Wednesday, 13 May 2026

 Nicole WERNER (Warrandyte) (14:45): To rise again on the appropriation bills, as I was last saying, we will start reversing Labor’s 2023 land tax changes, lifting the threshold back to $300,000 over five years and putting nearly $1000 a year back into the pockets of 270,000 small businesses and everyday property owners. We believe in a Victoria where a young person starting their first business does not get crushed by taxes before they have even found their feet, where a tradie expanding their team, a young couple buying their first home or a graduate starting out their career can get ahead, where investment flows, jobs are created and hard work is rewarded. That is what Victoria under a Wilson Liberal government will look like. Why is it that we need to fix the land tax? It is because, PSA, the Victorian government is now targeting everyday people who run small businesses from home by charging them land tax. Labor has lowered the land tax threshold, forcing nearly 400,000 extra Victorians to pay up. Under Labor’s changes, if your business earns more than $30,000 a year and uses part of your home, you may receive a land tax bill. That includes startups, side hustles, freelancers, hairdressers, personal trainers, physios with home studios, Airbnb hosts, online businesses and allied health workers seeing clients from home offices – people who are just trying to earn extra income to make ends meet. It is no wonder Victoria has been ranked the worst place in Australia to do business year after year.

A Liberal government will fix this. We will start reversing Labor’s land tax changes, lifting the threshold back to $300,000 over five years and putting nearly $1000 a year back in the pockets of 280,000 small businesses and everyday property owners. For many, that means no longer paying COVID levy surcharges of between $500 and $975 per year. We want to see business growth exploding across the state, creating more jobs and more prosperity for Victorians so they can continue to keep more of what they earn. This is what Victorians can hear loud and clear: we on this side of the house back startups. When someone wants to innovate, go out on their own, take a risk or do something new, we on this side of the house back entrepreneurs – young business owners who want to give something a crack and build something for themselves and their families. We back small businesses. We back the side hustle, the people who want to get ahead and who are sick and tired of the Allan Labor government ripping them off and punishing them with taxes. To every Aussie battler in the burbs doing their best to make it work, we stand with them. We have a plan to fix this state, repair the budget and outwork our 10-year economic plan so that they can finally get the fair go that they need to get ahead in life.

The Liberals 10-year economic plan will deliver real cost-of-living relief not just for now, not just as a sweetener or an election commitment trying to buy votes in an election year, but for years to come. We have sensible measures for Victorians, who are sick of being smashed by the Allan Labor government’s taxes. In total our measures will put back $534 in the pockets of Victorian families every single year. Families will have that money to keep instead of being taxed and taxed and taxed. Families who send their children to non-government schools will save up to $1500 per child. Every household in Victoria will save an average of $84 a year when we scrap the Emergency Services and Volunteer Fund levy. For families who struggle to get into a bulk-billed clinic, we are scrapping the GP tax. A family with two kids who visits the GP six times a year will save up to $360 a year. Young Victorians buying their first home could save up to $55,000 in stamp duty.

Our land tax changes will deliver between $500 and $975 per year for property owners with holdings valued up to $300,000. Many of these are small business owners or everyday mum-and-dad investors. It is worth pointing out as well that the ATO’s own data shows that more than 70 per cent of private rental providers own just one investment property. So these people that we are protecting and that our economic plan will deliver for are the everyday mums and dads who are trying to get ahead. These are not the wealthy property barons that the Allan Labor government tries to pretend that it is targeting with higher taxes. Lower land tax means downward pressure on rents, which helps everyone, including renters. Lower land tax – I will say that again – means downward pressure on rents, which helps everyone, most especially renters, so that there is the supply on the market for renters to be able to rent at affordable prices.

Our payroll tax cuts reduce the cost of doing business directly. A business with a $1.5 million payroll saves more than $30,000 a year under our economic plan. This is money that can go towards new staff, growth and investment into the future, and this is just the start. These measures are part of a broader plan to fix Victoria’s budget and deliver cost-of-living relief so that life will be easier and cheaper under a Wilson Liberal government.

Then we have got to ask the question: how did we get here? How did Victoria arrive at the place of this debt ballooning towards $200 billion? How did Victoria arrive at being the most taxed state in the whole nation? How was it that on the eve of the 2014 election the opposition leader of the day, who was then to become Premier Daniel Andrews, promised that there would be no increased or new taxes under a government he led? Well, there again was another broken promise from another Labor minister, who then went on to increase and introduce not one, not two, not three but 67 new or increased taxes. Under the Andrews–Allan Labor government there is broken promise after broken promise. Payroll tax has more than doubled. Land tax bills have skyrocketed. Victorians have been slugged with new taxes on emergency services, GPs, schools, short stays, vacant land and windfall gains. Every year Labor introduce another tax because they run out of money.

Families are under enormous pressure. Small businesses are struggling. Investors are leaving Victoria. Housing supply is slowing and rents are rising. But perhaps the most frustrating part for Victorians is that they are continuing to pay more while services continue to deteriorate in our state. Ambulance wait times are worse than they were a decade ago. Elective surgery waitlists have nearly doubled. Graduate nurses cannot find funded positions. Teachers are marching in our streets because they are the worst paid in the nation. Crime is rising, roads are crumbling and billions of taxpayer dollars have been lost to waste and project blowouts, not to mention corruption and criminality. Next year Victoria will spend more on interest repayments than on Victoria Police, Ambulance Victoria and every kindergarten service in this state combined with a billion dollars to spare, and that is the true cost of Labor’s debt.

Members interjecting.

Nicole WERNER: To answer the Attorney-General’s question: what is our solution? We have a solution. It is our 10-year economic plan. It was tabled by the minister earlier today in question time. (Time expired)

The SPEAKER: I would remind members that props are not allowed in the chamber.

 Steve DIMOPOULOS (Oakleigh – Minister for Economic Growth and Jobs, Minister for Sport and Major Events) (14:54): Thank God that is over. It gives me great pleasure to rise and speak. I will not use my entire 15 minutes.

Nicole Werner interjected.

Steve DIMOPOULOS: It is a character reflection on the speech, not on you. Sorry, Speaker, that was to the member for Warrandyte, who is very happy to throw accusations one way but not very happy to receive them from the other. Her speech was a rant of disproportionate spin versus fact.

We are a government that is serious about the job at hand here. There is global uncertainty, there are global interest rate rises in advanced economies and there is a global fuel shortage, concern across stock markets right around the world, including in this country, and pressure felt by every advanced economy.

What you get on that side is literally a lot of hot air, frankly, but also no real solution. The Attorney-General and Minister for Finance at the table was right to ask, ‘What is your solution?’ Their solution is one example. If my quick numbers serve me correctly, they announced yesterday, in the Leader of the Opposition’s budget reply speech, that they would increase the payroll tax free threshold to $1.1 million. That is $100,000 more than what it is right now. On a million-dollar payroll that is a $500 saving a year. That is not an economic driver; that is a press release. That is next to useless in relation to economic drivers. What is an economic driver is investing in public infrastructure that has productive value. We do not borrow to pay nurses’ salaries. We do not borrow to pay police officers’ salaries. We do not even borrow to pay the interest on government debt. We borrow for productive infrastructure – that is what we do – and that has enormous value for the private economy of this state. I could speak for hours about how many businesses have come to me on just one project, on the 90-odd level crossings removed, where they do not have to wait in traffic to get their business done for the day – not just truckies, not just couriers, but literally tradies and people who are running to a business meeting. Nonetheless I will get to that in a moment.

The appropriation bills are important, clearly, because they are the expression of values of any government, and ours are clear in terms of the fiscal management that we have got in place to pay debt down in a way that is sustainable, both for everything the Victorian community values but also –

Michael O’Brien interjected.

