Wednesday, 3 December 2025

 The DEPUTY SPEAKER (16:07): The Speaker has accepted a statement from the member for Kew proposing the following matter of public importance for discussion:

That this house condemns the Allan Labor government for their failure to:

(a)   ease cost of living for Victorians;

(b)   keep communities safe;

(c)   strengthen Victoria’s healthcare system; and

(d)   enable more Victorians to own their own home.

 Jess WILSON (Kew – Leader of the Opposition) (16:08): In just under 12 months time Victorians will be presented with a choice – a choice between a tired, out of touch, failed Labor government or a fresh start for Victoria and an opportunity to change the government but, more importantly, to change the direction of this state. We hear every single day that Victorians think Victoria is headed in the wrong direction. They think this government have lost their way and are no longer in touch with their priorities: cost of living, crime crisis, a healthcare system that is not delivering for them and their needs and a dream of home ownership that is no longer alive in this state. After 12 years of the Labor government, Victorians are worse off.

When it comes to the cost of living, we hear every single day that life is getting harder and harder. Whether it is the fact we have the highest taxes, the highest unemployment or the lowest credit rating in the country, instead of thriving, Victorians are just surviving under the Allan Labor government. The data bears this out. When it comes to per capita household disposable income, Victoria is now the second last in the country. We are 10 per cent below the national average, even behind Tasmania. As the acclaimed economist Saul Eslake points out, this is the most ‘obvious measure of Victorians’ individual material well-being’. But what is driving this decline in living standards? In one word: Labor.

Their economic mismanagement has been a wrecking ball through this state. The decline in living standards for everyday Victorians is felt every single day under their cost-of-living pressures, whether it is the fact that energy prices in this state continue to skyrocket under the mismanaged transition under this government or that since 2014 the Labor government has introduced 60 increased or new taxes, fees and charges – 60 new taxes under this Labor government. Today there was a new tax on aspiring home owners. This is a government that taxes Victorians at every single opportunity. And what does it mean? Higher living cost pressures; less money for businesses to grow, to employ and to expand their business operations in this state; and overall a weaker economy that is seeing investment flee this state.

Victoria’s net debt is growing by $2 million every single hour – $2 million every single hour Victoria’s debt is growing by – which means that it will reach $194 billion by 2029. For each hour of that debt we see that 22 police officers, 19 nurses or 24 teachers could have been employed for a year. Now, $194 billion seems almost incomprehensible to most Victorians. What does that really mean? But over that period in the coming years, Victorians will be paying more than $1 million every single hour on the interest bill just to service that debt. What that means is that money cannot be going to better frontline services. It cannot be employed to fill the 2000 vacancies when it comes to Victoria Police. It is not going to the teachers we desperately need in our classrooms during a teacher shortage crisis. It is not going to the nurses and the paramedics that we need to ensure that Victorians can access quality health care. It is not going to help reduce the cost-of-living pressures on hardworking Victorian households through lower taxes. Instead that money is going to the bank.

On this side of the chamber we are focused on delivering real, immediate and lasting cost-of-living relief for Victorian families that will actually make a difference. Right now Victoria has the highest taxes in the country, and that just makes life more expensive every single day for Victorians. High taxes mean high cost-of-living pressures, and as every small business owner knows – and I know that we on this side of the house hear it every single day from the small and family businesses in our electorates and right across this state – government taxes mean it is harder to do their job and harder to open their doors, and they have to pass that cost through to their customers. We know that this Labor government is looking for every opportunity to tax Victorians. We have seen it again today: a brand new tax on housing at a time the government claims to be in the midst of a housing crisis. But what do they do? They put a new tax on aspiring home owners, passing a tax on to new home buyers in this state.

We on this side of the house will control government waste. We will highlight where this government is misprioritising its spending and the fact we are seeing waste and waste again. Yesterday $200,000 was spent on pot plants for the Suburban Rail Loop. The SRL is a project that remains unfunded by this government – $35 billion in new debt and new taxes at a time that Victorians can least afford it, but we can afford $200,000 for pot plants. This is the priority of the Labor government. But we on this side of the chamber will always provide for Victorians a lower taxes guarantee. We will ensure that we are investing in the frontline services. We will prioritise spending to ensure that we are employing the police, we are employing the teachers and we are employing the paramedics that Victorians desperately need. We will stop taxes going up because we will grow this economy by driving investment back into this state.

We know that under this government, investment is fleeing Victoria. Not only is it fleeing Victoria, not only is it going to South Australia, not only is it going to New South Wales, not only is it going to Queensland, with those premiers knocking on the door and saying, ‘Why would you do business in Victoria?’ – Victoria is not even a consideration in the first place. We hear from the business sector and from the property sector the acronym ABM: anywhere but Melbourne. That is the attitude of the business community and of the investment community: ‘Why would we come to a state that only wants to make it harder to do business?’ Labor will always find a reason to tax more. They will always find an opportunity to make life harder for small businesses in this state and to make it harder to build a new home in this state, because for Labor, taxes are in their DNA. But we on this side of the chamber will guarantee lower taxes. Under a Liberal and Nationals government we will always have lower taxes and we will prioritise funding for the essential services that Victorians desperately need.

Under the Labor government and under this Premier we have seen the government weaken laws, leading to a crime crisis in this state. 2½ years ago this government, the members on that side of the chamber, voted legislation in that weakened bail laws. Despite the millions spent on advertising campaigns since, the bail laws today remain weaker than what they were 2½ years ago. And what has that led to? That has led to a crime crisis; night after night, repeat offenders, youth offenders out on our streets, terrorising families in their homes. I know that we on this side of the chamber – and, I have no doubt, members of the government – hear from their local communities every single day about the fact that people are afraid in their homes. They go to bed at night triple-checking they have locked every window, locked the doors and had a conversation with their family: ‘Should we leave our keys on the front table, or should we hide them in the drawer?’ That is the reality of the crime crisis here in this state. Victorians do not feel safe, and our police force are frustrated that they are continuously arresting the same offenders night after night but they are back out on bail within hours. This is the reality when you mismanage the finances and you underfund our police.

Victoria’s crime is at a 20-year high, and we know that a crime is committed every 50 seconds in Victoria. That means by the end of this contribution we will have had 12 crimes committed during this time. There is a theft from a retail store every 13 minutes, further undermining business confidence, and we have heard from the businesses surveyed in this state that more than 90 per cent of business owners say they are scared for their staff. These are the economic consequences of crime in this state. There are nine carjackings every single week. This is the reality when you have 2000 vacancies in Victoria Police and you have closed or reduced hours at 43 police stations. Labor have come to the table far too late with their changes to bail laws and far too late with their so-called adult time for adult crime. This is not a government that believes in the very legislation it is bringing forward, and Victorians can see through it. They know that this is not a government that has their safety at heart. The first responsibility of any government should be to protect the safety of their citizens. What we have seen under this government is a disgrace. That is why we will bring forward ‘break bail, face jail’, we will legislate Jack’s law to ensure that we give police and PSOs the powers to tackle knife crime in this state and, most importantly, we will address the root causes of crime through early intervention and actually ensuring we tackle this and do not see young offenders going down the path of the criminal justice system.

When it comes to our health system here in Victoria, every single day Victorians are losing out. I do not understand how it can be in this state that if you have to call an ambulance, you have a little bit of doubt in the back of your mind that it might not turn up. That is the reality of what the health system has come to under this Labor government. Victorians continue to face longer wait times for vital surgery and emergency treatment. We have seen the elective surgery waitlist surge to over 60,000, up 5 per cent just in the last quarter alone. It is failing to meet its ambulance response times, with only 65 per cent of code 1 incidents being responded to within 15 minutes, well below the 85 per cent target – that is the government’s own target.

This is the reality of not investing in our health system. Why is this government not investing in our health system? Because they have mismanaged the finances and because they are paying an interest bill that is increasing at a rate that is more than the revenue of this state, because of the $50 billion worth of cost blowouts on major projects that this government laugh off. The government says things cost what they cost. That is not a way to manage the budget in this state, because economic mismanagement and financial mismanagement mean that you cannot invest in the vital services that Victorians rely on, like our health care. You just have to look to the Victorian Auditor-General and Infrastructure Victoria, who have highlighted the neglect when it comes to the funding of our health system and the need for urgent upgrades at three of Melbourne’s busiest hospitals: the Alfred, the Austin and the Royal Melbourne. But this government has instead decided to prioritise wasteful spending – $600 million to cancel the Commonwealth Games and $13 million on machete bins that have done nothing to get knife crime off our streets. This is a government with its priorities all wrong.

After a decade of Labor in this state, young Victorians have given up hope when it comes to home ownership. Is it any wonder when the previous Premier said that young Victorians do not want to own their own homes? That was the belief of the previous Premier, and we can see it playing out in the policies of this government. Of the 60 new or increased taxes under the last 10 years of Labor, half of them have been property taxes. At the same time this government announced their so-called housing statement they announced a raft of new taxes on the property industry. How does this government expect new houses to be built if they are taxing the very people who are meant to build them?

Today we have seen yet another example of how this government has its priorities all wrong: an $11,000 tax on every new dwelling in our suburbs. That is a cost that is going to be passed directly on to aspirational first home buyers and renters. This is a government that does not believe in home ownership. It does not have a plan to drive down the affordability of homes. We on this side of the chamber believe in home ownership and we understand that not only do we need to increase the supply of homes but the only way that is going to happen is if we do something about the punishing taxes in this state. The only way this happens is if we do something to decrease the taxes on property in this state. In 12 months time Victorians will have a choice. They will have a choice between this tired, arrogant government and a fresh start that will put the priorities of Victorians first and foremost.

 Sarah CONNOLLY (Laverton) (16:23): I am so pleased to follow the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Kew. I invite those opposite to stay in for this one, because I am going to start with a story about something that happened a couple of weeks ago, just a couple of days after the member for Kew found herself in, what did we say, the ejector seat, or the Leader of the Opposition’s seat. This is a true story. You know how I love to tell stories in this place, and this will make everyone feel very jolly considering we are well and truly moving into December now. I was standing in Strangers getting a coffee and there was a tour group coming through and this woman kept looking at me. She diverted from the tour group and she came over, and I thought, ‘Oh God, it is someone from my electorate.’ So I stood up nice and straight. I had a big smile, as I do.

