Wednesday, 1 April 2026

 Bridget VALLENCE (Evelyn) (11:00): I rise to speak on the report on the 2025–26 budget estimates, which exposes the Allan Labor government for significant flaws in financial management and a failure to execute its fiscal strategy. Key findings of the report outlined in chapter 1, page 4, expose the Allan Labor government for a lack of accountability and transparency relating to information published in the budget and expose Labor’s Department of Treasury and Finance for inefficient reporting on financial sustainability. The report reminds Victorians that under Labor, government sector net debt is expected to skyrocket to $194 billion in 2028–29, the highest debt in the nation.

What is curious about this report by a committee dominated by Labor government members are statements about the government’s progress on its fiscal strategy, including at findings 3 and 4. The first step of Labor’s fiscal strategy was to reduce unemployment, yet this budget outlined that unemployment is rising. The last step of Labor’s fiscal strategy was to reduce debt as a proportion of gross state product, yet this budget forecast it to increase to a staggering 25.1 per cent. That is right – debt now makes up a quarter of Victoria’s economy under Labor, and this budget forecast that it would remain at 24.9 per cent in 2028–29.

Concerningly, this report does not include the recent history of Labor’s fiscal strategy and how Labor conveniently shifted the goalposts. In 2019 Labor promised to stabilise net debt at 12 per cent of GSP; instead Labor has broken that promise and more than doubled debt as a proportion of GSP, and it is why it is concerning that this report, tabled by a committee dominated by Labor MPs, is trying to tell Victorians that the government is achieving its fiscal strategy when clearly it is not. Changing the strategy to suit bad economic figures is not success, it is failure.

The mid-year financial report, released recently, confirms Victoria’s dire financial position under 12 years of the Andrews–Allan Labor government, with debt equating to a record $22,700 per person, and –

Belinda Wilson: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, I am wondering which committee report the member is speaking on and the relevance –

The ACTING SPEAKER (Daniela De Martino): The report is on the 2025–26 budget estimates, as stated at the outset.

Bridget VALLENCE: Changing the strategy to suit bad economic figures is not success; it is failure, and it is precisely why the Labor members are concerned to hear this in real time. The mid-year financial report, released recently, confirms Victoria’s dire financial position. And what comes with the debt? An interest bill that must be repaid. Interest to service Labor’s debt will increase by $10.6 billion; that equates to $28.9 million a day or $1.2 million an hour. That is money that cannot be spent on meaningful cost-of-living relief or on community safety initiatives to combat the rise in crime, with a crime being committed every 50 seconds now in Victoria under Labor. The interest bill is $29 million a day that cannot be spent on extra police or extra nurses or upgrading hospital emergency departments – like at Maroondah Hospital, which has been promised by Labor at two elections but so far they have failed to deliver – or on new equipment for Lilydale SES or our Yarra Valley and Maroondah group CFA fire brigades or upgrading our local schools.

That interest bill on Labor’s debt is over $1 million an hour. That cannot be spent on fixing dangerous, potholed roads like Maroondah Highway and Killara Road, Coldstream; Warburton Highway, Seville East; Hull and Mooroolbark roads in Mooroolbark; or Clegg Road from Wandin to Mount Evelyn. I will always fight in the budget to include funding for our community, and I call on the government in the next budget to upgrade Maroondah Highway and Killara Road, Coldstream, and Warburton Highway in Seville East and the local schools in my community.

Interestingly, the report highlights in chapter 2 on page 15 significant risks to the financial sustainability of Victoria’s economy under this Labor government, with finding 4 of the report finding that measures of fiscal sustainability may impact long-term financial sustainability, such as increasing interest expenses as a proportion of revenue. The risks to financial sustainability in Victoria under Labor are real.

Quoting the report:

… there are several emerging risks to the Government’s fiscal strategy including:

•   growing debt and interest costs

•   rising employee costs

•   increased operating expenses …

•   limited new revenue and income streams

•   unplanned infrastructure cost increases …

like Labor’s Big Build infrastructure project, which is embroiled in $15 billion of corruption and crime-gang scandals. As the mid-year financial report shows, Victorians will be shocked by Labor recklessly borrowing $12.7 billion more for cost overruns on these corrupt projects.