Steve DIMOPOULOS: The member for Malvern, the former Treasurer of Victoria, says it is going up. Over the forwards as a proportion of gross state product (GSP) it is going down. This is what tricky politics will have the Victorian public believe. It says $200 billion – that is a figure without context. If I give you a figure of the US economy – the US government is in $39 trillion in debt. If the state of Tasmania was in $39 trillion of debt, that would be a problem. You cannot compare the debt of one country with the debt of another just by raw number. This is the tricky politics.

Michael O’Brien: The highest of any state in the country.

Steve DIMOPOULOS: Because we have done more than anyone else in the country.

The SPEAKER: Through the Chair, Minister. I ask the minister not to respond to interjections, and I remind the member for Malvern that he is not in his place.

Steve DIMOPOULOS: When you talk about a figure that is a measure, you have to talk in proportion to the economy that is supporting that borrowing. In Victoria it is about 24 or 25 per cent of the Victorian economy. As other commentators have said, imagine having a home loan and your home loan being able to be paid back literally by 24 per cent of your annual income. If your annual income is $100,000, you would effectively owe $24,000. That is the only way to measure debt in relation to anything. It is in relation to the economy that it serves: $39 trillion in the US, $200 billion in Victoria. Just to be clear, the US debt is 130 per cent of the US economy. Here it is 24 per cent. That is the only way you can measure it, but tricky politics would have you believe the place is in ruin.

This brings me to my point in terms of the budget reply to our appropriations, to our budget. I get that there is a role for holding governments to account when you are in opposition, but what we saw by the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Kew, was a masterclass in talking down Victoria. It was a masterclass in ruining the reputation of Victoria, from business to services to public accountability to everybody in between. It was just an attack on Victoria. It went well beyond holding governments to account. We see an opposition that is so unsophisticated, that is not only untried and untested but fundamentally inexperienced in grappling with and guiding an almost $500 billion globally connected economy, as is the Victorian economy.

We have a government here that has a sensible plan to reduce debt as a proportion of GSP, and by the end of the forward estimates, that is exactly where we will get to. But we are not going to take a knife and tear down everything that Victorians value. If you just take the simple concept that 58 per cent of the budget is health and education – the budget, in output, was $88 billion last Tuesday, and 58 per cent of that is health and education – how can you achieve a $40 billion saving if you do not cut into health and education? This pretence about back-office public servants, as if there are reams and teams of people sitting in some back blocks somewhere, where you open the door and there are just rows and rows of public servants doing back-office things is just a rubbish argument. If you rely on that argument to find $40 billion, you are lying to yourself and by default you are lying to the Victorian community. What you are effectively going to find here is you are going to have to cut into nurses, teachers, hospital workers, police officers, everything the Victorian community value. On the other side, the contrast is we have got debt repayment as a proportion of GSP already evidenced in our forward estimates over the next four years. We also have a stable, continued investment in things that people value.

Frankly, when the opposition talk about borrowings, they always neglect to say why we borrowed. We borrowed because effectively, over many generations, Victorian governments have not done enough to keep up with population growth. In schools, in public transport, in roads and in social infrastructure like kindergartens and schools, they have not done enough, and I would broadly say it is Labor and Liberal, but worse when it comes to the Liberal Party. In the four years that the Liberals were in power from 2010 to 2014 nowhere near enough was done to cater for that population growth. This government, from 2014 to today, has done 50 years worth of social and economic infrastructure in 11 years. So when I ask myself about that silly response from the member for Kew, that ‘It’s completely unreasonable that my grandchildren pay for’ – effectively what she is saying are the Metro Tunnel, Footscray Hospital, Peter Mac centre and Royal Children’s Hospital. Why is that? Why is it unreasonable that they pay for it? Why? Of course they will use it. In fact it is unreasonable that I pay for it today entirely, because we are building it for the 50 years of Victorians living here.

This rubbish about debt – there are two arguments. One is, as the size of our economy, it is 24 per cent. In the US, it is 130 per cent, right? Forget Europe – they are in the 200 per cent in some countries. That is one. The second argument is: why did you borrow? Did you borrow to pay nurses? No. Did you borrow to pay police officers? No. Did you even borrow to pay interest on the debt? No. That all comes from our output side. We borrowed for productive infrastructure. I am not ashamed of that. I am proud of that, and I tell my community every single day. If I am doorknocking and someone says ‘debt’, I will say, ‘Carnegie Primary School.’ If I am doorknocking and someone says ‘debt’, I will say, ‘Oakleigh Primary School.’ If I am doorknocking and someone says ‘debt’, I will say, ‘children’s hospital at Monash’ – things that we rely on. That is the absolute tricky politics played by that side, scaring people into believing the place is in freefall. The place is not in freefall.

In fact if I turn to some economic stats supported by our government, not just in this budget but in previous budgets – there have been 646,000 new jobs created by the Victorian economy. Of course that is not just the government creating jobs but the government creating an economic climate where businesses feel encouraged to invest and create jobs. We have got the lowest payroll tax of any state in regional Australia, right? We have a well-calibrated business investment portfolio in my patch, where Global Victoria does extraordinary work in supporting businesses to find new export markets. There is a medical laboratory in St Kilda Road called 360biolabs. They have had to expand their labs significantly because they have secured new contracts in US and China to do extraordinarily high value job work here in Melbourne, with heaps of investors coming in from overseas. The other day a German appliance manufacturer set up its head office for Asia-Pacific here. A Dutch food manufacturer set up its manufacturing plant for Asia-Pacific here near Horsham. These are stories that I find every day in this job with the Premier. I am privileged to be serving after the Premier gave me economic growth and jobs. Like predecessors like the member for Essendon and others in this role, we see real business stories of confidence, investment and growth. I am not saying it is perfect, but this economy is strong and it is growing, and there are so many proof points.

Over the last 10 years we have had the highest rate of growth in business investment – 44 per cent – of any state. Someone said to me the other day, ‘But that’s 10 years. What about last year?’ Well, the last quarter, October to December, of last year we had a business investment growth rate higher than any other state – 2.2 per cent. Our population growth is higher than the national average. People are choosing to be here. Our participation rate is about six percentage points higher than the national participation rate. People have not given up looking for work in this state; they have in the rest of the country. So that is confidence both from the consumer and from the business.

I do not buy one thing that the member for Kew is selling. I do not buy it because it is anti-Victorian, it is anti-business and it is literally going at everything we value with a big, big knife. We are not in for that, and I will fight her and the Premier will fight her every single day from now till the election to demonstrate to people that what they are selling is not worth buying.

 Michael O’BRIEN (Malvern) (15:06): I am surprised that the Minister for Economic Growth and Jobs at the table could not actually finish his full 15 minutes. That is a surprise. You would think that he might have had something more to talk about, but given the appallingly embarrassing economic record of his government, I am not surprised he cut it short.

I grew up reading a lot of books as a kid. I liked The Famous Five. The Famous Five were George, Dick, Julian, Anne and Timmy the dog. Well, there is another famous five when it comes to economic data here in Victoria. It is the famous five that is the legacy of this Labor government, which fortunately we only have another 199 days to endure. Here are the famous five of this Labor government after 12 long years: the worst unemployment in the country – that is where Victoria is under Labor; the worst debt in the country – that is where Victoria is under Labor; the worst credit rating in the country – that is where Victoria is under Labor; the highest taxes in the country – that is where Victoria is under Labor; and the highest interest payments in the country – that is where Victoria is under Labor. That is the economic legacy of this Labor government. It is why Victorians are poorer. It is why Victorians are feeling the pain of the cost of living, because this is a hopeless government that has dropped the ball when it comes to managing the economy.

