Thursday, 31 August 2023

Budget papers 2023–24

Debate resumed on motion of Jaclyn Symes:

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

Trung LUU (Western Metropolitan) (16:33): I rise to speak today on the budget put forward by the Labor government. The budget itself simply highlights how Victorians’ lives are getting harder by the day and how Victorians are actually paying more and getting less as the cost of living rises, as we all have endured in the recent months. I will speak on parts of the budget which will affect mainly my constituents in the Western Metro Region. The budget will have tremendous effects on various areas, but I will narrow it down. With the time I have I will try to focus on certain things which have been raised by constituents.

An area which is of great concern in my constituency is education, the schooling. Being one of the most disadvantaged and fastest growing metropolitan regions in the state, with the budget I want to express some concern how the tax itself in many ways is unfair towards my constituents in this area around schooling and education, which I would like to focus on.

The tax itself is more focusing on average, ordinary working Victorians. Numerous commitments by the government to infrastructure projects have been omitted from the budget. The budget was tabled, and some may try to frame it as taxing those who are well off. However, in my electorate that is not the case. In my electorate the budget will make life harder for those who are just trying to get on with everyday living. It has cut off various crucial infrastructure projects which are desperately needed in my electorate, which is expanding, which we have been advocating for for a long period of time. I would like to name some of them. One is the Melbourne Airport rail link. I will go into why it is so crucial in the electorate and in the western suburbs. The Sunshine super-hub was promised by both the Premier and the Prime Minister of the time. The Airport West and Keilor East railway stations are desperately needed in the area. The Calder Freeway has a desperate need for an upgrade and safety work to improve that area. The fast rail to Geelong is another issue which this budget has omitted. And now we have seen the axing of a rail line to another area with a growing population, Melton, and the fastest growing area in my region, Wyndham Vale.

At the same time, the government seems to be favouring – I hate to say this, to compare the east and the west again – the east with the SRL, the Suburban Rail Loop. I would like to go a little bit further in relation to why that side is continuously getting funding in the billions of dollars and yet on our side major, crucial infrastructure has been overlooked again and again and again.

This budget simply highlights how the west is constantly losing out compared to the east side of town. There have been vital cuts in infrastructure. The fact is that major infrastructure has been cut. The budget will only hinder the west’s ability to keep up with the staggering growth that it is experiencing, noting that the cost blowouts on various current projects indicate that Labor is unable to manage, or cannot manage, its major projects. It is mind-boggling how various projects can continue and continue to run over budget. There may be some factors, but these are not small amounts. They go into the billions.

The extra costs caused by the disastrous outcome of the cancellation of the Commonwealth Games were another thing. Cancelling these games was a major breach of trust on the international stage. It is hard to understand why billions of dollars for the rail link in the east continue to appear to the government as more essential than connectivity in Victoria’s west. The budget in many ways fails to provide crucial infrastructure for the west. There is also Sunshine station – the Premier along with the former Prime Minister, Mr Morrison, promised our western constituents this infrastructure.

That is some of the infrastructure that is obviously needed in the west. I will move on to another thing that some of my constituents are really concerned about: the tax on their non-government schools, which affects the aspirations of their students to get a better education. To many migrants in those developing suburbs out there, education is crucial. As we know in Australia, it is crucial to a growing country, and education is part of this state’s future development and growth.

We are a lucky state; we have some of the world’s leading schooling and learning for our children. So why my constituents choose to send their children to school and pay a little extra at a non-government-funded school is because they want a better education for their kids. The action of these parents is from a caring nature, and they want to provide the best for their family and children. So again, if they decide to pay a little bit more for their education, why are they being punished with all this extra tax? They are not wealthy, as many might try to say; they are middle-class Victorians who are working very hard ‍– some are working two jobs to earn extra money so they can put investment into their children. They may have to go without holidays, they may have to go without actually spending extra leisure time with their family so their kids can have a little better education. They are not wealthy, as many have claimed. The reason so many of these migrants have sent their children to these schools is the idea of coming to Australia so it is a free choice; without any government coercion, they want their kids to have a better education. The extra cost, whether $100 or $1000 per kid, to these families is quite a lot of money year in, year out. These taxes create a financial burden that is significant for these parents. The school should be paid for. The government are unable to manage their budget or are financially incompetent in many ways. The hardworking parents should not be paying for the government’s lack of action in relation to how they have managed their finances.

