Thursday, 19 June 2025

Motions

Budget papers 2025–26

Debate resumed on motion of Jaclyn Symes:

That the budget papers 2025–26 be taken into consideration.

Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (16:46): My time to shine. I am very pleased to speak on the take-note motion on the budget. It is a typical Labor budget – full of empty promises, largesse, but no financial discipline. The one thing that it lacks most is substance. It is empty; it is a void of nothing. ‘Doing what matters most’, for all intents and purposes, is just a shallow marketing phrase thought up by the brains trust in the Premier’s office. This budget is one that reflects true Labor values: poor financial management, ignoring regional communities and budget blowouts. Debt still continues to climb to almost $200 billion. In 2014 it was sitting at around $20 billion, and in 2017 it was actually heading down towards $17 billion, but now we are facing a situation where the financial standing of the state is at severe risk. Ratings agencies are looking at Victoria with a big question mark hanging over the state’s head, and we have got an interest rate bill that means that over $1.2 million every hour is spent on servicing debt as opposed to actually solving the problems that Victorians face – problems like roads; public transport; hospitals and ambulances; education, which has just copped a $2.4 billion hit; housing, where the state was once a leader, now we are the wooden spoon; and police, where our force is under pressure and criminal activity is causing a massive crisis in community safety. Then we have our first responders – Country Fire Authority and State Emergency Service volunteers, Fire Rescue Victoria and United Firefighters Union officials, whose job it is to keep our communities safe. The government’s solution? Tax, tax and tax.

The introduction of the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund, the emergency services tax, is a kick in the guts to many regional Victorians. The government seem to operate under this sort of deceptive veneer that the funds raised from the tax go towards volunteers. It could not be further from the truth. Sadly, the bulk of the $2 billion raised over the next three years will go towards funding agencies and bureaucrats. Volunteers are again irrelevant. I guess it is very much a Labor budget, punching down on those that can least afford it, because the government wants to tax farmers with an increase of 150 per cent to the fire services levy. Everyone else pays, at minimum, a 99 per cent increase. Why farmers? Well, according to the government, it is because they have the capacity to pay. Talk about slapping regional Victorians in the face.

What I would like to do is read out a social media post. It was posted by a young farmer, Lily, who lives in Alvie in south-west Victoria. Lily and her family have been on the land for a number of years, and this post reached thousands of people. It starts:

[QUOTE AWAITING VERIFICATION]

It is May. The tractor wipers should be clearing rain, but instead they are clearing dust while we feed stock in drought conditions, whilst hand-rearing orphaned calves and lambs after their mothers abandoned them, too weak or too stressed to care for them. We spend hours feeding stock and drilling pastures, giving us too much time alone with our thoughts. And lately the same question echoes louder each day: is it really worth it? Farmers work 365 days a year, only to sink deeper into debt. Most farmers have worked at a loss for the past three to five years. Would anyone in the city or our Premier get out of bed to not make a cent? Farmers battle constant public perception from city folk who think farmers are wealthy, who believe food magically appears in supermarket shelves, not grown and raised on the land we fight to keep. Then comes the phone calls, the ones we dread – bank managers, accountants. ‘We need to catch up,’ they say. We nod, hang up and carry on, hearts heavy, minds racing, wondering how we will pay for feed, water, vet bills, maintenance and this month’s bank repayments. How will we afford this month’s school fees or shoes that fit the kids? Then resort to cancelling a trip away for the kids. Some are even left with no option but to sell family pets.

In farming communities, local footy and netball clubs are more than just weekend activities; they are lifelines. But lately the conversations echo the same heavy themes: no money, no fodder, no water. Once the footy was an outlet, now it is more like a counselling session. Every week another farmer walks into the clubrooms and says they are done, they have had enough, they are selling up. With each family that leaves, the community feels the loss – fewer players for teams, fewer kids for the schools, fewer customers at local stores. These choices, though deeply personal and often made in quiet desperation, are slowly draining the life out of rural towns. The spirit that once held us together is being chipped away one family at a time. People forget you need a farmer three times a day, at breakfast, lunch and dinner. But what happens when the farmers struggle for money to feed themselves?

And to our Premier, Jacinta Allan, thanks for the continued ignorance. When the next bushfire season hits, we will be watching. You had better be on the frontline in a CFA uniform fighting the very fires that destroyed the communities that your taxes, levies and policies have already begun to ruin. This is more than a job. It is a way of life, a lifeline, and it is slipping away.

