Thursday, 22 June 2023

Motions

Budget papers 2023–24

Debate resumed on motion of Jaclyn Symes:

That the Council take note of the budget papers 2023–24.

Sheena WATT (Northern Metropolitan) (16:52): I rise to speak on the motion about last month’s state budget that is delivering a stronger, fairer and more compassionate Victoria than ever. The Andrews Labor government is delivering on our election promises and doing what matters to make Victoria a better place. Nearly 30 years ago the Liberals sold off our electricity assets to foreign transnational corporations. We can do better. The Andrews Labor government is putting energy back in the people’s hands. We have promised to bring back the SEC, and in this budget we are kickstarting that with an initial investment of $1 billion. We are replacing unreliable and privately owned coal –

Harriet Shing: A billion dollars.

Sheena WATT: That is right. It bears repeating, the significance of it: $1 billion. We are replacing unreliable and privately owned coal with cleaner and cheaper renewable energy. We know how important it is to protect the SEC for future generations, so we will enshrine the SEC in Victoria’s constitution to make sure it is not sold off by future Liberal governments. The SEC cannot work without the renewable energy workers of the future, so this budget will kickstart funding for the SEC centre of training excellence to train up our next generation. Funding is also provided for new VET certificates and other qualifications focused on renewable energy and achieving the Victorian energy jobs plan.

I am proud to be a part of a government that is delivering real action on climate. I have fought for climate action my whole life, like my counterpart in the Northern Metropolitan Region – who is not here to hear me give him this shout-out – Comrade Mulholland, as he would like to, I suspect, be known. I was a bit of an activist in my student days, and I helped to do a range of different things to push for climate action, including negotiating – as one of, I do not know, more than 100,000 people – the global agreement on climate change, which is why I am so proud that we are leading the world in reducing emissions and that this jurisdiction is decarbonising faster than anywhere else in the world. We are leading the nation in renewables investment, which will create Victorian jobs and replace coal. As part of this renewables investment, in this budget we are funding two worker training centres for the emerging offshore and onshore wind industry. From global leadership to local action, the Andrews Labor government is investing in real action on climate. This budget will build 100 community batteries throughout Victoria, including in my community of Merri-bek. These batteries, delivered in partnership with local organisations and communities, will benefit consumers, communities and the electricity grid. Victoria is leading the way in battery storage, and this government will triple the number of Victorian homes that have access to crucial extra energy. I am simply buzzing at this news; it is absolutely electrifying.

Labor’s action on climate change means leaving no-one behind, and public housing residents have told me how tough their bills are in the heat of summer and the chills of winter, with inefficient cooling and heating. We have also provided cost-of-living relief with the popular $250 power saving bonus, which helps Victorians find a better deal on their power bills. In this budget we are going even further by providing funding of $141.4 million to install air conditioners in high-rise public housing towers. We are making life more comfortable and improving the health and wellbeing of over 13,000 Victorians across more than 40 towers. I accompanied the former Minister for Housing Danny Pearson to announce this commitment during last year’s state election. This funding is truly a significant win for public housing residents.

In the 2023–24 state budget we announced that native timber logging in Victorian forests will end from 1 January 2024. This decision will deliver certainty for the future for timber workers and sawmill operators and their communities. Increasingly severe bushfires and prolonged legal action have left forestry workers in limbo and unable to work or put food on the table, and this uncertainty has absolutely taken its toll on these workers and their families and communities. Something had to change. That is why we brought forward the end of native forest harvesting. For workers, their families and their communities this is difficult news, so our top priority is supporting each and every worker in the forestry industry to transition out of logging. Our expanded support package, bolstered by an additional $200 million in assistance for workers and their families, will do just that. Our funding will retrain and upskill workers to transition to secure jobs and provide workers and their families with the financial and mental health support they need. We will also help hardwood-reliant businesses keep the doors open while they move on to other opportunities and deliver the largest expansion to our public forests in our state’s history. With this announcement we are stepping up to give timber workers the job security and comprehensive support they deserve. We are also protecting our beautiful forests and creating more green space for all Victorians to enjoy for generations to come.

The state budget had plenty of wins for my community in the Northern Metropolitan Region, and I was so, so very, very excited to visit CERES environmental park on budget day last month to share the news with the team that the state budget will deliver $1 million over two years for their community environmental enterprise precinct plan. I know that is a mouthful, and it is not the first time in fact that I have spoken of CERES. I have put into Hansard my support for the plan, and I have met many times with the CEO Cinnamon Evans as well as the chair of the board Andrew Hewett to discuss their plans. I am proud to champion their cause with ministers and in this Parliament, some of whom are here today celebrating this with me. I just want it declared that Labor has taken real action in the community by delivering this funding. CERES makes a big impact, not just locally but across the whole of our state. It is an iconic place to so many people from all over. Indeed it was funded by local legends in the Labor movement. Any day of the week you can see bright young faces learning about sustainability and taking on their role as the next generation of sustainability champions to make the globe a better place. This win in the budget should be celebrated, and I am absolutely excited to work with CERES to make their precinct plan a reality.

