Thursday, 4 June 2026

 Anthony CARBINES (Ivanhoe – Leader of the House, Minister for Police, Minister for Community Safety, Minister for Victims, Minister for Racing) (00:46): I move:

That this house takes note of the 2026–27 budget papers.

The SPEAKER: Are you speaking to the budget papers?

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: The member for Brighton is warned.

Anthony CARBINES: Can I just say that the rivers of gold continue to flow into the Ivanhoe electorate. There is no mistake. We have seen record funding in schools. The Austin Hospital was attempted to be privatised by the Kennett government, the Baillieu government and the Napthine government. We know that the Austin Hospital supports all Victorians, particularly those in the Ivanhoe electorate. A $275 million emergency department has been funded by the Allan Labor government, to fund 100,000 emergency department treatments in a year at the Austin Hospital. Not only that but there is $14 million funded in the budget for the Heidelberg Primary School redevelopment. I look forward to the Deputy Premier coming out to see the latest works at Heidelberg Primary School, let alone Olympic Village Primary School – rebuilt by the Allan Labor government with a $6 million investment. Not only that but I can also go to the Ivanhoe Park redevelopment – $300,000 for the redevelopment of Ivanhoe Park. I have been in the running group in Ivanhoe for some 15 years.

I do not mind also mentioning the Ford Park redevelopment, which has been delivered thanks to the work of our Allan Labor government. The North East Link is a fantastic project right through Bundoora and Ivanhoe – I know the member for Bulleen is a big fan of that project. It looks a little bit untidy over there in Bulleen, but it is all zipped up and tickety-boo in the Ivanhoe electorate, because that is going to take 15,000 trucks off Rosanna Road in the Ivanhoe electorate.

I am very pleased with the work that we have delivered at my old school, Viewbank College an $11.5 million redevelopment of the performing arts centre at the old school there at Viewbank College, a fantastic redevelopment that has been delivered by the Allan–Andrews government. Investment in schools in my electorate also includes the treehouse and the beehive at Ivanhoe Primary School. I can also go to Mother of God Primary School, which has now been combined with Ivanhoe East Primary School thanks to a great leasing arrangement made by our government to support more students to go to school across my electorate. I would also like to acknowledge the $5 million redevelopment that we have delivered at Macleod College for the science and maths technology rooms, another fantastic redevelopment in the electorate of Ivanhoe.

Across the budgets that we have delivered as a government, the removal of the Rosanna level crossing at Lower Plenty Road and new station at Rosanna has been welcomed by my community. We are just about to start, and money has been provided in the budget for the Macleod level crossing removal at Ruthven Street. The boom gates are down for 30 minutes in the 2-hour peak as 28 trains roll through that location in the morning peak.

The only reason you can have 28 trains rolling through that intersection in the morning peak is because of the 1.5 kilometres of single track that we duplicated through a $110 million investment from our government. That is what has come from Labor budgets: a $110 million investment to duplicate 1.5 kilometres of track. That is why there are 28 trains rolling through the Macleod level crossing in the morning peak. The boom gates are down for half an hour, so what are we going to do? In this budget we continue to fund the early works to remove the level crossing at Ruthven Street in Macleod. That is a great project for Macleod. Of the six train stations in my electorate, we had three boom gates. After this project we will only have one set of boom gates left in the Ivanhoe electorate. This is about significant investment in my electorate.

That investment has built on the $275 million emergency department redevelopment that is underway at the Austin Hospital, a hospital that those opposite tried to privatise under the Kennett government. The last time the Liberals held the seat of Ivanhoe they tried to privatise the Austin Hospital, and people in my electorate have not forgotten and I will be making sure they do not forget as we roll towards this election. I might just say, on social media alone, the most highly engaged with posts have been anything about the Austin Hospital. I recommend to those opposite that they get on board and support the Austin Hospital. The $275 million investment in this year’s budget and last year’s budget is a significant demonstration of the investment from our government in the Ivanhoe electorate.

Can I say also that we have built a new library at Ivanhoe. We have invested some several hundred thousand dollars, thanks to the member for Bentleigh in his time in his previous portfolio. That is invested in the West Heidelberg library redevelopment, and I am really pleased to make sure that we have been able to do that. We have built a new library at Rosanna, thanks to a $1.5 million development –

Paul Edbrooke interjected.

Anthony CARBINES: I take up the interjection from the member for Frankston when I point out that at the TAFE campus of Melbourne Polytechnic in West Heidelberg, we have seen a multimillion-dollar redevelopment thanks to the member in the other place, the former Minister for Skills and TAFE, who announced that project. I was pleased that my current friend the member for Bundoora was out there as the current Minister for Skills and TAFE to check on that project just recently, a multimillion-dollar redevelopment of the TAFE centre out there in West Heidelberg in my electorate.

As we bounce our way around, the Viewbank Primary School redevelopment has been concluded and opened. The Banyule Primary School redevelopment has been concluded and opened in my electorate. I can say that schools in my electorate have benefited from significant funding from our budgets in government.

I also want to point out some other significant developments that we have been able to deliver on. Some of those have been very recent, like the 20 per cent rego refund that has been provided to people in my electorate. They have been storming the electorate office just this week – $186 back in their pocket thanks to our 20 per cent rego refund. It has been taken up significantly by people in my electorate. I must say my first car, the 1985 Ford Laser, is still going. Everyone remembers their first car, and rego is a very significant cost. A 20 per cent registration refund puts money back into families’ pockets. If you have got two cars, you can get that money too. That is a very significant project.

I want to also go to Olympic Park. Heidelberg United in my electorate is a great world game team, as the member for Pascoe Vale knows, and an $8 million investment from our government. This goes to show that over the budgets in our electorate we continue to deliver significant projects: Tarakan Street housing estate in West Heidelberg, 75 new homes; Bell-Bardia estate on Bell Street, we are in the middle of over 100 new homes thanks to our engagement with the Albanese federal government. We have also just opened in Beetham Parade many, many new homes across a high-rise redevelopment along the railway line, which is again part of a development with the Albanese federal Labor government. This just goes to show that our government continues to invest in jobs, housing, health and education in my electorate.

Sporting facilities are very significant, and they are important to people in my electorate. We have invested in the Ivanhoe Park Croquet Club; the Ivanhoe bowling club – $300,000; and Chelsworth Park – $300,000 in this budget for new lighting.

I want to say further that we have also been able to do redevelopments at Macleod Football Club. Just last month I was able to open at Macleod Junior Football Club a multimillion-dollar redevelopment that we partnered with Banyule City Council on. Having a daughter who is a premiership player in the under-14s at Macleod Junior Football Club, it is fantastic to see that ground get the facilities it deserves for the local people in my electorate. A former member of this place Damian Drum opened the new lights at Macleod Park junior football ground many years ago, but the new pavilion says a lot about investment in local community and local families. Volunteers do an amazing job, but you need the facilities to back in local people and local families.

As we work our way across the Ivanhoe electorate, I am pleased to also point out that the redevelopment at Heidelberg Primary School of $14 million is coming up out of the ground. This is new classrooms and new facilities at Heidelberg Primary. There are some 650 students at that school just down the road from my electorate office. That project will largely conclude by the end of this year. I should also point out some of the projects that we continue to pursue in my electorate but were not successful in this year’s budget. Rosanna Primary School and the redevelopment of the administrative wing and the remaining classrooms continues to be a key priority for me. Also, at Viewbank College they would like a new hall and gymnasium. I remember being there in 1986 when I started in year 7. It is still the same hall as it was right back then. I am very committed to working towards getting a new gym at Viewbank College all these years later. We have delivered an $11.5 million performing arts centre, and I am committed to delivering the new gym at Viewbank College. We will work towards that project, just as we did when we rebuilt La Trobe College in my electorate, also shared with the member for Bundoora. I am working very hard on the next stages of the Macleod College redevelopment. We have delivered $5 million for the science technology wing. We are committed to delivering the rest of the school redevelopment. Right across my electorate, and with my colleague the member for Bundoora, the work that we have been able to deliver at each and every school, including up at Streeton, for local families has been very significant.

We continue with very significant large-scale projects such as the North East link, which will get 15,000 trucks off roads like Rosanna Road to make roads safer. The curfew will continue on Rosanna Road to keep our community safe. I want to make it very clear that across my electorate we have also been able to deliver, thanks to some budget funding for planning, mandatory heights in Ivanhoe – a very significant project that was supported by my community in Ivanhoe through a precinct structure plan that ensures there are mandatory heights. Those opposite, particularly when they were in government, were happy to have guidelines for mandatory heights, but when we came to office, under the former member for Richmond Mr Wynne, we ensured that there were mandatory heights in Ivanhoe. That is backed in in our electorate. It is very significant for the people in my community to make sure that neighbourhood character is protected across the Ivanhoe electorate.

Not only have we delivered Rosanna a new library, Ivanhoe a new library and now a new library at West Heidelberg, but we are also making sure that the new emergency department at the Austin Hospital will treat up to 100,000 people a year. It is more than lifting its capacity. We know that project, at $275 million, is very significant. It is only a Labor government that has built two hospitals on one site, the Austin and Mercy hospitals. Not only that, but there is the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre, and there is our continued support for Ringwood Private Hospital across the road. There is the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital and the funding that we have been able to provide for the elective surgery centre and ongoing services in the remembrance garden. Can I just say that health services are at the core in the Ivanhoe electorate. That is what we do best. They employ so many people in my community.

I want to say also that for the SES in West Heidelberg on the old West Heidelberg police station site there is a multimillion-dollar redevelopment. The SES cover several local government areas, but it is being built there in West Heidelberg. It has got so many new volunteers backing it in and being part of that service. It is a very significant redevelopment for the people of my community. It is only appropriate that our volunteers in emergency services have the very best services to support them. I know that is a project that they appreciate.

The one that we have just left off the list might also be the Chandler Highway bridge redevelopment. People said it could not be done. Over $100 million – the Chandler Highway bridge redevelopment is a very significant project that has opened up the freeway between the Ivanhoe and Kew electorates and made it a lot easier for us to get from one to the other.

Can I say also, in the generosity of spirit in the Ivanhoe electorate when we talk about state budgets, many students in Ivanhoe and East Ivanhoe attend school at Kew High, and so several years ago we worked very hard to make sure that we received a multimillion-dollar redevelopment of Kew High School, which I advocated for and delivered with the former member for Kew Mr Smith. I do not mind saying that that is a project delivered in the Kew electorate that shows again that we are open minded and that we are about supporting people in our community and making sure that those across the Ivanhoe and Kew electorates get the services that they deserve. So many students in Ivanhoe and East Ivanhoe attend Kew High that we made sure we got a redevelopment delivered, but it took an Allan Labor government to get the multimillion-dollar investment for new services and facilities. The member for Sydenham, who was able to open that project in her time as the Minister for Education, is a fair indication of the ongoing investment in schools and people’s wellbeing from our government.

Can I say further that across the Ivanhoe electorate, over very many years, we have seen every school get investment and redevelopment. We have seen significant redevelopment at the Austin Hospital. We have seen our wellbeing and recreation facilities upgraded. We have seen the North East Link, which will get 15,000 trucks off local roads. We have seen the Chandler Highway bridge totally redesigned and redeveloped. We have seen level crossings removed at Rosanna. We are seeing level crossings removed at Macleod. Only a Labor government in Ivanhoe will make sure we continue to be put first in the community, protect our jobs and our services and look out for our people.

 Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (01:02): I rise to speak on the 2026–27 state budget on behalf of the people of South-West Coast – the hardworking families, farmers, small businesses, volunteers and community leaders who are doing everything right yet continue to be let down by a government that has lost control of the state’s finances and lost touch with regional communities. This is not a budget for the future; this is a budget that exposes the consequences of more than a decade of financial mismanagement, broken promises and misplaced priorities. After more than 11 years in office, this Andrews–Allan Labor government has delivered not just a debt crisis but a housing crisis, a health crisis, an education crisis, a roads crisis, an energy crisis and now, most frighteningly, a growing crime crisis.

When Labor came into office in 2014, Victoria’s debt was just over $20 billion, but by the end of the forward estimates we will exceed $200 billion of debt in this state. Victorians now have to find around $1.35 million every hour, every day, just to pay the interest on that debt – not to reduce the debt, not to build hospitals or schools, not to fix roads but just to pay the interest. That money delivers no new services, no new infrastructure and no relief for struggling families. While Victorians tighten their belts with this government, which continues to max out the state’s credit card, there is no credible plan to repair the damage. None of this was unforeseeable. In fact it was glaringly obvious. Anyone with a basic understanding of economics or who just has experience – who has been in business – would know that historically low interest rates do not last forever. Yet this government borrowed as though money would remain free forever. That is not responsible financial management, that is reckless, and now we are all paying the price.

Despite all this borrowing, taxing and raiding of public funds, regional communities are still being neglected. What do the people of south-west Victoria actually have to show for the record debt and the record taxes?

We still have no PET scanner for south-west Victoria; no gymnastics centre, which was promised prior to the last election, in Portland; no funding for the Warrnambool Surf Life Saving Club redevelopment; no commitment for the Lookout drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility; and no funding for ageing swimming pools in Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Heywood and all over our regions. The promises made before elections become excuses afterwards.

Take the promised gymnastics centre in Portland: the community was understandably excited when it was announced before the 2022 election by Labor, but it quickly became clear that the project was not properly planned. There was no detailed scope, no certainty around costs and no proper understanding of what actually was required. Years later, here we are today and there is still no gymnastics centre. Worse still, the government has undermined the broader community vision for a multisport hub that would support basketball and other sporting groups. Basketball participation in Portland is booming, with children playing late into the evening on weeknights because demand for court space is so high. Families and volunteers stepped up, but the government has not.

The same story applies to the long-promised PET scanner. When the Warrnambool Base Hospital redevelopment was announced in 2020, the government claimed it had been carefully designed to meet future health care needs, yet there was no PET scanner included in that design. Then, just before the election, Labor suddenly promised as an afterthought a PET scanner. Four years later, there is still no PET scanner, and patients in south-west Victoria are still travelling long distances for critical diagnostic cancer investigations. The excuses have become absurd. We are now told the PET scanner is interdependent with the new hospital development, but if the redevelopment was supposedly futureproofed in the first place, why was the scanner never included? I am not doubting we need it, it is just that we are getting so many lies told to us. The truth is there was another option. A private provider was prepared to install the scanner at St John of God hospital. It is also a private provider that is in the public hospital. Let us be clear: there is no extra cost to the patients in Warrnambool or in the region. The services actually could be already operating today. Instead the government has delayed, dithered and failed to deliver.

I am so deeply disappointed that this budget contained no funding for the Warrnambool Surf Life Saving Club redevelopment. The club has done everything asked of it. Volunteers have fundraised tirelessly, plans have been developed, and the need is clearly obvious. These are people who patrol our beaches, rescuing swimmers and keeping families safe, protecting not only residents but also visitors from right across Victoria and interstate and travellers from overseas who come to enjoy our unique, beautiful coastline, yet after years and years they are left waiting while the government hides behind bureaucratic excuses. This government is more comfortable hiding behind red tape than supporting volunteers who save lives on our coastline.

South-west communities were also hoping to see support for the ageing pools at the Warrnambool AquaZone and Port Fairy community pool. There is nothing – no funding, no commitment, no plan. There is still no funding for the Lookout rehabilitation facility. For more than a decade the south-west community has campaigned for dedicated drug and alcohol rehabilitation services. Every other part of Victoria has either a facility or funding committed. South-west Victoria remains the glaring omission. Families dealing with addiction deserve better.

The Allan Labor government has completely failed South-West Coast with its farcical management of our roads. Tonight is the night to really highlight that, with so many cars damaged on the Princes Highway. You should see my inbox; it is inundated with people who are telling me what happened. I had a young woman say, ‘I am too frightened to drive home tonight.’ The government is going to use the rain that we have had as an excuse, but we have rain every winter. We are a dairy farming region for a reason. We like the rain; we like it because it grows grass, and we can build roads just like they do in Queensland, where they have torrential rain, which is not what we have had. It is a normal event of a few inches of rain, but our roads are falling apart purely due to mismanagement and lack of maintenance by this government.

The government needs to stop wasting taxpayers money on endless pothole patching and return to proper preventative road maintenance, including implementing the recommended minimum 10 per cent annual road maintenance standard. What is happening on our roads has become so ridiculous it feels less like infrastructure management and more like an unaired episode of Utopia.

Earlier this year electronic signs appeared on the Princes Highway, proudly announcing roadworks coming in March and April. The government was spruiking works before a single shovel had hit the ground. Then when locals noticed the dates had passed and nothing had happened, the government quietly removed the signs – and nothing happened. Witch’s hats and site sheds, like a travelling circus, were packed up overnight before anyone could ask questions, and the roadworks themselves never eventuated. Instead crews simply returned to patch potholes – not to rebuild the roads and not to properly resurface them, just to shovel material into holes. Then only weeks later they came back and patched the same holes again. At Panmure I watched workers compacting asphalt into potholes by literally jumping up and down on them, and tonight that has come home to roost. With the rain we have had today, what we have seen is those potholes completely fall apart, as every good dairy farmer who knows how to fix a road knew would happen. Genuinely I thought perhaps the department had abandoned engineering standards and moved into interpretive dance when I saw them jumping up and down on potholes. Then somehow it became more absurd. Just last week I literally witnessed workers using leaf blowers – the same kind I use in my driveway – to blow the water out of potholes before patching them. I genuinely did. The only problem was it was raining at the time. Does anyone else see the irony here, blowing water out of a pothole while the rain is coming down around you? You honestly could not script this stuff.

