Tuesday, 18 November 2025

 Richard WELCH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (13:54): Victoria is the worst state in Australia to do business, and that is both unfortunate and a very unfortunate fact. Recent surveys show for business states we rate last, eighth out of eight; for cost and regulations we rate last, eighth out of eight; for payroll tax we rate seventh out of eight; for property taxes and charges we are last, we rate eighth out of eight. We run a state trade deficit of $92 billion a year. We have the highest inflation and the highest unemployment. What this means is that other states are doing things better than us. When businesses look where they are going to place their investment, they are going to choose which jurisdiction to invest in. They look at Victoria and say, ‘Well, no, things are worse there. It’s harder to do business there. We’ll be taxed higher there. It’s harder to employ there.’ We have special laws in Victoria that are inconsistent with the rest of the nation, so there is always a premium to invest in Victoria. This is not sustainable for us, because we have to support an Australia-leading debt, and we have to pay $10 billion in interest. My ambition for Victoria is that in one term of office we are rated number one for competitiveness, number one for tax, number one for land tax and number one for regulations that make it easier to invest in this state, because that is the only way we will grow Victoria.