Annabelle Cleeland interjected.

Sarah CONNOLLY: You will like this, member for Euroa; you will like this one. I stood up nice and straight and said, ‘Why, hello there.’ And she came up and she said, ‘Oh, it’s you. Oh my God, it’s you. Are you the new Leader of the Opposition?’ I did not know what was funnier, because I definitely do not think we Labor women look like those wonderful Liberal women on the other side of the chamber. I started laughing. I did not quite know how to respond to her, because there is always a bit of embarrassment when someone does that ‘Oh my God, are you?’, and she was genuinely really excited. I did not know if I felt happy that she had pinged me as another millennial – because yes, people, I am a millennial. I think the last year – my daughter says my year should not be included, 1981. I know the member for Kew is good with her number crunch and we know she is 35, so she can crunch to see how old I will be on 29 December this year, and it ain’t 35, I can tell you that.

But I found it quite funny because there are stark differences that everyone here in this place needs to know, and I am telling this one for my community today. The difference between the member for Kew and the member for Laverton – even though some people might think all blondes look alike – is we certainly do not think or look alike. One of the huge differences between the member for Kew and the performance she has just put on here in this place for the last 15 minutes and the member for Laverton is that although the member for Laverton was not born and bred in Victoria in Melbourne she loves her state. She is proud to call Melbourne home.

I moved here with my family, my children, knowing we would have a better life, a better education and better job opportunities, and that is exactly what we get here in this place. The member for Kew – what was it she referenced? ABV – anywhere but Victoria. Well, I would say to the member for Kew that Sydney in New South Wales is about 8 hours north. You can start driving this afternoon and hightail it out of this state. You have only talked down this great state of Victoria, the state that hundreds of thousands of people come to each and every single year. We see them at our citizenship ceremonies. They are proud to come here. They are proud to raise their families here. They love their streets. They love their neighbourhoods. They love their communities. This is a wonderful state. This is an amazing city. Whether you are living in regional Victoria or you are living in the inner burbs, Victoria, Melbourne, is a great place to call home. That is one difference.

Another difference is around cost-of-living support. I noticed that in this matter of public importance – and I laughed so much because I just thought ‘Oh, my gosh, I might have expected a little bit more from a young millennial to come up with a better MPI, to stand here and try and make a speech, I am guessing, to the people sitting beside her that she deserves to be here in 12 months time as leader of this state – she talks about the cost of living and, with a straight face, stands there and talks about how Labor needs to do more; Labor is not doing anything for the cost of living. Well, I have two corflutes and I have just done a reel on this. I will release it because I guarantee it will be funny. I have two corflutes in my office right now, true story, that I take out to train stations, I take out to street stalls – anywhere I go. I have to say folks absolutely love this, and this is a true cost-of-living support, not just for folks in Melbourne’s west but right across Victoria, and that is free public transport that starts – I was going to say on 1 January, but let us face it, folks, we are into December – in a couple of weeks. From 1 January there will be free public transport for kids under the age of 18.

Everyone here in this place who has kids that travel – whether it is by train, by bus or by tram to school, to hang out with their friends, to go to the shopping centre or go to the sporting clubs – knows the cost of public transport, particularly as parents and what we are topping up on kids Myki cards. This free public transport for kids under the age of 18 started in my patch. Can you believe Westjustice started a program of free public transport for particularly vulnerable children in Melbourne’s west? And do you know what? It was a huge success, because these kids were not tapping on and tapping off. They did not have any money, and they were getting into trouble with the law. This was a great way in which to enable kids under the age of 18 to get somewhere and go somewhere and do something they wanted to do and not have to pay for public transport. It is something we thought was a great idea, and we have gone ahead and rolled it out for all kids under the age of 18.

Now, for the member for Kew – because she is a number-cruncher, as she likes to talk about – that saves parents up to $755 a year. Most parents would know that most of us end up having more than one child. Well, you can double that and do the maths – if not triple it. In my community – and this is what really irks me about the member for Kew – folks do not just have one kid or two or three. I have met women in my community who have 11 and 12 children. These women get together, their children make up entire soccer teams and soccer clubs that they cannot afford to pay for, which is why things like the Get Active Kids sporting grants make such a huge difference for getting kids active and able to get them into the clubs that they need to get into, just to be like any normal kid. It should not matter how much you have in your bank account whether you deserve to play community sport.

That is another excellent cost-of-living measure that we have implemented, because we know not everyone can afford for one child to play sport, let alone 11 and 12 children. There are people represented by members on this side of the house – I am sure they exist in the electorates of those opposite – that have huge families and struggle to get them involved in sport. They cannot afford to pay for public transport – $755 a year. That is real cost-of-living relief.

I have two corflutes in my office. The one for seniors is about free public transport on weekends. I do not know what the member for Kew does, but I go and visit and talk to my seniors because I am also processing their $100 power saving bonuses. I have been working hard and working it hard inside my retirement villages and at the multicultural senior groups, which run from Monday to Friday – we are a very big multicultural community – processing their $100 power saving bonuses. And you know what, they absolutely love it. They cannot believe that we are going to give them 100 bucks to help with their electricity bills. This is another thing that we announced and have rolled out to help folks with the cost of living. We know things are a bit tough, which is why it is so important for governments to get in there and help.

Another incredible program that we have rolled out I have not had much to do with. I was at a school, Ardeer South Primary School, a couple of weeks ago. They have a great principal there, Andrea Markham, and she wanted me there to hand over the glasses for the Glasses for Kids initiative that we have rolled out. In Ardeer South there are a lot of families at that school who are probably not like the families in Kew. A lot of them are doing it incredibly tough – incredibly vulnerable migrant and refugee families – and what the school has picked up is that a lot of the kids cannot see the blackboard. They are struggling to learn and struggling to read and write in those essential years that help kids get through primary school. They are struggling with reading, writing, numeracy and just being able to see the blackboard. These kids were absolutely amazed and stoked to get their glasses, and they were beautiful glasses – I know that as someone who has worn glasses since I was 12 years old. They are gorgeous. I have never seen kids so proud. It was a small moment, but it was a big moment for me to think about how proud I was to be part of a government that truly believed in helping families with the cost of living. No child should go without a pair of glasses, without having their teeth checked, without being able to enrol in sport or to afford public transport because their parents do not have the money in their back pocket. That is why Labor governments matter, and that is why Melbourne’s west continue to support Labor, because we have the backs of those people. We have their backs.

What does the member for Kew, the Leader of the Opposition, think the opening of the Metro Tunnel was? Seventy thousand people rode those trains across Sunday – it was absolutely amazing. The Premier has talked about it here, and I think it is really important to highlight it. It is not just a generational, transformational project in the way in which I see it, enabling more services to be put on the rail networks, particularly in the western suburbs, and access parts of the city that were a bit tricky. Or if you are like me and you do not like to jump on a tram, now you just stay on your train and pop up and you are at five amazing stations with better access in and around our city. That project is about fairness and equality when it comes to transport here in this state. It is not just for the here and now, it is for the generations to come – generations of kids that are not even born yet.

That is what Labor governments do. That is why Labor is always on the side of all Victorians. That is a stark difference to the Leader of the Opposition and the speech that she has made before this place. The audacity to stand here and talk about cost-of-living relief and this and that when this is a person who sat on Sky News – I do not watch Sky News – I saw footage of the member for Kew talking about making cuts to schools. Who in their right mind that wants to be leader in this state sits there being interviewed and talks about cuts to schools? Unbelievable.

That says to me one of the differences between the member for Kew and the member for Laverton is that the member for Kew does not leave Kew very much. It is so important to get around this state and talk to people and find out where people are at. The member for Kew talks about all of these things but seems to have no real-life experience. It is not about age, it is about getting out and talking to people, getting out and seeing where they are at –

A member interjected.

Sarah CONNOLLY: Seeing that, no, they cannot afford public transport, which is why we have introduced free public transport. In fact for folks now it is free public transport on weekends, and we have just announced free public transport on weekends for disability support pensioners and carers. We have added them in because they are another cohort that are doing it really tough, and we need to be able to reach out and give people a lift when they need it most. That is a stark difference between Labor ethos and Liberal ethos. It is in their blood to cut, and it looks like the first place they are cutting is our schools. Well, that is the message that is going out to Melbourne’s west, and I have to say as a representative in one of the largest, fastest growth corridors in this country, in this state, that message goes down like a house on fire. And it is a message that I will keep repeating until the day of the election, because that is actually what is at stake here.

Labor does not just stand for upgrading, rebuilding, making sure facilities are first class, world class and kids are getting an excellent education, because education, we know, is where opportunity can come from and change lives, but it is also about building new schools. I think we have just celebrated building the 100th school here in this state over the past 11 years. That is extraordinary. That is the difference between the member for Kew talking about making cuts to schools and us on this side talking about building schools, upgrading schools, adding to them, making sure kids have got what they need to get a first-class education to access those opportunities that we know change lives. That is one of the key differences with the new Leader of the Opposition. That is why it might be a new Leader of the Opposition sitting in that chair, but it is same, same Liberal Party politics and policies. That is exactly what this MPI is; it is another false narrative, a negative narrative to try and sell to the Victorian public. As I started off, member for Kew, it is 8 hours drive to Sydney, and I hear the weather this time of year is pretty good. I am sure you have plenty of friends over there in Vaucluse and places like that equivalent to Kew. This is a ridiculous MPI, and I absolutely, wholeheartedly reject it.

 Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (16:38): Well, what a contribution. I mean, ‘It’s a ridiculous MPI,’ but how many times did the member for Laverton say, ‘Well, we know things are a bit tough’? She said it on energy. She said it on cost of living. We know it on crime, we know it on the affordability of housing, we know it on health care – all of the issues that the member for Kew has laid out here – and the member for Laverton has not given any inkling that the government has got solutions on any of those issues.

