Wednesday, 17 June 2026

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

That this house condemns the opposition and One Nation on their plans to cut $40 billion out of Victorian schools and hospitals, as well as one in seven public servants.

 Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (16:01): At a time when our political system is how it is, this could not be a more important matter before the house, because we know exactly the impact that a One Nation and Liberal coalition would have on cuts to Victorian services like we have never seen before. If timing was everything in politics, and it certainly is, we have seen one of the most extraordinary Press Club addresses in living memory. We have seen now the impact that a One Nation coalition would have, because we know federally now that they are one and the same. Angus Taylor as the federal opposition leader has taken the Liberal Party down to 17 points. That is right. For those tuning in over at opposition offices over there, it gets far worse when you let the populists in. Seventeen points Angus Taylor now presides over federally, and Pauline Hanson and One Nation are on a tear of the Liberal Party and Nationals.

There are things going on at the moment over in the federal Parliament and there are things going on in this place to salvage the living memory of the National Party as they exist today. The Tasmanian tiger, you might know, went extinct. There are some granular black-and-white photos of the Tasmanian tiger. They took those at that moment as the one or two last ones. There are photographs being taken of Nationals now as the last living memory relic. They will be extinct very soon. We will not have a Nationals member of Parliament going into the future. This is why we are not talking about the Nationals and Liberals and One Nation cuts, because the Nationals will cease to exist. On any mark of polling and information now – multilevel regression and poststratification; any sort of numbers – the Nationals are in all sorts. This is what happens when you do not stand up for something and you stand for nothing. This is what happens.

The only reasoning voice federally in the conservative landscape at the moment is the former Prime Minister John Howard. He went on that leading podcast, the Karl Stefanovic Show. He got a bit of a free run. We get more pushing questions through that. John Howard said on that podcast:

In politics, if you train all your venom on someone you elevate them, and I didn’t believe in elevating her. And I still don’t.

He was referring to Pauline Hanson and One Nation.

Let One Nation set up their stall, tell us what they believe in, it would be interesting and it would be interesting to get two or three versions.

That is the only person that is a Liberal who is standing up to One Nation right now, because Tony Abbott, after being sent out by John Howard to challenge One Nation, has vacated the field. They will sign a coalition agreement in the government. Angus Taylor has said that as well. He will sign a coalition agreement. That will be done. It will be it. There will be preference deals all over the place.

So now is the challenge for the member for Kew, the Leader of the Opposition. What will they do in Victoria? What will be their plan when the member for Kew has already announced $40 billion in cuts and one in seven public servants? I thought maybe that was an original thought from the member for Kew – to cut so many jobs, to have such an austerity measure that would make Margaret Thatcher blush, that would see carnage come across in confidence in business and community and government investment across our state.

I thought maybe the member for Kew had the independent thought, but no. It was not hers. It has come deep from Queensland One Nation policy. These policies make One Nation blush. Pauline Hanson today announced, as reported in the Age, that a slew of government departments will be cut. Where have we heard that? From the member for Kew. The member for Kew has talked about cutting the public service by one in seven workers, taking an axe to the public service and sacking teachers and nurses across the state.

Members interjecting.

Tim RICHARDSON: It is hard to hear, I know.

Bridget Vallence: On a point of order, Speaker, the speaker on his feet is required to be factual, and the statements that he is making are completely false and baseless. I would ask you to ask him to be factual.

The SPEAKER: No. I do not uphold the point of order. This is a matter for debate.

Tim RICHARDSON: It is really hard to hear. I was shocked, member for Evelyn, and I said so in a grievance debate a little while ago. I stood there and I could not believe the Liberals would do this, that they would take One Nation policy and make it their own and try to dominate it like never before.

Bridget Vallence interjected.

Tim RICHARDSON: The member for Evelyn says it is not. Member for Evelyn, Angus Taylor and Pauline Hanson have agreed to a preference deal. I know it is hard to take. I was shocked. I stood back and said, ‘I can’t believe it.’ I know that One Nation tracks well in Evelyn – we have seen it. We have seen the numbers. It does not go well in Sandringham, does it, member for Sandringham. Go a little further out to Evelyn, and it gets a bit ‘Don’t know if there’ll be a preference deal out there. We don’t know what’s going to happen.’ But it is hard to hear, because when you play to populace, when you play with that audience, this is what happens. This is why One Nation now has the Liberals on the ropes federally, at a primary of 17 points, and the leader of your party nationally, the most senior voice in the Liberal Party, has abandoned the field. This is what happens when you do this.

As I was saying, this cuts agenda is exactly what Pauline Hanson has announced. What did Pauline Hanson say about childcare workers today? This is astonishing. Pauline Hanson said that these educators:

… should not need a qualification such as a university degree to look after children …

Hear that language: ‘Look after children’, not ‘educate children’, not ‘support their education’ or ‘invest in them’. In a push that has come after a series of media reports, Pauline Hanson said, on the record they do not need a pay rise:

Didn’t they get a pay rise just not so long ago?

We know right now that that is cuts to their wages, cuts to their conditions. We see now that not once has a Liberal or One Nation member been on the side of working people or supported a wage increase. That is right – not once have they supported wage increases in our nation or Victoria. They have always been on the side of big business. We know in Western Australia that one of the biggest backers of Pauline Hanson and now Angus Taylor is Gina Rinehart. Who is going to be defending against these cuts? There is only one political movement that stands in the way of a One Nation-led coalition government.

We know if it came to be, if the member for Kew was able to hold off the teals, it would be a deputy premiership. We know that. We saw the reports in the Age that on the conservative side of politics there will be one or two Nationals left – that is it. Nationals gone for good. It will have less members of Parliament than One Nation. That is where they have taken us because of Tony Abbott’s work to vacate this space and agree to a coalition agreement. And now we see the member for Kew has been asked 50, 60 times – it might be more – over and over and over whether they will sign a preference deal with One Nation. We know today that that will absolutely be the case, and they will be a minority partner in whatever make-up that looks like over there.

The consequences of that will be felt everywhere. Remember that first speech when we tuned in and we heard the member for Kew say that it is business that creates jobs, not government. To the hundreds of thousands of people that work in government sectors – the nurses, the teachers, our police officers, our emergency services – see you later. That is it. You are done, because it is business, it is outsourcing, it is privatisation. It is government by consultants that we saw under Baillieu and Napthine, that would vacate that field. It is a crisp reminder for those opposite – and the member for Evelyn challenges the cuts that we have we have put forward – that this was said on 16 August 2024. I know it is really hard to hear.

It elicits a response each and every time because it is so personal. And they said the quiet bit out loud. I know those opposite wanted to hold it until at least a week out. I remind those opposite of the immortal words of the then shadow finance minister, the now Shadow Treasurer and Leader of the Opposition:

Current spending is simply not sustainable … That means we’re going to have to make cuts when it comes to our health services. Schools aren’t going to be built or even fixed.

Sky after dark – I will give credit. There were probably about 30 people watching, but I tuned in, I was one of them, and I heard it crisply with Steve Price. Even Steve Price was a bit shocked. If you watch the exchange with Steve Price and you look at him, he went, ‘Hang on, I don’t know if you’re meant to be saying this bit just yet,’ but it was honest, and I give the member for Kew those dues, that it was honest. It was honest in that moment. It said exactly what their agenda is: cuts to education, cuts to health. It is in their DNA, and we have seen that time and time and time again played out.

The member for Kew has been honest in coming forward and saying that on the agenda is $40 billion in cuts to our hospitals, our health systems and our emergency services. But what does that translate into? What does it mean to take the engine room of the nation’s economy into austerity? What does it look like to try to cut your way through? Because these services are not just academic. When you start to cut health workers out, rocking up to your emergency department takes longer, it takes longer to see a doctor, it means that you are paying out of your pocket more, it means it hurts to go to schools because you are cutting funding to the services that matter, it means you cannot pay for uniforms, you cannot pay for books. It has a tangible reality. And guess what, when confidence in our economy starts to drop, when you cut the place to pieces, businesses invest less, and it has a direct impact on employment. Show me a jurisdiction internationally that has cut its way through austerity back to prosperity. It does not happen.

The cash surplus agenda that the member for Kew has put forward is not to build a single thing over the next decade and to scale everything back, and the trauma that would inflict on working Victorians into the future will be generational. We saw that through Kennett and we saw that through Abbott and Hockey’s budget; it had generational impact and significance, and that is what we would see. The One Nation–Liberal coalition agenda that we would see brought forward would be one of the worst impacts that we would see. Some of the comments that have been made by Pauline Hanson as the leader – they do not even have a leader in Victoria at the moment, and the Liberals are cosying up for a preference deal with this organisation. The populism that has happened over the last few years – we saw it during the pandemic, all the way through – has led to the erosion of the political base that they see now. It has inflicted that harm; it has been self-inflicted.

I go back to that. Why does John Howard stand up and say ‘Enough’, that we should not be pandering to populists – he has the integrity to say that – but not one Liberal in Australia has done that? In fact they are desperate to do a preference deal and harbour off what seats go next. This is serious stuff in our political discourse and the impact into the future, and someone has to stand up and take leadership and push them back. Someone has to put this forward.

Today, 7.5 million Australians were born somewhere else. That is right – 7.5 million Australians. When One Nation gets out there and says multiculturalism does not work, it is a direct attack on people who have been born somewhere else, paid their taxes, built their houses and built their communities. How many businesses have been created on the backs of migrant Australians, who have then put generational contributions in, who love and cherish our nation, who rock up at citizenship ceremonies beaming with the biggest smiles and the brightest personalities and all the hope in the world? You see them, and it moves you to see just how much they love our nation and the prosperity that it brings. To say that that does not work, and for no-one on the conservative side to stand up and attack and challenge that, is absolutely devastating.

This is more than just the next election. This is more than just 24 weeks away from the state election. There are moments in time when we need political leadership. We need to stand up to some of these forces into the future. That is the challenge that has been played out time and time again, over and over. We see today, once again, the impact that vacating that field would have.