The frightening part is that this is no accident. The government’s own budget papers now effectively measure success by the number of potholes patched, rather than whether the roads are actually being repaired properly. The KPI appears to be quantity not quality. In other words, the quicker the pothole fails, the sooner they patch it again and count it twice. And then again, a third time – and gosh, after last night’s rain, they will be counting a lot.

Country Victorians are not fools. Farmers, contractors and quarry operators understand roads. One constituent who owns a gravel pit told me that cows standing in the paddock watching the repairs had a better understanding of road maintenance than this government does. Frankly, after what I have seen, I am struggling to argue with him. This is not infrastructure management. It is a wasteful, incompetent and embarrassingly irresponsible use of taxpayer money. Roads between Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Portland, Terang, Cobden and Macarthur are riddled with potholes, crumbling edges and dangerous surfaces. When I have people texting me like I have today that they are frightened to go home from work because it is 5:30 and it is getting dark and they cannot see the potholes, I understand completely their fear. Local people are sick of damaging tyres, rims and suspensions because this government failed to maintain the roads properly in the first place.

While infrastructure crumbles, crime is spiralling. Victoria Police currently has around 1500 vacancies. Regional police stations in Portland, Koroit, Macarthur, Heywood and Terang have reduced operating hours because resources are stretched so thin. Communities like Warrnambool and Portland are seeing home invasions, retail theft and antisocial behaviour that many residents say they have never experienced before in our part of the world, and I would concur. I never even locked my house until two years ago. Victorians no longer feel safe, as they once did, and this is what happens when governments fail to back police and fail to impose meaningful consequences for criminal behaviour.

The Liberal–Nationals coalition believes communities deserve to feel safe. That means stronger bail laws, real consequences for repeat offenders and proper support for frontline police who want to do the job they signed up to do. This government claims only Labor can protect services, but after, what, more than a decade, Victorians have actually seen that it is a disaster here in Victoria – a health system under immense pressure, an education system stretched beyond capacity, a housing crisis driving families out of the market, an energy crisis pushing up power bills, a road maintenance crisis across regional Victoria and now a growing crisis of community safety.

Victorians are paying more tax than ever before and receiving so much less in return. Teachers are exhausted, nurses are burnt out and police are stretched thin. Families are struggling with the soaring cost of living. Businesses are closing or moving interstate because Victoria has become too expensive and too difficult a place to invest in. Farmers who help drive our economy and feed our state are now being slugged with the emergency services and volunteer tax – I refuse to call it a levy – a new tax expected to raise billions more than the former fire services levy. At the same time, the agriculture budget has been cut, and that sends entirely the wrong message to Victoria’s most productive sector.

Energy prices remain another concern. Victorians were promised lower bills, but tell me someone who has seen that. Instead, households and businesses are paying more. Manufacturers are under enormous pressure. Investments are leaving the state, and confidence has fallen. The cumulative effect of soaring land taxes, the vacant residential land tax, the windfall gains tax, has made Victoria increasingly unattractive for investment. Rental properties are becoming less viable, housing supply is constrained and rents continue to rise. Young Victorians are finding it harder than ever to achieve the dream of home ownership. This is the inevitable result of poor policy settings and reckless financial management.

We on this side of the house know there is a better way. We believe in responsible financial management, and it matters. We know it is going to be tough. We know there is a hard road ahead, but we have a plan. It is time for a fresh start, it is time for a disciplined financial response, it is time for honesty and integrity and it is time to restore hope, confidence and opportunity.

 Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (01:17): I rise to support the 2026–27 Victorian state Labor budget, and it is a budget that is all about making life easier, safer and more affordable for every single Victorian. Further to my contribution of 13 May, I would like to highlight again the various other supports and initiatives that are contained in this budget around cost of living, jobs and job creation, skills, education, transport, health and wellbeing, our sport community and visitor economy, action on the environment, social justice and of course, importantly, community safety. These are the things that matter to every single Victorian. These are the things that we invest in through this budget. These are the things that the Liberal Party stand against, and these are the things that the Liberal Party will cut with the $40 billion of cuts contained in their shadow budget and their sacking of one in every seven public servants, which will have a direct impact on public servants and emergency services and frontline services.

I would like to take the house to the Department of Transport and Planning (DTP) section of the budget papers, which also contains $100 million towards improving bus services in my community, beginning with the 526 bus route through Coburg and Newlands, which will be really lifting and boosting its service to seven days, including on Sundays for the first time, with an average service frequency of every 20 minutes. The 561 bus route from Pascoe Vale station to La Trobe University will get an increase in weekday peak and weekend frequencies as well. The 542 bus from Pascoe Vale station to Roxburgh Park will have a full service uplift from Monday to Saturday, and Sunday services will be extended to 10 pm – and I know that is welcome news for the member for Greenvale and his constituents living up further north on that bus route. The 503 route through Essendon to East Brunswick via Albion Street in Brunswick West will get a boost: an extra 25 weekly services delivering consistent 20-minute weekday frequencies outside of peak times, with improved connections, importantly, to the Craigieburn train line. And route 508 from Alphington to Moonee Ponds via Victoria Street in Brunswick West will get a significant boost and uplift as well.

The budget also contains $1 billion to repair roads and potholes right across the state. In my community we have had quite a number of investments to date already to improve our local road and transport network, but some in particular that I would like to draw the minister’s attention to that deserve further attention and further assistance and further improvements include Bell Street, Elm Grove and the Urquhart Street corridor around the Coburg Primary School community.

We have recently installed some further speed humps on Elm Grove, which will really help reduce and calm traffic through there. Thank you to the department of transport for installing those, but there is more work that needs to be done around that entire precinct.

On Moreland Road, the department of transport have said they support a 40-kilometre speed reduction from 60 kilometres and support a new pedestrian crossing being installed at the Queen Street intersection. On Melville Road, the department of transport are conducting a holistic review of Melville Road and they do support an in-principle speed reduction including, for the first time ever, installing a new 40-kilometre school zone for St Joseph’s Primary and Brunswick North West Primary School communities as well. DTP also supports speed reductions through Coburg North, from O’Hea Street up to Boundary Road, and that will help improve safety for the Mercy College students in particular, and the Australian International Academy college students as well.

On Gaffney Street, DTP have agreed to review this more recently, with a view to reducing the limit from 60 kilometres down to 50 kilometres. That is particularly important for the students of St Oliver Plunkett Primary School and also Coburg North Primary School who particularly need some further road treatments. We installed a new pedestrian crossing last year that was delivered for the Pascoe Vale Primary School community just west of Cumberland Road. But we need to do more, really, further east from Cumberland Road all the way to where the Bunnings is, covering the Sydney Road intersection as well. Coburg North families are advocating for a new pedestrian crossing at the front of Harmony Park, in the vicinity of the Sacca’s supermarket, which is importantly needed. The St Oliver’s community are asking for further safety treatments in that section of Gaffney Street around the Landells Road section, right at the front of the church, where many of their students and families cross every single day as well.

Of course, there is more to do on Murray Road. We have already installed and funded the 40-kilometre school zone for the first time on Murray Road through Coburg, by the way, from Stockade Avenue all the way to Connolly Avenue over the Merri Creek bridge. But we need to keep advocating to extend that further, as well, to Elizabeth Street to support the Barry Beckett childcare and Newlands Primary School families as well. There is more to do as well on Boundary Road, Cumberland Road, Sussex Street and many of our other major arterials and major connector roads and streets.

Importantly, the budget contains $16.8 million for the school crossing supervisor program. The state government meets 50 per cent of the cost of supervisors, in partnership with councils. On that front, I am pleased to say, we did support the installation of a 40-kilometre school zone on Coonans Road for the Pascoe Vale South Primary School families, which the council, to their credit, have installed. The school community is calling for council to help facilitate a road crossing supervisor at the Parkstone Avenue intersection there, which I strongly support as well.

But the alternative to this when it comes to transport is quite stark because the Liberals would not have built the Metro rail tunnel. They would not have built the West Gate Tunnel. They certainly would not have built the North East Link either. If they got in, they would be cutting the extra train services that we have funded for the Upfield line and the Craigieburn line.

Danny O’Brien interjected.

Anthony CIANFLONE: Also, you would be cutting the bus services. You cannot fund these services by cutting $40 billion out of the budget. I am waiting from the media release for you guys to confirm that you welcome these extra services, and I will wait to hear that imminently.

In terms of health, $32 billion is going into our health system. Our hospital workforce has grown by 50 per cent. We have hired an extra 17,000 nurses and 7000 extra doctors since 2014. The Northern Hospital is continuing to receive $114 million in this budget as part of its overall $812 million upgrade that continues. The Austin Hospital receives a further $83 million towards its $275 million upgrade as well. We are growing the reach of the virtual emergency department, the community chemist care program and urgent care program. I commend the former Minister for Health for her efforts in rolling that out and in visiting my electorate on several occasions to help support and champion that initiative. Importantly, it is about providing – especially women and young families as well – services without the need for a GP script on many conditions, things like contraceptives, shingles, UTIs, travel vaccinations and so much more. We are expanding the urgent care clinic in Moonee Ponds, but we have also recently opened, thanks to the federal Albanese government, a new Coburg Medicare urgent care clinic in Sydney Road, which is already operating, well and truly and has been very well received by the community.

We have opened 15 women’s health clinics across the state, added $109 million for 4000 more kids’ surgeries and 45,000 more specialist appointments. There is $2.3 million to support the secondary school immunisation program. Free tampons and pads continue to be rolled out as well. We have changes to ADHD prescriptions. Public fertility services continue to expand and we continue to invest in them. We are investing $2.5 billion for Victorians with a disability through home and aged care disability services outside the NDIS, specialist disability accommodation, wheelchair taxi support, advocacy and much more.

But again, what would the alternative be when it comes to health in the Liberals shadow budget? Cuts, slashing and burning. The last time the Liberals built a hospital in this state was when Premier Hamer was the Premier of this state. We are going back decades. We have delivered the Frankston hospital, the Footscray Hospital, the Melton hospital, the Joan Kirner hospital in Sunshine and so much more.

We continue to invest in tourism and sport. We are the major events and cultural capital of the country and the world. Whatever the Liberals say or how they try and talk us down is just totally untrue. We have got a lot to be proud of here. For tourism and major events there is $15.5 million to support and attract more events. We continue to be the envy of the country with the Australian Open, the grand prix, the Spring Racing Carnival and the AFL Grand Final long weekend. The Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre continues to attract major business investments, which are the highest yielding events. John Brumby and Steve Bracks were the ones that extended it. It was Labor that delivered the Geelong convention centre as well. I do not remember a state Liberal government delivering a Geelong convention centre. We have attracted the NFL to the MCG for the first time in this country. We have got the live sites happening for the FIFA World Cup at Fed Square and right across the state – go the Socceroos – with the first game coming up in two weekends time against Türkiye.

There is $29 million for the NGV transformation and much funding – the former Minister for Creative Industries is here as well – for the contemporary music initiative, the Victorian Music Development Office, the songwriting in schools program and music work initiatives as well. We are supporting the Victorian screen incentive through film, television, visual effects, animations and games employment initiatives. We are supporting our multicultural communities with a whole range of events, and we have a Regional Events Fund. In terms of sport, we have funded the Brunswick Hockey Club with $468,000 to deliver a new pitch at McDonald Reserve on Bell Street in Coburg, which I have previously highlighted and drawn the chamber’s attention to.

Significant investment and real action on the environment is in this budget, beginning with $700,000 that we have allocated to Coburg Lake and the Merri-bek council to deliver new public amenities, restrooms and toilets, to accommodate the growing community events needs of suburbs in that area. Funding will go towards the rebuild of the public restroom facilities on the Murray Road side of Coburg Lake, which are well and truly past their use-by date, and help provide new, comfortable and accessible facilities that are welcoming for everyone. The Premier visited on 23 April, and we met with the Alevi community and the Kurdish community. Their two combined annual events at Coburg Lake attract 10,000 people each year, and the funding is very much welcomed by those communities, who have continued to advocate to me for some time for those facilities. They will also be welcomed by the families who recreate, commute and go for play dates or walks through Coburg Lake on a daily basis – those that live in Coburg, Pentridge, North Coburg, Newlands, Kodak and others as well.

We are introducing the Victorian Midday Power Saver. About 2.6 million households will be eligible for 3 hours of free power in the middle of the day every day. Families could save $300 per year, or $1070 if they have solar batteries as well. And on that note, I commend as well that we recently opened a community battery in Brunswick and also previously in Coburg. We switched on the battery in Brunswick, at the 797 Sydney Road car park, thanks to a federal Labor government grant of $500,000, in partnership with Merri-Bek council. It is a 500-kilowatt battery which complements the 400-kilowatt battery in Hudson Street in Coburg we previously opened. Local families can store renewable energy during the day to use at night when power is more expensive. Household rooftop solar can also share in the benefits: lower bills, fewer emissions and less pressure on the grid.

With renewables, we are bringing back the SEC. There is $511 million for a wind farm in Delburn and $91.9 million towards the Horsham renewable energy park. That is all about meeting our targets as well: 65 per cent renewables by 2030, 95 per cent by 2035 and progressing the Solar Homes program, which the Liberals have not committed to retaining if they get back in.

The container deposit scheme continues to go gangbusters: 3 billion containers have been returned and recycled, with $300 million in refunds in people’s pockets. Across Merri-bek, as of November 2025, that equates to 42.68 million containers deposited and $4.26 million in 10-cent refunds.

I visited the container deposit site at 18–20 Dairy Drive in North Coburg recently, which has officially processed 8 million containers, which means $800,000 returned into the pockets of locals. It is an industrial-scale recycling depot operated by the incredible team at KARI, who are providing employment and social enterprise opportunities for First Nations communities through the recycling sustainability sector. It was great to join those teams: Tony Catania from TOMRA Cleanaway; Steve Rainey from TOMRA, their business development manager; Casey Ralph, the KARI CEO; and the wonderful depot workers Max, Cain, Casey, Jake and Julia, who proudly help recycle and deposit our containers as well.

There is $21.5 million to bolster illegal dumping taskforce work and to take strong action on illegal dumping and litter throughout our community. I was pleased on that note to join the Clean Up Australia Day team with the Friends of Moonee Ponds Creek and Kelvin Thomson as well, who is the chair there, on 1 March to help keep the Moonee Ponds Creek safe. We have invested $10 million already to revitalise the Moonee Ponds Creek. The federal Albanese Labor government has invested a further $5 million to continue those works in partnership with Melbourne Water, which we look forward to hopefully kicking off by the end of the year. That is the goal.

We continue to progress our measures on housing, particularly through the central Coburg, Brunswick and Sydney Road activity centre, $860 million for the Social Housing Growth Fund to deliver 7000 social homes for those in need and those who need them most, as well as extending stamp duty concessions for buying off-the-plan units, townhouses and apartments until 21 April 2027. The budget allocates $70 million towards assertive outreach services, with nine new teams across Merri-bek and Hume to help those in need and those experiencing homelessness as well. But we know what the Liberals policy is when it comes to housing: they will cut the activity centres, they will cut 300,000 homes and they want to shove all the growth out to the outer suburbs, with no infrastructure committed to accompany that.

On social justice there is funding for quite a range of initiatives. Community safety I spoke about earlier today at length, with the Victoria Police Amendment (Police Reservists) Bill 2026. This is a budget that is about helping Victorians with the cost of living and making things safer, more affordable and easier for Victorian families to live, learn, work and raise a family.

 Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (01:32): Unfortunately I follow the member for Pascoe Vale again today. Can I just say this budget does not make life easier for anyone. It does not improve anyone’s life; everyone is actually doing it tougher. The other night I did some numbers. I compared the 2019–20 budget, the first after the 2018 election, with this year’s budget, which is effectively two election cycles. If you look at it, the budget should be a measure of how the government are spending the taxes they raise from us to make our lives better, and on all measures I cannot see how we are any better off over these terms of government under the Labor Party in our lives, in our children’s lives, in our communities or in anything. If you look at the comparisons, the tax revenue has increased by 70 per cent over that time. As the old saying goes, when the Labor Party in government run out of money they start taking yours. The government’s hand is in our pocket all the time, continually taking money now. The tax revenue in that time from 2019–20 to 2026–27 has gone up 70 per cent. There have been more than 60 new or increased taxes over that particular time. In my office we constantly get people coming in complaining, particularly about land tax and the reduction of the threshold for land tax. People who have saved all their lives and have made a modest investment, particularly in a rental property, for their retirement are now getting tax bills that are making that investment unattractive, if not impossible to keep.

The tax revenue has gone up by 70 per cent, and the government spending has gone up by 63 per cent. But I am not sure where it is being spent, because I cannot see it in my electorate. The roads are worse. The schools need maintenance. They are not getting the maintenance they need, let alone any rebuilds. I had an example recently where we had a major campaign. The toilets at Swan Hill College are past their best by date by about 25 years. We had the parents of the current students there. Last year the leadership group of the school had a program to try and get the toilets upgraded because they are just so bad, and their parents said, ‘They were bad when we were at school, let alone now.’ I do not know where all this increased government spending is going, because we are not seeing it in regional Victoria.

