Thursday, 17 August 2023

Motions

Budget papers 2023–24

Debate resumed on motion of Jaclyn Symes:

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

Tom McINTOSH (Eastern Victoria) (16:22): I have been looking forward to my opportunity to make my contribution, and there is so much to talk about in this contribution. I want to start with infrastructure because I think infrastructure is where this government has absolutely led our state and our nation. We know that people want to come to Victoria. We know the quality of life Victoria has. We know that it is a magnet, that people want to be here. As our population grows, for all of our families and for our communities we need to make sure that we have the infrastructure for them. That is what we are doing, and that is what this budget continues to deliver on. You talk to any Victorian and you mention something like the level crossing removals, and they absolutely know what you are talking about. Many, many, many of them will come and say what a local crossing has done for their life, what it has done for their productivity, what it means for their family, what it means to get to work or what it means to get to the local school ground. No matter which way you look at it, this infrastructure initiative, this infrastructure investment, has been an absolute boon for Victorians, and we have seen that reflected in the feedback we get from Victorians when we take the measure on that.

It is not only the boom gates, the level crossing removals, but the Metro Tunnel. There were so many naysayers about the Metro over so much time, and here we are running our first test train. I recently, with the fantastic member for Pakenham, visited the Pakenham depot there by Downer and the trains that are going to be running through the loop to Sunbury. There will be 70 high-velocity trains that will run through the Metro. It is going to increase the frequency of trains. These trains are new, being built in Newport, being built right here, maintained here, and it is just so incredibly exciting and speaks to what this government has done – invested, and invested with products that are built here to deliver for Victorians.

Of course when you talk about local products for Victorians you cannot go past the SEC. That has been such a huge part of the conversation of Victoria in the last year, the fact that this budget is delivering the SEC to get on and deliver 4.5 gigawatts of energy for Victoria – clean, affordable, dependable energy. We know how much Victorians absolutely got behind that idea of returning power to the people – power for consumers, not for profits. That really is at the heart of a Labor budget. It is about people. It is about our community. It is about our quality of life. That is what we look at. On every line item you look at, this government is delivering for Victorians for the quality of life we have so that it continues to improve. It is because since the first day this government were elected we have put our heads down and been willing to work every single day to deliver for Victorians and what it is they want.

From a cost-of-living perspective this budget delivers so much for cost of living. And of course one that is dear to my heart and dear to the hearts of so many is free TAFE. It is setting up the next generation of workers. It has been critically important at a time when the supply of workers, well-trained workers, trained adequately in appropriate areas to assist the productivity of Victoria, is so incredibly important. Not only are we giving free TAFE to workers, we are ensuring the supplementary things around that, like how apprentices can get free car registration so they can get to the job, so they can get that training and so they can become qualified and fully contribute to the economic outcomes of Victoria, contribute to their families and contribute to their local communities.

I talk about this so often in here: free kinder – what that does for Victorian families, what it does for this generation of kids now, what it does for them in the future both emotionally and academically and what it does for a whole generation of workers working in the early education sector who are building and growing their capacity and their ability to educate our kids, educate them in play-based learning. It supports our families. Families now know that three- and four-year-old children are going to get some of the best educational opportunities in the world. As they move through our education system through primary school, through high school and whether it be going into our TAFE system or into our university system, we are ensuring a generation of Victorians get incredibly high quality education to ensure the outcomes we will have when those young Victorians of today turn into the workers of tomorrow.

Of course when we talk about the workers of tomorrow, this side has a commitment to ensuring good conditions – good pay and safe conditions. That is again another thing that makes Victoria such a desirable place to live. Going to a job, getting there safely, getting paid well and getting treated well is the fundamental basis of what it is to be Victorian. It is a right of Victorians, and we on this side are very, very proud to respect workers, to treat them well and to ensure they go home to their families safely and that they have the finances to support their families in everything they do.

I notice McCracken on the other side seems to find that amusing, but I can guarantee we on this side do not find that amusing. We support families all the way, as we always have and always will. Something Mr McCracken, I imagine, will support – I would hope he does – is what we have done around V/Line fares, equalising what it is for regional and rural Victorians to get on V/Line and get the same price as what a metro customer does. I do not know, I think they forgot about regional and rural Victorians when they came up with their public transport commitments ahead of the election, but the Victorian Labor Party did not forget regional and rural Victorians. We are ensuring they can get anywhere in the state for the same price as someone in Melbourne can. And do you know what else it does? It gets people from Melbourne out into the regions and spending money, going to towns, having accommodation, enjoying all the wonderful things that our regions offer – the incredible things that we are proud of and that we sell. We ensure that everyone in this state, around Australia and around the world comes to enjoy them. We get to enjoy it, and everybody else should too.

