Thursday, 18 March 2021

Motions

Budget papers 2020–21

Debate resumed on motion of Mr PEARSON:

That this house takes note of the 2020–21 budget papers.

Ms SPENCE (Yuroke—Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Community Sport, Minister for Youth) (10:09): It is a great pleasure to have the opportunity to speak on the 2020–21 state budget, which really does put people at its centre. It is fair to say that 2020 was a year like no other. Australia saw in that new decade engulfed in flames. This might feel like a long time ago now, but residents across Victoria are still trying to put back the pieces following the fires that tore through our state. It was impossible to prepare for the immense loss that we experienced during this time, of homes, of flora and fauna and of human life. And just as we were beginning to come to terms with the extent of this devastation, along came COVID-19.

The pandemic hit us hard and fast, and by mid-March all Victorians were having to adapt quickly to a new way of life. This was not easy for anyone, and the unique barriers facing many cohorts and individuals only rose higher and higher in the months that followed. The pandemic heavily and disproportionately impacted on already vulnerable people, including young people, women, multicultural communities, Aboriginal Victorians, people experiencing family violence, older citizens, people living with disability and many others. Indeed the sacrifices that they and all Victorians have had to make to stop the spread of this virus have not been in vain. I would like to take this opportunity to thank every single Victorian for everything that they have done, given up and fought through.

It has been a long and exhausting journey, but there have been some positives to note along the way, such as bridging geographical divides and improving the accessibility of programs and services by moving them online. Victorians are spending more time with their families and better balancing their many commitments with more flexible work arrangements. The work that women do has never been valued more highly, and we know that we need to provide better support for women both at home and in the workplace. In fact we have learned that we do not want to return completely to how we were before COVID. Our 2020–21 state budget recognises all of this and that COVID has brought with it unprecedented and enormous challenges, but many of these challenges were pre-existing and have simply been heightened. Some of the things that have changed should stick.

There is so much in this budget that I could speak to, but instead I have picked some highlights relevant to my portfolios, to my constituents in Yuroke and to Victorians everywhere. For our multicultural Victorians, who we know have done it particularly tough during COVID due to language and cultural barriers, racism and the often volatile nature of their work and visa status, the 2020–21 budget will help bring people closer together by dedicating $21 million for the development of new and upgraded community facilities. This investment in local halls and meeting spaces will make sure that more multicultural and multifaith communities have a place to call their own and to share their traditions. Not only will this help bring multicultural communities together, but it will also create vital construction jobs as we rebuild from the pandemic. The budget will also provide support for playgroups for newly arrived families, allowing parents and little ones to connect and to find friends. This initiative adds millions of dollars to our support for those who have come to Victoria on humanitarian grounds. To help them find new opportunities or get back on their feet, more than $14.4 million will support multicultural and young Victorians into jobs by breaking down barriers to employment and making sure that they know their working rights. Accessing information in one’s own language has never been more important, which is why we are committing $3 million in this budget for multicultural media outlets so that they can extend their reach and improve their services.

We are also staying true to our 10-year commitment to the Victorian African Communities Action Plan—something that I know is very important to you, Acting Speaker Carbines—and we are building on the work undertaken thus far to advance real outcomes for our African communities by allocating a further $4.5 million to it, and $35 million more will be provided to the International Student Emergency Relief Fund to lend a helping hand where finances have become increasingly tight. Through this budget we are demonstrating our readiness to combat racism and support the many diverse communities that enrich our state.

Community sport is an essential part of life for many Victorians, and I am proud that this budget demonstrates our commitment to this sector through a whopping $164 million investment in community sport. $137 million of this will go towards infrastructure, which takes the Andrews Labor government’s total investment in community support infrastructure to more than $1 billion since 2014. But it does not end there. We do not want our children to miss out on opportunities to participate in sport and recreational activities due to financial pressures. That is why the Andrews Labor government is investing $21 million in the Get Active kids voucher program, the first of its kind in Victoria. This will see around 100 000 eligible children obtain vouchers of up to $200 for membership fees and subscriptions as well as uniforms or equipment.

