Tuesday, 12 May 2026

 The SPEAKER (16:01): I have accepted a statement from the member or Evelyn proposing the following matter of public importance for discussion:

That this house condemns the Allan Labor government’s legacy of record debt, record taxes and record waste while essential services deteriorate, and affirms the need for a disciplined 10-year economic plan to clean up the books, restore budget honesty and guarantee the services Victorians rely on.

 Bridget VALLENCE (Evelyn) (16:01): Victoria’s debt clock is ticking and so is time on this tired Labor government. Nothing is a more significant matter of public importance than government debt and how Labor is borrowing from the future to cling on to power today. With debt soaring to $200 billion, the interest bill to repay that debt is starving the budget of the funding needed for essential frontline services that Victorians expect and deserve. Put simply, Labour’s legacy of financial mismanagement – the highest debt in the country, the highest taxes in the country, the waste, the corruption on Labor’s rotten Big Build – is putting essential services and frontline workers at risk. Crime in Victoria is at a record high, yet the Victoria Police budget was cut. Victorian schools are the lowest funded in the country, and teachers are the lowest paid in the country – just ask the education union – and our hospitals are no longer fit for purpose, with the Labor government ripping $1 billion from the health budget to rebuild Maroondah Hospital, Ringwood, alone as well as sacking workers from the Department of Health. Despite a shortage of nurses, and on International Nurses Day, Labor could not afford to fund jobs for thousands of graduate nurses. So not only are Labor not hiring more of the frontline workers Victoria needs, the Labor government are in fact sacking thousands of public service workers; Premier Jacinta Allan admitted that herself just days ago. Only Labor is sacking public service workers. Only Labor are ripping billions from the health sector, breaking their promise to Victorians to rebuild and upgrade a number of hospitals that have been seriously neglected under Labor. Only Labor has put the safety of Victorian communities at risk, with a crime being committed every 50 seconds in Victoria and family violence serious assaults up a distressing 24 per cent under Labor. Forty police stations have been shut down or are on reduced hours, and Victorians live in fear, with recidivist offenders well aware of Labor’s weakened bail laws, with a revolving-door bail system that prioritises violent youth thugs ahead of victims.

That is why today’s matter of public importance is that this house condemns the Allan Labor government’s legacy of record debt, record taxes and record waste while essential services deteriorate and affirms the need for a disciplined 10-year economic plan to clean up the books, restore budget honesty and guarantee the services that Victorians rely on. Net debt in Victoria under Premier Jacinta Allan and Labor is growing by $1.35 million an hour and will reach $200 billion in just three years time.

Labor’s 2026–27 budget sealed Premier Jacinta Allan and Labor’s legacy as the most fiscally reckless government in Victoria’s history. Labor has delivered higher debt, higher taxes, higher interest repayments, cost blowouts and delays on corrupt infrastructure projects and put the essential services and frontline workers Victorians rely on at risk. Labor’s budget is full of excuses and offers no solutions. Embarrassingly, the Premier and the Treasurer tried to boast Victoria had a surplus – only it was an operating surplus, not including the state’s massive project costs.

What the budget actually exposes is a cash deficit of $7.7 billion. Labor has posted deficit after deficit, and debt keeps soaring. In fact debt has increased nearly tenfold since Labor took office in 2014. In the 12 years of this Labor regime net debt has increased from $21.8 billion to nearly $200 billion. Net debt was less than 6 per cent of gross state product and now represents nearly 25 per cent of GSP. Nearly a quarter of the Victorian economy is debt under Labor. Interest repayments have increased from $2.1 billion to $11.8 billion, and total tax revenue has increased from $17.9 billion to $50.2 billion under Labor. The budget is in a bad way, and the essential services Victorians rely on are at risk under Labor.

Not only is crime at an all-time high, but also it takes longer to get an ambulance today than it did 10 years ago. Construction of new homes is at a decade low. And could you find anything about their promise to build 80,000 homes in their budget? No, you could not. Known dangerous roads are not fixed, and we all know too well that roads are littered with potholes. As debt soars to $200 billion, the higher the debt, the higher the interest bill becomes. Under Labor the interest bill on debt will cost Victorian taxpayers $32 million a day. That is $1.35 million an hour, or $337,500 in the time it takes me to deliver this speech. Victoria will spend more money servicing its record debt than it does on Victoria Police, Ambulance Victoria and kindergarten services combined. It is an absolute disgrace. Just think what we could achieve with $32 million a day – how many dangerous roads or potholes we could fix, how many graduate nurses we could employ, how many more hospitals we could upgrade, how many more SES, CFA and FRV trucks we could roll out or how many more buses we could put on for the school students stranded due to overcrowded public buses across the network. Under Labor that $32 million a day just goes on paying interest on debt. These interest repayments represent a huge opportunity cost for Victorians. Billions and billions of dollars are wasted just repaying interest on debt, not even paying down the principal, rather than funding essential services and workers like more nurses, more teachers and more police.

Under Labor Victorians are the highest taxed people in the country. In the budget Labor plans to take more than $50 billion in tax from Victorians in a cost-of-living crisis. Victorians are already the highest taxed people in the country, but under Premier Jacinta Allan Labor will tax you even more, with the tax take increasing by 5.1 per cent each and every year. To put that into perspective, this equates to around $6605 in tax per Victorian. Labor has added or increased taxes 67 times, yet tax revenue is barely enough to pay for its public sector wages bill. This means Victorian taxes do not even go to paying for more of the essential services, like police stations and hospital emergency departments, that are desperately needed.

We know Victorians have had enough. They are frustrated and desperate for change. Victorians deserve a financially responsible and disciplined government that will secure Victoria’s economic future.

Our Wilson Liberals and Nationals comprehensive 10-year economic plan will do just that. Our 10-year economic plan will secure Victoria’s economic future. We will clean up the books, restore budget honesty and guarantee the services that Victorians rely on. Labor has created serious economic challenges, so it will not be easy. But with a fresh start and our comprehensive 10-year economic plan, we will repair the budget to deliver a cash surplus by 2032, to guarantee the essential services and frontline workers that Victorians rely on and to lower taxes to help ease the cost of living.

As Liberals, we believe that Victorians should keep more of the money that they earn, so we will lower taxes. We will lower land tax and payroll tax, and we will scrap the emergency services volunteers tax. Land tax is a tax on families, on mum-and-dad investors and on renters. We will make housing more affordable by reversing Labor’s 2023 land tax hikes. Our Liberal solution will raise the land tax threshold from $50,000 to $100,000 next year, gradually increasing the threshold back to $300,000 over the next five years, making housing more affordable and saving up to $975 in tax per year for hundreds of thousands of Victorians.

We will also back business and reduce payroll tax, which is a tax on jobs. That is why we will increase the payroll tax threshold to $1.2 million, consistent with New South Wales, making Victoria far more competitive. This measure will provide real tax relief to around 23,000 businesses, making it more affordable for businesses to hire more people, to create more jobs and to help our economy to grow. We will also scrap Labor’s emergency services volunteers tax on every household, including renters, on every business, including manufacturers, and on every farm. Labor plans to rake in $6.85 billion with its ESV tax, yet we have not seen any money quarantined for the Lilydale SES unit in my community or the CFA fire brigades of the Maroondah and Yarra Valley groups, with emergency services in my region and in many parts of Victoria still having to attend fires and storms in 30-year-old trucks.

Under our 10-year economic plan, we will prioritise essential services and frontline workers with a hiring freeze on the back office. The hiring freeze is simple: no-one will be sacked and there will be no redundancies – that is a fact. Our essential services guarantee is crystal clear. Our plan will secure the critical frontline workforce for health, education, police and law enforcement. In fact we will grow our emergency services to help keep communities safe by recruiting 3000 more police. That will allow us to reopen the police stations shut by Labor, including Mooroolbark police station and Croydon police station in my local community – stations which have been shut for more than four days a week by Labor.

The Auditor-General and the Silver review both identified significant concerns about the public sector bureaucracy cost blowouts that have put the sustainability of Victoria’s economy at risk. Our plan will reduce the back office so we can protect the frontline services at risk under Labor. For Labor MPs who might try to mislead Victorians in their communities about this sensible and fiscally responsible measure: we will manage the public service through attrition. This equates to just over 2 per cent of the public sector workforce. Surely Labor will not refuse hardworking public servants retirement should they choose it. If you work in the public sector today, we are securing your job. And if you choose to retire or choose to work elsewhere, those roles will not be replaced for a short period of time, instead enabling us to put that money back into essential services and frontline workers, like more police, more nurses, more teachers, more paramedics and more firefighters that Victorians need and rely on.

It is a real point of difference to Premier Allan and Labor, who have admitted over the last year they have cut thousands of public service jobs. We know that critical frontline services like health, education and police are under significant pressure with workforce shortages. That must be fixed, and that is what we will do. Under Labor we are short thousands of police, nurses and teachers. In this budget Labor has not outlined any plan to tackle these critical workforce shortages. We absolutely must take these fiscally responsible measures in order to do that.

In November, the Allan Labor government is asking Victorians to give them 16 years in power, and the Wilson Liberals and Nationals are offering Victorians a fresh start. Only the Liberals and Nationals will strengthen our economy to ease cost-of-living-pressures, end the crime crisis and keep communities and families safe, deliver a world-class health system that Victorians can have confidence in and give every Victorian the best opportunity to own their own home. We will deliver this with a financially responsible and disciplined economic recovery plan. That is the 10- year economic plan that we have announced and will stand by, because under Jacinta Allan and the Labor government, we are headed in the wrong direction. It has to stop. We have to turn our economy around.

The SPEAKER: Correct titles, member for Evelyn.

Bridget VALLENCE: Our plan, as I said, is disciplined and responsible. It will restore confidence in the Victorian economy. It will bring back investment, which has flatlined under the Labor government. In fact this budget showed that economic growth will actually decline next year under the Labor government to a mere 1.5 per cent. A fresh start and our 10-year economic Liberal plan will lower taxes and protect the essential frontline services that Victorians expect and deserve. I commend the motion to the house.