I want to move on from cost of living now, and I want to talk about the investment that this government is making and will continue to make in housing. We have the infrastructure for our communities. We are supplying and ensuring affordable housing for our communities. This is a big issue. It is a big issue all around the world. It is one this government has a keen eye and absolute focus on, and the $5.3 billion investment is such an incredible commitment. Many throughout the region of Eastern Victoria – many, many houses – have already been delivered, and many more are continuing to be delivered. We ensure we have the infrastructure for communities. We are putting in the anti-inflationary measures to ensure that we are supporting people and families with their cost of living, their houses.

We also are ensuring their health. Health is critically important to us as a people, as a state, but also from an individual perspective. The investment we are making in people’s health, particularly in women’s health, is second to none, and we are absolutely leading in this space. It is not a niche issue. It is one we are standing up for and we are putting our dollars behind and we are putting our voices behind. Some of the investments in health – I talked about women’s health. We have got 20 new comprehensive women’s health clinics across the state, and I am very glad that two of those are there supporting people in my electorate, not to mention the mobile service that is going to support regional Victorians and a service that is dedicated to supporting our First Nations, our Indigenous, Victorians. We have got investments in our mental health and wellbeing centres because it is not just physical health, it is also the mental health of Victorians that we want to support.

You can see this flowing out of a deep commitment, things we are deeply committed to, when we talk about what we are investing in: in our women and in mental health, coming out of the royal commissions that were instigated years ago, and what we are implementing to deliver the changes that we want to see in Victoria for all of our people – as I said earlier – to continually improve the quality of our individual and community lives. Obviously we have got two big hospital upgrades in the eastern region of Victoria, which I am incredibly proud of. One that goes under the radar a little bit – but it should not – is the $70 million investment for an aged care upgrade in Maffra, which is absolutely incredible for Maffra. It is incredible for the region that locals can get those state-of-the-art facilities close to home.

Schools and TAFE – I touched before on TAFE. Our education system is something that we on this side have always been proud to invest in and support because we know that when you invest in people you get the outcomes during the journey of that person’s life and their family’s life and our greater community’s life and the benefits for our economy. Some of the schools that I have had the pleasure of visiting and talking to, with the millions of dollars of investments in schools, are Mount Eliza North Primary, Lakes Entrance Primary, Paynesville Primary, Leongatha Secondary College and Eastbourne Primary – millions and millions of dollars of investment in these schools to ensure that they have got the facilities they need to educate our kids. There is Rye Primary, $200,000 – just a small one for a small playground, a fantastic thing for those local kids. Walking around with their principal Lachie and looking at what that is going to deliver for the kids was fantastic, on a smaller note.

Then of course, back on the skills side, there is the money that we are investing for our clean energy training future through our TAFEs. Five million dollars of that we know is for Morwell to ensure that huge demand – we talked about the SEC before – for workers, that huge requirement for the tens of thousands of workers that are coming into this system of renewables and offshore wind to deliver the clean energy that this state wants, the clean, affordable energy that Victorians absolutely backed in at the recent state election.

Community sport – it is so, so important to us. We have seen in the last few weeks that when you invest in community sport, you get incredible outcomes at all levels of our sport, not to mention at our national levels. The Matildas have been incredible. And you get there by investing at the grassroots, at the regional levels and at the state levels – all the way through – and that is what we are doing and what we have done in the past and what we are continuing to do. I myself have had the privilege to visit Lakes Entrance to meet with the council there, where we have $800,000 for a new indoor sporting facility. The Buchan Football Netball Club has $400,000 towards new netball court upgrades. There is $350,000 for a pump track extension in Sale. There is $150,000 for upgrades at the Bairnsdale Clay Target Club, and I can tell you they were very excited, when I dropped in out there, to know that money is there to make the improvements to their club they have been wanting to do for some time. And there is $120,000 for equipment upgrades for the Mallacoota gymnastics club.

