Thursday, 19 March 2026

 Jess WILSON (Kew – Leader of the Opposition) (14:34): My question is to the current Premier.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Hands up who said ‘six-seven’. Out you go for an hour. This is not a classroom, member for Wendouree.

Member for Wendouree withdrew from chamber.

Jess WILSON: My question is to the current Premier. On the Premier’s watch, Victorians have seen $15 billion of taxpayers money siphoned off through corruption and misconduct on the Big Build; record crime, with 750 new victims of crime every single day; the lowest number of new homes built in a decade; and the surgery waitlist blowing out to more than 64,000 people. Does the Premier accept responsibility for these failings?

 Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:35): I am proud to be the Premier of a great state and that more and more people are choosing this state as a place to live, a place to work and a place to raise their family. And they are doing so because they know they can get access to great, strong public health care in one of the many hospitals that we have built. It is a workforce that has doubled during our time in government. We do not go to war with our healthcare workforce; we back them. I am proud to be the Premier of a state where, with the work of the police minister and the new Chief Commissioner of Police, we have the largest police force in the nation and those police are out on the streets preventing and responding to crime. And new initiatives like PSOs in shopping centres are not just driving down retail theft, they are increasing community safety.

And I am proud to be the Premier that is getting more homes built than any other state. We have a housing policy that we are proud to talk about. We have a housing policy where we build more homes for everyone right across this state. We do not have a housing policy that is dressed up as a sandbagging eastern suburb Liberal Party seat. We have a housing policy that, whether you are a young person in Brighton – and here is a tip for the member for Brighton: 250 kilometres from Melbourne is New South Wales. Here is a hot tip, member for Brighton: I am going to send you a little Melway map or a VicRoads map – 150. I am proud that we are getting more homes built. Do you know what, not only are we getting more homes built, we have done the work, and I want to credit our great planning minister for this work. We have had to do the hard work, the detailed work, to change the rules, to have a planning system be a system that says yes, not no – a planning system that breaks the status quo. But we know that those opposite are lovers of the status quo, are lovers of locking young people out of getting more homes built.

This is a great and strong state, but we also know that there are challenges that families and working people are facing, challenges that need new solutions to those challenges, whether it is the work, as I have mentioned, of PSOs in shopping centres, whether it is working from home to save Victorians time and money. It is only our Labor government that has got these new solutions, not Liberal cuts.

 Jess WILSON (Kew – Leader of the Opposition) (14:38): Why should Victorians have any faith the Premier can fix the problems she has created when her own colleagues do not?

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: The member for Lowan is warned.

 Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:39): Victorians know this: while we are focused on them and new solutions to the very real challenges that are faced right now, there are households around the state where this week they have seen an interest rate rise, they have seen an increase in fuel prices, coming at a time when cost-of-living pressures are making it harder for them to pay the bills. And they look and they see a Labor government that is working hard to give those families a helping hand to put fuel in their car, to send their kids to our great schools, to get them the health care they need. They look at the Liberal Party and see cuts and division. The only offerings from the Liberal Party are cuts, an $11 billion black hole that the Leader of the Opposition does not want to talk about and division with their alliance and partnership with One Nation.