Wednesday, 19 November 2025

 Paul EDBROOKE (Frankston) (17:46): I rise this afternoon grateful for an opportunity to contribute to this grievance debate because I am deeply worried about where the Liberal Party is going in this state. I worry about the way members in this house and members of different parties treat each other. I wonder if in other areas in the private sector, what we have seen over the past couple of days would be accepted – whether that is respectful behaviour. We can talk to our wits’ end about six leaders in seven years, but a member who I think was widely respected in his community, certainly – I am going to say here, the former opposition leader is a Liberal; I am Labor, but I can see someone who works hard. I can see someone who is trying to bring their party back to the middle. I can see someone who is trying to meet some of the same goals the government does, just in a different way.

What I saw yesterday was someone who was stabbed in the back in a cold factional hit. He is a former police officer. He is a former manager and owner of a Bakers Delight – he is a small business owner – and he got some positive polling, almost like the former member who was a leader, the member for Hawthorn, who got some positive polling too. But it just shows that you do not need to be doing well. You do not need positive polling for those opposite to roll you, to steamroll you and to stab you in the back. We still do not have an answer as to why the opposition changed their leader yesterday. We do not know why Mr Battin was ambushed. Maybe he does not have the right pedigree. Maybe the member for Berwick did not ride on the right person’s pony when he was a child, as we have heard. But just like the member for Hawthorn, he was polling quite well, then was killed off by his party.

So the question is: who actually runs their party? I do not think it is their leaders, that is for sure. The sixth leader in seven years – that is anarchy, that is an absolute debacle. If you cannot govern yourselves, there is no way you can even consider governing for the great state of Victoria. For us on this side, I think it is really sad to see these kinds of changes when there are people all over this Parliament – in the upper house, in the other place, in here – that are trying to do good work for their communities, but they are steamrolled, they are run over and they are stabbed in the back because someone has the right pedigree. Someone’s dad was an MP. What exactly is it that the member for Berwick did wrong? No-one can tell us. We have heard the new opposition leader tell us that he was doing a fine job. Well, then, why didn’t he keep that job? We know on this side of the house that it is a case of same horse, different jockey.

There is no plan, there are no slogans, and we know they cannot govern themselves. The question going forward, in my mind, is: what did the new opposition leader promise Mrs McArthur in the other place for her support? We will find that out. There will be a wedge issue sometime soon, and we will find that out.

What I want to know, though, right now is: were there deals done by the new opposition leader that will put people who made good from gender equality reforms and equality reforms from this government and from some of the massive reforms that this government has put forward in family violence and the LGBTQIA+ sector at risk? Are they at risk because the opposition have got the hard right running their party? Is the deal that promises have been made to roll back those equality reforms? Is the deal that reforms like banning gay conversion therapy will be rolled back? We need to know that.

When I talk to workers in my electorate – ambos, nurses, teachers, sparkies, childhood educators, people in retail, hospo workers – they are not asking the world. They are asking for a fair go at work and a decent wage that keeps up with the cost of living. They are asking for safe conditions and a bit of security so they can plan their future, and that is what this government delivers.

What a week it has been: the Metro Tunnel announcement about delivering it early; the West Gate tunnel support by the federal government; more support for the SRL; delivering on treaty, the first treaty in Australia’s history – Australia being the only Commonwealth nation without a treaty – justice reforms; and just over 100 pieces of legislation through this Parliament by the Allan Labor government, a government I am extremely proud to be part of. Business conditions and confidence have risen in September and are in positive territory, regardless of what you might hear from those opposite. Victorian business conditions and confidence have both improved since the beginning of the year following, yes, interest rate cuts of course, but conditions in the construction sector have picked up modestly as well. Lo and behold, it is official that Melbourne this week was ranked as the happiest place in Australia – except if you are in the Liberal party room. Melbourne has also been ranked the 10th happiest place in the world.

We have heard a lot about tax from those opposite. I have been listening keenly. I am in the middle of doing an MBA and some of the financial modules. I love it, love maths and love getting the calculator out, and I have got the calculator out on some of the promises by those opposite. We heard about some payroll tax and land tax issues. I just want to work through some of my own analysis that really goes to show that this government has been working hard for our community. In contrast, you will hear that every single time there has been a choice of backing workers or backing those who profit from their labour, the Liberals always choose the top end of town.

