Tuesday, 14 October 2025

 Richard WELCH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (14:19): A lot of people will remember the 1980s; a lot of people will not. So I will spell some things out for the Victorians who were not around back in the 1980s. Up until the 1980s, if you wanted to build a company in Western Australia, you came to Melbourne for capital. If you wanted to finance your business in Queensland, you came to Melbourne for capital. If you wanted to expand your farms in New Zealand, you came to Melbourne. In the 1980s, though, that all changed. A Labor government in New South Wales courted businesses big and small and gave them incentives to come across to Sydney. New technologies such as EFTPOS and telebanking emerged, and the New South Wales government enabled businesses to innovate and in turn to have Sydney prosper. Meanwhile the Victorian Labor government squandered our historic advantage in Melbourne and let capital flee Victoria, and have set us back ever since. The Pyramid Building Society, the Tricontinental crash, the sale of our state bank and the giving away of the ASX to Sydney are all examples of this.

This is what the current Labor government is doing again: suffocating industry, innovation and productivity. Neglected and directionless, we are a state economically and industrially adrift. Businesses do not feel welcome in Victoria. Every single metric shows this. Under a Battin Liberal government, Melbourne and Victoria will regain its crown as the business and finance centre of Australia and return us back to national leadership.