All these things this government is delivering, whether it is the big picture or whether it is on the local level, like the kindergarten programs, where we have been able to go out and hear firsthand how much the community absolutely value our investment in early education, whether it is Sale, whether it is Leongatha, whether it is Foster, whether it is Mornington or whether it is Korumburra. In all of these places you visit, people really, really appreciate this investment in them, in their children, in their communities and in their families, and that is the importance of a budget that has community in mind, that wants to see our state grow, that wants to see it grow collectively, that wants to see equality of opportunity, that wants to see a fair and just state. It is that fundamental belief, that fundamental underpinning that sees a budget that delivers for Victorians and ensures that future generations of Victorians will have the prosperity we have today.

Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (16:37): I was really hoping that we would see investment in May that would do a lot more to address the growing inequality we see in Victoria, but unfortunately this budget falls well short of addressing the root causes of poverty, homelessness and poor health that are impacting people’s lives. People need affordable housing, access to health care and enough money to put food on the table, and as a responsible state government we should be able to deliver that as a bare minimum.

We are in the worst housing crisis of our generation, with homelessness continuing to increase across the state. With cost of living skyrocketing, paying the rent and keeping up with mortgage repayments has become a source of extreme financial distress for families and a range of different individuals in our community who are fearing they could be one rent increase or interest-rate hike away from being homeless. The electorate with the biggest increase in homelessness in the state over the past five years is South Barwon in my region, where it has risen by over 400 per cent, and in many other parts of western Victoria homelessness has dramatically increased, and they also feature in that top 10 of fastest rises in homelessness. In regional and rural areas the lack of affordable housing and rentals also has a major impact on essential services like health care, education, child care and emergency services. Meanwhile, we have plenty of houses sitting empty or only being rented out as short-term accommodation.

We all know how bad the housing situation is, yet this budget fails to acknowledge how serious the situation is for many Victorians. It fails to recognise that housing is a human right – a right that this government is blatantly failing to protect. We saw absolutely nothing in the budget for renters, but the Greens have not and will not allow Labor to leave renters out in the cold. We need rent controls, short-stay regulations and a massive increase in genuine public housing, and we will continue to push for it.

When it comes to health care, in the latest state budget we have once again been let down by Labor’s underinvestment in preventative health. Australia fares extremely poorly when it comes to investment in preventative health, but it is the best value for money in terms of healthcare expenditure. For every dollar invested in prevention we save almost $15 in healthcare costs. Over 30 per cent of chronic health conditions are preventable, and targeted interventions could reduce the burden on our hospitals and healthcare resources. Moreover, it is not just health dollars that you save when you invest in prevention, it is right across the board. People who are healthy are more productive, more engaged and less likely to experience poverty or require other government services. We need a genuine preventative health funding stream and a reprioritisation of health spending – maybe not so much on big, new, shiny hospitals that you can cut a ribbon and put a plaque on and more on meaningful preventative health programs and service delivery – because the way we are going, we will never be able to keep up with demand for hospital beds.

What we also should have seen in this budget, and what I will continue to push for, is greater investment in our community and primary health services so we can keep people healthy and keep them out of hospital in the first place. After prevention this is the next best value for money for our health dollar. There is a huge body of evidence to show that health systems that deliver the best health outcomes and the most cost-efficient care have primary care – and I mean primary care in the broadest sense, not just general practice – as the cornerstone. The community health sector in Victoria delivers a holistic model of care that is now being touted as the way forward nationally in the review of Medicare funding, but we have had it here for 50 years. Unfortunately chronic underfunding and an under-appreciation of the role of community health in our state health system have meant community health centres have had to scramble for grants for basic infrastructure. For example, Cohealth in Collingwood has walls that literally have cracks so big that many rooms cannot be used for confidential consultations, yet they cannot access funding to address that.

My first job as a GP was actually in a practice co-located in a community health centre, so I got to see firsthand how it worked and the benefits for those who were served by it. I also spent time working at a service for people experiencing homelessness, and that too provided holistic services and supports based on individual needs, including social work and housing support, mental health care, podiatry and nursing care. In my electorate of Western Victoria I am aware of the important role that community health centres play in our rural areas, where they are often fundamental to the viability of their towns. We know that early intervention using the social model of health works. We know that when health care is team based and multidisciplinary it can provide better care and keep people out of hospital. We know it is far more cost efficient than the current fragmented specialist, hospital-heavy model. It saves money for the government by taking the burden off our hospital system as well as reducing out-of-pocket costs for patients. Given all the evidence, the question is: why isn’t the Labor state government working to support and expand our community health sector rather than leaving it to barely get by?