It is incredibly important for the health of our kids and for the health of the community sport sector that kids get out and back into participating in sport, and we do not want finances to be a barrier to this occurring. That is why this program, the first for any state government in Victoria, is so important, and I am proud that the Andrews Labor government has supported it in this budget. Alongside this initiative we are investing a further $6 million in the sporting club grants program so that clubs can purchase new uniforms and equipment, provide additional skills development to coaches and staff, increase their operational capacity and support COVID-safe operations. We are supporting community sport through COVID recovery in this budget because we know the importance of this sector. We value the 16 000 community sporting clubs, leagues and associations, and we understand the flow-on benefit that this investment has to the physical health and the mental health of the 3.9 million Victorians who play sport or engage in activity every week across this state.

Victoria’s young people have been amongst the hardest hit by the pandemic and the impacts will be felt long into their futures, which is why I am thrilled that this budget prioritises young Victorians and that we are making record investments in the youth portfolio in 2020–21. With a baseline budget of $34.7 million and a state budget allocation of $11.6 million, we are proudly enabling the continuation of successful initiatives that engage young people and promote access to opportunities as we emerge from the pandemic.

Our innovative place-based programs build protective factors around vulnerable young people, connect them to social and economic opportunities and build a sense of belonging that prevents disengagement. Our initiatives include $8.3 million for youth organisations to continue six community support groups and the Le Mana Pasifika Project, which supports and empowers young people from culturally diverse backgrounds; $2.5 million to support young people living in regional and rural Victoria who face barriers accessing supports and services compared to their metropolitan peers; $0.7 million for five Aboriginal organisations to deliver bespoke mentoring programs for young Aboriginal people, strengthening their identity and building pathways to education, training and employment; and we are continuing to deliver on our 2018 election commitment to build and upgrade scout halls across the state, with $1.4 million allocated to these projects in 2020–21. These initiatives complement the longstanding youth programs, including FReeZA, Engage! and Advance.

Mr Fowles interjected.

Ms SPENCE: It is a very good policy. More broadly, the Victorian budget is supporting young people into work through our $1 billion investment in training, higher education and workforce development, giving Victorians the skills they need to get back into work. $619 million will go to Jobs Victoria to connect more Victorians with employment opportunities, and $235 million, which has been announced for the recovery workforce initiative, will support young people to enter the mental health workforce. The Big Housing Build will deliver 10 000 jobs each year over the next four years, with 10 per cent of the work on major projects to be done by apprentices, cadets and trainees. A record $5.3 billion is being invested in this social housing project, which is the biggest this nation has ever seen and will see 12 000 quality homes built across the state for those who need them most. I am incredibly proud of this initiative.

Concerns around our mental health have never been more prevalent. During the pandemic many Victorians have experienced increased loneliness, anxiety and stress. With the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System having handed down its report, we have committed to implementing every one of the recommendations, and we are already making a record $868 million investment to help fix our broken mental health system. We are putting Victorians with lived experience at the centre of our new system, and this funding will support the delivery of more mental health beds and a statewide rollout of post-suicidal clinical supports.

I am so pleased that the 2020–21 Victorian budget also makes significant investments in education. Our groundbreaking $1.6 billion disability inclusion package will provide additional support to students with disability and implement inclusive education reforms. The Andrews Labor government is also providing $250 million to deploy 4100 tutors across Victorian schools in 2021 to support students who may have become disengaged during periods of remote learning, and children and young people will soon be learning in the best facilities through our $3 billion investment in school infrastructure.

I am particularly proud of the unprecedented investment by this government in building and upgrading schools given my electorate of Yuroke has seen significant investment in this area over recent years. This has continued in this budget. We will rebuild Mickleham Primary School, a beloved local institution with a reputation of providing young people with a terrific education. In recent years Mickleham Primary has experienced a massive increase in enrolments, going from under 100 students a year to now over 400. This is due to the massive growth in the outer north. Expanding the existing school site and providing funding for a complete rebuild will ensure that Mickleham Primary can provide local children with a terrific education for decades to come, whether they are from rural communities or the new growing communities.