The public sector wage bill has gone up by 57 per cent over that period of time. But what is more concerning when you actually look at the make-up of that increase in the public sector wage bill is that the majority of that increase is in the higher salary levels of the public sector. It is not in the people that actually do the real work. It is in those that sit in offices in Melbourne and scheme and plot to support the government’s spin on how they are ripping everyone off into the future. The public sector headcount has gone up by 22 per cent, and the full-time equivalent has also gone up by approximately 22 per cent.

Again, for everything we need to do now we are told, ‘Go to the website and do it online.’ I do not know why in today’s world when we have artificial intelligence we actually need so many public sector people when we are told to do everything online. And for those that have tried to do things online, it is not always a pleasant experience. I recently renewed my gun licence, and I think I have spoken about this here in the chamber before. I was sent a note to say, ‘You qualify to do your online renewal’, so I went through the process. It took me about 40 minutes. And when I got to the final last question, they said, ‘Oh, no, because you’ve changed your address you can’t do it online. You’ve now got to go back and do it on a paper form and send it in.’ Why couldn’t we be told that at the start of the process? What person dreamed up the fact that they would actually email you, say you qualify to do it online and then have you go through the whole process, upload bits of paper – and if you have not got the scanning capability that is not much fun, particularly for older people that have not got the computer skills – upload the information to put on it and then when you get to the final question you get told, no, you cannot do it online, you have actually got to go and put a paper copy in. I do not know who designed that, but it is so typical of the things that this government designed for us to do that actually make life harder for us, and I am not sure what useful purpose they serve for the government.

In all that increased taxation, all that increased spending, the rhetorical question that most people ask me is: if that is the case, why are our roads getting worse? Why are there bigger potholes? Why are we having people having damage to their motor cars? Why are we having people who have tyres that burst, get damaged and have to be replaced on the roads because they are so bad, but we are paying more taxes? It just does not make sense. What they also say to me is that when roads are repaired they do not last. So the crew go out, they dig it out, they put some new soil in, they put some new top on it, they seal it again and within weeks it has broken up again. It would appear – and it is the rhetorical question again – that people just do not know how to fix roads properly at all at the moment or have all the skills that we used to have. When roads used to be built, they used to last. Now they do not last at all. So for all those extra taxes, for all the money we are paying the government, it is not being spent well.

That equally applies to the amenity of our communities. As I said, at Swan Hill College the toilets are an absolute disgrace. The school actually went and got a quote from a registered builder as to how much it would cost to get it done, but the Victorian School Building Authority, their quote was almost double the price, and they were told, ‘You cannot do this school project because it has to fit in with the VSBA’, even though they are, I believe, ripping the system off and taking money for nothing, because a registered builder could have done it for substantially less, but they were told they were not able to do it. And that happens all the time.

The Rochester CFA–SES got money post the 2022 floods to build a new fire shed and a new SES shed. That has still not been built. When you look at the price from the emergency services building authority of what it is going to cost to build a new CFA–SES shed, all the farmers in the district just shake their head in horror. How could it cost that much to build a shed? If the locals were actually allowed to build it, they would build it for a fraction of the price, it would be built and they would be in it now, rather than nearly four years on from that flood not seeing one dollar of that project actually spent to put something on the ground.

The former Premier was actually in Rochester post the floods, and he had the press release with him about the announcement for that particular project. The fire brigade captain at the time actually asked the Premier to sign the press release to make sure it happened. That is how cynical the community were about this government, because they just know that it is all spin. There is a press release, and nothing ever happens in the future.

Tragically for the community of Rochester, that CFA shed has not yet started four years later. The shed they have is not fit for purpose. They do campaign fires continually; they send the truck and crews away to the major bushfires. They cannot fit all their equipment in the current fire shed and have room to change and have multigender change rooms for the women that serve on the brigade as well. So four years on that project has not been done, and that is the same right across my electorate. The flood funding that was promised has been very tardy, very slow to come through, and people are still suffering because of those major floods that were there in the past.

The Rochester community is still feeling it. Not everyone is back in their houses – not everyone has actually been able to repair their houses after the floods – and what they all want is for the government to actually look at the management of the Eppalock reservoir and look at how that reservoir can be managed better to reduce the peak floods. You will always have floods but make sure the floods are managed at a level that does not flood so many houses in the future. In the 2011 floods about half the town flooded. In the 2022 floods, which were bigger, nearly the whole town, nearly every house in Rochester, got flooded. People thought they were going to be safe. They were not safe. People took their cars out of town and put them on a road that had never flooded before, and those cars still got flooded. That is how bad it was. That is why they have been constantly asking the government to do something about how Eppalock is managed – manage the full level in a wet year but put an extra outlet in so when there is a major event there can be water put down the river before the peak of the flood so the town does not flood so much. They are the sorts of things that I would have liked to have seen funded in the budget.

The other issue I would have loved to have seen funded in the budget is some money for the Swan Hill bridge. The federal government actually put $60 million into the Swan Hill bridge project in 2019. Some of that money was drawn down by the New South Wales roads authority to do the detailed planning and community consultation, which has been progressing. The New South Wales government has put $7.5 million into that project, but what have we had from Victoria? Absolutely zip. We need the money to progress the new Swan Hill bridge. It is not fit for purpose anymore. With the extra trusses that have been put on the bridge to make sure it does not fall in, it is now back to a single lane. It is a major truck route. Trucks that are mass accredited to have full weight have to go all the way to Robinvale now, which is 150 kilometres further, to actually cross the river. That bridge is a major impediment to the economic activity of Swan Hill, and it needs replacing. It is progressing, with the New South Wales government doing work, but there is no work being done by Victoria and no financial contribution from Victoria. We can spend tens and tens of billions of dollars in Melbourne – if you listen to Mr Watson, you can have $15 billion of that rorted away by the CFMEU – but we cannot get $100 million to build a bridge in Swan Hill. There is something wrong with the system when billions and billions of dollars are being spent in Melbourne on projects that are being rorted but we cannot get money for a local project at all.

The other issue I would like to raise is the stormwater flooding of Kyabram. Again, we cannot get money from the government to actually do the work to put in better drainage for that community. They are fortunate they do not live on a river, but if there is a major rain event, the town floods. People’s houses recently got flooded when there was a major rain event there. That should not be happening. There are ways to manage that, but this government just does not care about regional Victoria. They are happy to spend money in Melbourne. We listened to the member for Pascoe Vale, with the list he had for the northern suburbs. We can never, ever have a list like that in regional Victoria. We started to have it with the Regional Growth Fund when we were in government. But what was one of the things that the Labor Party cut? Once the budget allocation to the Regional Growth Fund ran out there was no more money for regional Victoria. Ever since that money ran out in 2018 there has been no major initiative for regional Victoria that funds community infrastructure, funds sporting infrastructure or rebuilds our schools. As I said, a toilet for Swan Hill secondary college is not too much to ask. They have got a toilet now that they actually had to close and install portable toilets because it is just so bad.

That is not a lot to ask from a government that has actually increased the tax take in Victoria by 60 per cent. We are not 60 per cent better off with all that tax. As I said, we are worse off.

What I would like the Victorian government to do is have a hard look at what their priorities are and actually start to spend money on all of Victoria. A number of years ago we asked the independent Parliamentary Budget Office to do the work on comparing the capital spend on metropolitan Melbourne versus regional Victoria, and consistently now for a number of years the independent Parliamentary Budget Office has said that about 11 or 12 per cent of the state capital spend goes into regional Victoria. Twenty-five per cent of the population lives in regional Victoria. It would be only reasonable to expect that you would actually get a similar amount of the allocation of capital spend into those communities, but for some reason the Labor Party just does not see past the ring of Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and the greater metropolitan area. There is nothing much that gets past that. I do not think most people in the Labor government would even realise there is a Victoria to the west of Ballarat or to the north of Bendigo.

Mary-Anne Thomas interjected.

Peter WALSH: It is so true, member for Macedon, that we have a real battle to get anything done out in our electorates. I will give you, as minister, credit for the new emergency department at the Swan Hill hospital, but that took years and years and years. It got to the point where it was unsafe for people to work in it before it was done, whereas if you were closer to Melbourne, that money gets spent all the time. Are we better off with this year’s budget? No, we are not. Are we worse off? We most definitely are. As they say, when it comes to roads, if you fix country roads, you actually save country lives. That is the risk that we have: the roads are so appalling that we end up with fatalities and injuries all the time.

 Paul MERCURIO (Hastings) (01:47): I am very happy to rise to give my contribution on the take-note motion for the 2026–27 budget. I would like to say a big thankyou to the member for Pascoe Vale for his very energetic, enthusiastic – I was going to say longwinded – and intricate discussion on the take-note motion, on all the big things that have been going on in the budget. He certainly focused on some of the big stuff.

Every time I have gone through and started to read the budget, there is a song that just gets stuck in my head. It is the Paul Kelly song From Little Things Big Things Grow. This budget is really quite like that song for me. When you first look at it, some of the numbers do not seem to be hugely game changing – you know, 20 per cent rebate on your rego, half-price public transport after the free period has ended, free glasses for kids. You would be forgiven for thinking, ‘So what? That’s not going to change anyone’s life.’ But I reckon it does, and here is why.

Mary-Anne Thomas interjected.

Paul MERCURIO: Indeed. That rego rebate is up to $186 for one car and $372 if you have got two. For a family in Hastings or Somerville or Tyabb, that is not just a discount, that is a trip to the movies they said yes to instead of no. That is the birthday present they actually bought. That is the dentist’s appointment they stopped putting off because something else always came up first. Money is not abstract. It lives in decisions, and this budget is quietly shifting some of those decisions towards a yes instead of a no. The same thing goes with public transport, because cutting fares in half and making it free for every kid under 18 is not really a transport policy, it is a cost-of-living policy. It is saying to the mum in Langwarrin who is watching the price on the bowser tick over every time she fills the tank that we can see what this is costing her and we are doing something about it. It might be a little thing, but we are doing something about it.

There is $28 million for school uniforms, which saves families $93 on average per application. I know $93 does not sound like much – not until you are the parent standing in a shop in Bittern trying to work out if you can cover it this fortnight. Then $93 is enormous: it is groceries, it is a pair of shoes, it is one thing less to lie awake thinking about. There are 13,700 kids who have got free glasses through this government, kids who can now actually see the whiteboard, whose whole experience of school has changed because someone decided that whether you can see properly should not depend on whether your parents can afford an optometrist. There are kids across Victoria who are sitting in classrooms right now, better off for it. There is breakfast at school for kids who come in hungry – and teachers know which kids those are – they can tell by 9 am. You simply cannot learn on an empty stomach, no matter how good the teacher is or how much you want to. There is $11 million for Get Active Kids vouchers so another 55,000 families can get their kids into sport, which sounds like a nice thing to have until you remember that sport is where kids learn to lose and try again or where they find the thing they are brilliant at, even if the classroom has not shown it to them yet. No kid in Balnarring, Somers or Hastings should miss that because of a registration fee.

In health it is the same story: $249 million for maternity services in Melbourne’s west, where more babies are born than anywhere else in the state; 1500 extra sonography appointments a year at Joan Kirner, so pregnant women do not have to pay hundreds out of pocket just to know their baby is okay; and $109 million for 45,000 more specialist appointments for children who are sitting on waiting lists right now. They are important things. They are little things.

In education we have spent $20 billion on schools over 12 years, and this budget puts nearly half a billion dollars into kindergartens, because the evidence on early childhood is not subtle: what happens in those first years shapes everything that comes after. And free kinder, built next to the school so you do not have to do two drop-offs across town, is not a small thing. It is a gift of time to every working parent in Hastings and Somerville and Balnarring and everywhere else who receives it.

I want to say something about what it means to deliver a budget like this in the times we are in, because the pressures are real and nobody is pretending otherwise – global uncertainty, rising interest rates and the ripple effects of Donald Trump’s trade wars and other wars hitting prices at the bowser and on the shelf. These are not excuses, these are the actual conditions that Victorian families are living in right now, and against that backdrop this government has still found a way to provide real help, targeted help, help that lands in the right places for the right people. I think that deserves to be acknowledged, because it would have been understandable to pull back, to say the environment and the world is too uncertain and we need to wait and see. But instead, the decision was made to lean in to back Victorian families, even when the global picture is difficult, and to deliver a budget that is responsible. It made responsible choices about where the money goes and who it goes to, and it did not splash it around for the sake of a headline like some people would like it to. It targeted it at the places where it does the most good: at families who are stretched, at kids who are missing out, at communities that have been waiting. That takes discipline. It takes a clear sense of what you are actually here to do, and what this government is here to do is make life a little bit more manageable for the people who need it most. I think when you look at what is in this budget and who it is designed to help, you can see that discipline at work.

Some of the big things for my electorate are the $1.7 million upgrade for Hastings Primary School. I go to the school when I give out my Bright Star award at the end of every year, and every kid is crammed into this very tiny hall. They barely fit in there, and it is not really fit for purpose. This is a wonderful upgrade for Hastings Primary School, and they are very, very excited about it.

I am also very excited about the $6 million for the early parenting centre in Hastings. The member for Macedon came along and we dug the first bit of dirt up. Then we went there and opened it. We missed the member not being there. It looks absolutely amazing; the facility is awesome. It is in Hastings, so local mums and bubs and their dads are going to be incredibly well serviced by all the people – the staff, the nurses – that work in the parenting centre. It is very exciting.

A really, really big sum – I am very excited about this – is the $124 million for the continued development of the Victorian renewable energy terminal, which will build the offshore windmills off Gippsland and which will provide clean, green, renewable energy to our communities.

When I go back and think about the Paul Kelly song From Little Things, Big Things Grow, I think about something that I spoke about in my inaugural speech when I first stood here, and that was my desire to bring about a cross-peninsula bus service, something that the community had been asking for for 20 or 30 years and had not ever been delivered. In each budget over the last four years I have got little bits of money just to start to create the ability to progress that project. In my first year I got a bit of funding for planning, in the second year I got some money for shelters, in the third year I got some more money for community consultation and then I got money for the bus. I am very, very excited to say that for the cross-peninsula bus service – which was a dream when I ran and which is something that my community have been asking for a long time – the rubber will be on the ground in early July. It means if you live in Hastings, you do not have to spend –

Members interjecting.

Paul MERCURIO: I will not go there, but I agree. You do not have to jump on the bus in Hastings and go all the way into Frankston and change buses and then go into Mornington, which takes 1½ to 2 hours depending. This bus will go from the top of High Street down into Hastings, out through Tyabb and then turn left and go straight into Mornington. I have not been on the bus yet – I am looking forward to the very first trip – but I believe that should take 30 to 40 minutes instead of 1½ to 2 hours.

They are little steps, just the little steps that we make as members of Parliament. Every day we advocate for our communities. I always think it is the small things that we do every day and that we keep on doing – that we have the passion, the dream, the desire and the commitment to continue to chip away at – from which we get some of these big things. I have worked with several ministers to make some of these things happen, and I am incredibly grateful for the support that they have shown me. By showing me that support, they have also shown my community that support.

Paul Kelly’s song does not end with everything solved. We have got lots more work to do. It just keeps walking. That is sort of the point. Change does not arrive in one big announcement. It accumulates; it compounds. It shows up in the schoolbag that has got everything in it this year, in the kid who can see the board, in the family that made it to the footy on the weekend because the train was cheap enough and they did not have to think twice about it. This is what this budget is about and where Labor’s priorities are. From little things, big things grow. I will not sing it; it is too late. I commend this motion to the house.

 Rachel WESTAWAY (Prahran) (01:59): I rise to take note of the 2026–27 state budget and to speak on behalf of my community in Prahran. I would like to address what the member for Hastings said: from little things, big things grow. I would really like to see even some little things in the seat of Prahran in this budget. I am crying out for the people of Prahran that we actually start to see this government listen to what we need. I am delighted that for the first time we have started to see some things happen. Last year I saw nothing in the budget; this year I am starting to see that they are playing catch-up. They are actually looking and funding a few things that I put my hand up for and saying, ‘Will do’. So that is fantastic, but there is more to be had – more little things, more big things, and I will be fighting hard for them.

We had 11 years – nearly 12 years – of the Greens in the seat of Prahran, and they did absolutely nothing, could not deliver a single thing. It is now 2 in the morning and they are not even here talking about the budget. So I would just like to point out that when you have a local member – from whatever party – if they are there to advocate, they can actually make those little things happen.

This budget is presented by the government as a budget about making life easy, about making life safer and more affordable. Those are worthy objectives. No member of this place would disagree with the desire to ease the cost-of-living pressure, to improve community safety, to invest in children or to support essential services. However, after more than a decade of Labor government, Victorians are entitled to judge this government by its record and definitely not by its slogans. The record is shocking. Victoria is the high-tax, high-debt state. Families are paying more, small businesses are carrying heavier burdens and property owners, renters and young people are trying to enter the housing market and are all dealing with the consequences of decisions made in this place.