Then we look at dental care. Over the next 12 months we will not see an increase in dental healthcare service funding for adults. This is desperately needed. The government’s current public dental output services only a fifth of the eligible population, yet the government refuses to bring funding in line with population demand. The government’s disregard for people who have the right to public dental access is made obvious by its own performance targets for wait times for public dental care. The performance target is 23 months – that is the target. How on earth is a 23-month wait for public dental care an acceptable performance target? At budget estimates the minister reported that the average wait time was actually 14.8 months, but if we look at the data more closely, especially across our region, we see discrepancies in access depending on where you live – another postcode lottery. In June 2023, if you lived in Warrnambool, the average wait time was 38 months for general care. Meanwhile we are struggling to recruit the workforce we need to provide public dental healthcare and to recruit and retain new public dentists in regional communities, and public dental chairs are just sitting empty. It is not good enough.

Prevention is the key in all areas of health care, and dental is no different. Seven per cent of people in Victoria continue to live without fluoridated water due to a lack of investment in fluoridation. Baseline oral health in these communities is shockingly low. We have been told that a dentist in the east Grampians can look in a patient’s mouth and know that they are from Stawell by their poor oral health. Stawell’s drinking water is not fluoridated. Evidence shows that good dental health is clearly linked to sustained general wellbeing, and on that front these communities are being left behind.

Lastly, I will address the environment. This budget disregards the urgent need to proactively address the imminent challenges posed by a changing climate. Core issues such as biodiversity loss and extended periods of drought as well as climate resilience all require action now, not later. Not only does it fail to invest enough in the environment, it actually cuts $2 billion from the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action and its programs, which will leave the environment in an even more perilous state. We need to be investing more in our environment to make sure we are resilient to the impacts of climate change, not making cuts.

Disappointingly, there is no new funding for the return of real water to the environment. There is hardly any funding for water at all, with the lion’s share of money going towards vegetation management and converting a reservoir into a fishing and boating pool. The lack of consideration for the importance of our waterways for the whole of the state’s collective wellbeing is beyond disappointing. With respect to the Murray–Darling, this state government has forced the Commonwealth government into granting a two-year extension to its offset mechanism, a mechanism that is already of questionable value. Without buybacks on the table and with no new money allocated our waterways are being denied the regular and sustained environmental flows that they need. This short-sightedness will leave Victorians vulnerable as we move to hotter and dryer climates. There is no farming and no communities on dead rivers.

Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (16:46): Well, I am so pleased to make a contribution on this take-note motion. I noticed Mr McIntosh in his contribution before made the comment that the government are head down and working on delivering the budget. The only thing I would say is that they do have their head down, but their head is in the sand on this one. They are not really listening to regional Victorians, particularly in my electorate, about the negative impacts that this budget is having, because there are a number of things that are not funded. Where do I start? Debt levels – Mr McIntosh I know loves to be quoted. I did say to him before that I would quote him on his deep commitment, but the biggest and deepest commitment that this government has undertaken is obviously debt, which is massive. It is absolutely massive, and it is so unfortunate too because it is my generation and future generations that have to pay this off. Now, just at this point in time debt repayments are $10 million a day, going up to over $22 million per day at the end of the forward estimates. Imagine what $22 million could fund just in one community. My community of Ballarat would love that.

Harriet Shing: It’d buy you a lot of friends on Facebook, Mr McCracken.

Joe McCRACKEN: Maybe so. But imagine what that could fund in a lot of our regional communities. There are so many different community projects that we will be paying interest on instead of actually funding, so that is a great shame.

Bev McArthur: No more bike lanes.

Joe McCRACKEN: No more bike lanes, as Mrs McArthur said. You might actually build some roads instead. One of the biggest things that have impacted the community that I come from in Ballarat is the cancellation of the Commonwealth Games, which was in the budget papers listed at $2.6 billion, and weeks later we find out it was $6 billion or $7 billion, depending on who you ask. This is quite concerning given that $6 billion or $7 billion weeks ago was $2.6 billion, so the big question is what is going on there. But the commitments that my community do need, which include a platform opposite Mars Stadium, are nowhere to be seen, which is a great shame, because this is the one thing that is probably needed the most.