Following the budget, Victorians now are paying the highest tax in Australia – we are looking at $5074 per person. This has to be one of the highest in our country. For property tax we are looking at over $2000 per person in the nation. With the cost of living, it is a struggle for people in my constituency. It is a great concern in relation to the tax on their schools. In addition, there is a lack of crucial infrastructure out in the west. Figures released by the Parliamentary Budget Office show that Victorian businesses are also heavily slugged, facing the largest increase in the workers compensation premium, and they are paying some of the highest levels of payroll tax in Australia.

Out west we are struggling. We are being hit on all fronts: tax on the kids, tax on infrastructure, tax on business. It is pretty much an unfair tax and an unfair burden to Victorians, but mostly so to those areas out in the west where we are struggling with the cost of living as the days go by through the various months.

I just want to really focus on some crucial infrastructure that the governments promised over and over again prior to the elections, both state and federal – and the money is there. For the airport rail link these dollars were promised by the federal government, these dollars were promised by the Premier, and rightly so. He was actually out there when I was there as a councillor, and he promised, and we were grateful for his promise. But then he turned around and with the stroke of a pen, no, we cannot have this. With the Sunshine master plan for the station, it is a connection of three different lines there. It is crucial infrastructure for the growing population out west. It is something we really need, connectivity in the outer west. It is a growing suburb, it is a growing region, and the Premier just wiped it off and then had no business case study for the suburban rail link and did not continue with that with hundreds of millions of dollars. From the western side of town it is very hard to understand. How can it be fair? How can it be just?

They say tax is fair for all Victorians. I understand the situation and the economics. There are situations where we have to pull back, but all we ask is: be fair, be just for all Victorians, whether in the east or the west. When you are cancelling major infrastructure, look at the effects that will flow out to the rest of the region and how that will contribute for us and for those people living in those areas. Again and again the west seems to get the short end of the stick. I ask the government, with this budget, to just consider looking again at that major infrastructure for the western suburbs, the area I represent.

In closing, I would just like to say that it is time for the government to prioritise the welfare of its citizens and ensure that all regions in Victoria receive the attention and resources they reserve, whether they are in the west, the east or the north. Regarding this budget, the western suburbs and my constituents have been getting the short end of the stick, as I said, with these taxes and all the cancellations of critical major infrastructure. I do ask the Premier and/or the ministers: please consider, for my constituents, the connectivity of Victoria not just in the west but for all Victorians. There is the airport rail link; the rail to Melton and to Wyndham Vale, which have the fastest growing populations in the state; the desperately needed Sunshine super-hub, which will connect all the train lines from the west to our CBD; and in Airport West, Keilor East railway station and the Calder Freeway, which is one of only a couple of routes going out to the west. It needs upgrading. Lives are being lost there. The federal government has committed money to that. The state government had committed to it, and yet in this budget it was slashed with the stroke of a pen. I just urge the Premier to please reconsider for the west and for Victoria. Revisit those projects that you have put aside. I know you can do it for all Victorians, not just for the one side of town, to make sure that all Victorians get their fair share. I am sure Minister Stitt across there will agree that the west does need a helping hand.

Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Early Childhood and Pre-Prep, Minister for Environment) (16:47): I might take up that invitation actually, as a proud westie. Having lived there the majority of my life, I can say hand on heart that I have been really proud of the investment that our government has made in the west, whether you are talking about the record investment in health infrastructure with the delivery of the Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital at Sunshine or the upgrade of the emergency department at Sunshine or the commitment to build the Melton hospital and start the planning for that so that construction can commence. And of course who could go past the complete rebuild of Footscray Hospital, which is going to be an amazing health infrastructure asset for our community. This will take pressure off all the hospitals and health infrastructure and services right across the west, but not just the west, because we know that that pressure is brought to bear on other hospitals outside of our region just because of the amount of growth that is going on in the population. I am really proud, and I have seen an absolute transformation of health services in the west since our government came to power. We have also, as you would be aware, upgraded the Werribee hospital a couple of times now, because we understand that that is a growing part of our state.