 Josh BULL (Sunbury) (16:16): I am pleased to have the opportunity to follow on and make a contribution to this matter of public importance submitted by the member for Evelyn and to take up some of the points made within the MPI this afternoon that go to in particular the words ‘while essential services deteriorate’. The words ‘while essential services deteriorate’ are in this matter of public importance. I wanted to take the opportunity to point to the significant, large and sustained investments that this government has indeed made in so many of those essential services that people within my community and people within communities right across the state use each and every day that seem to be completely disregarded by those opposite. Certainly listening to much of the debate that has been throughout the journey of today’s sitting, to listen to and understand the importance around that investment and to point out some of the truths that are skimmed over by those opposite when it comes to investing in those essential services – we have of course embarked on a massive pipeline and program of works that go to supporting essential services in our state. Whether that be the delivery of the Metro Tunnel, which we opened last year –

Tim Richardson: You were there.

Josh BULL: The uptick in services, member for Mordialloc. I was indeed there, and I believe you were as well. Just to be able to see the difference that that project makes to not just the two interconnecting lines, the Sunbury line and the Cranbourne–Pakenham line, but indeed the entire network. This is a significant investment – work that has taken more than a decade. That is what you get when you deliver large-scale projects. That is what you get when you have got a sustained vision and a commitment to deliver a project that is so important to the community and indeed an essential service. It is not just about having the ability to run more trains more often; it is about getting people to places like our uni precinct and our hospital precinct, enabling that support and enabling options and opportunities for Victorians to be able to access those places. Whether you live in communities like mine or whether you live in that great place of Bendigo, all of these places then become available for use, opening up new options for education and opening up new options for our world-class hospital precinct – that is what this investment does. So I had to read a couple of times those words around essential services and make sure that I could actually see that and understand that they were the words that were put in by the submitter of the MPI. The list is long and comprehensive, and I certainly do not have in my 11½ minutes that are remaining an opportunity to go through all of that investment in all of those essential services.

But whether it be Metro, as I just mentioned, the West Gate Tunnel, the removal of nearly 90 dangerous and congested level crossings, free TAFE or free kinder, making sure that people have an opportunity within local communities to have these services is something that the government is focused on. I note that time and time again when we hear those opposite, as they have today and as the Leader of the Opposition did in her budget reply speech, there is just a complete disregard of the investment in any of these services. What I find astounding is that the commentary around those is simply, as I said before, disregarded. That is something that certainly does not add any fact to debate.

The opposition should take some time to have a good close look at page 4 of budget paper 2 to learn about the responsible fiscal strategy, the five-step fiscal strategy, that is outlined in the budget. On that page they might learn about step 3 of the fiscal strategy, delivering the surplus, which is a surplus of more than $700 million, the only one amongst eastern states. If they read on, they will of course learn that the budget forecasts five consecutive surpluses with an average surplus of $1.7 billion over the budget and forward estimates for years to come. Two pages down they could read about steps 4 and 5 of that fiscal strategy, which go to stabilising and reducing debt as a share of the economy:

As a proportion of GSP, net debt is projected to reach 24.9 per cent at June 2027 before declining each year across the forward estimates to 24.4 per cent by June 2030. Compared with the 2025–26 Budget Update, net debt to GSP is lower across all published years.

So what that is saying and what that is all pointing to is indeed that important strategy, the ability of our state to continue to grow and the ability of the government’s fiscal strategy, which is working. It is pointing to some of these key points which go to the Victorian economy growing faster than any other state over the last decade, with more business investment and more jobs than any other state – I did not hear that mentioned: over half a million more jobs than in 2020, 123,000 more businesses than in 2020, business investment up 44 per cent since 2020 and of course the resilience within the economy, which has had to weather, as I mentioned in an earlier contribution, some of those global challenges.

This all points to good economic management that is based in facts and based in the read of the numbers. If I add to that some of the other impressive features that we see, we are building more homes than any other state, 55,000 last year alone; we have the biggest employing manufacturing industry in the nation; we are home to 3500 startups now worth almost $130 billion; we are number one for food exports; and we are a world leader in health tech medical research, that being the largest sector in the nation. Those are a couple more facts based upon the data and the figures that we are seeing. That stands in stark contrast to much of what we have heard both from the previous speaker and through some of the debate today. Making that investment in those essential services, underpinned by the five-step fiscal strategy which we have outlined, goes to providing for better services and more support for local communities.

That takes me to where I wanted to go, and it only took me a lazy 9 minutes to get there. That goes to the point around having resilience in the economy at a time when we have seen significant global challenge. I met with some industry groups that spoke about there being somewhere in the order of a 15 per cent cost escalation as a result of the war in Iran over two weeks.

When you hear of business and industry talking to you in those terms, it certainly should be ringing alarm bells. Members of this government I know are focused on addressing those concerns, not simply ignoring them and putting their head in the sand and saying, ‘That’s a matter for another country and that doesn’t affect us’ – it does. The reality is that when you are responsible and you are responsive these are the steps and the measures that you take. The announcements that were made in the lead-up to the budget – the 20 per cent off car rego and the extension of free public transport and then half-price for the rest of 2026. We are making these investments and so many more, whether that be more PSOs for more hours in more places, funding for a violence reduction unit, the roads maintenance package, better access to the Get Active Kids program, public IVF, the police reservists – the list goes on. We know that we need to keep doing these things to make sure that the Victorian community is supported.

That takes us to those investments and that plan that are all underpinned by those fiscal numbers, making for what we see as that important investment. Many of those facts and figures are something that we have focused on and that are, unfortunately, politicised by those opposite to a point where it is about fear and division and talking the state down. What we bring to the table is a completely different approach. That approach goes to investing in jobs, transport and health and all of the services that I have mentioned in my contribution so far. There is of course the approach to go a different way, and we will remain focused on providing Victorians the support they need at a really challenging time. The words that are in the MPI do create an interesting conversation about the delivery of those essential services. When it comes to the delivery of those essential services, what we see and what we hear from those opposite should certainly strike fear into many, many Victorians. Thankfully there has been a considerable time since the people of Victoria had the damage inflicted on them by the Liberal government. While I say that, if you are looking at a national approach – and I spoke about this earlier in my contribution – and if you look at what was served up from Canberra for the best part of a decade, we were just sort of a forgotten jurisdiction of the Commonwealth. We were just sort of a forgotten land down here, and there was no support for projects like Metro. What was that figure that was just thrown at me?

Lauren Kathage interjected.

Josh BULL: I will take up the interjection. It was 7 per cent Commonwealth funding with 23 per cent of the population. If those opposite are serious about levelling the books and making all these representations and all of these sorts of statements that they come in here and make, then I would have loved to see some of that advocacy to Canberra in those times. Thankfully now we are dealing with a different show, and as the federal Treasurer hands down the federal budget tonight, yet again thanks to a federal Labor team, I am sure that there will be the investment in Victoria that we are entitled to and that we deserve. That partnership goes to providing for, as my very good friend from Yan Yean just reminded me, population and the population of this state when it comes to the national picture. Making those investments is really, really important, and having partnerships is really, really important.

I will start where I finished, and that is to say that the words in the MPI ‘deterioration of essential services’ really caught my attention. When you look at that really long list – I have got absolute mountains of paperwork here that I could go through – when it is about supporting all of those services that we know are so important to Victorians, especially in communities that are fast-growing communities, making those investments for those services is something that we remain committed to and focused on. The provision for that sustained investment is only made possible when you have got a Premier and a Treasurer that are acutely aware of the challenges that Victorians are facing but that also have the ability to be able to respond to those challenges. That of course is what this previous month in particular has been all about.

There is a long, significant and sustained pipeline of projects that has been delivered by this government, and I do not think I have ever heard anyone on this side of the house say it is perfect at all times in all places. Of course it is not; that is just not reality. But the difference between our side and what we see from the other side is that we remain committed to making sure that we are providing for Victorians, no matter which community they live in. Whether you live here in the city, in the growing suburbs, like where I live in Sunbury, or out in the magnificent parts of rural and regional Victoria, making sure that we are supporting you is something that we remain focused on. All of the programs and the initiatives that have been outlined in the budget are very, very important. Meeting those commitments is something we will do today and every single day we have the opportunity to be in government.

 Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (16:31): Of course I rise to support this matter of public importance, because Victorians are living through the consequences of a government that has lost control of the finances and, as we know, cannot manage money. The tragedy of it all is that for all the record spending that we hear about and pats on the backs being given to members on the other side, for all the announcements, the glossy media events, the artist impressions and so on and so forth, ordinary Victorians are asking a very important question: why is it getting so hard to make ends meet? Because people can feel the decline and they can see it. They can feel it when they open their power bills, they can certainly feel it when they hit a pothole, they can feel it when they pay their land tax, they can feel it when they sit on an elective surgery waiting list and they can feel it when they drive on roads that are crumbling. Victoria is now the highest taxed state in the nation. Think about that for a minute. The state that once proudly called itself the economic engine room of this nation now has a warning label: record debt, record taxes and record waste. And yet the services that we are receiving are deteriorating before our eyes.

So what are Victorians getting in return? Because it is certainly not confidence, it is certainly not trust in government, it is not affordability and it is certainly not honesty. It is a culture of spin over substance and announcements over actual delivery, it is media management over financial management and it is politics before people – and the people have had a gutful. Every Victorian is paying the price. The fundamental job of everyone in this place is to put the people first, but to do that of course you need to listen.

Nowhere is this imbalance felt more sharply than in regional Victoria, because country Victorians are increasingly asked to pay metropolitan-level taxes, disproportionately, for less services. In my electorate, which covers about 16.5 per cent of this state’s land mass, we are productive, we are resilient, we are innovative. We feed this state and nation, to the tune of an agriculture industry in Victoria that is worth $200 billion alone, which will be equal to the 2030 interest bill. But we are constantly forced to fight for things that should already exist. We fight for health care, for roads, for housing and for police resources, and too often we fight just to be seen, heard and believed. Regional Victorians are tired of being treated like they should be grateful for the leftovers: ‘Thank you very much for the leftovers.’ The people I represent work extraordinarily hard. Farmers are battling import costs and water insecurity.