Lily’s words echo throughout the farming communities of Victoria, particularly in my electorate of Western Victoria. Since that time the government has announced a reprieve of a one-year halt of the farming component of the emergency services tax. But most people can see it for what it actually is, kicking the can down the road. The tax still exists. The tax will still be imposed. Drought conditions do not go away in 12 months; it takes years. Even the government’s own MPs think the tax is unfair and want to see massive changes. Despite the rhetoric, they all voted for it – every single one. When the time came to stand up for regional communities, the government were nowhere to be seen. Do not even start on the drought taskforce, which is yet to produce anything of merit.

This budget does typify Labor values: punching down on those that can least afford it in an attempt to fund vanity projects in Melbourne and to plug an ever-increasing budget black hole. The community are sick and tired of being taken for granted, especially regional communities. I for one will never, ever apologise for standing up for regional Victorians. This Labor government, however, has a lot of apologising to do. Let us hope they get on with it.

Jacinta ERMACORA (Western Victoria) (16:54): I speak on the Victorian 2025–26 budget. This budget is grounded in the lives of Victorians and reflects our priorities and respects our communities. From Warrnambool to Hamilton, Edenhope to Nhill, Stawell to Dartmoor and Warracknabeal and Port Fairy, these are the towns and people that contribute greatly to our Victorian economy, and this budget recognises that with practical investment. It delivers across the board to deal with cost of living, health, education, transport, jobs, public safety, community sport, environment and food security – most of the things that were raised in a negative frame by the previous speaker. This budget is helping to build a fairer, stronger western Victoria, and that is what I want to focus on.

Education is the single most powerful tool for creating opportunity, and that is especially true in regional Victoria. Every child, no matter their postcode, deserves a safe, modern and inspiring place to learn. This budget makes that a reality. In Edenhope we are investing $13.1 million in Edenhope College to upgrade administration areas and modernise building B. This is not just about bricks and mortar, it is about giving young people the confidence and the facilities they need to succeed. In Stawell $4.7 million will go to Stawell West Primary School for their critical refurbishment of block A. I recently had the pleasure of visiting Stawell West Primary School. It is a terrific, caring school, and the refurbishment will dramatically enhance student amenities and improve support spaces for teachers. Particularly amongst its student population, this school has a very strong representation of First Nations children as well as new arrivals, which is not the profile, particularly the new arrivals, that you would expect in an outer-regional community. Good facilities and a happy learning environment are what Labor is all about, no matter where you live. In Hamilton $403,600 has been allocated to Hamilton North Primary School to refurbish student toilets, an issue raised by parents and staff alike. I could certainly see why these new facilities were needed when I called in a few weeks ago. These are the sorts of basic yet important improvements that make a real difference.

In Warrnambool – it is so exciting – we are delivering a new tech school, a state-of-the-art facility that will provide hands-on STEM learning linked to local industry. It will prepare students for future jobs in high-tech agriculture, health innovation and advanced manufacturing, ensuring our country kids have the pathways to great careers in the region that they call home. The tech school will include robotics, AI and of course advanced digital design. This is really what regional education reform looks like under Labor – thoughtful, practical and fair. The budget also provides continued support for breakfast clubs at schools, for excursion and camp funding and for uniform support. This is a truly supportive strategy for the cost of living, and this is particularly welcome in regional communities.

The budget also provides health funding. Access to timely, affordable health care is one of the top concerns I hear from locals, and rightly so. No-one should have to travel long distances or face long delays to get basic care. That is why this budget continues funding for 12 state-run urgent care clinics, including one in Warrnambool. These services provide fast, local access to health care for non-emergencies. They take pressure off hospital emergency departments, and I must admit, a very, very close person to me had their life saved in the Warrnambool emergency department a few weeks ago. It was fantastic that there was not a massive queue at the time.

This budget delivers on stronger, safer transport and roads as well. Western Victoria literally moves on freight produced by farming, food processing and tourism and the add-on businesses that support those primary industries. There is no doubt our roads need to continue to improve and keep up. That is why this budget delivers critical investments in transport infrastructure to keep our economy and communities connected. At Mount Emu Creek bridge, near Terang, we are investing $797,000 to upgrade the structure for high-productivity freight vehicles. Almost a third of the nation’s food and fibre potentially will travel over that bridge. This investment will boost freight capacity along the Princes Highway West and improve efficiency for regional producers. In Nhill $530,000 is being delivered for a major upgrade to the Nhill trailer exchange, including new amenities for female truck drivers. This long-overdue improvement will ensure safety, dignity and inclusion in a sector where women have too often been overlooked. Some may not see these as flashy projects, but they are essential. They help the people who keep our economy moving, they make sure that the transport sector is inclusive and they improve safety on the roads that we all use. It is important to note this funding is part of a broader $30 million investment in regional road upgrades across Victoria, because we know better roads mean safer, more productive communities.