Indeed the reality is it is not about the government finding solutions, it is about the government causing the problems in the first place. That is why we have brought this matter of public importance to the Parliament today, because these things are bad in Victoria, not because we are talking them down, as the government likes to say, but because that is the reality facing Victorians every single day. It is on these things – it is on the cost of living for Victorians; it is on the crime crisis that is out of control and making us feel unsafe in our communities, not just in metro areas but in our regional areas. All of my national colleagues will know as well that crime across regional Victoria is a big issue. The issue is getting access to health care – 60,000 people on surgery waiting lists; the inability to actually get access to an ambulance when you need one – the member for Narracan can tell us a horrific story from the lady in Drouin there who was on the front page of the paper a couple of weeks ago, in an absolutely disgraceful situation; and the issue of enabling Victorians to afford their own home. It is on this one that I will pick up again the comment from the member for Laverton about the ethos and the difference in the ethos between Labor and Liberal.

There are people out there who like to talk about the duopoly in politics, that Labor and Liberal are the same thing. It is on this issue that there is a very, very distinct difference between those in the government and the Liberals and Nationals on this side, because we happen to understand that when you add taxes to a particular product, you increase the price of that product.

Jade Benham interjected.

Danny O’BRIEN: You do – unless of course it happens to be an agricultural product, where we are price takers and we just cop it. That is one difference perhaps. But it is astounding that today we have had the member for Tarneit –

Members interjecting.

Danny O’BRIEN: The member for Tarneit’s own government has put another $11,000 tax on property, just today. And where are you? What were you out there saying? Here is an opportunity for the member for Tarneit, for the member for Mordialloc and for the member for Laverton to say, ‘I stand on the side of first home buyers. I stand on the side of people who are looking for a property, to put a roof over their head, and I am going to oppose this government’s legislation and this government’s taxes.’

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Tarneit is warned.

Danny O’BRIEN: There are 60 new or increased taxes – I think we are actually up to about 64 as of today, but it is hard to keep track because they come in so frequently – and half of them are on property. These economic illiterates over there then go, ‘Jeez, rental prices have gone through the roof. Oh, no-one wants to build a house.’ They set a target under the previous Premier of 800,000 homes over 10 years, and now they are surprised that they cannot meet 80,000 per year because people do not want to build houses. Why? Because of the taxes. Because this government has got 43 per cent of the cost of a new house and land package in government taxes. And now we had the Premier come out today and say, ‘We think there should be a contribution’.

In fact the Premier’s commentary in question time was quite astounding, because there was some new terminology there. When we asked about the new $11,000 tax on investments, she said it is important to invest. That is a new one for me; I did not realise that a new tax is actually an investment. She also said –and this just astounded me –that this new $11,000 tax benefits developers. Wow, it benefits developers. I am sure that those on our side who have been talking to the Urban Development Institute of Australia today and the Property Council of Australia have just left aside the bit where they go, ‘Awesome. This new $11,000 tax on apartments is going to be great for our businesses. We’re going to go out and build heaps more new apartments because of this new tax.’ I do not think that is what they said. In fact I know they did not. Literally after the Premier said this would benefit developers, we asked her a question about the impact on supply and how the UDIA and the property council have said this will dry up supply, and suddenly the Premier is saying, ‘Oh, developers are horrible, terrible people, and it’s not a surprise that you would support them.’ She had just said that this tax would benefit them. What an unbelievable commentary from this government. It is absolutely a farce.

To have this government talking about easing cost-of-living pressures when there are 60 new or increased taxes is ridiculous. One of those is the most egregious tax we have seen in recent years, the new emergency services tax, a tax that is a complete sham on the part of this government, which is trying to argue that this is to support our emergency services. At the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearings last week – thanks to the questions by the member for Mildura – we saw a demonstration that this government has cut the CFA budget this year by $7 million. The SES annual report – and I see those shaking their heads, and we know that the message has gone out, not just across the cabinet, not just across the backbench. We even had the Secretary of the Department of Treasury and Finance last week trying to say that those figures they put in the gazette about the budgets for SES, Fire Rescue Victoria, CFA et cetera, even though that was an official Government Gazette, are not their budgets. That is not their budgets, because that would indicate a cut, wouldn’t it, and we don’t want to accept that. But we saw literally the evidence given to PAEC last week, and the minister’s brief that she signed off this year shows a $7 million cut to the CFA this year and a $10 million cut to the SES.

Steve Dimopoulos interjected.

Danny O’BRIEN: The minister at the table should not talk too much, because Forest Fire Management Victoria is under the pump as well. Here we have got this government, supposedly supporting our emergency services and charging Victorians an extra $3 billion.

Jade Benham: How much?

Danny O’BRIEN: An extra $3 billion. We have got a 100 per cent increase in the rate of the emergency services levy on every single household in the state, on every single business in the state. Commercial property is 100 per cent too, and every industrial business a 64 per cent increase. And we were supposed to be thankful when they reduced the primary production rate from 189 per cent to just 151 per cent.

Then they said, ‘Oh, actually, this is a bit of a problem for us politically. We’re going to have to put this off. We’re just going to make it go quiet for a year.’ I do not think the geniuses over there realised that would put it off until just a few months before an election. We look forward to seeing what the government is going to do: are they going to give another year’s grace to farmers? I know regional Victoria will not buy that, because they all know: ‘Okay, so what, we vote for you and then in 12 months time we get the 150 per cent increase?’ Well, that is the reality under this government, because they are addicted to taxes, and it is regional Victorians in particular that are copping it.

I talked about community safety. We have seen under this government – 10 years now of this government – a 16 per cent increase in crime over those 10 years of data. There has been a 35 per cent increase in crime every year on average since this government came to office, 35 per cent every year, and in that time a 218 per cent increase in aggravated burglaries and a 96 per cent increase in motor vehicle theft. This government has failed abysmally on crime, and it is Victorians who are paying the price.

Talking about paying the price: I have talked about some of the taxes, but one of the biggest failures of this government, and it impacts on every Victorian every single day, is in the energy policy. We saw just under a month ago the article in the Age, again coming out of the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action annual report – and I look forward to the next Labor speaker saying, ‘Well, you’ve got it wrong. It’s not accurate.’ It is actually in their annual report and highlighted that last year the government expected a wholesale price range for electricity between $17 and $155 –

Jade Benham interjected.

Danny O’BRIEN: It is a very wide gap, member for Mildura. This year they are expecting a range between $44 and $257. That is a massive increase in the wholesale price. We hear often from the minister: ‘Oh, we’ve got the lowest wholesale prices, in Victoria, in the country.’ No-one really cares if the price keeps going up. We do not compare ourselves to New South Wales and go, ‘Well, we only had an 87 per cent increase this year – better than the 89 per cent increase that New South Wales had.’ The point is this government cannot manage money, it cannot manage energy prices, it cannot manage taxes, and it is Victorians who are paying the price, and it continues to be a disaster of this government’s own making. So when the member for Laverton says it is a bit rich for us to be talking about cost of living, this is the government that has hurt every single Victorian on cost of living, on crime, on health care and on housing. In 12 months we have a choice between this government or a government that will truly govern for all the state.

 Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (16:48): It is great to get up and rise on the matter of public importance moved by the Leader of the Opposition the member for Kew. I just feel a bit flat today. I feel like I have been cheated. I thought there would be a grand presentation here. We had the disruption to question time, so I thought we had a bit of time to think about what presentation we might get here. I was just looking for a pulse from those opposite during the MPI and the presentation from the member for Kew, because when you roll your leader you hope that it is going to be a grand display, and it looks like this matter of public importance has as much detail in it as the brochure that was stood up in that press conference that was put forward. We have seen Scott Morrison hold a brochure. Tony Abbott held a ‘cuts’ brochure. The Leader of the Opposition Sussan Ley – cuts brochure. Then we saw the member for Kew run out with a picture book that showed no detail whatsoever and less plans than former Leader of the Opposition the member for Berwick had. Then we see today the Freshwater poll come out, where the overwhelming issue the majority of Victorians are focused on at the moment is crime and the actions that have been taken by this government that are supported by 83 per cent of Victorians. So I ask those opposite: was it worth it? Was it worth it when the member for Berwick had the momentum up? I give him a shout-out, because I know he will be in the office looking there, along with the member for Polwarth, who have been some of the biggest losers out of this one. It has been a bit nasty, and I reflect on that, and I think of how the member for Polwarth and member for Berwick came up with that grand plan: they laid it all out, they got the issue to the top of the pops, and then they have changed their leader to then the fifth order line.

And I thought then, ‘Okay. Well, if the Freshwater poll’ – remember Freshwater? You might not remember, but they did polling for the Liberals – remember that? The member for Kew threw a little bit of shade on them the other week. I do not know if people remember that, but there was a little bit of shade – not shade today, because they were even pegging. But right here we do not have an MPI that mentions debt, so who is doing tactics on that side, Deputy Speaker? I know you are a follower of politics, I know you look at this stuff carefully and you go ‘What on earth?’ And this is a message to those over the other side of Spring Street: when you are doing your tactics and you roll your leader based on crime and then you say that you are going to be on debt for the next six months, at least put it in your MPI.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I remind the member that ‘you’ is the Chair.

Tim RICHARDSON: Oh, yes – there we go. I am sorry about that, Deputy Speaker. Isn’t it an extraordinary thing that the tactical geniuses on the other side of Spring Street, that have come up with a tactical deployment here to focus on debt for the next 12 months, cannot even put it into this MPI, which has got about 35 words. So ‘Knock, knock – are you in there, tactics in opposition land?’ They rolled their leader when crime was the top issue, from the chap who keeps getting a spot on Tom Elliott over and over and over. We had the slowest, most second-gear performance from today, narrating a problem and never having a solution – because that is what the Business Council of Australia used to do. Remember that? I will give you a fun fact, because you know I like stats. How many times did the member for Kew mention ‘businesses’ in her first speech? Seven times. It is a lucky number for some. How many times did the member for Kew mention the word ‘workers’?

A member: How many?

