Tuesday, 5 May 2026

 Anthony CARBINES (Ivanhoe – Leader of the House, Minister for Police, Minister for Community Safety, Minister for Victims, Minister for Racing) (13:29): I move:

That, under standing order 94(2), the orders of the day, government business, relating to the Roads, Road Safety and Ports Legislation Amendment Bill 2026 be considered and completed by 7 pm on 5 May 2026.

If I can continue with my remarks with regard to the government business program, I would first like to acknowledge my predecessor as Leader of the House, the honourable member for Macedon, who had held the position since December 2022 and who played a significant role in facilitating and delivering on the Allan Labor government’s ambitious agenda for Victoria as Leader of the House. I know with her other responsibilities up until most recently as Minister for Ambulance Services and Minister for Health she delivered on a very strong agenda for our government and people’s health care where and when they need it most. I thank her on behalf of members in this place and also for her ongoing work representing and advocating for the people of her beloved electorate of Macedon.

We have heard the Treasurer from the other place hand down the 2026–27 Allan–Symes budget, a budget focused on delivering real and immediate cost-of-living relief to Victorians and making things easier, safer and more affordable for all Victorians. It is a budget that invests in things that matter to Victorians, whether it is their education or their health care, keeping them safe and making sure that things are affordable. Budget day means that we have a single sitting day this week. We will be getting on with business this afternoon. The house will be debating the Roads, Road Safety and Ports Legislation Amendment Bill 2026. I do not seek to anticipate that those opposite would oppose the government business program, but I am sure, having been kept in anticipation, we will find out soon enough through this debate. It is an important bill. It is about road safety, and it is about saving lives. We will go to that debate this afternoon.

We know that any life lost on our roads is one life too many. The impact of road trauma is felt very widely in the community, not just by the loved ones of victims but also our first responders and the work that they do to keep people safe. With road trauma more broadly, for those who survive significant road trauma, there is support and rehabilitation that is provided to them and their families and the ongoing supports we provide to our first responders. This year’s road toll – I would much prefer to call it ‘lives lost’ rather than a ‘road toll’ – sits at 92. We were at 97 at the same time last year. These are significant tragedies. No-one is left unaffected.

This bill builds on a range of road safety measures from our government. As the Minister for Police, I am pleased to have a close interest in much of that work. For example, there is our $21.1 million boost for road policing operations, more roadside drug testing and improved technology to catch those doing the wrong thing and impaired drivers on our roads. It is something that we must continue to crack down on. Technology is always a challenge in being able to detect those who are affected by other drugs outside of alcohol, but there is much work being done internationally.

I also want to touch on the fact there has been some $80 million for the continuation of our road safety camera network and particularly the work that we have been able to do around the distracted driver camera network. That is new technology that is finding people who are not getting the basics right: not wearing their seatbelts and people who are on their phones. What it all comes down to is ‘Put the phone away, put your seatbelt on and drive the car’. It is a pretty simple message, but so many people, thousands in fact, have been picked up on our distracted driver cameras. We know that that means we have got to get back to the basics of getting people to do the basics well. This has an effect on saving lives and changing behaviour. There have been some significant infringements issued – in the several thousands per month – to those not doing the basics well. But in time people will get that message, and it will just tighten up where people have been slack.

Of course it was this Parliament and our Road Safety Committee going back many decades that made wearing seatbelts the law in this state and led the way not just in this jurisdiction but around the world. Ninety-nine per cent of drivers do the right thing, but we know that speed, distraction and drink and drug driving are all elements that we need to continue to work on and areas where we want to make sure we can see further improvement.

The bill also delivers a broad range of reforms around road safety outcomes, managing our transport network and in relation to ports the very significant rail freight work that we have seen with investments from our government of up to half a billion dollars. I know that there are many on our side of the house who are looking forward to making contributions on this bill that goes to significant investments that the government has made.

It is a government business program that picks up on the budget speech today. It is a more limited program since we are only here for one day this week, but it picks up on the significant work of the roads, road safety and ports bill. I commend the government business program to the house. I look forward to, I would hope, support from those opposite to continue delivering for Victorians.