A phoney budget surplus is cold comfort when debt continues to rise, interest bills continue to crowd out service delivery and communities continue to see the basics neglected. This surplus was created through, in my view, a non-transparent deal signing up Victoria to a lottery agreement with no due process or competitive tendering process. The Liberal Party’s message is absolutely clear: Victoria needs responsible government, honest government and a return to the essentials. We believe that government should live within its means. Just like we are taught to do, government should do it, because every dollar wasted on mismanagement is a dollar that is not spent on essential services, not spent on hospitals, not spent on schools, not spent on police, not spent on roads, not fixing potholes, not spent on mental health, not spent on housing or even on community infrastructure. We believe that lower taxes, safer streets, better services and responsible investment are the foundations of good government. In Prahran these foundations matter.

My electorate includes some of the most vibrant, creative, diverse and hardworking communities in all of Victoria, from Chapel Street to Windsor, from Prahran Market to St Kilda Primary School. Our community is full of people who invest their time, their money, their energy, their creativity and their care into making our neighbourhood better, and that is why I want to begin by congratulating the St Kilda Primary School community. Their campaign for a proper indoor facility has been long, determined and entirely justified. The old school hall was demolished by this Labor government. With 11 years of the Greens in the seat they could not get this government to deliver, and only after I made a commitment to a $12 million community hall as part of a coalition commitment did the Labor Party come to the party scampering to play catch-up in this budget. Students, teachers and families have had to make do without the facilities that any reasonable person, any reasonable family and student, would consider basic to a modern primary school. Assemblies, physical education, performances, sport and wet weather activities are not luxuries. They are part of a full education that you would expect for any Australian child. But let me be clear: this is not a gift from the government. This is funding that was absolutely hard fought for and won by our community. Now the government must deliver. The government must provide clear timeframes for when this is going to be delivered, transparent scope, proper consultation and a facility that genuinely meets the needs of the school and the wider community so that they too can share in it.

The same principle applies across Prahran. Our community does not ask for wasteful extravagance, it asks for the basic essentials to be done properly.

The polytechnic site, which the Patrick School of the Arts calls home, was promised to Victorians and the people of Prahran as an arts precinct, and yet the government have never committed to utilising this space effectively and what they promised it for. A significant theatre and rooms which could be used for Prahran High or arts programs are simply left totally empty – what a waste of money and space.

My community asks for Prahran Market to be protected. Prahran Market is part of the living history of Melbourne, not just my local area. So many people from across the state, interstate visitors and overseas visitors go to the market. It has served the community since 1864, and generations of families, traders, producers and customers have made it one of the great civic institutions of our city. It is not a development opportunity to be traded away. It must be permanently protected for its purpose as a market, for its heritage value, for its traders and for the people who rely on it. In my view, that is not negotiable.

These things are missing from the budget. Like much of Victoria, we ask for our local shopping strips and businesses to be treated as economic assets, not as convenient sources of government revenue. Small businesses in Prahran have faced the cumulative pressure of payroll tax, land tax, insurance, energy costs, rent, compliance costs, labour shortages and weaker consumer confidence. They are resilient, but no resilience is inexhaustible. When a government taxes more and when it borrows more and regulates more, it cannot be surprised when confidence collapses.

We ask for community safety to be taken seriously. Residents in St Kilda, in Windsor, in Prahran, in South Yarra and in Southbank all raise safety with me constantly. They describe their daily lived experience of antisocial behaviour, theft, drug activity, public disorder and the loss of confidence even around public transport, retail precincts and residential streets. People want visible policing. They want PSOs where they are needed. They want proper enforcement and proper mental health responses.

Charities like Uniting have missed out in this budget. In fact they have lost significant dollars. Uniting, one of our biggest charities, based smack in the middle of Chapel Street where we have got most of our major issues, have lost a significant amount of funding. When I talk to them, do you know what has gone? Their employment services. Well, what is next – Hartley’s, where they deliver food, or the food bank? How far do our poor charities, which are helping the most vulnerable, have to go when our government is not delivering the dollars that are needed in these areas?

We need local youth infrastructure to be valued, with facilities that give young people somewhere to go and something constructive to do. In an electorate with growing apartment living and intense pressure on public facilities, losing community sport and youth infrastructure has real consequences. I often speak about our local Toorak Prahran Cricket Club and the Unicorns rugby club. They have no girls change rooms or disability access. It is an absolute joke. Again, Labor is playing catch-up. I have been starting to call it out and say that we need girls change rooms and we need disability access. What do we get? A few hundred thousand that goes through local government, and then the clubs go, ‘Sorry, what is this for, to build a whole new a new girls change room? That’s not going to be enough.’ ‘Oh, no, it’s for kitchen facilities.’ If representatives on the other side actually took the time to go and have a look at the facilities and understand my community, they would know that this is not a good way to spend money. We actually need to do a plan, we need to look at it, we need girls change rooms and we need to redo the whole site.

My community wants planning decisions that respect local character and community purpose in Windsor, South Yarra, Prahran and St Kilda. People understand that Melbourne has to grow. I am not opposed to growth, but growth without infrastructure, without consultation and without regard for heritage or community use is not good planning; it is pressure passed down to residents, schools, roads, parks, traders and local councils.

Perhaps most importantly, my community expects a government that spends public money as carefully as families spend their own money. That is the contrast at the heart of this budget debate. Labor believes the answer to every single problem is more announcements, more borrowing, more bureaucracy and more taxation. The Liberals and the Nationals believe Victoria needs a fresh start and a government that is focused on the basics, disciplined in spending, respectful of taxpayers, supportive of small businesses, serious about community safety and determined to rebuild confidence.

Of course where this budget funds something worthwhile I will absolutely acknowledge it. The role of an opposition is not to recite the government’s media releases. It is our responsibility to examine whether this budget is honest, whether it is actually sustainable, whether it meets local needs and whether it gives Victorians confidence in the future. I will fight with every breath in my body to ensure that my seat has a voice and that it gets the funding that it needs. If it takes years and years, I will continue to advocate for this.

This budget falls short. It does not repair the damage of years of waste and mismanagement, it does not provide the tax relief needed to restore confidence and it does not adequately confront the safety concerns being raised in communities like mine. It does not give enough certainty to traders, families, schools, renters, property owners and local organisations who are asking for practical support and not political spin. Prahran is a generous community, and it is a tolerant community. It is a community that believes in culture, enterprise, education, fairness and public service. But it is also a community that expects competence. It expects honesty. It expects the government to do what it says it will do and to deliver the facilities, the services and the safety that people have already paid for through their exorbitant taxes.

Today I say this: congratulations to St Kilda Primary School and congratulations to our community in Prahran. Thank you for electing me as your local representative and entrusting me with the opportunity to advocate for you, because we have finally got something – not enough, but we have finally got something. Congratulations to the parents, the teachers, the school council, the students and the local residents who secured the recognition that you absolutely deserve and has been long overdue. Your campaign is an absolute reminder that community matters, that persistence matters and that local advocacy absolutely matters. But I also say to the government: do not mistake an overdue commitment for a complete answer to the needs of Prahran. Our community needs safer streets, protected heritage, stronger local businesses, responsible planning, proper youth facilities and a government that manages money with the seriousness that it deserves.

There are other local priorities which deserve serious consideration in this budget that were left out, without the practical support our community needs, like St Martins Youth Arts Centre in South Yarra, a remarkable local institution which has supported young Victorians for more than 50 years, giving children and teenagers confidence, belonging and a pathway into the creative arts. St Martins has produced and nurtured extraordinary talent, but it continues to face the uncertainty of short-term funding, like many of our arts programs in the area, and short-term arrangements rather than the stable core funding it deserves. Its local theatre was used over 12 years ago by my own children, who did ballet concerts there. When I went back as the local member 12 years later, it still was not able to be used, after being closed down for 12 years, because the air conditioning and disability access were not up to scratch. So for 12 years it sat empty at St Martins Theatre, where people could not use the theatre. This is a government-owned facility. I am absolutely stunned, as somebody who has not been in politics a long time, that when I walk around my local area I am seeing so much waste.

Victoria cannot tax its way to prosperity. It cannot borrow its way to confidence. It cannot press confidence in a way that means competence. It can only rebuild trust by delivering the basics: respecting communities and putting public interest first. That is what the Liberal Party stands for. That is what the people of Prahran deserve, and it is the standard by which this budget should be judged.

 Natalie HUTCHINS (Sydenham) (02:14): I rise to speak on the Victorian budget 2026–27. We all know on this side of the house that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Certainly this side of the house is willing to address the really hard realities of what families and people and residents and constituents are facing right now when it comes to the pressures of the cost of living. Those pressures include getting to work, getting kids to school, getting yourself to appointments or getting a loved one to appointments. Fuel prices are up, and that is also adding to the cost of doing business. That has a flow-on effect to the cost of groceries. Victorians are carrying more burdens every day, and that is why this this budget is making it easier, safer and more affordable.

Cost-of-living pressures are being felt by everyone that I am talking to in the Sydenham electorate, and that is why this budget is slashing the cost of commuting. We have delivered free public transport up until the end of May, and now we are delivering half-price public transport until the end of the year. This will save the average daily commuter in Sydenham more than $1300.

Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East is driving up fuel prices, putting local households under pressure, and that is why we are delivering the 20 per cent off regos. With the 20 per cent off regos, a driver with one car will receive up to $186 back and a family with two cars will receive $372 back in rebate. It is a one-off cost-of-living help for families right now, while we are still delivering a surplus. Already, just over the last 48 hours over a million Victorians applied for money back on their regos, and that puts money straight back into the pockets of local residents.

For those local families in Sydenham that are struggling with the demands of paying their bills, this budget has expanded the place-based information and support services like Bring Your Bills days. These provide real practical in-person support for those that need it.

While cost-of-living pressures affect every Victorian, some families are finding it harder than most, and that is why the Allan Labor government is investing $1.8 million to expand financial counselling services. These services are helping local families navigate financial struggles and get back on their feet. We know that this is very prevalent across the Brimbank and Melton areas.

Victoria has one of the best school systems in the world, with NAPLAN results leading the nation, but the rise in the cost of living is putting pressure on household budgets. So from our free school breakfast clubs to more affordable uniforms, this budget invests $59.4 million to help families with school-aged kids. This includes expanding the Glasses for Kids program, where we are testing kids’ eyesight in schools and providing free glasses to those that need it. And of course we cannot ignore the fantastic commitment of free public transport for kids under 18. From free kinder to free TAFE and everything in between, the Allan Labor government invests in education. We are transforming early childhood education and delivering free kinder, saving families up to $2700 per child per year. This budget also invests nearly half a million dollars to build and upgrade kinders and government-run childcare centres across the state, something that has been very welcome in my growing suburbs.

One of the hottest topics at the moment in Sydenham is roads, and with this budget we are making life easier by giving busy Victorians time back in their day with better roads and more public transport. We are funding the biggest road blitz in the state’s history; just over $1 billion is going into rebuilding, repairing and resurfacing local roads. This includes the Calder Freeway, the Tullamarine Freeway and the Western Freeway. Better roads not only improve traffic flow but make such a difference to safety. I have heard many residents talking about the lack of traffic flow and the congestion and safety issues tied up around Taylors Road. This is a council-owned road that runs from Brimbank through to Melton, and we have seen so much development on either side of the road over the last 10 years in particular. So I am really pleased to say that Taylors Road will be receiving funding from the overall roads package that has been announced in this budget – a commitment of $29 million to undertake planning and fix local roads. We will be getting a share of this to make sure that we can do the planning and initial development to work with those councils on how we improve and widen that road.

Investing in roads helps to give busy Victorians time back in their day. This budget makes the biggest investment in roads funding ever, and this record spend on maintenance will fix potholes, upgrade road surfaces and deliver safer roads for families in Sydenham. We know that only Labor is investing in Sydenham and supporting a future plan for places like Taylors Road and the Calder Highway. I am really pleased that this budget releases funding from the state government to start the Calder Park Drive interchange on the Calder Highway, which is part of a joint $1.2 billion state and federal program. This project is currently in the planning phase, and construction is expected to start at the end of the year. This comes on top of all the other road commitments we have made in the electorate of Sydenham that we have seen come to fruition over the last few years, including, just recently completed, the new road surfacing and safety treatments as well as new traffic lights at the intersection of Leakes Road and Melton Highway; and the level crossing removals at Melton Highway and Calder Park Drive. We have seen improvements in the Melton Highway through widening at the Sydenham–Hillside end of the freeway, and we have seen a number of traffic lights being inserted in there to help that traffic flow in and out of those growing estates.

Our investment in rail continues, and, well, hasn’t Sydenham welcomed the opening of the Metro Tunnel. There are more trains more often going through our station and certainly being utilised by residents. We are also delivering major rail upgrades when it comes to the Melton line, which is another line that my residents are very dependent on, as are the member for Melton’s residents. We are progressing more funding and the next stage of investment for the Melton line to undertake development works to support the future electrification of that line. I want to acknowledge the great work that has happened in removing level crossings along that line and extending stations as well as upgrading signalling, all extremely important parts of the future electrification of that line. I know that is something that is going to be very welcomed by residents once it is completed.

Buses are a really essential part of servicing growing areas, and this budget has delivered $100 million to deliver more buses to uplift services and put new services in place. We have seen a commitment to the 476 route, which runs from Moonee Ponds through to Watergardens. We will be seeing more frequent buses there, more reliability. This builds on the commitment that was made at the last budget for a new bus service from Rockbank to Watergardens, giving Fraser Rise and Deanside residents new access to buses that take them to stations like Rockbank or Watergardens.

And you cannot go past our investments in health, which are just amazing and something I am extremely proud of. The Allan Labor government always invests in our health system, and since 2014 we have delivered 11 new hospitals. We have hired 41,000 nurses, midwives, doctors and healthcare workers, and this budget invests more. We are hiring 250 extra graduate nurses and delivering fast-track surgery and specialist appointments for kids. This is something that is really welcomed in the west. Families in the west can continue to access world-class care, including 32 new postnatal beds in the western metro area, 1500 additional sonogram appointments and nine new special care nursery cots at the Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s facility for babies with complex needs. This is absolutely welcome – and a big shout-out to all the NICU nurses and doctors that work there.

We will always back our dedicated healthcare staff and workforce and the extraordinary care that they provide to those when they are most in need. There is also a commitment for 965 medical interns beginning their careers as doctors in the public service just this year. This is all on top of the upgrade that we saw at Sunshine Hospital in the emergency department; the building and operation and expansion of the Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital; the completion of the build and the opening of the new Footscray Hospital, an absolutely amazing facility; and we are most excited about the Melton Hospital getting underway in construction phase – and isn’t it great to see those cranes in the sky out in Cobblebank? This is also on top of the most amazing virtual ED service. And for people listening tonight at 2:30 in the morning, do not forget that we have this amazing virtual ED service available for people. It is this time of the night that people need those services quite often and do not want to venture out. I can absolutely assure residents and constituents that this service is top grade. We also have the nurse-on-call service and of course urgent care clinics in partnership with the federal government.

This comes on top of all our women’s health investment in women’s health clinics – sexual and reproductive health hubs and the women’s health mobile clinic. These are both facilities and places where women can get support with a range of special health needs, including pelvic pain, menstrual health, contraception and continence. This is on top of the fantastic program of free pads and tampons rolling out across a thousand different locations, with a thousand machines dispensing over half a million products already since they have been operational. These machines are in places like shopping centres like Watergardens shopping centre, in libraries like the Sydenham Library and of course in train stations. I know the one at Flinders Street is extremely popular.

Our investments do not end there. They go on with supporting community safety, with this budget boosting police resources by recruiting 200 police reservists for desk jobs and a $62 million investment to free up frontline officers and make sure they are out and about where they are needed in the community keeping Sydenham safe. We are also investing $33 million in the violence reduction unit to stop crime before it starts. Keeping communities safe is not just about response, it is about prevention, and early intervention can help young people stay engaged and connected with their local communities. That is why this budget has invested $9.5 million to boost Blue Light Victoria’s successful youth mentoring program. There are other programs that are currently being supported by the government through the violence reduction unit, and I look forward to even more rolling out and supporting and helping young people get their lives back on track.

The Allan Labor government created the state’s first South Sudanese Australian Youth Justice expert working group and also invested out of this budget in the South Sudanese community hub, which is a fantastic step forward.

I could go on with all of the commitments in the space of homelessness, but I just want to make the point that we have been able to deliver these things with economic responsibility. We have been able to do so with a surplus, and in seven years our surplus is averaging $1.7 billion being maintained over the budget and forward estimates.

 Kim O’KEEFFE (Shepparton) (02:29): I am pleased to finally get to speak to the budget, although I did not expect it to be at 2:30 in the morning. I will try and stay alert. I will try and stay enthusiastic. I have had a little nap, so I think I am good to go. The state budget highlights a reality and disadvantage that regional communities face due to this government’s financial mismanagement. It has simply become so hard for so many just to make ends meet, and this government has a lot to answer for.

Victorian families are facing really tough times, all because Labor does not have a plan to tackle the cost-of-living crisis or pay down the record debt that will make life harder for generations to come. Labor have put this state in exorbitant debt, forecast to reach $194 billion by 2028–29, and interest payments are expected to hit more than $26 million per day. Stretch that out and that is $1.2 million per hour, which is simply astounding. To put this into perspective, in one day this could pay for 128 ambulances, two breast care centres and 2715 elective surgeries and fix many of our roads. Or in one day we could pay the yearly salary of 315 nurses, 510 police recruits or 305 paramedics – and the list goes on.