Tim RICHARDSON: Come on, Narracan. Zero times. Whenever there is a chance to be on the side of big business, the member for Kew is right there as a cheerleader. When the workers of Victoria need a government most, they turn to a Labor government. The member for Kew today narrated a problem but never a solution, and that has been consistent. It was the member for Kew’s absolute mentor, the guiding force you might remember, Josh Frydenberg, the Treasurer, who was the Treasurer for New South Wales because he could not stand Victoria. We just heard a routine today that was out of the playbook of the former federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. And let us remember that wonderful leader Josh Frydenberg. You might remember, Deputy Speaker, again because you are an astute follower of politics here, that Independent Australia had an article – reflecting positively of course – that under the Abbott–Turnbull–Morrison governments from 2013 to 2022 government debt jumped by $895 billion, a staggering increase of $638 billion in just nine years, with surging government spending and huge debt during that time. What does that tell you? When Josh Frydenberg was the Treasurer, when the member for Kew was cheerleading the business council on, it was a spendathon – remember that? It was going full pelt. When Josh Frydenberg said debt was the cost of saving lives, where was the member for Kew? I am not talking about the former one – that member for Kew was over in the UK. The member for Kew did not say a word, because it is only bad news when it is not Liberal debt. When it is Labor, they go to town. Remember under the hero Josh Frydenberg, the member for Kew’s idol, staggering increases of debt like we have never seen before. Treasurer Jim Chalmers has absolutely slashed the deficit. It is inconvenient news, but I would love to be in the press pack to ask those questions – ‘What did you think of Josh Frydenberg just ratcheting up the debt?’ The lauding over Josh in her first speech was just something else.

Seven times we had businesses mentioned in the first speech. You might want to know this one – this is a hidden gem, this one. I do not know if you see Sky News at all. You might just glance, maybe at an airport lounge just going through, and you will see Sky News. Steve Price has a presentation on there. Steve Price had an interview with the member for Kew back in August of 2024 when she was the shadow finance minister. Remember, the member for Kew has such low confidence in any of her shadow cabinet that she is doing both jobs. You cannot blame anyone else for this statement, because she has basically taken the shadow treasury portfolio. What did the member for Kew say to Steve Price in that interview?

Oh, it is a shocker, and I will tell you this one is going to be clipped. There are 52 weeks to go, or 51 and maybe a bit of change. This one is clipped for the record books, and I quote:

That means we are going to have to make cuts when it comes to our health services. Schools aren’t going to be built or even fixed.

That was the shadow minister right then and those opposite on the hook. What was the context? They were talking about where our debt profile was. That is right. The context is important. The member for Kew says ‘we’ – well, the ‘we’ ain’t the Labor Party, legends.

A member: ‘We’ is Victoria, mate. We are all paying for it.

Tim RICHARDSON: Those opposite might want to speak on behalf of Victorians and say it is Victorians. Well, guess what? Victorians do not support the Liberal–Nationals plan to slash and burn jobs and schools and education services and health services in our state. Remember that. It means that ‘we’ – and for those playing opposite, ‘we’ means the Liberal–Nationals – are going to make cuts to our health services, and schools are not going to be built or even fixed. Steve Price then goes staggering. I think even he was shocked that the shadow finance minister, the new hope for them over there, the line in the sand, the moment for everything when they were polling well – remember they went 43, member for Hawthorn gone, member for Berwick gone, and now we are down and wondering where on earth those opposite are –

Danny O’Brien: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, whilst this is a very wideranging debate, the speaker on his feet is nowhere near the matter of public importance.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I think the MPI is rather broad, and rebuttal is part of the debate. I ask the member to continue on the MPI.

Tim RICHARDSON: When those opposite say – when the member for Kew and the Leader of the Opposition says – that their plan will be to make cuts to health services and schools will not be built or fixed, you go to the heart and soul of that first speech. That first speech unravels everything that we know about the member for Kew and her values. In her first speech she said:

It is business that creates jobs, not government.

Well, guess what? The Victorian government is one of the biggest employers in our state. The Victorian government funds nurses, it funds teachers, it funds kindergarten teachers, it funds child protection workers, it funds police officers, it funds our firies, it funds our paramedics – it funds all of those services that are critical to the functioning of our state. When those opposite come into this place and undertake their first speech, it is the one moment in time when you see a window through to the soul of the individual and their true motivations and values. I will repeat that:

It is business that creates jobs, not government.

That means teachers, nurses, firies, police, paramedics – they are expendable when those opposite do not believe that their job is valued in our economy and our sector. ‘Government does not create jobs’ means those people are not valued and they are not worth it. That is the playbook of the Liberal-Nationals right now: an $11.1 billion reduction in revenue that will see devastating outcomes to our state. That is the Liberal–Nationals playbook. That is the member for Kew.

 Sam GROTH (Nepean) (16:58): I rise to support the Leader of the Opposition in her matter of public importance (MPI), one that is very important to every Victorian: the need for a fresh start for our state. This state stands at a crossroads. We have had more than a decade of Labor mismanagement – of waste, spiralling debt, collapsing service delivery – and Victorians are rightly asking a simple but powerful question: when did it get this hard just to live in Victoria? This is not an abstract debate about numbers on a page. It is about families wondering which bill they will not be able to pay this month. It is about small businesses wondering how much longer they can keep the doors open. It is about communities wondering whether help will come when they actually ring Triple Zero.

The Liberals and Nationals have a plan for a fresh start with clear priorities and a positive vision for this state’s future. It is to ease the cost of living, keep Victorians safe, strengthen our health care system and enable home ownership once again. This MPI goes to the heart of Victoria’s future and why Victorians deserve so much better than what they have endured under this tired, broken Labor government. Victoria was once the engine room of this nation – not a net GST taker but actually contributing to the national economy – but under Labor we are now a cautionary tale. We have the highest unemployment rate in Australia, we have got the highest debt, we have got the worst credit rating and we have got the most hostile business environment in the country. Our household incomes are now 10 per cent below the national average, and that is not just a statistic, it is a direct measure of a government that has taken a prosperous state and driven it backwards.

Since 2014 the Labor government has introduced or increased more than 60 taxes and charges, and it is every Victorian who pays for that – they pay for it at the supermarket, at the bowser, on the tradie invoice, in their rental cheque or in their mortgage repayment.

This government’s net debt continues to grow by around $2 million every single hour and is projected to reach $194 billion by mid 2029. Every hour of new debt is the equivalent cost of 22 police officers, 19 nurses or 24 teachers employed for a year. Over the same period interest repayments will exceed $1 million every hour – that is more than $36 billion over the next four years. That is $29 million every single day that does not go to funding a single extra nurse, teacher, police officer. And you cannot just blame COVID, bad luck, global turbulence – it is a direct result of a government addicted to taxes, addicted to borrowing and addicted to spending without accountability, and it is Victorians that are paying the price.

[NAME AND QUOTE AWAITING VERIFICATION]

Across the state, families tell us the same story: we are going backwards. Anna Salsano, who runs a small deli, put it simply:

It is getting harder to do business every passing year and it feels like the government just isn’t on our side.

Victorians know exactly what she means: electricity bills, up; insurance, up; registration, up; groceries, up; rates, up; and under Labor, taxes up again and again and again. We are the highest taxed state in the nation, more than any state or territory. Nearly half of that comes –

Pauline Richards: On a point of order, Speaker, I am just checking whether the speaker on their feet is reading their speech or referring to notes.

The SPEAKER: The member is referring to notes.

Sam GROTH: Half of their tax income comes from property – stamp duty, land tax. We have seen COVID debt repayments mean that mum-and-dad investors are paying land tax for the first time because of the reduction in the land tax threshold from $300,000 to $50,000. They have doubled the absentee owner surcharge. They have introduced an extra tax on our emergency services. They have introduced an Australian-first 7.5 per cent tax on short-stay accommodations, with families hit just for taking a holiday in the regions – families who cannot afford, because of this government, to pay that extra money just to take their kids to stay in short-stay accommodation. Labor’s answer to every problem is the same: invent a new tax or hike an old one. But we have made a different commitment.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! Leader of the House!

Sam GROTH: We have committed to our lower taxes guarantee. We will reduce the taxes, fees and charges that hurt Victorian families the most. The Leader of the House asked what are we going to do, cut taxes? Yes, we will cut taxes, because Victorians are doing it tough under the Labor government.

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Nepean, through the Chair, and I would ask you to cease hitting the table.

Sam GROTH: We will not introduce new taxes or increase existing ones, like the Labor government. We will stop the endless cycle of taxing Victorians to cover their own incompetence. We also guarantee that frontline services will never be cut to pay for irresponsible budgeting. Labor says relief is impossible. We say it is essential because Victorian working families cannot withstand another four years of the economic vandalism of those on the other side of the chamber.

Nowhere has this government’s failure been more destructive than in community safety. Back in 2023 it was this government that weakened bail laws, which has seen a 20-year high in crime rates across this state, with a crime committed every 50 seconds. There is a theft from a retail store every 13 minutes, a serious assault every 29 minutes and nine carjackings every single week. With the Crime Statistics Agency showing more than 627,000 criminal offences in a single year, up by more than 17 per cent, the situation continues to get worse in Victoria under the Allan Labor government. They have closed or reduced hours on 43 police stations. They have got nearly 2000 police vacancies. How can anyone seriously claim this government is keeping Victorians safe? We will fix this though, with ‘break bail, face jail’. We will back police with bail and sentencing laws that actually protect the community. We will open police stations that the Labor government has closed, and we will introduce Jack’s law so police have the power to scan for dangerous knives not just in designated areas for short periods of time, but in shopping centres, in train stations and in public places.

But perhaps there is no bigger human cost of Labor’s mismanagement than what they have done to our health system – a decade of underinvestment and neglect, more than 60,000 Victorians stuck on elective surgery waitlists and more than one in two patients presenting with mental health concerns waiting over 8 hours in emergency departments. Ambulance Victoria’s own report shows code 1 emergencies, the most urgent life-threatening conditions, are only being reached in the 15-minute time zone 65 per cent of the time, well short of the target – something the minister at the table, the Minister for Health, has dramatically failed at in her time as the minister. We have read heartbreaking accounts, most recently out in the member for Narracan’s electorate. Meanwhile major hospitals like the Austin, the Alfred and the Royal Melbourne and hospitals in my community, like Rosebud, continue to go unfunded while the life-and-death situations of people in the community are left neglected because this government continues to pour money into spin and vanity projects like the Suburban Rail Loop.

