Thursday, 29 August 2024

Motions

Budget papers 2024–25

Debate resumed on motion of Jaclyn Symes:

That the budget papers 2024–25 be taken into consideration.

Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (15:43): I rise today to respond to the appalling state budget delivered by our new Premier this year. In fact it could be summarised by simply saying this government is broke, this government has run out of ideas, this government is in a state of flux and does not know how to stimulate the economy and this government has come up with some appalling budget propositions which are going to leave 29 schools without the money that they need and that they were promised. It is going to leave this state in a sorry state of affairs. It is predictably disappointing, the budget. It continues to demonstrate the disaster that this incompetent government has imposed on long-suffering Victorians. It is even described by some as a ‘debt bomb’, and there is no apology for the debt bomb.

The Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) summed it up when it said:

The Victorian state budget demonstrates the consequences of a decade of reckless and irresponsible economic management. Generations of Victorians are going to be left with a bill they will have to pay with little, if anything, to show for it …

…

Recent IPA research showed Victoria is the worst overall performing state in the nation –

that is right, the worst performing state in the nation –

with the highest tax burden, state debt burden, and energy price increases. Victoria is also ranked second last in per capita state economic growth, wages growth, retail trade, and productivity growth.

It is a debt bomb, this budget, and there has been no apology to the Victorian people. We know that this budget leaves future generations in a state of debt up from $156 billion next financial year to nearly $190 billion, with $40 billion in cost blowouts. Everything from roads to hospitals to the building industry has been severely impacted. All the promises made, which we knew at the time could not possibly be delivered, were just a cheap, nasty ploy for the government to greedily hold on to government regardless of the cost to Victorians. They have left us with a debt bomb and no apology.

This budget could have been a way forward for the new Premier to address the issues that are so important to Victorians’ livelihood, but the disasters just continue. The Labor government has introduced 55 new and increased taxes since 2014, with the government to collect $21.5 billion in annual revenue just from Victorian property taxes – that is right, just your property taxes. This is almost half the state’s total tax revenue. Yes, they have left us with a debt bomb, and they have made no apology.

Parliamentary Budget Office data shows Victoria is the highest taxed state in the country. Victorian businesses – you do not have to tell them this is the highest taxed state, because Victorian businesses and property investors are already reeling from the $8.6 billion in temporary levies imposed on them to help pay off the state’s COVID debt. They are calling it the COVID debt, but the reality is this state government has continued to put us into debt. Research by the IPA shows that since 2014 the Victorian state economy has grown by 29 per cent in real terms, but state government spending and debt have dramatically outstripped the economic growth. Victorian government spending has grown by 59 per cent, more than double the economic growth rate in the same period. The state government debt has grown by 415 per cent, a rate almost 15 times the growth of the economy in the same period. Every sector in Victoria is suffering. You do not have to go far to find a story of a local person who is having to pay an outrageous land tax bill, property tax, business tax, payroll tax or WorkCover premiums. The whole thing is just through the roof in this state.

We are now learning the full extent of the control of the CFMEU too, which is adding to our costs for building infrastructure. Our hospitals are being asked to reduce their services to cut costs – that is right, they are having to reduce their services, which means there are going to be job cuts. The budget also showed that there is going to be rollout of 30 government childcare centres, 35 mental health centres and 29 school upgrades, but there is no money for the three hospitals as previously promised. In fact there is no money for 29 of these school upgrades in this budget. How is this even a possible consideration in a country such as ours? Our children are suffering. Our families are suffering. Our parents are suffering. School absenteeism is through the roof; it is at an all-time high.

If we look at the cost of living, from what Foodbank is telling us the demand for food has increased in Victoria by 47 per cent, with 58 per cent of Victorians experiencing food insecurity. You do not have to go far to visit a soup kitchen or a food bank to see how the lines are growing and the people are suffering, and there are people accessing these services now that have never had to access them before.

