Thursday, 24 September 2026

 Sonya KILKENNY (Carrum – Attorney-General, Minister for Planning, Minister for Prevention of Family Violence) (10:48): I move:

That this house notes that the Liberals have committed to cutting $40 billion from the budget, requiring at least 30,000 public sector jobs to be cut, devastating the frontline services Victorians rely on, meaning:

(a)   longer hospital wait times;

(b)   fewer nurses and hospital beds;

(c)   less police; and

(d)   cuts to local infrastructure.

There is a very simple question that Victorians deserve an answer to, and that is: what will the Leader of the Opposition cut? Because you cannot take $40 billion out of the Victorian budget and pretend it will not affect schools, hospitals, police, child protection, housing and services that women and families rely on. This is about something bigger than numbers. It is about what sort of Victoria we want to be. Victorians are decent people. We are compassionate people. We look after each other. We do not believe needing help makes someone weak or that caring for people is a waste. Compassion has value and care has value, and governments should never become so focused on what they can cut that they lose sight of the people they exist to serve. That is exactly what is at stake this November.

Independent analysis by the Australia Institute published earlier this month has directly challenged the opposition’s fiscal strategy. The Leader of the Opposition says billions can be saved through a hiring freeze on so-called back office roles, but the independent analysis that we have seen earlier this month by the Australia Institute describes that strategy as simply implausible. Its analysis concludes that achieving those savings would require more than 30,000 public sector jobs to disappear, and it estimates the plan could push Victoria’s unemployment rate from a projected 4.75 per cent to around 5.4 per cent. When you cut 30,000 jobs, you do not just remove numbers from a spreadsheet; you are taking wages out of households, you are taking spending out of shops, cafes and businesses, you weaken demand and you put other people’s jobs at risk.

These cuts do not stop at the doors of the public service, either. So there are 30,000 jobs on the chopping block, but many more thousands of jobs at risk as well, because these kinds of jobs flow right through our communities and right into the private sector. It is not simply a debate about government expenditure, it is about jobs, it is about Victoria’s economic activity and it is about the services Victorians rely upon. When all of these numbers do not add up, it is ordinary Victorians who are going to pay the price. Cutting too hard and too fast reduces jobs and it shrinks our economy. That is not responsible – it is reckless, it is cruel, it is ruthless and, frankly, it is fiscally irresponsible. So when the Leader of the Opposition talks about cutting jobs from backroom offices, Victorians deserve to know which jobs, which services, which schools, which programs and which hospitals.

Nowhere is this clearer than in health. We know that health is actually the biggest part of the Victorian budget, so you cannot claim to be cutting $40 billion from our budget without somehow impacting our health and health services. We know what Liberal cuts to our health system look like, because we have seen them before. When they were last in government, they ripped $1 billion out of health. They closed hospitals right across the state – I do not think there was one community that was not touched by these closures and cuts. They closed Koroit Hospital, Macarthur, Mortlake, Eildon, Murtoa, Mildura, Red Cliffs, Clunes, Lismore, Elmore, Waranga, Burwood, Preston and Northcote community hospitals, Beeac and Birregurra. They cut back the Northern Hospital, they closed the Infectious Diseases Hospital at Fairfield, they privatised Latrobe Regional Hospital and they defunded 25 ‍community mental health providers. That is what cuts look like. They are not numbers on a Treasury spreadsheet; they are hospitals, they are beds, they are nurses and doctors and ultimately patients – Victorians.

Now there is the prospect of One Nation holding influence over a Liberal–National coalition government in this state, because we know that the Liberals, to form government, will need to partner with One Nation. One Nation is a party that wants to privatise and Americanise our health system here in Victoria. I can tell you, I have lived in America. I have seen a health system where the first question is not: what kind of care do you need? The first question is: do you have insurance? What will it cover? What can you afford? None of us on this side want that for Victoria. None of us want a parent worrying about whether they can afford to take their child to hospital. I do not want an older Victorian putting off treatment because they are frightened of the bill, and I do not want the size of someone’s bank account dictating and determining the quality of health care they receive. We are proud here in Victoria that our health care is built on fundamentally different principles than that. When you are sick, you should receive the care because you need it, not because you can afford it, and that is a principle that is absolutely worth defending.

But all of that is at risk from the $40 billion in cuts proposed by the Leader of the Opposition, and it is at risk because we have seen it before. We have seen it before, and be in no doubt that the best indicator of future action is looking to past action. Let us compare the records. We have already listed the number and names of the hospitals that they closed. They cut $1 billion from the health system. It is shameful. It is absolutely pathetic. It is the Liberal–National Party. Just imagine, then, what they would do as a Liberal–National–One Nation coalition government.

If we contrast that, we as a government have invested in our hospitals, in our nurses and in our world-class healthcare system, and we are so immensely proud of it. While they closed hospitals, we have built them. We have opened the new Footscray Hospital; the Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Sunshine; the Peninsula University Hospital in Frankston; the Bendigo Hospital; the Victorian Heart Hospital, Australia’s first dedicated heart hospital; and the Orygen youth mental health facility. We have built community hospitals in Mernda, Craigieburn, Cranbourne, Phillip Island, Pakenham, Point Cook and Sunbury, and we have expanded or redeveloped the Angliss Hospital, Maryborough and district hospital, Latrobe Regional Hospital, Wonthaggi Hospital, Goulburn Valley Health, Shepparton hospital, Casey Hospital, Northern Hospital, Monash Medical Centre, University Hospital Geelong and Swan Hill district hospital. We know that work is well underway on the new Melton hospital, with cranes in the sky and visible for miles and miles. We have delivered a record 28.4 per cent wage increase for our nurses and midwives. We are the proud party to have legislated nurse-to-patient ratios here in Victoria, and we have continued to strengthen those ratios. That is the difference between a Labor government that invests in our healthcare system and a Liberal–One Nation coalition that will decimate our healthcare system with $40 billion in cuts and cuts to 30,000 ‍jobs. One approach sees hospitals and health workers as a cost to be cut. We see them as something worth investing in, because behind every hospital budget is a nurse, a paramedic, a doctor, a hospital bed and ultimately a Victorian patient who needs care. That is why this Liberal cuts agenda matters so deeply for Victorians and matters so deeply this November.

There are also other kinds of cuts we need to talk about, and they are cuts to compassion, cuts to care and cuts to the safety net that is there when life gets hard. As I have said, government is never just about maintaining a spreadsheet. It is about whether someone is there when your child is sick and needs help, when your mum needs a hospital bed, when a family is in crisis or when someone is at their most vulnerable.

There is another area I really want to talk about, where the prospect of a Liberal–One Nation coalition is truly terrifying, and that is in the realm of women’s safety and women’s rights. I am deeply concerned about what $40 billion in cuts would mean for women’s rights, women’s safety and women’s health here in Victoria. This is so much more than a budget bottom line. It is about the laws we pass, the services we fund and the priorities and the values we bring to government. One Nation’s formal policy seeks to roll back abortion laws. That is a very clear policy position. Pauline Hanson has described family violence as a two-way street and said that women in family violence situations should just leave. The Australian human rights commissioner and the sex discrimination and children’s rights commissioners rejected these comments outright. We still have not heard the Leader of the Opposition condemn these comments. I call on her to do that. I call on her to condemn these comments. Women escaping violence need somewhere safe to go. They need housing. They need financial security. They need specialist family violence services. They need a government that believes them and a system that invests in them, listens to them and protects them. Labor has spent years and years building that system, from the Royal Commission into Family Violence to reforms that prevent violence, protect victim-survivors and make our justice system safer. Cuts can mean cuts to women’s safety, cuts to support and cuts to the progress that we have fought so hard to achieve.

Then there is community safety, and I know this is a priority for communities right across our electorates. We have seen time and time again those opposite demanding that we spend more time with police, demanding that there is more investment for police and in our police services. But when they were last in government, they cut $130 million from Victoria Police and slashed hundreds of positions, including specialist forensic staff. You cannot claim to be tough on crime whilst your history and your record show that when you have the chance, you cut that spending and you cut that investment. When they talk about cutting back office staff, who do they think picks up that work? We know that we want to see more police out on the beat, out from behind those desks, but when you start cutting those back office positions, who is going to fill them? The police officer who should be on patrol or the investigator who should be pursuing an offender.

They have also called for the scrapping of the violence reduction unit. I recently attended one of the community forums, and who was there putting themselves front and centre in the community photo? The very member who called for the violence reduction unit to be scrapped. Dismissing the violence reduction unit as bureaucracy in Parliament and then turning up to see it all coming together with police, with communities and with local organisations to prevent violence is so hypocritical. The violence reduction unit was formed only last year, only nine months ago, and it is data led, evidence backed and based on really, really successful models that have worked well and worked successfully in Glasgow and London. It is about mentoring, it is about early intervention, it is about working with community and it is about connecting up the services, as I said, based on evidence, data and intelligence to ensure the right programs are going to the right places to prevent crime. This is about taking a public health approach to crime prevention, because as we continue to say, violent crime is never inevitable; it is entirely preventable.

We have always said we believe in serious consequences for serious violence, and we have done that by introducing adult time for violent crime. We have done that by reforming our bail laws by strengthening them. We have seen the impacts that they are having, with record numbers of people on remand and of bail refusals. But we also believe in stopping the violence from happening in the first place. Whilst we have built the biggest police force in the nation, backed by record investment, we have a plan to recruit another 1500 police officers, expand training and get a new police academy up and running in the west – more police, more frontline support, serious consequences for violent crime and early intervention to prevent it, because you cannot ever cut your way to a safer community.