Harriet Shing: There was a commitment.

Joe McCRACKEN: There was no commitment at all to a Mars Stadium platform. There was no commitment at all made. This was something that we would have loved to see in the budget, but it was not there. What we did see in the budget was –

Harriet Shing: Five thousand seats and an athletics track.

Joe McCRACKEN: Five thousand seats, but how are you going to get the people there? That is why we need a platform opposite, and it would have been great to see that – a great, visionary, forward-thinking plan, but, no, we did not see that at all. So sad. And the Ballarat people miss out. In fact the people coming to Ballarat miss out as well. It is just an absolute shame. I would love to be able to see some of the other benefits that were touted under the games, such as the remediation of the former saleyards, the now former proposed site of the athletes village on La Trobe Street there. This site was claimed to be remediated, levelled off and decontaminated. That work is all a big question mark now. We do not actually know what is going to happen to that site. When you talk to a lot of stakeholders, including the local council – I even spoke to them the other day –

Harriet Shing: The mayor is enthusiastic like you wouldn’t believe. Des is mad for it.

Joe McCRACKEN: He is hopeful that there is a positive outcome, but we do not know what the actual outcome will be, because the local ratepayers do not want to pick up the tab.

Members interjecting.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (John Berger): Order! There is too much noise in the chamber.

Joe McCRACKEN: Thank you, Acting President. I do excite the opposition – the government, I should say. I know that much.

Members interjecting.

Joe McCRACKEN: They are my opposition.

A member interjected.

Joe McCRACKEN: It will happen sooner rather than later.

Sonja Terpstra: You will be in opposition for a very long time, trust me. Electoral Siberia!

Joe McCRACKEN: It is cold. But things are about to warm up, I can tell you.

Sonja Terpstra: It’s all that natural gas.

Joe McCRACKEN: It will not come from natural gas, obviously. Natural gas is not on the radar, is it? No, we are all going to freeze now.

The next thing I want to talk about, which has not really been talked about as much as what it should have been, is the condition of our roads. I know that there is $780 million or thereabouts in the budget allocated for roads, but the thing that is not really often explored in this is that half of the roads budget or thereabouts is not actually spent on roads maintenance, it is spent on the maintenance of wire rope barriers.

Bev McArthur: It’s a disgrace.

Joe McCRACKEN: It is an absolute disgrace, Mrs McArthur, because some of the roads that I have seen are just disgraceful. As I said earlier today, I was driving to Ballarat and there is a section of the Western Highway just near Ballan, between Gordon and Ballan, and you really do need a really heavy-duty tyre just to get through that stretch. The government have put signs down there to slow you down, but that is still really not good enough. It has been like this for a number of weeks – not just the last few days; it is weeks. To have a national highway in that condition is shameful.

Harriet Shing: A national highway?

Joe McCRACKEN: It is state based. It is funded by the state as well.

A member: It is a national highway.

Joe McCRACKEN: Yes, and it is funded by the state as well, as you would well know. When I talk to residents that is one piece of that highway that they always say to me needs work, but of course it has never happened. It has not happened, and it needs more work. I can also talk about other parts of the highway as well going towards the other side of Ballarat, towards Beaufort, Ararat, Stawell and beyond. It seems to me, though, the further you get out, the less maintenance is actually done. I have seen some parts of the highway between Buangor and Ararat – again, it was meant to be duplicated but that has not happened yet – that are in such poor condition you really do wonder if you can even risk putting your car on the road, because it is that dangerous.

I have got to talk about the power saving bonus. Oh, my goodness, I have never seen such a massive scam.

Harriet Shing: Did you apply for it?

Joe McCRACKEN: I have not applied for it, no, because it is so bad. You have a system where the government take your money, through taxes, and then they make you apply to get your own money back. The only problem is that they pay expensive government bureaucrats to make that system happen. Wouldn’t a better idea be to can the system and reduce taxes by that same amount? You would not be paying wages for people to give out the $250 vouchers. You would not have to maintain a website. It actually is better for Victorians if you cut all of that rubbish out.

Bev McArthur: Think of all that data being collected, Joe.

Joe McCRACKEN: You are quite right, Mrs McArthur: think of all the data that is being collected. For what purpose? We would love to know. The power saving bonus is not a good program, and the government should really consider the merits of the program given that it is actually a cost negative. It does not help people. There are far better options on the table.

