Wednesday, 18 February 2026

 Emma KEALY (Lowan) (09:47): When the Premier was first appointed to that role in this state she proudly said she was from regional Victoria and would be a Premier for regional Victorians. Yet here we are, with money being funnelled to bikies and criminal gangs and to use strippers to motivate men for overnight shifts, instead of money being spent on the things that rural and regional Victorians need. Our roads are falling apart. The Western Highway is in a dilapidated state, and that $15 billion that has been wasted on corruption could have been spent to fix that. It could have been spent on fixing our hospitals or recruiting teachers and childcare workers to our rural and regional areas of Victoria, where we cannot access those supports. It could have been invested in so many things, but instead it went down the gurgler and the Premier is not taking any steps to find that money and get it paid back to the government. It is rightful that that should be back in the hands of the government to spend on the services that we need in Victoria. Instead, the Premier quickly went out to establish an emergency services tax to slug farmers the greatest amount – to put a land tax on productive land – and gouge them. These are the same farmers who are on the back of fire trucks. They are the same farmers that are out there responding to their own medical incidents when there is an event on a fireground. They then go home to pay a bill that is a huge slug to pay for core government services. It is unfair and it is unjust. At the end of November Victorians will have a clear choice.