A few hours of debt of $1.2 million an hour would fund the state government share of $5 million towards the development of the Shepparton sports and events centre. It is astounding that my community has been waiting for decades for this run-down stadium that was built back in 1972, not yet funded from the state government share. When you think about the astounding interest on the state’s debt and what we could be doing with that money, there are many other run-down sporting facilities across my electorate calling out for investment. It is appalling. Just to give you an example of what we are having to deal with at the Shepparton Sports Stadium: noncompliance with disability access standards, noncompliance with basketball major tournament requirements, noncompliance with major sporting codes such as netball and badminton, and insufficient parking. This lack of investment means that we are missing out on major sporting events, which means a significant loss of economic benefit to our region. Shepparton is the fifth-largest regional city in the state, with significant growth. It acts as a major population service centre for the wider Goulburn Valley region, covering a population of approximately 250,000 people. We need investment into our region. GV Health is the only regional hospital in the state that does not have an integrated cancer centre with radiotherapy. Patients have to travel long distances and families have to fund the costs of travel and accommodation to support their loved ones during the most challenging of times.

This government has lost complete control of its spending and complete control of its debt, and it is Victorians who are paying the price. The government just keeps adding more taxes and expecting families’ previous budgets to stretch further, putting households under extreme financial pressure. We are seeing billions in cost blowouts – money that should be spent on housing, hospitals, roads, schools and much-needed infrastructure in our communities. We are seeing city-centric spending, ignoring the needs of regional communities. Twenty-five per cent of Victorians live in regional and rural Victoria, and yet only around 12 per cent of the budget is spent in the regions. Regional development funding has been cut by $51.1 million and agricultural funding has been cut by $77.6 million.

We are not getting funding for critical infrastructure services. I have been calling for a bus review for my electorate. You would think that this is a small ask, yet this has been denied for my community. Infrastructure Victoria put Shepparton first on their list of towns in need of a bus review. It has been 16 years since we have had a review, and during that time we have seen significant growth, including new housing developments which will have no connection to bus transport services. The Greater Shepparton City Council have it as a priority project. We have small surrounding towns with limited or no bus services. People need to access public transport, and bus services play a critical role in getting people to where they need to go. It is astounding that this government are turning their back on this much-needed service. It is having such a detrimental impact on my communities. The bus companies are also frustrated because they can see the critical need and demand, and they deserve to have the opportunity to also expand their businesses.

We have seen $15 billion in rorts go to crime on Big Build sites. That $15 billion could have gone a long way in my community. We look at that extraordinary waste, then we look at the waste of $600 million in costs to cancel the Commonwealth Games – $600 million of hardworking taxpayers money just gone, which could have gone towards important community projects, many of which I have mentioned. This is public money getting thrown away due to the financial mismanagement of this government. The economic opportunity that would have been invested into the regions is also now lost. It was an embarrassing debacle not only for our state but nationally and internationally. You do not have a significant announcement like the Commonwealth Games and then cancel and pay for another country to host it.

The short-stay tax is having a significant impact on regional tourism and visitation. Regional Victoria depends on tourism and major events, which make a significant financial contribution. Our state is being forced to pay the highest taxes in the nation, with less money to spend where we need it most. Victorians have been hit with more than 63 new or increased taxes with the recent addition of the emergency services tax. The people of Victoria have had enough of the relentless ongoing taxes.

We have seen the outcry on the emergency services tax, where we had a convoy of farmers on their tractors – some were my local farmers – and the CFA bringing their fire trucks to Spring Street. It is disgusting that hardworking farmers and our amazing CFA volunteers have to go to that level to have their voices heard. They were pleading to their government to listen to what it is doing to families and regional communities. This tax is ripping millions out of regional communities that are already struggling. Shepparton district landholders are expected to contribute over $4.7 million more under the new levy compared to the previous system, placing a heavier burden on local households and businesses. The local council has projected that approximately 50 per cent more revenue will now be collected from ratepayers.

My office has been inundated with many people struggling to pay their bills and to put food on the table. My hope for this budget was that we could help those doing it tough, but that has not happened and things just keep getting harder. Cost of living and financial stress have got to a level that is overwhelming, and the level of hardship continues to grow. How does this government expect people to manage with increased power bills, rental increases, increased grocery bills and increased taxes? What we are seeing is many people who have not struggled in the past struggling now. I had a mother just this past few weeks say to me that she is not able to pay for her children’s sporting fees and in fact her budget is now in deficit. She is basically minus $20 a week when it comes to paying her bills and meeting her expenses. Another woman, a part-time working single mother who I met with recently, said that her rent had gone up and she could no longer meet her cost-of-living costs. She was distressed and clearly not able to find more affordable or available housing. We are seeing a growing number of working families joining for the first time the queues of hungry Victorians relying on food donations. Food relief agencies are stretched to the limit, constantly putting calls out for more support.

When it comes to housing, the budget has failed to address housing in regional Victoria. We are going backwards fast in my electorate when it comes to housing, and those reaching out for housing support have significantly increased in number. We are in a housing crisis. In my electorate we have over 2000 people on the waiting list for public housing. With half of those classified as priority applicants, we have one of the highest rates of homelessness across the state. It is a daily struggle for people trying to find housing. There is a significant shortage of rental properties. If you do find an available rental property, there are probably about 50 other people, if not more, in line, and then you have to be able to afford it. We have people living in cars, sleeping rough or couch surfing. This government is turning its back on housing in regional Victoria, and as I said, we are in a housing crisis.

Just recently I heard from Celia Adams – the CEO of Beyond Housing, Shepparton – at a homeless forum that was held with a number of local stakeholders during Homelessness Week. We discussed the significant housing and rental stress in the Shepparton electorate. Celia said it is distressful for her staff to inform clients that their only option today is to be provided with a tent or blankets. It is hard to fathom that that is actually happening in our country. We have to do so much better. Housing has to be a priority. Everyone deserves to have a roof over their head and a place to call home. Homelessness has become so much more visible on the streets. We are seeing people every single night sleeping in front of shops or along the river in tents and mothers sleeping in their cars with their children. This just cannot continue.

Labor has introduced more than 30 new or increased property taxes. We are paying the highest property taxes in the nation, which is leading to higher property prices and higher rents and driving critical investment in new supply interstate. The unexpected land tax has had a significant impact and has been completely detrimental to the rental market. Property owners who have planned for their future are now finding themselves in a position where they must either pass on the cost to the tenant of the rental property or sell the property. This has had a significant impact on the rental market at a time when we have people finding it so hard to find a home. We need more rental properties, not a declining number. We must focus on supply, and that includes regional Victoria. Victorians are struggling to pay Labor’s highest in the nation property taxes on time. Many tax bills are now more than 12 months overdue. This should be no surprise when so many Victorians are under extreme financial pressures. The headlines of ‘Taxed to the max’ are very accurate.

When it comes to crime, our police are under-resourced and underfunded. I recently met with the superintendent of Shepparton police station. He said that the station does not have enough police on the ground and that 75 per cent of police time is taken up with family violence, not allowing the police to get to other crime matters. He has urgently called for a dedicated family violence response team, which would require six extra police and two extra sergeants. I have asked the Minister for Police to assist my local police station, who deserve to have the resources and funding they need so that they can do their job and protect the community to the capacity they need to.

We have had a 20 per cent increase in crime and an increase in the incidence of burglary, car theft and retail theft, and we know that crime is escalating across the state. People are feeling unsafe. They are feeling unsafe in their homes. Businesses are experiencing ongoing break-ins, with many perpetrators reoffending. It just simply cannot continue.

We are finding community services stretched to the limit. Our local community neighbourhood houses are not able to meet the increased demand for food supply. They are finding people are coming in distressed at not being able to pay their rent. They are struggling with fuel costs and struggling to meet their family’s needs. I wish to acknowledge Melanie from South Shepparton Community Centre, who works very closely with my office. My office is also inundated with people reaching out in desperate need of support. Melanie does an incredible job not only during her working hours but after hours. She has often messaged me when trying to help people find emergency housing, which often is not there. Her distress is very obvious, but her care for her people within the community that she serves is so relevant that we have to keep pushing for better and to do more for our communities.

In my last few minutes I also wish to acknowledge a couple of really hardworking people in our community who are helping people that are doing it tough and people that are homeless. Azem from People Supporting People and his amazing volunteers every single day help provide food and food relief for people, particularly people sleeping rough. He has a shower and a toilet behind his restaurant, and he is an incredible person who works tirelessly to help those that do not have anyone else in their lives to do that. On a Saturday morning often I get out the front of the barbecue at Kmart with Azem just to see the people coming to him – often homeless people getting their sausage – and also to see the connection that he has with those people. Often it is those connections that can make the biggest difference in trying to have conversations in regard to getting them back on Centrelink, getting them back on Medicare or getting their birth certificate so they can get their connection back to community. These types of people are quiet achievers that do incredible work and make a significant difference in our community. The Labor government could learn a lot from people like Azem. Victoria is doing it really tough and regional Victorians are doing it tough, and this government is letting Victorians down.

 Michaela SETTLE (Eureka – Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Agriculture) (02:43): I am absolutely delighted to stand tonight to talk about this extraordinary budget, and why it is extraordinary is that it is extraordinary for regional Victoria. Whilst I respect –

Kim O’Keeffe interjected.

Michaela SETTLE: I certainly was, member for Shepparton, and I am about to talk to you about the things that you said. Instead of talking down regional Victoria, let us talk about the successes in regional Victoria. Let us talk about the fact that we have had a 20 per cent increase in jobs in regional Victoria under this government. Your lot want to cut jobs in regional Victoria. In the last 10 years we have increased them by 20 per cent.

A member interjected.

Michaela SETTLE: We have. So let us talk about regional Victoria and what this budget is doing for regional Victoria. The member for Shepparton just talked to us about our debt. She was horrified about our debt. She was horrified about what we are doing. Let me tell you that our debt is 25 per cent of GSP. Do you know what? Under Henry Bolte it was 50 per cent of GSP. Let me tell you something else. The last time the Liberals built a hospital was under Henry Bolte, because he understood that you borrow to build. This lot on the other side want to spook the world about debt, but they do not want to acknowledge that what we have done is build in regional Victoria. We now have the lowest unemployment, at 3.9 per cent, in regional Victoria, and that is because this government has invested to build jobs. I sit in the regional development portfolio. I look at what we have got in this budget, and we have got $50 million in the Victorian Investment Fund to bring jobs into regional Victoria to change people’s lives.

Those on the other side, all they have talked about is that they are going to cut our budget. What are their cuts going to do? I can tell you. They are going to cut jobs out of regional Victoria. They are going to cut services out of regional Victoria. There is nothing from the other side except cuts. This government invests. This government cares about regional Victoria. Since we were elected we have invested $50 billion into regional Victoria. In this budget alone there is $2.7 billion for regional Victoria. I had to sit through listening to the member for Shepparton – who I have to say I like. I am not being aggressive. She is a nice woman. She is a lovely woman. But to hear the absolute dross that came out – which, to be honest, was read and was clearly lines that were given to her by the party to talk down regional Victoria – was an outrage. Do you know what has happened in regional Victoria? In agriculture we set ourselves a mission to make food and fibre exports $20 billion by 2030. Guess what, there was $22.2 billion this year in food and fibre exports on 3 per cent of the landmass. Why does the other side have to continually talk about deficit and debt and horror? Let us talk about the success that is regional Victoria. We are the engine room. I am sorry city slicker mates, but we are the engine room. We are the ones that are driving the economy. We constitute an enormous –

Matthew Guy: I draw your attention to the state of the house.

Quorum formed.

Michaela SETTLE: I am delighted to continue, because we are talking about regional Victoria and we are talking about what this government does for regional Victoria. I want to give you all a stat that you do not really understand. It sits in the budget. It says $100 million for CFA tankers. I was talking to the extraordinary minister tonight, and do you know what that means? That means on average every four days a new vehicle goes out to the CFA – every four days. Let us remember that this government is investing in the CFA.

This budget included $481 million for regional transport services. The city-centric people on the other side of the house do not understand what transport means in the regions. They do not understand, because the last time they had any sort of power they ripped the trains out of communities. I lived in Ararat. They ripped the train line out, and it actually halved the population of Ararat because people had no hope. They had nothing to do. Those on the other side might fix the budget. They might get the debt down. Do you know what that means for regional Victorians? It means no train lines, it means no schools.

Matthew Guy interjected.

Michaela SETTLE: We still remember in Ararat, seriously. Through the Chair, I lived in Ararat, and people still remember. We remember Kennett ripping those rail lines out. What we see in this budget is this government has invested $481 million into transport in the regions. But as I say, for me, in my portfolios, it is about making sure that we are bringing jobs and we are bringing livelihoods into regional Victoria, and that is what we have done. I really want to acknowledge the member for Geelong in the house, because she fought really hard to make sure that that investment went into Geelong, and very, very soon – and we might invite the other side along –

Members interjecting.

Michaela SETTLE: Maybe not. No, okay. We are going to open the Nyaal Banyul centre. This is transformative for Geelong. It is bringing people into Geelong. It is invigorating the regions, and that is what this government does. We do not just look at big projects like that; we also understand – and I have to say it is my portfolio, and I am dead proud of it – the wonderful Tiny Towns programs. It is not just about the big projects which we do and we deliver, like the Nyaal Banyul centre, but we also do Tiny Towns. I went to Shelford the other day, a Tiny Town. You have probably never heard of it. I love it dearly. They got a grant. It was for the Shelford Common. They wanted a bubbler and they wanted some chairs. They got the local school in to plant some trees. For that community it meant a lot. The thing about Tiny Towns is it is driven by the communities, so they say, ‘What do we want in our town?’

The other day I had the pleasure of opening the Victorian Farmers Federation conference, and a gentleman asked me a question. He asked me about our city-centric government, and what I said to him was, ‘How can you call us city centric when we have got 18 regional MPs in this place?’ The Libs have got 25, the Nats have got, what, four or five. The Labor regional caucus is twice as big as the Nats and pretty close to the entire Libs. We represent regional Victoria, and I reject any suggestion that we do not and the idea that we are in some way city centric. Our Premier is from Bendigo, our Treasurer is from the north and our ag minister is from Ballan.

This is a government that cares about the regions. What I said at the VFF conference was that regional caucus meet every fortnight. While that lot are having breakfast, we are meeting as a caucus. All 18 regional MPs sit down together and we talk about what needs to happen in regional Victoria, and then we go to cabinet, we go to those ministers, and we say, ‘This is what is happening in our region. This is what we need you to do.’ This government represents regional Victoria like nobody else does. When I hear farcical notions from the Nats that they are going to guarantee 25 per cent into the regions, it makes me laugh. It is an absolute nonsense.

If you talk to our wonderful Minister for Education, he will tell you in this budget – and that is what we are talking about – 31 per cent of school upgrades are going into regional Victoria. If you look at the sports infrastructure fund, the member to Shepparton talked about a lack of sporting facilities. I want her to know that within the last round of sports infrastructure funding, 50 per cent of that went into the regions. We all know, because we are connected to our communities, that one of the things they talk to us a lot about are roads. Do you know what? Of the $1 billion in the budget this year, 70 per cent is going to the regions. Any way you cut it, some notional idea from the Nats that they are putting in 25 per cent, a regional guarantee, is a cut. Regions are seeing so much more under this government.

Nobody wants to see a 25 per cent cut. What I would say, when people talk about city-centric governments, is that the leadership of the Liberals are clearly city-centric. They have talked loud and clear about the fact that they are going to cut $40 billion out of the budget. They are cutting $40 billion and the Nats – their friends, theoretically – are claiming that there is a 25 per cent guarantee. As I said the other day, 25 per cent of nothing is nothing. Regional Victoria knows that. They can promise a 25 per cent guarantee, but I want to hear the Libs and the Nats tell us what their budget actually is. We are getting 25 per cent of what? We are getting 25 per cent of $40 billion worth of cuts. That does not sound like a good deal to me, and I do not think that people in regional Victoria are going to fall for it.

Because we have been there before, we have played this game. It is not our first rodeo with that lot on the other side. You can laugh about how long ago Jeff Kennett was, but people in regional Victoria remember. We remember that we lost the Ararat line, we lost the Maryborough line, we had schools closed, we had hospitals privatised. I think the thing that makes me laugh the most is when I hear the member for Mildura talk glowingly about the hospital. They privatised it and we had to bring it back in. When we see Liberals in power, all we see is an absolute desecration of regional Victoria. You want to talk about who is city-centric? Look at the seats that the Libs have got. I will admit they are getting thinner and thinner in the city, but they are city seats.

Matthew Guy interjected.

Michaela SETTLE: Yes, I cannot wait. We cannot wait. We cannot wait because the member for Bulleen across the table wants to talk about the next election. Let us talk about the next election. Let us talk about One Nation in your seat. You are in a whole lot of trouble, and it is those regional communities that are turning against the Libs. Who are the people that at the moment are polling for One Nation? They are all of those people along the top. They are regional communities that know that the Liberals do not support them, so they are going to vote One Nation.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Minister! Member for Bulleen! It is too late for this.

Michaela SETTLE: It is not Labor’s seats out in the regions that are going to One Nation – not our seats.