Fifty-four per cent of Victorians are experiencing cost-of-living and personal debt distress, and this is way beyond our normal levels, according to a survey by Suicide Prevention Australia. We do not have to go too far to find these frightening statistics on how people’s lives are now in more jeopardy. Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows that Victorians’ wages have only increased by 3.3 per cent over the year, the lowest in the country, while in Queensland wages lifted by 4.6 per cent, in New South Wales by 4.2 per cent, in Western Australia by 4.2 per cent and in Tasmania 5.1 per cent. Victoria’s unemployment is also the highest in the country, with more Victorians out of work month by month. This is Victoria. This is because of this government’s budget, and there has been no apology for what they are doing to the people of Victoria.

Let us look at energy. In Victoria the price of electricity rose by 23 per cent between June and August in 2023 alone, while approximately 70 per cent of energy customers received payment difficulty support in Victoria last year. What does the government do to respond to the everyday real needs of Victorians? It promises us a $216 billion Suburban Rail Loop. That is right – a $216 billion Suburban Rail Loop. That is not going to turn your lights on or your heaters on or your air conditioners on in summer. Few people have asked for this Suburban Rail Loop. Few people asked for it – and there is not even a business case to support it – yet that is where your taxes are going to be going. Is there even a question about this particular debt? Even the federal government – a Labor federal government – has refused to help out anymore.

If we look at the Suburban Rail Loop, let us just have a look at some of the figures from that. In 2022 the Victorian Labor government stated that the $34.5 billion Suburban Rail Loop East would be funded by three equal $11.5 billion contributions from the Victorian state government, the Commonwealth government and new taxes via a value capture initiative. The federal Labor government has committed just $2.2 billion towards this project and has refused any further money now until the project has been assessed by Infrastructure Australia. This means our Premier has to find $20 billion – that is right, $20 billion extra – for the proposed works to be signed by 2026. All this money will be spent on a rail link when people cannot afford to eat, they cannot afford to have a roof over their head, they cannot afford to feel safe in their home and they cannot give their children the education that they want to.

Let us look at crime. In Victoria crime has increased by 5.6 per cent since 2022. In my electorate, let us take Frankston for example. It is up by 17.1 per cent, with the City of Casey topping the list of the worst local government areas for crime. How did this government respond in the budget? It cut $1 million from the community crime prevention budget. That is right – that is what it did. It cut $1 million from the community crime prevention budget, and that is down 46 per cent on the previous year.

Let us look at homelessness. The lack of affordable rentals and housing generally is out of control. We all know that in this state; it is a very sad state to live in. In 2021 there were 2366 people experiencing homelessness in the Greater Dandenong area, which is equivalent to one in 67 residents. The next highest rates in metro Melbourne were Brimbank, with one in 126; Melbourne, with one in 128; and Port Phillip, with one in 95 in the council area. That is according to some of the research that has been done by journalists at the Guardian. The Dandenong Star Journal looked at how Dandenong had topped the state for levels of homelessness last year in March, and that was up by 22 per cent. It is also in the state’s top five for growing numbers of working homeless. That is right – people are working and they are still homeless.

The Big Housing Build: the government promised the big build would deliver the target of building 80,000 homes a year. Haven’t we heard that many times in this chamber – ‘It’s going to do this, it’s going to do that’? Well, let us have a look at what they are actually going to do with their budget. They give us a lot of rhetoric, but the Australian Bureau of Statistics highlighted that just under 56,000 homes have been built in the last 12 months. And in the Age it was reported that hundreds of new social homes which were to be built on Crown land cannot now be built due to a lack of funding, with the Victorian government quietly removing 15 projects from its Big Housing Build scheme to cut costs. That is right – removing them. The 2020 promise to build 12,000 social and affordable homes over four years under the $5.3 billion plan is three years behind schedule, and savings have been found to keep it on budget as construction costs rise.