It was indeed a very busy, busy budget day, and I am pleased to report that our commitment to fund an $8.4 million upgrade to Carlton North Primary School starts with this budget funding a kickstart to the planning process. I visited the school to share the great news with principal Rachel and two of the prep students, Winnie and Lucas, who will benefit from the new teaching and learning spaces. This upgrade is part of the Andrews Labor government’s plan to ensure that every young Victorian is able to count on a great education in the best facilities for our youngest learners.

This budget is also providing a multifaith workers memorial at Trades Hall. I have spoken many times on workplace safety. It is an issue dear to my heart and one that I know is dear to so many from our side of the chamber. It is one that I have proudly championed in government, in business, in industry and in unions. Every worker – every single worker – has the right to return home safe from work, and no family should have to live with the horror of a loved one not coming home. This government has a track record of delivering on workplace safety. Workplace manslaughter is now a crime because of the Andrews Labor government, and for every worker that never came home they will now have a place where we can honour and reflect on their enormous sacrifice.

The Andrews Labor government will always back our multicultural communities, because we know our cultural diversity is one of Victoria’s greatest strengths. For more than 30 years the Australian Muslim Social Services Agency centre in North Melbourne has been a cultural and spiritual hub for the inner north’s Muslim community. Thanks to the funding announced in the state budget, AMSSA will be able to undertake key upgrades to their facilities, ensuring that they can continue to fulfil their essential role in our community for many, many years to come. Our support for multicultural communities does not stop there. This budget provides funding to 3ZZZ radio, a multicultural radio station in the northern suburbs which gives a voice to communities in their own languages.

This budget is doing what matters for all Victorians. I have taken time to highlight just a few of the key announcements, but there is so much more that I look forward to sharing with the chamber over the coming months ahead. It is worth noting that it is a budget that delivers new schools and strengthens communities. It delivers on fairness and it delivers on climate action. The Andrews Labor government is getting on with the job of delivering for all Victorians.

Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (17:03): I am very pleased to rise to join the debate taking note of the state budget, because it is a very good state budget, quite frankly. There are not many other ways to describe the first budget of this third term of the Andrews Labor government than a very, very good budget indeed. Fundamentally what this budget does – and it addresses something that many electors over a period of time have grown frustrated with politics for – and what this government has been able to demonstrate again and again and again is that it delivers on its commitments. It is something that the public knows about the Andrews Labor government: that we deliver on our commitments. The commitments that we took to the state election just six months ago are being delivered by the budget in full – lots of schools, lots of roads, lots of rail, lots of hospitals and health services. It is a level of investment that Victoria needs for today but also to service our growing state for the next 10, 20 or 30 years. It is the kind of investment that we need in the Victorian economy to help keep doing that economic fundamental, which is creating jobs. Fundamentally the budget is all about ensuring that the record jobs growth that we have seen here in Victoria continues by investing in the sort of productivity-enhancing infrastructure that you see right across metropolitan and regional Victoria.

It is about investing in the skills of Victorians by ensuring that TAFE is both accessible and, in priority courses, free so that more young Victorians can get the skills they need to make sure that they are getting the jobs that are driving the economy of the future. And key to that future, as we have spoken about in this chamber this week, are our plans for cheaper, cleaner renewable energy led by the State Electricity Commission. Those are the key commitments that we took to the last election, and they are the commitments that are being delivered by the budget.

I thought it would be particularly useful to just do a bit of an overview of how strong the Victorian economy is and how the recent state budget supports that degree of economic growth. The unemployment rate here in Victoria is of course well below 4 per cent, and it has been for the better part of the last year. That is an economic fact that we have not seen in this state for the last 50 years. Since September 2020 the labour market here in Victoria has added almost 440,000 jobs, and critically, when we look at job creation, what we always strive for is ensuring that the jobs that are being created are full-time jobs. Four out of five of these 440,000 jobs that have been created here in the state of Victoria since September 2020 are full-time positions, which has helped to push the unemployment rate to a 20-year low. Economic growth is strong in Victoria and higher than the national average, and the forecasts for economic growth that underpin our state budget show strong growth continuing over the budget forward estimates. What that tells all members is that obviously we are well and truly recovering from the challenges that Victoria and the Victorian economy faced during the pandemic.

We are obviously facing different sets of economic conditions, and the state government is dealing with those. We have taken difficult but necessary decisions in relation to repaying our COVID debt so that we do not leave the COVID debt bill for our children to pay, and we had a long debate in the chamber earlier this week about the necessary legislation to enact that COVID debt recovery plan. The alternative to paying that COVID debt back through the measures that we have introduced is obviously either to leave it for the future or to massively cut our government services, which I suspect is what those opposite would prefer to do. At some point in the next three years they are going to have to be honest with the Victorian people about their plans to cut back on government services, because that is what they do.