Small businesses are being crushed by rising taxes and energy bills, healthcare workers are carrying workloads that you would not believe and families are travelling hundreds of kilometres for appointments that city residents can access within minutes. Despite contributing enormously to the Victorian economy, regional communities are too often treated as an administrative inconvenience or as an ATM. Outside of that, the inequity continues. People can see the double standard, and they have had a gutful. Regional people do not expect luxuries, but we do expect fairness. All we are asking for is the bare minimum – a functioning health system, safe roads to drive our families around on, reliable policing, affordable housing, a school system with decent facilities and school buildings that are not held together by chipboard with students being expected to learn in them. Somehow, after more than a decade of this Labor government, these things now feel aspirational in the regions. It is absolutely absurd and disgusting.

Let us talk about the Mildura Base Public Hospital for a moment. That hospital services parts of New South Wales and South Australia, a catchment of about 75,000 people. It is the front door of health care for an enormous region, and yet the staff are under so much pressure in a hospital that was professed to have a master plan four years ago but has never been delivered. The emergency department desperately needs more beds, patients are under pressure and this government just continues to tell us things are on track. Well, you know what, the people waiting in the waiting room at 2 am beg to differ. Things are not on track. The system is absolutely broken.

Victorians have been hit with 62 new or increased taxes, levies and charges, all dressed up as reforms, and the result of that is businesses are hesitating to invest or are withdrawing from Victoria altogether, developers are walking away from projects and landlords are exiting the market – and we wonder why we haver got a housing crisis, because there is simply no incentive for landlords to provide those long-term rentals on the long-term rental market. Regional communities are fighting to attract a workforce because the accommodation supply has dried up, simple as that. It is not accidental. This is a consequence of this government’s socialist economic decisions, and every time this government gets itself into financial trouble it comes to Victorians and the people, and we become the ATM, just like we have seen in the regions with the emergency services tax, which we will scrap.

There is another issue – I mean, there are plenty of issues, but budget honesty is one of those things. The Victorian people are sick of being treated like fools. You cannot continue to announce headline figures without transparency around blow-outs. You cannot continue hiding waste beneath layers of bureaucracy and spin. At some point governments have to tell the truth, and the truth is that Victoria’s financial position is now constraining our ability, as the Leader of the Opposition said earlier today, to deliver the essential services that people need and that people pay for with their hard-earned taxes. That money could be building hospitals or fixing roads, that money could be supporting frontline workers and it could be strengthening regional infrastructure that is so desperately needed. Instead, it disappears into interest repayments on a debt hurtling towards $190 billion. That is not leadership, it is not visionary, it is a fiscal anchor wrapped around the ankles of future generations, and it is not fair. While Labor lecture everyone else on sustainability, they have delivered one of the least sustainable financial positions this state has ever seen.

It is time for a fresh start and a real plan, because failing to plan is planning to fail, and that is what Labor has done. The Leader of the Opposition did present our 10-year plan to secure Victoria’s economic future earlier today – a real, tangible, readable, honest and transparent plan. It is a plan to fix the budget, lower taxes and give Victorians actual accountability and transparency into where their hard-earned tax dollars are actually being spent. It is about discipline, it is about priorities, it is about restoring confidence that has been eroded by this Labor government that fails to deliver outcomes but always delivers a headline.

This is a disciplined 10-year economic plan, and it is not radical. Families budget, businesses budget, small businesses budget, yet Labor governs as if there are no consequences to failing to budget adequately. Eventually those consequences show up, and they have arrived. Every single Victorian is paying the price, and regional Victorians are sick and tired of being regarded as an afterthought. We contribute enormously to this state. We grow the food, we power industries, we drive exports, we sustain agriculture, we underpin tourism and we keep supply chains moving. Without regional Victoria, Victoria grinds to a halt. Yet too often regional communities are expected to accept a measly 12 per cent of Victoria’s infrastructure spending with gratitude. That is not equity, that is managed neglect.

Victorians deserve honesty. They deserve a government willing to admit that endless spending without discipline has consequences. They deserve a government that understands that every dollar spent is a dollar earned by somebody who has worked extremely hard for it, and they deserve a government focused not on the next media cycle but actually on the next generation. We have that plan. We have a 10-year plan that you can read and peruse at your pleasure. There has been zero transparency. It is time for a fresh start.

 Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (16:41): It is great to follow the member for Mildura, who talked about the reading of a plan. Just because you say you have got a plan and it says ‘10 years’ does not mean it is a plan. It does not mean it is anything other than one of the most aggressive attacks on the public service we have ever seen by taking one in seven people out.

Paint me this wonderful picture, Nationals and Liberal coalition. Paint me a story where those opposite try to achieve a cash surplus and still say things like ‘We will build hospitals, we will build roads and we will build new schools.’ How on earth do you take $11.1 billion out of your revenue over the forward estimates and then slash and burn with a cash surplus attempt that takes infrastructure away? How on earth do the Nationals achieve any sort of infrastructure on behalf of their constituents? I will tell you, there is late-breaking news here, and I know, Speaker, you tune into the late-breaking news: it cannot be done. Those opposite know that this would –

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Stop the clock. The member for Mordialloc will resume his seat. Member for Lowan, you are not in your place. Member for Frankston! This is unacceptable. Member for Mildura, you had your turn.

Tim RICHARDSON: A bit excited on that side, aren’t they? We are only 27 weeks away from the first vote being cast at pre-poll, and goodness me, the orange tsunami that is hitting regional Victoria right now – it would cause me unknown anxiety. The Leader of the Nationals used to advise Barnaby Joyce. He must be looking on now, going, ‘Maybe there is a coalition we could form here. Maybe we could bring the orange and green together.’ I am colourblind; I do not know what orange and green together looks like, but I know it is an absolute hot mess. It is a hot mess out there in regional Victoria right now, because we see now a situation where the Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Treasurer is making Scott Morrison blush at the number of portfolios she is taking on, because there is no depth on that side.

I do think the member for Evelyn made a very good shadow finance spokesperson, having served on the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC), because the member for Evelyn, in her political judgement and skills, would never have gone on the record, like the member for Kew did on 16 August 2024 when she said these immortal words: ‘We’re going to have to make cuts to health, and we’re not going to be able to build schools or fix any of them.’ When you look at that, you go, ‘It was a moment of clarity. It was a moment of honesty when they said the quiet bit out loud.’ Those opposite over there said,’ No, no essential services will be harmed on our watch.’ Goodness me, how many conservatives have we heard say that back to the dawn of time? Tony Abbott said it. Scott Morrison said it. The hero of the member for Kew Josh Frydenberg said it over and over. And what do we see – we see those opposite so agitated and excited, but when the Nationals and the Liberals federally took debt up towards a trillion dollars, you did not hear a squeak. You did not hear a word over there, because it was Liberal debt – it was productive debt, it was some other debt, it was saving debt. Whatever debt it was, remember, they all hid, they all put their heads down, because it takes Jim Chalmers, who will deliver an outstanding Labor budget tonight, to bring down tens of billions of dollars and reduce that debt over time.

Those opposite never talk about federal debt, do they? We saw the heroes of the member for Kew, Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg, ratchet up $1 trillion in debt. Debt to GDP is up in the mid-30 percentile, right. This is a really important point around the member for Mildura’s point around the sustainability of the state and the federal government. It was absolute nonsense that was uttered, because our debt to state product is at 24.9 per cent. Federally it is over 30 per cent. So those opposite say it is cataclysmic and it is all falling into the world. How are we ever going to cope in Victoria? The biggest naysayers are on that side and have every bit of investment in talking down Victorians. They make Pauline Hanson blush, who stands at Flinders Street and says, ‘I hate Melbourne so much, but I am coming for all the Liberals and Nationals at the next election.’ The only people you can find that hate Victoria more than Pauline Hanson are the Liberals and Nationals, who want to burn our economy, who want to take us to a point of austerity. Let us just think for one moment. Where in any sort of calculation have we seen that austerity leads to better confidence and greater outcomes? In what jurisdiction or nation or state where you slash and burn your public service and drive confidence into the gutter, where you bring that level of harm and austerity, does that ever happen? The member for Kew will not answer that question, because what did the member for Kew say in that first speech? Oh, it is a goodie, this one, Speaker. I know you are tuned in and you are astute in politics. It was:

It is business that creates jobs, not government.

Well, guess what, the hundreds of thousands of people that rely on governments for their jobs do not matter under the member for Kew’s leadership. They do not matter. Your job will be cut. If you are working in a hospital, if you are working in a school or if you are working to build our state for tomorrow, for the generations to come, your job does not matter under the member for Kew. That is the sad reality of a statement so honest like that. Because when we see those opposite talk down our economy, when we see the drive towards a cash surplus, there will be nothing built. There will be no more hospitals, and there will be no education for over a decade. That is what the 10-year plan talks about. When you get through all the glossies – you know, there are a couple of stills from the TikTok reels there; you get the candid shot, the walk shot and the coming out of the chamber shot – when you boil this down, it has about 50 or 60 words of actual substance: cuts, destruction, austerity. That is what it is really about. What is it with Liberals and Nationals that they have to hold a book every time they go out and do something. It is like they need a prop to hold. Remember Tony Abbott had that book to hold, Malcolm Turnbull had a book and Sussan Ley had a book. They love a little glossy brochure. When you have got more photos than words, you have got the balance wrong. You have just got to go back to the printers and say, ‘Where’s our substance and where are we going here?’

What I heard in the Shadow Treasurer and Leader of the Opposition’s speech today was nothing more than more naming of challenges and problems and no solutions. That is basically what we hear each and every time – a great boundary rider commentator, will name you a problem a thousand times over but never come up with a solution. Haven’t we all heard of those in a workplace before? Every doorstop, every news conference and every time you see the member for Kew on the TV, it is someone else’s problem. It is, ‘We don’t have a plan. We don’t need a plan. The government’s bad.’ It is just constant negativity, always talking down the place. And then we get a 12-page glossy brochure that says they are going to tear the place apart, worse than Jeff Kennett and worse than Tony Abbott. I mean, Joe Hockey and Tony Abbott – the member for Kew would have been well placed in that government with the level of cuts and destruction that is on the way. So that is the choice for Victorians. Do we drive forward at a hard time in our state –

Bridget Vallence: On a point of order, Speaker, this is about the matter of public importance. It does not refer to the member for Kew, the Leader of the Opposition. But also it is only the Labor government and Premier Jacinta Allan that has cut thousands of public sector jobs. Only Labor is cutting jobs.