How is this government handling all of this? I will tell you how it is handling it: it has created a debt bomb, and it has not apologised. The Premier just recently called for an ideas summit into housing. Isn’t this a crazy way of managing a state – making promises first and then trying to work out how it is going to happen? The housing industry is in crisis. Victorians know the true story. The CFMEU has controlled the industry, and the government for too long now has allowed criminals and bikies using standover tactics to make huge monetary demands on the sector. Yet the Premier refuses to call for a royal commission and allow the federal government to intervene.

We are having to look at all sorts of costs here. If we take education as another topic of exploration for this budget, education is one that is near and dear to my heart, and anyone that knows me knows that. Our children are suffering in our schools. We are having trouble getting teachers. The Victorian Department of Education and Training has confirmed that Victorian years 7 to 10 students lost an average of 29.2 school days across 2022–23, while students in years 11 and 12 lost an average of 23.4 school days over the same period. Almost 40 per cent of our 16- to 24-year-olds in Victoria reported having a mental health disorder between 2020 and 2022, and a key impact of the mental health crisis has been increasing, as school refusal rates increased by 50 per cent in the past three years.

In my electorate of Casey alone there has been a dramatic increase in student absenteeism. I know I have spoken about it before; it is up by 53.8 per cent since 2019. Okay, COVID lockdowns – did they contribute to the situation we are in? Of course. Well, who locked us down? This Labor government. But how is this going to get fixed?

Let us not forget about what is happening now in teaching in general. A Monash University survey recently found that three out of 10 teachers in Victoria intend on remaining in the public school system until retirement – that is right, only three out of 10 – and 40 per cent of teachers are now looking to get out. And can you blame them? There are 1500 vacant teaching positions – or up around that, anywhere from 1200 to 1500 – in Victoria remaining right now today. There are almost double the 800 vacancies that there were at the beginning of the 2024 school year.

If we look at NAPLAN data, it is confirmed that almost 30 per cent of Victorian students are failing to meet basic standards in English and mathematics under this failed Allan Labor government. Spelling, grammar, punctuation and numeracy outcomes fell for year 9 students compared to the previous year. In fact in the last quarter, if we look at education costs in Melbourne, they have risen by nearly 6 per cent, highlighting the sacrifices made by families who have paid school fees after their after-tax income. I could go on.

I just want to finish with the government’s blatant disrespect and arrogant approach to our community by talking about the $140 million that the government spent last financial year on taxpayer-funded advertising. This money was spent for campaigns, and we really cannot afford it. It is nearly $440 million that has been spent in the last three years on this sort of thing, and we cannot afford it. It is a debt bomb, and – (Time expired)

Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (15:58): I rise to speak on the state budget 2024–25, and once again I am going to start my contribution by saying this is a typical Labor budget. It is a typical Labor budget because it is a high-spending and high-taxing budget that delivers very little for Victorians. What we see is that a decade of financial mismanagement by this Labor government has landed our state in a very perilous financial position, and this budget shows that net debt in this state has increased from $21.8 billion to a projected $187.8 billion by 2028 under this government. The total tax revenue has increased from $17.8 billion to a projected $45 billion over the same period. This is a budget that shows the real-world consequences of Labor’s financial mismanagement, and interest rates on that Labor debt are set to reach over $25 million a day under this government. So what we see in the budget, in order for them to service that $25 million a day in interest payments on Labor’s debt, is cuts to health, education, housing assistance, disability services, senior programs, community and crime prevention, waste and recycling and wellbeing support for students. These are cuts that directly impact on everyday Victorians, and they will affect them every day as well.

Victorians are continuing to pay the price of having a Labor government that cannot manage projects and cannot manage money running this state. As I said, we now have a debt position of $188 billion by 2027–28. This has blown out by $10 billion from last year’s forecast. It just keeps mounting and mounting and mounting under this government. Interest repayments keep mounting and mounting and mounting, and Victorians continue to miss out. But what do Labor do? When they run out of money, they come after yours. So of course this budget increases taxes, and we see that Labor will take $21.5 billion just in property taxes in this particular budget. Over the decade of Labor, they have brought in 55 new and increased taxes and charges, 30 of which are property based. I think around about 40 per cent of the cost of building a home in Victoria is now in state government charges and taxes. That is an incredible percentage of the cost of building a home. No wonder young Victorians are thinking that they will never own their own homes. We heard the previous Premier say – brag, actually – that his children have said to him they never intended to own their own homes; they only ever intended to rent. Well, you know, that is a really sad situation when young people feel that they are being forced out of home ownership because of the impact of Labor’s decisions to increase taxes and charges.