 James NEWBURY (Brighton) (13:34): Ask and you shall receive, Leader of the House. We will not be opposing the government business program, which has been proposed with simply one bill today. I welcome of course the new Leader of the House. Because it was his first go I did not want to pick him up on the second-reading speech that he gave in the government business program debate. I am sure that in future debates on the government business program he will more understand the nature of the motion as being a procedural motion. I know other members across on the other side of the chamber were agreeing with me. I do welcome the Leader of the House. I acknowledge the former Leader of the House and wish her very well in her retirement. But we have a new Leader of the House in the chamber, and I am sure it will be more difficult for the Speaker to manage the both of us. I think it would be fair to say we both have a different style, and I suspect the two of us will in the best, most collaborative way butt heads in the chamber, which is a good thing. I think that both of us will have a voice rather than simply one side having a voice over recent years.

This government business program, as I say, deals with a roads bill that is primarily around road safety. Without wanting to foreshadow the Leader of the National Party’s contribution on the bill, anything that we can do to improve road safety is a good thing, so this bill is an opportunity to deal with the measures that do just that. But as I say, I do not want to go into any great substance on the bill.

I do want to also note that on budget day we on this side of the chamber hope every year – the Leader of the House just moved a motion to allow a cognate debate on the budget bills – that everybody on this side and, frankly, every member of this chamber will be provided an opportunity to consider the budget bills and to speak on the budget bills. What I suspect will soon happen is next sitting week the budget bills themselves will move to the other place but we will have a take-note motion in this chamber, which hopefully should in theory allow every member to speak on it. Sadly – and the Leader of the House may not be aware of this, so I am glad that he is here so I can let him know – last year there were roughly 20 members of the government who were not provided an opportunity to speak on their own budget. I know that is a clear reflection of what the government think of their own budget – it is a stinker, is what it means. That also means that not all members of the chamber are provided an opportunity to speak on the budget, and no matter how bad a budget is – and this is a $200 billion bad one – the government should not be afraid of allowing members of the chamber to speak on it. You would think that all members would have an opportunity to speak on it. So I say to the Leader of the House here: I hope we do not have a repeat of last year. I would hope that all members have an opportunity to speak on it so that in our communities we can speak of the neglect and financial mismanagement and the government members have an opportunity to read their talking points. That is okay; we know their talking points. But last year that unfortunately was not the case. So being budget day I had hoped the Leader of the House would give me that wish – that we will all have that opportunity soon.

I would also say, with the Treasurer’s speech being so short, that that probably has provided the house with a little bit more time overall. I was looking at my clock and thinking, ‘Well, we’re about half the way through half an hour,’ and then it just ended. So we have all been given the gift of extra time that we did not think we were going to have, with that short speech. I do hope that all members have that opportunity. But as I return back to this, we will not be opposing this government business program, which deals with only one bill, which we will consider this evening, at the end of the day.

 Danny PEARSON (Essendon) (13:39): It is a joyous day. It is not budget day, it is surplus day. Let us be clear: this is the only jurisdiction on the eastern seaboard to deliver an operating surplus. It is a joy of wonder to be in this place on this day, this glorious chamber of magnificent gold and natural light. You just feel nothing more than alive on a day like today.

We have had a change of circumstances in relation to the way in which the appropriation bill is normally dealt with. That is because of the fact that the Treasurer is a member of the other place. We dealt with this last year, but I thought it would be worthwhile just talking to colleagues about the history of this great state. Those of us who are fiscally literate, financially literate, do love the significance of 30 June and 1 July: 1 July 1851 was when Victoria became a colony in its own right. At that point in time a Legislative Council was formed and created which governed this state up until the passage of the Victoria Electoral Bill, which passed on 13 March 1856, and that led to the creation of the Legislative Assembly. At that point in time there was a gentleman called Charles Sladen, who was appointed as acting Treasurer on 28 November 1855, and he held that role for one year and 103 days before he was elected to the Legislative Assembly.