There is another cut I want to talk about. This is a promise that the Leader of the Opposition has made to deliver in her first 100 days if she assumes the office of Premier in this state, and that is that she will cut and rip up treaty – a cut to treaty. The Liberal Party have said they will scrap treaty within their first 100 days. Victoria’s first Statewide Treaty commenced only in December last year. This is not something theoretical. This is something Victoria has legislated, negotiated and entered into in good faith with First Peoples here in Victoria. At its heart is something so very simple. It is about First Peoples having a greater say over the decisions that affect their lives, that affect their families and that affect their communities. It is entirely about self-determination. It is about truth-telling and building a relationship based on truth, justice and respect. Scrapping treaty is not just about cutting. It is about cutting a commitment, a commitment that we have made with our First Peoples and a commitment we have made with all Victorians. It is walking away from that incredible opportunity for First Peoples to have a greater say in decisions that affect their own lives and their own future. You can never talk about compassion and care while cutting self-determination and cutting treaty. You cannot say you want better outcomes for First Nations people here in Victoria while removing the very mechanism that they helped design to achieve that very goal.

What is really at stake this November? The Liberal argument is that government should simply spend less and that we need to find $40 billion in cuts to deliver a budget surplus within the timeframe they have set. But we know that that is not possible without cutting more than 30,000 jobs. Cutting 30,000 ‍jobs is not some abstract concept. As we know, it is about people. It is the nurse, it is the police officer, it is the teacher, it is the child protection worker and it is the social worker. It is the social workers who are part of the community connectors program that work with the violence reduction unit at our train stations across metropolitan Melbourne, with assertive outreach reaching vulnerable people. We have seen those results, with significant reductions in violent incidents at stations like Frankston and Dandenong, where that program has been operating for about two years. It is about people: the police officer, the PSO and the TAFE teacher who is teaching our free TAFE courses. These are the services that Victorians rely on every day.

The $40 billion in cuts that are proposed by the Liberal–One Nation coalition from November are not just some harmless exercise in trimming government spending and government waste. Independent analysis has already confirmed that their public sector savings alone would require 30,000 jobs to disappear. So there are two questions for the Leader of the Opposition – two questions that all Victorians should be asking and all Victorians deserve answers to: what are you going to cut, and who are you prepared to hurt? You cannot cut $40 billion and protect everything. You cannot cut $40 billion and continue to build the schools we need. You cannot cut $40 billion and provide the health care that Victorians deserve. You cannot cut $40 billion and strengthen services for women fleeing family violence. You cannot cut $40 billion and continue to keep communities safe. You cannot cut that deeply without cutting something else too.

I come back to the point about compassion and care and opportunity and dignity, because ultimately governments are about people. This can never be simply a question of numbers. It is ultimately a question of what kind of Victoria we want to be – a Victoria that the Labor Party says should be investing in its people, its schools, its hospitals, its homes, its communities; a Victoria that listens to its First Peoples; a Victoria where women are safe, respected and equal; a Victoria where a child’s opportunities are not determined by their postcode or how much their parents earn; and a Victoria that believes governments should be there when people need them most. Cuts of this magnitude, of $40 billion, do not happen somewhere else to somebody else. They reach into our hospitals, our classrooms, our homes and our communities. They mean fewer people providing the services that we all rely on. They mean opportunities will disappear. They mean people who need help being told there is less help available. That is where my values are fundamentally different to the opposition leader and the Liberal–National–One Nation coalition.

We believe in compassion. We believe in looking after each other. We believe every child and young person deserves opportunity, every woman deserves safety, every person deserves dignity and every Victorian deserves a government that does not walk away when things get difficult. When the answer to every problem is cut, you just cut. Where the cuts are cuts to compassion, cuts to care, cuts to opportunity and cuts to dignity, that is not the Victoria I believe in. I believe here in Victoria we have a responsibility to each other and to one another. I believe in a Victoria that is strong enough to be kind, prosperous enough to care and confident enough to leave no-one behind. That is a Victoria worth fighting for this November.

 Sarah CONNOLLY (Laverton) (11:11): I rise to speak on the motion put forward this morning. There was a little pause there while I got up, because I thought those opposite might have a speaker who might want to stand up and talk about how they are not going to be cutting over 30,000 jobs. But there you go, there is still no-one in the chamber to reject this motion before the house, which just makes me so much more worried for Victorians this coming November if ever we were to see the horror of a One Nation–Liberal coalition take power here in this place.

I am really glad to speak on this motion. I want my community to hear me loud and clear when we talk about those opposite planning to cut over 30,000 jobs here in this state and the impact it will have on every single Victorian, because those cuts are going to come from the frontline essential services that Victorians rely on day in, day out. I have to say, westies absolutely rely on these sorts of services.

What I will say and what I will start with is that I was not surprised to see that number of 31,700 jobs being proposed to be cut with the $30 billion worth of cuts that those opposite will make to the state budget if elected this November. I was not surprised, because I am one of the members who sat here in this place and fought tooth and nail to ensure that Victoria got its fair share during the one-in-100-year pandemic that was COVID, which hit this state, and we were hit worse than any other state. We had to fight tooth and nail even to get the vaccinations that would save lives in this state, because we had a federal Liberal coalition government at the time. I remember a guy called Josh Frydenberg, the former member for Kooyong. Remember him? That famous federal Liberal Treasurer who I think now works for – remind me, who does he work for?

A member: Goldman Sachs.

Sarah CONNOLLY: Of course, yes – which is maybe where the member for Kew hopes that her future career will go, following her former boss, if she does not make it through this election. But what I will say is that the member for Kew sat alongside the member for Kooyong while he was the federal Treasurer and made decisions that affected every single Victorian in this state. He refused to give us money, refused to help keep businesses here in this state open and afloat and refused to send us the vaccines, for God’s sake. That was a man who said, ‘I’m proudly a Victorian,’ but he was never for Victoria in its deepest, darkest hour.

I would say that the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Kew, pretends to be for Victorians. She pretends to have a plan – ‘I’ve got a plan. I’ve got a plan for a fresh start.’ Well, I would say to the member for Kew and anyone thinking about voting for a One Nation–Liberal coalition this November, that is not a fresh start. That is a typical Liberal coalition government plan to cut and close and create chaos here in the state of Victoria, inflicting pain, inflicting misery and further driving up the cost-of-living crisis that we are experiencing here and across the country at the moment. This is a typical Liberal plan, and it has been called out independently by the Australia Institute. I read that report – I think it was last sitting week – and I have to say I am not easily shocked but I was gobsmacked.

It must have been a dismal day for the member for Kew, the Leader of the Opposition, to read in black and white that $40 billion worth of cuts would result in the loss of 31,700 jobs. Do you know what I did the next day after Parliament finished? I went out doorknocking in Braybrook. Braybrook is a pretty tough suburb. We are pretty tough people in Braybrook. I happened to knock on the door of a public servant, and she wanted to talk to me about these cuts. She knew the number. She did not know ‘just over 30,000’; she knew the exact number – the 31,700 job cuts that it would inflict. She asked if one would be hers, and I said – and this is a true story; you will like this one; my kids like this one – ‘Look, I can’t guarantee that it won’t be your job, but what I can guarantee you is that under a Liberal–One Nation government you’ll probably have to bring your own toilet paper to work. It will be an episode out of Utopia because the cuts will be that deep. You might keep your job, but you will need to bring your own dunny paper.’ That is what a One Nation–Liberal coalition will deliver for Victoria.

The minister – the previous speaker, the member for Carrum – talked about the impact that this will have on health services, on hospitals and on our schools. Then she spoke directly to what it will mean for women escaping and fleeing family violence. We have talked just a little bit this week about the absolute tragedy that continues to unfold – the scourge in our community, not just in Victoria but across the country – of how many women are harmed and killed by their partner and by men here in Victoria and Australia. The member for Carrum is right in asking the question of what will happen if those opposite take government. How many jobs will be cut in the domestic violence and family violence sector? That is a sector that we have tried to build up to ensure that young men here in this state are being raised to have respectful relationships and to understand how to respect girls and women, because the royal commission found that one of the reasons why there is such terrible violence and murder happening in too many homes across this country is because boys are growing up not respecting women. We have tried to build up this sector from the ground up to prevent violence against women. How many job cuts will happen in that sector? I am not even going to begin to imagine, and I do not think anyone would be surprised by what that will result in. I notice that those opposite are not here in the house, in this place, to even interject to say that that would not happen.

We talk about the cuts, the closures and the chaos, and I do not say this while making it up, because this is what happened last time they were in government. I talk to my community a lot about cuts and what the $40 billion worth of cuts will mean not just in terms of jobs but also in terms of essential infrastructure that people in Melbourne’s west need. Without a doubt the rebuild of Tottenham station will be off the table.

A member interjected.

Sarah CONNOLLY: It is time for Tottie under Labor. Tottie will be timed out under a One Nation–Liberal government. It will not go ahead. That station has been desperate for an upgrade. There are many things that I could describe and say about that station, but what I will say is it is much loved, it is overly loved and it is time for Tottie. That station does not just need a face lift and a lick of paint; it needs a rebuild, and under Labor that is exactly what it is going to get. Do you know what else is going to be cut? The rebuild of Albion station. Albion is just a couple of kilometres down the line from Tottenham, and that station is another much-loved, well-loved, overly loved station that is in desperate need of not a face lift but an entire rebuild. And under Labor it turns out it is time for Albion.

Daniela De Martino interjected.

Sarah CONNOLLY: Albi – well, that is going to be a catchy phrase. I can use that out on the hustings. They are two stations that have needed an upgrade for a long time. That will not happen under a Liberal–One Nation coalition. Do you know what else is likely to be cut? The Sunshine superhub. They tried to cut that at the last federal election, and luckily Labor came through. They tried to cut the Sunshine superhub. They will build Melbourne Airport rail, but they will cut the Sunshine superhub. What westies know is the Sunshine superhub is the gateway and the enabler of electrification to Melton, which is underway under Labor, and the future electrification of the Wyndham Vale line. But those opposite, the blockers and the cutters, the party of chaos, would cut the Sunshine superhub. You know the other thing they are going to cut if elected – and this was an announcement made, much to my shock and horror and maybe his, but it slipped out of his mouth and he has not retracted it – they intend to cut the essential services on the Wyndham Vale line. That means when you turn up for a train, you will not get on one, because they will not be turning up that often and they will be too crowded to get on. Whereas under Labor we have increased capacity on that line with the nine-car carriage VLocity trains that will be running more often to take more people where they need to go and get them there a whole lot sooner. This is a party of cuts and chaos – 31,700 jobs and counting. They would bring a terrible, terrible, terrible time for Victorians if elected to government this November. Every Victorian needs to be aware of what is on the line.