It was not like this when this government was elected back in 2014. They inherited one of the strongest budget positions in the country. We had a budget that was in surplus. We had the strongest – not the weakest, the strongest – credit rating in the country, AAA stable. This Labor government has taken us from having the best, the strongest credit rating in the country to the worst, the weakest in the country. That is what those opposite have done. When this government came to office net debt in 2014–15 was projected to be $21.8 billion. They have now got us getting to $199.3 billion – let us round it up and say $200 billion. From $21 billion to $200 billion by the end of this forward estimates period – nearly a tenfold increase in debt. Do we see a tenfold increase in the number of police officers? No. In the number of nurses? No. In the number of teachers? No. This has been an absolute disaster.

Interest payments have more than tripled and will more than quadruple by the end of the forward estimates under this Labor government. In the 2026–27 year we are going to see interest payments of over $1 million every hour. Every time that clock above you does a lap, over another million dollars is going to go out of Victoria’s coffers into the hands of bondholders whose debt they are holding. In fact the interest bill is going to be so high that we are going to spend more in interest – Victorians are going to be paying more in interest – than this government will spend on police and ambulance services and kinders. More on interest than on police and ambos and kinders: that is the real consequence of this Labor government’s shocking financial mismanagement. It means that the interest bill and the debt crowd out the things we should be investing more in. We are spending more money on our interest, which means we have less to spend on the things Victorians want us to spend on. Victorians want us to spend on public services that benefit them, that they can feel the benefit of and that are there when they need them. They do not want to be waiting for an ambulance, but they are. They do not want to be waiting for admission to a public hospital for needed surgery, but they are.

They do not want to be waiting for the police to turn up to their home when an intruder or a group of intruders is in there with a machete, but they are.

Victorians are waiting and they are sick of waiting, and they are sick of being told they have never had it so good. And the contribution before me by the Minister for Economic Growth and Jobs was a classic example of that. It goes back to that famous Paul Keating saying, ‘What are people going on about?’ That was the attitude of the Minister for Economic Growth and Jobs: ‘what are people going on about? You’ve never had it so good.’ Well, I can tell you, my constituents do not feel like that. And I think if members opposite were honest, their constituents do not feel like that either. They do not feel like they have never had it so good. They think it has been tough, really tough, and they do not see that it is getting better. If you look at whatever your favourite opinion pollster is and the classic question of ‘is Victoria on the right track?’, the majority says, ‘No. We’re not. We’re not on the right track.’ And that is because this government has taken us on the wrong track over 10 years, and accelerated over the last two years under the current Premier.

Over the last two years the number of aggravated burglaries in my electorate of Malvern alone has gone up by 94.5 per cent – a near doubling of aggravated burglaries in my patch alone. I have spoken to many of the victims of those agg burgs, and I can tell you, it is not about losing the car or losing whatever has been stolen; it is about losing peace of mind. It is losing the security of going to bed at night knowing that you are going to wake up and that your kids are going to be safe. That is the loss. It is not just the material loss; it is the sense of security and safety. And what has been the response of this Labor Premier and this Labor government over the past two years, as agg burgs have gone up by 94.5 per cent in my electorate? Closing hours at the Malvern police station. Malvern police station used to be open 24 hours a day and seven days a week. It was there to keep people safe. It was a visible presence of security in the community, and people knew it and they relied on it and they wanted it. People opposite have said, ‘Oh, well, a police station doesn’t keep you safe – police do.’ Yes, well, tell that to the young mum fleeing domestic violence, who just wants to get out of the house, is worried that someone’s going to follow her and wants to go somewhere safe. The last thing they want to do is turn up to a closed police station, with a sign that says, ‘Sorry, we’re closed. Try Prahran’ or ‘Try Caulfield.’ It does not cut it. Tragically, earlier this year we heard of a woman who was in a very similar situation to that. She was being pursued on the roads, went to a police station that was closed and was attacked and assaulted. That would not have happened if the police station was open.

My police station went from being 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to business hours, seven days a week, and that is great if crooks work business hours, but they do not work business hours. Then it gets worse, because just recently a new sign went up outside Malvern police station that says, ‘Sorry, we’re only open three days a week,’ – three days a week, during business hours. That is what this government has done to my constituents. They have taken away that visible police presence. They have taken away that sense of security. They have taken away that safe refuge. It used to be open 24/7; now it is three days a week during business hours, if you are lucky. That is what this government and this budget do to my people.

It does not stop there. One of the initiatives that I was very pleased to be part of when I got the privilege of serving in government was to put PSOs out on our train stations and to do it from 6 pm to last train, seven days a week. That was important not just for people taking the trains at night but also, I can tell you as a parent of kids, if you know your children are coming home on the train late at night, you want there to be PSOs at that station when that train arrives, to be that visible presence of security, to be that deterrence, to be somebody who can actually escort people to the car park – to their car in the car park if they need to. That is what the PSOs did. And we know that Labor has never liked PSOs on train stations. In fact the former Deputy Premier and former Minister for Police, ironically, referred to them as ‘plastic police’.

James Merlino referred to PSOs as plastic police. I think it is a huge insult, because every day we come into this place we are looked after and protected by Victoria Police protective service officers in the gallery and outside. They do a fantastic job. For anybody to attack and demean PSOs in that way is appalling, but that is what the former Labor police minister and Deputy Premier did. My constituents love their PSOs, but unfortunately in nine of my train stations they are being taken away. They are being stripped away by this Labor government, who has decided that my constituents do not deserve to have PSOs at train stations from 6 o’clock. At Armadale station, Darling station, East Malvern station, Glen Iris station, Hawksburn station, Heyington station, Kooyong station, Toorak station and Tooronga station – nine of them – the government is taking the PSOs away. They say, ‘There might be some PSOs roving the trains. If you feel like playing PSO lotto, your luck might be in. You might have a PSO there when you need it, but there’s no guarantee and you’ve got to be lucky.’ Safety should not come down to luck, it should be a right. This government has taken that right away and not just from my constituents but from 120 stations across Victoria. This government cannot manage money and cannot manage safety.

We have seen public services deteriorate. It does not have to be this way. This government can try all the tricks it likes, but I have been quite interested to see that the response on social media when members opposite try and put up their scare campaign videos has been fairly brutal. It has not been brutal towards the Liberal Party, not brutal towards the Leader of the Opposition. It has been fairly brutal towards the Labor government. Victorians have cottoned on to them. Their scare campaigns are not working anymore, and they are getting increasingly desperate. They do not know what to do. They cannot run on their record, because as I have outlined, their record is horrible. The famous five: worst unemployment, worst debt, worst credit rating, highest taxes, highest interest – that is the famous five. That is this government’s economic legacy, so they cannot run on their record. The Leader of the Opposition and our team have put forward policies to actually make life easier: to cut payroll tax, not increase it; to cut land tax, not increase it; to scrap the emergency services levy and restore the fire services property levy; to get rid of the Airbnb tax, the GPs tax and the school fees tax; and of course to give first home buyers a real chance, to lift the limit on stamp duty up to $1 million for first home buyers in Victoria. That is real tax reform that makes a real difference in people’s lives.

We will protect essential frontline services by making sure that the back office does not grow out of control, by implementing a hiring freeze on the back office. Do you know what a hiring freeze means? It means that everyone who still wants a job, keeps a job. That is what it means. It is why the attempted scare campaign by members opposite is just not resonating. People are not buying it. The previous speaker used the phrase that he was not buying what the opposition leader was selling. I can tell you, the Victorian public are not buying what those opposite are trying to give away. They are not even trying to sell it, they are trying to give it away and no-one is taking it.