I do not want to spend too much time talking about those opposite because quite frankly they do not deserve it. They do not contribute enough to the debates, to the ideas and to the plans for this state to warrant much consideration. Instead what we see is that this government is very much doing what we said we were going to do. I want to go through in some detail precisely how parts of the Southern Metropolitan Region have been benefiting from this budget and from the investments that we have been making, particularly in things like schools, in things like hospitals and in things like our community services and infrastructure. We are investing in our local communities and making them better and doing the things that are absolutely what our local communities want us to do.

I had the great privilege on budget day to spend most of the day in fact in and around local communities talking with schools principally about the exciting times that are ahead. First up I went to Hampton Primary School and spoke with the principal and the school council there about the plans that they have to upgrade their school. There was funding allocated in the budget for that planning to commence, and obviously we all know that you have got to make good plans before the rest of the building can commence. At Hampton Primary School they are particularly excited about the planning that they are about to do for future capital upgrades.

I went up to Gardenvale Primary School to have a similar conversation with them across their two campuses, the junior and the senior campuses, to look at what the funding that we have allocated in this budget to support the planning of their school upgrades will achieve. Whilst I was there we ran into a school tour for prospective parents who were checking out the school to see whether it is the place they want to be sending their kids next year or the year after, and they were pretty excited when they heard – I did give a bit of a sneak preview, I have got to say; do not tell the Treasurer, but I gave them a little bit of a sneak preview – that there was funding in the budget to be handed down later on that day for the planning of upgrade works at Gardenvale Primary School. They were pretty excited because they heard from the staff about how wonderful the programs were that were being delivered at Gardenvale, and they could see that the investment that we are making in planning through this state budget will help deliver even better and more improved facilities for that school.

I also had a conversation the following day with the principal at Caulfield South Primary School, who has only just arrived at the school in fact and who had previously been overseeing a very significant capital upgrade at the Port Melbourne Primary School – the principal has moved from Port Melbourne down to Caulfield South. He is especially excited about the work that they are about to do – starting that whole process again. He has just finished it at his previous primary school, and he is moving on to another primary school that is going to start planning another upgrade. At Caulfield South Primary they are particularly excited as well.

I also had the opportunity later in the week to visit Sacred Heart Parish School in Sandringham on Fernhill Road, where the state budget, through the funding we give through the Non-Government Schools Capital Fund, is providing funding to support the upgrades to the Sacred Heart Parish School. That school in particular is a smallish school but a growing school, and local parents are clearly excited by the opportunities that exist at the school. But clearly the condition of the school is such that they could do with some support to upgrade their facilities to meet the needs of their growing school population, and that is exactly what the state budget is going to deliver for them.

It was also a delight, I have got to say, later in the day to be down at the Caulfield Park Bowling Club to see their great plans for an upgrade to their facilities at the bowling club. They are going to have a covered area on one of their bowling greens to ensure that they can bowl rain, hail or shine. The enthusiastic members of the bowling club did take me out on the green and test out my skills. I have got to say they are somewhat lacking, my bowling skills, but when we return to the Caulfield Park Bowling Club once their upgrade works are complete I hope my bowling skills will be better than they were on budget day.

I also had the opportunity later in the day to talk with some local dog owners who are excited about the upgrades that are coming to the gloriously named Pawfield Park in Caulfield, which will be the recipient of funds as we work with the local council and members of the local community to upgrade the facility at Pawfield Park so that local dog owners have exceptional new facilities to take them through.

I mentioned earlier today the support that the budget and the government gave to the Jewish community, principally in and around the electorate of Caulfield but more broadly as well. Several organisations based there received support in the budget. There was obviously an affirmation of our commitment to the Jewish Arts Quarter – an additional $2 million in this budget, bringing the state’s total contribution to that project to $7 million to build a new Jewish Arts Quarter on Selwyn Street in Elsternwick. But in addition to that, there is the $3 million from the budget for the anti-Semitism campaign to reaffirm that bigotry has no place in Victoria. There was some additional funding for the Community Security Group, which supports that group to undertake important security works in and around facilities within the Jewish community, and there was a range of other support being provided to various community groups in and around the local Jewish community.

The other thing that I was particularly excited about – I went with my colleague and friend the member for Albert Park down to the Alfred hospital, which will be the recipient of a new women’s health clinic as part of the $58 million that is being delivered in the budget to deliver on our commitments to create new women’s health clinics across Victoria. It was very well received by the community, as are most of the other parts of the budget. I am very pleased to speak today to take note of it, and the members of the community that I am speaking with are really excited about the commitments that we are delivering on.

Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Early Childhood and Pre-Prep, Minister for Environment) (17:17): I move:

That debate on this motion be adjourned until the next day of meeting.

Motion agreed to and debate adjourned until next day of meeting.