The SPEAKER: The member for Evelyn will resume her seat. There is no point of order.

Tim RICHARDSON: I just want to say, for the opposition leader’s staff tuning in from Spring Street, sitting in the opposition leader’s office: member for Kew, I value you more than the member for Evelyn there. You are relevant to this debate because you are the Shadow Treasurer and we are talking about – check, is this microphone on? Goodness me – the Shadow Treasurer and the Leader of the Opposition are not relevant to an MPI about the economy, about debt and about budgets. I think we have just entered the twilight zone. I do not know where we are at the moment, but goodness me, what a point of order that was. Maybe I am wrong, member for Evelyn. Maybe the document that has been put forward, the 10-year plan, is so irrelevant that the member for Evelyn has opened up the can of worms, has detailed the lack of seriousness in this documentation and what has been put forward. It is disorderly to acknowledge people in the gallery, but we do have someone in the gallery that might be – no, we cannot acknowledge someone in the gallery. But if there was someone in the gallery that might be the future member for Nepean – poor Rosebud Hospital, straight through to the keeper. It could not be done with a cash surplus. It was promised, and then the poor future member for Nepean has been thrown under the bus, because a cash surplus means no chance. It is wiped away – see you later for another day. We would not have that as an opportunity with that. So Victorians will be able to unravel this.

Danny O’Brien interjected.

Tim RICHARDSON: Oh, here we go. In comes the Leader of the Nationals. It is just a pop-up there –

Danny O’Brien interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Leader of the Nationals, Member for Mordialloc, through the Chair.

Tim RICHARDSON: PAEC’s finest over there, the Leader of the Nationals. He is getting a bit tense, the Leader of the Nationals, because all this discussion around change and destruction – they have got to thread the needle, the Nationals. They cannot talk the state down too much because One Nation then gets a bit of a foothold in. The Nationals have got a really rare thing where they have got to be aspirational a bit, not so much like the Liberals, but then One Nation is banging on the door, and if they go full austerity and full impact they know their communities will only vote for Pauline Hanson. Right here today it is a Labor government that has got the plans for the future, while the captains of austerity over there will destroy our state for the future.

 David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (16:52): What a tragic budget this government has delivered to Victoria. It is 200 days until the election, when Victorians get a chance to decide and to ultimately and finally boot this government out, to send it the message that they have had enough, they have had a gutful and we have got to get Victoria to where it once was, because this is a government that has no idea how to manage money. That is the issue. They have delivered a budget with no idea how to actually manage money. This was the big budget that was going to send them into an election to tell Victorians, ‘This is what we have planned.’ It was such a great budget that they went radio silent after budget day. We have not heard a whisper; we have not heard a thing. Where are all the big budget lunches? Where are the corporate lunches? Where is everybody saying, ‘Hey, look at us. We’re fantastic. This is what we’re going to do for you’? Not a whisper. Why – because it was a few sugar hits, and even on the free public transport, Natalie Barr from Sunrise pulled up the Premier there, didn’t she, and said, ‘How are you going to pay for that $200 billion worth of debt?’ ‘Well, we have a surplus.’ And then nothing. Only a couple of days after Anzac Day all of the premiers were on Sunrise except for the Premier. She will not go back to Sunrise.

Luba Grigorovitch: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, I would ask the member to come back to the substance of the MPI.

Members interjecting.

Luba Grigorovitch: No, it seems like a tangent.

David Southwick: Deputy Speaker, I understand there is a new minister at the table, but we must understand there is no point of order, because this is a government riddled with debt, with corruption, with crime, and the minister at the table, who I will be getting to in a minute, headed the CFMEU corruption scandal – $15 billion worth. Again, I would say this is a government full of waste, full of mismanagement, and we know where your union mates are, Minister.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: That is not a point of order. But I do not uphold the point of order. The member for Caulfield to come back to the MPI, please.

David SOUTHWICK: On the MPI, CFMEU corruption, $15 billion – that is part of why we have the budget blowouts that we have. And this government is –

Belinda Wilson: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, I believe the member for Caulfield owes the minister a bit of respect and an apology for that threatening remark he made.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: That is not a point of order.

David SOUTHWICK: When we talk about corruption, when we talk about debt, when we talk about mismanagement, you have to go to the heart of it. The member for Mordialloc had said before that you need to be able to see how you are going to be able to pay for things: ‘How can we pay for things in a budget going forward?’ You only have to look at $15 billion worth of corruption, CFMEU corruption, which this government were part of and this government ignored. Not only did they ignore it, but they promoted a minister that is mates with the very people that are part of all of this.

Luba Grigorovitch: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, the substance of the MPI is totally being overlooked here. Could we go back to the MPI, which that member’s party put up.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: On relevance, the MPI has become a wider ranging debate than just the words in front of us. I do ask all members to stick to the substance of the MPI.

David SOUTHWICK: At the heart of this is how we manage a budget going forward. Clearly this government has mismanaged a budget with union mates, with ministers that have now been promoted because they are friends with union mates, which shows this corruption will not stop under the Allan Labor government; it will continue. Victorians will get the opportunity to decide in November: do they want more of the same? Do they want more CFMEU corruption on Big Build worksites, or do they want a stop to it? Because one of the things that we will do under our government, which will ensure that we get confidence back in Victoria – because part of investment is confidence, and we need investor confidence – is we will have a royal commission, and we will jail those that have done illegal activities here in Victoria, because that is what will build investor confidence in Victoria, that will build certainty and that will ensure that people will come back and invest in this state.

What we have seen in Victoria, unfortunately, is people that have said, ‘Anywhere but Victoria.’ Why? Because it is too hard to do business. It is the largest taxing state in the nation. You cannot get ahead in Victoria if you continue to squeeze the very people that will build more investment in this state, and people are leaving because of these highest taxes that we have. That is why a Wilson Liberal government will ensure that we have lower taxes – lower payroll taxes, lower stamp duty, lower land taxes – to encourage more investment, to encourage more jobs, to get more confidence and to ensure more certainty, and that is what Victorians desperately need.

We have seen a budget that has been delivered by this government that is a fake budget with a fake surplus. We saw $700 million that was propped up by a lotto deal that has also been underpinned by a donation to the Labor Party. It is a 40-year deal – over $1.1 billion for 40 years. This is normally a 10-year contract, but it is a 40-year contract. Why? Just to deliver a budget surplus. The same lotto organisation that received the contract also donated over $100,000 to the Labor Party. This government has perfect form. They know what they are doing when it comes to corruption. They know what they do when it comes to scandal after scandal. They know what they do when it comes to not managing the money and ensuring Victorians get a fair deal. That is what we will fix, and that is why we do need the royal commission. That is why we do need to jail those individuals that have been connected to the corruption that cost Victorian taxpayers $15 billion, and we need to get the money back. We need to get it back, because this is all connected to building and construction here in Victoria.

Building and construction is the largest employer in terms of jobs. It is the largest employer in terms of getting things back on track, and this government’s moved from the Big Build in transport to the big build in these activity centres. Who do you think is going to build the activity centres? Who do you think is going to be connected to these activity centres? It is the CFMEU; it is the one and the same. This government is absolutely addicted to the corruption dollars that they have through the CFMEU and their mates, and that is why we need to unpack it, and we will not be able to restore confidence in Victoria unless we unpack the corruption that goes with it.

We need to ensure that we get things back in this state. We cannot just have budget after budget that does not lay out a way forward that is going to get investor confidence, and that is what we will do. We will reform taxation, because we want to grow the pie. The only way to grow the pie in Victoria is to get consumer confidence, to get business confidence. I have spoken about tourism and major events. Major events have underpinned our reputation internationally, but we are losing major events. We have lost the MotoGP, we lost the Australian Open golf and we are about to lose the Supercars, and who knows what is next. We have had the Commonwealth Games and now $600 million to cancel the Commonwealth Games and $200 million for Glasgow to host the Commonwealth Games.

I wonder, when we see the Commonwealth Games, whether we are going to see some advertising for people to at least come to Victoria for the $200 million they got to host it. Because if we do not, then that has just been a huge waste of money. Think about how many hospitals and how many teachers and healthcare workers and public-facing frontline workers we could employ with $600 million of the wasted cancellation of the Commonwealth Games.

Chris Crewther interjected.

David SOUTHWICK: Think how much we could have done. Two Rosebud hospitals, we hear the member for Mornington say. That is because this government does not know how to manage money. And on events, the types of regulation and red tape that we have in Victoria – it is only in Victoria we have red tape. Taylor Swift internationally – we should call it the Swifty Tax. Every other country she goes to, she gets set up, has the best roadies and construction workers in the world setting up her major concerts. She comes to Victoria and it is a whole new set of laws and conditions here, a whole new way of doing business and a whole new cost. And guess who pays? The people attending the concerts. The people here, Victorians – we pay. We are turning events away. We are turning events away because the government is not investing in them, the government is not making business easier. Whether you are a business in Melbourne, whether you are a business internationally, whether you are a local, whether you are a tourist, whether you are a student here or an international student, no matter who you are, no matter where you come from, it is harder to do business in Victoria than in any other state. That game needs to change. Two hundred days to go, and Victorians finally need to ensure we get a fresh start and say no to a wasteful, corrupt Allan Labor government and yes to Jess to finally get a government that cares about all Victorians.

 Danny PEARSON (Essendon) (17:02): What a curious day this is. I might pick up where the member for Caulfield left off: 200 days to the election. That is true. It is 16 days – 16 sitting days – until this 60th Parliament rises. I have been around for a while, and I remember my first term. We won in 2014. We did not quite think we would get there, but we got there. And then we thought to ourselves, ‘Well, we have just fallen over the line and the opposition may well take us out in 2018.’ I remember those times and I remember 2018 very clearly. I reckon the member for Malvern, when he was the Shadow Treasurer, would have given a response and everyone would have been here in the opposition benches to hear him. I reckon if the opposition had a matter of public importance after the Shadow Treasurer gave a response, it would have been delivered by the Leader of the Opposition. And do you know what, this is not our MPI – and I do acknowledge it is the government’s obligation to fill quorum of the chamber – this is the opposition’s MPI. And where are they? They are nowhere to be seen. It is their own motion.