I have been here – some would say too long – long enough to remember the last time there was a change of government from Labor to Liberal. It was in my first term in Parliament, the period from 2006 to 2010. I can tell you, it has got a very similar smell about it. It has got a feel in the public. It has got a feel in business. It has got a feel in the community. It has got a feel in the Parliament. As this is my last response to a budget, I want to set out some of the contrast between what this government inherited in terms of our budget and our economy and where we are today. But I am pleased that as we race towards the election in November this year I do think Victorians are ready for a change.

John Mullahy interjected.

Michael O’BRIEN: The member for Glen Waverley wants to talk about legacy. Two hundred billion dollars in debt, member for Glen Waverley – that is your legacy. Interest payments of $1 million an hour, member for Glen Waverley – that is your legacy.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Wayne Farnham): Through the Chair.

Members interjecting.

Michael O’BRIEN: The West Gate Tunnel that no-one is driving on – that is their legacy. This has been a government that has been the worst fiscal manager in our state’s history. This government makes the Cain–Kirner government look like Kennett–Stockdale – it makes them look that frugal. That is how bad this current mob is. We come in here wanting to leave Victoria in a better place than we found it during our period of service. I do not know how those opposite can sleep at night, because by any objective reckoning, this government has made a mess of Victoria’s books and Victorians are poorer for it.

Brad Rowswell: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, by leave, I move a time extension of 15 minutes for the member for Malvern.

Members interjecting.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Wayne Farnham): That is not a point of order.

Members interjecting.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Wayne Farnham): That is enough. Everyone come to order, please. I would like to hear the Minister for Consumer Affairs’ contribution.

 Paul EDBROOKE (Frankston – Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Cost of Living, Minister for Renters, Minister for Men and Boys) (15:21): As much as hearing the member for Malvern’s voice is like honey coming through a speaker – so smooth – and as much as I would like to give him 15 minutes, I am just not that tolerant, although he did also acknowledge that this was his last budget contribution and he talked a little bit about legacy there. The legacy I see in Victoria has been all about choices in the last decade. Everywhere I look in Victoria, there is infrastructure coming out of the ground. In Frankston, Frankston hospital, there is $1.1 billion worth of hospital coming out of the ground. In Broady – how many level crossings? I cannot even remember how many level crossings we have removed, but I do remember a time where we could.

Members interjecting.

Paul EDBROOKE: How many? Nearly 90. Let us go 90.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Wayne Farnham): Minister, can you please not beat up the furniture. It has done nothing to you

Paul EDBROOKE: No worries, Acting Speaker. I do remember a time when we did have the highest unemployment rate on the mainland, and not one inch of rail was actually laid in Victoria.

Kathleen Matthews-Ward interjected.

Paul EDBROOKE: Yes, the bureaucrats were putting their feet up.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Wayne Farnham): Member for Broadmeadows, I do not think the minister needs assistance.

Paul EDBROOKE: As I said previously, budgets are all about priorities, they are all about values, and our budget speaks a lot to our values. This budget makes something abundantly clear, and that is that this Labor government is on the side of ordinary Victorians, on the side of families doing everything right but feeling the pressure, on the side of renters trying to keep a roof over their heads, on the side of workers facing rising bills and on the side of consumers being targeted. We are on the side of young people searching for opportunity, for aspiration and for security in what can be at times an uncertain world as well. We are certainly on the side of communities like mine in Frankston and communities that for too long were overlooked, underestimated and underinvested in. Throughout the past small period, we have seen newspaper articles with Frankston as the highlight – the place to develop; the place to live; the place to move to; the place to work, live and play – and that is not by accident.

As the Minister for Consumer Affairs, Renters, Cost of Living and Men and Boys, I see every day the pressures Victorian families are under. I hear from young people wondering about whether home ownership is drifting further and further away. I hear from parents who are juggling bills and trying to stretch pay packets so that they no longer have to choose between a school excursion and food on the table. This budget says something very simple, and that is that this government sees you, that this government understands the pressure and is prepared to act – not with slogans and not with outrage politics, but with practical help. We have done that. You have seen over the past couple of weeks some really innovative initiatives have been launched. One of course was the 20 per cent off rego, which people in in my community were ringing my office about to see if that was some kind of rumour they had heard that they did not believe – 20 per cent off their rego. That is $186 straight back into our community members’ pockets, or $372 if you have got two cars registered in your name.

I think you will admit that is a fair amount of money back in your pocket to spend on things you need to spend money on, whether that be bills, whether that be food or whether that be rent.

We have also seen over the last couple of months the changes to public transport fares – free last month, free this month and half-price public transport fares up until the end of the year. This is real, practical help that feedback suggests is being taken up. Certainly a friend of mine who works in the education part of the Melbourne Museum has said in the last stage of the school holidays, the last four days of the school holidays, they had over 2700 students go through the museum. She blames – well, ‘blames’ is the wrong word, but she was busy and she was run off her feet. But she said she thought that that was because of the free public transport and being able to get into the city for free to do what you need. That is anecdotal, but it is from someone I trust. It is not data that might be presented to us; that is a real story from people on the coalface saying, ‘Look at how this is affecting our community,’ not only in the way that government expects – that is, giving people dollars back in their pocket and a bit of relief – but also for some of our institutions in Melbourne, being able to see them being utilised even more than ordinarily.

Fairness does not happen by accident. Fairness is a choice, and fairness requires governments who are willing to step in when systems stop working for ordinary people. A strong economy means nothing if people cannot participate in it. Growth means little if families cannot pay their bills. That is why this budget focuses strongly on cost-of-living relief, because right now families certainly are feeling the pressure. I think I have even heard you mention this, Acting Speaker Farnham. At the supermarket, at the petrol station and when energy bills arrive in your mailbox, it is these initiatives that the government has put in place that really give practical relief for families. We have also seen around $566 million in concessions available for energy rates and water, including up to 17.5 per cent off electricity and gas and 50 per cent off council rates at some times. We have seen a lot of initiatives, and no doubt we will see some more. We have been listening to our community, and there are plenty of suggestions about how we can make life easier and more affordable.

This budget certainly recognises those pressures and responds accordingly – as I said, not with ideology, not with lectures to people, but with practical support, because that is what responsible governments like ours do when you cannot solve every global economic challenge overnight. Certainly we have had people across the aisle scoff at the global political issues that are happening, that are on the front page of every paper, which seem to change from day to day. That is certainly something that a state government in Australia cannot have influence on, but governments can choose to help people through difficult times. The alternative is to leave them to struggle alone, and we will certainly not do that.

We have heard across a couple of question times now, and certainly we heard it on Friday last week, that the alternative government, the Liberal–National coalition opposition, have been talking about some statistics. They see them as statistics, but they are 7000 jobs, or one in seven public servants, and they are not just statistics. Let us actually put it into perspective. These are people that are not just retiring; they are not just leaving their jobs. They are people whose contracts, when they come up for renewal, are not renewed, and they have to go into the job market and find another job. That is 7000 people. If the coalition gets into government in November this year, by December we will have people who will not be putting much in the Santa sack this year, because they will not have jobs under that government. There are $40 million in cuts also. Look, I am no economist. I have done a couple of courses and I fancy myself as a bit of a mathematician, and there are some things that just do not add up. I do rely on the opinion of economists like David Hayward, who said in the Age this morning:

… the opposition’s path to cash surplus did not stack up, and they had not yet shown a credible path to achieving it.