 Chris CREWTHER (Mornington) (02:58): That was certainly exciting. This is an Allan Labor government that has brazenly and flagrantly neglected Victoria and the Mornington electorate through their absolute financial mismanagement, lack of budget transparency and a disastrous budget earlier this year. Debt is now approaching $200 billion. Taxpayer-funded interest on this debt is already over $1 million every single hour. That is money that could have been spent on things like nurses, paramedics, teachers, police, fire services, potholes and roads maintenance, hospitals, schools and more. There is an undeniable need for funding for basic service delivery. However, because of this Allan Labor government’s culture of reckless waste and blowouts, they are not providing the services and investments that we need.

One of the worst examples of this waste is the $15 billion CFMEU corruption, a corruption that this government is still not doing enough about. Not to mention tens of billions of cost blow-outs on major projects or $600 million-plus wasted on not having the Commonwealth Games and giving money to Glasgow to soon host them instead. Regional Victoria had been promised them at the time, but they were effectively lied to at the last election.

Thousands of constituents are contacting me and us on the peninsula about Labor’s failed road maintenance and oversight, such as with Peninsula Link and the Nepean Highway near Bata.

They are calling on Labor to fix our roads, potholes or craters, in some cases. They are calling for our fair share of infrastructure and public transport on the Mornington Peninsula, a forgotten part of metro Melbourne. This was stark when Labor recently announced $100 million for buses in metro Melbourne. But how much of this was for the peninsula? Can anyone guess? None – none of that $100 million for metro Melbourne bus services was for the Mornington Peninsula.

Let us look at our schools, which are creaking and falling apart, whose facilities are 50 years old, like Mount Eliza Secondary. I went to visit that school recently with the Shadow Minister for Education, the principal, students from the school and also school council representatives. Not only have they not had investment from this state Labor government, they have had to pull down a facility because of the problems with mould. It was absolutely falling apart. So they have gone backwards in terms of facilities even more.

There are our local sporting facilities, like Narambi Reserve, where girls are using portaloos and then washing hands and filling drink bottles at a dog tap, or Mornington Baseball, who are struggling to train at night now, as their ancient lights, decades old, are no longer made and are continually going out, with players now having to dodge balls hit both by players and through the back of the broken net. You name it.

One of the worst examples is housing and homelessness. There has been next to zero investment in public housing on the peninsula, with the dial only ticking forward by a few homes in 10 years. The Ranch not-for-profit crisis accommodation was recently shut down and is about to be demolished. The only crisis accommodation now on the peninsula is Ranch 2.0, set up by Mornington Community Support Centre as a not-for-profit, with support from Rotary groups and others but with zero investment from the state Labor government. But this can only house several people with minimal to no state investment in our community support and outreach services, which are struggling and bursting at the seams, not able to keep up with need. This is all while Labor has allowed this to happen. They have allowed homelessness on the peninsula to get into crisis mode. We now have the highest rate of rough sleeping out of any LGA in the whole state – in the whole of Victoria. People – men, women, boys and girls – are living in cars and in tents on the foreshore and elsewhere. Several people have, shamefully, now died on the foreshore under this government’s watch. That could have included a gentleman that my office and local constituents helped recently to get out of a tent that he was living in for five months and into a rooming house, who might have been another statistic had we not stepped up ourselves to help, with zero government help at all.

You might think the peninsula is all wine, beers, beaches, cliffside mansions and so on – and we do have that, so come and enjoy that. But we also have significant disadvantage – disadvantage that is not being met with investment. Indeed, compared to, say, Greater Geelong, the Frankston and Mornington Peninsula region is paying something like $290 million in payroll tax versus $65 million in the Greater Geelong region due to metro classification. Yet not only do we miss out on regional investment, we miss out on metro investment, as this government forgets that we are part of metro Melbourne, so we get way less investment than the Geelong region while paying more tax. This is nothing against Geelong, but it is about getting our fair share on the peninsula.

The Nepean and Mornington electorates as well have zero passenger rail services – in metro Melbourne of course. Eighty-two per cent of the peninsula has no public transport. Hastings electorate does have a V/Line service – that is right, a metro area with a V/Line diesel, non-electrified line. If we are going to be classed as metro, then we should get metro investment in public transport. Yet when I secured $225 million previously towards electrifying the line from Frankston to Baxter, this Labor government refused to support it going ahead, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese scrapped the funding altogether because of this government’s refusal after he had promised not only to build it but to build it sooner than us if elected – yet another election lie; it seems to go across both federal and state Labor.

And what about crime? We also have this government investing less and less in resources for our police. We are more than 1500 police short. They reduced front counter hours or shut stations across the state.

This includes Mornington police station, which had its hours reduced three years ago, all while crime was going up and all while this government was weakening bail laws and consequences.

Now let us talk about taxes – 67 new or increased taxes under this government, when Dan Andrews in 2014 said there would be no new taxes under a government that he led. Surely it is clear to any sensible member opposite that Victoria has been neglected, and many are not better off than they were 12 years ago, despite the cognitive dissonance, mental gymnastics and the budget opaqueness Labor tried to engage in.

I will mention the time. It is great to speak on the budget at 3:05 in the morning. It seems like we have an endless debate in the chamber – in both chambers – here tonight. Very similar to the budget situation with Labor – we have an endless amount of debt, an endless amount of mismanagement and more. Victorians are suffering under what is nearly now 23 out of 27 years of Labor in power in Victoria. So I say to Victorians: we must change. We must do things differently. We must change government in November. Why? Why must we change government? It is not just change for change’s sake. It is because we need to run our economy better. We need to grow our economy. We need to create jobs. We need to grow industry. We need to invest in the right connectivity infrastructure. I know how much members love investing in infrastructure on the peninsula. Actually they do not, but I know someone else I would want to invest in it. We need to create opportunity, though. We need to create hope and we need to create freedom for Victorians. How can we do this? We can do this by reducing taxes such as the GP tax, the emergency services tax, the schools tax, the holiday and tourism short-stay tax, which is greatly impacting the peninsula, and cutting stamp duty up to $1 million for first home buyers. We will lift the payroll tax threshold to $1.2 million by 2028–29 and then reduce the metro payroll tax rate down to 4.8 per cent. And we will increase the land tax threshold to $300,000.

We will also stop Labor’s gas bans and open up gas exploration, and not only that, we will open up investment in mining and resources, mineral sands, gold and more. There are so many opportunities in this space. We will grow our economy with our 10-year economic plan and then pay down the debt, reaching a real cash surplus – an actual real cash surplus – in a few years time, by 2032, so we do not then have to spend $1 million an hour on interest. That can then be spent and put into essential services. On crime as well, we are going to have policies like break bail, face jail and Jack’s law. We are going to have things like better police pursuit laws. We are going to employ 3000 more police. We are going to reopen police stations to full-time counter hours, including with Mornington police station. We are going to have 200 more PSOs. We are going to toughen our bail laws and have greater consequences for offenders and invest in programs like Youthstart and Restart for crime prevention.

We will also put money into reducing homelessness – homelessness that this government does not seem to care about. We have already committed $250,000 to Fusion, housing young people on the Mornington Peninsula. We are also going to invest $250,000 for the southern Mornington Peninsula, and there are more announcements there to come.

We will also pause the white elephant Suburban Rail Loop, $200 billion-plus that is not yet even on the budget papers, when we could actually spend that money more wisely elsewhere. We will have a royal commission into CFMEU corruption – CFMEU corruption that has seen $15 billion wasted under this government. We will have proper IBAC follow-the-money powers to track down those funds, funds that we can then put back into our economy, that we can actually put back into investment – that were stolen under the auspices and the watch of this Labor government.

We will also have a back office public service hiring freeze and an executive pay cap, so we can then have more money for frontline nurses, police, teachers and others. We will have a regional 25 per cent fair share guarantee.

We will fast-track home building in growth areas and in regional Victoria and by expanding the capital city zone. We will manage this budget better into the future, including by having a proper charter of budget honesty. We will repeal the treaty, with a saving of $1 billion. And it is not just the saving –

Matthew Guy: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, I am sorry to interrupt my colleague, but I cannot hear him with the level of interjection. Can you please call the house to order?

Sarah Connolly interjected.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Iwan Walters): That is not on the point of order, member for Laverton. The level of noise from members in the chamber has reached a rather loud level.

Chris CREWTHER: And I am having to yell louder and louder, because they just do not want to listen. They want to try and talk over me. They do not want to listen to the fact that they are failing this state. They are failing this economy. They are failing Victorians. I was talking about the treaty, where there is a saving of $1 billion, but it is also about equality. It is about equality under the law. We should all be equal under the law, all be considered as equal Victorians, so we can then use those funds to invest properly to reduce disadvantage right across Victoria, including within our Indigenous communities.

We will also do things in the health space. We have an ambulance ramping crisis. We have so many issues in our hospital sector. We are going to invest in the meningococcal B vaccinations as well. We are also going to protect agriculture, which I think this government has forgotten about. You are mowing down agriculture. You have got the VNI West project, which we are going to put a halt to as well, putting transmission lines through all this great farmland. I am the grandson of a farmer, who was farming at Ellam, near Jeparit, right next to Tom McIntosh’s father. They had neighbouring farms, actually. They were right opposite each other; they were sharing farm equipment. But I know his grandparents and my grandparents understood farming and the need to invest in farming. Having grown up in Horsham, having worked in the agricultural sector, I understand this need as well. And the Liberals and Nationals know that if we are going to grow this economy we need to invest in minerals and resources, but we also need to invest in agriculture and growing that sector. We have a great opportunity there, particularly to add value to what we produce here in Victoria. We have a huge opportunity to add value. It is not just about high-quantity goods, it is about products that we can produce, whether it is in Mildura, Shepparton, Horsham or elsewhere, or indeed on the Mornington Peninsula. The Mornington Peninsula has about 40 per cent farmland as well, even though we are classed as metropolitan Melbourne. We need to invest there.

We need to invest in our water infrastructure. We need to invest in getting our goods to the port better and better and easier and easier. And that is why projects, such as doing the Murray Basin rail project properly, which was not done properly under this government, are so important. And it was not done properly, because this government has not managed this economy. So I call on this government to better manage this budget, and if they do not, Victorians need to change government in November.

 Kathleen MATTHEWS-WARD (Broadmeadows) (03:13): I proudly rise to speak on the Allan Labor government’s 2026–27 state budget. For over 20 years, since I was first appointed to the Moreland transport forum, chaired by Cr Robert Larocca, I have been advocating for improvements to the Upfield train line, and since being elected three years ago we have had significant progress. Last year the federal government committed $7 million for planning work, and the state has contributed significantly to this and the plans are progressing. And now in this budget I am so proud to have secured $3.6 million for the final business case to duplicate the line and for other associated works, like traction and signalling upgrades and further level crossing removals along the line, delivering the next important steps to increase peak service frequency for the people of Fawkner, Campbellfield, Dallas and beyond, as well as all those south of the line in Fawkner, Merlynston, Brunswick, Coburg et cetera. And coming very soon are the extra off-peak night and weekend services on the Upfield line, with trains at least every 20 minutes.

We are already benefiting from the new and bigger Ballarat-made X’trapolis trains on both the Craigieburn and the Upfield lines, providing extra capacity, comfort and accessibility. New off-peak, shoulder-peak and night and weekend services will soon be operating on the Craigieburn line, with trains every 20 minutes, which I know you are very happy about too, Acting Speaker Walters. And I was very happy to secure funding for beautification, safety and lighting upgrades at Broadmeadows station. PSOs are now at Broadmeadows all day, every day, until the last train, and the community connectors outreach program will be expanded to Broadmeadows station in the coming months.

Community connectors have expertise in mental health, trauma, homelessness, alcohol and drug issues, family violence and crisis support. They work at the train stations and help vulnerable people in crisis. They connect people with services and work closely with Metro staff, protective services officers and Victoria Police. The program has operated at Dandenong station since 2023 and at Frankston since late 2024. Across both sites the community connectors have engaged with almost 5000 people and referred hundreds to support services. The outreach workers have helped de-escalate or prevent more than 600 incidents, which is incredible. Since their rollout both stations have seen a drop in disorderly and offensive conduct offences, an 85 per cent drop at Dandenong station and a 44 per cent drop at Frankston station and the Young Street precinct. We know that support is really important. Outreach services do an incredible job getting to people who might not know how to access services or just need a little bit of help to get the services they need. We have got PSOs all day at Glenroy station, making our beautiful new station precinct even safer and more attractive. I am sure you know, Acting Speaker Walter, that the level crossing removal at Glenroy and the new station is one of my proud achievements and something I have been working on, again, for over 20 years.

Given the member for Hastings started tonight’s theme earlier inspired by Paul Kelly’s From Little Things Big Things Grow, it is very fulfilling to see projects we have worked on for many years come to fruition, like the Upfield bike path, the last stage of which is almost finished to finally link all of the paths in Merri-bek to the ring-road path. There are bus service improvements as well – another issue I have been advocating on for many years. Last year we funded Sunday and evening services on route 536, which runs from Glenroy station to Gowrie station through North Glenroy. This year I was very proud to deliver Sunday and evening services through Oak Park, Glenroy West, Jacana, Broadmeadows, Dallas and Coolaroo on route 542, the bus I used to catch home from school and work. Bus 561 has been upgraded as well in this budget, with additional weekday and evening services, which would have been handy many years ago when I had to trek off to La Trobe from Glenroy at night.

As you know, education remains my number one priority. I cannot tell you how happy I was to secure $1 million for the detailed design and preparation work for the new leading-edge science, technology, engineering, design, arts and maths hub, as well as new classrooms and food technology, cafeteria and wellbeing spaces at Glenroy College. The Merri-bek North education plan has delivered the master plan for Glenroy as well as new programs, more subject choice, university links and other resources to all the schools involved in the plan. We have also worked closely with council to deliver upgraded sports fields at Glenroy College as part of the shared use investment. Many years ago, when I was a local councillor, we jointly funded the magnificent performing arts centre there. The school is coming along in leaps and bounds, and I encourage local families to check it out and meet with the wonderful principal and leadership team.

I tell you what, I cannot wait to check out the new science and visual arts buildings and food technology hub at John Faulkner College. This was the first project I was able to commit to before being elected three years ago, and the magnificent new $14.5 million building is about to welcome students next week. When I was there last with the builder, he said it was the best food tech building he had ever seen in all the years he had been involved in school buildings, both public and private. I am really proud of our investment there and how it will change lives in Fawkner. I was chatting to some of the John Faulkner kids today who were here for Youth Parliament – that was yesterday now – and they were so excited about the new buildings.

Last week I had the pleasure of having a year 10 student, Tugra, from John Faulkner with me for work experience. I want to thank Lisa, the leadership team and all of the dedicated teachers and staff for the magnificent job they are doing at the school. I also commend the Friends of John Faulkner group, including Alex, Gemma and Fiona, for the positive work they are doing in the community. This year’s budget also delivered $154,000 for the Melbourne Victory sports and leadership program at John Faulkner, and I am currently in discussions with council about other opportunities to expand the sports field and shared use agreements at the school.

Gee, it was also a pleasure to drop in to Moomba Park Primary. The new toilets there are finally open, and the kids were just really excited. I wouldn’t have thought you could get that excited about new toilets, but they really were. They are quite beautiful toilets, if I say so myself. The good news I was able to deliver when I was there was the $314,000 that we are delivering for a new modular music classroom at the school.

The old classroom had issues, and when I first met with the principal last year, the main thing he wanted was an upgraded music room, and I am very proud to have been able to deliver that.

The Wimbi early childhood centre is just on the other side of the oval there, and that is a magnificent early childhood education centre. It is government owned and government run and one of the first of the 50 that this Labor government will deliver. It is a magnificent building, and everybody is loving it and trying to get their kids in there.

We have also got the tech school about to open. It is incredible. I cannot wait. I am visiting there again on Tuesday. It is almost ready to open up for students, and you will be very excited, Acting Speaker Walters, to come along and see the difference it will make for all of our kids in the north. It will have a focus on building skills in growth industries like renewable energy, advanced manufacturing, logistics, robotics and IT, and we know those opportunities are really important for the kids in the north.

Right next door to that is the magnificent Kangan centre of excellence for health and community care, and that is in addition to the building and construction learning facilities there. I encourage everybody to check out our free TAFE courses that are operating there, with everything from accounting to vet nursing, building and construction, engineering, nursing, early childhood, cybersecurity, IT, animal studies, dental assisting, youth, commercial cookery, aged care and disability, health, community services, logistics and accounting and bookkeeping. It literally has everything. The students when they walk in there feel so valued because it is such a beautiful building, and it makes them feel proud to study in Broadmeadows and to get the skills they need for the jobs they want and the jobs we need into the future. And free TAFE is not limited to just young people; it is open for every citizen and permanent resident. I think still a lot of people do not know about it, but we know it is one of our trademark Labor initiatives that literally changes lives. We have also recently launched the Broadmeadows university campus hub led by La Trobe, and that was funded by the federal government. I thank Basem Abdo for his work on that.

In the budget we have $390,000 for Banksia Gardens to help with their program that works with disengaged students from Broadmeadows Primary, Coolaroo South Primary, Dallas Brooks primary, Meadows Primary, Hume Valley, Holy Child and Broadmeadows Valley Primary School. They are the schools in my electorate, Acting Speaker Walters, but there are some schools in your electorate that benefit from the wonderful program that they run at Banksia, Project REAL. They do a magnificent job there.