We have also seen transformational transport infrastructure projects that, once they are up and running, are going to really change the way in which people move around not just the western suburbs but the state. Anybody who has spent any time in the west knows that we have needed a second river crossing for such a long time. The West Gate Tunnel Project will deliver that, and it will also take thousands and thousands of trucks off roads in the inner and middle suburbs of the west. I know that that is something that the community has been calling out for for many, many years, including when there was a Liberal government in power. So I think that there are some transformational projects that are not that far off.

There are really important projects that our government has funded not just in this budget that we are debating with this take-note motion but in previous governments since coming to office in 2014. The Metro Tunnel project is going to be an absolute game changer for anybody living on those train lines that go through the Western Metropolitan Region, including the Sunbury line. We have upgraded every station along that line and made a commitment to upgrade one of the last ones that has not been done yet, Albion station. We have got $143 million on the table to transform Sunshine, that whole precinct, to make that a hub in the western suburbs – not only for the metropolitan train system but also to make that a regional hub. I could go on. We have got a number of projects, including the Point Cook community hospital project, which I have had some involvement with and which is something I know the community are very excited about.

But in the time that I have got to talk about this budget I did want to take the opportunity to talk about the Best Start, Best Life reforms that our government is driving. I am very proud that the 2023–24 budget contained $1.8 billion to continue to deliver those nation-leading reforms in early childhood – the largest ever early childhood reform agenda by any government. Of course, just to refresh everyone’s memory: we will be continuing to deliver free kinder; we will continue to deliver new, expanded and upgraded facilities; and we will continue the rollout of three-year-old kindergarten. Many, many parts of our state are already enjoying the full 15 hours a week of three-year-old kinder, but we will be at full rollout by 2029. We are so proud of this policy, our government. This is nation leading.

I am so pleased to see that former Prime Minister Gillard has recently handed down a royal commission in South Australia which has recommended three-year-old kinder be rolled out in that state, so they will join with Victoria in having funded universal three-year-old kinder available to South Australian children as well. We really welcome that. I think it is a really important time for early childhood education and reform right across the country. We have a federal government who is actually interested in pursuing investment in this area, which is very welcomed by our government.

Of course our $1.8 billion budget commitment will also deliver 50 government owned and operated early learning centres. We know that there are many parts of our state where the childcare market has failed communities. There are childcare deserts where there are not enough places available for parents, and that is locking people out of employment, particularly women. They are not able to participate fully in the economic benefits of the state because they cannot get access to reliable and affordable child care. So whilst child care is absolutely a federal government responsibility under our federation, our government is not about sitting around and admiring the problem. We are getting involved, and we are delivering 50 government owned and operated early learning centres in those parts of the state where there are not enough places available and where there is significant disadvantage. So I am really thrilled that the budget also includes investment for that. We also want to expand our inclusion supports, and I will touch on that shortly, and of course we will be expanding our early learning language program through our budget commitments.

I am actually really proud of the fact that Victoria now provides the most funding per child of any state in the country when it comes to early childhood education, and, as I have said, we are leading the way on three-year-old kinder and we are leading the way through the Best Start, Best Life reforms for access to universal kindergarten of 30 hours for four-year-olds and 15 hours for three-year-olds, which is essentially a doubling of the dose that children will receive before they go to primary school.

We know that 90 per cent of a child’s brain develops before they are five, so there is just nothing more important than a profound investment in early childhood education, and that is what this budget does. $546.4 million will continue the rollout of three-year-old kinder; continue free kinder for all three- and four-year-olds; see the transition to pre-prep by 2032, commencing in 2025; provide funding for Aboriginal community organisations and traditional owners to help services improve their cultural safety for Aboriginal children and families; and provide funding initiatives to attract and retain our highly skilled early childhood workforce. I am very committed to making sure that whenever I can I am talking about elevating the status of teachers and educators in early childhood education across the community. It is one of the most important jobs in the workforce, in my opinion, and our government is backing in our teachers and educators to the tune of $370 million in attraction and retention initiatives – and it is paying dividends.