I raise this point simply because it was not until the great John Lenders became the Treasurer of Victoria that we had a Treasurer of this state who was a member of the other place. It is also important to note that for a long period of time the Premier was also the Treasurer. This did not change until after the 1979 election, which was Hamer’s worst election and his final one, when Lindsay Thompson was appointed the Treasurer of Victoria on 16 May 1979, a role that he held until he was defeated in 1982. He was Treasurer as well when he was Premier. Steve Bracks was also Premier and Treasurer briefly from 20 October 1999 to 22 May 2000. In many respects what you see here in Victoria is a long tradition of either the Premier holding the portfolios of Treasurer and Premier or in more contemporary circumstances the Treasurer being a member of this place. But you have got to hand it to the Treasurer. She has brought home the bacon today with an operating surplus, and she has worked tirelessly in her role as Treasurer to deliver this great outcome.

For me budget day, or in this case surplus day, is a joyous occasion. The great tactile pleasure one feels when they break the spine of budget paper 5 for the first time – please, I beg of you, get to budget paper 5. Read it. It is a page-turner. Get across the details. What is in budget paper 5? It is a symphony, and it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the great contribution of a recently retired public servant Steve Mitsas, who was the ecumenical patriarch of budget paper 5 in the Department of Treasury and Finance. He presided over accounting standards in the state of Victoria for about a quarter of a century, and recently he retired. I have got to tell you, if you ever get the opportunity to sit before somebody who has got expertise and knowledge in accounting standards and you go through budget paper 5 at length, which I was fond to do at times, it is just mind-blowing. It opens the eyes in so many ways in terms of what is in this august document. Please, I would encourage all of you to break the spine of budget paper 5. As a former Minister for Finance, you never detract from budget paper 1. It is a very important piece of documentation accompanying the budget papers. Budget paper 2 is pretty good. Budget papers 3 and 4 have their roles to play. But if you take yourself seriously when it comes to accounting standards, if you take yourself seriously when it comes to budgets, make sure you make your way over to budget paper 5. Take your time through this wonderful journey. Absorb the knowledge and information. You will be surprised what you learn.

I also note that the chair of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee is in the chamber today. If anyone ever gets the opportunity to serve on PAEC, do it. Run it hard. Enjoy it. It is a gift. It is a joy. You learn so much as the chair of PAEC. It can be a bruising experience from time to time. It was once described to me by a former chair of PAEC as a bit like chairing a rowdy ALP branch meeting, but it is a good experience and you learn so much. I wish the members of PAEC all the very best for their travails over the coming weeks. Government is a gift, budgets are a gift and a surplus is a delightful, delicious gift. It is delicious.

 Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (13:44): I am glad we squeezed every last second and then some out of that. What a joy that was! It was like a university lecture, I suppose. I do not know; I did not go.

As the member for Brighton indicated earlier today, we are not opposing the government business program, because the bill on the program –

Members interjecting.

Jade BENHAM: I know, remarkable. But the bill on the program is to do with road safety of course. In our neck of the woods, road safety is paramount, given that we have to drive around on crumbling goat tracks and that we do not have car-worthy roads but are expected to have roadworthy cars. Anything that is going to contribute to safer roads I should think is a positive thing. It has been already a fascinating day – fascinating. The Treasurer mentioned that the budget she had just handed down was a Labor budget. It sure is. The member for Essendon mentioned that the Treasurer has brought home the bacon. Yes, she has, in terms of pork-barrelling, I would say, in Labor seats, building nice new shiny things with money we have not got. An operating surplus is a fake surplus; let us be honest. Honestly, in basic budgeting in a household, for example, if you had surplus money, you would pay that toward your ever-growing debt, would you not? The commonsense, fiscally responsible thing to do would be to reduce your debt, not barrel down towards a $300 billion debt. It is absolutely mind blowing.

I do have to say that whenever there has been a break from this place and then I return to the bubble that the Labor government live in, it is quite perplexing that members on the other side can sit up and pat themselves on the back for what is presented to the house and to the Victorian public. It is quite remarkable that they actually think that Victorians still believe the messages that are being peddled by this government. I can tell you, after spending every day within my community over the weeks that we have been out of this place, they do not; it is as simple as that. No-one is believing this message and the – I do not know the best way to put it; it is all quite perplexing – pats on the back that this government give themselves for a job well done in fiscally responsible management. This is a government that cannot manage money, and this budget proves it once again. I know the member for Brighton also stated, and I have brought it up in government business program contributions several times this year in fact, that my colleagues the member for Morwell –

A member interjected.