So what will Labor governments do? Well, they will always do the hard thing.

We will always front up and support working people, because we have seen this play out time and time again. This movement are disruptors. We put forward the policies for working people and we do the hard yards. We make the decisions time and time again that fight for working people and their families, that try to put more food on their table, to get more pay in their pay packet and make sure that they can see a future for their kids into the next generation. We want to make it better for their communities, and we want to build the schools and the hospitals and create the jobs of tomorrow. That is why we have been the engine room of this nation’s economy for the last decade or more. It is why we will continue to drive forward. This is not a time to take away things, it is not a time to cut in such a difficult and volatile economic environment, it is not a time to try to tear people down.

We all have a place, as Victorians, to play, and everyone is welcome and loved and cherished in our state. No matter where you are from, if you front up and you work hard, if you love your community and your family, you have got a place in Victoria and Australia. A One Nation–Liberal coalition will not just be about cuts. It will be about taking Victoria back. It will be going back to the Stone Age, it will be austerity, it will be harsh realities and it will be hurt like we have never seen before. If the member for Sandringham has any ticker whatsoever, this next speech will front up and say that he will stand up against One Nation like never before, he will join John Howard in opposing their populism and their hate and bring some sort of normality back to what was truly the Liberal Party once and for all.

 Brad ROWSWELL (Sandringham) (16:16): I rise to address the member for Mordialloc’s matter of public importance. I am thrilled to see that the member for Mordialloc’s what appears to be frequent attendance at Toastmasters is paying off. He is clearly improving in his delivery, clearly improving in his rhetorical flourishes. If only that was matched by the member for Mordialloc’s capacity to increase the truthfulness of his contribution, everyone would be a winner. But no, no, that is not the case. No, the member for Mordialloc is on the same old bandwagon.

I want to be frank with Victorians in this contribution: the Allan Labor government claim that the Liberal Party is in some sort of cahoots with the One Nation party. The only evidentiary point that I can think of, certainly in recent times, is when the Allan Labor government kept the Parliament in operation until just after 5:30 in the morning during the last sitting week to do a deal with One Nation in the other place. I asked a question at about 5:20 on that Friday morning. It was probably one of my better parliamentary contributions, certainly at that hour of the day, I believe – you be the judge, Speaker. I asked the question then: what deal have this Allan Labor government done with One Nation in order to get the dirty deal of their donation laws through this Parliament? What have they promised One Nation, and what have they promised One Nation in return for One Nation’s vote? You will recall me asking that question at about 5:20 on that fateful morning, and I maintain that that is a question which the Victorian people deserve an honest answer to. That is the evidentiary point, and there is no other. So to suggest that there is some sort of agreement, preference deal or cahoots, that is absolute and utter rubbish from that side of politics. The only evidentiary point is the dirty deal done to enable the rivers of gold to flow from unions to the Australian Labor Party’s Victorian division on the back of the donation laws that were discussed and debated and agreed to with the help of the deal that was done between this government and One Nation in the other place during the last sitting week. That is the only evidentiary point that I am aware of.

Another falsehood raised by the member for Mordialloc – again, his delivery was very impressive; Toastmasters is clearly working. But if only his capacity to engage with the truth of the matter and facts matched his delivery, that would be perhaps an aspirational thing that he might seek to improve on, and maybe some time in opposition will help him to do that – it is coming.

He made the claim that we will cut public servants. That was a claim that the member for Mordialloc made. I have a message to Victorian public servants. In fact I have a message to Victorians. I have a message to Victorians who think that there is a mL of truth in the words coming from the member for Mordialloc. Victorian public servants’ jobs are safer under a Wilson Liberal government than they have ever been under the Allan Labor government, and that is the truth of it. Let me tell you why. The Allan Labor government do not have an essential services guarantee. When asked in a media interview by a Channel Seven reporter, member for Caulfield, ‘How many jobs? Hundreds?’, the Premier was quick out of the blocks to respond with, ‘No, thousands.’

We are not planning – we have no intent of one public servant being sacked. And to say anything other than that is an absolute and utter falsehood. In fact I would go so far as to say the propagation of this untruth by the Community and Public Sector Union is not only dishonest, but it is dangerous. It is dangerous because the words that come from that public sector union may very well be believed by members of that union and may very well have an impact on the welfare of members of that union. I think it is not right. I think it is unjust. I think it is uncalled for for these falsehoods to be propagated. Yes, we have announced a public service hiring freeze, but to assume that a public service hiring freeze equates to or is the equivalent or is exactly in reference to the claim of us cutting jobs – it just simply is not. If public servants in this state are in a job, they will keep it.

We have an essential services guarantee. In my shadow portfolio area of education, we do not need less teachers. It is under this government, after they have had a crack – a terrible crack, I might add, for close to 12 years now – of governing in this state, however they choose to define a Temu version of governing, we are now in a teacher crisis. As of today there are something like 750 full-time teaching positions in government schools unfilled. For the government to suggest that we somehow do not give a stuff about schools and the educational opportunity that schools provide for kids to learn, to grow and to contribute to a community is an absolute and utter falsehood, and I want to just simply call it out right now as such. It is wrong.

The truth of this matter and the truth of the MPI as moved by the member for Mordialloc is this: the only party in this place that is without a shadow of a doubt responsible for cutting in the space of education is the Australian Labor Party Victorian division, under the premiership of former Premier Andrews and current Premier – well, for the time being, until the member for Niddrie gets his way – Allan. The Victorian branch of the Australian Education Union on 4 August 2025 – and I am happy to make this release available to Hansard for their reference – stated the following:

Australian Education Union Victorian Branch president Justin Mullaly said the Premier had broken her promise to fully fund public schools after deciding in April 2024 to cut $2.4 billion.

“The Premier made a promise in January this year to deliver 100% of the Schooling Resource Standard to public schools, but what she didn’t tell Victorians was that she had no intention of delivering on that promise in a meaningful way,“ Mr Mullaly said.

It goes on:

“In April 2024 the state government had already decided not to deliver any additional funding until 2031, meaning at least $2.4 billion would not be allocated to our schools.

Mr Mullaly concludes a little bit later on:

“Right now, Victorian public schools are the lowest funded in Australia and every school in the state is affected – that means the learning and wellbeing of every student is impacted.

I will not just provide that to Hansard. For the benefit of every member of this place, in response to the matter of public importance as raised by the member for Mordialloc, I will make that media release from the Victorian branch of the Australian Education Union available to every member of this house.

This is the only political party who is responsible for cutting funding to schools and to education in this state – with friends like the Australian Education Union, it is no wonder members of this Labor government are wandering around in the dark, blindfolded: ‘Find me a friend.’ With friends like the Australian Education Union calling the truth of this out, saying that it is in fact the Victorian branch of the Australian Labor Party under this Allan Labor government, the former Andrews government, that has in fact cut $2.4 billion from schools, that is the truth of the matter.

The Victorian Auditor-General continues to do a power of work. For the work that the Victorian Auditor-General does, to the Auditor-General and to his office and to his staff on behalf of those Victorians who believe in transparency and accountability in the way their hard-earned taxpayer funds are spent, we say a collective, loud and emphatic thank you, because today, as tabled in the Council and tabled in the Assembly a little bit later in the day, the Auditor-General provided their latest report: Delivering School Upgrade Projects, June 2026. It is quite a fulsome report. I commend it to you. I commend it to every member of this place. What is really interesting in this report is that it in fact articulates the circumstance of providing school infrastructure funding under this Labor government. Some of the findings include that 29 per cent of school upgrades have suffered cost blowouts under this administration and 25 per cent of school upgrades have been delayed. The number of schools considered in poor condition rose from 182 in 2022–23 to 221 in 2024–25. These are the findings in this Auditor-General’s report released today, but the Victorian government has pushed back its target of having no school in poor condition from 2030 to 2034.

Interestingly, and this is a very interesting point, the Auditor-General also identified that three of the 10 schools considered as high-priority schools to be upgraded in 2025–26 were not in fact marked or ranked as being in poor condition by the Victorian School Building Authority and the education department. Three of the 10 high-priority schools that were upgraded in 2025–26 were not actually considered to be in poor condition, meaning that there were other schools that were in poor condition which were overlooked. But these three schools got funding, didn’t they? This is actually the interesting bit: each of these schools are located in Labor-held electorates, including the Minister for Education’s district of Niddrie.

At the very best this is a mistake. At the very worst – I will not even go so far as to say ‘accusation’ – the question that I think is legitimate to ask in this circumstance is: did the education minister use his ministerial opportunity to influence where funding for infrastructure upgrades in schools went? I think that is a fair question to ask. In the interests of transparency and accountability in this place and outside of this place as well I would encourage the Minister for Education in the most efficient and direct way to provide a statement of explanation on this matter and at the very least investigate how this happened. How did a school in his electorate get funding when it was not considered as a priority project or in poor condition ahead of those schools that were considered priority projects and in poor condition? This is the culture that Labor have presided over for the last almost 12 years, and it stinks to high heaven. Victorians are sick of it, and we need a fresh start now more than ever in this state.

In the 90 seconds I have remaining I want to say the opportunity that we have in education is to do the right thing by students, the right thing by parents and the right thing by teachers. Under this Labor government, who have had a crack for the last 12 years – almost 12 years – it is quite clear that they have stuffed it. They have changed the numberplate. They say that Victoria is the Education State. But with some of the data points that I have raised here today, including that $2.4 billion cut to education, including those delays and cost overruns and what appears to be preferential treatment of infrastructure funding for Victorian schools, how can they possibly claim equity? How can they possibly claim that Victoria is the Education State when investment in education continues to plummet under this lot? They have had a crack. I say to every Victorian who values education: do not take them for what they say but look at what they have done and show them the door at the election this year. We are on the side of students. We want them to have the very best start in life. We are on the side of parents as the first educators of their children, and we want to support teachers to understand and implement explicit instruction as best as they possibly can. We are on their side, and we want them to succeed, because when teachers and schools succeed, so does our entire state, and everyone deserves that.