Housing – oh, my God, where do I start with housing? The timber industry has been shut down. Local government is hamstrung because they cannot get any planning amendments through the minister’s office – 18 months is probably the minimum that you would wait.

Bev McArthur: That’d be quick!

Joe McCRACKEN: That would be quick – that would probably be a record actually – but we cannot expect to get housing supply on the market when we have such slow planning outcomes. We would love to see more support for that, but no wonder we are in such a housing crisis.

Free TAFE – this is another free thing from the government. Let me just say this very clearly: free TAFE is not free. TAFE is not free in Victoria. We have got a shortage of nearly 3000 teachers as well. I have had many TAFE students come to me and they have talked about the costs associated with going to TAFE. We are talking about things like travel, accommodation, uniforms, books, and they all are legitimate expenses that students have to incur because they go to TAFE. Now, this is sold publicly to TAFE students as being that TAFE is free. If you take it that TAFE is free, that means it does not cost a thing. Well, it actually does, but the students that have come into my office have said, ‘Well, sorry. We thought it was free. It’s actually not.’ It is a very bad case of false advertising.

Look, there are a lot of promises made in this budget but with really not much delivery. In fact I have seen Domino’s deliver better actually. So I hope that we can actually make sure that the true message of this bad budget gets out and that Victorians reveal what is actually happening and, more importantly, what is actually not happening

Sonja TERPSTRA (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (16:56): I rise to make a contribution on this motion, the budget take-note motion, and I am very pleased and proud to be able to do this because I get to talk about all the wonderful initiatives that the budget has funded in my region.

Bev McArthur interjected.

Sonja TERPSTRA: You see, this is the thing: those opposite seem to think that we do not spend money in non-held seats but we do, and I get to talk about it today so that is amazing. Thank you so much for the opportunity. I am going to start my contribution by talking about the amazing school upgrades that have been happening in my region. I am really pleased to say that Melba College in the state electorate of Croydon, which is not held by Labor, which might surprise you –

Harriet Shing interjected.

Sonja TERPSTRA: You would not know, because I have been working really hard to make sure that those kids who attend Melba College are able to get their school upgraded so they can learn in a fit-for-purpose, modern learning environment. So $12 million will be allocated to Melba College to complete the upgrades to that school. I think it is at stage 3 now, and it is an important upgrade as we progress to modernising and rebuilding that school. As I said, the Andrews Labor government have committed to funding to plan that next phase of the upgrade, and it will complete stage 3 of their master plan. Stage 3 will include a performing arts centre amongst other vital school infrastructure that will benefit students for many, many years to come. I was so pleased to see that that was committed to in the 2023–24 budget.

Of course my contribution would not be complete without me talking about one of the things that is very close to my heart, which is free TAFE, Acting President Galea, as you would know. I really love free TAFE. Despite all the doom and gloom that Mr McCracken talked about when he mentioned free TAFE, I can say that as somebody who has been around for a little while and someone who was a student of TAFE – I can remember going to TAFE myself and I can tell you – it did not cost anything. TAFE back in the day never cost anything, because it was about providing free quality vocational education and training, and that is what people actually seem to forget.

When those opposite want to pile on that free TAFE is no good, what they actually do not understand about free TAFE is that TAFE actually is about vocational education and training. We talk with industry so that we are supporting industry and business to say, ‘What skills do you need your workforce to have so they can be productive for you?’ That is actually what vocational education and training is. So the government says, ‘Come into our quality vocational education and training system, and we will train the workers that you need for the future.’ It seems to be lost on those opposite that that is actually a good thing and that business and industry ask us to do it and we work in partnership with them to do it.

In terms of free TAFE, one of the things which I have become aware of which is really popular is the certificate IV in veterinary nursing. A lot of women in my region found that that was a really good option for them, particularly women who are over 50. Their kids might have left home, and they might be looking to enter the workforce again and reskilling. A certificate IV in vet nursing is really, really popular, and that is on the free TAFE list. What I love about that course is it ticks so many boxes. It allows women to re-enter the workforce, to retrain and re-skill for free, and it allows them to work with animals. Let us face it, we all love animals. I had a picture earlier today with Sprite the Parliament pup, who I was told is turning 14 in the next few weeks. We love little Sprite; he is so gorgeous and up for a cuddle. Women in this place love our animals, and I know that being able to retrain and potentially work in the veterinary industry as a vet nurse is something that again gives economic independence to women if they have been out of the workforce for a long time. They can re-enter the workforce now that their kids are off their hands, and they can start earning an income and develop their own economic independence again. I love that initiative, and there are many, many others on the free TAFE list. There is funding to ensure that we expand our free TAFE list. I think we were at 70 courses earlier in the year, and I think we are now at around 80 courses. I absolutely love that. There are so many options.