The budget, as only Labor budgets do, delivers $2.2 billion for students with a disability, including free transport, after-school care and inclusion supports statewide, and that makes a massive difference. We have spoken before about carers and the need for those supports. I know parents who have got a child with a disability, and they have not been able to work full-time because they could not get care during school holidays. But having after-school and school holidays care makes an incredible difference to these families. It means that they can work, they can get a job and they can participate in the economy, and we are not relegating them to a life of poverty. I just think that is really one of the best things we have done as a government, and it makes a huge difference to families. We have upgraded all of the special schools. Tomorrow – actually, well, today now – I am off to the Broadmeadows Special Developmental School. We have invested $20 million to double that in size, and it has got a whole new indoor gymnasium. I am going to take some soccer balls down there. I am sure those kids are right into soccer right now. I think everyone in our electorates is. That will be lots of fun.

This budget has delivered $500 million to build and upgrade kinders and government-run childcare centres, and our free kinder for three- and four-year-olds continues. Again, that is another life-changing initiative that only our Labor government invests in. We also invest in our early childhood educators and teachers. Our hardworking teachers, school leaders and education support staff will be the best paid in the country, and they have earned it.

Their salaries will rise by 28.3 per cent over the next four years, and early childhood teachers will reach wage parity with Victorian government schoolteachers for the first time, which is wonderful. We know how important their work is. We know how important those early years are for future outcomes. The kinder educators will receive an average pay increase of 39 per cent over four years, which is exactly what they deserve, but it is also incredible. I am so proud to be part of a government that is delivering that for them.

Our free kinder for three- and four-year-old kids continues, saving families up to $2700 per child. Free dental check-ups and treatments for school students continue and free glasses for kids. The school breakfast program has been expanded to every government school, and we have delivered over 65 million school breakfasts. We have got the Active Kids vouchers, $200 for eligible families, and the $400 Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund for eligible families. The State Schools’ Relief fund helps eligible families with uniforms, shoes, stationery and essential school items. We have also got the baby bundles, prep bags and kinder kits, free museums and galleries for kids under 16, free zoo entry for kids on the weekends and holidays and the half-price camping.

I was also really, really proud of this budget investment in homelessness support: $17 million to expand outreach teams, including in Hume and Merri-bek. We know how much that is needed. We have got more funding for food relief, emergency housing, financial counselling and legal aid. We have got $1 billion for roads, rubbish and graffiti removal and more mowing on roadsides and in rail corridors. That is the biggest road blitz in history, and you and I know how important that is. We have got increased allowances for foster and kinship carers, which is really important. Surgery and specialist paediatric appointments are being fast-tracked, and we are expanding our hospitals and giving more funding for chronic disease and palliative care, something I feel really strongly about too. There is $5.3 million in grants for seniors groups and $33.5 million for the violence reduction unit, plus $5 million for youth crime prevention.

There is such great work happening with our youth. Last week I met with Le Mana Pasifika, who are doing fantastic work with young people. There is the Adam Saad Pathways program, with a focus on multicultural and First Nations youth, the Eritrean Families in Hume and the North, and all of their wonderful programs, and the Northern Community Legal Centre, with their lawyers in schools programs. There are so many good programs that now have pathways for extra funding for the good work they do. We are combating hate and racism with $3.43 million for community-led projects. We have got $1.2 million for the Small Business Activation Fund. We have got 7000 new social homes in addition to the 16,000 already being delivered, including the 120 at Coleraine Street, which are nearly ready to go. They are magnificent. You will have to come and check them out as well.

I am just really proud of all of the things we have delivered. Stamp duty concessions have been extended. We have got the Solar Homes and hot-water rebates extended and $4.5 million to support local music across the state.

 Lauren KATHAGE (Yan Yean) (03:28): I am so proud to rise and speak on the 2026–27 budget. When I think about this budget, I see it as a budget that shows that we are listening to the Victorian people and that their worries are our worries too, and so we have acted to provide support to them. There are three areas that I would like to focus on to start with. The first of those is around transport and getting around, which is the biggest priority for my community – having an easier way to get to work, an easier way to get the kids to school, an easier way even to go and buy a bottle of milk. I was so thrilled to see that in this budget we provided funding matched with the federal government to bring forward stage 2 of the Donnybrook Road upgrade, which is delivering a second bridge over the Hume, expanding the exit lane off the Hume and providing a duplicated Donnybrook Road up to Dwyer Street.

One of the reasons I am so pleased to see this done is because this shows how the community raising their voice and speaking together and how joint advocacy can be so effective. I say that because when community consultation for stage 1of the Donnybrook Road upgrade was underway, Major Road Projects Victoria, as they were then, received the largest number of pieces of feedback from community members they had ever received for a community consultation. The community lifted its voice up and its message was very clear: we need more, sooner. I am so proud that together with the member for Kalkallo we have been able to deliver that for our community. Now stage 1 and stage 2 will be delivered together. The community will not have to wait for additional lanes over the Hume, and the trip onto and off the Hume will be much faster and smoother for the community. I am so thrilled about that.

Another concern of the community that has been addressed through the 2026–27 budget in Donnybrook is pedestrian safety for people travelling by foot to Donnybrook train station. Currently people need to walk on the shoulder of the road, where the land is undeveloped by the developer. Without the approval of a subdivision permit, the developer is not required to build a footpath. So we are putting in place some remedial works and barriers so that people can safely – this includes school kids on bikes and mums pushing prams – get to Donnybrook train station. It is something simple and straightforward but something I am really pleased to see for our community.

Another issue that had been raised with me that we were able to address through this budget is the desire for bike parking – a bike cage, essentially – at Donnybrook train station so that people can secure their bikes when they are travelling to work or to school. That has also been delivered in this budget.

Within this budget also we are taking the next step with improving northern rail. It is a bit of a worry that the opposition spokesperson for major transport infrastructure does not seem to understand how this works, but the northern rail program business case takes the planning work to the next step. This is being funded together with the federal government, and at the end of this process there will be decided scope and understanding of what needs to happen and staging of when it will happen. This is moving us towards better rail services for those in the north. I know, Acting Speaker, that that is important for you too, so I am really pleased to see the government continue that important work.

People in Mernda are also benefiting from an easier way to get around, with increased frequency of trains on Sundays. We are moving towards a train every 20 minutes or so from Sunday morning and all weekend. This makes it easier for young people who have got a job at the Plenty Valley shops and people heading into town for the footy and all sorts of reasons. Along with that we have the 386 and 387 buses with extended hours right up to midnight. Young people that head to RMIT to study and might want to either continue their study in the library or discuss their philosophy course earnestly over a beer with friends will be able to get home safely into the night. I am really pleased about that.

The budget also includes support for more affordable transport more generally. Of course in this budget we have the 20 per cent off rego, which has been extremely popular in my community. I think we have seen something like 1.4 million claims already, which shows how important cost-of-living support is for our community right now. I think it shows that we have made the right decision to use some of our surplus to support Victorians. Rather than banking it, we are backing Victorians.

Half-price public transport is also supported through this budget, as well as the continuation of free public transport for under-18s. This is a topic that came up at the cost-of-living forum I held with the Minister for Cost of Living. Parents spoke about how much of a difference that free public transport for under-18s makes to the family budget, so I am really pleased that this government has backed that in in this budget.

Moving on from transport, I would like to speak about what this budget means for the health of Victorians. We know that the Allan Labor government is continuing the tradition of Labor governments that have served before in increasing funding for health every year, and there is $32 billion in funding in 2026–27 for health, which is a big figure that is hard to grapple with, but some of the things that that provides will make such a difference for families. There is one I want to highlight particularly, because it is a topic I have been working on in my community just this past week. The 2026–27 budget provides 250 speech pathology and occupational therapy student grants. We know this is one of the first steps on a family’s journey to getting support, both physically and in terms of money, for a child when they notice something is not quite right or a teacher notices that the child has difficulty with pen grip or they are not quite getting there in class. Having more speech pathologists and having more occupational therapists will help address the wait that can exist for families while they wait to have that confirmation of diagnosis with support and adaptations required for that student in the school and also strategies for families to help their child at home. That is not going to come about straightaway, because it is student grants, but it shows that we are a government that is planning for not just this year but future years as well and the future needs of Victorians in regard to their health.

There is $109 million in this budget for planned surgery and specialist appointments. In budget estimates hearings the minister went into some detail about the strategies they are using to shorten waitlists for Victorians to see a specialist and some of the innovative ways that they are auditing, updating and bolstering waitlists with the appropriate paperwork so that appointments can be effective, not wasted, and that we are making sure that people that need to be in front of a specialist are in front of a specialist. That is going to make a real difference. People will not even know this is happening in the background. This is not something that is going to be well understood across the community. It is not something to secure votes or any such thing. It is just because we are a good government and we are looking at ways to improve the health system, and this is something really fantastic for the families in my community.

The families in my community will not know themselves when we have a new emergency department at the Northern. I have a picture of the new Northern ED up on the wall in my office, and it is my happy place to look at that picture of a fantastic large ED for our community, with separate areas for children, for mental health and for AOD – and with more comfortable seats, hopefully. I will have to learn where the plug is for mobile phones. I know exactly where it is now at the ED – I always make sure I sit in the chair next to the plug, just in case I need to charge my phone.

But this new ED will mean that we have got more treatment spaces, and so you probably will not have to charge your phone because you will be able to get through faster and in a nicer environment for the children. But often you do not even have to go to the emergency department; in this budget there is continued funding to expand the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department. To have an emergency department in your lounge room to speak to a doctor in the middle of the night – I mean, it is 3:40 here. We could get on the phone and talk to an emergency physician right now. I do not think anyone on this side needs to, but perhaps somebody on that side might benefit from a quick chat with a doctor.

Brad Rowswell: I think that is a personal reflection, member for Yan Yean.

Lauren KATHAGE: I would not be so brave as the member for Sandringham to say that after his disgraceful comments this morning towards me.

I move on to the bigger picture of our fiscal strategy. We know that, as I said at the start, our surplus this year means that we have additional funds to provide cost-of-living support to Victorians and to continue to invest in the health of Victorians, and that is because we continue to deliver on our fiscal strategy. Steps 1 through 3 have been met: creating jobs, reducing unemployment and restoring economic growth, tick; returning to an operating cash surplus, tick; and returning to operating surpluses, tick. We continue to work towards stabilising net debt levels as a proportion of GSP, and that work continues.

We have seen even just today that business continues to invest in Victoria. The latest ABS figures show that our business community is strong, that our economy continues to grow, and that businesses have faith that they can grow, make a profit and employ people in Victoria. And we are really –

Natalie Suleyman: Hear, hear – 123,000.

Lauren KATHAGE: many, many – thank you very much, Minister. The Minister is across the details on that, as she should be. Let us zoom down to the small again. We had the Minister for Small and Family Business in my community just last week talking with business owners about the new mentoring supports and the different programs that are available for small business in Victoria. Small businesses make up, I am going to say, over 50 per cent of businesses in Victoria, and each small business is a family, basically. It is a family, it is shoes on the kids’ feet, it is the cost of sport – all those things by our strong, vibrant and growing small business community, which continues to receive support from this government. The things that matter most to Victorians are in this budget. We have listened to what Victorians want and need, and we are proudly delivering for Victorians in the 2026–27 budget.

 Katie HALL (Footscray) (03:43): What a delightful time of the day to be speaking about the budget. This was another fantastic year of delivery for my community in Melbourne’s inner west. With the 15 minutes I have available – and I welcome participatory sharing of contributions; that would help – we have lots of good things to talk about in Footscray, in particular the very exciting announcement for a major upgrade for Maribyrnong College. It is a $14.3 million upgrade for Maribyrnong College, a school really close to my heart. My dad was a school captain at Maribyrnong High, which it was called back in the day. I believe he was school captain in 1968. And Maribyrnong of course is well known for being an exceptional sports school.

We have the sports academy, which was championed by the wonderful late Lynne Kosky. It is also a fantastic local school, but we really need an upgrade to some of those academic buildings. It has been an absolute pleasure to work with the school council in recent years, and of course the principal Michael Keenan, who is doing a fantastic job there to work together on the master plan and advocate for this funding. It was a great honour to join the Minister for Education last week to visit Maribyrnong College and tour the area that is going to be having an upgrade. The performing arts space will be redeveloped, and the food tech rooms and some of the music classrooms. Maribyrnong is just going from strength to strength in its performing arts and with its music students, which is wonderful to see.

Footscray High did not miss out in the budget this year. Footscray High of course in its original iteration was closed down by the Kennett government. It was formerly located on Wembley Avenue in Yarraville, and now under the Labor government we have spent more than $100 million on rebuilding this school into a three-campus model serving students across the inner west. One of the things I am so proud of with Footscray High at their Kinnear campus, which is located on the Maribyrnong River, is the students expressed an interest in learning how to row and utilising the Footscray rowing club. Again, my dear old dad was the secretary of the Footscray rowing club, and they produced some great rowers there. So the kids at Footscray High are now learning to row; it is one of the only state schools that has a rowing program. But of course it is a really expensive sport, and one of the things I have spoken about with the principal there, Jill English, in recent years is how we make it an affordable sport for students at the school. I secured $140,000 in this year’s budget to solidify that program and embed it to get those kids out on the water. It is fantastic to see the impact it has on students. Last week at the Footscray High chef’s dinner, which is a magnificent event that the students host every year with a local chef – this year it was Harley and Rose from West Footscray – I spoke to so many parents who were just absolutely glowing in praise for the rowing program and the impact it has had on these young people. Leadership, teamwork, the routine of getting up early and getting out on the mighty Maribyrnong River – it has been an incredible program, and I am really delighted to have secured $140,000 for it to continue and to grow.

In Footscray we are proud of upgrading our government schools. I believe that high-quality public education is the great leveller we have in society. Since I have had the great honour of being the member for Footscray over the last eight years, we have worked methodically to upgrade our local government schools. Budget to budget, that has been something I have worked on. It is really great seeing students enjoying the new facilities as they are opened. This year we opened West Footscray Primary School’s new gymnasium, a project that the principal Brendan Millar and the school community have been working on for some time, and it is terrific to see the students at West Footscray enjoying those new facilities.

It has also added a much-needed venue, with the indoor stadium shortage in Melbourne’s inner west. The budget also delivered free public transport for our young people getting out and getting to school and travelling, and that has been fantastic. It is time for some of the participatory aspects of my contribution. That is a really important cost-of-living measure for families in our community, and it is just one of many measures. My kids had their dental checks a couple of weeks ago. I think the dental vans was another program that was cut under the Kennett government but that this government has brought back. We know that for a lot of families, taking their little ones to the dentist is a real stretch in the family budget, so that is fantastic. I love the free Glasses for Kids program, and it is always really exciting to see the students proudly opening their glasses when they receive them.

One of the other things that I talk a lot about to people in our community –

Brad Rowswell interjected.

Katie HALL: Thank you, member for Sandringham. Keep holding it up. I do not have my glasses on. I was not expecting to be on my feet at this hour, so I forgot my laptop and my glasses.

The school breakfast clubs program – Footscray Primary School runs a terrific program, and just every bit helps. The Get Active Kids voucher program – whenever those vouchers are released, I know it is something that the sporting clubs in our community promote heavily, and they are really, really popular. The Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund for eligible families – every young person deserves the opportunity to go on a school camp. The fund is to help families pay for that. Also, I am really proud our hardworking teachers, school leaders and education support workers have been provided with a pay offer and increase of between 28 and 30 per cent. That supports teachers to do things like take our kids on camps. We are enormously grateful for that. I am really proud, as the daughter of a teacher who spent her entire career in the government system, that they have a pay offer that they can be really proud of. That is something that has been really important for me, and I thank the Minister for Education and his staff for their work on that.

We have announced in this year’s budget $500 million to build and upgrade kinders. The sod turn for a new kindergarten has happened in Footscray North at the site of the former special school on Rosamond Road. It is going to be a big kinder; I think it is a five- or six-room kindergarten. But the thing I love the most about it is that it is opposite Footscray North Primary School, so the kids in that community will be able to go to a beautiful new kinder – and access free kinder as well, which is saving families around $2500 a year – and then go across the road to Footscray North Primary School, which is a terrific local school and which has already benefited from a $20 million upgrade, and then they will be zoned to Maribyrnong College, which, as I just mentioned, is having a $14.3 million upgrade.

So there is a lot going on in Melbourne’s inner west.

We are also now benefiting from the no-truck zone enforcement cameras, which is something I secured in last year’s budget. They have been switched on and they are working, and they are transformational for people who live in the inner west on roads that should never have been a connection for trucks to the port. That is actually really improving livability in my community. So there is a lot going on.

Of course our beautiful new Footscray Hospital opened this year, and the investments in health services locally are absolutely extraordinary. To see this hospital go from an idea and advocacy, with the support of the former health minister Jill Hennessy, to now being a reality is really special. I know people in Footscray are doing it tough right now and the cost of living is really hitting families hard. Something I have been working on over the last couple of years, which I secured additional funding for in this budget, is a project called the Lighthouse Cafe in central Footscray, because I could see that there was a need for people experiencing homelessness or people food insecurity to have a warm space to go into, a safe space to sit down and have a meal and have the expert social workers of the Salvation Army help them out. This is about meeting people where they are at, and it has now been open for two weeks. In their first week they served 700 meals. These kinds of support services are there to help triage people into the existing services they need, whether it is at Footscray Hospital, whether it is with Cohealth or whether it is for housing services, and I am grateful to the Salvation Army for partnering with us. The Western Bulldogs Community Foundation – Cody Weightman has painted a beautiful mural on the wall. I am very excited that Cody is coming back to play for the Doggies this weekend after a two-year hiatus. It is a fantastic addition to central Footscray.