Community sport is such an integral part of rural and outer regional living. It is so much more than the fun of competing; it is also about connecting, wellbeing and resilience, and that is why this budget invests $250,000 into new lighting for the netball and tennis courts at Anzac Park in Warracknabeal. These lights mean players can train and play safely during the shorter days of winter. In fact the lighting will give additional flexibility to a wide range of activities and events. This is part of a wider $20 million investment in local sports infrastructure across Victoria. It is about backing our coaches, volunteers and families, the people who make grassroots sports possible and keep our communities strong.

In regional areas we know we rely on the CFA and SES volunteers. They are the first ones to respond to bushfires, storms and road accidents, and they deserve modern facilities to do that work. I certainly visited multiple CFA stations in the Grampians on multiple occasions earlier this year and thanked them for the work they did during the fires in the Grampians. This budget delivers funding for an upgrade for the CFA station in Dartmoor, providing a safe fit-for-purpose base for our volunteers. It is part of a $21 million package to upgrade emergency services infrastructure across the state, and it recognises the unique and irreplaceable role our CFA brigades play in protecting lives and land.

Western Victoria is rich in biodiversity, and the people there feel a strong connection to the land and the animals we share it with. That is why this budget includes $45,000 in support for the Wildwood Wildlife Shelter, a vital local organisation that cares for and rehabilitates injured native animals. This funding will help improve facilities and support the dedicated volunteers who step in when animals are affected by storms, fires or road trauma. It is another example of how this budget respects the quite essential work done by regional communities.

Our coastal fishing towns, like Port Campbell and Port Fairy, depend on functioning local ports for safety, tourism and industry, and this budget delivers targeted maintenance and upgrades. At Port Campbell we are rehabilitating the lower landing to improve safety and access for boats. I must admit I have swum from that jetty on and off all my life. In Port Fairy we are reinforcing the river training and wall structures to protect the harbour and public access. These works protect infrastructure, support the local economy and preserve the identity of our coastal towns. Regional communities deserve to feel just as safe on public transport as anyone else. The budget funds expanded CCTV coverage at six stations along the Warrnambool, Geelong and Ballarat lines, including Warrnambool station. This will help deter antisocial behaviour and support real-time monitoring, keeping passengers and staff safe. We know that this is just yet another investment in the Warrnambool line upgrade, which has included a complete signalling upgrade, new VLocity trains for the first time on the Warrnambool line and a new passing loop. The upgrade is also including stabling facilities for VLocity trains in Warrnambool, which are currently under construction. This is the kind of investment in regional Victoria that the Allan Labor government is known for.

We also know that families in western Victoria are doing it tough right now. Demand for food relief is rising, and local services are stretched. That is why this budget includes $6 million to double support for regional food relief efforts, like the incredible work done by Western District Food Share. This funding will support logistics, storage and the critical distribution of healthy food to those who need it most, while also backing the volunteers who give their time every day to help neighbours in need. No-one should go hungry in our state, and this budget responds to that challenge. It absolutely is particularly important in the south-west of Victoria at the moment due to the impacts of the drought on farming families. I know that Western District Food Share and other services in the community of the south-west are providing support to farmers both visibly and behind the scenes nice and quietly.

I want to pass on my thanks to all of the people involved in supporting farmers at the moment. It is extremely tough, and it is going to get tougher before it gets easier. At this time of year many people who visit south-west Victoria would now see green grass because of the rain that has occurred, but at this point in the deepest part of winter with the shortest days and the coldest temperatures, the grass will not grow until the springtime. There are quite a few months to go where that support will be needed.

In conclusion, I am very proud that this budget makes truly meaningful investments in regional Victoria. It invests in our future through schools and health care; it supports the backbone of our communities – our CFA brigades, our volunteers, our freight workers, our teachers and our carers; and it shows respect for the dignity of every person who calls western Victoria home. It is a budget that reflects our Labor values: fairness, opportunity, inclusion and action. As a member for Western Victoria I am proud to stand here knowing that this budget delivers for the people I represent and that our region’s voice is being heard. I will leave my contribution there.

Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (17:09): If Mark Twain was alive today, after 10 years of Labor he might change his words. His words were thus – I think he was actually quoting Benjamin Franklin: ‘In this world there could be nothing more certain except death and taxes.’ After 10 years of Labor government, in this world there can be nothing more certain than Labor taxing Victorians to death. If we were to rephrase Paul Simon’s very famous song 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, we could also rephrase that in Victoria as ‘60 ways to tax your voter’. This is the story of 10 years of financial mismanagement by this government – debt, debt and more debt and financial mismanagement and lack of transparency. And we heard the opening speaker earlier today, Mr Davis, reiterate a very chilling and sobering conversation about the forward estimates of the projected debt that this state will face, that all Victorians will face – $194 billion in debt. It is higher than New South Wales and Queensland combined, and that relates to $29 million a day in interest repayments, $1.23 million an hour, or every minute Victoria is going to be required to pay – must pay to meet its obligations – $20,000 a minute. I have just come from a fantastic meeting with Youth Space, who have been funded partially in Latrobe Valley from the state government and partially in Wellington and East Gippsland through the bushfire recovery funding, and they are doing amazing things in terms of turning youth lives around in a very positive direction. What they would not kill for a couple of minutes worth of debt repayments to continue them, to keep them going, and I commend them for their work.

If we look at the ‘long and winding road’ – to coin another phrase from a very famous group – and put in there ‘crumbling, potholed, shoulders disintegrating and surface in need of rehabilitation’. What we have seen from this government – and the ‘Department Performance Statement’ highlights it – is the ‘Road area major patched: roads in regional Victoria’. That is part of the budget. The target for last year was a little over a million square metres of patching – that is what the government’s target was. It put that as its focus, its mandate to do. Well, the state’s Labor government achieved 500,000 square metres – half of the target. This year, rather than actually meet your own objectives, meet your own targets and bring about these positive outcomes, the target this financial year is for 70,000 square metres – a 93 per cent reduction in that resurfacing and patching. That is not acceptable. Go down any country road that is a state government road and you will find dangerous potholes that can rip the rim off your tyres and endanger people’s lives by the fact that people avoiding those potholes can veer either off to the side of the road or onto the other road just to keep their car wheels turning.

If we look at the regional development budget – once upon a time it had its standalone part of a department. Now it is in a back room. It is like an outhouse under this government. Again, they are cutting the regional development budget. We know our regions drive our economy. We have heard it from members in this house right across the divide here about the importance of our agricultural sector in the drought, and it is our farmers who feed and clothe us. Yet we have seen regional development being put on the backburner by the Allan government.

If we look at the health of our regions – in my Eastern Victoria Region we see the then Andrews government in 2022 committed to build the West Gippsland Hospital. The land has been sitting there available. It has been bequeathed to the people of the Baw Baw shire and it is still waiting, and they will still be waiting for years to come under this government. It is on the never-never. It is in the too-hard basket, and I know the wonderful doctors and nurses and staff that work at the Warragul hospital are just so desperate to have something that is fit for purpose. We see that Wonthaggi Hospital stage 2 was committed to in the 2022 state election. It was earmarked for funding in 2023, and now the Minister for Health Mary-Anne Thomas has again kicked it down the road, kicked the expansion of those services down the road.

Disability – there has been $120 million cut from the disability sector, and there is no stronger advocate in the disability sector than my colleague the member for Gippsland East Mr Tim Bull. He has been a huge advocate. He has his finger on the pulse of what is going on in that budget, and he is highly concerned that our most vulnerable people in this state are having their services cut and comprised. Let us look at ambulance services, and there is no joy here. If we look at ambulance response times in my Eastern Victoria electorate, there is supposed to be a benchmark, a response time that the ambulance once called will make it to that vulnerable person sitting in their home in an ailing state, in a state of concern and a state of unwellness and meet them within 15 minutes at a minimum of 85 per cent of the time in regional Victoria in those indicated areas. This state government is not achieving that in Bass Coast – 59 per cent of the time, and not in Baw Baw – 65 per cent of the time. They are not achieving that in Cardinia – 57 per cent, and not in East Gippsland – 50 per cent of the time. Those ambulance services are getting to people in East Gippsland only 50 per cent of the time within 15 minutes. There have been some horror stories that have come out, and I thank the ambulance officers that I have spoken with over the last 12 months on this for the work that they are trying to do to better coordinate their limited resources. Latrobe – 26 per cent of the time; South Gippsland – a frightening 46 per cent of the time, and Wellington about 53 per cent.

Understaffed hospitals are unable often to release those ambulances, leading to ramping. A little while ago when I was standing with my colleague Martin Cameron at Latrobe Regional Hospital we counted seven ambulances ramping waiting to be released to get back out into the community and do the work that those wonderful ambos do so well. This is not an acceptable state of play.