Jade BENHAM: great bloke – and the member for Shepparton did not get to give their response to last year’s budget. The member for Narracan and the member for Hawthorn did not get to respond to the budget. Of course the government does not want to give time to those who get not much out of that budget.

When we talk about new schools and when we talk about new hospitals, some of that investment in the region would be great. I would like to see a return-on-investment statement. The member for Essendon was talking about the immaculate journey that budget paper 5 is. Given that there is no regional budget paper anymore, I would like to see a statement on the return on investment in real terms, because when we talk about all the billions of dollars now – we do not even talk in terms of millions, we talk in terms of billions, including our interest rate payments and debt – I would like to see the return on that investment and how life is actually getting better for Victorians, because it is not. I can tell you that it is not. The cost of living, community safety – I mean, the heading on the budget paper itself is ‘Easier. Safer. More Affordable’. The Leader of the Nationals and I had a conversation this morning that the term that young people use for that these days is ‘delulu’.

I will say before I finish here, though, that it is lovely to have a new Leader of the House, who I am sure will be gracious in leniency toward me. And it is lovely to have Statler and Waldorf in the box seat over here.

 Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (13:49): Well, it is a great pleasure to follow the member for Mildura, who I tuned into on the radio the other day with Georgie Purcell, where she talked about One Nation on a charge and tearing through regional and rural areas. To follow that sort of summation and the criticism of budget paper 5 – as a former student of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee, budget paper 5 is where the love lives. This is where you find everything, where you do the work, where you put in the effort, and that is where you do not mix up a $300 billion deficit, because clearly numbers on the paper are just made up – they just move around; they do not make much sense there.

But this is an exciting time here. This is a really exciting time because, for those opposite, how many budgets has this government handed down? I will give them a clue: this is the 12th appropriation. So when those opposite had four and the member for Rowville forgot that jobs existed in a Treasury speech – remember that? Ctrl+F – if you had ChatGPT today, you would chuck it in and you would go, ‘The Treasury speech missing from the member for Rowville does not mention jobs once.’ Well, in this budget we have got jobs and investment. We are making it easier, safer and more affordable for Victorians.

I was a bit shattered because I thought, with the federal budget next week on Tuesday, we could have the member for Kew, Shadow Treasurer and Leader of the Opposition, because, of those opposite, there is no-one else that can do the job that the member for Kew does, on both occasions –

Members interjecting.

Tim RICHARDSON: Leaning in here, remember when the member for Brighton was there as the Shadow Treasurer? The member for Sandringham –

Members interjecting.

Tim RICHARDSON: Well, member for Brighton, I would rather be a contender than a pretender, my friend, because over there, after 12 appropriations introduced to this house, you can see the values live large. Those opposite have a chance in the coming little while to reflect on how they can talk about how important this budget is.

I note the concerns from the member for Brighton and genuine concerns around those opposite having the opportunity to speak for their communities on a take-note motion, in the spirit of multipartisanship for us as well, and I think that is an important point that they get the opportunity. But let us just put this forward: we see constantly the junior party of the coalition speaking for so much more. We see the Nationals contributing significantly more during government business program efforts. Their back is sore from carrying the other side of the coalition. So I would say to those opposite: get some Liberals on the appropriation to talk about the values in their community – not just the talking points, but actually analyse and dig deep. All we see from those opposite, time and time again – and we will see it on the road safety bill. We will see the lead speaker from the Libs, then we will see one or two and then we will see six or nine Nationals front up. This is my call-out to the Liberal Party: do the work. There are only 21 sitting days to go. At least get on the speaking list –

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Come back.

Tim RICHARDSON: We are just saying here that we are taking count of who is contributing, and I am giving a shout-out to Mildura and colleagues over there that they are carrying the team with their contributions.

Members interjecting.

Tim RICHARDSON: Their back is sore, someone said. The Roads, Road Safety and Ports Legislation Amendment Bill 2026 is really important when you read through that. We know the impact of road trauma in our communities, and this is on the government business program at a time when we have just announced record funding for road maintenance and upgrades of $1.04 billion. It comes at an important time, because we want to make sure that Victorians are safe. Those road upgrades are really important. That bill goes to the heart of decades-long work in road safety enforcement, which has been really led from Victoria for decades. So that is a really important bill for people to contribute on. It is the one on the business program today.

