Wednesday, 3 June 2026

 Annabelle CLEELAND (Euroa) (16:31): That is 15 minutes we will not get back, isn’t it. That is quite the rabble for the minister for the backbench. But we will stick to the grievance debate, and I am going to take it down a notch and not just have this waffle and inaccuracies and misleading debate. I want to talk about the impact of this corruption that we are seeing on local standards, local examples.

Today I am standing up to grieve for residents in the Euroa electorate, for regional Victoria and for every family that has been let down by a government that has totally lost its way. I am grieving for the woman who is in a tent tonight in the Longwood bushfire region. I am grieving for someone who saw her home burn down and has to stay in a tent this winter. I am grieving for the truck driver who nearly lost his life on a road that Labor refuses to fix. I am grieving for a nurse who cannot do her job because they cannot afford a fridge to store critical blood for road accidents. And I am grieving for a region that is growing so fast and being left behind consistently, deliberately and absolutely with complete arrogance by the Labor government. What I can understand is that when you have a government consumed by hiding and enabling corruption, when its energy goes into covering its tracks rather than governing for all of Victoria, this is what happens to Victorians. What I am about to describe is not a list of complaints, this is a record of the consequences of corruption in Victoria.

Let us start with what I can only describe as the most shameful response to a natural disaster we have ever seen in Victoria. Following the January Longwood bushfires, five months on, 15 people remain in tents this winter – 15 people in the freezing cold while modular homes sit unused in storage. These are homes left over from Black Summer in 2020, gathering dust in government facilities. And do not gaslight me – they have tried. I have seen them with my own eyes. The Allan Labor government announced $33 million for 100 new modular homes. It equates to about 330 grand per modular home, which to me is well above market value, but if the CFMEU are involved, I am sure that it is a bit of a tip on the –

Jade Benham interjected.

Annabelle CLEELAND: And the building authorities, not to mention that as well. When you do the maths, who is set to benefit? Why are modular homes sitting in storage, families in tents and the government saying they are going to take six months to build them and to get them out there? What makes it worse is that I am hearing through whistleblowers from Emergency Management Victoria (EMV) that they are desperately trying to offload those stored homes before the end of this financial year, not to house victims of a disaster but to record them as revenue. Let that sink in. They are trying to sell modular homes already built for revenue and allowing people to tolerate this winter in tents.

We are seeing it now. The first week of winter has been terrifyingly cold up there. We will not survive if this is the heartless response of the government. This is not bureaucratic inefficiency. This is a choice – a deliberate, calculated choice that leaves human beings and families in tents. These are the government’s figures, by the way. EMV staff have shared these with me because they are heartbroken about what they are being asked to do. This is going down a path that is cruelly impacting every Victorian, and it follows after my calls about the dysfunctional clean-up program. Months on, whistleblowers are telling me that just 70 homes have been cleaned up – 70 homes in five months. And, Speaker, this is your electorate too. After Black Summer more than 700 homes were cleaned up in the same period. Contrast that with 70 homes cleaned up this week in five months. This is one-tenth of the performance, and the Allan Labor government wants to call that recovery. That is absolute abandonment.

More than 600 people have registered for the clean-up program. How many people do you think qualify?

A member interjected.

Annabelle CLEELAND: About 200, they reckon. But I want to know how many have been pulled off the clean-up program because it has taken them too long. And the problem that we are seeing now is that it has taken so long, they have dipped into their own little financial reserves and cleaned up their property themselves, and now they cannot afford to rebuild. They are paying rates on worthless properties. In the past the precedent has been three years of rate relief. If this government has a heart, I want to see three years of rate relief and three years of exemption from the emergency services tax, because the guys that got burnt out, they are the ones that are paying for a tax. They are the ones that turned out to put their lives on the line and defend and protect our community, and they lost their own properties. Now they are paying thousands in a tax that we are committed to scrapping when we are elected in November. They have properties with nothing on them, and they cannot afford to rebuild – no rate relief, no emergency services tax relief, no fast-tracking of the permit approval process. People literally cannot rebuild a shed because they are told to wait three years. They are in tents. This government are telling my community that they have turned their back on them. What I am seeing in the Longwood recovery does not look only like incompetence. It is a pattern – a pattern where this government is more focused on corruption and wasteful money in Melbourne. It has turned its back on families that need it now more than ever. It was elected to represent all of Victoria, and particularly those who are going through a disaster.

I want to talk about health – another pivot to some of the consequences of this government. This week I was reached out to by a local nurse at Benalla Health, and she said to me their fridge that has a 10-year life span is up to 15 years. It broke, and someone turned up to fix it and said, ‘This isn’t going to last.’ We have $15,000 of blood reserves for road accidents and for crises and health emergencies in our community, and we do not have a working fridge. What is happening to Victoria? It is not just that. She said, ‘I will not turn up to work because the monitors to care for people in urgent care broke.’ At about a grand a monitor, they are now having to lease them because they cannot afford them

Ambulance and paramedics – I am hearing from several of my local paramedics who were motivated to do the course and now cannot get a job. More than two years on, our paramedics cannot get a job. They would help fix the ambulance crisis caused by the Allan Labor government, and they cannot get a job. What does that look like in terms of consequences for my community? It looks like Murray and Pam Ellis. They are advertising jobs in my community and not employing locals.