This growth in the outer north is also recognised in this budget, with funds to acquire land for the Merrifield West secondary school, the first secondary school in this rapidly growing community that saw its first primary school open this year, Gaayip-Yagila Primary, with over 600 students. Thanks to our record investment in education we will also open the nearby Kalkallo Common Primary School next year.

I am most proud of this government’s investment to deliver the long-awaited secondary school for Greenvale residents, who were told for so long that this would just never happen. Indeed that is exactly what the Liberal Party told the local residents during the last election campaign. There have been countless dedicated community advocates who have fought so hard for this outcome, and petitions were tabled in this place as far back as May 1996 calling for this school to be delivered. As a long-term Greenvale resident I know firsthand the experience of many local residents who have been frustrated by the lack of access to a local secondary school and the huge difference that this will make to local families, so I look forward to seeing Greenvale Secondary School take shape throughout this year and to its opening at the start of the 2022 school year.

Fixing our local roads has been and remains my top priority as the member for Yuroke. As a local resident who has driven on these key arterial connections every day, I have seen a huge increase in vehicle movements over recent years. Many of these roads remain inadequate, designed for the once-rural communities they served, and this budget makes important investments in their future use. At long last we will see initial progress on upgrading Mickleham Road, with new lights at Aitken College as well as critical planning work for future upgrades to this corridor. While this particular investment is a great step in the right direction, Mickleham Road does need a lot more work to bring the road up to an acceptable, modern standard, and I will certainly continue to advocate on behalf of local commuters. Work will also start soon on the long-awaited, massive Craigieburn Road upgrade, improving traffic movement from the Hume Highway right through to Mickleham Road, including additional lanes and upgraded intersections which will make this dangerous and congested road much safer.

I rise very proudly today to commend this budget which seeks to do much more than just get us back on track to where we were pre COVID. With people at its heart, this is a budget which will be felt by all Victorians for a long time to come. I congratulate the Treasurer on an absolutely terrific 2020–21 state budget, and I commend it.

Ms WARD (Eltham) (10:23): Like the member for Yuroke, I rise with great happiness for this budget. This is a terrific budget. It is a budget that again, as it has in every year of our government, talks to our values and talks about the things that we care most about, which is the people of Victoria and ensuring that they have the best quality, the best chance at life and the best opportunities available to them.

One of the most important ways to do this of course is to focus on education. Our budget has invested more than $3 billion in school upgrades. $1.9 billion of this funding will roll out the next phase of the school building boom. Acting Speaker Carbines, you also have firsthand experience of this. Our communities have benefited incredibly well from this government’s generosity in investing in our schools. I have had a number of schools in my community either upgraded or rebuilt. In fact it was only recently at Research Primary School, my old primary school, where I saw the fantastic work that has gone into the nearly $6 million upgrade to that school. New buildings—the old buildings have gone. The old library that looked almost exactly the same as it did when I was a kid there in the 1970s has gone. Now there is this amazing space, this integrated learning space, that embraces the outdoors and that really looks like the bush primary school that it has always been. It is just beautiful, and I commend the school community and the principal for their fantastic work. I also congratulate Fiona on the birth of her baby, Eddie, recently, who is nothing but a bundle of cuteness.

The extra $1.9 billion investment will support more than 6400 construction and supply chain jobs, including more than 4830 jobs related to projects in metropolitan Melbourne and more than 1570 jobs related to projects in regional Victoria. It includes $1.28 billion for 162 upgrades, targeted to those schools most in need, with the architects to be appointed from January 2021 and construction work on every project to start within 16 months, creating an ongoing pipeline of work. I know the member for Yuroke referred to this a bit in her speech around the importance of employment as we come out of last year’s battle with COVID in this state, and having that pipeline of projects where we can guarantee ongoing employment for people is incredibly important.