 Danny PEARSON (Essendon) (11:21): What a delight it is to be here, standing in this great place to speak on this motion on my last day in this house. I did consult the standing orders, and I noticed that in the 1970s they were amended to allow men to wear a safari suit. In my first term I did say to the member for Sunbury that on my last day I would wear a safari suit. The safari suit is at the drycleaners, but nonetheless, baby blue has come out one last time. But it is a delight to be able to speak on this because I was reflecting upon budgets. Indeed if you look back at the history of public sector finances, you really must go back to Augustus. Augustus created the aerarium Saturni, which was the city’s own budgetary fund which was housed in the Temple of Saturn. Separately he created fiscus, from which we now derive fiscal policy, which was under the emperor’s direct control. So again I must say we have much to be grateful to the Romans for.

Katie Hall: What have the Romans ever done for us?

Danny PEARSON: Well, where would you start, and where would you end? I would need an extension of time, I think. But in terms of that – and I say this from the perspective of having been the finance minister for six years in this great state – we made it very clear in the time of the pandemic that we would look at developing a fiscal strategy. The first step was to create jobs, and I think if you look at the hundreds of thousands of jobs that have been created since that time, that demonstrates that. The second point was to look at having a cash surplus, and that was achieved in the 2022–23 financial year. For the benefit of my colleagues, a cash surplus is where money comes in and that is more than the money that goes out. The third step was to look at having an operating surplus, which means you make allowance for depreciation – this point is very important. The fourth is to stabilise debt as a proportion of the economy, and the fifth step is to reduce debt as a proportion of the economy.

Why that is important – and I will just seek the house’s indulgence for a moment – when you look at having that cash surplus, effectively that is what is used towards your capital expenditure. I give the Leader of the Opposition credit. Unlike Jeff Kennett, who told people no-one was going to lose their job and everything was going to be fine – it was just business as usual – to the Leader of the Opposition’s credit, she has been honest. She has said very clearly what she wants to do, which is to unleash $40 billion worth of cuts and to look at having basically a neutral cash position by 2032 – that is, once you look at the cash surplus, what your capital expenditure is. So indulge me for a moment. If we go back to my favourite budget paper of all, budget paper 5 – for those who want to take themselves seriously in this caper, it is the only game in town – I refer the house’s attention to page 13 of budget paper 5. You look at the fiscal aggregates and net cash flow from operating activities: $6.477 billion for this current financial year, going out to $6.538 billion in 2029–30. What the Leader of the Opposition is saying is that when you look at the tax cuts that she is going to impose, coupled with the savings cuts, I would assume they would roughly approximate and cancel each other out. So we are sacking a whole lot of people and we are reducing taxes. That is in their ideological wheelhouse.

But then you look at it and think, okay, that means that in a capital expenditure sense you are spending no more than about $6.5 billion in 2032. Now think about that for a moment. The last time Victoria was spending that sort of money on capital expenditure was back in 2010. By 2050 we are going to have a population the size of London. It is not going to be possible. The Leader of the Opposition can say these things, but given the combination of what her party room will demand in the event that she wins, coupled with the fact that we are just going to be growing at a great rate of knots, it is not possible and is not feasible. I say this because I have spent years looking at this issue. I have spent years trying to find a way of making sure that we can faithfully adhere to the fiscal strategy. It has even been opined that I have got the fiscal strategy tattooed on my body, and those who have said it probably think it has got a level of truth to it. It has been ingrained in me. When you think about that from that perspective, we have stuck and adhered to this, and it resulted in the fact that we are the only jurisdiction on the eastern seaboard with an operating surplus – the only one. New South Wales has talked about having an operating surplus. For the last five years they have said they will have an operating surplus in two years time, and it has not happened. If you look at Queensland, with the expenditure they are embarking upon, they have got budget deficits as far as the eye can see. Indeed if you look at their debt levels at the end of the forward estimates, they will probably be exceeding us with their level of debt. So it is just simply not possible.

With this level of global uncertainty, there is a need to make sure that the public sector continues to provide that ballast in the state economy. The public sector is worth about one-seventh of the state economy. You need to make sure that you have still got a good, solid basis, and I think that because of the fiscal strategy that we have embarked upon, we have got that ballast. I think that what I would suggest to those opposite – and I know that they would have a an ideologically different view on this ‍– is that the way forward is to grow the economy. Yes, of course the fiscal aggregates clearly state that by the end of the forward estimates, debt will be at $199 billion. But it is patently obvious that if you have an economy that is the size of, say, $800 billion or $900 billion, it is far easier to sustain that level of debt and service that level of debt than if you have got an economy of $500 billion in size.

If you want to lift material living standards in the economy, it comes down to the three ‘p’s – population growth, participation rate and productivity. We have got one of the fastest growing economies, from the point of view of population, in the country, and that is a good thing. I think it is really important that we have this honest conversation with the community as we head into November as to the sort of Victoria we want in 2050. I want us to be a progressive, kind, welcoming society that recognises that we have got a responsibility in the global community to welcome people, particularly, for example, from the Pacific Islands, who are going to be impacted by climate change, or who are seeking refuge from war, like the people from Ukraine. I think that is a really good thing that we should be doing, and we should have that debate about how that should go.

The second ‘p’ is for the participation rate. Victoria has got an above-average participation rate, and I suspect that a big factor of that is the ability for people to work from home at higher rates here in Victoria than in other states. That level of flexibility makes it easier for primary caregivers to go into the workforce and to be able to participate more fulsomely.

The third comes down to productivity, and that is exactly why, when I was the minister, I wrote the AI mission statement, because I could see the way in which AI has the ability to not only engage in process redesign but play to our competitive strengths. In Victoria we are very good at food and fibre, as the Minister for Agriculture at the table knows only too well. We are very good at health, pharmaceuticals and medical technology. We are very good at transnational education. So the real smarts in all of this are going to be about how we actually embrace and adopt AI in process redesign, to play to those competitive strengths and to look at expanding and improving our economic output. These are the things that we should be looking at doing.

The concern I have with the plan of those opposite is that they will lay waste in relation to the state’s economy. I think that there is a role for the public sector in playing that really important role and providing the services that people rely and depend upon but also in making sure that we have got a workforce that is gainfully employed, that is going out to work and that can have some level of confidence that it is not going to be sacked on some whim. I think people need to be really clear about this. At the end of the day, I was involved in six budgets, and the deliberative process you have to go through to get a budget formulated, prepared and delivered is exhaustive. The Leader of the Opposition has indicated she wants to have a mini-budget by December. The only way I would suspect that the Leader of the Opposition can unveil a mini-budget in December is just to slash and burn and cut and close. That is the only way that that can be done. I think that that is a very concerning development.

Where we find ourselves now is we have just got to be really open and honest with the Victorian community about the sort of Victoria we will be living in under a Liberal–National–One Nation government. I fear that it will be harsher, it will be crueller and it will cause significant damage to the state’s standing. Indeed I fear for what will happen in terms of the fiscal strategy. We have got to make sure that we get the balance right. A state economy is a finely tuned machine, in my experience. The way forward is to give people hope, to give people confidence and optimism, to grow and expand the economy in the same way Augustus did when he led the magnificent Roman Empire. I have to say, member for Footscray, we owe the Romans a great deal.

 Gary MAAS (Narre Warren South) (11:31): Jeez, isn’t it terrific to follow the member for Essendon. What a wild ride he takes us on every time he rises in this place – a wonderful ride, but a wild ride nonetheless. He went from safari suits to budget paper 5 – wow! – and finished off with some truths from the Roman Empire as well. It is interesting that you mentioned the safari suit. There used to be a weatherman on the ABC, a fellow by the name of Edwin Maher, who to used to really rock the safari suit, sometimes with a pith helmet as well. It was the glory days. But jeez, the member for Essendon speaks with passion, doesn’t he? Most of us had to wade through the puddle of tears that he left behind yesterday –

Danny Pearson interjected.

Gary MAAS: No, but it was a beautiful and very heartfelt speech, and your presence is certainly going to be missed in this place, member for Essendon. But I should probably get to the motion that is on the notice paper. I will just say, because it is a fact, that those opposite just do not support working people and – has this already been said? – they are not even making the effort to stand up in this place and rebut what we are putting forward here. We do know what they support, though: they support cuts to public sector jobs, more than 30,000 of them. We know the other thing they support: it has to be One Nation, right?

There will be $40 billion in cuts to frontline services. We all know you cannot cut public sector jobs without cutting the crucial services that people rely upon – the hospitals, schools and those other frontline services. What is that going to mean in practical effect? It is going to mean longer hospital waiting times. It is going to mean fewer nurses and fewer hospital beds at our local Casey Hospital. It is going to threaten the wonderful healthcare options that this government has delivered to make sure that no matter where you live you can get medical assistance when and where you need it. This includes our urgent care clinics, the fantastic Virtual Emergency Department and of course our promise to deliver 10 free dental clinics. It will mean communities that are less safe, because you cannot cut $40 billion out of the budget without cutting the police on the front line who help keep us safe.

It means cuts to upgrades in schools and no more building of new schools. The now opposition leader made this clear in her Sky News interview on 16 August 2024. She said that current spending is:

… simply not sustainable … Schools aren’t going to be built or even fixed.

That is not a slip-up, that is an actual quote. The building and upgrading of local schools means so much for every single one of our communities, including mine in Narre Warren South. We recently opened the Kala Primary School in Cranbourne North, a part of my community. It has not only given that growing suburb in my electorate a state-of-the-art local public school but formed a new community for so many in that area, and it has taken enrolment pressures off many other nearby schools, one in particular which has had some overcrowding issues. What does that mean? It means that for the kids and the teachers at that school and a nearby school – Lyndhurst Secondary College, which is currently getting a $13.6 million upgrade for a double gym, food tech spaces, an auditorium and music rooms – those sorts of investments continue to support the learning outcomes for students well into the future.