 Sarah CONNOLLY (Laverton) (16:31): The member for Sandringham sure is wound up this afternoon, and that must be because he has just watched Pauline Hanson giving I think it was her first address to the National Press Club, and – oh, my God – it was an absolute zinger. I can see why he is worked up, and I cannot wait to talk about some of the things that she has brought to the attention of not only me but my entire community, which really says a whole lot about the Pauline Hanson One Nation Party and what a Liberal Party–One Nation coalition will mean if they are elected here in November. There were some really dangerous comments in that press club address today.

But I am going to start with the $40 billion in cuts today, because that is what this matter is about – cuts to services. That has been a really big topic, particularly in Melbourne’s west over recent weeks and months. I have been out talking with folks in my electorate. People are worried, and they should be worried. My message to people in Melbourne’s west is that if the Liberal Party are happy to announce, even before they are in government, that if they win this election they will make cuts to services on the Wyndham Vale and Melton train lines, what else will they cut in our community? They are two of the busiest rail networks here in Victoria and in the country. The member for Bulleen was on radio talking about making cuts to those services and saying that, yes, it will be problematic but they still need to be made. Those services go through some of the largest growth corridors not only here in Victoria but in the country.

Not only are cuts to those services reckless, damaging and dangerous, they are absolutely going to put the situation for working families in Melbourne’s west in a whole pile of trouble. These are people that are trying to get home sooner rather than later, to spend time with the people that they love, doing the things that they like, whether that is going for a walk of an evening, going to the gym or going to watch their kids play sport in the evening. Cuts to those train lines will mean people in Melbourne’s west are not able to get home, are not able to get on a train and do the things that they like doing with the people that they love.

If they are prepared to make those sorts of public announcements now and not even try and walk back those comments – whether those comments fell out of the member for Bulleen’s mouth or not – and not even try and walk them back even here in this place, what does that say that they will do when they are elected, if they are elected, this coming November? That is something people in Melbourne’s west seriously, seriously need to start considering.

This Labor government has made tremendous announcements about upgrades to services and new infrastructure in Melbourne’s west. Are those services and is that infrastructure at risk if the Liberal–One Nation coalition make government this November?

I am talking about the $80 million rebuild of Albion station. I was out there just last week doing a train station handout in the afternoon, talking to folks about not only the 20 per cent off their rego but also whether they had seen the designs for their new station, because the designs are amazing. So many people getting off that train were saying to me that, yes, they have, and they are so happy because the train station that we are intending to rebuild in Albion is absolutely amazing.

A few kilometres up the road, just past the Sunshine superhub – and I will come to that in a moment – we have Tottenham station. And as we have got the member for Footscray here, we had a huge campaign, ‘Time for Tottie’. We had hundreds and hundreds of locals from Braybrook, Footscray and West Footscray. It was a very, very, very good campaign, I have to say, and I give all credit to the member for Footscray, a very popular local member. We had hundreds of people not only signing up to the survey to hear more but also wanting to give their feedback. They want a station they feel proud of, they want a station that is accessible, they want a station that is safe, they want a station that they need. And do you know what, we are going to go ahead, rebuild that station and give them a station that they deserve. All this is at risk, because when you are talking about $40 billion in cuts, we are not just talking about cuts to public servants, we are not just talking about cuts to hospitals, we are not just talking about cuts to schools, we are also talking about cuts to other big pieces of infrastructure that this government has committed to and is getting on and delivering.

In between Tottenham station and Albion station we have Sunshine station – Sunshine train station, I will say, because I know that the Leader of the Opposition confused this with Sunshine police station in one of my social media reels, which I know we found quite funny and quite endearing. Sunshine train station is one of the most important train stations in Melbourne’s west. It is where the lines really converge, and it is one of the most complex junctions here in Victoria and this country. We are going to unscramble it, and we are going to build the Southern Cross of Melbourne’s west. We are calling it Sunshine superhub. The community is so excited. Works are underway, works are happening, and the community cannot wait to have that moment where we have the Melbourne Airport rail coming through, making its way to the airport and stopping at our little neighbourhood of Sunshine. The Sunshine superhub unlocks some of the busiest and congested rail networks in Melbourne’s west, including the Melton line and the Wyndham Vale line –

Juliana Addison interjected.

Sarah CONNOLLY: And the Ballarat line, member for Wendouree – how could I forget that? If we do not build the Sunshine superhub and untangle that network, we cannot put on more trains and increase capacity for the outer suburbs in Melbourne’s west, who are so desperate for us to have more trains running, more often, just purely due to the population growth. But is the Sunshine superhub at risk should the Liberal–One Nation coalition be elected in November? I really do think, through you, Speaker, that the Leader of the Opposition needs to front up and needs to answer these questions and tell locals what is on the chopping block: what are they voting for in November?

Pauline Hanson has made it very clear what her agenda is today. She was not beating around the bush. She has made it very clear that Australia needs to have – well, start with one, but we know that where there is one, there are more – the first nuclear reactor. She openly said that. Is the Leader of the Opposition going to be inviting her here to Victoria? We know that Peter Dutton wanted to dump one not too far away from Melbourne city, can you believe it. It seemed like a crazy idea, but this is the conversation that happened just a couple of hours ago. The Leader of the Opposition needs to explain to people, while she is making these $40 billion in cuts, if she is going to be opening the borders and inviting Pauline Hanson and One Nation to go ahead and build a nuclear reactor here in Victoria.

One of the other things that Pauline Hanson called into question and said there needs to be an investigation – and I know that so many of us here in this place have children and have had children in child care. She talked about the $16 billion that is spent in child care: why is that being spent and on what, and there needs to be an investigation. Child care enables working parents, and particularly women, to go back into the workforce.

What kind of message is it sending to Victoria if we have a Liberal Party–One Nation coalition elected in November? I think the Leader of the Opposition should explain to working parents across Victoria if she thinks that the amount of money that is spent on child care is a waste of money. Is free kinder a waste of money? Does free kinder need an investigation to understand the point of free kinder and what that means for the thousands upon thousands of Victorian families that rely on free kinder?

I do want to say this because everyone here knows I have a really big but very beautiful Muslim community in Melbourne’s west, and they are the most generous, kind, passionate, welcoming and inclusive people – incredible people. But Pauline Hanson was also there today saying there is a problem with how many Muslims are coming into the country and that Australia is being swamped by Muslims. I think those was her words. Who actually speaks like that? And talking about not wanting Australia to become like other countries like Britain and Canada. I mean, this stuff you cannot even make up. The Leader of the Opposition needs to be honest with the Victorian people and with the Muslim community – she has a party that she would be happy to govern with and preference – about their opinion about Muslims here in Victoria: ‘Do they deserve to be here?’ (Time expired)

 Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (16:41): I am very conscious of the rules and traditions around this house and that you are not allowed to use a certain word that suggests untruths. I wonder how an entire matter of public importance can be put forward by the member for Mordialloc that is based on a complete untruth. Seriously, this is just Labor Party fantasy put into an MPI and then used to try and attack the opposition. I mean, where is the $40 billion? Can someone on the opposition side, please, in their contribution provide the independent advice that shows that there is a $40 billion proposal by the opposition? It will not be there. I am disappointed that the Minister for Regional Development has gone, but it is like the Minister for Regional Development’s media release a couple of weeks ago on this very issue where she said ‘independent economists have said’ but did not name who they were. She did not provide any evidence as to who these independent economists were. It just goes to show this government has got nothing better to say. After 12 years of being lectured by this government about all the wonderful things they were doing, here we are, five months to the election: what have they got? They are talking about us. It is just emblematic of a government that has run out of ideas; a government that, I might add, is running scared; a government that is not even sure that its Premier is going to be its Premier tomorrow, let alone next week; and a government that is embarrassed about its legacy.

I am disappointed in the member for Mordialloc. I thought he had a bit more spunk to be able to get up and say something wonderful about what this government is doing. But, no, here we are five months from an election, with Victorians wanting to hear what the big plan from the Labor government is and what we are going to hear from them for the next four years. What they have for us is a big scare campaign, talking about One Nation. Who is worried about One Nation? I know who it is: it is those guys over there. It is that mob over there. I will tell you, member for Mordialloc, I back every one of my colleagues every day, and I am very confident that they will all be back here on 29 November – I am very confident. There are some up there who have not been door-knocking, some who have not been –

The SPEAKER: Leader of the Nationals, through the Chair.

Danny O’BRIEN: I am through the Chair. There are a lot of them. Were you on the list, Brooksy? The minister at the table was not on the list, thankfully. There were 23 of them, I believe, who have not been doing it. The member for Laverton is having a good laugh, but you are on the list, member for Laverton. That is a bit of a concern too.

The SPEAKER: Leader of the Nationals, through the Chair.

Danny O’BRIEN: I apologise, Speaker. I keep getting excited. This is what we see from the Labor government. When they are under pressure, they do a big ‘look over there’. They just say, ‘Don’t look at what we are doing, we’re going to talk to you about something else.’

That is what they are doing here. I was reminded by the member for Evelyn just before I got up that when it comes to the so-called cuts there is only one party in this chamber who has been doing cuts recently. I was reminded of that wonderful video clip from a press conference a few weeks ago where the Channel 7 journalist said, ‘You’re saying that the cuts are coming from the opposition, but didn’t you just cut some public servants?’, and the Premier said, ‘Yes, we did’. He said, ‘How many? Was it hundreds?’, and the Premier said, ‘No, thousands.’ So thousands of public servants cut by Labor – that is okay. No problem at all, Victorians. When the Labor Party does it, it is all good. But when the opposition proposes something very reasonable, then that is bad. When I say ‘very reasonable’, what our policy is –

Danny Pearson interjected.