 Meng Heang TAK (Clarinda) (03:58): I am absolutely delighted to make a contribution to the budget 2026–27 take-note motion at exactly 4 am on Friday 5 June. It is exciting. There is a lot of exciting news in this budget in my electorate of Clarinda, because the Allan Labor government is making life easier and safer and more affordable for families in my electorate of Clarinda in the south-east of Melbourne. Cost-of-living pressures are being felt by everyone in Clarinda, and that is why this budget is slashing the cost of commuting. We have delivered free public transport until the end of May, and then half-price fares from 1 June to the end of the year. This has saved the average daily commuter in Clarinda more than $1300 per person. I know that for a fact, and I take my father-in-law as an example. He had not had experience travelling from the neighbouring suburb, but this time, because of the free public transport, he took the opportunity and the advantage that he got, and he took the train from either Springvale or Westall train station all the way to Bendigo.

I heard the other day he went all the way to Albury, exploring the wonderful area, and this was made possible by the Allan Labor government’s response to this cost-of-living pressure.

The cost of living is front of mind for so many in my electorate of Clarinda. It is one issue which my constituents raise with me on a consistent basis when I am out doorknocking, at a mobile office and at community events. With the cost of living, from utility bills to every bill, balancing the family budget is consistently at the front and centre of the mind of families in Clarinda and across the state. This is particularly so in Greater Dandenong in the south-east, which is right up there in terms of being one of Victoria’s most socially diverse and disadvantaged local government areas, and I would say my good friend the member for Mulgrave would agree with me on that point.

Given this pressure in my community, across our state and across the country, it makes absolute sense that this is where our focus is: delivering real help with the cost of living and more investment in frontline services. For parents in Clarinda every dollar counts. We have heard from many speakers before me, and there is also a real opportunity for my electorate of Clarinda. That is why we are making public transport free for Victorians under the age of 18, delivering savings of up to almost $800 per year per child. With free public transport for those under 18 years, we are ensuring cheaper school runs, more affordable weekends and one less thing for families to worry about.

Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East is driving up fuel prices, putting local households under pressure. That is why we are delivering 20 per cent off car regos. A driver with one car will receive up to $186 and a family with two cars will receive up to $372. It is one-off cost-of-living help for families right now, while still delivering a surplus.

I would like to take this opportunity to talk about the surplus here in Victoria. Donald Trump’s Middle East conflict is having an impact on the global and Australian economies. Despite this global pressure, Victoria’s economy has grown faster than any other state over the last decade and provides half a million more jobs than in 2020. This is fantastic. More businesses are also being created, with business investment up 44 per cent since 2020. Victoria’s resilient economy is well placed to weather global challenges. This budget’s return to surplus is delivering step 3 of our fiscal strategy. Debt is being reduced to a share of the economy in Victoria that is compatible with other states and other countries globally. Victoria was hit harder than any other state by COVID-19. It has continued to invest in schools, hospitals and the transport network, and has continued to have growth in our economy.

Once again, Victoria is a world leader in health technology and medical research, with the largest sector in Victoria. Given the electorate of Clarinda in south-east is close to the Monash Medical Centre and Monash University, I would like to talk about education.

Victoria has one of the best school systems in the world, with NAPLAN results that have led the nation. With the rising cost of living putting pressure on household budgets, from free school breakfast clubs to more affordable uniforms this budget invests $59.4 million to help families with school-aged kids. This includes expanding the Glasses for Kids program for more schools, delivering free eye tests and free glasses to kids who need them. We know when kids go to school with a full stomach they can study much better. They can concentrate better with the free glasses test, and I have seen how it is done at the school in my local community at the Westall community centre, which is a fantastic facility there, and we can see how kids have improved their learning by having their eyes tested and free glasses for the kids who need them most.

From free kinder to free TAFE and everything in between, the Allan Labor government invests in education, because we know that we are transforming early childhood education and delivering free kinder, saving families up to $2,700 per child every year. This budget also invests in nearly half a billion dollars to build and upgrade kinders and government-run childcare centres, and we have continued to invest in this space because we can see how it fits in from prep to kinder, then to primary school and then to secondary school. Another example in my electorate that we can see is how a family of let us say two or three kids can study at the same school from kinder that is being built or upgraded to primary school and to secondary school near there, so these are fantastic initiatives.

The other one that I am very proud to see is the statewide disability inclusion program at school. This is very important, because we all know how important it is, and I am sure that each and every family would have a family member or know of a family that would have kids or children with special needs. This is very, very important, and I am very proud of it.

I just would like to come back to free TAFE, which is very important in my electorate of Clarinda. We are investing in three new TAFE centres of excellence in partnership with the Commonwealth, including the Home and Community Care Centre of Excellence at Holmesglen TAFE at the Moorabbin campus. Although it is a little bit outside, it is in the neighbourhood, and I know that many of my constituents would have the benefit of taking up TAFE, and I know this, so these are national hubs that will make sure Victorians can take the opportunity for job opportunities into the future. This is well received, and I know this for sure because when we talk to residents, either through phone banking or doorknocking or at a community event, we know that it has been of real interest for those who want to upgrade their skills or for those who want to improve their skills so that they can get a better-paying job with a real outcome. So this is a fantastic initiative.

Now, because the former health minister is here, I just would like to say the Allan Labor government always invests in our healthcare system. Since 2014, without saying much, we delivered 11 new hospitals and hired 41,900 nurses, midwives, doctors and healthcare workers, and this budget funds the hiring of an extra 250 graduate nurses and the delivery of fast-track surgery and specialist appointments for kids, and this is very important.

I cannot help but just say the electorate of Clarinda is not far from the Monash medical precinct, and I am also very proud to see the Monash Children’s Hospital very close by and the heart hospital on Blackburn Road, and this is fantastic. I cannot help myself, because – you know, either driving past or visiting the hospital not long ago – it says a lot about the values and about the care of the Allan Labor government. When critical illness or injury strikes, the emergency department is exactly where you need to be. But some conditions do not need to be treated in hospital, and we heard from a previous speaker that urgent care clinics deliver health care when the need is urgent but not life-threatening. Victoria was the first to introduce this model, which has now been adopted by the Commonwealth and rolled out across Australia – so you see another fantastic initiative. With this budget we are investing $20.9 million to continue running nine urgent care clinics, including the Monash Children’s urgent care clinic in the south-east.

Community safety is another concern in my electorate, and I am very proud that Victoria has more police than any other state. With this budget we are boosting police resources by recruiting 200 police reservists. This $62 million investment will free up frontline officers to make sure that they are out where they need to be most and keeping our community in Clarinda safe.

I would like to go on in the remaining time – because the minister at the table, Minister Hamer, is a very big fan of the Hawks – to talk about the Kennedy Community Centre This community sporting club brings Clarinda locals together. It is fantastic that our suburb is growing. Victoria’s bus network also makes it easier for locals in Clarinda to get around. This budget invests almost $100 million to deliver more buses where they are needed most, including the new bus stop at the Kennedy Community Centre. It is wonderful and is welcomed by the Dingley community in my electorate. Hawthorn Football Club will move there, and the AFLW and AFL tenants and the local football club will be playing there. I invite those either who support the Hawks or do not to please come along to see the new Kennedy centre, right in the electorate of Clarinda. Labor is investing in Clarinda. Do the Liberals support our investment, or will they cut?

 Paul EDBROOKE (Frankston – Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Cost of Living, Minister for Renters, Minister for Men and Boys) (04:13): Well done, member for Clarinda. What a champion he is of his electorate.

Acting Speaker Mercurio, wakey-wakey, eggs and bakey! Here we are. What is it? Quarter past four in the morning. Where are all the softies on the other side – drooling on the pillow? It is going to be time to get up now.

Brad Rowswell interjected.

Paul EDBROOKE: No. I am tie-free this morning – no shackles at quarter past four in the morning, member for Sandringham.

Let us get into it – the state budget. The Victorian state budget delivered four new schools, 31 school upgrades and 22 new kinders. We are hiring up to 250 more graduate nurses – I know there is someone up in the benches there that loves that one. We are delivering the biggest road blitz in the state’s history, and we are hiring 50 more PSOs and 200 police reservists – which we just spoke on yesterday, I think, the Victoria Police Amendment (Police Reservists) Bill 2026 – and we are doing it all while delivering a surplus as well. So a big thankyou to the Treasurer and her team. I know some of those very, very hardworking people intimately, having worked in that area of portfolio as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, which was an absolute pleasure. I know how hard they work.

Sorry, am I shouting? Am I waking you up?

Members interjecting.

Paul EDBROOKE: Oh, okay. The thing that is really getting me energised is the 20 per cent off your rego. Have you got it yet, Acting Speaker Mercurio? No. Well, I can help you out. The Service Vic app is up and running. We had a small period there when it was overwhelmed by excited people who could use that money – that $186 per car. It is up to two cars per individual – $372, with some quick maths. They could get that and, as one person told me, they could service their car. They could do the minor service on their car that was due. They could actually put food on the table. They could pay other bills. This is a government that is listening and providing that targeted cost-of-living relief to make life easier and safer for Victorians. For that 20 per cent off your car rego there were over a million applications. Probably around $38 million, I am led to believe now, has gone into Victorians’ hands and into their back pockets. Over 200,000 people had been paid out, the last time I looked, for that 20 per cent off their car rego. I heard some complaints on the morning it went out about why the website crashed. I am not sure it actually did crash; I think it was just overwhelmed. The way I see it, when there is demand, sometimes supply cannot meet it. Ticketek is one of those examples. I well remember my daughter and her friends with five iPads and mobile phones open for Taylor Swift, and I reckon we are in that zone here with the 20 per cent off rego. I think we are in the Tay Tay zone. I think we are in the antihero Tay Tay period or era, and I think the demand was such that the poor website just could not take it for about half an hour to 40 minutes there. But it is back up and running now, and we know this is a targeted area of relief that is working really well. It is targeted properly – it is precisely where it should be – because of the demand of Victorians saying, ‘Yes, this is what we need.’ For 20 per cent off your rego, applications are still open for two months. You do not have to rush. You can get in there. It is budgeted properly. Everyone will get their 20 per cent off their car rego.

But we know you want more. Acting Speaker, I can see you want more. We have got that half-price public transport. The preceding two months had free PT. I saw an amazing Instagram reel last night of a woman dressed in black mourning that free PT and then coming into her half-price PT era. It was about a minute, and it just had me locked in the whole time that someone actually went out there on our public transport system and decided that they were going to create their own installation. They were going to have a dance party on a tram and put it all on social media and Instagram reels. It was quite creative. With that half-price public transport for the rest of the year, we are talking an $11.40 full-price ticket down to $5.70. To put that in perspective, you can leave Melbourne and go all the way to Mildura and back for $5.70, if that is what you want to do. I am sure the member for Mildura, if she is awake, will agree with me that it is a great place to go, but it applies anywhere throughout Victoria. That is something that is saving people a lot of money already and will continue until the end of the year as well.

We have also heard that Victoria’s teachers will be the best paid in the country very soon, hopefully. We are now just waiting on confirmation, I guess you could call it, but this is a situation where Victoria’s teachers, as of next year, will be the best paid in the country. As a former teacher, I say to myself, ‘Wow, what a time to be in VCE right now, thinking, “What course will I do? Where will I be aiming?”’ Teaching is such a rewarding career, and to be the best paid in the nation is something to crow about too, I think.

Also we have got the announcement of 2000 apprenticeships to build Victoria’s energy future by bringing back the SEC. I know, from my perspective, I was very excited to see a picture of a few Labor members at the Labor conference wearing khaki work shirts, the long-sleeve work shirts with the old SEC sun on them. I had not seen one of those for years. In my day when I was a kid, they were a bit daggy. I used to have to wear them as art smocks when I was at school. Do you remember the old Bluey? I think it was actually green, but they called it a Bluey. It was a coat. We used to wear them around as well. But to see the opportunity for 2000 apprentices to build Victoria’s energy future is so exciting for young people in Victoria.

The thing that has me concerned, though, having almost completed my MBA, is that some of the projects that I have been doing have involved some of the projects we have been carrying out here in Victoria and some of the economics of those projects, and the issue I have is around the fact that there is a promise to cut 7000 jobs. You cannot deliver a surplus in a situation like the Liberals are talking about, that fiscal situation – as in a cash surplus, not just an operating surplus; there is a difference there – without $40 billion worth of cuts to our economy. You cannot have $40 billion worth of cuts to our economy and have that promised cash surplus without cutting the things that our community needs, like the jobs that are creating the services to give people 20 per cent off their rego and the jobs that help create those initiatives and maintain those initiatives like half-price PT. You cannot have $40 billion worth of cuts and still maintain some of the announcements we have made in the last couple of days in the portfolios that I work in.

In the last couple of days we have made massive announcements around renters, we have made massive announcements around owners corporations and we have made massive announcements around purchasing and buying properties. Very, very soon – and the bill is before the house at the moment – real estate agents and vendors will have to publish a reserve price seven days beforehand. There are some proponents who are getting a bit confused about it, saying, ‘Oh, I’m going to have to put my price online seven days beforehand.’ It is not a price; it is your reserve price. It is the minimum you are willing to take. We need to remember that there are still the mechanics of an auction – the tools that can be used, like the auction and whether the property is actually on the market or not. But we need the Consumer Affairs Victoria teams to be making sure that people are actually adhering to this law. I am sure most vendors and most real estate agents will be – I have no questions about that – but we know that there are always those on the fringes that do not want to adhere to things like that.

Without these new changes, which $40 billion worth of cuts would just put to the axe, we will not be able to do this. We will not be able to make rentals fairer and sales fairer for Victorians at this point if those figures are true – those $40 billion and 7000 jobs worth of cuts. It concerns me when I hear about those kinds of cuts. I think, ‘No, surely, they can’t be thinking that. No-one would be silly enough, with a Casio calculator, to say that they could actually achieve that kind of surplus without $40 billion worth of cuts.’ I think, ‘No-one is silly enough to do that,’ but then I see people riding around on forklifts without forklift licences, and I think, ‘Well, perhaps people are that silly. Perhaps people are so silly that they would write down on a piece of paper, which then becomes a media release, that they could actually achieve that without hurting Victorians.’ That is what concerns me.

It would be remiss of me not to talk about the state budget and how it is delivering for Frankston. And it is delivering for Frankston in a big way, because for some time the route 833 between Carrum and Frankston has been spoken about, and what we are going to do is extend that Karingal–Seaford via Carrum Downs–Skye service, routes 777 and 778, to get more people where they need to go. So there will be more bus services, more reliable public transport and better connectivity to jobs, to shops and to services in Frankston, Karingal, Skye and Langwarrin. That is what people have been asking us for and that is what we are delivering.

We have seen something that really, really disturbed me but did not surprise me over the last couple of weeks, and that was that, now, more than a million people have accessed the 20 per cent rego rebate. Can we agree on this – more than a million people have accessed that. The statistics are in.

A member interjected.

Paul EDBROOKE: 1.4 million. Can we go higher? We will tomorrow. It will be 1.6 million tomorrow, I reckon. We heard though, member for Sandringham, that that was a hoax. How many was it, member for Sandringham?

A member interjected.

Paul EDBROOKE: 1.4 million hoaxers are walking around now with $186 extra in their back pocket, $372 for two cars, that are putting food on the table, that are paying bills, that are getting their cars serviced – targeted cost-of-living relief for Victorian families that need it because of a choice that they did not get to make. They did not choose to be affected by a war overseas, but that has driven up prices. Inflation is another thing that to some extent – there could be an argument about this – they do not have a hand in. And it is a very blunt instrument, raising interest rates, but it affects families. And in some ways, raising interest rates is that blunt instrument that is very ironic in its action, in that the people that probably are not spending that much because they are paying off mortgages are the people that are so affected, because even a little interest rate rise causes a massive rate rise for them and their mortgages. So it is the things like 20 per cent off your car rego, it is the things like the initiative for half-price public transport, that are making a real difference to people in Victoria because of the things that are out of their control.

I will finish this up by saying that it is only this side of the chamber that is listening to people in Victoria and listening to their ideas and putting into action their ideas on how to make life easier and safer for them, and that is what good governments do. Good governments do not turn around at the cost of the whole state and say, ‘Because we can, we’re going to say we want to achieve a cash surplus at the cost of everything’ – a cash surplus which would require 7000 jobs cut, $40 billion cut from the economy, schools not built, hospitals not built. I feel sorry for the member for Nepean, because he was promised a hospital, and there ain’t going to be a hospital built there under a Liberal–National government, because they have already said in their own numbers that they will not build extra hospitals, they will not build or maintain schools. That is a dangerous, dangerous decision that Victorians have got, but it is a commonsense one come November, and Labor is the only answer.

 John MULLAHY (Glen Waverley) (04:28): I move:

That the debate be now adjourned.

Motion agreed to and debate adjourned.

Ordered that debate be adjourned until later this day.