The other thing that the member for Kew said – it was in her first speech in this place – is that business creates jobs, not government. I think John Maynard Keynes would probably have had a very different view to that, because certainly other Labor governments in this place have been known to pump-prime the economy. But if that is your sole way of creating jobs, cutting them is not going to assist. The Victorian government funds our nurses, our teachers, our paramedics, our police and our emergency services. You cannot decrease income and increase expenditure. Something has to give, and that is cuts to the public service. As they say, the math certainly ain’t mathing. The member for Kew also details cuts to public sector roles across 46 Victorian government departments and agencies, including the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, who do critical child protection work and provide housing support helping our most vulnerable; the Department of Transport and Planning, who keep our public transport system running with buses, trains and trams; and the Department of Education, who run our schools and teach our kids. Victorians cannot afford the risk of a Liberal–One Nation government, because come November it is a choice between Labor’s plan to fight for working people or the Liberal–One Nation plan to cut services and hurt working people.

In the short time I have left I want to speak to this Carroll Labor government’s commitment to delivering free dental clinics if elected. I believe this goes right to the heart of what a Labor government believes in and indeed what Labor governments should deliver and have delivered. Our promise of 10 ‍free dental clinics will save families hundreds of dollars through a significant shake-up to our dental system, bringing welcome relief to families across my community of Narre Warren South. These free dental clinics will help break down the cost barrier that many face to getting the care they need, providing urgent dental care, check-ups and emergency help. They will operate similarly to our successful urgent care clinics. You will be able to walk in and get the care that you need without the bill and without an appointment. Recently, together with the member for Narre Warren North –

Belinda Wilson interjected.

Gary MAAS: yes, that is you – and with the Premier, we went over to the Narre Warren urgent care clinic. I know that the Premier was impressed to see that urgent care clinic in operation, the number of community members that it was servicing and just the incredible work that our dentists are doing there and that doctors are doing there as well. The people of Narre Warren South and Narre Warren North know just how vital dental health is for people’s overall health as well. But they also know the strain that it can put on the family budget. So this will be a change in our healthcare system that will help people on the ground. It is a structural cost-of-living support and will make a real difference, and only a Labor government is going to make it happen. Labor’s 10 free public dental clinics will also create new jobs across the state as part of the $230 million investment, and that includes 180 full-time equivalent roles created to operate all 10 clinics.

To come back to what I said at the beginning of this debate, it is only Labor that fights for working people, building a strong dental workforce and delivering free dental care that saves families hundreds of dollars. We already know the impact our Smile Squad is having. It is helping families save on dentist fees by offering free dental check-ups in our state schools. A Liberal–One Nation coalition would put all of that at risk with their $40 billion in cuts, forcing families to pay the price.

To finish up, I will just note that that is but one example of the services that the coalition will cut. It will be the same across the board, unfortunately, throughout every portfolio and through every department. The services that our communities have come to expect will be wiped out. They will just simply no longer be there. With no other avenues or option for help, those cuts will just leave an empty void, with people having nowhere else to turn.

 Katie HALL (Footscray) (11:41): What a pleasure it is to rise to speak to this motion. Indeed the member for Narre Warren South is correct. Listening to the member for Essendon in this place is a unique joy that we have. I was going to send the member for Essendon a text message outlining what the Romans have done for us: the aqueduct, sanitation improved, of course wine and roads. But rather than quoting Monty Python in this place, I will get back to the motion at hand.

I spoke yesterday during the grievance debate about the risks we can anticipate with a Liberal–One Nation government for my community of Footscray, where we have delivered transformational investment into infrastructure, such as the magnificent $1.5 billion new Footscray Hospital. We have free TAFE at Victoria University. We have upgraded every government school in Melbourne’s inner west. We know what happened during the Kennett era and the era of the Baillieu–Napthine government. We had cuts and closures. Footscray High is a great example of how it does not take long to tear something down, but it can take a hell of a long time to rebuild it. Footscray High was a great local school on Wembley Avenue in Yarraville. It closed in the Kennett era. For decades afterwards the community campaigned to bring that school back. Thanks to the government, I have been proud to be a part of the advocacy of previous members for Footscray and indeed the member for Williamstown, who led the community campaign for a new Footscray High. We have invested tens of millions of dollars into Footscray High, which is a fantastic three-campus school. Of course the young people of Footscray did not matter to the Kennett government. They were happy to close that school and sell it off to developers.

One of the things I really worry about is one of the most exceptional opportunities we have in Melbourne’s inner west, and that is the site of the old Footscray Hospital. I speak a lot about the new Footscray Hospital. But the old Footscray Hospital of course was called the people’s hospital because money was raised by residents of Footscray to buy that piece of land. Now that the old Footscray Hospital is entering a stage of demolition, it will take two years for that site to be demolished and for an environmental audit. I worry about what the Liberal Party would do if they got their hands on that parcel of land, if they got their hands on the old Footscray Hospital site. We all saw what the member for Bulleen did when he was planning minister. We saw what he did in Footscray, and that was to approve towers hanging over the Maribyrnong River with no developer contributions. Residents were living in these very large apartment developments with gravel roads. Again, Labor had to come in and clean up that mess by retrospectively requiring the developers to pay for basic essential services within the estate that they had built. What will happen at the old Footscray Hospital if the Liberal Party and One Nation get their hands on it? This enormous opportunity we have for public open space, for high-quality social housing and affordable housing is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build something really, really special in Footscray. It should not be sold off at the highest price to the highest bidder, but I know that is exactly what the Liberal Party will do and residents in my community need to be aware of that.

As the member for Laverton mentioned, we have a great opportunity with Melbourne Airport rail to rebuild Tottenham station. The member for Laverton and I have had a great time running our Time for Tottie campaign. It was so exciting to see that the station would be rebuilt in its entirety so we can finally get a rail line out to the airport – that would be gone. There are so many risks with the cuts and closure and chaos that we know will come.

I was speaking to some local residents about cuts and closure, and I was speaking in the context of the new Footscray Hospital. In the past it has not been beyond those opposite to privatise health care. Again, we had to clean up the mess in Mildura to bring that hospital back into public hands. It is not beyond them to do it again. The nurses and hardworking staff at Western Health know that our advocacy for public health can always be relied on, and I am not sure about those opposite. That is, I suppose, one of the most challenging things with $40 billion in cuts coming. Which aspects of the public service will be cut? We have just, thankfully, negotiated for Victorian teachers to become the highest paid in the nation. Coming from a family of teachers and nurses, that is something that I am enormously proud of. But we know that things like fair pay and conditions will be again under threat if the Liberal Party and One Nation are to have the great honour of governing this state. For the public servants who live in my electorate, that is something that they should be aware of heading into this election, that a mini-budget before Christmas could indeed be a very bad Christmas present.

There is so much that we have secured, so much that we have delivered and so much damage that we have undone. When I speak to people in my community, I am very proud to represent a very progressive part of Melbourne. We have not forgotten what the Liberal Party did last time they were in government in my community. The residents of Joseph’s Road in particular – our newest residents in Footscray – deserved all of the infrastructure that comes with buying a home. They deserved footpaths and sealed roads, and they deserved public open space, but over the last eight years we have had to try and retrofit that into my community. For the old Footscray Hospital, that is the risk that we are facing again, and that is what I am going to be speaking to my community about in the lead-up to this election. Only Labor will be able to deliver high-quality public open space and social housing for the people of Footscray. Otherwise, that site will be sold off to the highest bidder.

 Pauline RICHARDS (Cranbourne) (11:51): How lovely to see you in the chair, Acting Speaker Addison, overseeing this really important debate on this extraordinary notice of motion that has been brought to us today, which really speaks to the foundational battle of values, ideals and ideas that elevate this important place that we have the great honour to serve in. It is a place where perhaps we can see Parliament at its best as we really think about and reflect on what is at risk as we sit here on this potentially last day – actually, not potentially – of this parliamentary sitting term. I am so pleased to be able to follow on from my colleagues and note that there are never enough discussions about what the Romans have ever done for us and to hear the reflections of the member for Essendon. Always he elevates us all with his insights into whatever it is that he is reading and whatever other insights he has on what the history of democracy brings to us in our role here.

I am very pleased to have the opportunity as well to reflect on what Cranbourne has been able to achieve – not just in the last eight years, alongside the roles that I and my colleagues in my electorate office have had, but also in the previous period, under the unforgettable and extraordinary Jude Perera, who preceded me as the member for Cranbourne – and reflect again on what is at risk and what happened last time the Liberal Party held the seat of Cranbourne. We know and I have obviously illuminated in the chamber many times the impact that the Liberal Party had on Cranbourne last time when they did not just hold Cranbourne but cut the ambulance service.

I would like to take a moment to take this chamber and the people in this community on a tour of Cranbourne. I know, Acting Speaker, you have been on a couple of tours of Cranbourne as you have found your way through the streets of our beautiful community and my beautiful neighbourhood. If I were to leave my community and my home in Cranbourne South, if somebody was on a tour with me, it would not be many metres up the road that people would be able to see one of the first really important pieces of infrastructure that was able to be established thanks to the SES volunteers, and that is the sparkling new Cranbourne SES site. This is a beautiful facility that our volunteers deserve. Not only is it a beautiful facility but we have acquired land in Devon Meadows for a second new SES. This is all at risk if those opposite with their coalition partners in One Nation are given the opportunity to serve our community on the government benches.

In my community of Cranbourne you do not have to look far to see what government can achieve. You can see it when you drive over the new Camms Road bridge. When you drive to the left and look you will see Cranbourne West Secondary College. There are over 2000 students at this beautiful new school that is just about to have only its sixth year in operation. It is a school that is identified often in media in the Herald Sun and the Age for its extraordinary NAPLAN results and achievements and the extraordinary way that the school leadership at Cranbourne West Secondary College has guided those students to achieve those amazing results, including those ATAR results for last year’s VCE students.