Danny O’BRIEN: And look, feather dusters should not be speaking at the moment, who have been part of the problem. Feather dusters who were yesterday’s heroes should not be speaking. They should not be piping up right now, because they have got a pretty bad record to look back on, when there have been thousands of cuts. The opposition, the Nationals and the Liberals, have got a 10-year plan to actually get our budget back under control after this mob has left it with $200 billion of debt – $11 billion of interest we are heading for every year. That is more than what this mob spends on police, on ambulance services and on kindergartens – $11 billion. Imagine what that could do. Imagine what that could do for your community, what it could do for the member for Morwell’s electorate, for the member for Lowan’s electorate. You could get a train, member for Lowan. The member for Ovens Valley could get dialysis at Cobram – half promised by the government but never actually delivered. The member for Evelyn could get the roads sealed.

Bridget Vallence: The dangerous roads.

Danny O’BRIEN: The ones that were funded by the former coalition government federally and then taken away by the current Labor government. Those things are things that could be done if we did not have to spend $11 billion on interest. That is why the Nationals and the Liberals have got a 10-year plan, and it is a very simple plan to save some money, which this government, naturally enough, has tried to turn into some horrendous thing. But it is a public service freeze on the back office, on the Victorian public service. Anyone who has got a job there now will continue to have a job, but we will not be putting on more, and that will save the budget bottom line $22 billion. That is not a cut. It is not a cut. It is just arresting the massive growth that has happened under this mob, including the former minister, the member for Essendon, all of those who have been involved over the years who like to turn up for the cutting of the ribbon but take no responsibility for the fiscal mess that they have left this state. We will do that. That will save us significant money. It will allow us to send a signal to the business community and investors that we are open for business in Victoria by introducing changes to payroll tax – increasing the thresholds and reducing the rate; by increasing the thresholds for land tax back to what they used to be before Tim Pallas said we had to have a COVID recovery debt plan.

It was interesting that Tim Pallas had a COVID debt recovery plan but he did not have anything for the other $150 billion of debt that he created. There was no plan for that. So we will give relief on land tax. We will give relief on payroll tax. We will introduce a real-time budget tracker, because this mob have never even had a budget tracker at all, let alone a real-time one. The budget tracker for them is ‘How much can we just keep spending?’ That is how this mob has worked. So we will introduce that. We will do five tax reductions, including the emergency services tax – and this is where the Labor Party just make stuff up again. They look at our policy, which is to go back to the fire services property levy, but they just completely ignore that and say, ‘Oh, they’re cutting $1.6 billion.’ No, we are not. Again, the Labor government is trying to mislead Victorians on this stuff.

Another area where they have failed completely is on crime – 1500 vacancies there are, as we speak. I bet you there are some in Point Cook, member for Point Cook. I bet you there are vacancies in Point Cook too. I know there are in the west.

I know there are in Werribee, although the member for Werribee does not think there is a crime problem in Werribee. He thinks there is not an issue at all. We beg to differ. We know that in every corner of this state crime is a problem, and we know that the 1500 vacancies need to be filled and we need more police on the beat. That is why we have committed to 3000 new police to tackle crime and why we have committed to ‘break bail, face jail’ to send a signal to the crooks that if you do the wrong thing and you are on bail, you will go to jail. We have heard the Premier say time and again we have got the toughest bail laws in the nation. Actually they are not even as tough as they were when you weakened them two years ago. That is just the fact.

We absolutely need to be tackling these issues. Most particularly from a Nationals perspective, we need to show some love to regional Victoria, because under this mob you would not think regional Victoria existed. We are getting 12 per cent – 12 per cent of the infrastructure spend of the state government goes to regional Victoria. We are 25 per cent of the population, and that is why we have committed to the fair share guarantee – that we will give a minimum 25 per cent of our state’s infrastructure to –

Mathew Hilakari interjected.

Danny O’BRIEN: Currently it is at 12 per cent, member for Point Cook. I know you might like to think so, but you are not regional Victoria. You would not have a clue about regional Victoria. This government just makes it up. They have to make it up because they have got such a terrible performance on the board for the last 12 years. Victorians have had enough. They are seeing through the spin. In fact they are not even listening to Labor anymore, and we will change the government on 28 November this year.

 John LISTER (Werribee) (16:51): Firstly, I would just like to say I will not be lectured on leadership by those opposite. Five leaders in four years – you cannot even get it together. The Nationals kind of swapped from Walshy, put him out to pasture. Fair enough, he is done. I beg your pardon, the member for that part of northern Victoria. With respect, I do appreciate the Nationals are in here and I only see a few of their Liberal colleagues here. One of the things that the previous member spoke about was who is worried about people from One Nation. I will tell you, workers are worried.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Member for Lowan! Member for Lowan, you are not in your place.

John LISTER: Workers are worried about what a Liberal–National–One Nation spectre – whatever you want to put it together as – means for working people in places like Wyndham which I represent.

Their plan is to cut $40 billion from Victorian schools and hospitals and to cut one in seven public servants. This matters the most to people like me and my community and I will go into why in just a moment when it comes to the public service in particular. But I have to say that Werribee is a proud, working-class electorate with a rich history. It is where I grew up. I have worked as a teacher, I volunteer as a firefighter, and I have the privilege of representing Werribee in this Parliament. Communities like mine are often the first to feel global and domestic instability, but these pressures do not discriminate based on your migration background.

Unfortunately earlier today I decided to turn on ABC News, and I witnessed whatever you could call that National Press Club address from Pauline Hanson, the Leader of One Nation. It was disastrous watching it, and it is disastrous because of what it will mean for workers and working-class people in communities like mine. Whether your family immigrated to Australia in the 1870s like mine or have only recently made this country their home, cost-of-living pressures impact all working Victorians. The frustrations driving people to look elsewhere are real – cost of living, community safety, housing and infrastructure – and they are certainly not seeing any options in the Liberal–National parties. This is precisely why we see the political situation that we have today in Australia. They are definitely not looking to those opposite for those answers.

I am speaking to constituents every day on the phone or at their doors, and I hear it first hand. It is absolutely poor form for any political party to take advantage of legitimate grievances and redirect them to the blameless. The answer is instead in real policies that go to the heart of the challenges being faced by working people. In Werribee it is only Labor governments, state or federal, that invest in those things that people in my community rely on every day. For the nine years that the federal mates of those opposite were in government, my community was intentionally starved of any real investment for the benefit of their mates in Sydney.

There was no infrastructure funding, funding was cut to health – slashed – and funding to the Werribee Mercy Hospital was slashed by their mates in Canberra. It is in their DNA. I will get to One Nation in just a moment, but when we are looking at the opposition, it is in their DNA to neglect places like the western suburbs. They come out when it is suitable to them. They come along to a by-election with all their T-shirts and corflutes and they say, ‘Look at all of this,’ but they do not offer anything. They offered nothing at the by-election, they offered nothing at the federal election, and now we hear plans for them to ‘fast-track’ housing in communities like mine – which basically means dumping more housing in communities like mine with no plan for infrastructure. We saw this previously: the precinct structure plans that we have in my community are terrible because they were developed and approved by the former Minister for Planning, the member for Bulleen, from the other side. This is how they work.

It was this state Labor government that stepped up during those nine years. We have invested almost $300 million in the Werribee Mercy Hospital. We are continuing to strengthen our local mental health care, and we are delivering urgent care clinics and our virtual emergency department, including our Hospital in the Home program with Mercy. We have opened many new schools for our young families and upgraded our existing schools. In fact at one point the vast majority of schools being built were in the Werribee electorate. We have upgraded and continue to upgrade roads. We are making sure that people have better public transport access across the electorate and have made public transport half-price. We are enshrining the right to work from home into law, something I know means a lot to people, particularly in Wyndham Vale, who were one of the top responders to the survey that was put out.

But this is at risk, and it is at risk not only because of the opposition but also because of One Nation and that political party. The track record of Pauline Hanson shows that she does not care about working people. Her track record in industrial relations could not be clearer, and it feels very similar to that of the Liberal–National coalition. Every time that workers needed parties in Parliament to support them, One Nation sided with the boss. Pauline Hanson has consistently opposed minimum wage rises for working Australians. One Nation voted against protecting tradies from silica dust, and I met a gentleman only the other day as I was out doorknocking – which the Liberals are so suddenly obsessed with; it is like they have never heard of the concept before, and if you saw the member for Polwarth’s video, I do not think he knows what doorknocking is: he just stands at the letterbox waiting for someone to come and talk to him. But I spoke to this gentleman, and he told me about his experience, and he told me that it was Labor that stood up for them. One Nation did not stand up for him. The Liberals and Nationals did not stand up for him. One Nation thinks that the person working next to you doing the same job deserves less, and recently we saw their opinion on the minimum wage rise that Labor supported both state and federally with the Fair Work Commission.

This matter goes to the idea of what it would mean to have a Liberal–National–One Nation coalition in government. We have seen it before. The Liberals, unlike One Nation, have never pretended to care about working Victorians. It is not in their DNA. We talk about the $40 billion worth of cuts from the state budget, and those opposite have already indicated a few of the different things that they would cut, like the emergency services levy – over $1.6 billion in, over $2 billion out, in the emergency services budget. That money goes towards our SES, it goes to Emergency Management Victoria, it goes to the rolling fleet replacement – all critical things that we need in our emergency services.

It also comes to this idea of trying to achieve a cash surplus. A cash surplus takes away the principle that taking on debt means. It means that you are putting it into productive infrastructure. The member for Point Cook will recall last week we had the Treasurer out for a budget briefing with our local business community, and she went into quite a lot of detail about what this idea would mean for infrastructure. If you are running a cash surplus, it means you do not have the ability to provide productive infrastructure, to borrow to build productive infrastructure that communities like the western suburbs needs. They will not be able to afford it, because at the moment, all our bills, wages, operating costs are funded through what revenue we receive, and productive infrastructure is funded through taking on those loans for infrastructure. Again, I spoke about this idea that they are fast-tracking – or they want to dump – more houses in the western suburbs with no plans for infrastructure.