This government has made an increase to the threshold for annual payroll tax returns from $10,000 to $40,000. We reduced payroll tax to 3.65 per cent for regional businesses. We have abolished the land tax transfer duty. We further reduced the regional payroll tax to 2.425 per cent. We then reduced that payroll tax rate again to 1.2125 per cent, phased in over three years, but then we decided we would move that forward. We have increased the payroll tax exemption threshold to $700,000 over three years. We brought forward the regional employer payroll tax of 1.2125 per cent, as I formerly spoke about. We have allowed a longer tax exemption where construction or renovation of a principal place of residence is delayed. We have dealt with standalone tax exemptions for social and emergency housing. Bulk-billing payroll tax exemptions have been put in place for GPs. We have raised the payroll tax free threshold to $900,000. We have introduced family violence tax relief measures. We have raised that payroll tax free threshold again to $1 million. The list goes on. Even today we have addressed a bill that came back with amendments in regard to 50 per cent concessions for conditionally free parking, which is essentially the congestion levy we spoke about, land tax exemptions for principal places of residence and non-permanent shelters and the Dinner Plains exemption from the vacant residential land tax.

As we have talked about, the issue is that there is a lot of opposition but no plan. We heard on the Raf Epstein show this morning the opposition leader was interviewed. The opposition leader was asked what the plan is. Raf Epstein has basically gone across and given a dialogue that if you need to fill your $11.1 billion black hole, how are you going to do it? He asked, ‘So what will you stop spending on?’ He is asking, ‘What are you going to cut’, essentially. And the Leader of the Opposition says, ‘We need to stem the bleed at the executive level.’ And Raf Epstein says, I think quite reasonably, ‘So cutting the number of public servants?’ And the opposition leader says, ‘No, looking at the growth in the executive level of the public service.’ Raf Epstein retorts, ‘There are billions to be saved on debt in a couple of inflated executive salaries?’

So this is the plan: ‘We’re going to cut a couple of inflated executive salaries to fill that $11.1 billion black hole.’ No, this is not a fresh start. We can fill the gaps in the story; we know the gaps in this story. That $11.1 billion black hole commitment by the opposition needs to be filled, and history shows us what they will cut: they will cut TAFE, they will cut training, they will cut schools, they will cut hospitals. We have already seen Mrs McArthur, the now powerbroker who owns the opposition leader, say this in the other place. They will cut public sector jobs hand over fist, and they will make sure that the services that Victorians in my community and every other community rely on are at risk. They will cut infrastructure. They will cut the projects that create jobs in our communities – communities like mine.

They call it budget repair, but in reality, that is a term that really stands aside from the fact that the damage is not just on a spreadsheet; that damage is to real lives and to our communities. And I know that too well, because we heard another member say that the Premier and the Deputy Premier were speaking about their childhoods and the effect the privatisation of the SEC had on them. Well, I was an SEC kid too, and my father was a union rep dealing with the voluntary departure packages of people down in the valley. I am not here to argue the point over who started that privatisation, who started breaking things up – it does not matter to me. As a 14-year-old kid, I saw my community die off because of so-called budget reforms, budget reforms that on a piece of paper looked fine and dandy, but when you are living in that community – it killed off that Latrobe Valley community. We have heard the member for Morwell talk about his community. We have heard members in the other place, in the upper house seats, talk about their communities. They are still coming back from these.

The cruel irony is that the same Liberals who say, ‘We won’t be able to afford nurses or teachers or ambos or people in the public sector,’ are the ones who have only ever worked in politics. The cruel irony is that when I read the Herald Sun, I am looking for some kind of pedigree for someone who could become the opposition leader or the Premier. What I see is someone that has only ever worked in Liberal offices, has only ever worked for a business council, has never, ever experienced life outside of Kew or Mont Albert. And it is nothing personal, but it shows me and it tells me that some of us are just living in a bubble. Some of us see things on paper and they do not see the effect of their decisions out in the community. What the Liberals do not say in this chamber is how they are going to cut, and what they are really saying is, ‘You’re on your own.’ And we have seen that this week. There is no plan. They keep on telling people that they are responsible managers, but they cannot answer anything unless they say they are going to cut it. The truth is really simple: the modern Liberal Party is not a moderate party anymore. It is not the party many of the MPs across the aisle joined; it is an extreme party. It is extreme in its ideology; whether that is about climate or nuclear power, it does not matter. We have heard it before.

It is extreme in its willingness to sacrifice workers’ livelihoods on the altar of an accountant’s spreadsheet, because that is all it knows. And it is extreme in its refusal to accept that the government does have a role in building a fairer, more equal society.

I feel like we should be grieving, just like some of those across the aisle are, because I know there are some decent people over there now who have not had a great week. They have seen this change – they have seen a decent person rolled as leader – and they have seen someone else, an unknown, put into that spot. I tell you what, in those two question times we have seen in the last two days there has been a lot of eye rolling on that side of the chamber. There were a lot of angry looking people who were guaranteed that this would be a change going forward, that performance would improve and that this leader would be the new leader that brings them an election victory. I look across the aisle, and I definitely do not see that reflected in the faces of those opposite. I see people who are dejected and I see people who no longer feel like they have control of the policies their party puts up, and I grieve for any time that they could have a chance to govern Victoria.

Question agreed to.