Further down the road we have got Quarters Primary School, another brand new school, and not far behind where I live, Botanic Ridge Primary School. These are schools that did not exist before I was able to take up this role in this place. Further along the road, as I take you on this metaphorical journey, you will see St Peter’s College on the left. St Peter’s has two campuses and they have been refurbished with the support of the Andrews, then Allan and now Carroll Labor government, with Premier Carroll, then in the role of Minister for Education, ensuring that these schools are well resourced with performing arts centres, new classrooms and everything else that is needed.

As we journey further and head east through Cranbourne there is a children’s health and wellbeing hub where our young people can get access to free clinical care from psychiatrists, from psychologists and from occupational therapists. These services are fundamental to ensuring that we have a healthy, strong, aspirational community in Cranbourne. And there is the Orange Door. Something that is a matter of great pride for me is that, whilst identifying that family violence is the leading cause of criminal activity for so much of my community and that my community has some of the highest rates of family violence in the state, we have a beautiful Orange Door that serves our community and ensures women and children get access to care and advice and all of the other complex elements that can support people experiencing family violence.

No contribution of mine would be complete without recognising the jewel in the crown of Cranbourne, the community hospital. This community hospital is a three-storey public hospital. We have ophthalmology, dental and dialysis. We have mental health services and we have an urgent care clinic coming soon. I am going to take a moment to acknowledge and recognise our nursing and midwifery community across Cranbourne and say how proud I am to have those extraordinary members of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation staff at the Cranbourne Community Hospital. There are those in the other place, in particular Mrs Hermans, who say this is not a real hospital. There are real clinicians working in that real hospital and there is real surgery going on in that real hospital. We know that with $40 billion of cuts and a decimation of our public service workforce there is no way that the Cranbourne Community Hospital is safe, because Mrs Hermans has said the quiet bit out loud. She says it is not a real hospital. They have got form. It is in their DNA. By the time they try to scramble for frontbench places, if they are given the gift of government, we know that they will not be able to help themselves, and the Cranbourne Community Hospital will be one of the first casualties of the cruel cuts that those opposite want to inflict on the Cranbourne community. Those opposite appear to have a philosophical view that government support is unnecessary and that the money will trickle down. We believe in government support for our communities.

With your indulgence I am going to take a moment, while I have the opportunity, to thank the electorate office staff who are continuing to fight for Cranbourne and fight to make sure our community has access to the best services available. I am going to take a moment to thank the iconic Jamie Trotter, known everywhere for his commitment to service. He knows everyone’s names, he cares for them and he gives them all of his attention. I am so grateful to both Margie Raman and Alison Edwards, who have been with me for so long. Both are extraordinary, hardworking and the keel that keeps our office afloat and without whom our community would be poorer and less connected. And to our younger crew, Tess Robb, Vasu Kaushal and Sanjay Kandel, your energy and compassion have added fire to the bellies. We are very lucky to have them.

I am going to use these last couple of minutes to say something about the way my family have supported me for the last eight years and will be continuing to support me, as I intend to continue in this role. I am very proud of my daughters Erin Richards, Ruby Richards and Sophie Richards, incredibly supportive and loyal young people who have given me amazing love and nursed me through all of my troubles and all of my successes.

And of course the beloved Kyle Leslie, who is my daughter’s beloved partner, I am proud to have added to my family. I am going to, with the house’s indulgence, say how grateful I am to my husband, Paul Kearsley, who lifts his eyes to the sky to check if there are any cool birds but always keeps my feet grounded. And to Paul’s lovely children and the children I acquired, Thomas, Ollie and Maddie Kearsley. I am grateful to all of them for everything.

 Ella GEORGE (Lara) (12:01): I rise today to speak on the motion:

That this house notes that the Liberals have committed to cutting $40 billion from the budget, requiring at least 30,000 public sector jobs to be cut, devastating the frontline services Victorians rely on, meaning:

(a)   longer hospital wait times;

(b)   fewer nurses and hospital beds;

(c)   less police; and

(d)   cuts to local infrastructure.

Thirty thousand public sector jobs – let that number sink in. Thirty thousand public sector jobs will be cut under a One Nation–Liberal coalition. That is 30,000 hardworking Victorians who are relying on a public sector job to support their families. Sometimes those opposite forget that behind every job they plan to cut is a person or a family – a hardworking family that will be devastated and thrown into financial uncertainty when the One Nation–Liberal coalition comes smashing through, slashing 30,000 jobs. Analysis shows that this means at least 1500 workers across regional Victoria will be cut. Across regional Victoria this cuts plan means more than 430 workers would go in Geelong and the Barwon south-west region. More than 350 workers will be ripped out of Ballarat and the Grampians region. More than 260 workers would be cut in Bendigo and the Loddon Mallee region. More than 230 workers will be slashed in Gippsland, and more than 200 workers will be axed in Wodonga and the Hume region. I know that in Geelong we cannot afford to have 430 jobs cut from our public sector. These are hardworking Victorians and they are doing jobs that are often really tough.

I think that when we have this conversation about the 30,000 jobs that the One Nation–Liberal coalition plan to cut, it is easy for those opposite to make the argument that this is just about saving money without talking about what impact cutting 30,000 jobs has on our communities. Let us talk about that. Let us talk about some of the professions that they plan to slash. Public sector workers are child protection workers protecting our most vulnerable children.

Cindy McLeish: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, on facts, the member for Lara is absolutely misleading the house with her information, which is incorrect.

Ros Spence: Further to the point of order, Acting Speaker, on the contribution being made by the member, the issue raised by the member for Eildon is a matter for debate.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Wayne Farnham): It is pretty well expected that everyone on their feet is to be factual. The member is being relevant to the motion.

Ella GEORGE: I am being relevant and factual. To those opposite, I say: which jobs are you cutting? I think that is something Victorians would like to know. Member for Eildon, I have a lot of time and respect for you. I do enjoy the points of order that the member for Eildon raises against me, and I look forward to continuing in this place next year alongside the member for Eildon.

Public sector workers are social workers who are making sure that children have what they need to get to school and continue their learning. They are counsellors helping vulnerable children with the trauma that they have experienced. What about allied health workers in our mental health system? They are the social workers and the occupational therapists who provide wraparound support for Victorians experiencing mental ill health – Victorians who need that support and who would suffer if those jobs were cut. Public sector workers work in our court system, like family violence practitioners. Family violence practitioners support women and children on what is one of the most challenging experiences – navigating the court system when they have experienced family violence. They are there for women and children to help them report family violence and apply for intervention orders. They sit with victim-survivors of family violence while they wait for their court hearings to start and while they give evidence. They provide invaluable support to people who desperately need it.

Those are some of the jobs at risk under a One Nation–Liberal coalition when they have a plan to slash 30,000 jobs. They have said that there will be no cuts to frontline services, but if there is a plan to cut one in seven public sector jobs, then you cannot avoid cutting frontline jobs. I think the real questions here are: how many teachers will they sack? Or will they go after Victoria’s hardworking nurses first? How many nurses will be sacked from Geelong hospital, how many dental nurses from Barwon Health North and how many radiographers and imaging specialists and allied health workers? These are real jobs, and the people in these jobs rely on them, as do their families. I would remind those opposite again that behind every job that a One Nation–Liberal coalition plans to slash is a person and a working family that relies on that wage to pay the bills and put food on their table.

Every time I visit Barwon Health North it is full – full of local residents coming in for their appointments and full of our amazing healthcare workers that work in Geelong’s north. You can go to Barwon Health North for dental services. They run an emergency dental clinic every morning of the week. You can go there for dialysis services, which people rely on. There is medical imaging and an urgent care clinic. Hundreds of residents rely on the world-class health services at Barwon Health North every single week. Under a One Nation–Liberal coalition plan to cut $40 billion in funding from public services and 30,000 public sector jobs, those services that the people of Geelong’s north rely on are gone, because you cannot slash 30,000 jobs without slashing the healthcare services that people in Geelong’s north rely on. This is a real One Nation–Liberal plan which will hurt working people in Geelong’s north and devastate the services that they and millions of Victorians rely on. If you do not believe me that the One Nation–Liberal coalition have a plan to cut 30,000 jobs, then let me quote what the member for Kew herself has said. On 16 August 2024, live on Sky News, she said current spending is:

… simply not sustainable … That means that 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.

Cuts to hospitals, cuts to schools and cuts to frontline services. That was not a slip of the tongue, that was the truth, because that is who they are. Cuts are in the Liberal Party DNA. In her first speech to Parliament, the member for Kew said: ‘It is business that creates jobs, not government.’ But I would like to remind the member for Kew that it is the Victorian government that funds nurses, teachers, paramedics, police, firefighters and child protection workers. These are real jobs with real people relying on them and real working families that need that wage. These are real services that millions of Victorians like those living in Geelong’s north depend on, and they would be cut under a One Nation–Liberal coalition plan. They have even outlined it in their plan, which details cuts to public sector roles across 46 Victorian government departments and agencies, including the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, who do critical child protection work; the Department of Transport and Planning, who keep our public transport system running; and the Department of Education, who run our schools and teach our kids.

Cutting 30,000 jobs is unacceptable. It is simply disgraceful. But it is something we should know to expect from the Liberal Party, who have shown Victorians time and time again that when they are in government all they do is cut. I remember the Kennett years. My mum was a state school teacher, and I remember the uncertainty when state schools were being cut, when teachers were being sacked and when the schools were being closed and sold off by the Liberal Party. I remember the last time the Liberal Party were in power, when they went to war with our ambos and crippled our health system.

In the time that I have left I would like to touch on the impact on young people and why this is so important. I am raising this today because I am meeting with members of my northern Geelong youth advisory council to listen to them and to hear from them, because it is so important that we hear the voices of young people. The decisions that politicians make in this place impact young people, and I am proud to have a youth council made up of representatives from local schools, including Northern Bay College, North Geelong Secondary College, Lara Secondary College and Western Heights College – schools that this Labor government is proud to support and young people that this Labor government is proud to support. I am deeply concerned about this plan to cut 30,000 jobs out of our public sector, and I condemn it.