I just want to touch briefly on infrastructure. It has been a bit of a topic this week. We will be investing through this budget $1.2 billion to build, expand and improve our kindergarten infrastructure right across the state. That is on top of the commitment already on the table of $1.5 billion through the three-year-old kinder infrastructure program. We are very serious about working closely with both the sector and our local government partners to make sure that we have the infrastructure in place that is going to be needed. That includes a large number of services, which might be one-room kinder buildings. We know that with three- and four-year-old kinder it is possible to deliver the programs from one-room services, but it is not going to work everywhere. So the infrastructure grants are obviously also available for those services to be able to be fit for purpose.

We will be building and upgrading around 145 kinders on or near school sites. This is a no-brainer. This is to make families’ busy lives easier and to ditch that double drop-off. Say that fast – ‘ditch the double drop-off’. As important as that is for busy parents, it is also incredibly beneficial for children because it means that their transition from kindergarten to primary school is that much smoother because they are very familiar with the primary school and they are familiar with the teachers. There are also great professional links, very strong links, built between kinder teachers and primary school teachers, and it is also about building communities where parents and families can feel that they understand the system and can navigate the system a lot easier. We are very proud of that.

There will be obviously the Building Blocks improvement grants streams for various purposes included in our offering. We have delivered since 2019–20 grant across 878 projects, and that has included over 240 Building Blocks capacity grants, which is about increasing the number of kinder places that are available in communities. Make no mistake, those opposite might like to heckle me every time I get up and talk about kindergarten infrastructure, but this is making a real difference to supply and quality programs being able to be delivered to families no matter where they live and no matter what their circumstances. The fact that families can, in the cost-of-living crisis we are in at the moment in Australia, access early childhood education for free and get a quality program delivered to their children is something I would have thought would attract bipartisan support.

In the brief time I have got left, I just want to touch on a couple of issues that are important that have been committed to in the 2023–24 budget. We have $20.2 million to provide every kindergarten service in the state access to $5000 grants to purchase toys and equipment. I know that sounds like it is not a big deal, but $5000 for every kinder in the state is amazing. It has been very warmly welcomed by the sector, and I know children will benefit enormously. We are also supporting eight new toy libraries and 150 bush kinder programs per year. We are also committing $23.9 million to continue our hugely successful early learning childhood language program, and we are establishing 10 additional bilingual kindergartens. I know that those will be very welcomed by the sector and taken up right across the state.

One thing that I think is really important – it might not be the headline figure in the budget, but it is incredibly important – is our $18.1 million commitment to supporting children with disabilities and developmental delays to access kinder. They may have complex medical needs or may need particular specialist equipment to be able to participate in kinder, but we are serious about making sure there are no barriers. I know that this will include funding to pilot new ways to support these children and their families to best engage with and benefit from kinder. That is something that is incredibly important, and we have got more work that we want to do in that area. Can I finish by saying that this is a real commitment by our government. It is a profound investment in the children of Victoria, and only a Labor government could deliver it.

Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (17:02): I rise today to speak on the 2023–‍24 state budget take-note motion. This budget is a horror budget. It is going to hurt all Victorians for many, many years to come. It is going to hurt all aspiring Victorians. It is going to punish them. It is going to be more punitive on their efforts as they struggle to get ahead. The 2023–24 Victorian budget that has been handed down by Labor is going to inflict further economic damage on Victorians.

It is typical of this government – typical to have this desperate recoup in its mismanagement. We have record levels of taxation and record levels of spending, and we now have every Victorian burdened with an insurmountable debt burden for generations to come. Since 2014 Daniel Andrews has introduced 50 new or increased taxes, and of those more than 20 are new or increased property taxes. In fact we have taxes now on not-for-profit properties. Not-for-profit organisations are having backdated taxes placed on them for five years. This is an absolute disgrace, when you think about what not-for-profit organisations do for this community.

This government has also recently brought in a health tax. Fancy taxing patients who need to have bulk-billed health care. What a disgrace. A schools tax – because we are now going to have payroll tax for schools. WorkCover premiums have increased. These are just a few. This government has forced on each and every one of us an appalling situation where we have roads with potholes, which can only have an impact on our escalating road toll. Overcrowded hospital emergency departments now have tent-like annexes at major hospitals, with ambulances ramping, meaning that some people have had to wait in pain for an ambulance that never came. Sadly, this has cost lives and meant heartache for many Victorians. There are major waits still on elective surgery, not to mention the youth crime problem that is currently escalating in this state where people feel unsafe in their homes.

