Wednesday, 14 May 2025

Department of Treasury and Finance

Budget papers 2024–25

Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (17:17): I rise to speak on the state budget of 2024–25. The budget raises the funding to fund a whole lot of projects, but what I want to speak about are some of the projects that were missing from last year’s budget that the government has the opportunity to correct when it delivers its budget next week.

I am going to start with roads, and the first thing we need in northern Victoria is three big bypasses. The Shepparton bypass is a project that has been worked on for three decades. I was on a committee working on the Shepparton bypass before I was even elected to this place. The former Morrison Liberal government put aside $208 million in funding to build stage 1 of the bypass. It needed the state to match that with their 20 per cent of the funding and also a commitment to building it. The state did not do that, so what did the Albanese Labor government do? They took that funding away when they did their infrastructure review.

The same thing happened in Rutherglen. Rutherglen has also been crying out for a bypass of their town, and some money was committed towards it by the former federal Liberal government, but what happened when the infrastructure review was done? That money disappeared as well.

The Kilmore bypass is another project – the member for Euroa was here, but she has gone now – that the community has been crying out for for many years. The former member for Seymour Cindy McLeish actually did get a commitment for the construction of the Kilmore bypass out of the Baillieu and Napthine Liberal governments, but what did the Andrews Labor government do? They took that off the agenda and they spent that money elsewhere; they took that money away as well.

We also need to see investment in the duplication of Donnybrook Road. Mr Mulholland and I have gone on ad nauseam about the duplication of Donnybrook Road and the duplication of the flyover over the Hume Freeway. But if you were out there now, if you were trying to get off the Hume Freeway onto Donnybrook Road coming from Melbourne, you would be queued up back to Craigieburn. It is disgraceful to see what is going on in that community and the traffic congestion that is created because of that road, which is a country lane, not a road.

Howard Street and the Midland Highway intersection in Bendigo has been deemed the worst intersection in the state. It is in the Premier’s own electorate, and yet it has not been funded for an upgrade. The Premier must ensure that the Treasurer puts funding for that in the budget next week. The Calder Highway and Maiden Gully Road intersection, again, needs an upgrade. And we need rail. We need an extension of the Upfield line to Wallan, and electrification. They need to add a train station at Beveridge, and the Wollert rail extension also needs to be funded.

With health projects, Goulburn Valley Health needs to be completed. Stage 1 was completed but not stage 2. This government has taken stage 2 off the agenda, and it needs to be put back on the agenda so that we have the health service that the people of Shepparton and the Goulburn Valley deserve. Wodonga needs further funding to allow its hospital to be built on a greenfield site. It is a joke what this government is doing in Wodonga, building a hospital in New South Wales that is not even going to increase the bed numbers or service that community into the future. The Daylesford hospital is a disgrace. I was there recently, and it desperately needs upgrading. This is in the Minister for Health’s own electorate. The Liberal Party committed $75 million for that project at the last election. Labor did not commit anything, and unfortunately the people of Daylesford and surrounding areas have been let down because Labor have still not invested in their hospital. That must be done next week.

On education, there is the Wangaratta High School – I see member for Ovens Valley up here. Labor promised $11.7 million at the 2022 state election, but we have not seen that money yet, so that needs to be in the budget next week for the Wangaratta High School. The Banmira Specialist School in Shepparton needs to be completed. At the moment it is only half done, and it is a disgrace that it has not been completed. We need to see drop-off and pick-up points at the Epsom Primary School in Bendigo and at the Grahamvale Primary School in Shepparton improved, and the Kialla West Primary School also needs an upgrade to its pedestrian crossing. That needs to be funded in next week’s budget.