Steve McGhie interjected.

Annabelle CLEELAND: The same job was advertised six times over two years. They are not employing anyone. But I enjoy your rebuttal, because you are clearly out of touch.

Let us talk about what the consequences are when you cannot get an ambulance. Pam and Murray Ellis of Strathbogie called when Murray was having excruciating pain, and the call-taker said, ‘Sorry, Pam, there is no ambulance in your region this evening.’

Everyone, imagine that you are calling to protect someone you love and imagine there is no ambulance. Imagine hauling your husband into a car at 1 am and taking him hundreds of kilometres to the nearest hospital where he is then admitted for several days because of his deteriorated condition and being told there is no ambulance. I recall, once upon a time, a former Labor Premier saying every minute counts. Yes, every minute counts, even for regional Victorians, even for people that live hundreds of kilometres from a hospital. It matters to our communities.

Road conditions: I recently went for a drive with Archie Baines, who is an absolute icon in the trucking world across Australia.

Jade Benham: I saw that reel.

Annabelle CLEELAND: It was a good one. He replayed an accident on the Goulburn Valley Highway that nearly claimed his life. Let me tell you, it is quite interesting sitting in the truck of someone who is so tough, so experienced and so traumatised by the condition of these roads. We went past and we saw the pothole. Surprise, surprise, after a near fatal accident it had been fixed. But there was another one right next to it. He went through from Nagambie to Shepparton and home again and highlighted the deterioration in the road and what this is going to mean for road users. I have got to ask: what does it look like when a government is quite aware about the road toll and accidents and claims, because the 40-grand of damage to his truck will be repaid by the Allan Labor government because it was their responsibility? This is what happens. They tried to lift the rebate to $1500 because they were paying out so much.

Jade Benham: How many have they done, do you know?

Annabelle CLEELAND: Not many, I think.

Jade Benham: Thirteen.

Annabelle CLEELAND: Thirteen – no surprise. But driving with Archie Baines, you can see that 100-odd kilometres of the barrier on the side have been destroyed because of the number of accidents because of the condition of the roads. The government gets the data. They choose to turn a blind eye and funnel money into Melbourne projects and crooks.

I also want to quickly talk about the overlay this government has put on my region – Kilmore and Broadford – a 300 per cent increase in our population in the coming years. We want to complain, and we are going to get accused of NIMBYism, allegations that we do not want it in our backyard, but we do not mind as long as we have the infrastructure and the services to accommodate that population. So, do we? We do not even have a public secondary school in Kilmore – a population of more than 14,000 people. There are no mental health services in the southern Hume region; public transport 4 kilometres from the town centre and students have to walk; and a bus that is not even aligned with the train timetable, and kids are waiting hours to get on the bus. Rather than fix this, the Minister for Education has just removed the education zoning under the condition that Broadford can accommodate the increase in students. I met with the Broadford Secondary School committee, and I learned this week that the Treasurer last December invited her in and dangled a carrot: ‘You’re silent, and you’ll get $16 million to accommodate the increase in students.’

Lauren Kathage: Outrageous.

Annabelle CLEELAND: It is outrageous. Do you know what is outrageous? There was nothing in the budget. There are two Mod 10s to accommodate hundreds of students. And what is outrageous – you are right, member for Yan Yean – is that these classrooms are operating off a generator. Argue with that one. It is shocking. You are spot on – it is shocking.

Lauren Kathage interjected.

The SPEAKER: Member for Yan Yean, come to order. Through the Chair, member for Euroa.

Annabelle CLEELAND: Our classrooms are operating off a generator. The Treasurer promised a $16 million project and what eventuated was a couple of dongas, a couple of portable classrooms. Next year they cannot deliver the Victorian curriculum with the increased number of students and the inadequate infrastructure that they have. The electrician said, ‘No more classrooms off these generators, because they cannot cope.’

There are classrooms and no toilets, no sink for a staffroom. There is black mould in some of the wellbeing centre. There is complete neglect and misleading support from this government, absolutely. It is robbing Peter to pay Paul, and Victorian kids pay the price. This is what happens when a government’s attention is no longer on Victorians, when it is focused on and consumed by survival, by managing allegations, by silencing critics and by cutting deals rather than governing. The people of Kilmore see it, and in November Victorians will remember it.

I recently met with the member for Ovens Valley at the Glenrowan pub with 100-odd people who are fuming about the state’s transmission plan with renewable energy zones. People are not opposing solar. They are opposing this government that is ramming them through and destroying our agricultural land, destroying our environment and destroying our community’s choice.