Tuesday, 16 November 2021

Budget 2021–22

Mr DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan—Leader of the Opposition) (23:07): (1634) My adjournment tonight is for the attention of the Treasurer in the other place. I notice the recent quarterly report that has come out in just the last few days, tabled last Friday in fact, shows that the government has already borrowed over $10 billion in the first three months of the current financial year. The government planned, according to its 2021–22 budget paper 5, on page 9, to spend $21.103 billion over the full financial year. On my reckoning they are ahead of the rate here. On the surface this looks like a significant blowout in the borrowing that is occurring just in the first three months. My question is: is there a target for this, quarterly or half yearly, and what is the nature of that target, or are we just racking it up like on Afterpay or a credit card?

I also note in the quarterly report it shows that $9.5 billion of debt was added, so there are very significant matters there. There is borrowing on one hand, but there is net debt overall. With the $9.5 billion of debt that was added in three months, that shows a net debt at 30 September of $82.2 billion, the highest net debt level in Victoria’s history. That is about $12 300 of debt for every man, woman and child in Victoria, a very significant increase in the debt situation.

Of course through COVID we understand some debt was inevitable and there was a legitimate case for such spending, but at the same time there are many projects around the state where the government has lost control of these projects with massive cost blowouts—$3 billion and climbing on the Metro Tunnel, in fact nearer $4 billion; more than $3 billion on the West Gate Tunnel; and massive blowouts on the level crossing projects. But they will not tell us how much the blowouts are on those projects. So this loss of control by the state of its borrowing in this context is, I think, very concerning.

So what I am seeking from the Treasurer is: what are the targets for these quarterly steps and half-yearly steps? Are there targets, or is it just an open-ended, open slather approach where there is no control? And what steps is he taking to bring it back under control? Can he release those targets for the quarters and the half-year, and can he indicate to the house what steps he is taking to rein in the debt that is running away quarterly far faster than the annual rate he intended?