I have got a bit of time for the member for Evelyn. I mean, she was a pretty good shadow minister from where I saw. We always had a good sort of working relationship. But honestly, what a desultory performance of a motion. I mean, did she sort of wake up this morning and think, ‘Oh, geez, I’d better lodge an MPI for today,’ or it might have been yesterday. It is very, very slim. It is very, very loose. I love budget papers. As many people know, I am a particular fan of budget paper 5. It gives me a peculiar delight on budget day when I break the spine of my budget papers for the first time and I read them cover to cover. I like budget papers. That is why I enjoyed being the Minister for Finance. I would have thought, if I was the Shadow Minister for Finance, I too would kind of make some enjoyment about the fact that one day I might want to frame a budget, set down a budget, and I would do it. I do like the member for Evelyn, so I do feel bad taking exception, but really, the member for Evelyn has been here since 2018. Surely 200 days before an election, surely 16 sitting days before the election, the member for Evelyn could have done better. Surely the Leader of the Opposition may well have wanted to lead off this MPI to double down on her budget speech, but she is nowhere to be seen. I think that probably says more about the current internal dynamics of the Liberal Party than it says about anything else.

But I am happy to take the motion on face value, and I dispute it. I dispute it because of the fact that there is a conflation between the operating side of the budget and the capital side of the budget. Specifically, if you look at budget paper 2, page 5, table 1.1, ‘General government fiscal aggregates’, $0.7 billion is the surplus this year, $1 billion next year, $1.9 billion the year after, $1.9 billion the year after that, and then $2 billion.

Were you to peruse the Queensland budget papers, you would see a sea of red as far as the eye can see. They have got budget deficits each and every year, as it was published last year. I do appreciate Victoria is first cab off the rank when it comes to budget season. I had these figures in front of me earlier today. I think their budget deficit for this financial year is projected to be in excess of $8 billion. If you look at New South Wales, it is about $3.5 billion, so they are significant deficits. On the operating side of the ledger, what does that mean? It basically means you are borrowing money for operational services, for core government activities. If you are doing that, then effectively you are adding to your debt pile. Those opposite are not giving due weight in credence and credibility to a budget surplus, because of what that means. It means we are not borrowing for services. Indeed we have not borrowed for services since 2022–23. But of course under accounting standards it is important to acknowledge that you need to make an allowance for depreciation and amortisation, which is normally around about 2 per cent, and you write down those assets over 40 years. Obviously when you make investments of this nature the tail is longer.

I want to take the house’s attention back to a comment that the Leader of the Opposition made today. I have not seen Hansard yet, but I was just here in the chamber. I think I recall that the Leader of the Opposition made a pledge that there would be no cash deficits – that is, you have got the operating balance; when you take out any capital expenditure, there will be no deficits in 2032. Let us say, for example, that the Leader of the Opposition is saying, ‘We’re going to have $10 billion worth of tax cuts.’ I know they dispute that figure, but let us say they are saying, ‘We’re not doing that, and we’re going to have an employment freeze,’ and those two things net out. If you look at the budget papers – again, net cash flows from operating activities – budget paper 2, page 5, that means across the forward estimates it is about $6 billion. Really what the Leader of the Opposition is saying is that come 2032 the capital expenditure in the state of Victoria will be around $6 billion. That is taking us back to when John Brumby was the Treasurer of Victoria. From 2006 to 2014 the average capital expenditure was around $5 billion. I think it was about $4.9 billion per year. Despite the fact that we are going to have a larger population, despite the fact we will have an older population and despite the fact that members on the other side have come in here complaining about the fact that there is not capital investment for their electorates in this budget, what the Leader of the Opposition will do will effectively ensure there is no capital expenditure in the state of Victoria – none, nothing new.

Six billion dollars – what is that going to get you? It will probably get you a playground. It might get you the odd school upgrades and school rebuilds, maybe a little bit in a hospital, but that is it. The Leader of the Opposition is saying, ‘I’m being honest with the people.’ To some extent perhaps she is. I do recall Jeff Kennett said things like no Victorian worker would lose their job if he became Premier, and we know how that played out. John Howard talked about making everyone relaxed and comfortable. We saw how that played out. I remember Ted talked about the best paid teachers in the country. Then we had the Orwellian sustainable government initiative. Tony Abbott talked about no cuts to health, no cuts to education and no cuts to the ABC. We know how that worked out. At least the Leader of the Opposition, to her credit, is just basically saying, ‘I’m a Liberal, and this is what we do. We just cut, and it’s going to be in the order of $40 billion worth of cuts.’ The impact that that will have in terms of the economy will be quite significant. The public sector is worth about one-seventh of the state’s economy. If you start to denude the capacity of the public sector, if you start to strip it out, then you are going to seriously impair the ability of the government to deliver core services and to provide some direction for the state.

I also found it curious that in the Shadow Treasurer and Leader of the Opposition’s budget reply there was no mention of artificial intelligence – none. It is the biggest game in town. $1.1 trillion will be invested by the five hyperscalers globally in the 2026 calendar year. AI did not get a mention. If you think about what we are trying to do here in Victoria to crowd in that investment, and basically we have got a $25 billion pipeline when it comes to new data centres here in the state of Victoria, I would have thought that might have warranted a contribution from the Leader of the Opposition, even from the point of view, if I were to play devil’s advocate, to say, ‘We’re going to harness and utilise AI to more efficiently deliver services, and we’re going to have a fund.’ I would have thought that might have been something that you might want come up with, but no.

The Leader of the Opposition did say, ‘Call me old fashioned.’ I think the Leader of the Opposition’s formulaic thinking, her policy brain, was formed back in the 1990s. She is stuck back in the dark old ages. That does not reflect the common reality that we are experiencing now. This is really a desultory performance. The member for Bulleen is at the table. He is probably going to follow me, and I think he is just going to come out and say, ‘Hey, guys, remember me? I used to do things better.’ I have got to turn around and say, if the member for Bulleen was leading the debate –

Matthew Guy interjected.

Danny PEARSON: There you go. When one of the strongest members of the opposition when it comes to theatrics and performance in this place is on strike and has downed tools, doesn’t that say something to you? Two hundred days to the election – 16 sitting days. Why is 16 sitting days important? When you come to this place, you come as an equal. For the next 16 days the opposition and the government in this great theatre – this great pantheon of parliamentary figures, this great colosseum of parliamentary debate and duelling – are on even levels. Yet with 16 days to go, how many more MPIs will the opposition have between now and when the house rises? Not too many. Where are they? I walked past the bar coming in. They are not there. I did not see them out on the back verandah. Where are they? Are they in their rooms? Are they trying to basically make sure: ‘Hang on, are we sure? Have we got it? Is it “yes with Jess” or is it “yeah-nah with Jess”?’ One thing you know is that based upon their performance today it will be ‘less with Jess’. This is a desultory performance. You would have thought after 12 years they would be hungry. I know the member for Bulleen is hungry. I know he would have done a better job. What an insipid, lazy performance from a bunch of dilettantes. They make the Greens look credible.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member’s time has expired, and he should use correct titles.

 Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (17:12): I rise in support of the matter of public importance:

That this house condemns the Allan Labor government’s legacy of record debt, record taxes and record waste while essential services deteriorate, and affirms the need for a disciplined 10-year economic plan to clean up the books, restore budget honesty and guarantee the services Victorians rely on.

After more than a decade in office, Labor has created a state where families are paying more than ever before yet receiving less in return. We have the highest debt of any state in Australia, and despite this our hospitals are in crisis, our roads are crumbling, crime is rising and families are struggling to make ends meet. This budget should have been a reset. It should have levelled with Victorians about the scale of the problem and set out a credible plan to repair the damage. Instead it is a budget built on spin, secrecy and wishful thinking. Victoria’s net debt is projected to reach almost $199 billion. That is almost beyond comprehension. It means every Victorian man, woman and child is carrying a debt burden of $28,000. What is the cost of this debt? The state will spend around $32 million every single day on interest, more than $1.3 million every hour on interest.

That money does not build a hospital bed, it does not fix a road, it does not put police officers on the street and it does not employ a teacher; it simply services debt. This year Victoria will spend more on interest than on the entire frontline services of the police force, the ambulance service and the kindergarten teachers combined. That is the price of fiscal mismanagement. Yet the Treasurer still talks about a surplus while the state remains in a multibillion-dollar cash deficit. Victorians know you cannot claim to be in surplus while spending billions more than you receive. Families know that, small businesses know that and farmers certainly know that, but apparently this government does not. Faced with the consequences of its own decisions, Labor has turned to the only solution it knows: taxing Victorians harder. Since 2014 there have been 67 new or increased taxes: payroll taxes have doubled, land taxes have exploded and the Emergency Services and Volunteer Fund has become a new tax on households, farmers, volunteers and renters.

The GP payroll tax has driven up the cost of seeing a doctor. Registrations on our cars continue to rise. Victorians are working harder, paying more and getting less. And for all this additional tax revenue, where are the better services? Our health system is under extraordinary pressure. Patients are waiting hours, sometimes days, in emergency departments because there are no beds available. Ambulance response times are worse than they were a decade ago. Graduate nurses who have finished their training cannot get a job, but we have nurse shortages. Regional communities continue to miss out on essential services. At the same time Victoria has fewer police, with 1500 vacancies. Crime is rising: home invasions, car thefts, retail crime and violent offending are occurring at levels that alarm families and businesses alike. Police stations in communities like Portland, Koroit, Macarthur, Heywood and Terang have reduced opening hours or are completely closed. People no longer feel as safe as they once did. Teachers have taken to marching in the streets. Schools face funding cuts of up to $2.4 billion. Families are being asked to contribute more while receiving less.

Then there are our roads. Regional Victorians know exactly how bad the roads have become because they drive on them every day. Potholes are larger, more frequent and increasingly dangerous. Motorists are paying thousands of dollars in damaged tyres, wheels and suspensions. Roads that should have been rebuilt years ago are patched and patched and patched again. For the third year in a row the Allan Labor government has also dipped into the Transport Accident Commission to prop up its failing budget, taking around $1 billion off Victorian motorists every year. Let us call it what it is: it is a hidden tax on every driver. Motorists pay TAC premiums to support injured people on our roads, not bail out governments that cannot manage money. Then, after taking billions from the TAC, the government announces a $200 registration rebate and expects Victorians to be grateful. That is like taking a thousand dollars from someone’s wallet and handing back $200 as if you have done them a favour. Victorians are not mugs; they can see straight through this spin.