I do not think you have to be Einstein or a mathematician to know that when you are not relying on that revenue anymore, you cannot meet that cash surplus – you just cannot do that. So those 7000 everyday Victorians, if they are not there, that makes me also question: how are we building Rosebud Hospital? There was a commitment to build Rosebud Hospital from the opposition leader, and I wonder how the new member for Rosebud will be feeling about that now, because certainly he could not be too confident. So we are going to knock off 7000 public servants and bring us back to a cash surplus, which will cost at least $40 million, while we have got an $11.3 billion black hole. Where is the money for this hospital coming from? He cannot be feeling too confident now. In fact if I was him, I would be feeling a little bit nervous.

Locally, we know that the investment in Frankston has driven growth in Frankston and confidence in Frankston. We have got the extraordinary Peninsula University Hospital redevelopment, which former members of this place said would never happen. They could not read the budget book at the time and said there was no money for it there. That was not 1.1 dollars; that was $1.1 billion in the budget. It is not simply a construction project, though. It is transformational. It is nation-building for Melbourne’s south-east and puts us on the map. It means better health care close to home. It means jobs for apprentices coming from the over $100 million that has been invested for apprentice training in the Chisholm TAFE over the two stages of that construction. It means training the next generation in healthcare workers locally. It means that hopefully in the future we can have a centre of excellence for workers in health care and for clinical trials. And it means that hopefully we will have surgeons, we will have clinicians coming down to train here on the peninsula. It means dignity for people in Frankston as well.

Now, it would be remiss of me not to speak about the education reforms that have happened in Frankston. Of course there have been education reforms around the state which have made huge impacts on the level of education that we are able to provide. It means that we have been able to provide teachers with the infrastructure that reflects the level of the education that they are giving our children. But also seeing our schools in Frankston flourish with new infrastructure that they have required for years and they have fought for really, really gives me that warm feeling in the chest, because you can see it in their eyes: they see the hope, they see the future, they see the vision for Frankston that I share.

Once again, I am afraid, frightened, very nervous and anxious for what the challenges ahead for my community would mean if we had the coalition in government – cuts, reductions, winding back, the vision for Victoria becoming small government, small ambition, after everything we have built in our community. I know there are members on this side of the chamber that are thinking exactly the same thing, because communities like Frankston’s know what happens when governments stop investing in people. I gave a little spiel to the media yesterday, but I will say it again: I grew up in the Latrobe Valley, and they have got a good member now with Mr Cameron over there, the member for Morwell; I get along with Mr Cameron – but I would say that it is hard to disagree that what happened to the Latrobe Valley almost overnight with the power industry was a bad thing. It changed the environment of that community overnight. The last thing we want to see is anything like that happen again. The issue there is that if we are looking at cuts of up to $40 billion over 10 years, if we are stopping infrastructure programs to meet a cash surplus, that means that we will be going backwards. That means that we will be reducing the number of services. We will be reducing the number of infrastructure projects we are building, and they will be delayed for decades. We remember what happens when government walks away from our communities, and we cannot go back – we cannot go back to abandoning prosperity where things are broken.

Today I see newly trained nurses in hospitals. I see families building their future. I see communities growing stronger, and I see a government prepared to invest in that future and give families some help along the way when times are tough, because budgets are not merely financial documents – budgets are a statement of our values. They are moral documents.

They reveal what we truly value, and this budget says clearly that we value fairness; we value security; we value health care, education and housing; we value opportunity; and above all, we value people. This budget ultimately is about dignity – the dignity of housing, the dignity of being able to get affordable health care, the dignity of meaningful work and the dignity of belonging. And that means that you need to make choices to make that happen. We build, we protect, we invest on this side of the house, and above all, we govern for our communities. I know there are other people that would like to speak on this bill, so I will not take too much more of your time up, but I certainly commend this appropriation bill to the house, and I wish it a speedy passage. It would be remiss of me, being the former Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer and knowing how much work goes into the particular documents of the budget papers, not to thank the Treasurer, thank her team and say g’day to them. I will bring my coffee around sometime soon. They have done a great job with this budget, and I commend the bill to the house.

 Martin CAMERON (Morwell) (15:36): It is great that the new minister at the table, the Minister for Consumer Affairs, pulled his speech up with 20 seconds left, but it is always good to talk about the Latrobe Valley. I rise today to talk on the Appropriation (2026–2027) Bill 2026. In doing so, listening to everybody in the chamber that has spoken on both sides, I think it is clear-cut that on one side of the chamber there is nothing wrong in Victoria, and on the other side of the chamber we have people talking about the issues affecting our constituents, especially where I live in the Latrobe Valley and right around Victoria and regional Victoria, and we are hearing how hard it is at the moment. So the question, I think – and there is only one question that needs to be asked – is: are we better off? Are we better off after the budget that was read in last week? Are the people of Victoria better off?

We have heard about the job losses that Labor are worried about moving forward if the coalition get into government, which are fictional, I feel, after the way that the opposition leader articulated and laid out our plan moving forward. I will give a synopsis of my four years in the role that I hold now, being from the Latrobe Valley. If we are going to talk about jobs, the hard facts and the true facts are that in the last four years – well, three and a bit years – this government have gutted the timber industry and shown disrespect and no regard for the workers that worked in that industry, generations of families that have worked there for 80, 90 years in the timber industry. They have shown no regard at all. They shut it overnight – bang; gone, sorry. ‘Let us try and see if we can keep it going.’ No, it is deadset shut.

So we have got a government that tell us they want to listen to and look after the people of Victoria, but overnight they shut an entire industry. Mums and dads and kids no longer have jobs. But the government in their haste did not see the ramifications moving forward. They did not see that in these tiny communities up in East Gippsland the timber industry is the heart and soul. People had to move away. ‘Here’s a free voucher to go to TAFE to learn something, to get yourself into a new job 300 or 400 kilometres away from here in the city.’ The jobs up there were timber industry jobs. The government then could not even realise that shutting the timber industry – and this still baffles me – was going to shut the white paper industry. How can people that are meant to be running the state – the Premier, the Treasurer and ministers that are at the forefront of protecting Victorians – not see that shutting the timber industry means there is no timber to make white paper?

So what happens? The white paper industry falls over. For those in the chamber that do not know, that white paper industry, along with the timber industry, is in my electorate. The heart and soul of the paper industry, Opal, is in my electorate.

We move on from there. The government, who love and want to protect all Victorians, have been ruthless – there is no-one else to blame – in stopping people from living in their communities or even having a job, with no opportunities to transition. They love that phrase ‘transitioning out’ – no opportunities at all. Then we have Hazelwood, which is shut, which is virtually in the seat of Morwell – I drive past it every single morning – with their workforce that was closed overnight. The government decided that they would open up the Latrobe Valley Authority and throw an enormous amount of money at it to try and make sure that we could have a decent outcome for our Hazelwood workers. That failed miserably. Money was spent on virtually providing jobs for a few that worked inside the Latrobe Valley Authority, while workers, their families and people around the township of Morwell suffered because their jobs, once again, overnight were taken away. I reiterate: this is from a government that stand loud and proud and that protect the Victorian public.

In two years time Yallourn power station will shut. There are lot of workers that work at the Yallourn power station. Not only will that rip 20 per cent out of our power grid, but it will also once again take an enormous number of workers out of the Latrobe Valley. The minister that was at the table just before, the Minister for Consumer Affairs, was talking about the Latrobe Valley and the closures that we have seen, all under the guise of a Labor government. This is Labor heartland I am talking about in the Latrobe Valley. Generationally people have been Labor supporters and voters and have been in the union. I hope this is not unparliamentary, but they have had an absolute gutful of what is going on down here. They are leaving in their droves. They will not be voting for Labor. I am happy to put that on the table now. These are proud people in the Latrobe Valley, and they have had a government rip their livelihoods away. It does not matter if it has been in the timber industry or in the white paper industry or now in the power industry, they have ripped it out. Then we get a budget from the Labor government saying, ‘We are going to look after you people in Victoria.’ I am still looking at stuff that is significant for the Latrobe Valley that was in that budget. There was not a lot. There was some money that has gone in, and where that money went is a story for another day, but it did not go to the people of the Latrobe Valley. It did not go to them to make their lives easier.

