Thursday, 13 November 2025

 Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (10:19): Surprise, surprise – I too shall be talking about the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee 2025–26 budget estimates report, and I think I might do it a little bit differently. The Chair is in the chamber but not in her correct seat, which is why I did not think she was here. I might play a little bit of Wheel of Fortune with the report. Given the member for Mordialloc was talking about page 14 just then, the fiscal strategy, let us talk about that fiscal strategy. Section 2.3.2 is actually on page 15.

I have read page 14, and I do not believe that anything the member for Mordialloc was talking about referred to anything on page 14. But let us talk about the risks to financial sustainability. The committee noted in its report on the 2023–24 financial and performance outcomes several emerging risks to the government’s fiscal strategy, including growing debt and interest costs. At the moment what are we paying? $1.2 million per hour in interest alone. I would say that is a pretty big risk. Increased operating expenses due to service demand – when you have to keep the CFMEU happy, is it any wonder? Limited new revenue and income streams – that is probably why they have introduced 63 new or increased taxes. The latest one last week in the State Taxation Further Amendment Bill 2025 was the dogs and cats tax. What are they going to start taxing next – ideas? No doubt they will find a way to tax ideas, or maybe ambition. They can start to tax a little bit of ambition, because as socialists they do not like anyone to have ambition to create their own wealth. What else could they tax – perhaps aspiration? It is similar to ambition, but surely we can have an aspiration tax. What else – the oxygen? Oh no, hang on, they already tax that, don’t they? Limited new revenue and income streams – well, they seem to be able to find a new tax to create new income and revenue streams.

Anyway, let us play a little bit of Wheel of Fortune with the report itself and see what else we should talk about. Department of Transport and Planning – I did not even set this up, member for Murray Plains. When we talk about transport and planning in this place, I usually lead with the lack of public transport in Mildura, including the train. But we have got a plan for that that we will talk about later. Let us talk about the Murray Basin rail project for a moment, and how much of an absolute bleep-up that was and still continues to be. Until that is rectified with the Maryborough freight corridor it will never be efficient, so some regional rail reform is needed there, I would suggest. And planning – I said yesterday during government business that I did not ever think that I would be so passionate about planning schemes, but here we are. Out in the regions where the planning scheme in this state is written by the city, for the city, with no flexibility for the regions, that is becoming a real problem and holds up all sorts of housing developments. In the city, I understand when the Greens stop development – we get that and none of us are surprised in this place. But in the regions it is the lack of flexibility in the planning scheme that holds it up.

Let us play another round with the minute I have got left. What have we got? Education. For anyone wanting to bring me back to the report, this is page 55, section 4.4. Education portfolio key issues are the falling down schools, with Mildura West Primary School still being held together by chipboard despite having two master plans, the last one in 2018. They have had one building come out of that. They have had a new toilet block because there was a stream of funding of $400,000 for toilet blocks. I could build a four-bedroom, two-bathroom house in Mildura for that money. These kids are still learning in a building held together by chipboard – it is disgraceful. Anyone on the other side that is proud about the budget estimates report from the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee is delusional.