 Martha HAYLETT (Ripon) (12:11): I rise to speak on this motion, and it is fantastic to do so immediately after the member for Lara. That was a great contribution, and she is a dear friend of mine. Thank you so much for everything you have done for the electorate of Lara.

As we have come to the final sitting day of this parliamentary term, I have been thinking a lot about what brought me here and what we have achieved over the past four years for the people of Ripon. When I think about why I am here, my mind always goes back to where I grew up. I was just a country kid from a small town. Becoming a member of Parliament was not something I ever imagined for myself. I got my first job stacking shelves at the local IGA when I was 14 years old. Like so many country kids, I learned pretty quickly the value of hard work, pitching in and looking out for your neighbours. My mum worked with people who were doing it tough, people who often felt invisible and people who felt like nobody was listening. She taught me something that I have carried with me my whole life. She used to say, ‘You have to be in it to change it, not stand on the sidelines and not complain from a distance. Get involved, roll up your sleeves and be part of the solution.’ Even now I hear those words in the back of my mind almost every day. They are a big part of why I decided to put my hand up and run for Parliament, and they are a big part of why representing Ripon has been the honour of my life.

When I travel across our electorate today, I do not just see buildings and projects happening, I see people: I see parents dropping their children off at childcare centres that were not there a few years ago; I see students learning in upgraded classrooms in places like St Arnaud, Wedderburn and Ararat; I see patients receiving care closer to home; and I see volunteers, community leaders, nurses, teachers and local advocates who never stop fighting for their towns and never stop believing that their communities deserve better. I feel incredibly proud to have worked alongside them, because every investment that we have delivered has ultimately been about improving people’s lives.

When it comes to health care, that commitment is deeply personal to me. As a child, I had hearing difficulties and needed surgery. My family did not have a lot of money, and the truth is that without the support available to us at that time, that operation would have been out of reach. I have never forgotten that. I know what it feels like when your family’s future depends on being able to access health care when you need it, and I know how much it matters when help is there. I know how frightening it can be when it is not, and that is why I have always believed that where you live should never determine the quality of care that you receive. People in country Victoria deserve access to great health care just as much as anybody living in Melbourne.

That is why I have fought so hard for investments in our local hospitals. It is why we have delivered upgrades and improvements at Inglewood hospital, Maryborough hospital, Beaufort hospital, Ararat hospital and the Ballarat Base Hospital, and it is why we have secured pay rises for our hardworking, incredible nurses who do such a fantastic job caring for our communities. We have also built new ambulance stations in Avoca, Inglewood and St Arnaud and upgraded the Ararat ambulance station as well. These projects matter not because they make headlines but because they make life better. They help people get care sooner, they provide local jobs and they give families confidence that the services they rely on will still be there in the future. The same can be said for our investments in schools, childcare centres, transport and community infrastructure. Every one of those investments has been about making sure country Victorians get the opportunities that they deserve.

But all of that progress is at risk. In just 65 days time, Victorians will make a choice about the future of our state, and the choice could not be clearer. On the one hand we have a government focused on investing in people, creating jobs and strengthening rural and regional communities. On the other hand we have a Liberal–One Nation coalition that is already telling Victorians exactly what it plans to do – cut – cut jobs, cut services, cut the support that communities rely on. 30,000 jobs are on the line. That is not just a number on a spreadsheet. Those are real people, real families, real communities. One in seven public servants would lose their job under those opposite if they ever have the privilege of winning. That is police officers, firefighters, teachers, nurses, child protection workers and family violence support workers, the people who keep our communities safe, strong and connected. We have seen this horror film before. When the Liberals were last in government, they promised there would be no cuts to the public service, full stop.

Cindy McLeish: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, the member for Ripon appears to be reading, and perhaps she can save some time and just table that report or document she is reading from.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Wayne Farnham): Member for Ripon, are you reading a speech or referencing –

Martha HAYLETT: I am referring to notes, Acting Speaker.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Wayne Farnham): Referring to notes – the member can continue.

Martha HAYLETT: When those opposite last had the privilege of being in government, they cut more than 4000 public sector jobs when they said they would cut none. They ripped $1 billion out of our health system. They went to war with nurses and paramedics. They closed 22 TAFE campuses and sacked more than 3000 TAFE workers. That was just in four years. They were very active in cutting down this state in a very short period of time.

People of Ripon still remember it. I meet with them all the time: former railway workers in Ararat whose jobs disappeared overnight were completely cut off at the knees, teachers in Maryborough who lost their jobs and their livelihoods, families who were left abandoned and forgotten. Many of them never fully recovered from those cuts. Now we are being asked to believe that it will not happen again, but this time they are not even pretending. This time they are telling us up-front that the jobs will go, that services will be cut, that communities will have to do more with less, and country Victoria will be among the hardest hit, because when services disappear from rural and regional areas, there often is not an alternative around the corner. A cut to a country hospital matters, a cut to public transport matters, a cut to local jobs affects the entire community. It affects whether people stay, whether businesses invest and whether towns continue to grow. That is what is at stake, because our vision for Victoria could not be more different. We are focused on building – building hospitals, schools, ambulance stations, homes and opportunities. We are focused on making life easier for families. We are focused on delivering free dental care, and we are focused on expanding public transport and improving access to services. Most importantly, we are focused on making sure no Victorian is left behind simply because of where they live.

One thing this job has taught me is that the most important conversations do not happen in this chamber. They happen at the footy, at the local pub, in hospital waiting rooms. They happen outside supermarkets and on the main streets of our towns. Over the past four years I have had the privilege of speaking with thousands and thousands of people across the electorate of Ripon – teachers, nurses, truckies, tradies, small business owners, volunteers, retirees –

Cindy McLeish: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, the member for Ripon said she was referring to copious notes, but I did notice that when she finished one page she put it down and continued reading from the next page, so I really do think she is reading from rather than referring to notes.

Martha HAYLETT: I am still referring to notes, Acting Speaker.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Wayne Farnham): The member for Ripon to continue.

Martha HAYLETT: I have spoken to people from every walk of life in Ripon, and what has always struck me is their resilience and the resilience of country Victorians, no matter what challenges come their way. Over the last four years we have had many floods and a huge drought, we have had multiple fires, we have had rising fuel costs, but through it all, people have really stepped up. They have helped each other, they have supported each other, and they find a way through. I have seen volunteers give up countless hours to keep local sporting clubs thriving. I have spoken with healthcare workers who continue showing up every single day because they care so deeply about the people that they serve. And I have met community leaders who have never stopped fighting for their towns.

Those people have inspired me so much. They remind me every day why this job matters, and they are the reason I never take this role for granted. Representing Ripon has been the greatest privilege of my life. I know the election ahead will not be easy; I have a huge fight on my hands. There are Liberals, Nationals, One Nation candidates and far-right independents all lining up against me. But I am ready for that fight, because there is simply too much at stake. This election is about more than politics; it is about what sort of future we want for regional Victoria. It is about protecting jobs, protecting services, protecting opportunities, and making sure that the next generation of country kids has even more opportunities than we did. A Liberal–One Nation coalition would be devastating for Ripon and it would be devastating for Victoria. Thirty-thousand jobs is only the tip of the iceberg. It is only the beginning. The stakes are far too high. We have come too far to go backwards, and I will keep fighting every single day to make sure that we do not.

 Chris COUZENS (Geelong) (12:21): I am delighted to speak on this important motion on our last sitting day before the election, and to remind our communities that jobs are important. One of the things that we have done as a government in my whole time of nearly 12 years in this place has been to have a huge focus on job opportunities, creating jobs in our communities and in particular in the regions. This government has enabled a jobs pipeline in Geelong from the time we were elected right up until now, and that has been really important for my community. We need to ensure that the job opportunities are there because that is what keeps our economy going and that is what keeps our regions thriving, and we need that to continue.

Those opposite and their plan to cut $40 billion out of the budget are going to have a profound impact on communities like mine and around the rest of the state. You cannot sack thousands of workers without devastating impacts, we know that, and we have seen it under previous Liberal governments, whether it was the Kennett government or the Baillieu or – I forget his name, sorry –

Mary-Anne Thomas: Napthine.

Chris COUZENS: the Napthine government. We saw the consequences of those Liberal governments that really impacted regions like mine. There were massive job losses in the public service, but there were also job losses from the lack of infrastructure being built in our community, from public servants being sacked by those Liberal governments and frontline services just disappearing overnight. They were really concerning matters that arose in my community on both those occasions, whether it was the Kennett or Baillieu government, such as Kennett shutting our schools and then selling them off. We are still seeing the consequences of that today because we do not have enough schools in our community; in my electorate, we could do with another two primary schools. They were closed by the Kennett government in the central Geelong area, so we are now looking at planning additional schools to accommodate the families that are now living in the CBD area.

But the teachers that lost their jobs out of that were significant as well. I remember having conversations with many of them at the time about how devastated they were, and the impact on those children that they were there to teach and support which they could no longer do because they did not have jobs. The number of nurses that were stripped out of our hospitals, the health staff that were stripped out of our hospitals, had a significant impact on my community as a regional city. That impact was so significant and so many people were really impacted by that, as were their families.

The big one for me was seeing the Gordon TAFE on its knees under the Baillieu–Napthine governments. The privatisation of basically what the TAFE sector were providing at the time had such a significant impact on my community. The Gordon TAFE were virtually on their knees when we came to government – they were barely surviving, as were many other TAFEs across Victoria. If we had not won government, we would not have seen the continuation of TAFE. I am pretty convinced of that. The slashes to their funding were significant.

To now be talking about slashing $40 billion out of the budget, how the heck is an institution like TAFE going to continue? How are health services at Geelong hospital? We have a brand new women’s and children’s hospital being built right now, due for completion in 2028. If we are not in government and the other side are there – the One Nation–Liberal–National coalition – are we going to see that hospital just stand abandoned without any staff in it? That is a very real situation that we could see as we go forward.