If we have the reckless economics that they somehow think is suitable for Victoria, it means that they will not be able to afford to build that infrastructure when they fast-track these houses, and we have seen what that is like. But when they had that last brief glimpse of government between 2010 and 2014, there was nothing built in the electorate of Werribee by those opposite. In fact someone lost their life at the Cherry Street level crossing, and they ignored it for years. This government removed that level crossing. We took on that loan to provide that program and to remove those level crossings at my end of the Werribee line, which means that lives have been saved, and we make sure that we have a safe network for people as well. They forget about this. For those years after someone died at that crossing, they refused to do anything about it. They put no infrastructure into the western suburbs. That is what is at risk. And when we say ‘Who is worried,’ I am worried for working people about what it would mean if we had people like the Liberal–National–One Nation spectre – One Nation leadership, as we have seen in some of the polling.

To return to public servants just really briefly, I want to point out that 26.1 per cent of the public service is in the north-west metropolitan area, according to data from the Victorian Public Sector Commission. That means that there are thousands of people who do good work, whether or not that is on the front line or in those back-of-house roles that they keep on talking about. And if they are not supported, if they are not actively recruiting, it means that we are not able to meet those service delivery challenges that we have with a growing population. That is why we should condemn those opposite for their plan into the future.

 Cindy McLEISH (Eildon) (17:01): It is always amusing to see what the government puts up as a matter of public importance. I was amused again today to read what has been put forward, because one thing is for certain: when the going gets tough, the government are true to form, they start to make stuff up. They start to embark on scare campaigns, and they sometimes start to believe the nonsense that they churn out. When there is pressure on the government, when there is pressure on the Premier, what happens is they fabricate stories about the opposition, and they have done that again here today. I can see how touchy so many of the members of the government benches are – very, very touchy.

We have plans on this side of the house. We know what needs to be done. We can see the sad and sorry state of Victoria at the moment. We can see how let down people are. I will tell you one thing that we see a lot of is the absolute waste – the waste that the government turn a blind eye to. They turn a blind eye to the waste, until somebody starts to talk about it or it is raised in the media. Then it is like, ‘We’re actually doing something about it’, when nothing could be further from the truth. Be assured, a Liberal–Nationals government will not be spending $13 million on machete bins, on a project that was never going to work. As if those who had machetes and were using them for actions of evil rather than good were going to rock up to a police station where there are the cameras and pop them in. Instead, when I was at the Epping police station, I think it was, or South Morang – one of the police stations – we saw somebody who was a local gardener who used machetes, and he put them in. I heard stories of people who handed in ceremonial machetes that had been in the family for years that should not have had to be handed in. We know they wasted $13 million there.

But $13 million is a drop in the ocean when you look at the $15 billion that has been wasted in corruption– the $15 billion that has gone to outlaw motorcycle gangs, crime syndicates and the senior boffins in the CFMEU, who treat their members of Parliament a lot like puppets. You can be assured that the Liberals and the Nationals will crack down on corruption. We know changes need to be made, and as a result Jess Wilson and the Leader of the Nationals have released our 10-year plan. The Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the Nationals have released a 10-year plan to support and secure Victoria’s economic future. We know that is not going to happen overnight, because the state is so far down the gurgler that you cannot just turn it around immediately. So the responsible thing to do is to look forward and make a plan for the next decade so that you can get ducks in order, move things along and make the changes that need to be made to put our state back right where it belongs.

We belong at the top of Australia in terms of our economic output and our desirability for people to live here, work here, open businesses here – and keep businesses open here, which is a real problem. We have a plan that by 2032 we will return the budget to cash surplus. We want to reduce the debt and interest burden. We are paying $32 million a day in interest. Imagine – my electorate would just be so over the moon to have that amount of money ever spent on it. Imagine if that was spent on the roads. My goodness, that would be just too exciting.

We will deliver cost-of-living relief, and we will make Victoria one of the best places to do business. I hear all the time from small businesses, from medium businesses and from sole traders how hard it is to survive and how difficult things are with the cost of freight and transport, with the cost of raw materials, with things going up all of the time and with the number of taxes – the government has had their hand in our pockets all of the time. We want to drive investment and jobs. We will be providing payroll tax relief. Something I am quite proud of, because it is important that young people do get into their own homes: we will exempt first home buyers from stamp duty on properties up to $1 million. There will be land tax relief. We want to unlock housing supply and reform planning. We need to restore energy security and reduce costs, because while we have uncertain security around our energy and we are rushing into renewables – you know, we could have those black holes for a while. And I guess those black holes are probably black nights and black days without power. We want to shift infrastructure to local priorities, and we will have a hiring freeze on back office roles to guarantee essential services.

Now, the government are doing so much to reframe and to scare people into thinking it is going to be doom and gloom. Well, let me tell you, it is going to be a lot better. We will be looking after people. We will be looking after those that are doing it tough. And at the moment, I will tell you who is doing it tough. There are so many people in my electorate in the Murrindindi shire who are doing it tough because they suffered the devastating consequences of the Longwood fires in January, and they are still suffering. There are questions the government are failing to answer. There are things that they are failing to introduce in a timely way. They are talking, but they are not doing, and a lot more needs to be done. We have got local contractors who are not getting the work with some of the clean-ups. People are coming from quite a distance away, and there are locals who are sitting there idle with machinery, with excavators and with the gear that is required to do a lot of the clean-up work. That is not getting done quickly enough, and I see people locally who are missing out on this work – that is just not good enough.

The government had an announcement of $33 million, about 100 new modular homes. We know now in Benalla that there are modular homes sitting in storage that could already be deployed. The government in their matters of public importance are actually ignoring those who need it most. There are issues with fencing. The Upper Goulburn Landcare Network have been doing a lot of work in this area, but they need support. They have had a hearing from government, and they have also had people raise these issues at the inquiry being conducted through the Legislative Council. The government are hearing it but not acting. They are not really listening, and they need to do more.

The Murrindindi shire does not have a list or does not have access to consolidated data – to a database that tracks the recovery journey and living conditions of those who lost their primary residence. How many people have made no headway into rebuilding or having a plan about what they might do and are living in a modular home, living in a rental property, living in a caravan or, heaven forbid, still in tents? The council cannot act effectively here because they do not have that information. The government have that information, but they are just not handing it over. The council really need to make sure no-one is falling between the cracks, and they need the government’s support and the government’s help to do that. This is something of particular public importance at the moment. They cannot continue to rely on hearsay. We have had devastating losses across farming properties. 144,000 hectares burnt in the Longwood fires. A majority, 70 per cent, was in the Murrindindi shire, and most of that was farmland.

There are grants for primary producers, bushfire recovery grants. The council would love to know and I would be very keen to know just how many of our farmers have applied for those grants and how many of them received those grants. These are questions that we need answers to.

I know one thing is for sure: the members on this side of the house know what is important. We know who needs the support. We have ideas and knowledge about how to do that, and I think this is important. The government are just scaremongering again and making things up because they do not know what else to do. The government are absolutely petrified about the impact of One Nation on their seats, in those outer fringe seats. We know they know that, and they are trying to throw that onto the opposition. I think the government have got a lot to answer for, because it is them who have not been doing the work, it is them who have been letting people down, and they have certainly let people down in my electorate. The Liberals and Nationals have a plan to secure Victoria’s economic future, and I am proud to be a part of the Liberal team in this Parliament. I think the Leader of the Opposition is doing everything right. She is putting the plans in place so that Victorians can have confidence and realise when the Labor government are just scaremongering because they have run out of ideas. They do not know what to do. We know what to do, and we have a plan.

 Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (17:11): You cannot really argue with the numbers, because I know they are saying we are making things up, but actually Labor has invested $4.9 billion into education in the 2026–27 budget, so that is a fact. That is not being made up. That is an authentic investment. Thanks to Labor’s investments Victoria’s students and schools are leading the nation and families are receiving more cost-of-living relief to take the pressure off. We know with the opposition, sadly, they have proposed $40 billion worth of cuts. That means getting rid of one in seven government workers. What does that really mean? Unfortunately that means really slashing and burning through education and health. As Parliamentary Secretary for Education, I know health also is extremely important. The member who was just on her feet was saying that they know what is important. Well, I know education is important. Are they saying that it is not important? I think it is a fair statement to say that education is a pillar certainly of a Labor government and something we take great pride in, and not only pride but actually delivering it, because it is really what sets up the future of Victorian students.

It was interesting, actually, a point made earlier today in question time. It has been made a number of times, because the Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the Nationals have made a commitment to spend 25 per cent of infrastructure spending on regional schools. That would be all fine and well, except this is a cut from more than 30 per cent that Labor spends right now. Somebody on that side forgot to check. They did not think to look and see what Labor is actually spending. They just thought they would maybe wing it. Having confidence in what they are proposing – I do not know. It is a little bit speculative, I would say, because it is not too hard to see the difference. You do the math, 30 minus 25 – the difference is there. We could see it clearly here in the chamber, so that was a bit of a boo-boo, really, from the outset. When they are saying they know what matters, if they know what matters, then they would make sure that they at least matched that spending, if not spent more. But anyway, it is on the record. Let us see what they do. Let us see their next step.

Last time they had the chance the coalition slashed more than a billion dollars from education, so they have form. Again, we are not making stuff up. The numbers speak for themselves. We are very happy to go back and reprosecute what they have done and what they have slashed and what they have already proposed moving forward. They have not been shy about it. We will thank them for that, for at least being up-front about all the cuts that they are proposing. They cut cost-of-living supports like Free Fruit Friday and the young readers program. I do not know what they were thinking. These are really important elements that families rely on. They have form. What about teachers themselves? They tried to make teachers work longer for less. That is why in the coalition’s last year in office the number of Victorian registered teachers went backwards by 1038. Again, the numbers speak for themselves. We did not make that up – that is absolute fact.

Just like Jeff Kennett, the hero of the opposition leader, who closed over 350 schools, again, these numbers are absolutely factual. No-one is making it up, because it was witnessed. The teachers who lost their jobs were well aware of the cuts, and those cuts had an absolutely horrific impact. Thankfully Labor has rebuilt – we had to rebuild; we had to do it. Of course when you buy land back many, many years later, it is very expensive, but still we did it because it was the right thing to do.