Of course my community continues to benefit from the generosity and foresight of this government. We have got $6.83 million for Greenhills Primary School to rebuild their gym, which is a fantastic opportunity for them but also for the Greenhills Basketball Club, and I thank the wonderful Sandra MacNeil for all of the work she has done for that community club over the years in advocating for them. She has been a strong supporter and pusher of trying to get an improved gym at the school, which we have now been able to achieve, and I wish her all the best in her ongoing battle to achieve the same for Yarrambat. I also thank the principal and committee at Greenhills Primary School for their advocacy, as well as the previous principal, Rowan Kayll, for his advocacy.

We are also providing, importantly—and this will also benefit people in your community, Acting Speaker Carbines—the $10 million that we have got for Diamond Valley Special Developmental School to upgrade and modernise their school. For the member for Yan Yean and me, because we both have a number of students who attend that school, it was a fantastic day when we turned up to that school and let them know that they were going to be the recipients of $10 million to improve it. The joy on their faces was just fantastic. As an aunt of a child who also attends an SDS I know exactly how important those schools are but also how important it is to have modern facilities, to have purpose-built facilities, that are equipped to provide for the needs of students who have physical challenges, who have wheelchairs that are quite large, who have mobility issues, who have sight issues—who have so many challenges. To create a school that really addresses and is built for them and around them and is responding to their needs is something which I am incredibly excited about, and I am also really glad that this government recognises the value of investing in education across the whole spectrum of our schooling system and the importance of making sure that all students are given state-of-the-art good facilities—facilities that help them with their learning and that respond to their needs.

As a part of the Safer, Better Public Parks program, which is around 52 million bucks, visitor facilities within Birrarung and Westerfolds parks will be upgraded to ensure safe and equitable access and to facilitate community exercise and wellbeing. The visitor facilities at Plenty George will also improve, which is terrific because I know my community enjoys both of those facilities greatly.

One thing that I have been working on with the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change for some time, and I am so glad she has been able to continue to push for this and get this over the line, is an $18 million fund for a deer control project. People in this house may recall that I have spoken about this before, but it also still may come as a surprise to some people to know that we have deer—rogue deer—roaming some of the streets of Eltham. I have got constituents up towards the Yarra who have had their roses eaten by deer. I also have a constituent who regularly likes to send me photos of deer and kangaroo faeces on his property, he objects to it so much.

It is terrific to see this strategy. It is terrific to see that we are doing something about this really serious problem. I think there are a lot of people who are not aware of how invasive deer are and the challenges that deer create to our environment: the erosion they create, the trees they destroy, the ring barking they do and the natural habitat that they really, really damage in such a way that it is so hard for our native animals to thrive and prosper. So I do look forward to the fact that we can get rid of some of these deer. Hopefully we will be able to purchase some of the meat from these deer and get them out of our parklands where they do not belong.

Important also is the funding to provide land for the Eltham community hospital and to continue the planning work for this. This is something that I know my community is looking forward to very excitedly and with a lot of anticipation. There was a lot of angst in my community many, many years ago when the Diamond Valley, which was a private hospital, was sold and we no longer had what we felt to be a community hospital local to us. And while we do really love the Austin Hospital and the fantastic services they provide—and I know you, Acting Speaker Carbines, are very proud of the work that the Austin Hospital does in your electorate—to have our own community hospital, local to us, where we can get a number of medical conditions, illnesses, concerns and treatments addressed will be terrific, and I look forward to the ongoing work here. I also thank my community reference group who have been plugging away at this with me as we look for the best site to put our community hospital, along with the best bespoke services we can provide.

