel it, is it pause it, is it go ahead if it has started, or back to pause and review? They have had so many stances on the SRL at this point that I have to say, Victorians cannot really tell – I cannot tell. With our government, we have been extraordinarily clear: the SRL will be built, and I say this as someone representing Melbourne’s west. I know we are not at this time the primary beneficiaries of the particular section under construction, our section is yet to come. But – and this is important, and folks in Victoria will see this when they go and have a look at their Metro Tunnel – this is a project not just about the next 10 years, it is about the next 25 to 30 years, because by 2050, Melbourne will be the size of London. That I think is actually terrifying. You talk to punters in the street about that and they can barely wrap their mind around it: the size of London by 2050. We need a transport system, and we need a housing system that can accommodate that reality, and we need to build it – not tomorrow, not in 10 years time or in 20 years time but right now – immediately. Because we know that Victorians cannot rely on the old hub-and-spoke transport model of pumping trains in and out of the CBD in a city which will have 12 million people. That is why we are getting on with the SRL, to connect these spokes and make it easier for people to get around our city well, well into the future.

Now, housing – I know we love to talk about housing. Those opposite have made it very clear that they will scrap our housing reforms and our activity centres. This effort is of course spearheaded by none other than the member for Brighton. Despite losing his role as Shadow Treasurer, I was actually surprised, member for Brighton, that you were not made the Shadow Minister for NIMBYs over your way. While we have been getting on and building more than 55,000 new homes – more than New South Wales, more than Queensland – those opposite have been clutching their pearls to defend blue-ribbon suburbs like Brighton, like Kew, from creating just a little bit of space for young families to live in. It is just so sad. So when folks like the member for Brighton and the member for Kew spearhead the opposition’s response to housing, what is their plan? Please tell us. If we cannot build new homes in leafy, affluent suburbs close to major transport connections, schools and shopping strips, then where on earth can we build them?

For those that represent the outer western suburbs and outer burbs in this state, we know the answer to that question. They want to send all the new homes out our way into the outer suburbs, into areas that are struggling to catch up. They will gladly oppose new apartments in Brighton, but you would never see them oppose tens of thousands upon thousands of homes in Melbourne’s outer west.

A member interjected.

Sarah CONNOLLY: No, no, no, no, no, no. So when Victorians think about the future of this state, they have a choice. With our government, they can choose a positive vision for our state, one where they can buy or rent a home close to where they live and close to where they work and get around and get ahead that much easier. With those opposite, well, we do not really know, do we? There is no vision, there is no benefit. There is no point with that party. There is no point with the Liberals, there is no point with the Nationals, which is, I have to say time and time again, why Victorians do not back them.

I grieve for all Victorians when they continue to be talked down by a party, those opposite, who actually stand for nothing and have no vision for people, no vision for this state, no positive vision.