This Allan Labor government has delivered record debt, record taxes and record waste, and yet somehow the services people rely on keep getting worse, not better. In South-West Coast people work hard, pay their taxes and contribute enormously to the state, and they often feel they are overlooked and ignored by a Melbourne-centric government more focused on announcements than outcomes. The redevelopment of the Warrnambool Base Hospital was announced in 2020, yet despite soaring construction costs this budget provides no meaningful increase in funding. The completion date has slipped again, and communities are rightly asking whether the project is now being quietly scaled back again to fit Labor’s shrinking budget capacity. We are waiting desperately for the Western Region Alcohol and Drug Centre Lookout rehabilitation facility, which would give vulnerable people a chance to recover. The Warrnambool Surf Life Saving Club has missed out again on funding. Portland is still waiting for progress to develop on its promised gymnastics facility from the 2022 election promises. And the list goes on: the Warrnambool basketball stadium, the Portland basketball stadium, repairs to the leaking gymnasium at Warrnambool College, a pedestrian bridge across the Moyne River in Port Fairy, swimming pool upgrades and additional Warrnambool train line carriages. These are not extravagant requests. And Portland is still waiting for the helipad to reopen – a vital piece of emergency infrastructure that remote and regional Victorians should never have had taken away.

No household could operate like this, no business could operate this way, yet government expects taxpayers to write a blank cheque while they waste resources with a breathtaking arrogance – billions wasted on cost blowouts and through mismanagement of funding, billions tied up in projects lacking transparency and accountability and billions funnelled into blatant corruption. Ordinary people understand something this government refuses to admit: if you continually spend more than you earn, eventually the bill arrives. Well, the bill has arrived, Victoria, and it is being paid by working families, pensioners, farmers, young people trying to buy a home and businesses struggling to keep their doors open. That is why the Liberal and National coalition are putting forward a serious and disciplined 10-year economic plan to bring the state back – a plan based on honesty and on respect for taxpayers.

We understand that restoring Victoria’s finances will not happen overnight, because the damage Labor has done is enormous, but continuing down this path is simply unsustainable. Our plan includes an essential services guarantee to prioritise frontline workers and services that Victorians rely on most. While Labor continues growing bureaucracy, we will implement a hiring freeze on non-frontline back office roles so funding can be directed where it is needed most – to nurses, to teachers, to police, to paramedics and to essential community services – because Victorians do not want a bigger bureaucracy, they want functioning services.

We will progressively increase the land tax threshold to improve affordability for Victorians already struggling under enormous cost-of-living pressures. We will increase the payroll tax threshold and reduce the metropolitan payroll tax rate, because Victoria must once again become a place where businesses are encouraged to grow, employ and invest. Right now too many businesses are leaving Victoria and deciding not to expand because government has created a hostile environment for investment. You cannot tax your way to prosperity. We will restore integrity and transparency to the budget process through a charter of budget honesty and a real-time expenditure tracker, because Victorians deserve to know where their money is going and they deserve a government that respects taxpayers enough to be transparent.

We will establish a royal commission into the $15,000 million of Big Build corruption and create a new construction sector watchdog, because Victorians are rightly asking, ‘Where has all the money gone?’ We will lift the stamp duty threshold to $1 million for first home buyers because young Victorians deserve the chance to own a home in the state they grew up in. That is the legacy of this government – a state drowning in debt, families under pressure, businesses losing confidence and essential services stretched thinner every year. Victoria needs a new direction and a fresh start.

 Sarah CONNOLLY (Laverton) (17:22): I am so pleased to be able to get up to speak on this matter that has been put forward by the member for Evelyn this week, and I do so because it again demonstrates that those opposite – and I will say this time and time again – do not care about the communities that Victorians live in. They do not understand what we need, and they will not deliver what we deserve, particularly in Melbourne’s west. Now, like many on this side of the chamber, I have to say I have been absolutely flabbergasted – there are many words I could use, but I am going to say absolutely flabbergasted – by what has been announced by those opposite over the past couple of months as they try and try and try to paint themselves as an alternative government at the end of this year. Because what I have heard so far has not been great, but Friday’s announcement, I have to say, takes the cake for me. I could not believe it: $40 billion in cuts per year for six years was announced by the Leader of the Opposition. That is a deeper, more savage cut than Victorians have ever seen before.

The member for Kew thinks that in six years she can create a cash surplus. What we know on this side of the house is that you cannot deliver that without having to cut, and you will need to cut deeply and you will need to cut quickly. That means savage slashes to public services – public services that people in Melbourne’s west and my district of Laverton heavily rely on. That is $22 billion, at least, in cuts to public service departments and agencies. The Leader of the Opposition has had to back-pedal; she keeps saying on social media, ‘Oh, no, I’m not cutting frontline services.’ To get $40 billion in savings, you cannot not cut frontline services – you cannot not.

So if we are in this place and those opposite are talking about telling the truth and gaining respect with the community, then they need to start talking about what cuts they are going to make from day one. This is always true to form with the Leader of the Opposition, because upon assuming the leadership of her party, she went onto Sky News after dark – I cannot say I am a fan of these shows; ‘Sky News after dark’, what a title – and talked about having to make cuts to health services and cuts to schools, which means they will not get upgraded or even built. Now, you try and tell that to people in Melbourne’s outer west, who are desperate for us to build more schools. On this side of the house, we have been getting on and building them. Under those opposite, under the Liberals, there will not be any schools. There will not be any school upgrades.

I listened to the member for Kew’s speech this morning. I sat here and thought to myself, ‘She’s not talking about making life easier for folks in my community. She’s definitely not talking to folks in my community.’ The member for Kew is not talking about what is going to get us moving quicker, saving time and saving families money in a cost-of-living crisis. She is not talking about the family who is sitting at the table tonight trying to make ends meet. She is not talking about the young couple struggling to afford their first home. When I listened to the Treasurer’s speech last week, when she stood in this place and handed down the budget, it was very, very clear that the single most important focus that she had and our government has is the cost of living. This is what matters to people right here, right now in Victoria. Our budget is about the cost-of-living support for Victorians who are doing it tough right now, and I have to say, they are in every household across this state – east, west, north and south.

I do not think I heard once how the Leader of the Opposition plans to deliver real relief to families that are not well off, who cannot afford to send their kids to private schools and who do not own investment properties. She is not talking to folks in Melbourne’s western suburbs. The member for Kew sits here day upon day and pretends she knows the cost of everything, but she knows the value of absolutely nothing. That is the difference. That is the difference between the Liberal Party and the Labor Party. She knows the cost of nothing. The member for Kew talks about reckless spending and debt. We are talking about investing in Victoria and investing in Victorians, because we know that that support makes the difference to whether someone can actually get ahead and is not left behind. People should not be left behind. The member for Kew in her speech this morning said that children like her son will grow up with more debt and worse services. I mean, I found it difficult to move past that statement, because that was a big, bold statement.

So let me tell the member for Kew what our kids will grow up with, thanks to the investments that this Labor government has made in this state. At school they will benefit from the school breakfast clubs, and I think we just surpassed more than 60 million meals served over the course of this program. They will benefit from the free glasses program and free eye testing. Families who cannot afford the cost of having to get glasses for their child who cannot see are going to be better off with it. These glasses cost on average $300 per set. The dental Smile Squad is saving families hundreds of dollars to take their kids to the dentist and possibly saving them hundreds more in avoiding preventable tooth decay and surgeries. These kids will not have to pay to catch the bus to school, to play sport after school or to hang out with their mates on weekends. It saves parents money and fuel in having to drive them around. And when these kids finish high school, because one day they will, with the best outcomes in the state they can access free TAFE for a job that they will not struggle to find and save money on their Ls and Ps so they can learn to drive. They can take the Metro Tunnel. If the member for Kew has not ridden the great Metro Tunnel, I suggest she go to the train station and get on it. They can take the Metro Tunnel to get to university, and in 10 years from now they can do the same with the first stage of the Suburban Rail Loop to get to Monash or Deakin universities. They can drive on new and upgraded roads and freeways to get to work or to go and see their family. They can use the West Gate Tunnel or the North East Link to travel across the city. If they are sick, they can go to a world-class hospital like the new Footscray Hospital, or they can have their baby delivered at the Joan Kirner Women and Children’s Hospital, both built by Labor. All of these things are undoubtedly better outcomes for Victorians.

In sitting here today listening to those opposite talk about how Victorians are not better off, those opposite must walk around with their eyes absolutely closed, because Victorians are undoubtedly better off because of the significant, once-in-a-generation, life-changing investments that Labor has made in this state. You know what else kids like the Leader of the Opposition’s son will be able to do under Labor? They will be able to buy – he will be able to buy or even rent – an apartment in Kew, close to his mother, where the opposition leader lives herself, because of Labor’s housing policies.

I wonder about our kids and our communities in Melbourne’s west, what their future looks like and how dismal that will be under the Leader of the Opposition’s plan. Their schools will not get upgraded if they are overcrowded because they will not build schools. They did not build schools last time they were in government. To have the gall to stand here talking about recruiting teachers and nurses and building schools and services – they had the opportunity to build them but did not build any in this state. When we came to government in 2014, not only were the cupboards bare of ideas – there were no ideas at that stage – they had not built anything. We started building, but we were behind, especially in Melbourne’s west, where we keep trying to catch up and get ahead of the game. We are behind because those opposite did absolutely nothing. They built not one single thing and invested in not one single service last time they were in government. To stand here and ask for the trust and respect of Victorians – Victorians just need to cast their minds back to what they did last time they were in government, and that was nothing. It was cuts. It was closure. That is the history of the Liberal Party here in Victoria, which is why they have been out of government for 12 years.

This matter – I am not surprised. When I read it I thought of course they would bring this matter before the house and would again spend time talking down Victoria. There are incredible things that this Labor government has done for Victoria – life-changing things. I have had children here from Ardeer Primary School, children that I know are wearing the glasses they got from our free glasses for kids program – a saving of $300. Children from working-class families at a great local school – these are the sorts of people that need to benefit from big government, and they will only benefit under a Labor government.