I do not know, in my seat of Albert Park, if they thought that students there would not go to public school, so it would not matter if they closed a school here or there, but thankfully we have done the right thing. You have got South Melbourne Park Primary School, you have got South Melbourne Primary School and, guess what, they are so popular. With the growth in the population, the density is being expanded. There was a $23 million commitment to expand South Melbourne Primary School, a fantastic primary school. Actually all the schools in my area are absolutely fantastic. Also we have built Port Melbourne Secondary College, another fabulous school, and they have got a really big focus on robotics and STEM. I will get back to that topic of STEM, because it is not only for that school, it is obviously around the state, but I just thought I would mention that. Albert Park College is bigger and better than ever. It now has eight separate campuses around the area. Works have commenced for the youth arts centre, and that is a collaboration between VCASS and Albert Park College. It will be really, really fantastic for the local community and others who may use the facilities as well. I am really pleased that that is moving ahead.

Talking about outcomes and talking about the budget cuts that they already made, that are already on record, what did they actually translate to, ergo why do Labor invest the way we do in education? According to the most recent NAPLAN data Victorian students are not only the top performing in the country, they are also performing better than at any other time on record. Victorian students achieved the highest or second-highest mean scores in 18 of 20 NAPLAN measures. In 2025 Victoria topped the nation, coming first in nine NAPLAN measures. When the coalition was last in government our best result was less than half that: only four measures.

At this moment and on this point I would like to salute the wonderful work of Victorian teachers. Of course they are the heart and soul of our schools and they are absolutely driving these fantastic outcomes, and this is why we need to invest in them and invest in our schools. We cannot have billion-dollar cuts. That is just not a great option for our beautiful state of Victoria. It would have a massive impact. A further point I want to raise is that while the coalition were in government Victoria slipped down the national NAPLAN rankings. By the time they left office Victoria’s share of top rankings in NAPLAN measures had fallen by a third. These are elements that have to be considered when you are thinking about what is important and what matters to Victorians. I know in my electorate, and I am sure all my colleagues here will share the same thing, parents reiterate the importance that they place on their kids getting a quality education and having a vibrant school community. This is why we are investing in their future – we know what it means.

The Victorian Labor government have handed down a budget that invests a further $1.6 billion in education infrastructure. That is a cumulative total of $20.1 billion invested in building, upgrading and modernising schools since coming into government. When they last had the chance the coalition scrapped the Victorian schools plan and failed to plan for the future of Victoria’s education system. School infrastructure funding was cut to a mere $200 million a year. Again, we can see the numbers; we can see the comparisons. There is no fudging those figures. They are fact. It is what it is. This year we have opened a record 19 new schools, and I am pleased to say one of them is in my electorate, Narrarrang Primary School, an absolutely fantastic school. It also has a kinder that is being built onsite. It is certainly a firm policy of our government where the opportunity presents itself, certainly with new schools that are being built, to have a co-located kinder so there is one drop-off for the parents or carers who are looking after the kids.

It is just saving a lot of that morning and afternoon hassle, and it means a nice smooth transition from kinder to primary school. I should say on this side, again, another policy of our government is looking at multipurpose facilities so that the community can take advantage, particularly but not only in the inner areas but I am sure in growth areas as well, making sure that where we have got this precious land it can be used outside hours for community to enjoy. And I am very glad to say that at Narrarrang Primary School there is a futsal court, and there is a multipurpose space that is going to be online very soon. So that is really exciting for the local community, and it means that we are really taking advantage, for the benefit of the community, of precious space and making sure that it is providing not only a quality education but an environment that actually supports the teachers and supports the staff who keep the school running and is a pleasant environment for the students to really thrive and grow in.

I should also say that we are on track to complete six new tech schools by 2026, thanks to our $116 million investment. These schools will deliver free hands-on STEM education – because I did mention STEM a little earlier in my discussion – for 62,000 Victorian students. And it blows me away when I see some of the STEM activities that the kids are absolutely thriving in when they do this stuff. I could not even have imagined it when I was in school; it was a lot more basic, I have to say, with the Bunsen burner and so forth. They are doing some pretty fabulous stuff, and it is really exciting to see, but it is because we are backing them in, because education is a top pillar. It is fundamental. (Time expired)

 Gabrielle DE VIETRI (Richmond) (17:21): Mortgages, rent, groceries and bills are all getting more unaffordable. You used to be able to get by on an average wage and maybe even save for the future; now, that feels completely out of reach. While Victorians are struggling to afford the basics, this government lets corporations make record profits. For so long we have been told this is the best we are going to get, by the politicians who take millions of dollars in donations from big corporations and billionaires. Now the far right is telling us to blame our neighbours for making things harder, instead of looking at the ultra wealthy who control our political system. The increasing popularity of One Nation is proof that when governments fail to meet people’s needs, the far right fills the vacuum.

Pauline Hanson’s popularity is not because of her talent or because the community is becoming more right wing, but because Labor has failed the people of this state. In the time that Labor have been in power they could have built enough public housing to end homelessness. They could have capped rents. They could have delivered affordable health care and groceries and bills and permanently free public transport. They could have fully funded our public schools. Instead we see overcrowded hospitals, a housing crisis, crumbling schools, rising costs and growing inequality – all under Labor’s watch. And when parties of government fail to improve people’s lives, opportunists step in with someone to blame. One Nation’s answer to every problem is not to take on the billionaires, the big corporations or property investors, who profit at everyone else’s expense, but to point the finger at migrants and refugees. They offer division instead of solutions. They tell you to turn on your neighbour to distract you from the fact that it is their billionaire donors who are making life harder for everyone.

The reason why One Nation is suddenly everywhere is no mistake: it is advertising money. Gina Rinehart is buying your vote. One Nation is no different from the other major parties. They all take dodgy donations from corporations and give them special treatment in return. One Nation talks endlessly about being on the side of ordinary Australians, while defending the very economic system that is making ordinary Australians poorer. It is a party that distracts workers with culture wars, while their wealthy donors continue to accumulate more power and more wealth. One Nation is not a workers party. It is not a party for renters. It is not a party for people struggling to pay the bills. It is a party that channels legitimate frustration into prejudice, while protecting the interests of those at the very top.

We have seen One Nation’s politics of division since day one. Thirty years ago when Hanson first got elected, in 1996, in her inaugural speech she spouted horrendous racist, anti-migrant rhetoric. The chamber emptied. Members from across the political spectrum left the chamber, refusing to give it any oxygen. Cut to today: a National Press Club address. We need to be honest about how these ideas gain traction. Racism and anti-migrant sentiments are not new, but in recent years they have been further normalised by billionaires, politicians and media commentators willing to scapegoat vulnerable communities for their own gain. The Greens offer a politics of hate, not fear, and because we are not funded by the dodgy corporations, we have the guts to make them pay their fair share to fund the things that we all need. A better future is possible where people and the planet matter more than profits, corporate greed no longer rules our political systems and we all have what we need to lead decent lives.

Under Labor Victoria has the lowest funded public schools in the entire country and the worst paid teachers. Labor’s proposed cuts over the coming years to schools across Victoria will have devastating consequences – $2.4 billion in cuts across the state, with $20 million of those cuts in public schools across Collingwood, Fitzroy, Cremorne, Clifton Hill, Abbotsford, Richmond and Burnley, in communities already struggling with the rising cost of living and inequality. All 12 schools in my electorate will face cuts in the next seven years: Abbotsford Primary will face cuts of $645,000; Fitzroy Primary will be $726,000 worse off; Bindjiroo Yaluk Community School will be cut by $231,000; Yarra Primary, cut by $888,000; Richmond West Primary will lose $1.8 million; Spensley Street, more than $1.1 million; Collingwood English Language School will lose $1.3 million; Richmond Primary, also $1.3 million; Richmond High School, over $2 million in cuts under Labor; Clifton Hill Primary, almost $2.5 million in cuts; Collingwood College, a whopping $2.7 million in cuts under this Labor government; and the biggest single cut is to Melbourne Girls’ College, who will lose $5.1 million under Labor. We cannot let Labor get away with short-changing our public schools.

On top of this news, just this week the Victorian Auditor-General released a report on Labor’s delivery of school upgrade programs, which found that the Victorian School Building Authority does not make recommendations in line with its strategies for improving school conditions, that it is not always transparent and it makes recommendations not always based on need but rather on informal undocumented processes, including pressure from the community and political considerations. We know from experience that the Victorian Labor government uses our local schools to pork-barrel before an election; now we have it in writing.

Because Labor refuses to publish the condition of schools across Victoria or an account of the funding that they have or have not delivered, the Auditor-General has done it for them. You can now go on to the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office dashboard and see it for yourself. I was shocked but not shocked to see that the overwhelming majority of schools in my electorate have declined to now rate being in poor condition the last time that they were assessed, with only two considered in good condition. That is a shameful record for Labor. What message does it send when our schools are struggling to get by but Labor is more than happy to splash $400 million on a corporate stand upgrade at the grand prix? Labor’s priorities are plain to see. Our teachers and our education staff deserve better, our parents and our families deserve better, but most of all our children deserve better.

My constituents are concerned with the planning minister fast-tracking inappropriate developments, bypassing community consultation and dodging accountability. Fast-track programs like the development facilitation program are meant for projects that make a significant contribution to Victoria’s economy and deliver substantial public benefit, like affordable housing or job creation. In Burnley, though, a multi-storey, 24/7 storage facility is under consideration – not a single home planned. How a self-storage facility delivers job creation and economic value to Victoria of a scale deserving of leapfrogging standard planning processes is unclear to me.

Along the Birrarung River in Richmond, on a quiet, narrow street where five storeys is currently the maximum, a 12-storey edge-to-edge development is under consideration for fast-track approval. The residents have some great ideas on how to improve it. They fully support accommodating a growing population, but they have contacted me in despair because there is no formal avenue for them to have their feedback considered.