In this budget there is $7.8 billion in land tax, $10.1 billion in land transfer duties and $1.5 billion for the COVID debt levy in land holdings. We also see the fire services levy – and this will really have an impact, particularly in country Victoria – raised from $847 million to $1.4 billion. But we have not seen the same increase in the CFA’s budget. They are certainly not reaping the benefits of Labor’s heavy-handed taxing with the fire services levy. The waste levy has more than doubled under Labor in this budget from $65 a tonne to $170 a tonne. Land tax is up, and of course we know that all other taxes are up too.

We also know that the government is coming after money that is sitting in the accounts of government authorities. Budget paper 5 actually shows that Labor ripped $2.4 billion out of the TAC and put that into consolidated revenue rather than investing that in road safety initiatives, and our roads are really showing the toll of that. I know that two hospitals in Victoria were sent letters in the past couple of months from the state government to say they were the only two hospitals in the state that had money in their bank. It was Goulburn Valley Health and the Eye and Ear Hospital. The amounts were $25 million and $25.8 million, and the government just said, ‘We’ll have that money, thank you, to prop up our bottom line, because of our fiscal irresponsibility.’

We have seen a number of critical hospital projects delayed from being delivered in this budget. One of those is the Maryborough hospital redevelopment. There is a one-year delay on that, but of course that is not funded anyway. I think that that was for the operating theatres, perhaps. But the budget in 2023–24 said that the redevelopment would be finished in quarter 2, 2024–25. The budget for 2024–‍25 said quarter 2, 2025–26. The City of Whittlesea Community Hospital – again, that has had a one-year delay. It was announced that it was going to finish in 2024, but the budget now shows it finishing in 2025. So what we know is the government are pushing out the timelines on projects to try and smooth out that funding over several years rather than just the next year.

This budget cut money from health tremendously. We know that $207 million – a cut of 33.8 per cent – was cut out of public health in this budget. Ambulance services, while we see a crisis in our ambulance services, were cut by $20 million in this budget. The health workforce training and development budget was cut by $24 million, which is down by 5.1 per cent. We are critically short of health workers, and we see them cutting money for workforce training and development. Aged care and home care is down by $43 million; that is a 7.3 per cent cut to that budget. Home and community care programs for younger people were cut by $41 million; that was a 21 per cent cut in that budget. And dental services were cut by 14.9 per cent – $36 million.

There were hospitals in my region that missed out on funding, hospitals that are desperately needed. Our Albury–Wodonga hospital, which got some funding announced by both New South Wales and Victoria prior to elections, cannot be delivered within the funding envelope. It was supposed to be a new greenfield site. They are now doing some half-baked idea on the Albury hospital site that will not deliver the health services that the community needs. We needed more money in this budget to actually deliver a new greenfield site hospital for Albury–Wodonga that would service that community into the future. We are already seeing ramping at the new emergency department, which has only just opened. In fact NSW Health today issued a guideline for the paramedics: ‘While you’re ramping, here’s exercises to do to keep you active and busy.’ It is terrible. And now they are proposing to completely close the emergency department in Wodonga and shift all emergencies to Albury, which is already under stress.

Goulburn Valley Health stage 2 has completely missed out on funding under this government. In fact they are now saying the hospital is complete, and they have only done stage 1. We know there is more to be done at Goulburn Valley Health. I have an FOI in for information on this, but of course the government is frustrating that at every opportunity and has actually taken me to VCAT over that FOI. Even though the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner ordered information to be released, the government have now taken it to VCAT to keep that information secret, because they know that information would show the desperate need for the redevelopment of Goulburn Valley Health and the stage 2 project. They want to keep that secret because they do not want to be under pressure to have to fund it.