Just recently we did our jobs, skills and training forum, which we held at Melba College. I spoke on this earlier in the week when I did my members statement. We had a number of fantastic employers that came to that and who are looking to employ school leavers who do not necessarily want to go off to university. I continue to have these conversations with young people all the time – that you do not need to go to university to have a well-paid, secure job. TAFE provides a great springboard to be able to get you into the workforce. If you do a TAFE course, you end up having a qualification and you leave that institution without any debt. If you go to university, you might have a large HECS debt, or whatever it is they call it these days, and you may not get a job. You may enter the workforce and you might have to go on for a period of time before you actually find a job that your qualification gave you access to, but it may not be a secure job, and that is the thing. Really, if you look at the jobs that are available and within reach to school leavers who want to undertake a career that requires a TAFE qualification, they are accessing well-paid, secure ongoing work, none of this insecure stuff, none of this poorly paid stuff, none of this casualised workforce kind of stuff. They are secure jobs. So I love the fact that free TAFE really does provide that pathway to secure work and partners well with these jobs and industries that have skills shortages. These jobs are in demand.

I keep talking to young people. I say, ‘You don’t have to go to university. Don’t worry about it.’ I myself left school in year 10. I could not wait to get out of school. I had had enough. I wanted to go and work, and a lot of young people find themselves in the same boat these days. They have been at school, and they feel that they want to enter the workforce. They might enter the workforce and then work for two years in hospitality and get stuck there, and they are looking for a pathway out. That is what free TAFE does.

I have got some amazing TAFE institutes in my region: Box Hill TAFE, for example. Of course there is a campus at Box Hill, but there is also a Lilydale campus, which this government saved. When those opposite were in government, they wanted to close Lilydale TAFE. We mounted a campaign and saved that, so now that is a campus of Box Hill TAFE, and there is a very, very healthy stream of enrolments coming through into that TAFE, so I am really pleased about that.

We also have Swinburne University. It is a dual-sector university and TAFE campus there, and it offers amazing programs. One of the programs that I absolutely love, and I want to make sure this program continues – I think they were originally offering it at two campuses, but now I think it is just being offered at Croydon – is the Swinburne Young Mums program. I think I have spoken in this chamber about that before. Young women who have found themselves pregnant may not have found themselves in a position to continue their school education at school, so they come to Swinburne TAFE and they continue studying to complete their secondary schooling whilst also studying for a certificate II in retail. Child care is provided in the classroom for the women as they complete their education. When I went out there and visited, there were young babies in the creche and there were people taking care of them. I love that, because we know that if people do not complete their school education and become mothers and they do not have the support, they are at risk of not re-entering the workforce. So I love the fact that through TAFE we are able to support women in those circumstances to complete their secondary education and then also get a vocational education qualification under their belt. That is what Labor governments do. That is why I am proud to be a part of a government that understands that. It is about women’s economic independence.

As we know, women today over 50 are the fastest-growing cohort of homeless people in Victoria, because we obviously take time out of the workforce to care for children. We do not have the same amount of superannuation that our male counterparts might have. Why is that? Because we end up undertaking unpaid carers responsibilities, and we end up being 10 years behind our male counterparts, so it is little wonder that then we do not have economic independence, so we cannot acquire the same amount of assets that perhaps our male counterparts do. And that means we are less able to acquire our own property, because we do not have the same amount of income or savings that men might have, because they have not taken the same amount of time out of the workforce due to caring responsibilities. As we know, most women do the bulk of caring responsibilities, and the bulk of those responsibilities are unpaid.

The other thing I want to talk about is another announcement, about 20 women’s health clinics. I could talk and talk and talk for hours about women’s health. I know, President, you understand only too well how important these women’s health clinics will be to women in our region that we share, the North-Eastern Metropolitan Region. I am really pleased to say that there have been many other initiatives in this budget, and it really is a budget that recognises that women need to be supported. So there are things like public fertility services and care for more Victorian women and families. We know that we have made this a public service now through our health system.