Labor likes to point the finger at local communities for holding up developments, yet we are seeing cases of fast-tracked developments being land-banked after being approved. Take, for example, the 400 corporate rentals on Langridge Street in Abbotsford still sitting abandoned after fast-track approval in 2024. The fast-track developments route is Christmas come early for property developers. Some are getting fast-track approvals and then flipping the vacant lot. Let us not forget the megadeveloper Assemble, who used affordable housing as a Trojan Horse to get two fast-tracked approvals in Brunswick and Coburg, only to gut those commitments to make their projects more profitable. Their profits are protected and the promised social outcomes are not, and it is communities who pay the price. A month after the news of Assemble’s backflip, the Gurner Group applied to fast-track 685 luxury apartments at the Harry the Hirer site in Richmond. They are promising just 10 per cent affordable housing, which is lame in the first place, but given Labor’s track record, it is fair to question whether that promise will be kept once approval is granted. The fast-track pathway should not be a mechanism to ram through private developments without checks and balances.

 Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (17:31): I am very pleased to rise and speak on this matter of public importance submitted by the member for Mordialloc:

That this house condemns the opposition and One Nation on their plans to cut $40 billion out of Victorian schools and hospitals, as well as one in seven public servants.

In doing so, I just want to begin with and take us to what is at risk this coming November and how much as a labour movement and a Labor government we have achieved. We continue to stand up every single day to fight for working Victorians, families and everyone across our community. No matter your faith, culture or background, our Victorian Labor government has been on your side and will continue to be on your side. Whether it is across jobs, education, transport, health, environmental action, social justice, community safety – most importantly – or cost of living, we have continued to take action and be on the side of all Victorians.

Almost 900,000 jobs have been created since 2014, since we came to government, and that is because we have continued to invest and stimulate economic growth and support jobs and skills pathways, particularly around frontline service. Whether it is more doctors, nurses, teachers, early childhood workers, those in the construction sector and so much more, we have continued to support job creation as a central pillar to our state’s prosperity. 120–odd new schools have been and continue to be delivered here, and over 50 per cent of the new schools in this country are built right here in Victoria. Free kinder – there has been the landmark rollout of free kinder for three- and four-year-olds through the Best Start, Best Life initiative. There are new hospitals – Footscray Hospital, Frankston Hospital and Melton Hospital is progressing. There are the community hospitals we have been delivering, including around the member for Greenvale’s area as well; our adult mental health and wellbeing hubs off the back of that landmark Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System; our virtual emergency departments; the community pharmacy program; and our perinatal wellbeing centres as well, with one being in train in Northcote. In transport: the Metro Tunnel; the West Gate Tunnel; North East Link; 80-odd level crossings have been removed, including in my community as well; and Melbourne Airport rail.

When it comes to environmental action, we have brought back the SEC, and we have landmark renewable energy projects and targets: the Solar Homes program, the default energy offer, the Victorian energy upgrades program, the amazing container deposit recycling scheme as well. We have ceased native forest and old-growth forest logging to protect our environment and biodiversity. On cost of living: 20 per cent rego rebate, free public transport and half-price public transport, free dental in schools, free glasses in schools, the $200 sports voucher and so much more. On social justice and community safety, most importantly, there has been our landmark Royal Commission into Family Violence, which led to over 230-odd recommendations being fully implemented, and there is our Orange Door program. Our investments into community safety are so critical, with $33 million through the violence reduction unit as well.

These are all the things we have committed to. These are all the things we have continued to deliver and progress for our community. These and so much more are the very things that the Liberal, Nationals and One Nation political movement have been totally opposed to since day dot and would cut the moment they ever got the chance to come back into office.

I will just pick up, following on from the Greens political member for Richmond, because there were so many falsehoods, even from the Greens political party perspective – always coming into this chamber seeking to claim the moral high ground but climbing simultaneously that mountain of hypocrisy. They always do that day in, day out. Never forget that this is the Greens party that delayed climate action for over a decade in this country by delaying the carbon pollution reduction scheme. They teamed up with the former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, the current Liberal Party president of Australia, to delay climate action. Let us never forget that setting back the cause of climate action by over 10 years.

They oppose housing project after housing project. Even in the member for Richmond’s remarks just now she was citing and objecting to the state government’s activity centre plans to fast-track more housing in the inner-city communities. As the mayor she opposed housing projects in her own City of Yarra as well, but disgracefully in my community they have continued to oppose even the very projects she claims to support on Sydney Road in Coburg. It was the Greens council that continued to delay and oppose that very housing project she now claims to support. It is absolutely shameful.

The Harvest Square housing project in Brunswick West is an amazing project that we have done as a state government through our Big Housing Build in partnership with Women’s Housing Limited, which has delivered in the order of 190 new homes in the heart of Brunswick West; 120-odd of those are social, community and affordable homes at a minimum. It is an amazing project to support women in need with families and children, particularly those fleeing situations and instances of family violence. It was the Greens political party that opposed it and the Greens councillors, including the current Greens candidate that is opposing me at the moment, who voted against this project. The current Greens candidate for Brunswick voted against the Harvest Square project. It is disgraceful. On the one hand they claim to be on the side of those wanting a home, but when there is a proposal on the table they vote against it, and they did that at Harvest Square. We will make sure the whole community knows about this indeed.

The voters are having their say about the Greens, and they have started to wake up to the Greens very much so. Let us not forget the recent federal election result. They lost their national party leader in the seat of Melbourne Adam Bandt – gone, voted out. Max Chandler-Mather up in Brisbane – gone, voted out. He was supposed to be the heir apparent – gone. They turfed him out. But they also lost another leader, their Victorian leader, who left the Victorian Parliament to run for Wills, Samantha Ratnam. She lost. The voters of Wills rejected her and supported a hardworking Labor member Peter Khalil. This is because the Greens say one thing and do another thing out in the community. They stand for nothing and claim to be able to deliver everything when they deliver absolutely nothing.

The Liberals are no better of course, too, because all they have is a plan for cuts, sackings and sell-offs. Forty billion dollars they are proposing to cut from the state budget – one in seven public servant jobs to be sacked. That will have a devastating impact not just on backroom public service operations but more importantly on frontline operations as well.

One Nation are no better. This is the party that has always continued to vote against the interests of working people. We have seen every time there is a chance to vote for workers or big business One Nation vote with big business. They voted against making industrial manslaughter a crime. They voted against protecting tradies from silica dust, the deadly dust that has been harming generations of young stonemasons. They voted against same job, same pay every single time. You will not see One Nation standing with workers, you will see them standing with Gina Rinehart, Clive Palmer and the other billionaires.

With the time I have left I also just want to touch on the absolutely appalling speech earlier today at the National Press Club by One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, who said some absolutely remarkable things in 2026. She said:

Undeniably immigration or immigration policy has our country in a state of crisis. At the centre of this crisis is the utterly flawed policy of multiculturalism. We cannot be a multicultural society. We are a multiracial society, but we must be monocultural. Australians must live under the one cultural umbrella.

This is what she said. I can go on and on here, and I will touch on this at a later time. I want to touch on the point where she said in her remarks criticising multiculturalism that she will abolish SBS. She will get rid of SBS. ‘The SBS will be gone,’ she said, in her words.

I want to say it is multiculturalism and SBS that we are all celebrating right now with the FIFA World Cup, which is bringing this country and this state together, as it always does every four years in unprecedented ways. Over 5 million people have tuned into SBS, who are proudly broadcasting free to air this World Cup, as it should be. Live sites are going off across the entire state – Federation Square and all other parts of Victoria. But I want to say as well that it is multiculturalism and migration which not just make this country but also make us proud, seeing the Socceroos on the world stage. Nestory Irankunda was born in a refugee camp in Tanzania in 2006 to parents of Burundian heritage. Mohamed Touré was born in 2004 in a refugee camp in Guinea. His parents fled from Liberia. Awer Mabil was born in a refugee camp in Kenya. His parents fled from South Sudan. More than half of the Socceroos representing us right now on the world stage, doing us so proud against Türkiye – they will do us even more proud against the United States this coming Saturday morning and even prouder again against Paraguay and beyond as we go deep into the tournament – are migrants. It is migrants that have built this country and are building and making us so proud when it comes to the Socceroos, as has the SBS over so many years. It has connected, promoted and supported multicultural communities of all backgrounds and all faiths, and we proudly will continue to support the work of SBS and all of our multicultural communities as well.

In that regard, with 10 seconds remaining, I just commend this matter – because it is only a Labor government in Victoria and federally that will remain on the side of working people, working families and those aspiring to a better future.

 Lauren KATHAGE (Yan Yean) (17:42): I am pleased to rise in support of this matter of public importance. I would like to say at the outset that I know Pauline Hanson better than anybody in this chamber right now. I have known her for it must be 30 years, because Pauline Hanson’s fish and chip shop was on the same street as my parents’ newsagency. Since the 1990s we have been around the same streets of the same town, so I know better than anyone that One Nation and their running mates, the Victorian Liberals, target the vulnerable. They target the vulnerable with their cuts. I want to share a little bit about my family’s story and what the types of decisions we see from those opposite and from One Nation mean for families like mine.

At my parents’ newsagency, they would be helped by my brother Mark, who has an intellectual disability. He is 10 years older than me. He developed an intellectual disability through difficulties during the birth process and a lack of oxygen. He was adopted by my parents as a baby. Mark would hang out at the shop, and he would help Mum and Dad to stock the fridge, he would talk to the customers and he would hassle Mum and Dad for more money so he could get more videos – more VHS, as it was in the day – because he had a big obsession with collecting videos, and his bedroom was lined with them. What did my member of Parliament, Pauline Hanson – she represented me in federal Parliament – do in her first and subsequent terms for people like my brother? She argued for reductions in the disability support payment. She acted like people were bludgers, and she supported Tony Abbott’s move to have people on the disability support pension have mandatory assessments I think it was every two years. I remember that really well, because I remember my mum was furious. I had to take Mark to the doctor to prove he still had an intellectual disability that he has had from the moment that he was born. So when they talk about battlers, they are not talking about battlers like my brother Mark.