I am really concerned about the job cuts that would occur, and we know that around 430 workers would lose their job in the Geelong and Barwon south-west regions within the public service. That public service provides support to our community. We need them there, whether they are delivering housing or child protection or whether they are teachers, ambos or firefighters. All of those essential services that we rely so heavily on could be lost or restricted to the point that they can barely function, which is what happened during 2010 to 2014. Many public servants lost their jobs.

Cindy McLeish: Acting Speaker, it appears there are not sufficient numbers in the house, and I ask you to call for a quorum.

Quorum formed.

Chris COUZENS: As I was saying, under the previous Liberal government between 2010 and 2014 there were severe consequences of those cuts in our regional city of Geelong. But I do want to spend my last 2 minutes – thanks, Cindy –

The ACTING SPEAKER (Wayne Farnham): Proper titles.

Chris COUZENS: My apologies, Acting Speaker. I am not having a good day today on that. I want to talk about those opposite claiming that they will tear up treaty. Every Victorian should be disgusted to know that that is the intention of an incoming One Nation–Liberal–National government. It tears at the heart of everything that we have done over probably a 10-year journey, if not longer, to work with First Peoples of this state to ensure that we have treaty, that it is done in the right way, and that it is done over a period of time so everybody has their opportunity to have input and the outcome is exactly what was required. We signed that treaty back in December last year. It is just beginning to start building on the work that it is required to do. Sadly, if there is a One Nation–Liberal–National coalition, we will see that treaty torn up. We will also likely see a lot of the services that are funded by government cut from those First Nations or First Peoples in Victoria. They deliver really significant services to our First Nations people in this state. They provide support, but they provide it in a self-determined way, which is what treaty is all about. It is about closing the gap, providing that self-determination to say, ‘This is what our community needs.’ To have those cuts will be devastating to First Peoples in Victoria.

 Mary-Anne THOMAS (Macedon) (12:31): I want to pick up where the member for Geelong left off, because I have seen firsthand the real difference that can be made when you put Aboriginal health in the hands of Aboriginal people. We are making some good progress here in Victoria through our fantastic network of Aboriginal community controlled health organisations and the people that have worked so hard for so long – the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service recently celebrated its 50th ‍birthday – towards self-determination and towards treaty. To know that that will potentially be torn up by an incoming Liberal–National–One Nation coalition government is an absolute kick in the guts to Victoria’s First Peoples. I want to put on the record my disgust with the announcement by the opposition that, so mean-spirited are they, it would in fact be a 100-day priority to tear up treaty.

You cannot reduce revenue without reducing services. It is quite simple. You cannot cut $40 billion from the state budget and not impact the health care that is delivered to the people of Victoria. Now, with around $30 billion a year invested in health, that represents around a third of the entire state budget. It follows that if you take $40 billion out of that budget, you will have a real and material impact on the health and wellbeing of Victorian people. If a One Nation–Liberal–National coalition government is elected in this state, there will be real consequences for Victorians, including, obviously, some of the most vulnerable members of our community as well as the very many working people and working families who we on this side of the house, Labor members, come into this chamber every day to represent. It really is time for the member for Kew to come clean, both as the Leader of the Opposition and also as the Shadow Treasurer, and to outline to the people of Victoria the hospitals she intends to close, to outline how many nurses will be sacked and to let Ambulance Victoria know how they will be required to downsize our ambulance service, because these are the very real consequences of a $40 billion cut, which the Australia Institute tells us will see 30,000 jobs lost in this state.

A number of my colleagues have already made the point that each and every one of these 30,000 jobs is held now by a person in the communities that we represent. And to lose a job is to experience absolute devastation and loss of control. If you lose a job, you lose the ability to continue to pay your mortgage and to meet the needs of your kids at school for school equipment and so on. It can ruin people’s lives. That is the intention of those on the other side, because they will add 30,000 people to Victoria’s unemployment statistics. We do know of course that, when we came to government in 2014, we had the highest unemployment rate on the mainland under the last Liberal–Nationals government, and we are headed there again if those on the other side should win in November.

I became the Minister for Health at a time when our system was emerging from the greatest public health emergency that we had faced. Our nurses, doctors, paramedics and health workers were absolutely exhausted, planned surgery had been disrupted, emergency departments were under extraordinary pressure and demand for care had changed. We had to go about investing unprecedented funds in our health system and implementing change in the way that health care was delivered. We could have retreated, but instead we focused on rebuilding and reforming. We wanted to build our health system back better, and we did that by continuing to invest in our healthcare workforce and by changing the way in which care was delivered by continuing to innovate.

Here in Victoria we proudly led the nation in the establishment of what we called at the time priority primary care centres, now our urgent care clinics. The urgent care clinics set the model for what the Albanese Labor government has now rolled out right across the state. We introduced the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department. Our nation-leading and indeed some would say world-leading investment in women’s health care has delivered an additional 20 women’s health clinics, brand new clinics that were not there before our government came to office. My question again to the opposition is: which of these new investments will be cut? Which women’s health clinics will close? What will happen to the virtual emergency department? Our state still funds some of the urgent care clinics. Are they on the chopping board as well? The people of Victoria need to know. It is only fair that those on the other side of the chamber come out and tell the truth. That is all we are asking. Where is the detail?

I have talked about these reforms, and I want to make the point that these reforms do not come out of thin air. They come about because here in Victoria we have some of the best public servants in the nation, who are absolutely committed to delivering high-quality public services for the people of Victoria. I was reflecting last night on the member for Murray Plains and his valedictory speech and the way he spoke so dismissively of the bureaucracy. I worked in the Victorian public service, and I know some of my colleagues did as well. I was proud to be an employee of the Victorian public service between 2002 and 2011. I even served briefly under the Baillieu government, and that was an eye-opener, I can tell you. I have already shared in this house how as director of communications in the Department of Premier and Cabinet the first job I had was to print the business cards for the chief of staff to the Premier, and he was not happy with them, so much so that he had to ring me at 7 o’clock in the evening to express his displeasure.

Cindy McLeish interjected.

Mary-Anne THOMAS: I was there to serve the government of the day, member for Eildon. These are the jobs they gave me. The second job they gave me was to redo the briefing template – and this is the kicker – away from Arial, back to Times New Roman. That tells you all you need to know about how Liberal–National–One Nation governments will always take us backwards. But it is the people, the hardworking public servants, who have designed so much of the reform we have delivered in health. I think about the planned surgery blueprint. I think about the work that is underway right now and under clear and present threat and danger to reform the way in which specialist care is delivered so that more Victorians can access, through our public health system, the specialist care they need and deserve. I think about the standards for timely ambulance and emergency care delivered by hardworking public servants who lead the work in conjunction with our clinicians. All of this is under threat.

I will go back to where I started. You cannot proudly proclaim that you are going to get rid of various revenue streams and then say, ‘Nothing to see here. Nothing’s going to change. We’re going to cut $40 billion but nothing is going to change.’ You cannot treat Victorians with contempt in that way. The Leader of the Opposition needs to come clean, and she needs to do it now. Victorians need to know who she has got in her sights for sacking, which hospitals she is going to close and which schools she is going to close. She has already announced that she is transferring six comprehensive government schools into elite select entry schools. We need to hear from the Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Treasurer about her plans to take Victoria backwards, because that is what Liberals do. They cut, close and privatise.

 Nathan LAMBERT (Preston) (12:41): I would like to pick up exactly where the member for Macedon left off in her contribution, talking about the potential impact of this $40 billion cut on our health system. Of course I will not necessarily try and match the expertise of the member for Macedon, as a former health minister, but as the member for Macedon is aware, this is an issue that is of importance to so many Victorians but of importance to our family particularly. I will in my contribution particularly touch on my worries about what the effects of these cuts will be on medical research, which the member for Macedon knows is such a critical part of our health system. As you might be aware, our daughter is a regular patient at the Royal Children’s Hospital. I have spoken before on a number of occasions about the wonderful work they do down there, but I remain worried and concerned about the profound effect on our health system, not only directly, as this motion speaks to, in terms of waiting times, in terms of nurses and in terms of beds, but also in terms of medical research, which is so critical to advancing our medical system.

I would like to just, in speaking on that topic, acknowledge particularly Associate Professor Andrew Kornberg, who has done wonderful work with us – I know he is known to people in this place and known to the member for Macedon through his work – and Eppie Yiu, who is a wonderful paediatric neurologist there. In fact members will remember that the member for Melbourne in her contribution and her condolence speech on the late member for Brunswick Dr Tim Read told a funny story – a heartbreaking story, but a funny story – about the way that there were some locals in the Brunswick area who had benefited from Dr Read’s practice as a GP and of course his medical research, and some who apparently jokingly said they were not going to vote for him to be an MP in Parliament because they would rather him doing his important medical research work. We sometimes joked – and you would not expect a Labor MP to stand up and say that they hoped a Liberal would win – about Amelia Hamer, who people might remember was the Liberal candidate against Monique Ryan in Kooyong, unfortunately unsuccessful. But Monique Ryan was actually a very, very widely regarded, well-regarded paediatric neurologist and researcher, and we in our family would love to see Monique going back to her research work. So I do not want to wish her ill, but we would like to see that.

We are very grateful for a whole range of professionals there. They include Mark Oliver, the gastroenterologist; Dr Joanne Harrison, a respiratory physician there who does wonderful work; and Dr Monica Cooper and Dr Eric Levi, who are part of, amongst their many roles, the saliva clinic there. That has become a big part of our lives, and of course we are often down in ED. And when you are down in ED at the moment at the Royal Children’s Hospital you do see that our government’s expansion is currently underway there, which is great and important work. There has actually been some talk recently in the media about the staffing and capital allocation there, but I say in this place that our big, big concern is that both of those things are under threat from a future Liberal–One Nation government. I do not think any of us want to see the children’s ED expansion that we are doing held back – ditto very much the similar expansion that we are undertaking at the Northern Hospital. That is particularly important to people who live in Reservoir, for whom that is the closest ED.

