Wednesday, 22 March 2023

Department of Treasury and Finance

2022–23 Mid-Year Financial Report

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (17:17): I rise to speak to the mid-year financial report that was handed down and released last Wednesday by the government. It shows a very concerning and sobering set of figures. It shows a government that is just hooked on spending, but the really concerning thing is the amount of wastage. Now Victoria’s interest bill is costing taxpayers over $10 million each day. Every single day we are paying over $10 million in interest. This is just a culture of gross waste and mismanagement. We know – and we have been saying this on this side of the house for many years – about the Andrews government’s inability to manage money. They do not think there is anything wrong with massive overruns, and they do not have any regard for whose money it is. It is taxpayers money. When there is such a shortage of health services around the state, and I am speaking of obviously hospitals – I know it was mentioned in the house earlier today about the Melton hospital; well, we have been talking about rebuilding the Melton hospital for years – the government has done nothing.

Evan Mulholland: Put up a fence, Georgie.

Georgie CROZIER: Put up a fence – that’s right, Mr Mulholland. That is all they have done in five years, six years. It is not good enough for those communities in the western suburbs that this government keeps taking them for granted. If I look around the state in these same areas, children cannot get access to the most basic and vital services because there are not enough maternal and child health nurses in places like Wyndham, Melton, Casey and these growth areas. There is a lack of planning, yet the government are happy to waste money on projects, because they do not do project management very well – in fact they do it incredibly poorly.

As a result of the government’s mismanagement, it is taxpayers and the services that are the losers, whether it is health, whether it is a lack of education and schools or whether it is lack of other services like policing – all these services that state governments provide. This is who is at a loss here. Then of course you have got the Victorian taxpayers, who are working so hard, dealing with rising interest rates and the issues that are coming down from a national level. The cost of living is so incredibly high at the moment. When you have got all of those issues combined, our standard of living is falling, because when you cannot get access to a hospital bed, when you cannot get access to an ambulance, they are the standards that are falling in this state. And that is happening. That is what I am talking about with the delivery of services, and that is because of years of mismanagement and lack of investment, particularly in health.

I have said it in this place many times: that the lack of planning and lack of investment over many years prior to COVID made the situation because of COVID just so much worse. That is why we have got this critical shortage. We have got a workforce shortage and we have got infrastructure right around the state in health services that is vitally needed. I was with Ms Lovell earlier with representatives from the city of Shepparton talking about that very vital health service that needs to be done. Now, the government goes out and says, ‘Oh, well, we’ve finished stage 1,’ but there are so many other areas. Where is that clinical school that will help with the workforce problem in this state? Where is it?

Wendy Lovell interjected.

Georgie CROZIER: The cancer services. There are all of these vital pieces of infrastructure that could be built if this government did not waste so much money.

What is so alarming is it follows the record debt level that Victoria will have by 2025–26, $165.4 billion, and that will have an interest bill that will be more than $7.4 billion. This is an absolute indictment of the management by the Andrews government of taxpayers money. They are addicted to raising taxes and taxing mums and dads, businesses and Victorians. They are addicted to spending without reining in and being responsible, and as a result the services in this state are declining. As a result of the services declining, our standards of living are declining, and that is a direct result of policy decisions, mismanagement of budget and fiscal management and just hopeless disregard for taxpayers money.