And treating people like they are bludgers – my brother would have loved to have had a job. I think he would have been a lawnmower repairer. He tried to fix Dad’s lawnmower once, and when he failed, he dug a very big hole and buried it, so I think that might have been his passion. But for other kids with disability or developmental issues – and I think now about ADHD – have a listen to what Pauline Hanson just a couple of years ago had to say about ADHD when talking about the NDIS. She said:

I was never told it would be used to fund kids with ADHD, which, let’s face it, is sometimes a convenient diagnosis excusing poor parenting.

That is their view on ADHD. So we know that they – I am talking about One Nation and their Liberal running mates – will cut the developmental screenings that we have been talking about this week, which will be prior to the start of kinder and prior to the start of school. We know they will cut ADHD training for GPs to be able to diagnose and support people, which is going to make a big difference for families. They will cut the grants that we are giving to speechies and OTs for regional placements and getting them out into the regions to support families. The Liberals in fact have already announced a cut, with their voucher system up against our massive $5 billion funding for kids in schools.

But back to my brother Mark. One day when Mum was cooking dinner, she asked him to go down to the shop to get some pet food. So he went down, but he could not stop himself from going into the video shop next to the grocery store. And the video shop owner actually got Mark to come into the back room and he raped him. He raped my brother. And I think about Pauline Hanson and her voting against the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability in 2019. So I tell you, they do not care about the vulnerable. They are not fighting for the vulnerable; they are not fighting for them. As you can imagine, Mark’s mental health deteriorated after that, and he has had to have a lot of support. And I think about those opposite and the fact that they defunded 25 community and mental health services when they were in government, that they cut the 24-hour mental health line – they cut the only one that was in existence; they got rid of it – and that they voted against the mental health levy. Those services are so vital for people like my brother and for my family. My father has said he is worried that my brother will die – I do not know a way to say this – because he is so unwell on the street that he will be stopped by police. Services like this that are in place to support people like my brother have chased him down the street. They have chased him down the street to get help for him, before others tried to stop him. When we think about the cuts that those opposite are making, again, I say that it is to the vulnerable – they do not support the vulnerable.

I think about the mental health hub that we have opened in South Morang, how that makes mental health so much more accessible for families and what it means for people in crisis or in times of despair that they have got somebody that they can turn to for help, and I think that it is fantastic. When we think about the vulnerable, I also think about Mark’s support workers. So Mark moved out of home at 50 into his own supported independent living, with support from NDIS, and he is supported there around the clock by amazing workers that come from all sorts of backgrounds. There is a particular support worker there with him who is a refugee from Iran, who has become a family friend to us, who cares for our brother deeply and who has his best interests at heart. For workers like him – Pauline Hanson, One Nation and the Victorian Liberal running mates are not arguing for wage rises for the likes of them; no, they do not support the vulnerable. And in fact I argue that their cuts will go after the vulnerable first, because they are less able to raise up their voice and they are less able to fight back when those opposite get out those cuts.

For families who are looking for answers about what is going on with their child’s development, how they can get help for their child who needs extra support in the classroom or at home, for the services that wrap around them and mean that they can take part in society, that they can access work, they can make friends, they can go bowling, they can go have a barbecue at the park and for the protections that governments like ours support in wrapping around people with disability to ensure that they are not exploited, that they are not abused, all of these things are at risk when we think about a One Nation and Victorian Liberal running mate coalition here in Victoria.

When I think about my brother Mark and my mum and dad and the accident of them having their newsagency on the same street as Pauline Hanson’s fish and chip shop, I think it was for a reason, and I think that reason is so I know how hard we have to fight to keep One Nation off these benches and out of our state, because the wellbeing and the future of the most vulnerable Victorians relies on us winning in November, and that is what we intend to do.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Before I call the member for South-West Coast, I would like to acknowledge in the gallery former Premier Daniel Andrews. Welcome back.

 Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (17:52): I rise to speak on this matter of public importance, and I have to say I find it extraordinary that this government would bring forward a matter of public importance attempting to accuse the Liberal Party of cuts. It takes an extraordinary level of arrogance for the Allan Labor government to bring this matter before the Parliament. After more than a decade in office, after presiding over every budget, every major spending decision and every funding priority in this state, Labor now wants Victorians to believe that somebody else is responsible for the cuts to education, the cuts to health and the cuts to the public service. It is so detached from reality that it deserves to be called out for exactly what it is: a desperate attempt to distract from Labor’s own record of failure.

Because this government is under financial pressure after years of waste, debt and cost blowouts, it reaches for a sneaky solution: cut services, cut projects and cut outcomes and blame everyone else. Victorians have watched this government preside over record debt and record spending and yet somehow receive less in return. Never before have Victorians paid so much and received so little. The government talks about billions of dollars being spent. It likes to talk about announcements and press releases.

If we are going to talk about education, let us talk honestly about education. This is a government that has cut billions from the education budget while simultaneously claiming to be the greatest supporter of public education Victoria has ever seen. Teachers across the state are under enormous pressure. They are working tirelessly to deliver the best outcomes possible for students, yet they continue to face increasing workloads, workforce shortages and growing levels of burnout. Despite the glossy announcements and carefully staged photo opportunities, the learning outcomes remain a significant concern, and many schools are struggling to obtain the support they need. The truth is that this government has cut $2.4 billion from the education budget here in Victoria, and in a recent parliamentary inquiry into public school funding the government actually admitted it. The recommendation from this inquiry was for the government to compensate schools in Victoria appropriately, in some way, to make up –

Steve Dimopoulos: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, the member has to be at least slightly factual, and she is absolutely not.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The minister will resume his seat. All members are understood to be factual at all times.

Roma BRITNELL: Just yesterday we saw the government’s plans to close 21 schools in Victoria, which demonstrates just how desperately this arrogant Labor government is trying to cut more and more services taxpayers should be able to actually rely upon. For Labor, to stand in this chamber and accuse others of cutting education is a remarkable exercise in hypocrisy.

John Lister: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, I do also call to attention the need for members to be factual. It is not true –

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Werribee will resume his seat. There is no point of order. The member for South-West Coast, unassisted.

Roma BRITNELL: The same can be said for health. Labor says the health system is working well; it is not. You cannot have 64,000 people on an elective surgery waitlist in a health system that is funded properly. COVID can no longer be used as an excuse, because it was five years ago now. In south-west Victoria the most obvious example of Labor’s sneaky cuts to health is the Warrnambool Base Hospital redevelopment. Our community was promised a hospital fit for the future. Faced with increased costs, the scope was cut. Pathology redevelopment was cut. A new kitchen was cut. The redevelopment of the morgue – gone. The promised basement car park disappeared – cut. Medical records redevelopment – completely gone. The government can call it a redesign or a reprioritisation, but when a government refuses to fund the original scope of a project and delivers less than promised, that is simply a cut. It may be an inconvenient truth for Labor, but it is a truth nonetheless. The promised PET scanner, another example – cut, not to be seen but promised before an election. The Portland helipad provides another example. Local people spent years campaigning for this helipad because they understand that minutes save lives, but it has been closed with no explanation to the community. Simply gone – another Labor cut.

If there is one example that perfectly captures this incompetent Labor government’s cuts, it is the Commonwealth Games debacle. Regional Victoria was promised a transformational investment. Communities were told they would receive sporting infrastructure, economic opportunities, tourism benefits and long-term facilities. Not only were they promised the project, they got what Labor have been doing all over again: they cut the whole project. We not only had a cut, but we are paying hundreds of millions of dollars for the privilege of cancelling an event that Labor promised to deliver.

When you look at it, all of these cuts were inevitable; they were not unavoidable but rather a direct result of years of financial mismanagement and misplaced priorities. Because if you spend $15 billion worth of taxpayers money on corrupt pay-offs to bikies and organised crime, you cannot spend it on services. The Allan Labor government made a political choice to curry favour with the unions, bikies and organised crime in exchange for political support, a choice that inevitably comes at the expense of hospitals, schools, roads and frontline services that ordinary Victorians rely on every single day. Never before have Victorians paid so much and received so little, and eventually that money does run out. Every dollar that is paid to bikies and organised crime is a dollar that cannot go into emergency departments struggling with ramping, cannot repair crumbling regional roads, cannot support overstretched police and cannot relieve cost-of-living pressure on services. Now we are seeing the consequences play out in real time: cuts are being justified as efficiencies, reprioritisations or necessary adjustments, but the public can see through it. The matter of public importance speaks about public services, yet this is perhaps the most extraordinary claim of all in this matter for public importance: the Premier herself acknowledged that thousands of public service positions will be cut – not dozens, not hundreds, but thousands. The Premier’s own admissions – words from the Premier’s mouth. These are not opposition claims; these are the government’s own admissions. After years of expanding bureaucracy, Labor now concedes that the system it built has become financially unsustainable. How can this government seriously ask Victorians to believe that somebody else is responsible for cuts to the public service when it is actively implementing these cuts themselves?

When you commit billions without discipline or accountability or even a business plan, you eventually hit the wall. It is the same pattern evident on our roads. Our regional Victorian roads are witnessing a consequence of years of inadequate road maintenance. We have had cuts to road maintenance. They are boasting about money going into the roads, but it is for filling potholes – that does not get our roads fixed. That just puts money into potholes and fails to rebuild roads.

It can be seen as a story across agriculture, where the experienced staff have been cut – again put under a restructure claim, but the reality is people have been cut. Cuts from fisheries, cuts from the creative arts industry – this is where the cuts are. They are Labor cuts, and they have been going on secretly and silently, but they are there. The glossy press releases and the claims by this Labor government that they are caring for Victorians – even blind Freddy can see that is not the case. The reality is that the cuts Victoria is experiencing today are Labor cuts. They are the inevitable consequences of years of waste, mismanagement and financial recklessness. No amount of political theatre in this chamber can change that fact. It is time for a fresh start, Victoria.