It is imperative for me to call out this Premier for his decided disrespect and unprofessional handling of the cancellation of the Commonwealth Games. Again he has held up Victoria to ridicule on the world stage. First, we in Victoria suffered the most restrictive lockdowns during COVID – in fact, in the world. We are Melbourne, the most locked down city during the period of COVID – what a disgrace. Is that something we want to be able to listen to and for the whole world to know about us? And now we have cancelled the Commonwealth Games because we cannot afford them. We have all these things to remember. Weren’t these the games to remember? What a disgraceful legacy, to leave Victorians with the embarrassment of cancelling the Commonwealth Games. The forecast blowout of hosting the games was up to $7 billion from the original projected cost of $2.6 billion. What was even more worrying was the Premier’s comment at the time, which was:

I’ve made a lot of difficult calls, a lot of very difficult decisions in this job. This is not one of them.

Well, tell that to our athletes. Tell that to our sporting people and tell that to the people of regional Victoria who were waiting for facilities and opportunities and business opportunities that have now gone by the wayside. The legal bill that will eventuate from this cancellation has been quoted to be more than a billion dollars in compensation.

The budget sets up the 555,544 people in the South-Eastern Metropolitan Region, which I represent, with taxes – taxes, taxes, taxes – that are going to make their lives much worse. Locally, I am really angry. I am really angry that the promised $295 million for an upgrade to Dandenong Hospital, which was announced in October last year, has been significantly underfunded. This is a hospital that reaches out to many sectors of the community in the south-east. They come from Cranbourne. They come from Narre Warren North. They come from all over the South-East to use the Dandenong Hospital, and it caters to people from many different multicultural groups. And yet what has happened in a safe Labor seat? It has been underfunded. Well, what a surprise. Labor’s financial mismanagement of the health system means that Greater Dandenong patients are not getting the health services that they need or that they deserve, and they are suffering, as every hospital in Victoria is, from an overly long elective surgery waitlist and from frightening ambulance response times which can cost lives.

This is all before we look at the housing affordability and rental crisis as well as the WorkCover impacts on employers and our emergency services responders, who could be slugged a combined $100 million a year as part of the state’s attempt to prop up its failing budget. This government has acknowledged that WorkSafe is fundamentally broken – not just broken but a fundamentally broken scheme. They are so proud of that they put that out in a media release and they talked about it on the airways. It is a fundamentally broken WorkSafe under this government – fantastic – and it is costing the Victorian taxpayers money they cannot afford. It significantly, as a result, increased WorkCover premiums to help this government out of a mess that it created, and now many businesses are being forced to outsource their employment to other states and other countries because they cannot afford the WorkCover premiums in this state. You only have to drive through any electorate to see the empty shops, the downsizing in businesses and people leaving Victoria. They cannot sustain their businesses and have to pay these WorkCover premiums in August, this month – that is right, still August – and they have had to pay significant premiums.

Whilst the government announced that there was an average 42 per cent increase in WorkCover premiums, I would have to say that I have seen many, many businesses that have been forced to pay premiums that are in excess of 42 per cent – some 100 per cent, in fact some even more, and this is just inexcusable – because of a broken budget.

We now have other services, like first responders, that are going to be severely hampered. The bills that this government is creating include a 10-year levy on Victorian businesses with national payrolls above the $10 million mark and on owners of multiple properties to repay the $31.5 billion COVID-19 debt that this government created. The economics editor of the Australian Financial Review said on 23 May:

Since Liberal premier Jeff Kennett’s reign, Labor has been in power for 20 of the past 24 years. Premiers Steve Bracks and John Brumby ran responsible budgets, but since 2018 net debt under Daniel Andrews has exploded from $22 billion to a projected $171 billion.

And this is on top of the fact that Victoria’s debt burden is higher than any other Australian state’s or territory’s. What a disgrace. It is even higher than economies in Germany and 10 states in Canada. Economists argue that those states are similar to Australia’s, according to the Age on 25 May 2023. We know our debt in this state is bigger than the three states of New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania.