There was also, I am happy to report, $1.5 million in development funding for a walking and cycling path as part of the Hurstbridge line upgrade works, which will improve amenity and deliver safer journeys for my community. As a number of people know, while I have not been referred to as a hillbilly, my community is pretty hilly, and having a flat path along the train line will be of great advantage to us, as there are so few flat places to cycle in my community. I look forward to the ongoing work that the Level Crossing Removal Project will be doing with this development funding. I know it is something my community is very keen to see, and I do hope to see this work ongoing.

One of the fantastic things that has come out of this government, of the many, many fantastic things to come out of this government, has been the Growing Suburbs Fund. It has been a game changer for a shire like Nillumbik, which only has about 60 000 people and where 90 per cent of the population is rural. It means that we have a very low rate base and we have a lot of agricultural and natural land to care for, as well as facilities to provide for local communities. To have this Growing Suburbs Fund funded again by this government is terrific. There was a $25 million boost last year, and it has been increased to $50 million. It will boost the number of community facility projects across our periurban and growth areas.

Nillumbik so far has benefited from about $35 million from the Growing Suburbs Fund into our community. This includes terrific things like the upgrade to the Eltham Football Club clubrooms, the cricket club clubrooms, the Eltham North Reserve with the soccer pavilion as well as the cricket club pavilion. It includes the cafe built at Edendale farm. It includes money put into the extension of the Diamond Creek Trail and the redevelopment of the Eltham Leisure Centre. There are so many things that this money has allowed my community to have—really much-wanted projects that Nillumbik has been looking forward to seeing realised but has never had the full funding to do. It has been for us an absolute game changer, and I do hope that this fund will continue into the future.

I also look forward to Nillumbik, I hope, having a successful application with what they want to do with a new synthetic pitch for Diamond Valley Secondary College, which would be used by the whole community and linked to the Diamond Creek Trail, as well as the netball courts and toilet facilities that they would like to see installed at Hurstbridge.

All of these things and all of the investments that we are putting money into speak to jobs. Jobs are at the heart of this budget, as they are with every Labor budget. We want to have people in gainful employment. We want to have people in safe and good employment. We want to have people with the pride of having good jobs. We have set ourselves a target of creating 400 000 jobs by 2025, half of them this year. With Jobs Victoria there is a $619 million investment that will help those most affected by the pandemic.

We know—this has been spoken about a number of times—that one of the biggest cohorts affected by the pandemic economically is women: women who have had reduced hours at work; women who have lost their jobs because of the manner of work which they are in, such as the service industry; women who have got insecure work; but also women who have had to shoulder the majority of the work at home, whether it was caring for children or whether it was assisting with their online learning at home, many things.

I am sure, Deputy Speaker, you also probably heard the stories of women at home who had husbands who very kindly just shut themselves away in rooms at 8.00 am and came out again at 6.00 pm, leaving them to carry the burden of everything going on in their households as well as juggling their jobs. I had phone calls from a number of husbands, including one who was complaining that his wife was missing out on opportunities in order to help their son with his online learning. He wanted schools to go back because she needed to also work for him in the business that he ran. How he was not able to find the time to support her in this and share the load I do not know. Women have been unfairly affected by the pandemic, as have young people and Victorians without formal qualifications but who may have a lot of experience.

We have got $250 million to partner with employers to subsidise the wages of at least 10 000 new workers. That is an opportunity for 10 000 people to find new experiences, to find new employment opportunities and to increase the amount of money they earn along with their work satisfaction. At least $150 million of that wage subsidy support will go towards employing women, and $50 million of that is for women over the age of 45, recognising the additional barriers they face from both before and after the pandemic. This is especially important, as we know that it is women in this age group who are most at risk of being homeless. We know that single women in this age group are most at risk of living in poverty, so everything that we can do as a government to help lift these women up and provide them with opportunities is absolutely important.

I have to say I am very glad to hear this morning that the federal government is now taking another look at their proposal for women fleeing family violence—those women who are often at risk of homelessness, of living in poverty and of struggling. They were expecting them to dip into their superannuation to help them survive as they left violent relationships. I am glad to see that the federal government is thinking twice about that, because the penny has finally dropped on them that financial violence is an issue and that women could be coerced through financial violence to draw down on their super and give it to the perpetrator of family violence, notwithstanding the fact that they should not have to do withdraw their super because they are leaving a violent relationship. But I digress. This is a fantastic budget. This is a great budget for my community, and I fully support it.