The Daylesford hospital redevelopment – this is a hospital that is in the Minister for Health’s own electorate that has not got any funding for its redevelopment. The coalition promised $75 million for that redevelopment at the last state election; Labor promised nothing. They gave them $6 million a few years ago for operating theatres, which have only just been completed, but the community themselves had to raise $100,000 to pay for master planning. It is shocking that the government will not even do the master planning. The master plan that they came up with has broad community support and also has the Victorian Health Building Authority’s support, but the government will not fund the works that need to be done to redevelop that hospital.

We know a lot about the Mildura hospital. You have heard ad nauseam from me over the years about the need for a new hospital in Mildura. We promised $750 million for a world-class hospital in that remote area of our state. Labor have given nothing, and the hospital continues to be under pressure. Even the new Bendigo Hospital is under pressure. When we built that we put extra money in and we built a bigger hospital. Jacinta Allan actually said, ‘We don’t need a hospital that size’ – that the smaller hospital that Labor had been dragged kicking and screaming to fund would be sufficient for the Bendigo community. Well, guess what, their CEO told me the other day that the new hospital is now at capacity and they are absolutely full. Jacinta Allan is the only MP I have ever known who has argued for less in her community. Had we as a government listened to her, Bendigo would be in crisis in health at the moment. But we know that there is far more to be done.

The education cuts in the budget – $79 million was cut out of early education and care. This is a shocking cut because, as we all know, early education and care is the area where we can make the biggest difference to a child’s life. Ninety-five per cent of your brain is developed by the time you are six, by the time you start school. We need to be doing as much as we possibly can in those first early years to make sure that children do have the best opportunity to get their best outcomes in life.

The early parenting centre in Shepparton – the timeline for delivery of that was delayed until 2026, so construction has not even started on that yet. We also saw Labor fail to fund 29 schools that they promised to upgrade across Victoria. Of those 29 schools that failed to get funding, four of them were in my electorate. There was the Broadford Primary School, Hazel Glen College in Doreen, Wangaratta High School and also the White Hills Primary School, which is in the Premier’s own electorate. So once again we see the Premier not delivering for her own electorate. The White Hills Primary School was promised funding, they got nothing. The Epsom Primary School, which needs a safer drop-off and pick-up point at their school, got nothing for that.

The Howard Street and Midland Highway intersection, which is the most dangerous intersection in the state according to the RACV – there is nothing to upgrade that in the budget. The Premier is ignoring her own electorate just as she is ignoring the rest of Victoria. That is a real shame.

Other projects that missed out in my electorate included the Shepparton sports and events centre. Now the council have rescoped that to a smaller project in the hope of being able to attract funding from the state and federal governments, but good luck to them, because this is the Labor Party and they do not care about our area. Stage 1 of the Shepparton bypass, which is so desperately needed, did not get funding, nor did stage 2 of Goulburn Valley Health, as I have already said. A school crossing at Kialla West, where six years ago on 10 September a family were so badly injured that one of the children is still undergoing care and treatment for those injuries today – nothing has been done to upgrade that school crossing and make it safer, despite persistent advocacy from me and even from Suzanna Sheed and of course advocacy from Kim O’Keeffe as well. The Rochester pool – we heard about that in April when we were in Campaspe sitting – there is nothing in the budget to upgrade that. The Yarrawonga fire station is 30 years old, it has failed OH&S standards and it has had to spend $25,000 of its own money just to put in some change rooms. It got nothing in the budget. Rutherglen bypass – again, no money. Albury–Wodonga hospital, Daylesford hospital – my list could go on and on.

Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (16:13): I rise to speak on the budget take-note motion with great pleasure. The reason it is with great pleasure is because there is so much to say about this pathetic document that is already out of date. It is unbelievable. There is no better evidence for it being out of date than the Treasurer’s own words. I was absolutely amazed two weeks ago when out the back at the steps of Parliament the Treasurer literally had to tell his colleagues ‘Hey, rein in a bit of the spending here.’ He gave one of the most amazing press conferences at the back door that I have ever seen, where he admitted to losing control of his own budget. Following the government’s commitment to make up for the shortfall in hospital funding, the Treasurer said:

The Treasurer of the state does get a little bit unhappy when I’m presented with short payments in budget management.

Mate, you are the Treasurer. Managing the budget is literally your job. Then he went on to say:

… so that will essentially mean that the government’s going to have to make further adjustments in terms of our budgetary settings.

And there was this ominous warning for all Victorians. I quote from the Australian Financial Review:

Asked on Wednesday if he had reached the end of the line in how much he could lean on business and property investors to pay off debt, Mr Pallas said: “We’ve pretty much done most of what we could do.”

But he refused to “rule in or rule out” other taxes, saying he could give “no assurances about where the government is going with this matter”.

This is absolutely extraordinary. We have a government that has either increased or introduced 55 new taxes that have just driven us into the ground, so much so that we have more debt than New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania combined, where our people are literally taxed to poverty, taxed to oblivion, and then the Treasurer is saying, ‘Look, we just can’t rule anything in or out.’ It is just a state of disaster under these guys here.

Another news report said:

Asked if new taxes on business were no longer an option, the treasurer said … “never say never”.

This is unbelievable. He said:

I’m not ruling anything in or out at the moment …

This Treasurer is an absolute dud. I am sure he has got some fantastic attributes. I think he probably might have a nice personality. He should get another job; he should not be the Treasurer of this state. It is unbelievable. If the Treasurer were employed in the private sector, he would have been fired long ago for his incompetence, there is no doubt about it, let alone the legal consequences he would have faced for his complete and utter failure and what he has done with our taxpayer dollars.

This Labor government is always quick to criticise the private sector and threaten all manner of legal actions, and I always thought it was because they had limited private sector experience.

Joe McCracken interjected.

Renee HEATH: Well, that is right, Mr McCracken – often zero. They left school, went into an electorate office, got indoctrinated in the Labor Party and then went on just quoting their party propaganda. They actually might think they are doing a good job, but they are a complete and utter failure. But the truth is that it is not that Labor members have not had the opportunity to work in the private sector; they just know that if they behaved this way, like they do here, in the private sector there would be legal consequences, there absolutely would, because when a business misleads the public or promises outcomes it cannot deliver or seeks to con people, there will be consequences. Have a listen to some of the actions that get pursued if you are a business, and consider whether or not this sounds like the Treasurer of Victoria. There are warning signs of director fraud as outlined by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s Moneysmart service. It says:

There are some common signs that may indicate something is not right … This can be when the company:

continually raises funds –

you could put taxes in brackets there, but I will continue –

but it isn’t clear what it’s using those funds for

Isn’t that amazing? We are taxed through the nose in this state, yet there are not many projects that are actually delivered. That sounds a lot like this government. Or how about this from the Victorian government’s own Consumer Affairs Victoria website, which states:

A statement about the future that does not turn out to be true is not necessarily misleading or deceptive. But promises, opinions and predictions may be misleading and deceptive if, for example, the person making the statement:

knew it was untrue or incorrect

did not care whether it was true or not

had no reasonable grounds for making it.

That sounds like the very essence of the Treasurer of this government. They know that their projections are not correct. They do not care, and they have no reasonable grounds for making the statements in the first place.

I often talk to people in my electorate about how they feel so let down by the government, because they feel – and I agree with them – that this government will promise them anything with no way of paying for it and with no plan of delivering it in order to get their vote, and it is wrong. Our state is already in massive debt – it will be a millstone around the neck of this generation and the next – not to mention the increased taxes and charges that are driving up the cost of living, that are making life so hard for families, that people in my region are dealing with and that are making it so hard for people to get into their own homes because of this government’s Labor-made cost-of-living crisis. Already the government is failing to provide hospitals, roads, schools and other amenities that it has promised. How much worse is it going to get now?

