Thursday, 20 November 2025

 Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (22:56): (2172) My adjournment matter for the Treasurer concerns her handling of statements from credit rating agency reviews of Victoria’s fiscal position. Taxpayers deserve the truth on matters of public importance like this, and the Parliament should be the place for government ministers to provide it. Yet when questioned about Victoria’s creditworthiness, the Treasurer has engaged in what can only be described as selective quotation that borders on misrepresentation. Twice so far this week the Treasurer has claimed to quote directly from Moody’s, even emphasising, ‘These aren’t my words.’ Unfortunately, she has then followed up by using precisely her own words. Firstly, the Treasurer excised from the relevant section Moody’s explicit warning on Victoria’s ‘high and rising debt and weakening debt affordability’. She then removed the important qualification that these pressures are ‘partly mitigated by’ the state’s clear and demonstrated commitment – ‘partly mitigated by’ is cut out entirely. Finally, she reassembles the remaining fragments into a sentence which does not appear in the report. This is not a minor editorial adjustment. Moody’s original statement begins by acknowledging Victoria’s economic strengths, then pivots to ‘however’, a critical qualification which introduces serious concerns about debt trajectory and affordability. These concerns were surgically removed from the Treasurer’s version.

A few minutes later the Treasurer said to my colleague Mr Welch, ‘I do not make the facts up.’ Omitting words, sections and crucial qualifications and coming out with a result which conveys a different sense to the original sentence is surely the very definition of making it up. To redress the balance, I will give some further full-sentence quotes with nothing removed.

Harriet Shing: On a point of order, President, further to a recent consideration by you earlier this evening, Mrs McArthur has just referred, amongst other things, to allegations that the Treasurer has been ‘making it up’. That seems, to my mind, to constitute an allegation of misleading the house or misrepresentation, the subject of which should be by way of substantive motion.

The PRESIDENT: I was listening intently, and it is a bit of a fine line as far as the commentary goes. I might listen to the rest of it and consider from there.

Bev McARTHUR: To redress the balance I will give some further full-sentence quotes with nothing removed. S&P Global:

The state tends to spend all unexpected revenue gains that it receives and has struggled to implement previous savings targets including workforce reductions.

The Victorian Auditor-General:

Prolonged operating losses and ongoing fiscal cash deficits are not financially sustainable, largely because they lead to higher debt levels than otherwise and indicate underlying structural risks.

The action I seek is straightforward: I call on the Treasurer to table in full and without redaction all current credit rating agency reports on Victoria from Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings. Victorians deserve to see what these agencies actually say about our state’s finances, not what the Treasurer wishes they had said.