Free pads and tampons in public places – so what we are doing is we are supplying free sanitary items across Victoria. Fifteen hundred sanitary dispenser machines with free pads and tampons will be installed in up to 700 public sites across Victoria, including courts, TAFEs, libraries, train stations and cultural institutions, such as the State Library Victoria and Melbourne Museum. We have already made free pads and tampons available in all of our public schools as well. That is working to demystify any stigma that might be around periods and what they call period poverty. Some women cannot afford or do not have access to these sanitary items, because let us face it, they are quite expensive, and up until some time ago there was GST on pads. I reckon there probably was not any GST on Viagra or some of those things – unfair, right? It is completely unfair. So it was only appropriate that those sorts of things be publicly funded, because it costs a lot. It absolutely costs a lot.

A member: Ridiculous.

Sonja TERPSTRA: It is completely ridiculous. So like I said, the 20 women’s health clinics that are being rolled out – I know that there are going to be a few of those. The Mercy Hospital for Women and the Austin Hospital will receive one. It is $58 million to deliver on our commitment to create the 20 clinics. As I said, the Mercy Hospital for Women and the Austin Hospital, which are in Heidelberg, will be the beneficiary of one of those clinics as well.

There is so much more I could talk about – the hospitals that we are investing in. So just talking about the ones in my region, as I just mentioned, there is the Austin Hospital and then we also had a really large announcement, which was incredible, which is to completely rebuild the Maroondah Hospital, aka the Queen Elizabeth II hospital. Committing to a massive redevelopment and rebuild of that hospital will be amazing for people in the North-Eastern Metropolitan Region. People who reside in the state electorate of Croydon, a seat that we do not hold, will be able to access a brand new hospital very close to where they live, which is amazing. It is something that only those on the government benches over here would be able to deliver, so I am really grateful that we will be able to see that get underway.

The other thing that is amazing as well, and this is something that is really close to my heart, is that I was able to go and visit the Croydon Special Developmental School. One of the things I really loved about that was the announcement about rebuilding special schools. Going out to visit the kids and the parents at the Croydon Special Developmental School was amazing, but what I noted was that the plaque on the wall in the foyer of that school was from when Joan Kirner opened that school. I reckon that school had not had much of a lick of paint or anything done to it since then, so I was really pleased to be able to announce that that school, along with all the others in this state, will be upgraded.

The budget delivers a $235 million package to help students living with disability, their carers and their families. The package provides $122 million to support one of the biggest challenges for our families of children with disability – out-of-hours care. The budget expands the outside school hours care program to 30 special schools, giving more kids the high-intensity support they need. Since then we have also made announcements about upgrading hydrotherapy pools that are in some of these special disability schools as well. I know Croydon Special Developmental School has one. When I did go and visit that school, what I noticed in terms of the kids attending that school was that sessions in the hydrotherapy pool form a really important part of a child’s education, because for kids with special needs – and some of them have not only intellectual disabilities but also physical disabilities – hydrotherapy forms a really important part of their therapy. So I was really proud to see that announcement being made. It really is a fantastic announcement.

There are so many other initiatives. I just want to talk about apprentices for a moment as well, because as I mentioned earlier this week, my son is an apprentice plumber and my daughter is about to become an apprentice electrician as well, and I am so proud of them. As I said earlier, I will have my home renovation needs completely covered, with the most expensive aspects of those hopefully being done by my children if the need ever arises. But like most kids, they probably will not want to do it. Anyway, the initiatives that are being provided for apprentices are also amazing, from even providing free rego for apprentices to a whole bunch of other things – mental health training programs that are going to support apprentices, including support for apprentices at smaller employers to access employee assistance programs, and for employers to improve their mental health and suicide prevention strategies.

What we know is there is a skills shortage in a lot of in-demand jobs and trades – the traditional trades like plumbing and electrical and building and those sorts of things. There are shortages in those, and it is really heartening to see support for those and to be encouraging kids to go and sign up to apprenticeships, like I said. At our skills and training forum the other day, I was encouraging kids to think about entering into a trade. (Time expired)

Lee TARLAMIS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (17:12): I move:

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

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