I would like to talk about the impact of this financial mismanagement – the impact that it is having on my community – and some of the most disappointing revelations of this budget. It has now been 2134 days since Labor promised Pakenham a community hospital. In this budget the completion date was, unsurprisingly, pushed out a further 12 months. However, work has not even begun, so we all know that it will not be delivered on this timeline either.

In the original media release from Daniel Andrews, the former Premier, it speaks about how we are going to have this community hospital that is going to service the local community, works will start in 2018 and it will be complete by 2024. Well, it is now 2024, and there has not been a shovel in the soil. There is nothing that has been done there – it is unbelievable. When the former Premier first promised a Pakenham hospital in 2018, he said nothing is more important than having peace of mind that when a loved one gets sick, care is just around the corner. Well, they do not have that under Labor. He went on to say that only a once-in-a-generation boost would deliver new community hospitals and would give patients the best care and that ‘Only Labor will get it done.’ What a beautiful line. If only it was the truth – it is a complete joke.

The member for Bass said at the time:

Locals shouldn’t have to travel long distances to access services like chemotherapy, dialysis and paediatric care and under Labor’s plan, they won’t have to.

But that is exactly what is happening. It is unbelievable. Your words have been completely misleading and untrue. The Phillip Island Community Hospital completion has also been delayed by another 12 months. There is still no money for stages 2 or 3 of the Wonthaggi Hospital upgrade. And that is hospitals. Every day – and I am not kidding – people come into my electorate office in Pakenham, and they are asking for help. They are saying, ‘Is there an end date in sight?’ It is so upsetting that we can give them no hope, because this government offers us absolutely no security.

I will just briefly talk about education. The San Remo Primary School have not received funds yet that they were promised. These are failures – I have spoken about Wonthaggi Hospital, Phillip Island hospital, San Remo Primary School – in just one seat, the seat of Bass. I will not even mention the extracurricular failure that was not in the budget, the audit overlays, which have just caused so much stress – talk about letting a community down.

Let us cast the net just a little wider. In Narracan, for example, the West Gippsland Hospital commitment is still unfunded. We have been hearing about this for years – empty words and empty promises. Throughout my electorate there are schools that have not received the funds promised, and I am going to name a few: Drouin Secondary College in Narracan; Lakes Entrance Primary School, which is in East Gippsland; Leongatha Secondary College in South Gippsland; and Mount Eliza North Primary School in Mornington. And by the way, I have spoken to some of the staff in that school that have said when they were promised the funding, Labor rolled out their MPs and got a fantastic photo. They posed, they celebrated themselves – as they do – posted it and then that was it. Nothing – absolutely nothing. This is absolutely wrong. The completion date for the Yarra Ranges Special Developmental School upgrade in Evelyn has been pushed back another 12 months, and when it comes to the very important and necessary upgrades of equipment and plants by the Central Gippsland Region Water Corporation, some of their projects have been pushed out and delayed by another five years.

This has been a terrible budget. It is not worth the paper that it is written on. This government is hopeless. The Treasurer is a complete failure. We have got to come back to serving the people that put us here, to actually looking after their money like it means something, rather than spending like drunken sailors.

In schools – I do not have time to go into it now – what a disgrace that in a place like Victoria we are letting down the next generation so badly that one in three children cannot even read and write proficiently. That is absolutely devastating. I am so glad that Ben Carroll said, ‘Let’s come back to phonics,’ yet they did not have enough push to get the unions onside – unbelievable. Is it the unions running this place or is it supposedly you guys? I think that we need to start putting the next generation back in the spotlight and doing what is best for them, rather than just what is easy for you guys. Those opposite all stand condemned by their inaction.

Gayle TIERNEY (Western Victoria – Minister for Skills and TAFE, Minister for Regional Development) (16:26): I move:

That this matter be adjourned until later this day.

Motion agreed to and debate adjourned until later this day.