On the other side they talk about their free TAFE and their free kinder. Acting Speaker Farnham, you are a former businessperson. Nothing is for free. How do the government afford to pay for the free TAFE and pay for the free kinder and pay for the free public transport? I must say, the only reason that is going is because there is a little issue with the Myki system at the moment: it does not bloody work. That is the only reason why we have free travel at the moment.

Danny Pearson interjected.

Martin CAMERON: You may laugh, member for Essendon.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Wayne Farnham): Member for Morwell, through the Chair. The member for Essendon will stop interjecting.

Danny Pearson interjected.

Martin CAMERON: It is not working down there. You need to talk to the real people, not listen to the boffins down in here.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Wayne Farnham): Member for Essendon, that is enough. Member for Morwell, you will go through the Chair.

Martin CAMERON: Thank you, Acting Speaker. This just shows the government does not know there are issues. They do not know there are issues. They say they are embedded in their communities, but they are not. We see them a little bit now walking around with one photo with a flyer, because they know they are in a world of hurt in 198 days, because that is when the people of Victoria get to actually voice their opinion and their approval. That is when they get to do it. They can stand on the other side of the chamber and talk to me about looking after workers and making sure that Victoria is safe, but I look at people in my community that still have people breaking into their houses and stealing their cars. And why is this? Because we do not have enough police officers on the ground. The ones that we do have, I do not know how they are continually showing up to do their role, because they arrest people and then they are just through court and they are back out once again. I thank all our police officers in the Latrobe Valley for going above and beyond most of the time, but we need more help down there.

We talk about PSOs and hope to continue to have PSOs in the Latrobe Valley, but they are stationed at Traralgon. We need those PSOs mobile, up and down the Latrobe Valley line, being able to get off at Moe and being able to get off at Morwell. Do not tell these people that are committing crime and give them the heads-up that the PSOs can only be in Traralgon. Let us change the narrative. Let us make sure that we do get these PSOs mobile. We talk about the ones that are now being taken off stations down here in the city. In regional Victoria, we have only got three stations that actually have acting PSOs. That is how far behind we are.

Then we look at infrastructure. I go on about these two railway crossings. I think the number was 89 level crossings being removed in in the city, which has obviously caused impact on regional rail lines. But at the moment I have got two: one in Moe, the Lloyd Street–Waterloo Road railway crossing; and I have got the Bank Street railway crossing. On the one in Waterloo Road., we have B-double trucks pulled up over the level crossing because it is dangerous and they cannot do a right-hand turn. Every single day we have got people in these trucks and the train drivers – everyone forgets about the train drivers – heading into Moe have to cross this intersection. I reckon they would be taking a deep breath as they get a kilometre and a half away from this level crossing thinking, ‘Is there going to be a truck there? Is there going to be a school bus there that is stuck on this level crossing?’ – because they cannot move across because the government has failed. This is a program or a commitment from the Labor government, which is nearly a decade old, I think, to get this level crossing fixed. There is an issue there with that level crossing.

Then we move to the Bank Street crossing in Traralgon, where the federal government paid to make sure that the intersection was upgraded. Our hold-up there is wholly and solely on the state government, which needs to install traffic lights to make it safe. At the moment we have got a major highway with no traffic lights. We have the Traralgon Golf Club and golf carts that are pulled up in the middle of this highway have been, unfortunately, accidentally nudged. How long is it before we have a major accident there? We have had a school bus involved in an accident there. But the government continues to fail the people of the Latrobe Valley (1) with jobs, but (2) with safety – public safety on our roads and safety on our streets. We can sit and look at the budget that has been presented here by the government and decide: are we better off with it, or are we better off with the coalition’s answer of what we are going to do.

People will get their chance. It is 198 days until they can vote to say, ‘Are we feeling safe in our own homes, on the street, on our railway lines? Am I going to my hospital and getting seen to in the appropriate time? Am I on a waiting list for an operation?’ And I am not saying yes to all of these things. In my seat of Morwell in the Latrobe Valley, we look at the budget, and what did we get? We did not get a lot. There will be something, I am sure, hidden in a budget line somewhere that something is rolled out statewide. I reckon there will be a line.

We are not as safe as we should be, our jobs are diminishing and, as I said, we have another round of job losses in two years that this government has mandated. Who do we blame? Who do we point the finger at? We point the finger at this Allan Labor government, because they have let us down, let our mums and dads down, and you know what, they have let our kids and our grandkids and their kids down with this budget.

 Eden FOSTER (Mulgrave) (15:51): I am delighted to stand in support of the Appropriation (2026–2027) Bill 2026. This is a budget and a government focused on delivery, delivering high-quality education across our state, delivering world-class health services and hospitals that Victorians expect and deserve, delivering the roads and public transport that we need to move around and delivering emergency services that we rely on. This is also a budget that delivers for my electorate of Mulgrave, with local services and facilities being improved where we need it most and cost-of-living relief to support Victorians.

Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East is resulting in higher prices at the fuel pump, and this is putting Victorians under increasing pressure. This comes as the Reserve Bank has just increased interest rates further due to re-emerging national inflationary pressures. That is why this budget is focused on making life easier. With $2.5 billion in cost-of-living support, this government is delivering real help that supports the lives of all Victorians. We provided instant relief with $155 million to make public transport free for everybody in April and May, taking the pressure off fuel demand and price at the pump.

This budget invests a further $278 million to halve the price of public transport until the end of the year. This includes trams, trains and bus services across the state. This is on top of the previous reforms that this government has made, such as introducing free public transport for under-18s and seniors on weekends and bringing V/Line fares in line with the Metro daily fare cap. When I am out in the community, whether it be station stalls or community events, or doorknocking in my community, they love the free public transport and they love and appreciate the half-price for the rest of the year from June onwards. They know that this will take pressure off their families’ household budget. It puts a little bit extra into their pockets for other things, like putting food on the table and paying for other everyday items that they need. The little bits count.

But we know that not everyone is able to use public transport, so we have provided rebates on rego payments for light vehicles at a cost of $759 million. That is a 20 per cent rebate of up to $186 for people with one car and $372 for people with two. Again, this is really appealing, and people are loving it. I talk to people when I am out and about. I talk to them about what we are doing to help take the pressure off the cost of living. With these measures we have made sure that no matter their circumstances, our communities will have support available to them from the state government.

This is on top of other existing measures to support families. This includes the affordable school uniforms program, saving families $93 on average on uniform costs per application, and more for kinder kits, which contain free books and educational toys to help three-year-olds starting kinder to learn at home through play and reading. We know how important that is for that early learning. Little ones’ brains are like sponges; they absorb so much and they develop so much in those early years.

We are also continuing and expanding the Glasses for Kids program to more students, delivering free vision screening and glasses for kids who need them. We know the risks to kids and their learning when they are visually impaired and cannot see the board or the projector – it has been a while since I have been at school, but I think it is the projector now – or the whiteboard or a TV screen that is in the classroom. We know that there are great risks when kids cannot see or cannot read because of vision impairments. There are behavioural issues because of it and learning issues because of it. This is significant for so many kids across Victoria.