This government needs a clear commitment when it comes, and that is what we will do on this side of the house. We will restore ambulance response capacity, we will cut wait times in emergency services, we will reduce waitlists, we will strengthen mental health support and we will recruit the next generation of frontline workers. But we will also restore the dream of home ownership. It is slipping away for thousands of young Victorians, not because Victorians lack aspiration but because Labor has erected barrier after barrier. You cannot trust the government, who have created a problem for 11 years, to be the ones to fix it. It is like starting a bushfire and putting it out with a garden hose. This government has no plan. They may have shiny brochures and glossies, but at the eleventh hour, in the 11th year of a government, they are trying to introduce legislation that takes rights away from local communities, that adds more than $11,000 onto the house price and that makes homes less affordable.

Well, a Liberal and Nationals government will turn this around. We will reduce the tax burden on home ownership and we will work in partnership with councils, not take away their rights. Victorians deserve a choice, and in 12 months time they will have that choice. They can choose a tired, out-of-touch Labor government with higher tax and higher debt, or they can choose a Liberals and Nationals government that backs police, that backs community safety, that ensures ambulances arrive, that keeps hospitals open and functioning, that gives young Victorians a chance at owning a home and that sees the taxpayers as partners, not just revenue streams. It is a fresh start that the Liberals and Nationals are offering.

 Lauren KATHAGE (Yan Yean) (17:08): Christmas is upon us. One of the reasons I know that Christmas is upon us is because we have started to see the advertising and the merchandise at McDonald’s for the Grinch. I could not help but think that those opposite are like the Grinch of Victorian politics, trying to take away the things that families rely on. We read in the Grinch about having a heart that is two sizes too small, and looking at this I felt like it was a very apt metaphor. Something we see in the story of the Grinch is that the Grinch disguises himself as Santa. He puts on something to disguise his true nature, the Santa costume, so that he can quietly sneak into the village.

Cindy McLeish interjected.

The SPEAKER: The member for Eildon can leave the chamber for half an hour.

Member for Eildon withdrew from chamber.

Lauren KATHAGE: Just look at this MPI: health, housing, cost of living. Who are they disguising themselves as? As us. They are putting on the cloak and sneaking in. Even the Grinch’s little dog Max is disguised as a reindeer. I am not going to go into thoughts about that metaphor. The Grinch, just like the opposition, lives up on a mountain while lecturing those far away in the valley down below, removed from real life, watching from afar.

It reminded me that up there on the pointy end of the mountain where not many people can fit, we hear the leader of the Liberals saying, ‘You down there in the outer suburbs, do not think you can live here. Do not think you can come and live here. Do not think you can join us here in the upper echelons.’ Those opposite block housing in their own area. They block our policies to get people into homes. From up above they have the temerity to lecture those down below, and they believe they can decide who comes to their suburbs – their mountain. While places like Wyndham, Wallan and Donnybrook have shouldered enormous population growth, the area of Boroondara has gone backwards with thousands of under-65s leaving because it is too expensive for working families. Our efforts to get more housing available into those areas is blocked by those opposite – and personally by the member for Kew, the leader of the Liberals. Their message to millennials is simple: you cannot live here. You cannot live in Kew. You cannot live in Brighton. They want us to build on the edges of town again. We saw how that went under the former Minister for Planning, who I am so glad is here in the chamber because I know he loves when I speak about this.

Matthew Guy interjected.

The SPEAKER: Member for Bulleen!

Lauren KATHAGE: In this chamber previously he has declared himself the ‘king of housing’ because he turned farmland into housing estates. He got rid of green wedges and he increased populations. That increase –

Matthew Guy interjected.

The SPEAKER: Member for Bulleen, this is your last warning. You can leave the chamber for half an hour.

Lauren KATHAGE: That increase in housing, the king of housing –

Matthew Guy interjected.

The SPEAKER: Make it an hour.

Matthew Guy interjected.

The SPEAKER: Actually, I will be seeking an apology from the member for Bulleen.

Member for Bulleen withdrew from chamber.

Lauren KATHAGE: That is not the only thing he should apologise for. His lack of investment in infrastructure in those areas he turned into housing is a shame. They do not want us in their areas. They say to us in the outer suburbs, ‘This is how it is,’ and we hear it today – we are hearing it today. They do not want developers to pay for infrastructure in the areas of new housing. We can see whose side they are on. They are not on the side of people living in new areas moving into housing or apartments. They are not on our side; they are on the side of developers. They want people to make money. That is shameful. We heard from the member for Nepean that they will work with councils, not against councils. Just this week I was at one of my local schools who had large parts of surplus land, and they were having frustrations with council and others. Through our development facilitation program (DFP), they suddenly had all the doors open to them, and now they are able to turn that land near the ambulance station. We built the police station, we extended the train line and we built the schools. In that fantastic area of Mernda, there will be some more housing. That is the way that you do it – by supporting and not by blocking.

If you remember the story of the Grinch, you will recall that he just hated seeing people happy. He stole what he thought mattered most to the community, and he took from what the community needed. We see that in the area of health. What our community needs is the number one thing that is on the cutting block. We know that when they were in government, they cut $1 billion from health. I know the member for Euroa has nobly campaigned previously around RSV vaccinations for children. She might be surprised to learn that the member for Rowville, when he was Treasurer, cut the whooping cough vaccination program, which saw notifications rise by 57.7 per cent in 2013–14 from 2926 to 4615 notifications.

For those of us who know what it is like to have a sick child, that is truly, truly shameful. But how do things look on this side of the chamber? Well, just the other week we had the minister out in Mernda opening the Mernda Community Hospital, which is going to be providing fantastic services to our local community, nice and convenient, with dialysis, with urgent care when it is needed most, and something that I know my community is looking forward to is the additional support for families who are seeking answers around their child’s behaviour and want to understand if there is ASD or ADHD at play. Those facilities and those experts will be there to support those families. Jeez, I am proud to be part of this government.

But the kids that I am talking about now, we know that in the story the Grinch targeted the young first. The toys were taken first, and that is what I am concerned about if those opposite were to come into government – that they would go after the kids first: the Get Active Kids vouchers on the chopping block; free PT for under-18s, not a chance; camp, schools and excursion funds, no, poor kids do not deserve camp; tripling the Glasses for Kids program like we did, snip, snip. I can see it. Smile Squad, gone. The kids will not be smiling, I can tell you that right now.

And we have got a direct quote from the leader of the Liberals:

… we’re going to have to make cuts … Schools aren’t going to be built or even fixed.

That is in stark contrast to our school investments. Even just in my patch – Whittlesea, Wandong, Wallan East, Lockerbie, Doreen – all these areas are having new schools built or being upgraded. All that is on the block when we have those opposite. Why do we know this? Because they do not offer solutions. We were asking the member for Nepean over and over again just now for solutions. They do not have solutions. They only know how to act out of spite, just as the Grinch does. The Grinch only knew how to destroy, and we heard that with their announcement of a cuts commission. They do not want cost-of-living support. They want a cuts commission. What will they have on the agenda of their first meeting? Will it be the $100 power saving bonus? Will it be the food banks and community houses who, just this week or last week, have received news of extra support they are receiving to help feed families who are doing it tough?

The Leader of the Nationals just previously spoke about electricity prices. Well, can we remind the Leader of the Nationals that under the LNP, Victorian electricity prices rose 34 per cent? Listen, I am worried mostly about free kinder, because I am worried that for families and especially for mums, they are going to lose out on the opportunities that that provides. The Grinch tried to stop celebration. Those opposite try to stop progress. The Grinch did not succeed. Those opposite will not succeed.

 Chris CREWTHER (Mornington) (17:18): I rise on this matter of public importance (MPI) submitted by the member for Kew, the Leader of the Opposition, and I want to go through it:

That this house condemns the Allan Labor government for their failure to:

(a)   ease cost of living for Victorians;

(b)   keep communities safe;

(c)   strengthen Victoria’s healthcare system; and

(d)   enable more Victorians to own their own home.

I join with the member for Kew and my colleagues in condemning the Allan Labor government for its failures across these four areas. We will have had nearly 12 years by the next election of a Labor government, we have had nearly 23 out of the last 27 years of a Labor government. We are now in a situation where debt is approaching $194 billion. That means that taxpayer-funded interest at the moment is $21 million every single day, soon to be $28 million and more in interest payments every single day. That is funding that could be spent to tackle our housing and homelessness crisis; on rebuilding schools like Mount Eliza Secondary College, which is 50 years old, and its facilities; in fixing the ambulance ramping crisis; in filling our police shortage with a gap of 2000 police who could be there proactively assisting to tackle our crime crisis.

At the same time, because of the debt levels that Labor have got us under, we have seen cuts to public education and much more, and we have also seen the highest taxes in the country – indeed 62 new or increased taxes under this Labor government. These taxes mean that people are fleeing the state and they are not investing in the state, whether it comes to small business or housing and much more. Victorians are indeed feeling the pain every single day. It is costing them more to live, more to drive and more to own a home and they are getting less in return. Victorians know that this state is headed in the wrong direction and Labor is no longer in touch with their priorities. This government’s incompetence has led to record debt, record crime, a broken healthcare system, a housing affordability nightmare, public school cuts and a cost-of-living crisis, including as I have mentioned, growing homelessness.

On homelessness, we have a situation where more than 65,000 Victorians are on the public housing waitlist, and we have more than 30,000 on the priority waitlist. In terms of people living rough as a form of homelessness, Mornington has the most out of any electorate in the whole state. Indeed I have been helping many constituents who are struggling at the moment to get into public housing, to get into crisis accommodation and more. One gent at the moment I have been helping for the last five weeks has been living rough. He was at one built-up area and was moved on in the last week. He is now living rough in a tent at the foreshore. He is finally now on the priority waiting list, but how long will he have to wait to get housing under this government? I had to put a call out myself for a tent for this gentleman because he cannot even get a tent from this government. This is a government that is not supplying the basic needs for Victorians. In that situation as well, he has been there with his dog, and he has had that dog since it was seven months old, and unfortunately that dog passed away in the last couple of days. These are the sorts of people and real-life stories that the state Labor government need to help. I note the member for Narracan here is with me. He has probably done more in his area, before he was a member of Parliament, for people facing homelessness and facing family violence issues than has this state government. This is a state government that is failing in so many different areas, and if they were managing the debt crisis properly they would actually have more to spend on tackling this housing and homelessness crisis and much more.