How is this mess going to be fixed? Where is this money going to come from? Victoria’s interest bill on this debt will be $22 million a day. Think about the services and the infrastructure that could pay for. Instead it will just be wasted – wasted due to Labor’s complete financial incompetence and mismanagement. We only have to consider the $20 billion blowouts on infrastructure projects, and we only have to wonder why the government has just cancelled the Commonwealth Games. Who knows how much money will be wasted by not putting the games on here in Victoria? The fact that the Premier is refusing to hand out the reasons for his projected figure increase reeks of further –

Georgie Crozier interjected.

Ann-Marie HERMANS: Yes. We would like to know, wouldn’t we? We have a government that does not care about the community and is only interested in staying in power. Will things be better for Victoria after this budget? No, they will not – not at all. There will be increased taxes, charges and costs on small and large businesses; no cost-of-living relief for most Victorians but in fact increased taxes, which result directly in cost-of-living increases across the board; and no plan to pay back Labor’s record levels of debt – what an absolute mess. Yet this government has the arrogance to say it is managing our state well. Come on – give me a break.

The Liberal–Nationals have released a discussion paper Making Victoria’s Tax System Work: Reducing Cost Pressures for Families, Community Groups and Business which addresses the problem we face as a state. Under the direction of the Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto, the Shadow Treasurer Brad Rowswell and Shadow Minister for Finance Jess Wilson the paper intends to further our engagement with the community on ways to reform and improve our tax system. Victoria’s system needs to encourage opportunity and promote a growth agenda for jobs, investment, competitive markets and digital transformation. You are able to make a submission to this review and address any of the considerations raised in this discussion paper. The review will close on 31 October 2023. We welcome your consultation with your communities. You can actually have a look at that and get in touch with us.

Amongst other vocational engagements, I am a former teacher. I value education. There will be a cost to families and children because of Labor’s new schools tax. I do not care that you have taken it off some schools; it is still there for others. Most of those students are from two-income families, with one income going directly to pay for those school fees. I am totally against payroll tax on schools. It is a tremendous concern, and I want that on record.

Payroll tax was never meant to be for not-for-profit organisations. The minute we start taxing our not-for-profit organisations we are limiting what they can provide to the community. There are a number of low fee paying independent schools which could be impacted, particularly at the VCE level – and if not now, then in the future – in the south-east. On behalf of those who are at the high fee paying schools, of which some are single sex, I am concerned, for instance, that girls might be taken out of school if parents have to choose one or the other. They may be more likely to choose the boys in some cases, which is going to be a backward step for those families. I want to be able to speak for them and say that this is a terrible tax. We are taking society in the wrong direction if parents have to choose which of their children they educate in the independent sector. I have to advocate for them and speak up for them, because you have brought in a payroll tax for schools. What a disgrace. Schools are going to suffer enormously under the increases in WorkCover premiums as well, with many independent schools which previously had been exempt from payroll tax floundering to meet the additional cost, which will have to be passed on to Victorian families in order for the schools to survive.

Schools in my electorate are in desperate need of infrastructure improvements or upgrades. Because of Labor’s waste, they have again missed out. How many leaking roofs? I have seen leaking roofs in schools in my electorate, and it is a disgrace that people have to continually have these patched up. Rotting timber, holes in the roof – it is a disgrace. How many potholes could be fixed if we did not have the $20 billion blowout in infrastructure projects? How many more teachers and nurses could you employ or ambulances could you buy – even fire trucks and appliances for our hardworking, committed volunteers and firefighters? Mismanagement in this state has consequences. It means taxes have to rise to pay for blowouts.

There is so much I could say. I am running out of time. I could go on and on and on. I do want to mention, first of all, though, our CFA volunteers, who represent the largest fire service in Victoria. Its members dedicate thousands of hours of their time, and they are concerned. They are so concerned because they do not know whether they are going to be properly funded because of this budget and because Emergency Management Victoria has been expanded with so many extra people that they are paying in terms of wages we have money moving all over the place.

In conclusion, this budget is far from managing the state well. The Liberal–Nationals discussion paper provides a clear path for reforming and improving our tax system. It is time to hold this government accountable for its actions and demand a better future for all Victorians.

Lee TARLAMIS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (17:18): 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.