We are also continuing to fund the school breakfast clubs to provide free healthy breakfast for those in need, and again, we know how important this is for families because a lot of families cannot afford that breakfast. They cannot afford to put food on the table. They are trying to make ends meet. They are rationing food at times, so this puts food in the tummies of kids that might not be eating breakfast. As someone who worked at a school, there are many, many students who would not eat breakfast before coming to school. This helps them not just by putting food in their tummy but also with focus and with concentration. We know the benefits of it: it is quite significant. While we are investing record amounts for Victorian kids, we know the track record of the coalition. When they were last in office, they did not just cut funding, they cut free fruit Friday, so imagine what they will do to the cost-of-living pressure support of everyday Victorian families. Heaven forbid that school breakfast clubs get cut under those opposite if they were to come into government.

Speaking of schools, I am also very happy to say that this government and this budget deliver when it comes to education. There is no greater investment a state can make than guaranteeing a world-class education for every child, no matter their socio-economic status. This budget delivers $1 million in school upgrades in my electorate for Carwatha college and Wheelers Hill Secondary College, and speaking to residents in these school communities after the budget was announced, I can confidently say that my community is delighted with these upgrades, as are their respective principals. My phone call to the principals of the two schools were very delightful conversations, and they were very excited to hear about the upgrades.

Statewide the 2026–27 budget delivers record investment in education in our state, and this includes more broadly more than $300 million for the construction of new schools across our state to support growing communities and over $65 million for upgrades to existing schools. This budget also includes $266 million for disability inclusion, making sure that no matter your circumstances there is a school that is able to support you in the best way possible. Other commitments from this budget include $180 million in grants to deliver 27 new and expanded kindergartens and childcare centres; $9.8 million for grants to improve and upgrade early childhood infrastructure, enhancing the quality and amenity of learning environments; $62 million to provide interpreting and translating services and to continue support to the English as an additional language program, which many in my community greatly benefit from; and of course $244 million to deliver government-subsidised training, including free TAFE, in up to 80 priority courses. We know those opposite do not like free TAFE, and I can bet they will cut that too if they win later this year.

This budget is also investing the resources we need to put into our health system so that it is easier and cheaper to get high-quality health care. We are providing a record $32 billion to our health system in 2026–27 alone. Through this budget we are providing $3.9 billion in new investments. I am particularly excited for the brand new development that has been announced at Dandenong Hospital to upgrade the intensive care unit, and I was there with a number of my colleagues just recently.

The redevelopment focuses on expanding capacity for the busiest departments, nine new operating theatres, a new intensive care unit and a brand new ICU featuring 16 beds. The design includes larger patient cubicles, private rooms and modern equipment storage to improve patient privacy and care. It includes upgraded day surgery admissions as well. This is great for my community. On top of that, the tower expansion at Monash Medical Centre announced in 2024 continues as well. This project is even larger in scale than the Dandenong upgrade and is centred around the new seven-storey medical tower being built directly above the existing emergency department. This means that both public hospitals that support my community are getting the funding and upgrades they need to be there for my community. I would like to thank the Minister for Health and her predecessor, the member for Macedon, for the work that they have done delivering for my community in this portfolio.

This budget also provides support for the secondary school immunisation program, saving families time and money on trips to the doctor. It also includes funding for immunisations for meningococcal B for year 10 students. The budget invests $109 million to deliver 45,000 more specialist paediatric appointments and 4000 additional planned surgeries for children. This will mean children and young people get specialist care and treatment faster in a world-class public health system that families can rely on.

I mentioned free public transport, but also more services have been called for. I have received a number of emails and phone calls from my constituents to increase services in the area of my electorate, and we have delivered on that with the 802, 804 and 885 buses having a seven-day-a-week service and more reliable connections. I want to give a bit of a shout-out to Peter Parker, who is a strong advocate for great public transport. My conversations with Peter have been quite productive since I have been elected to this place, and because of those conversations I have been able to advocate on his behalf but also my community’s behalf. So it is not just the 800 bus in 2024, but we now have got the 802, 804 and 885 bus routes delivering more services for my community.

There is so much more, and I will keep going. This government has also responded to increased rates of violent crime by tightening our bail laws and introducing tougher sentencing, but also by introducing the violence reduction unit, which tackles the root causes of crime at an early age to stop it before it begins. This budget is backing this approach with new investments such as $62 million to recruit up to 200 police reservists for police station counter duties, freeing up additional frontline police; $55 million to support Victoria Police operations, including replacing critical policing equipment; $51 million to deliver 50 new protective services officers to support Victoria Police with intelligence-led deployment and to continue Operation Pulse in shopping centres; $229 million to increase capacity in the corrections system, including youth justice, ensuring that we have facilities to hold offenders accountable and keep the community safe; and $23 million to provide educational support and guidance for young people who are at risk of, or are already in contact with, the justice system, and assist schools to re-engage students transitioning between custodial youth justice and educational settings.

There is so much more, and I could continue – and I will. I do want to touch on, though, the contrast – looking at the alternative. We have heard the Leader of the Opposition talk about fiscal responsibility. But in the south-east in my electorate we know what that is code for: it is code for cuts. We have seen it before. We have lived through it. We have lived through that era. It was a nightmare then, and – heaven forbid the coalition get into government at the end of the year – it will be a nightmare again.

When the coalition look at a budget, they do not see people, they see a ledger to be slashed. If they were to come into government, I just wonder what Mulgrave would lose. In regard to transport, will they scrap free PT for under-18s and for seniors on weekends? I imagine so. In regard to health, would they return to the days of efficiency dividends that hollow out our community health centres and leave hospital wards closed? For local jobs, we know they have got a track record of cutting public service positions that many families in my electorate rely on. And they talk about the debt, but they never talk about the social debt created when you stop building schools, when you stop upgrading hospitals and when you stop supporting the most vulnerable. Whether it is cost-of-living support, education, health, community safety or more, the Allan Labor government is delivering the services that Victorians expect from our government, and we are working hard to deliver for working families doing it tough. I would like to thank the Treasurer and the Minister for Finance for their work on this budget, and I commend the bill to the house.

 Wayne FARNHAM (Narracan) (16:06): I am pleased to rise on the Appropriation (2026–2027) Bill 2026 and Appropriation (Parliament 2026–2027) Bill 2026. I have obviously listened to a fair bit of debate today, because I have been sitting there in the chair for 2 hours, and it really is becoming a budget of haves and have-nots. It has been very clear for me today that there are a lot of people on this side who have the have-nots and the government side has the haves – it is really quite simple. When I hear government members talking about health care, like the member for Mulgrave just speaking about it, the member for Frankston talking about the Frankston hospital and the member for Footscray talking about the Footscray Hospital – I have heard all that all day – it does not take away from the fact that yesterday in this chamber I talked about truth, and there is a reason for that. I will not say the l-word today, because I think everyone will explode, but I will talk about truth, because truth is important – very important.

When we talk about health care and when we talk about community and communities getting left behind, there is no bigger community left behind than mine in West Gippsland, in the seat of Narracan. We have been waiting since 2015 for a hospital. That was when the health department recommended that a new hospital be built in West Gippsland – 2015. We get to the 2018 election: the Liberal–National party committed to building a new hospital. We get to the 2022 election: the Liberal–National parties committed to building a new hospital in May 2022. The then Premier Daniel Andrews, on one of his very, very, very rare trips into Warragul – I think it might have been the first one – made an announcement in the backyard of someone’s house with no-one there. They did not even have a candidate at the time. They actually had the candidate from Morwell sitting at the announcement for a hospital in Narracan – completely different seat. He sat up there like the Messiah he thought he was, and he quoted this:

… construction will begin in 2024, it will be completed by 2028, patients and staff would move into that brand new hospital in 2029.