Victorians know this Labor government have got it wrong. They are feeling it every single day, every time they receive a bill and every time they go to the shops. Indeed if these failures were not enough, the Labor government also is refusing to work in a bipartisan spirit to fix the problems. This Labor government refused recently our opposition leader’s calls to work in a bipartisan manner to tackle the debt crisis. Even this week as well they refused and blocked the opposition’s coercive control bill – a vital reform to protect people from family violence in the form of coercive control – simply because it was not their idea. And they have a history of this – for example, on the Denyer bill, on bail laws and on machete laws. These were all bills that we brought that were blocked by Labor – which Labor ended up adopting in one form or another a number of months later – only because it was not their idea to start with. This is a government that would rather play politics than save lives.

On cost of living we have a situation where rents and housing costs are going up and up and up. One reason for that is land and property taxes, which keep on increasing under this government. More land taxes mean that these costs are being passed through in rent costs. They also mean that rental providers are leaving the market, leaving less rental stock altogether. At the same time we have situations with electricity and many other household bills going up and up and up. These are not isolated failures, they are the predictable result of policy choices under this government that have left supply constrained and markets exposed. It is reflective, again, of the debt level, which is not helping to resolve the cost-of-living crisis for Victorians. This debt level has been influenced of course by waste as well under this government. We have seen waste with the Suburban Rail Loop, which is still TBC on the budget papers, which will add to this current debt level.

We have seen major cost blowouts – for example, we have more than $50 billion of cost blowouts on major projects. We have seen the enormous waste on the Commonwealth Games, which will not be held in Victoria, and much more. The consequences of this continue for locals such as Kerry Beard, for example, who helps to operate the Local 2 Community foodbank, and she has said there have never been more people come to her foodbank, and not only extremely vulnerable people; she has also seen tradies, families and older residents frequenting the foodbank who might not have come in the past.

We need a government that will help to ease the cost of living and stimulate the economy to bring investment back and to ensure investment stays in Victoria. On keeping communities safe as well, we have a government that has led to a situation where we have a shortage of 2000 police. We have a government that weakened our bail laws and has been dragged to the table to try and restrengthen them recently. We have a government that reduced consequences for offenders and now, again, belatedly has been dragged to the table. We have a government that has put in place a situation where police stations have closed or where reception hours have been reduced at so many police stations across Victoria, including the Mornington police station, which has had its hours reduced to 16 hours instead of 24 hours across a number of different days.

We have youth crime at a record high and much more. People are afraid in their homes, a crime is being committed every 50 seconds in Victoria and offending is becoming more and more violent. Frontline police are exhausted, and they need assistance. They need assistance to increase the reception hours, to fill the shortage of 2000 police as soon as possible and to introduce things like Jack’s law to actually properly take machetes off the streets instead of spending millions of dollars on machete bins where people who are committing crimes are not likely to drop them off in the first place. We also need things like ‘break bail, face jail’. We need things like Restart. We need proper crime prevention and diversions through things like Youthstart.

Lastly, we also need to strengthen the healthcare system. I have had a local, Beverley, who wrote to me about the situation recently. She had to go out to a person who was struggling because the ambulance was not coming. The person was waiting for hours for an ambulance. She and her friends had to drive this person to the ambulance at Rosebud Hospital themselves. This person was lucky to survive, all because of this failing system under this government that is leading to ambulance ramping, 000 problems and much more. We need to invest the resources to tackle these issues.

The last point on this MPI that I want to note is that we need to enable more Victorians to own their home. We need to enable young people to invest in homes by doing things such as reducing stamp duty for first home buyers. We need to tackle the homelessness crisis and much more.

 Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (17:28): I rise of course to oppose this matter of public importance, this MPI, that has been moved by the Liberals in relation to their supposed commitment to ease the cost of living for Victorians, to keep communities safe, to strengthen Victoria’s healthcare system and supposedly to enable more Victorians to own their own home. In words that I believe are most fitting, from the iconic and flamboyant lawyer, the famous barrister on Seinfeld, Jackie Chiles, there is only one phrase to describe this motion: it is outrageous, it is egregious and it is preposterous. It reminds me of that episode, to be frank, of Seinfeld where Jackie Chiles was representing Cosmo Kramer in court because the coffee was too hot – the coffee that Kramer had been served at the local cafe was supposedly too hot and had burnt Kramer. But we know Victorians have been burnt before by the coffee that was being served by this Victorian Liberal Party when they were in government: cuts and closures, cuts and closures. The other thing that Jackie Chiles has over the Liberal Party is that he was able to settle the dispute with the coffee company. Much to his own displeasure, Kramer got free coffee around the world. This Liberal Party is still dragging itself before the courts, before the judges and the barristers. That is all they have been preoccupied with. I have said it before and I will say it again: this is an opposition about nothing. Like the show about nothing, this is the opposition about nothing.

They are focused on nothing else but themselves: their own internal legal battles, their own shadow ministerial titles, their own cuts and their own closures. Because no matter how many times the Liberals approach this chamber and this place like George Costanza saying ‘it’s not a lie if you believe it’, it is in the DNA of this Liberal Party to cut, close, block and oppose cost-of-living supports, health services, frontline services and infrastructure for all Victorians.

We have already seen the new Leader of the Opposition’s true colours come through. On the 16 August 2024 live on Sky News she made it crystal clear what a Liberal budget would mean for all Victorians:

Current spending is simply not sustainable … That means we’re going to have to make cuts when it comes to our health services. Schools aren’t going to be built or even fixed.

All the while it is this Labor government that has promised and is building 100 new schools in this state since we were elected in 2014, and 50 per cent of the new schools across this country are built here by this Labor government in Victoria.

We have seen as well, the Liberals have already been exposed for their almost $11 billion budget black hole. New analysis that was just released a couple of weeks ago lays bare the scale of the Liberal–Nationals plan for cuts, which is the equivalent of two Victoria Police budgets over two years, or shutting down seven hospitals. The Liberals have so far announced, as I said, almost $11 billion in unfunded commitments. They have said they are going to freeze government fees, make changes to stamp duty for first home buyers, repeal the Emergency Services Volunteer Fund and introduce a payroll exemption for high fee non-government schools. These are unfunded commitments, and they can only mean one thing, which is sacking ambos, sacking nurses, sacking cops and sacking teachers to pay for this budget black hole. Such an unprecedented loss of revenue from this radical, right-wing Liberal–National party would mean the equivalent of 4500 police officers losing their jobs, 9000 teachers losing their jobs, and 18,000 nurses would need to be sacked to fill this budget black hole of the Liberal Party.

But it is also in the Liberal leader’s first speech, where you can really see her philosophy of cuts and opposition to public investment and infrastructure, where it all shines through. She said in her first speech:

It is business that creates jobs, not government.

Well, I say to the Liberal opposition leader: what about all the thousands of new teachers, doctors, nurses, health workers, police officers, ambulance workers and the many others we have hired since being elected in 2014? The Victorian government, and the member for Mordialloc pointed this out, is one of the biggest employers in this state. The government certainly has a role in creating employment but also fuelling more employment through the investments through the big infrastructure build, which is employing thousands of subcontractors, apprentices and construction workers as well.

The opposition leader also said in her first speech:

It is business that invests in the new technologies to deliver for consumers and that delivers returns to shareholders …

Well, what I say to the opposition leader is: what about the biggest piece of public infrastructure and technology that we have just opened via the Metro Rail tunnel, a project that was opposed by the former Liberal state government, a project that the former federal Liberal government also opposed and refused to fund? What about those long lasting benefits of the Metro Tunnel and what it will provide for workers, commuters and businesses along the Metro corridor? What about the ongoing investments we are making along that corridor as well; the medical research sector at the Parkville MedTech precinct as well, a world leader in medical technology; or our investments, for example, in the north at La Trobe University through its health, wellbeing, sport and agriculture hub, which is creating thousands of jobs and thousands more in investment through the private sector.

She also said in her first speech:

It is business that has the capacity to unleash human potential, so in this place you will find me a champion of free enterprise.

But what about the role of our public teachers in the public classroom and their role in unleashing the potential of all students and all families? What about the role, as I said, of our health workers, our social workers, our community workers, youth workers, so many others who every day help those most in need to be supported, to aspire and to succeed?

The opposition leader’s first speech as well proudly champions herself for her previous role for the Business Council of Australia. This is the same Business Council of Australia that is vehemently opposed to our proposals to protect the rights of workers to work from home. The Business Council’s media release of 24 September states:

The Business Council is urging the Victorian Government to abandon its plan to legislate a mandatory entitlement for employees to work from home two days a week …

We wholeheartedly on this side of the house, of course, support the right for people to work from home because it is also a major cost-of-living relief measure for many. We have heard it through the statewide survey, which showed it saves people hundreds of dollars every week in commuting and other costs.

My question to the opposition leader is does she support the Business Council of Australia’s position on working from home? Will she support the right of people to work from home, or will she take the Homer Simpson approach and view to working from home?

There is another episode of The Simpsons that I draw the opposition leader’s attention to when it comes to this and when it comes to the technology that now allows people to work from home. The episode is where Homer decides to leave his nuclear power plant job to start a new computer company. Mr Burns sends out an email to the nuclear power plant workers saying the plant will be closed for the day for repairs. Homer’s mates Lenny and Carl and everyone at the power plant receive the email, but not Homer because he never owned a computer. He goes out and buys his first computer and enthusiastically comes home, plugs it in and declares to his wife Marge, ‘Did you know they have the internet on computers now?’ It is a revelation to him.

My message to the opposition leader is there is the internet on computers now. There are also things called Teams, Zoom, Messenger, FaceTime and much more that people can use to work from home that have been developed since the Liberals were last in office, from 2010 to 2014. But they would not really know this because the last time they won an election and formed government in this state was in 2010 when the biggest selling phone and the most popular technology at the time was a device known as a Nokia 2080 analogue phone. You could text, you could play Snake. It even had a phone book in there, but it was a world away from where the technology is today, when people can work from home.