Ms HALL (Footscray) (10:39): I am absolutely thrilled to make a contribution to this debate and to talk about the terrific investment that is coming as a result of the budget in Footscray. It is going to be transformational for education in particular in Footscray, with more than $75 million going into local schools, so I am absolutely thrilled to be speaking to this motion. This investment for Footscray schools is just a game changer. To make some of those phone calls last year to principals who had had such a tough year—those schools had such a difficult year—and to let them know that such a huge investment was coming to their school community was an absolute delight.

So from that $75 million I will just run through some of the different school communities that are going to be benefiting from this investment. There is $25.29 million for the Kinnear Street campus of Footscray High School to modernise the main block of the school. Footscray High is part of the Footscray Learning Precinct, which in itself is an Australian first and a really innovative education project. I would like to put on record my gratitude to the Minister for Education for his ongoing support and interest in the Footscray Learning Precinct. Frank Vetere, the principal at Footscray High, was absolutely thrilled to hear that he would be receiving that upgrade to Kinnear Street, because for Footscray High the investments just keep coming.

We have of course recently opened the brand new vertical school at Pilgrim Street in my colleague the Minister for Ports and Freight’s electorate of Williamstown. That campus for the community of Seddon and Footscray and Footscray City Primary School is so exciting.

We have redeveloped the Barkly Street campus of Footscray High School, which has a long, proud history in Footscray. For more than a century it was a girls school. It was a school that my grandmother went to. Many of my relatives went to that school, and I do not think they would recognise it now. It is a beautiful mix of heritage and new buildings, and that was part of a previous budget investment of around $60 million. So for Kinnear Street, $25.29 million, and that will I suppose be the final piece of the puzzle for Footscray High, which has been a project so many people in our community have been fighting for. Ever since Jeff Kennett closed Footscray Yarraville Secondary College we have been fighting to reopen it, and now we have a beautiful three-campus school across Footscray and Seddon.

There was also a very exciting announcement for another school in the Footscray Learning Precinct, and that is Footscray Primary School, a beautiful school community. It was an absolute pleasure to ring the principal there, Jen, and ask if I could come down and visit and meet with some of the students to let them know the good news that they would be receiving $18.22 million to upgrade that facility to accommodate a further 200 students for the 2023 school year. That is in addition to the $2.25 million that the Minister for Education announced earlier in the year to plan for that major upgrade. I know that the Footscray Primary School community is such a tight-knit community. They are really excited about this important upgrade.

Another very special school in my community is Sunshine Primary School, a beautiful heritage school in Sunshine. It was wonderful to call the principal and let her know that the school would be benefiting from an $11.16 million upgrade to modernise the main block of that school. Of course the students at Sunshine Primary School will now be able to go to a beautifully modern school and then they will be able to go to the new Sunshine College campus. I think over several budgets there has been about $40 million in investment in Sunshine College, and that is just huge for that community. The campus at Lachlan Road is just absolutely spectacular. It has been great to see the students start there, even though they had I suppose a difficult start to the year. They started at that campus in mid-2020, during the pandemic. But it is wonderful to see Sunshine Primary being upgraded and the students then being able to go on to their beautiful new campus at Sunshine College.

One of the things we are really passionate about locally is the high-quality education and support that is provided in special education in the Footscray electorate, and I have two wonderful special schools. I have Sunshine and Rosamond, and the Rosamond Special School and the Sunshine Special Developmental School both received $10 million in last year’s budget. I recall calling both principals there—Louise and Nicole—and letting them know that the upgrades were coming, and they were so overwhelmed. I think they thought I was calling about a shade-cloth grant or a smaller upgrade, and they were both lost for words. I had the great pleasure of visiting Sunshine developmental school last week and walking around with Nicole, seeing their beautiful new sensory garden and memorial garden and also checking out the new kitchen garden that they are building at the school. Sunshine developmental school is just a wonderful place in our community, and it was so exciting to give them that news.

