Tuesday, 18 February 2020

Questions without notice and ministers statements

Budget

Ms STALEY (Ripon) (12:04): My question is to the Premier. Last week while the Premier was on holidays the Treasurer announced his Labor government will be imposing $4 billion of cuts. How many Victorian workers will lose their jobs as a result of Labor’s $4 billion of cuts?

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! I warn the member for Essendon.

Mr ANDREWS (Mulgrave—Premier) (12:04): I thank the member for Ripon for her question. The member for Ripon, otherwise known as the workers’ friend—you know, the shop steward for the working poor, the hardworking poor people, and the greatest advocate for unionism and collectivism this Parliament has ever seen—

Mr M O’Brien: On a point of order, Speaker, I would ask the Premier to stop debating the question and actually come back to answering it, given it is about $4 billion of cuts and how many Victorians will lose their jobs as a result.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier will come back to answering the question.

Mr ANDREWS: The Treasurer last week made it very clear that the government, in all the work that it does, makes sure that taxpayers money is appropriately deployed to be in line and in accordance with the priorities of the government: delivering infrastructure, investing in hospitals, investing in schools, investing in child protection, investing in community safety—the list goes on and on. And those priorities—yes, they are the government’s priorities, but they are also the priorities of the Victorian community, as clearly evidenced by the Victorian community’s verdict and judgement in 2014 and the resounding endorsement of those priorities and that alignment of public expenditure with those priorities in resounding terms in 2018.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! I do ask the member for South-West Coast and the member for Mordialloc to cease shouting across the chamber.

Mr M O’Brien: On a point of order, Speaker, the Premier is debating the question. I do not recall at the last election him promising $4 billion worth of cuts. All we are asking for is who is going to pay, who is going to lose their job as a result. I ask you to bring the Premier back to answering the question.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier is being relevant to the question that has been asked.

Mr ANDREWS: As I was saying, the community have absolutely endorsed investing their money in these key areas of focus, and the government makes no apologies for doing that. We will continue to do that in each budget that we have the great honour of delivering. There will be surplus budgets, there will be AAA budgets and there will be budgets that deliver against the commitments that we made to the Victorian community.

Now on the issue of jobs, there are some who have opposed every job-creating major project in the last five years. Who might they be?

Members interjecting.

Mr ANDREWS: Well, there are not many of them. I could actually name them all, but I will not. There is then of course, if you want to compare records, 500 000 new jobs that were created in Victoria in the last five years, fully 30 per cent of new jobs created in our nation. The national accounts are being written right here in Victoria.

Mr Wells: On a point of order, Speaker, under sessional order 11 I would ask you to bring the Premier back to the question, which is in relation to the $4 billion proposed cuts and how many jobs will be lost as a result of that decision.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier is being relevant to the question asked.

Mr ANDREWS: I am delighted that the father of the house, a former Treasurer, gets up and makes a point of order. We all remember the unemployment record when the member who just made a point of order was the Treasurer.

Members interjecting.

Mr ANDREWS: Well, we all remember. I think if we could just keep our nose in front of Tasmania, that was about all we could be good for.

Mr M O’Brien: On a point of order, Speaker, if I could remind the Premier, Victoria created more jobs in our four years than any other state in the country. There are no alternative facts over here: more jobs than any other state in the country under the coalition.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat. That is not a point of order.

Mr ANDREWS: More jobs than at any other time and yet you lost yours. There you go. What does that tell you about your four years of stewardship? We will deliver budgets that provide investment in all the areas that we committed to the Victorian community would be our priorities—today, tomorrow and every day.

Ms STALEY (Ripon) (12:09): Premier, after five years of Labor’s economic mismanagement, Victoria is the highest taxed state in the country, a fact confirmed by ABC Fact Check. Will you rule out any tax increases on Victorian families and small businesses to fix Labor’s budget black hole?

Mr ANDREWS (Mulgrave—Premier) (12:09): I am glad that you are happy sitting over there.

At the end of the day, the budget will be delivered on budget day and the Treasurer will outline the accounts of the state—both the accounts as closed off for the financial year and the estimates of performance for the future. What I can tell the member for Ripon is that it will be a surplus budget: it will be a budget that delivers in health, education, employment, transport and community safety; it will be a budget that keeps Victoria where it belongs, at the centre of economic growth and at the centre of progressive reform; and it will keep us where we are absolutely at our best—in a leading position, not skulking along at the bottom of any ladder, which was the burden that those opposite subjected us to. We welcome these questions. Keep them coming, because when it comes to delivering, this government has got you absolutely dead to rights.