The number one song in 2010, when they last won an election – I had to look this up on the ARIA charts – was Love the Way You Lie by Rihanna and Eminem. Do you remember that song? I think it is very fitting to remember that was the same time the Liberals were last elected to government in this state. I will quote some of the lyrics that just sort of come to mind here:

Now, I know we said things, did things that we didn’t mean

And we fall back into the same patterns, same routine

It is the same Liberal Party, whether in 2010 or today. If they get in – God forbid they do – they will cut and they will close and it will be everyday Victorians that will suffer. Because the reality is that at every step, at every turn, at every opportunity the Liberal leader has always and will always fall back into those same patterns and fight against workers, fight against families and fight against public investment in public assets and cost-of-living supports.

We know the irony of this MPI this week, because it is the same week that the Leader of the Opposition came out with her first major announcement as opposition leader, calling for a new frontline cut squad. They wanted us as a Labor government to partner with them and get on board to make their cuts ideology appear less extreme. We of course refused. We will not be part of cutting schools, cutting TAFE, cutting hospitals and cutting Free Fruit Friday. When they were last in government they cut Free Fruit Friday at local schools. That is absolutely outrageous. We will not sit with former Liberal treasurers in the member for Malvern, the member for Rowville and others – Stockdale – to make further cuts.

I have so much more to say, but essentially we on this side of the house are the only ones delivering for cost-of-living relief, for housing. We have not even got to housing, but this is the party that is here to deliver new housing for the new generation. I oppose the MPI.

 Emma KEALY (Lowan) (17:38): I rise today in strong support of the member for Kew’s matter of public importance. This is a matter of public importance that has been raised by the people of Victoria – Victorians who are sick of a tired Allan Labor government, a government that has been in for far too long. From right across the state, from border to border, we are hearing from Victorians that they are sick of paying the price for a city-centric government that has forgotten that Victorians want reward for effort.

Victorians want to go back to that point in time where if they worked hard they were rewarded handsomely. They were rewarded by making sure they had more money in their pocket at the end of the day. They could make decisions about helping their children. It might be about sending them to art lessons or music lessons. It might be being able to pay for tutors so they could do better in school. It might be about paying for other options to help set them up in life, to maybe help them pay for a trip overseas for a gap year to get international experience. It might be about small business owners being able to work harder, keeping money in their business so they can put on more apprentices, so they can expand and create more jobs in the community. It could be about bringing innovations to this state of Victoria. But what they are finding under the Allan Labor government is that they are working harder and getting less and less. That money is being taken out of the pockets of families right across Victoria.

It is being taken out of the coffers of businesses right across Victoria, and businesses are closing as a result and moving interstate. We are at a point in time where Victorian households have less income and less money in their pockets at the end of the day. In fact household income is 10 per cent less than the national average, and that is only because the Allan Labor government continue to bring in more and more taxes. The harder that Victorians work, the more that Labor will impose taxes so that families do not get to make decisions about where they spend the money. Businesses do not get to make decisions over where they spend that money. It is the Allan Labor government who are making decisions on how their money is spent, and it is not in line with what the expectations are of the Victorian community.

Time and time again we are seeing the waste of Victorian taxpayer money. We are seeing it thrown into corrupt activities – I do not know how many reports now have been tabled by the Victorian Ombudsman or by the IBAC around the corruption and mismanagement of Victorian taxpayer money. That is so, so important for everyone in this chamber and everyone in Victoria to remember – it is Victorian taxpayer money that is being wasted. It is not Labor money – they have not got it out of thin air. The only money they are interested in in Victoria is the money that lines their own pockets or those of their mates.

Danny O’Brien interjected.

Emma KEALY: Yes, let us not forget the red shirts and how that went and how that carried on. Meanwhile, right across Victoria we have got more and more potholes, we have got more and more crumbling roads, we have got fewer police, we have got fewer nurses, we have got fewer teachers and we have got fewer people delivering the services that rural and regional Victorians need. And that is because the only thing Labor know how to do is tax, tax, tax and deliver less, less, less for every single Victorian across the state.

In the past week the Nationals have been waving the green and yellow flag. We have been putting a clear option around the state that at the next election you have a choice. You have a choice whether you vote for a tired Labor government that is misusing your taxes or whether you get a fresh start with a Liberal–Nationals government. And I have heard from so many people, as have my colleagues, like the leader Danny O’Brien. We have heard so many times from people, who are in Ripon or who are in Bendigo, who are saying, ‘We don’t even see our local member. They won’t meet with us. They don’t come to anything.’ And when they do manage to catch up with them, there is disappointment that what people are saying to their face in their communities is not the same as the members that we see in here. We are not seeing that come through to this chamber.

Let us talk about the emergency services tax and what we heard repeated to us: ‘We had discussions with the member for Ripon, but she said that she didn’t really like the tax but she had to vote for it.’ Well, I have got news for the Victorian public: you are voted to be here to represent your constituents. You are not voted in here to represent your party alone. You are here to vote for your constituents, and that is what you should be here for.

The SPEAKER: I ask the member for Lowan not to hit the desk, please.

Mathew Hilakari: On a point of order, Speaker, it has been a fairly wideranging discussion, but this is well beyond the scope of the motion. I would ask you to bring her back to relevance.

The SPEAKER: The member for Lowan was talking to the MPI.

Emma KEALY: It is no surprise to people throughout the Ripon electorate that they are not being properly represented in this place. There is nobody in that electorate who wanted an emergency services tax – not one person. This is an unfair tax that country people in particular are paying the price for, because it is just a big tax grab that is not going to the CFA. We have actually got a budget cut in the CFA this year – we have got cuts. This is a great big tax grab from rural and regional Victoria to pay for the extra on all those Melbourne projects that country people get no benefit from.

In fact no Victorian gets any benefit from taxpayer money which is just frittered away, with no investment in frontline service workers and no additional services in the area. There are certainly no more hospitals, the roads are not any better, and our schools are falling apart. And then we have got this mirror of these promises. I notice one of the previous speakers said, ‘We are offering free kinder.’ Well, how is that working out for the students of Casterton? Parents on Monday were told, ‘Sorry, we don’t have enough places in kindergarten, because the government increased the hours for each child but didn’t increase the total number of places.’ So there are children in this state who will not have access to four-year-old kinder, because the government have cut the funding to it. We have got four-year-olds who will not get an early-years education. That is an utter disgrace for any government but particularly a government who like to sell themselves as being of the people. ‘We’re for families’ – well, I do not know which family you are for when you have got a four-year-old child who cannot attend kindergarten this year. That is an utter disgrace, and that will be remembered at every single school where we have got a new child starting prep who has not had that all-important year or two years of kindergarten because Labor mismanaged that program.

We have seen the way that the agricultural sector has been treated by the Labor government, and it is utterly disgraceful. Hundreds of jobs have gone in Agriculture Victoria. Let us remember it used to be the department of agriculture once; they actually had an entire department. Now I do not even know if they are allowed to even live in the broom cupboard, because there are not many of them left. In fact there are not enough left to respond to important biosecurity risks in this state. There are no staff left to be able to manage pests and weeds in this state. It is leaving our farmers vulnerable, and they contribute so much, not just to the state’s economy, not just to our local communities, but to the fabric of rural and regional Victoria. Farmers are important and should be heard. But what do we see again? We have got legislation which comes through this place that takes away the voices of farmers when it comes to making decisions on their land. And yet again, what did the member for Ripon do? She voted for it. She voted against the people who voted her into this place and made a decision that she would not stand by them. That will be remembered – that is remembered, and we are reminded of that in Ripon time and time again. It was also noted in Bendigo. Where was the member for Bendigo East when we were there listening to the community about cost of living, about health, about housing, about not being able to access housing, about rental? She was in Melbourne. That is something that Andrew Lethlean has been campaigning on. He is a ripping local person, and he is sending a shudder down the spine of Jacinta Allan.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Lowan will call members by their correct titles.

 Dylan WIGHT (Tarneit) (17:48): It gives me great pleasure to rise this evening to make a contribution on this matter of public importance. I am obviously not in favour of the MPI but, frankly, I could not believe my eyes when this came into my inbox last night. Who is writing this garbage? I assume the same person that is writing the questions in question time that are falling flat one after another. ‘Hey, guys, what should our MPI be? Maybe we’ll just put together and collate a bunch of stuff and allow the Allan Labor government to talk to Victorians about all of the great things that they’ve done in cost of living, in education and in health.’ Like, seriously? Seriously, they sat down and dreamt this one up. Like I said, I could not believe my eyes when this got into my inbox last night.

I listened intently to the Liberal leader’s contribution at the beginning of this MPI, and I do agree with one thing. It may be the first thing that I have agreed with any Liberal leader on, any one of the three that we have had in the last 11 months. The Liberal leader said that Victorians will be presented with a choice in 12 months. I have spoken about this before, that Victorians will be presented with a choice, and of course they will.

At the end of November next year they will be presented with a choice between a Labor government that is on their side, that has always been on their side, that has provided cost-of-living relief with power saving bonuses, free public transport for kids under the age of 18 and seniors on weekends, free kinder and investment in local schools – both in infrastructure and in teaching – since it came to government 12 years ago and another Liberal cut merchant. And you cannot take a point of order on me and say that is not true, because the Liberal leader has already explicitly said it. She created an $11.1 billion budget black hole when she was Shadow Treasurer – she still is Shadow Treasurer whilst being leader, which probably tells you everything you need to know – and then went on that fantastic program that we all love, Sky News and explicitly went through the cuts that she would make if elected. She stated:

Current spending is simply not sustainable … that means we are going to have to make cuts when it comes to our health services. Schools are not going to be built or even fixed.

Cuts to hospitals, cuts to education and cuts to frontline services: that is all the Liberal Party knows. That is all the Liberal Party in Victoria has ever known. The new leader has come out and said that she is going to reframe the argument away from crime and talk about state debt. She has done so a little bit. The member for Mordialloc went to this – we had not compared notes before this; we may just think alike. Let us not forget that one of the new Liberal leader’s previous jobs was as an adviser to then Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, a Liberal Treasurer who ran up nearly a trillion dollars in national debt, which is still sitting there and which a Labor government is now charged with trying to deal with. As an adviser to Josh Frydenberg I am sure she was not sitting there saying, ‘Oh no, boss, don’t do that, don’t do that.’ I have never heard her talk about Liberal Party debt in the national budget. I have never heard her speak about it.