This is an incredible investment in education and commitment to the Footscray community by this Andrews Labor government. When I was first told about the budget I was lost for words, because this investment will provide such a huge change to those school communities, those very deserving school communities. I would like to extend my congratulations to the students and the parents and the teachers who have all advocated for these upgrades. I have been very pleased to be able to deliver them with the Andrews Labor government and the education minister.

There is huge change coming to Barkly Street with the $36.6 million upgrade to Whitten Oval. The Whitten Oval, as many of you would be familiar with, is in many ways the heart of the Footscray community. Many people who grew up in Footscray or who support the Bulldogs would know what it is like to stand in the cold at the Whitten Oval, at the Barkly Street or the Geelong Street ends. This upgrade will deliver first-class facilities for the Western Bulldogs, who are much more than a football team in our community. They do incredible work through their community foundation—preventative health initiatives, work with migrant and emerging communities, and lots of work with young people. The Western Bulldogs are very much the beating heart of our community in Footscray, and I am so pleased that they will be receiving this major upgrade. I am very hopeful that we will be able to see a men’s AFL game at the oval. The highlight of the year at the oval is when the women’s games are on, and it has been great to go down there and see the stands full of people from our community watching our fantastic AFLW team play. It is going to include vital upgrades to the oval facilities, including lighting and seating, so we will have TV-broadcast-quality lighting for the Whitten Oval.

The new Footscray Hospital is a huge project for Melbourne’s inner west and for the western suburbs. The people’s hospital, arguably the biggest winner of last year’s budget, will be home to a brand new skills and jobs centre. That was announced in this budget. I am absolutely thrilled with the progress. We are not wasting a day to deliver the new Footscray Hospital to my community. It is a $1.5 billion investment, and I would like to acknowledge the hard work of the former Minister for Health, the member for Altona, who put a huge amount of work into the new Footscray Hospital project. Having a skills and jobs centre located at the site will mean that TAFEs will have the ability to train their students alongside industry professionals, providing the next generation of skilled workers with hands-on experience.

Because this is a government that cares about justice, we are investing $26.8 million to redevelop the Sunshine law courts. That will provide two additional courtrooms that will be safer, more secure and technology enabled. We know from the pandemic and our experiences through that about the efficiencies and the importance of having the best technology in our court system, so I am very pleased that that upgrade is coming to the Sunshine law courts.

Early Start Kindergarten is being extended in Footscray to three- and four-year-old refugee and asylum seeker children regardless of whether they have accessed it in the past. At all stages and ages of life we are delivering in education in Footscray, from early childhood through to TAFE. The Le Mana Pasifika youth project will receive $600 000 to support over 2800 Pasifika young people to strengthen educational engagement and mental health support. Following the release of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health’s System report in recent weeks, we know that this sort of work among peer groups is so incredibly important.

In this budget the Andrews Labor government has invested an unprecedented amount in Footscray. I am a very proud member for Footscray. The works will continue to come and the investment will continue to flow over the years to come, with major projects like the new Footscray Hospital getting underway shortly, with the contracts recently signed for that project to commence. It has been exciting to see the hoarding going up on the corner of Geelong Road and Ballarat Road.

I would just like to conclude in the time I have left by talking a bit about the values of this budget and how proud I am to see our Labor values reflected in the budget papers. Public housing is a passion of mine. One of the reasons I wanted to be in this place is so I could fight for more public and social housing, and I will always fight for more public and social housing in my community of Footscray. It changes lives, and we know how beneficial, how essential it is to everything in someone’s life to have a roof over their head. Again that was affirmed by the mental health royal commission report last sitting week. The $5 billion investment into public housing is something that I am enormously proud of, and I cannot wait to work with the minister to see upgrades to public housing across the Footscray electorate—in Braybrook, Footscray and Sunshine. It has been a very proud time to be a member of the Andrews Labor government.

