Wednesday, 28 May 2025

Motions

Economy

Debate resumed.

Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (14:03): The tax revenue has increased by 133 per cent since Labor took office. Victoria’s net debt will reach $194 billion by 2028–29. Interest payments on Victoria’s debt will cost taxpayers $36 billion over the next four years. That is $29 million every day and over $1 million every hour. Labor has shown that it has no capacity to control cost blowouts. They are continually dipping into a slush fund of about $10 billion that they have set aside for their own personal decision-making, and we do not see where that money goes for a couple of years.

A fresh start for Victoria will come from the Victorian Liberals and Nationals in our coalition. We have a plan to restore financial integrity and accountability. We guarantee no new taxes or charges. We will publish honest, transparent budgets and introduce a public real-time dashboard so every Victorian can see how their money is being spent. We will safeguard Victoria’s credit rating, we will keep borrowing costs low and we will support long-term growth. We are interested in cutting red tape for businesses. We want to remove barriers to unleash the private sector for growth and job creation. We want to support workers and make life more affordable. We want to scrap unfair taxes like Labor’s school tax, holiday and tourism tax, GP tax and the emergency services tax, which will help families and small businesses keep more of what they earn. We will scrap stamp duty for first home buyers on properties of up to $1 million and end the gas ban, helping Victorians buy their first home, keep the lights on in their homes and their energy bills down, and we will support households and industries alike. We will protect workers by tackling union corruption and misconduct, fostering a fair, competitive environment that attracts investment and rewards hard work. We will secure Victoria’s future by tackling debt responsibly. We will stabilise debt. We will introduce a debt cap for Victoria, and we will reduce the amount of taxpayer dollars being spent on interest payments. This motion needs to be supported because it is a way of holding the government to account using its own methodology and enabling it to stay within reasonable budget limits so that every Victorian does not have to continue to pay the price for Labor’s mismanagement of money.

I applaud our colleague Mr Davis for his hard work in bringing this particular motion to the house. It is important that people support it, because we need to have this budget back under control. This government is completely out of control with its expenditure.

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (14:06): This is a very straightforward motion. It has got a lot of detail in it, and these are actually facts. The motion simply reads that the Bracks government had a debt ceiling of 6 per cent of gross state product. That is a Victorian government, an Australian government; it is not an American government. So a Labor government introduced a debt ceiling in the 2004 period. It points to the increase in debt, up to 24.5 per cent of GSP in the 2025–26 budget period. That is a huge increase in debt for the state. It points to the fact that the Andrews Labor government changed the debt ceiling first to 12 per cent and then got rid of it. This was a decision of this Labor government – or the Labor government led by Mr Andrews, of which many of the current ministers were a part. It looks at the issue of the debt servicing and the challenge of that. The interest rates have gone up. The interest rates are now really hurting, and we are going to see more and more challenges in servicing a very, very large debt. And our credit rating is at risk. There is no doubt that our credit rating is at risk.

We pointed in the motion to the extraordinary amount of money squandered by unscheduled costs, by cost overruns on projects. I mean, good projects should be managed properly and held within their budget. Who thinks it is a good idea to just let these projects blow out without control? That is what appears to have been happening. We also pointed strongly to the Auditor-General’s report from 2023–24, where he pointed to the fact that 18.7 per cent of the debt at that time was due to COVID, but a much greater share, $137 million of the general government sector gross debt, related to the government’s infrastructure blowouts and programs. He said the state government did not have an articulated, clear plan for long-term fiscal management, and he called for it.

That is why we are making a very simple call: establish a fiscal repair plan with quantitative measures to provide a certain budget repair path. That is not a lot to ask. The Auditor-General said, ‘Your plan’s not up to scratch’, and it is not. The costs are blowing out, the debt is increasing and the state is in a weaker financial position than at any time indeed in my lifetime. We have said: re-establish and publish a debt ceiling. We have said that is a job for government. It is a job that involves Treasury. It is a job that likely involves consulting the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee. It is a job that involves consulting broadly and understanding how this could operate properly. It is not something that you can so easily do from opposition; it is something that a government should do. But we are saying: do what the Bracks government did; do what Brumby’s Treasurer did; do what even Andrews and Pallas did in their first few years – they actually did have a debt ceiling then. They did operate within that. We operated in government within that Brumby–Bracks debt ceiling and successfully did that for the state’s benefit. We are aware that these projects need better oversight; that is why we have called for a public works committee. We have been very clear that you cannot control this until you get these projects within the parameters you are authorised to spend rather than just having them splay everywhere.

This is a very thoughtful, modest motion that looks historically. Every statement is backed up very well, directly from primary sources. Nothing there can be challenged in terms of the facts. And what the Auditor said are simply facts. All we have asked for is that there be a repair plan with quantitative measures and that they re-establish and publish a debt ceiling, and that the government do that – the Treasurer do that, the Premier do that. That is what is important for the state’s future.

Council divided on motion:

Ayes (14): Melina Bath, Gaelle Broad, Georgie Crozier, David Davis, Renee Heath, Ann-Marie Hermans, David Limbrick, Wendy Lovell, Trung Luu, Bev McArthur, Joe McCracken, Evan Mulholland, Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell, Richard Welch

Noes (19): Ryan Batchelor, John Berger, Lizzie Blandthorn, Katherine Copsey, Enver Erdogan, Jacinta Ermacora, Michael Galea, Anasina Gray-Barberio, Shaun Leane, Sarah Mansfield, Tom McIntosh, Rachel Payne, Aiv Puglielli, Georgie Purcell, Harriet Shing, Lee Tarlamis, Sonja Terpstra, Gayle Tierney, Sheena Watt

Motion negatived.