 Will FOWLES (Ringwood) (17:32): I think it is my first and last opportunity, as an independent, to speak on a matter of public importance (MPI), and it is a doozy, it is fair to say. It is a doozy in its predictability in some respects – of course from the member for Evelyn – condemning the Allan Labor government’s legacy of record debt, record taxes and record waste while essential services deteriorate. It is not that it is without some truth, because in fact there are some very, very real and substantial problems, but I think it is really important that we understand at first principles the link between debt and infrastructure and to what extent debt is being applied to a good capital purpose and to what extent it is being applied to things that do not offer the same level of value or to things that are far too expensive because they have been mismanaged.

The member for Laverton just gave a speech where she referred to a range of infrastructure things that are, broadly speaking, good, but we did not hear her speak much about the electrification of the Melton rail line, for example. We did not hear her speak about some of the other infrastructure commitments that have been made by government that have not been honoured. The reality is there is a political compact. When leaders of political parties go to the electorate with a program and a plan, they enter into an agreement with that electorate, if they get the great fortune to govern in this state, and they need to deliver on those commitments. Labor has not delivered on Melton line electrification. It has now walked away from the funding of the Maroondah Hospital. These are big infrastructure commitments. It is not enough to say, ‘Look at all the wonderful infrastructure that has been built.’ You have to examine not only the value for money of that infrastructure but also what promises have been made around other infrastructure that have been seemingly abandoned.

This MPI does go to the heart of trust as well as to priorities and indeed the long-term direction of our state. Victorians are undoubtedly being asked to pay more, and they do feel, whether it is true or not, like they are getting less for that investment. We have got record debt, undoubtedly. We have got record taxes – true. There is growing pressure on essential services, absolutely. Is there increasing frustration? We need not look very far to find examples of it, not least, of course, in Farrer in recent times, where One Nation staggeringly went from a primary vote of 6 per cent to a primary vote in the high 30s in the space of 12 months.

I cannot recall a single example of a primary vote moving to that extent, up or down, in a 12-month period from any political party at any election in Australia. I hope the boffins in the room – perhaps the member for Essendon – can help me, but I would be staggered to find another example of a 30-plus point change in a primary vote in any direction in the space of 12 months. Are people unhappy? You better believe they are. Has the populist wave hit Australia? Absolutely it has, and we have got to be very, very wary about the consequences of that.

I think people understand that governments need to invest. They understand that infrastructure costs money, and they understand that governments must respond to disasters and emergencies. But the Labor government has now driven the debt van so hard and so fast that it is left with an inability to flex in the case of unforeseen circumstances. Whether it be a war in Iran or a bushfire in Longwood, it does not matter. The government needs to have capacity, needs to have flex and needs to have the ability to deal with the issues of the day. It is not about whether they should spend or not. It is about the fact that when you lose control of the books there are consequences. There are very clear consequences: projects get delayed; commitments disappear – we have seen plenty of those; services deteriorate – lots of evidence for that; and communities are told to wait. That is exactly what many Victorians feel like is happening right now.

The debt trajectory is extraordinary. It is so extraordinary that peak debt is beyond the forwards. The forwards in the budget do not actually capture peak debt in this state. The debt levels are unimaginable compared to what might have been foreseen even just a decade ago, and debt matters because at the end of the day you are going to have to pay the interest on that debt. You have got to service that debt, and that will ultimately crowd out very, very worthy competing priorities.

Interest is about to become, over the forwards, the third biggest spending line item in Victoria. It will be health, education, interest – not housing, not a whole bunch of other very, very worthy activities that government is engaged in, but interest payments. Every dollar spent servicing debt is a dollar that does not go ultimately into hospitals, schools, transport, emergency services, community infrastructure and housing, as I said. Financial discipline is not just some sort of abstract accounting exercise. It has a very real consequence.

I want to talk a bit, and I know the member for Euroa might very well be pleased to hear me raising this, about the 2019–20 Black Summer bushfires. I remember that summer very, very well. It was like Armageddon towards the end of 2019. The pandemic was coming, and we knew that something was up. There were those hideous bushfires. I am getting goosebumps just thinking about it. But in those fires there were 1000 structures destroyed – 400 homes taken out and 650-odd non-residential buildings – and 1.5 million hectares burned. Compare that with the recent bushfires, where 900 structures were destroyed and 338 homes taken out – comparable figures. Four hundred thousand hectares burned. Yes, there were fewer hectares in this circumstance, but in terms of the very real human, economic and commercial impact, they are broadly comparable figures.

The response back then, in 2019–20, was enormous. The Commonwealth established a national $2 billion bushfire recovery fund, and the Andrews government established Bushfire Recovery Victoria as a standalone authority and announced $64 million in bushfire tax relief, payroll tax relief, commercial stamp duty concessions, land tax relief, council assistance packages, broad clean-up programs and tourism recovery funding. There was also a $10 million council assistance fund and later a $465 million tourism recovery package. The clean-up program reportedly covered insured and uninsured properties. That came from a government that had some fiscal flex.

Roll the tape forward to 2025–26, and what do we see? Similar figures – 900 structures, 338 homes and 400,000 hectares, as I said. The government says more than $400 million has been committed towards response and recovery, and make no mistake, that investment is essential and worthwhile. The fire-impacted communities absolutely deserve support, but the response has clearly been narrower in scope. There has been no equivalent Bushfire Recovery Victoria–style authority publicly announced, no equivalent national recovery fund, no broad payroll tax relief, no major commercial stamp duty concessions and no equivalent council assistance framework. Even the simple matter of rates relief has not appeared. It has relied much more heavily on existing disaster funding arrangements and targeted grants, very temporary assistance and narrower tax relief measures.

It has included disaster recovery payments, income support and concessional loans and grants, all from the feds, and has just had land tax waivers and replacement home stamp duty from the state. That tells us something important. It tells us about the lack of fiscal flex and the lack of capacity that the government has to deal with those circumstances that are predictable to a degree, but nonetheless when it happens and the scale at which it happens seem invariably to take us by surprise. Why does this arise? Well, it arises for a few reasons. One is waste and overcommitment, so cost overruns, infrastructure delays and scaled-back projects where money is spent at the start of a project and then dribbles over time. Maroondah is a classic example: some number of millions were spent immediately after the election, and then a few million here and a few million there – basically the holding costs. The bureaucrats have done next to nothing in advancing that project in that time. When you compound that over the life of all of the projects being undertaken by government, what you see are cost overruns and a collapse in confidence. Eventually you run out of financial room to move.

Where we find ourselves right now in Victoria is in a state that is dealing with the legacy of the unrestrained ego of Daniel Andrews. The shrine to his unrestrained ego in an infrastructure program that the state simply cannot afford has been running rampant in building every single thought bubble that came into his head, and now we find ourselves in a circumstance where we simply cannot afford that infrastructure pipeline. Rather than being up-front and honest about it – the government has not gone out and said, ‘We’ve cancelled Maroondah Hospital’ – they have simply ducked and weaved and pretended that it is all still in the budget papers somewhere, when in fact clearly it is not. That is my tuppence around the state of the Victorian finances. They need serious attention, and they need attention now.

 Pauline RICHARDS (Cranbourne) (17:42): I am so pleased to have the opportunity to speak on this matter of public importance. We recognise this is a matter of importance because certainly you will get less with Jess. At this election Victorians face a clear choice about the future of our state and the future of communities like Cranbourne. We can continue investing in the services families rely on – on our hospitals, on our schools, on our TAFEs, on our emergency services, on our transport and on our frontline workers – or we can go backwards. Make no mistake: the Liberals plan to cut tens of billions from the Victorian budget and slash one in seven public sector jobs. It is not some abstract accounting exercise, it is a direct threat to the services that hold communities like Cranbourne together. I have seen this movie before. Every time the Liberal Party says ‘efficiency’, ordinary people end up paying the price. When they say ‘budget repair’, communities like Cranbourne lose services. When they say ‘restructure’, working families lose security. And when they say ‘natural attrition’, what they really mean is fewer workers doing more work for longer hours under greater pressure.

The Leader of the Opposition says these cuts will somehow spare frontline services, but Victorians know better. You cannot cut billions of dollars and remove thousands of public servants without consequence, because behind every public sector job is a real service. It is the child protection worker who is helping vulnerable kids, it is the nurse coordinating care and it is the ambulance dispatcher answering a desperate call. It is the planning officers helping deliver roads and school infrastructure in fast-growing communities like Cranbourne. It is the TAFE teacher training apprentices. It is the mental health worker who is supporting struggling young people. You have all heard me: Cranbourne is one of the fastest growing communities in Victoria. It is an optimistic community and a growing community. It is a diverse community. Families are moving to Cranbourne because they want opportunity, they want security and they want a better future for their children, just like I want for my children. But growth requires investment. We need more schools, not fewer; we need more nurses, not fewer; we need more transport services, not fewer; and we need more emergency support workers, not fewer.

The Victorian Liberals want Victorians to believe that they can sack thousands of workers and somehow improve services at the same time. This does not pass the pub test, it does not pass the test of logic and it does not pass the chai and chat test. Let us remember the history here: the Liberal Party has a long record of cuts and privatisation in Victoria. We all know what happened under the previous Premier: schools were shut; hospitals were closed or downgraded. We all remember TAFE being gutted. Public assets were sold off and transportation was privatised. In Cranbourne they even privatised the ambulance service.

Steve McGhie: That’s right.

Pauline RICHARDS: They even privatised the ambulance service. The member for Melton still remembers, and so does the community that I serve. Victorians remember the damage. Communities still remember losing local services, families remember the anxiety and the uncertainty, and Cranbourne remembers what it means to be treated like an afterthought while essential services are cut back in the name of economic reform. That is why people are rightly worried now, because when Liberals talk about cutting back-office staff, frontline workers know what happens next – the workload shifts onto them, waiting times blow out projects, communities miss out and eventually governments turn to expensive consultants and private contractors, often costing taxpayers more in the long run.