In yesterday’s question time, when I asked the Minister for Health Infrastructure why the government has broken this promise, the Minister for Health Infrastructure said, ‘We didn’t break a promise.’ That is the ultimate gaslighting, in my opinion. You cannot turn around and claim straight up and down, ‘We’re going to start construction in 2024,’ and then have the Minister for Health Infrastructure say, ‘We didn’t break a promise.’ How does that work?

It is actually very poor form by this government that they pick and choose which communities get quality health care, and that is what they have done in this situation. Not even Wonthaggi – they missed out, and Maroondah as well. That is very, very poor from this government.

When people on that side get up and bang on about how good this budget is – this budget is not good. This budget is pathetic. There will be members over that side that I believe are going to be very, very nervous. You can see by their body language now that they are thinking, come 28 November, they are not going to be here anymore. And there is good reason for that. People on that side –

Belinda Wilson interjected.

Wayne FARNHAM: The member for Narre Warren North can mouth off at me all she wants. I am happy to take up her interjections. But there are going to be a lot of members on that side that will not be here after 28 November. That is white noise over there. It always is, and that is the problem. But Victorians have caught on to this. I follow a lot of government MPs on their social media and I have noticed the comments that are coming through from the general public, and I can tell you now they are not very complimentary.

Members interjecting.

Wayne FARNHAM: I do not follow you, mate. Do not worry about it. I would not bother. You come out on irrelevant comments or something like that.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Nathan Lambert): Through the Chair, member for Narracan.

Wayne FARNHAM: I am sorry, Acting Speaker, I will go through the Chair. This comment was on the Premier’s own social media page:

[QUOTE AWAITING VERIFICATION]

Start dusting off your resumes. How are those machete bins working out, Jacinta? You are weak on crime and heavy on corruption.

Victoria has caught on to the Labor Party. They have caught on. The general public has caught on to the Labor Party. They have caught on to the gaslighting. When Labor comes out and says this is a good budget, most comments say, ‘Where’s our $15 billion? Where has our $15 billion gone?’ That comes up all the time, because Victorians are sick and tired of the corruption and the cover-ups in this state that have got us in the position of $200 billion worth of debt and $24 million a day in interest.

The member for Malvern said it earlier. He talked about the top five things in Victoria: unemployment, debt, a credit rating at the lowest it has ever been, taxes at their highest and interest payments at their highest. Talking about the interest payments, they got brought up in last year’s Public Accounts and Estimates Committee, and it was a very good question from Richard Welch in the other place: have you done the modelling if we lose our credit rating? The answer was no, because the credit rating agencies are telling this government to pull their head in. They have been very, very clear about it. They have told this government: if you keep spending, we will downgrade your credit rating. What will that do to the interest bill? Has any modelling been done on that? I doubt it. I doubt it very much, because this government does not listen to people. That is the problem with the government – it does not listen to anyone.

When we talk about fiscal responsibility, our leader has been very clear and very honest with Victorians, which is more than I can say for this government. Our leader, the member for Kew, was very clear in her budget reply. She stated that we do not have a magic wand and we cannot fix this debt overnight, but we will take responsible steps to reduce the debt. Again, those on that side like to throw numbers in the air, and wherever they land, that is the number they will talk about – there are a lot of numbers. But the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Kew, was very clear, especially when it came to the public service. She said we will freeze the public service – not sack anyone, not cut anyone, like those over there running the scare campaign will say for the next six months. But the Victorian public know they are full of it.

So it was a very clear commitment: no-one will lose their job. She stated that three or four times in the media, very clearly and very concisely: no-one will lose their job, but if you retire or you leave, we are not going to replace that job.

Anthony Carbines interjected.

Wayne FARNHAM: It is good to hear the Minister for Police spoke up then, because another commitment we made to keep Victorians safe is to put an extra 3000 police on the beat, because we know the Minister for Police has failed on policing. We get that that has happened. We know our crime is up and we know our police numbers are down, so our shadow minister, along with our leader, came up with a solution. We will also have more PSOs, and they will be at every station, unlike the government that has ripped them off the stations and put them elsewhere. The member for Malvern talked earlier about crime in his electorate and how he had a 24-hour police station open seven days a week which is now back to three days a week and business hours only. How does that protect the public? How does that keep Victorians safe? It actually goes to the budget paper’s title itself. The first thing it says is ‘safer’. That could not be further from the truth. This community is not safe. People know it. People are scared. The member for Malvern’s example is a very good example of the mismanagement of this state and why we are where we are today – a very good example.

I have not even started on my electorate when it comes to crime. I have one police station – one 24-hour police station for 4500 square kilometres. Trafalgar is on reduced hours, Rawson has no-one there, and there is no-one at Drouin. They all come out of Warragul to service these other areas, but it is not like the city. We are not 10 minutes away from an area. If you have to drive from Warragul to Rawson, for example, that is over an hour, so how can that community be safe with no presence? That is what has happened with the government. They have managed this economy so poorly that they have cut our police numbers and they have shut our stations – that is irresponsible. That is moral irresponsibility.

The saddest thing about this state is that the government does not give a stuff. They just keep gaslighting and gaslighting every opportunity they get. When we talk about an interest bill of $8.9 billion increasing to $11.8 billion in interest, how is that responsible? People will say, ‘Well, we have built infrastructure for that. We borrowed the money for infrastructure, but we have a surplus.’ I love this magic word ‘surplus’. A $727 million surplus, but we are going to be $200 million in debt and paying $1 million an hour – it just does not work and it does not compute. I will tell you why, because most normal people, any household in this state who scrimps and saves – and they are doing it tough – if they get a bit of a windfall or they have been really, really disciplined in what they have done in that year, they get a bit of a windfall. What they do is they grab that money and they put it onto their mortgage to reduce their interest – that is what normal people do. But this government is not normal; they are far from it. Because what they do is go, ‘We’ve got a surplus, we’re going to spend that, borrow more, and we will throw you another $500 million in debt and pay more interest on that.’ That is the mentality of the government. I have said it before: they do not run a business, they have never known how to work in their lives, and all they do is spend. And when they have spent it all, they come after you again and again and again. It is typical of this government, and that is why we are in very, very big trouble in this state.

One thing that no-one has spoken about today or yesterday is housing. They have given up on it. The government have missed their targets year in, year out. Housing is unaffordable. They have been beating up the construction industry for the last two years. I even noticed that the new Minister for Housing and Building is backflipping on the minimum financial requirements (MFR) now, but that is too little, too late when builders have had a gutful of the government. Every metric this government has tried to achieve, it has failed – it is really that simple. They are not smart fiscal managers, and Victoria have woken up to it. Finally, Victoria have woken up to it.

There is nothing ‘easy’ in this state, there is nothing ‘safe’ and there is nothing ‘more affordable’. The fact that the government now want to blame Donald Trump for the problems shows me that they are just looking for another scapegoat because of their incompetence. Donald Trump did not increase our emergency services levy. Donald Trump did not create the lack of investment in our roads and the terrible state of our roads. Donald Trump did not close down the timber industry. It is all on them. It is not on the orange-haired man, I can tell you right now. This government’s incompetence is why we are where we are today – absolutely hopeless at managing an economy. You cannot spruik a surplus when you are paying a million dollars an hour in interest – it is a false narrative. Victorians have woken up to this government. They know we are in an absolute fiscal –

James Newbury interjected.

Wayne FARNHAM: Mess. Thank you, member for Brighton, mess – because of this government. Come 28 November, there are a few over there that are going to have to dust their résumés off, pack up their offices and move on, because I, along with Victorians, have had enough.

 Vicki WARD (Eltham – Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Natural Disaster Recovery, Minister for Equality) (16:21): I move:

That the debate now be adjourned.

Motion agreed to and debate adjourned.

Ordered that debate be adjourned until later this day.