Again, we have family connections: Daniel Tsen is a great paediatrician there, and we are grateful for his work, and Tarryn Thom is a dietician there who supports us. So we know the wonderful work that is done there. Again, I say we fear the impact. When the Liberal–One Nation government and the Liberal Leader of the Opposition say they are going to slash capital spending, will the Northern Hospital ED be one of the projects that they slash? Exactly as the member for Macedon said, it is a very legitimate question. If they are claiming they are somehow going to get capital expenditure down to $5 billion a year or some very low figure, they will have to be cutting projects all over the state. We ask on behalf of people in Reservoir –

Cindy McLeish interjected.

Nathan LAMBERT: The member for Eildon interjects. As we all know, this hiding behind the corruption number is ridiculous. Geoffrey Watson’s number refers to the past; it refers to the sector-led CFMEU that no longer exists. There is no $15 billion saving to be made by making the changes that the administration of the construction and general division have already done. Acting Speaker Farnham, with your familiarity in this area, you would know that Geoffrey Watson was talking about a past version. This is not the place for a long discussion about that union. The point I will simply make – perhaps the member for Eildon should check her stats – is that even the opposition leader is not using that $15 billion number as part of her explanation, because she knows that is a historical figure and not one from which you can get future savings.

Coming back, I did want to get to medical research because this is a particular topic I am passionate about. I was speaking of the Northern Hospital and the Royal Children’s in particular, but for any hospital, if you go in there, the things that doctors and nurses do today are incredibly different to what they would have been doing 100 years ago because of the incredible work of medical researchers. Perhaps the most profound difference, particularly if you think about children, is that if we go back 100 years before the medical research we have had, children died at an astonishing rate in our society. One in 20 children 100 years ago did not survive past the age of four. The tragedy of losing a child was no less than it is today. It was heartbreaking and devastating. All of us in this place will know people who have lost a young child. It is a terrible thing to happen. It was a terrible thing to happen then. But fortunately, thanks to medical research, these days the chance of losing a child before the age of four has plummeted dramatically.

When we go to our hospitals – again I say this is something that we directly benefit from as a family ‍– with the kind of condition I have talked about our daughter having, familial dysautonomia, for a long time it was exactly the same thing. It was a fatal condition for children, who would not live beyond the age of five. But now, thanks to the amazing work of some medical researchers in the United States, there is hope not only for people with that condition to live fulfilling long lives but also that some of the most degenerative effects of it can in fact be reversed. Unfortunately, that wonderful research that we are seeing in this state is under threat from a very similar political movement, the MAGA movement, which has directly led to huge cuts from publicly funded medical research in the United States, threatening the very work that we are relying on for our family here in Australia.

We are very grateful. There is an amazing gentleman, Stanley T Crooke. I do have to give a shout-out to Stanley because he has had a remarkable life. He grew up incredibly poor in Indianapolis and then he became somehow the president of R and D at SmithKline, the predecessor to GSK. Then he founded a company called Ionis Pharmaceuticals. He and his researchers developed a particular technology, antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) technology, a form of gene therapy that is absolutely remarkable. It is remarkable particularly for the conditions that our family face but also for spinal muscular atrophy and some other forms of muscular dystrophy. It is a technology that potentially has application to Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and MND. Stanley T Crooke made a wonderful contribution, and to his absolute credit most of that was commercial. I think, to be honest, he made a fair bit of money out of it on the way through, but he then took his money and founded a non-profit, the n-Lorem Foundation, and Sarah Glass, Amy Williford, and Jason Wood are on the board.

A whole bunch of people continue on, as all of them have done for years. They have done decades of really great evidence-based research that, as I say, is helping people right around the world. Of course, we are grateful for that because they are doing fantastic work with respect to a disease which we are only too familiar with. Like any researchers they have had to do that collaboratively. In this case there is another group, Professor Adrian Krainer across at Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory. Stanley Crooke developed this ASO technology and then Krainer has developed the way to actually adjust people’s RNA so it fixes the problem that they have genetically. That has led directly to therapies for spinal muscular atrophy, which patients right here in Victoria are now getting and will hopefully lead, in our case, to some medicines for familial dysautonomia that will have the same effect. I cannot stress enough, though, that over there – even the Familial Dysautonomia Foundation, with whom we work ‍– these are not political people at all. Faye Ginsburg and Lanie Etkind and all the great people there are not naturally political at all. But once Trump came into power, on the hook-ups that they provide for families like ours to learn about what is happening with our disease, they were imploring people to write to their congressional representatives and beg Trump to reverse these changes. And this is my huge fear here: that we are going to see this MAGA mentality.

It frightens me that we already have MPs in this place who wear MAGA caps and share this scepticism about modern medical research. We have seen Malcolm Roberts in the federal Parliament – people will remember COVID and talking about bleach and ivermectin, I think it was. These people are profoundly sceptical about the benefits of modern medical research, and I cannot emphasise enough how directly devastating it will be for so many Victorian families if the coalition and One Nation are elected into government and come into this place and say, ‘We’re just going to slash operational infrastructure support funding and we’re going to slash medical research funding because we don’t believe it works.’ As I say, it will hurt all Victorians but it will particularly hurt children. It will hurt children for whom this research has made such an extraordinary difference. It will directly hurt families like ours. So I could not agree more with what the member for Macedon has said: we need to know the details of these cuts. And particularly we need to know, as the motion refers to, how they are going to affect our health system, how they are going to affect medical research and how they are going to hurt Victorians’ lives.

 Lauren KATHAGE (Yan Yean) (12:51): I was listening to the member for Preston, and he really gave me reason to reflect. I just want to pick up on what he was saying and take it a bit further: I think he is right to say that this cuts agenda is an opportunity to hide their ideological agenda and make changes across our state to match some of the stranger beliefs of those opposite under the cloak of fiscal responsibility. The first one that came to mind is around all of the wellbeing supports for young people in schools that have been put in place through this government. If we talk about how they want to use the language of ‘back office roles’, I am thinking in particular about the mental health menu that we have made available for each school to choose supports for their students. I am wondering about some of the options on that mental health menu and whether the Leader of the Opposition would consider them to be back office, when the reality is that taking away those options for schools to be able to support children and children’s wellness will have a real impact on them and on their families.

At my daughter’s state school she gets to see an OT. My daughter sees an OT in school hours on the school site, a fully trained professional that is there providing support to children of the school. All of these types of supports that we make available through schools are at risk from those opposite. When I hear from parents in the community around issues with schooling, it clusters around three main things. One is around enrolment zones and access. Another one – and I am sure most people get this as well – is around cases of bullying. But the third one is for parents whose children are not really coping at school in terms of mental health and wellbeing. To potentially remove this really important pillar that our government has introduced is worrying. We have heard just recently the One Nation candidate for Yan Yean complaining that part of the curriculum for children in Victoria for mathematics for year 1 involves thinking about brolgas having two wings, and if there were three brolgas dancing, then how many – you know, what is three times two, essentially. He was railing against this. ‘Did you know that the Victorian curriculum makes your kids do Aboriginal dance?’ was what he was saying.

My daughter is in year 1. The reality of the Victorian curriculum is that it sets out the learning goal – I am sure there are many teachers that can state this more clearly than me; for example, adding up within 10 or something like that – and then it provides a whole list of ways that a teacher might choose to teach that to the children. These are things to help teachers and give them ideas for different things they can do, so you can imagine a teacher in any area of Victoria with a higher proportion of Aboriginal students might think it is fully fitting and effective to talk about how many brolga wings there are. To somehow say that there is something wrong with our curriculum as a result – he did not state the case truly and fairly, obviously, in his social media. They do not do that. But these are the types of people we are dealing with. When we think about what cuts are coming, when they come to the point of making the decisions about cuts, they are going to be stuck cheek to jowl with One Nation, and they are going to have to follow them, one hand each on the scissors, as they cut, cut, cut. They will be pulling towards their ideology, and they are going to make a real mess across the state. There are many examples of things that we need to be concerned about.

Broader than jobs, I want to talk about work, because work takes many forms. There is paid work and unpaid work – work that keeps businesses running, hospitals running or families running. There are also people heading off to construction sites and teachers that are preparing lessons after their own children have gone to bed. But there is also a lot of work that does not appear on a pay slip – somebody caring for their ageing parents, a president of the local sports club who finishes their day job and then spends hours sorting out uniforms and rosters and coaches, volunteers at community houses. I really believe that all of that work has value. I think sometimes in this place we lose sight of the people behind the numbers. I was really struck by the Leader of the Opposition’s statement in her first speech to Parliament about business creating jobs, not government. when I look around my electorate of Yan Yean, I do not think she has quite got it. Of course business creates jobs. I represent thousands of people who work in small and large businesses, and I want those businesses to succeed, to invest, to grow and to employ more people. But governments employ people too. We fund nurses, teachers, police, child protection workers and people that keep the transport system going, and government build the infrastructure that allows private enterprise to grow. We can see that a lot in my community.

If we look, for example, at the Beveridge intermodal precinct, for years lots of people up my way in the north saw houses being built and houses coming up, but the question was also, ‘Where are the jobs for these people that are moving here? Where are they going to be?’ Because we do not want a future where we have more and more people living up my way that have to travel long distances to get to work, and we need those jobs closer to us in the north. That is what makes the Beveridge intermodal precinct exciting for our community. It will be a major freight and logistics hub connected to inland rail, with substantial investment from the Commonwealth government, and it will create around 8000 ‍jobs within the precinct and support around 17,000 jobs at its peak. They expect that 70 per cent of those people in those roles will be from the northern suburbs. When you think about my area, that means jobs in logistics; jobs in warehousing, rail and construction; jobs for engineers and lots of IT, I am sure; and then all the jobs in the businesses that grow and form around that major employment precinct – all of that from the government investment and planning. I think the Leader of the Opposition is wrong when she says that government does not create jobs. Other examples are the Mernda Community Hospital; the Yan Yean Road upgrade, which is happening right now; Donnybrook Road upgrade preconstruction, all the work on Whittlesea –

The ACTING SPEAKER (Wayne Farnham): The member for Yan Yean will have the call after lunch. We are at that time of the day – time for a pie.

Sitting suspended 1:00 pm until 2:02 pm.