If I can turn to crime, our police in Eastern Victoria Region do an amazing job and we are so grateful for the work they do, but they cannot clone themselves, although they need to. That thin blue line is getting stretched thinner and thinner in Eastern Victoria Region and there are some normal activities that police are trying to get to that they often cannot. The crime stats for Victoria are out today and we see crime fuelled by antisocial behaviour and theft up in Bass Coast, up in Baw Baw, up in Cardinia and up, up, up in East Gippsland, Latrobe, South Gippsland and Wellington. Motor vehicle thefts, residential aggravated burglaries and stealing from a retail store, all of these are up, and common assault is up. These are highly concerning. As my colleague David Southwick said, there are not enough police to keep our communities safe. We know that at any given time over 2000 officers are not available for active duty because of WorkCover, sick leave and vacancies.

If we look at other major projects that we would like done in Eastern Victoria Region, I know my good colleague Danny O’Brien has been advocating for the Foster fire station for many years. Post the fires the minister went out to Mirboo North and said, ‘What do you need?’ ‘We need a new fire station,’ said Mirboo North., and they are still waiting for it. Winnindoo is a single truck station, and it has been waiting since before Noah was a young man. Hazelwood fire station – again, those wonderful CFA volunteers out there would love their not-fit-for-purpose facility, with an old shed, one toilet and no catering for females, updated.

Of course we have the SEC sham, and I will leave it at that. Nobody liked it in the Latrobe Valley, because if they had liked it in the Latrobe Valley they would have elected a member there, but they knew; they could see it for the sham that it is. Then we have the very vexed problem of coastal erosion. We have the people down at Bass Coast struggling in Silverleaves with initiatives that are short term that are failing. We have the people in Inverloch who are also very concerned about the loss of a much-loved public asset that the government seems to be pussyfooting around. The government has provided $10 million or thereabouts between six different communities. That is insufficient to provide certainty. There needs to be practical application, not just consultation within an inner circle and then a report that is never tabled. We have had no update on funding for the New Haven jetty, and this government has then decided to cut fisheries officers. This is highly concerning. Many of our anglers are very concerned. They love angling, but they also love healthy ecosystems and sustainability of species. If I can go to sustainability of species in terms of my own portfolio, we know that this government has failed. The State of the Forests report is now three years overdue. Victorians are still waiting for the government to release the State of the Environment report. On the last track there were many poor or below average benchmarks and outcomes for the environment. The government is not even testing or assessing what is happening in our forests. It is going to lock them up. It is going to go and turn another state forest into a national park. It is going to turn the Wombat and Lerderderg area into a national park, tick that and say, ‘Aren’t we doing well?’, but it actually does not know what is happening in those state parks. It does not know whether it is actually achieving good environmental outcomes, but locking it up – changing the land tenure – apparently saves species. I think not.

While we are on that topic, over the last three years the government has cut the bushfire preparedness budget. For the last three years it has been $600,000 overall when it was all tidied up. This year the Minister for Environment has offered $400 million in the budget. When asked in the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearings, he said, ‘Well, these figures are a bit rubbery, and we’ll get Forest Fire Management Victoria to go cap in hand to the Treasurer and ask for a Treasurer’s advance.’ Last time I looked, a Treasurer’s advance was supposed to be for issues and emerging emergencies like a bushfire or flood, not for regular core business such as firebreaks and fuel reduction.

We see school infrastructure is being delayed for many in my patch until 2027, and we see this horrific, egregious emergency services tax. Every Victorian will pay this emergency services tax. Every household and every business will have it doubled. Every industry, in terms of owning a commercial entity, will pay double. An industry down the street will be taxed at 64 per cent and farmers will be taxed at 150 per cent. ‘Thank you for feeding us. Thank you for clothing us,’ says the Allan government, ‘and by the way, we’re about to hit you with 150 per cent tax.’ There is one stay for a year, and the government are patting themselves on the back: ‘Look what we’ve done.’ It is a con and it is a crock. On top of that, the CFA, FRV and SES budget over the past two years has been cut by $160 million. That is what the budget papers indicate. This is the contempt that the Allan government provides, particularly to people in rural and regional Victoria. We can hear all the rhetoric, but country people know that they are getting short-changed by this government that is trying to prop up a black hole of debt. This government’s focus is on metropolitan Melbourne, and rural and regional people are paying the price.

Lee TARLAMIS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (17:24): 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.