Ms KAIROUZ (Kororoit) (10:53): It is a pleasure to rise to speak on the take-note motion for the 2020–21 budget papers, and I congratulate the Treasurer on the budget that has been handed down in the tradition of strong Labor values of equality, fairness and opportunity. This budget, like other Labor budgets, continues to put people first. It delivers jobs that create opportunities for Victorians, but particularly for people that live in my electorate of Kororoit.

Standing here in this place 12 months ago I never would have imagined the world as it is today. We are in a very different place to where we were at the beginning of 2020, and we are in an optimal place compared to where we were just a few months ago. Globally there have been over 68.6 million confirmed cases of COVID and, sadly, over 2.68 million deaths. In contrast, here in Victoria we have had 20 483 confirmed cases and, regrettably, 820 deaths. Representing an electorate in the top 10 of COVID-19 cases, I want to put my thanks on record to every person in my electorate and to every Victorian for heeding the advice of the health professionals and following the rules. I know that what was asked of Victorians was difficult. I also found it difficult. But I am grateful to every single member of my community who endured the challenging times, and I thank small businesses for their patience and their perseverance.

I know many people whose livelihoods have been impacted as a result of this one-in-100-year pandemic. I think about the many conversations that I have had, particularly with those people, and about how far we have come in the last few months. Thanks to the hard work and to the determination of Victorians, we are now able to move more freely, spend time with the people that we love, particularly at the places that we love most.

This is a budget of our time. This is a budget that significantly increases expenditure to stimulate the economy, and this is a budget that changes lives. The Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Dr Philip Lowe, urged states to capitalise on low interest rates by borrowing money and spending that money on infrastructure in order to stimulate the economy, create thousands of jobs and provide confidence in the community. The Andrews Labor government has always been astutely and acutely aware of the need for government to invest and to provide Victorians and the business community with certainty and confidence. The 2020–21 budget delivers on investments that will see our economy recover and, more importantly, our community recover and come back even stronger than before.

Now that the health crisis is over, the Andrews Labor government has delivered a budget like no other. No-one is left behind and no community is left behind. The Victorian budget invests more than $3 billion in school upgrades and an extra $1.9 billion to support more than 6400 construction and supply chain jobs. This includes $1.28 billion for 162 school upgrades for targeted schools and $388.8 million towards improving facilities at 39 specialist schools. Six of those specialist schools, I am proudly able to mention, are in the western suburbs, and children with special needs from my electorate can now learn, explore and flourish. The six schools are Furlong Park School for Deaf Children, which received $9.429 million; Jackson School received $10 million; Melton Specialist School received $9.56 million; Rosamond Special School and Sunshine Special Development School, which the member for Footscray just so proudly mentioned, received $10 million each; and Yarraville Special Development School received $5.472 million. These schools will receive funding for upgrades to create modern safe places for students with disability to learn and explore and also to provide comfort and confidence to their parents, knowing that their children will have access to improved and inclusive learning spaces.

Closer to home in my electorate of Kororoit, land will be acquired for two new schools that have been provisionally named Aintree Secondary School and Rockbank (Murray Road) Primary School as part of the $147 million to acquire land for 11 new schools. I am extremely proud to be part of a government that is investing in growth areas and in our children’s future.

I am also pleased to see that the Andrews Labor government is delivering on its election commitment for a new Melton hospital, and thanks to the advocacy and hard work of the member for Melton $75 million has been put aside for land acquisition, planning and early works. We are all looking forward to settlement on the location of the land as soon as possible. This is something that the community is eagerly waiting for. The Melton local government area is one of the fastest growing regions in Australia—Acting Speaker, you are nodding your head; is it time to stop? As I said, it is one of the fastest growing regions in Australia— (Time expired)

Business interrupted under sessional orders.