We have already heard warnings from unions, workers and community voices that cuts of this scale will create a brain drain from the Victorian public service and damage service delivery across the state. Who suffers first when the services are stretched? It is not the wealthy suburbs, it is not the corporate boardrooms; it is outer suburban communities like Cranbourne, it is working people, it is pensioners, it is young people trying to get ahead, it is tradies sitting in traffic because infrastructure falls behind population growth, it is patients waiting longer for care and it is parents struggling to access support for children with disabilities. Let us be honest about the broader Liberal philosophy here: it is not just about balancing books, it is ideological, and Maggie Thatcher would love it. The Liberal Party has always believed government should do less, public services should shrink and the private sector should take over more responsibilities. That is why they privatised the ambulance service in Cranbourne last time they served Cranbourne. That is why they have repeatedly attacked public services and public workers over decades. But the pandemic has taught us something else: public service matters, public health care matters and emergency services matter. The people who serve the public matter, because when crisis hits, it is not the consultants or the corporate lobbyists who save communities, it is the nurses, it is the ambos, it is the teachers, it is the emergency workers and it is public sector workers. These workers deserve respect and not scapegoating. While the Victorian Liberal Opposition talks about cuts, the reality is the Victorian economy is growing.

Responsible financial management does matter, but there is a difference between responsible savings and reckless austerity, there is a difference between reform and destruction and there is a difference between building for the future and tearing services apart. Cranbourne cannot afford a return to the politics of cuts. From the east of the electorate to the west, there are new schools and there are new services. As I leave my home in Cranbourne South, I look right and the first thing I see is a new SES. When I look left, I see the new Cranbourne West Secondary College. It has been operating for five years. This school is beautiful. It is absolutely topnotch. I see a new primary school at the Quarters estate called Quarters Primary School. I see refurbishments for Marnebek, a special development school that was able to make sure that the $30 million that it received was spent on our special development students. When I go further east, I see roads that are unlike anything that we have had before. I would not let my children drive through Hall Road and Evans Road because the intersection was so dangerous; that intersection is now unrecognisable. And when I head further east, I go past the sparkling Cranbourne Community Hospital.

The Cranbourne Community Hospital is a public community hospital where they serve people with ophthalmology, dental, dialysis, mental health services and soon an urgent care clinic as well. We cannot afford a return to the politics of cuts. We cannot afford to gamble with schools while classrooms are growing. We have five classrooms a week of children being born into the City of Casey. We cannot afford to gamble with hospitals while demand increases, and we cannot afford to gamble with emergency services while communities continue to grow. We certainly cannot afford another era where public assets and essential services are handed over to private interests while ordinary families from Cranbourne are left behind. The people of Cranbourne deserve a government that sees them, values them and invests in them, not a government that sees them as a line item to be cut. So when you hear the Leader of the Opposition talk about billions in cuts, I ask the obvious question: which services in Cranbourne disappear? Which jobs in Cranbourne vanish? Which communities in Cranbourne miss out? History tells us the answer. Communities like Cranbourne always end up paying the price, because making life easier, safer and more affordable is what they know the Labor government does for their community. Never forget that the last time that the Liberal Party served the community of Cranbourne and held the community of Cranbourne, they privatised the public ambulance service. We only need to turn to the member for Melton to find out what that meant for our community. It meant paramedics not having the facilities and services they need. This MPI has been a gift to this chamber. It gives us the opportunity to remind our communities what happens when those opposite are given the opportunity. We know it is all austerity.

 Annabelle CLEELAND (Euroa) (17:52): This matter of public importance speaks of essential services deteriorating, and I want to speak to that matter directly because my community is living through that deterioration right now in the most visceral and devastating way possible. On 8 and 9 January 2026 a catastrophic fire tore through the region I represent. 136,000 hectares burned, one life was lost and hundreds of families lost their homes, their sheds, their fencing and their livestock – in many cases everything they had built and everything that they had dreamed of. A state of disaster was declared. Ninety-eight per cent of every property the fire touched was destroyed. Four months on, we are going into winter and we are still waiting – waiting for their properties to be cleaned up, waiting for a temporary roof over their head, waiting to rebuild, waiting for the Allan Labor government to treat them with the basic dignity that Victorians have come to expect and that the royal commission and every inquiry since into a bushfire disaster has demanded. I am placing on the record a full account of this government’s failures and I am naming what was promised, what was delivered and what was not, and I am naming the human cost of that failure, because behind every statistic in this, there is a person who is struggling to rebuild.

The Longwood fire was one of the most destructive fires this state has seen in over a decade. The state of disaster declaration was warranted. The scale demanded an equivalent response, and we have not received one. This is not a matter of opinion, it is a matter of documented binding standards that this government has signed up to. The 2009 Victorian royal commission into the bushfires established after Black Saturday, which killed 173 Victorians, made clear what trauma-informed recovery looks like. It found that a registration process that required traumatised people to repeat their information to multiple agencies separately added to their trauma. It found that post-fire welfare checks must be coordinated, especially for small communities, and discovery, the opportunity for a property owner to search through the rubble. The 2020 royal commission doubled down on these recommendations and went further, recommending coordinated, nationally consistent debris clean-up arrangements. Well, I have news for you. This government is turning its back on those recommendations. Last Friday I was at the Seven Creeks pub in Euroa. I spoke with Michelle from Longwood East, and Michelle told me that that day the state government clean-up contractors arrived at her property and she begged for them to give her the time to go through the rubble to find her grandmother’s diamond necklace. She got a couple of hours.

Can you imagine that, chasing through the rubble for a couple of hours, and the contractor said, ‘I shouldn’t even be doing this.’ She is still traumatised. The contractor said, ‘I should not be doing this,’ and the rubble was removed. She found the necklace, but not without an extraordinary amount of trauma. Discovery is a basic, established standard of every bushfire clean-up program since 2009, and this is not offered to my community. This is shameful. This is not a bureaucratic failure, it is a failure of human decency. This is a government using the machine of recovery to compound the trauma of the people it is supposed to serve. It is heartless, and it has to stop.

I spoke to Christine in Ruffy this morning. Christine was contacted by Emergency Recovery Victoria and asked to waive her rights to her property. ERV concierge Brendan said, ‘Well, do you want a clean-up program, or do you want me to remove you from the list?’ I have that email on record. This is not trauma-informed care, this is coercion. This is a false urgency applied to a traumatised person, who had already lost her home, wielded by a government staffer to shut down legitimate questions about a legal document. The 2020 royal commission was explicit: clean-up programs must be voluntary, consent must be freely given, and time pressure and forcefulness have no place in disaster recovery. The Labor government’s own program violated those principles.

Let me compare what has been delivered. In the 2019–20 Black Summer bushfires, Victoria and the feds jointly funded a $75 million clean-up program. By the end of August 2020, seven months after the fires, 736 properties had been fully cleared in East Gippsland and north-east Victoria – 736 properties in seven months. Four months on from our January bushfires, with a declared state of disaster, we have $112 million announced for a clean-up, and 28 homes have been cleaned up in four months. We are living in rubble. We are living in dangerous conditions. We are living with asbestos that elderly people are forced to clean up themselves because of this dysfunctional state government rolled out program. It is not recovery, it is abandonment. And at the current rate, it is going to take years for my community to get back on its feet.

Today, 12 May, the waiver on gate fees and the waste levy has expired. Four months on, the state cannot even do their own clean-up, and yet we cannot even get a free levy at our tips. For one month it is going to be extended. That is this government’s answer to families who have taken matters into their own hands, because they have to. They have been cleaning up their own properties because Emergency Recovery Victoria is rolling out such a dysfunctional program, and now they are being financially penalised for doing the job of this incompetent Labor government. I am calling for this levy waiver today to be extended to the end of 2026, and I will not stop until it is extended so my community can properly clean up.

But I have to ask this question – and take it seriously, please: who is in charge of this clean-up program? After the recent bushfire inquiry, my colleague the member for Northern Victoria Gaelle Broad asked very specific and targeted questions: how many properties had been cleaned up, and who made the decision to implement a two-tiered clean-up program that excluded insured properties? The deputy commissioner of recovery answered that that decision was made by the CEO of Emergency Recovery Victoria. That was her job. She deflected responsibility and blamed it on another role. It was her job. She made that decision, and my community is paying the price for it now. I have to question her capabilities, because it seems like she was deliberately misleading the inquiry and deliberately misleading Parliament. Is she capable of the job? I will let the Premier answer that one, but if she would like to meet with me, I am happy to make some suggestions.

I want to get to the point now. I have got a couple of minutes left. I am not here just to document the failures. There are so many, hundreds of them, and my community is stalled because of this government’s failures.

A member interjected.

Annabelle CLEELAND: I am here to demand remedies – yes, and you are part of the problem: (1)    A universal clean-up program available to insured and uninsured alike, run on the voluntary consent-based model that the royal commission recommended. No more coercion from now on. (2) Immediate extension of the landfill levy waiver to the end of 2026. It makes sense; the state cannot even clean up these properties, and you are asking people who have just been burnt to clean it up themselves. (3) Fast-track permit approvals. If they are rebuilding a shed or rebuilding a home, let them get on and do it. This is standard. This is precedent from every disaster previously. (4) A three-year rate exemption – it is very little. At the moment they are deferring: deferral is debt, Labor; you have got to pay the bill at some stage. (5) A dedicated business revenue loss support process with grants, equivalent to what was provided in the Grampians – a five-grand leg-up for businesses that are on their knees right now.

(6) A regional tourism and marketing package for the Strathbogie Ranges and surrounding regions – not a concert, not a media post, not some hollow announcement, but a genuine strategy to get people back into our communities, because we are open for business and we need your support. (7) Modular housing options and stamp duty exemptions. I have people in tents coming into winter. We do not have caravans. There is a hotline that says that caravans will come – well, when are they coming? (8) A long-term, on-the-ground, trauma-informed mental health service operating directly on the fireground – not outside, a couple of hours from our community. (9) Dedicated environmental restoration funding for the Strathbogie Ranges and the region impacted by the bushfire. (10) Full financial transparency: a public account of what has been committed under this government and how it has been spent, because we are sure as hell not even feeling it on the ground.

This government had the precedent, it had the framework and it had the funding mechanisms. Every tool required to do this properly had already been used in previous disasters by a Labor government, by a Labor Premier, under the same royal commission standards. They chose not to use them.