The then Liberal Treasurer ran up this debt whilst not providing one red cent to an infrastructure project in Victoria – not one. We have gone it alone on the West Gate Tunnel and the Metro Tunnel. It took a Labor government getting elected for us to be able to get a contribution to the Suburban Rail Loop, and we had to go it alone on the North East Link as well. Whilst she was advising a Liberal Treasurer that ran up a trillion dollars worth of debt, they gave nothing to Victoria – not a cent. I criticised the wording of this MPI and said it is a bit of a free kick for those on this side of the house. Talk about free kicks: if you would like to, in 12 months time, contest an election against us on housing and health, bring it on.

The SPEAKER: Through the Chair, member for Tarneit.

Dylan WIGHT: Indeed, Speaker. Bring it on. If they would like to contest an election with us on housing and on health, bring it on. The only advice that I would give is if that is what they are going to do, then perhaps the leader should shoulder the load herself, because honestly, after she left and sent in her mates to make contributions – none of which can lay straight in bed, frankly – let us take ‘old tow ball’ the member for Gippsland South who comes in here and wants to talk about housing and a story in the Age today –

Tim McCurdy: On a point of order, Speaker, I take umbrage to the wording of the member for Tarneit. Could you ask him to withdraw, please?

The SPEAKER: I ask you to withdraw, member for Tarneit.

Dylan WIGHT: I withdraw. The member for Gippsland South came in here a couple of contributions ago and wanted to talk about an article that was published in the Age today about infrastructure contributions. The member for Gippsland South, who got caught misleading the house only a couple of weeks ago, was either doing so again or has been in this place so long that he has lost his capacity to comprehend policy. When you build significant housing developments, whether that be in the city or whether that be in the suburbs, there are always infrastructure contributions that go with it. In some places it is just a developer contribution which goes straight to the council. But in some places, like the member for Melton’s electorate and my electorate, there is also a growing area infrastructure contribution. We make those contributions in places that require significant and expensive infrastructure. That is how we pay for them.

This is nothing new. There have been infrastructure contributions on new developments for eons, and there will continue to be. If you would like to come back in and say that you are is going to cut infrastructure contributions, go for your life, member for Gippsland South, because you will not be able to pay for the infrastructure that suburbs need, just like you could not between 2010 and 2014, when the member for Bulleen signed precinct structure plans without infrastructure contributions attached to them. So now we have got suburbs with no infrastructure, and we are having to retrofit it and pay for it. So if you are going to cut infrastructure contributions, it would be great if you could stump up and tell us how you are going to pay for the infrastructure that these new residents need. If you would like to fight an election on health and housing, bring it on. The opposition should go for their life in that respect.

I referenced at the beginning of this contribution some of the fantastic things that this government has done to ease those cost-of-living pressures for Victorians. We have pulled every lever available to us to provide practical cost-of-living relief to Victorians that need it most. There have been several iterations of the power saving bonus, both in this term, at the beginning of this term, and in previous terms, to make sure that we are easing the burden on Victorian families for those energy costs. There is a power saving bonus available to concession card holders right at this minute, and the amount of concession card holders and elderly people in my electorate that have contacted my office to make use of that power saving bonus has been absolutely enormous. We had the school saving bonus at the beginning of this year to make sure that every schoolkid, regardless of their family circumstances, had the capacity to have a new uniform, the capacity to go to camps and the capacity to have textbooks – to even the playing field, to make sure that no Victorian kid goes without, regardless of your family circumstances. We also have the Victorian energy upgrades. If you have got an old gas appliance – it could be a hot water service – that comes to end of life and you would like to switch that to an electric heat pump for instance, you have access to incredibly generous rebates on that, so when it comes to the end of its life you can switch to electric for the same amount as it would be just to reinstall a gas hot water service, and you save on your power bills as well.

The leader of the Liberals at the beginning of her contribution said that in 12 months time Victorians will have a choice, and indeed they will. They will have a choice between a government that cares, that has been providing cost-of-living relief over not just the course of this term but the course of the government, that has built the massive transport infrastructure projects that this state needs –Metro Tunnel, West Gate Tunnel, North East Link, and we are getting on with the Suburban Rail Loop as well – or they can choose an opposition who have already told Victorians that they will have to cut $11.1 billion of frontline services. I am pretty confident I know what they will choose.

 Wayne FARNHAM (Narracan) (17:58): I am pleased to rise today on the matter of public importance put forward by the Leader of the Opposition, and oh my God, have I heard some hypocrites today talk in this chamber. Actually, I am going to go straight to the point of when we talk about housing and we keep getting called blockers this and blockers that. Let us go straight to the Minister for Planning, who would have to be one of the biggest hypocrites sitting in this chamber when she talks about blocking development. In her own electorate she blocked development and, not only that, just this year blocked a 400-lot subdivision in Cape Paterson that would have delivered affordable blocks of land for young Victorians, for millennials, for Gen Zs. And why did she do it? For votes. We all know Bass is a 200-vote margin seat – 200 votes separating Bass from Labor retaining it to Labor losing it – and the whole motivation behind it was for votes. That was it.

The member for Bentleigh’s whole 2014 campaign was blocking development – his whole campaign was based on that – and they stand there and go ‘blockers, blockers’. Rubbish. What is even worse, the Minister for Planning was in the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee this year. When asked about that Cape Paterson development and asked did she supply a statement of reasons for that development, she said, ‘Yes, I think I did. I’ll take that on notice.’ Sure, the minister actually supplied the statement of reasons, but guess what, when you go to the council’s recording, when they ask the officer present did the minister supply a statement of reasons for this, he said, ‘No, she didn’t.’ She did not supply a statement of reason. That is on Bass Coast council’s website. So she misled PAEC; it is as simple as that.

But let us get back to the MPI and let us get back actually to what the member for Pascoe Vale earlier quoted. I will state this: ‘It’s not a lie if you believe it.’ And that is what this government bases its whole campaign on. ‘If we keep telling ourselves it’s true, even though it’s not, it has got to be true. If we keep telling ourselves Victoria is the economic powerhouse of Australia, it must be true. But we won’t talk about the debt. We won’t talk about the interest bill. We won’t talk about the fact our housing targets are in the toilet. We’re already 46,000 homes behind in the first two years. But no, no, it’s cheap to live in Victoria. Oh my goodness, it’s cheap. Everybody’s doing it easy. It’s that good.’ It is not a lie if you believe it. It is not a lie. Oh my goodness.

Let us talk about what has gone up in this state: housing, up 6 per cent; health, 4 per cent. Education is up, taxes are up, rent is up, fuel is up, rates are up. In 2024 gas went up 28 per cent and power went up 22 per cent. ‘But no, no, no, we’re bringing it down, down, down.’ Everything is going the other way. Even today there is another tax on units: $11,300 – another tax, after the new Treasurer said, ‘We won’t be introducing any more taxes. It won’t happen. Nothing to see here.’ It is not a lie if you believe it.

Honestly, this government is failing on so many areas. Actually, the member for Tarneit referenced the growth areas infrastructure contribution just before – funding for infrastructure in growth areas. What he failed to mention is that the legislation that is just passing through this Parliament at the moment gives the government the ability to move the GAIC funding out of those communities like Melton, like any growth area. They can move that funding now. It does not have to stay there. Where is that going to go? I will give you one guess: the Suburban Rail Loop, to prop up that massive black hole that is the SRL.

I have heard members here today talking about our health system. Oh my goodness, I cannot believe they went there. They have been talking about our health system, and how short is their memory from just a couple of weeks ago when we talked about a broken health system and Lois Casboult from my electorate, the 91-year-old grandmother that suffered because of a failed health system. The Minister for Health was sitting there, and I wish she was back in here now. The Minister for Health was sitting there and actually said to me, ‘Wait till all this comes out.’ I cannot wait, because what I will also reference today for the Minister for Health’s education is that poor grandmother sat in that hospital on a Friday for eight hours on a stretcher in a hallway because the West Gippsland Hospital, which should have been started by now, built in 1939, is not fit for purpose anymore. ‘Oh, but we’re investing in Victoria’s health. There is nothing to see here.’ It is not a lie if you believe it. That is what this government bases its whole strategy on – the continual misrepresentation of the state of Victoria.

We talk about the economy and we talk about the debt. There have been a couple of members here, actually, that talked about debt today. They referenced the federal government and what happened there. The debt in this state has gone up 415 per cent since 2014 – 415 per cent. We are going to hit $194 billion – debt is going up at a massive rate, and the interest we are paying on the debt is out of this world. It is ridiculous. And that is if the government can hold on to the current credit rating. If the state of Victoria loses that credit rating, this state is going to be in a lot worse condition than what it is now.

I do not know if it can get any worse or not, but I tell you what: we are in a lot of trouble, and this is why we do need a change of government. I agree with the member for Tarneit: bring it on. Bring it on, because I will argue with this government every day about housing and every day about health. I hear them talk about schools and their investment in schools. I will tell you this: in the seat of Narracan we have had not had a new state government school built for over 50 years – the highest growth area in Australia and not one new state school built in over 50 years. So where do they invest in schools? Where? In Labor seats.

This government has brought in over 60 taxes since 2014 – 31 or more of those, property related. 31 is a good number: I think that is the same approval rating the Premier has got at the moment for preferred Premier – 31.

A member interjected.

Wayne FARNHAM: Negative 31 – great number. I said this in my maiden speech, in my inaugural speech in this place: every tax or charge that you put on developers gets passed down the line. That is why housing is unaffordable in this state. That is why millennials and gen Zs under this government have no chance of owning a home – none at all. The 63 precincts is not a housing policy, it is a tax policy. That is all it is: it triggers windfall gains tax – and now today another $11,300 on top of that. Every time this government says, ‘Well, you know, we’re making it affordable,’ it is going the other way. It is the opposite. There is nothing affordable. And talk about cuts: let us talk about cuts. Let us talk about the government cutting 3000 public servants – 3000 public servants announced by the Treasurer this government is going to cut. Yes, bring it on.