But to see the appropriation come in here – the 12th that I have had the opportunity and privilege to scrutinise and look at on behalf of my community in Mordialloc – is a tremendous privilege. Government and representation are an opportunity. It is a way to put your values forward, and that is what the appropriations allow us to do. To be able to have 12 on the run – those opposite got four. They had four at that time. They are not memorable. You might remember those stickers they put down at Southern Cross of where the airport rail would go, and tourists would walk into Southern Cross station off the V/Line and then go to the end of the platform with the sticker, waiting for the airport rail. There are apparently still people waiting there. We mourn the souls who never found their way to the airport. That was the infrastructure contribution of those opposite. This is a budget that is easier, safer and more affordable for Victorians.

 Wayne FARNHAM (Narracan) (13:54): I am pleased to rise today on the government business program and to follow the member for Mordialloc. I will get to you in a minute. Congratulations to the Leader of the House on his promotion. It is good to see he actually stood up today and said something. I thought he was going to be quiet for the whole day while he learns the trade. But it is great to be here.

The member for Brighton stated earlier that we do not oppose the government business program. This will probably be the only time this year that we do not oppose it, would be my guess. We do have a little bit on the program, the Roads, Road Safety and Ports Legislation Amendment Bill 2026 and of course the budget handed down today. And it is quite funny, member for Essendon – I have got a bit of respect for the member for Essendon. Thank you for your time as a minister. He is very, very excited about budget paper 5 – very excited about it. Different things excite different people, that is all I could say. But I would love for the member for Essendon to read budget paper 4. Budget paper 4 is where my community is concerned, and I will point that out to the member for Mordialloc as well, because in budget paper 4, when we look at what has happened, guess what has happened with the West Gippsland Hospital – no uplift in funding, not one cent. This is a broken promise from this government, which was going to start that hospital in 2024, and today there is not one extra cent for four hospitals, not just West Gippsland Hospital – Wonthaggi, Dandenong and I cannot remember the other one. But there were four hospitals in there that the government have given no uplift in funding to, and they have literally misled those communities. So if we are going to get excited, I would not be reading budget paper 5. I am getting more disappointed about budget paper 4, where this government have not delivered the uplift in funding that they promised to do.

I will congratulate the member for Mordialloc on his promotion. I think it is a promotion. He is cabinet secretary at the moment. But I know he is always the bridesmaid and never the bride. He just cannot quite get into cabinet. They have had as many reshuffles as they have had taxes – 35 reshuffles – and he has missed out again, and he is one of the better contributors on that side. We were opposite numbers. He was Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier, and he has missed out. The last parliamentary secretary got promoted, I believe – that was the member for Bentleigh – but the member for Mordialloc missed out. My sincere commiserations to you, member for Mordialloc. I think you deserve to be in there. No matter what your colleagues think, I think you deserve to be in there.

He also noted that this was the 12th budget the government has delivered. That tells me that 12 times the government has missed the opportunity to deliver the West Gippsland Hospital – this is the 12th time the government has failed on delivery of the West Gippsland Hospital – which is pretty poor in anyone’s language, when this hospital was actually put forward in 2015 as a priority hospital. But the government failed on that. Someone mentioned we have about 21 sitting days left, which is true, but it would be nice if we could get a reply to this this time. I only got 7 minutes to reply on the 2025–26 take-note motion for the budget – 7 minutes to put forward my community’s case as to why the budget was bad, and this one is even worse. The member for Morwell did not get a chance. Member for Mildura, I do not think you had a chance.

Jade Benham interjected.

Wayne FARNHAM: You did; you got through. But there were lots of members in this chamber that missed out on a budget reply. So I put to the new Leader of the House: how about you give a bit of priority and a bit of respect to those opposite so we can have a reply to the budget rather than just guillotining it off and letting it just drift off into the ether with no reply from people on this side? I know the government will not want the scrutiny on this budget, because it is not a great budget. It is a very, very bad budget for Victoria, and it is good to see they have pork-barrelled their own seats again, like they do every other budget.

Motion agreed to.