Thursday, 5 February 2026

 Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (18:02): What an amazing opportunity to speak on the Allan Labor government’s most recent budget, especially 260 days after it was delivered. Now, thanks to subsequent Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearings, the work of the Auditor-General and numerous departmental annual reports, we know how inaccurate, unreliable, unrealistic or dishonest this budget was. This goes to show that hindsight really is 20/20. There are so many areas of failure that it is going to be hard to fit it all into one speech, but I am going to give that my best shot.

I would like to start off with the overall state of the economy in Victoria under the Allan Labor government. Under this government, Victoria has become a poor state with the highest taxes, highest net debt, least competitive business and investment conditions, the highest property taxes and the worst credit rating. Victoria’s unemployment rate has been above the national average for almost two years now. You would never know that, hearing the government, because their narrative seems to be so far removed from the facts and from truth it is staggering.

Victoria’s net debt grew by more than $17.6 billion between June 2024 and June 2025, a rate of more than $48 million a day – more than $2 million per hour. And that projected amount in this budget is now $194 billion – $194 billion of debt. It can be hard for people to understand just how much debt that really is. But to put it into perspective, it is around $27,000 per person in this state: per man, per woman and per child. Every baby that is born into this state essentially inherits the amount of $27,000 worth of debt. $194 billion of debt is so large that even if Bill Gates were to liquidate every single asset he has and donate it to Victoria, we would still be in debt. Just let that sink in. It is unbelievable. Victoria’s gross debt to GSP ratio has reached 30 per cent higher than every other state in Australia. This is amazing. So just get a load of this: debt continues to grow faster than both the economy and revenue. That is staggering. We have gone from having the best credit rating in the country – stable AAA – to the worst credit rating in the country. Because of that, our interest bill has gone up. It used to be $2.2 billion; now it is on track to be $10.6 billion, a near quintupling of the interest burden for Victorian families. It is unbelievable.

This is all because the Labor government is incompetent and cannot manage money. Interest expense is increasing faster than revenue and is expected to reach 9 per cent, or $10.6 billion, of total operating expenditure by 2028–29. This means 9 cents out of every single dollar of revenue will be spent servicing Victoria’s debt over the coming years, and if I get time later on I am going to talk about why we care about that and what that means. The debt is so large that the interest bill is $1 million per hour; that is $1 million that is not going to be spent on a school, on a hospital, on a road, on police officers, on keeping our area safe or on ensuring kids can read. No, it is going to service the interest on the debt. Victoria’s net debt grew by more than $17.6 billion. It is just unbelievable.

We all know that Victoria is really struggling. We have seen this in the ambulance wait times. We have seen this in the health crisis. We have seen this in the crime crisis. Victorians need better services and facilities than they are receiving from this Labor government. Further, there is no reason we should believe that this level of debt is accurate. As we know, Labor has overspent their budget by an average of $14 billion per year since 2015, demonstrating a complete inability to deliver on its own numbers.

Then we have got the consistent and ongoing mismanagement of major projects, with more than $50 billion of blowouts on major projects alone. When I look at that amount, $50 billion, I keep thinking of the Treasurer, who is here tonight and who keeps saying that because we are going to axe the emergency services levy, because it is the most egregious tax that disproportionately affects our farmers and our volunteers, ‘Well, that’s your $11 billion black hole.’ I just find that staggering, because we did not create this mess and we did not create this tax, but when they look at their own track record there is more than $50 billion of blowouts on major projects alone – almost five times the amount of that so-called $11 billion black hole. Do you know what the consequence of this overspending and mismanagement is? To paraphrase a famous quote, the problem with the Allan Labor government is that when they run out of money, they come after yours.

In this budget we have had the 60th new or increased tax since Labor was elected in 2014. Now, like I said before, this is about the last budget, which was 260 days ago, and do not forget that since then they have added another four. So this is redundant because they have just continued to pile on the tax and pile on the tax. Regardless, I am going to stick to this budget. The emergency services and volunteer levy – now, wasn’t that absolutely a scandal? This tax penalises the very people we rely on when our state is facing bushfires and other emergencies. It is amazing and ironic, the timing of this. This tax is disproportionately affecting the men and women that are literally out there fighting fires as we are here in this chamber. Isn’t that unbelievable? Literally, they are out there right now fighting fires in the state of Victoria, and we are talking about a tax that disproportionately, and I think unfairly and immorally, impacts them. While Labor tries to spin the facts, the truth is that even with a new tax funding has been cut to the CFA – facts.

In my region of Eastern Victoria this government continues to let my community down. The West Gippsland Hospital – nothing, despite Labor promising it before the last election. Spoiler alert: we have got an election coming up this year. I am sure they will make the same promise, and I actually do not think that they have got any intention whatsoever of delivering, if you can go by their past record. But a good indicator of future behaviour generally is how people have behaved in the past – broken promises, nothing delivered. What about the Rosebud Hospital – no funds for a hospital that is in desperate need of upgrade. The Lang Lang bypass in Bass – that is something that for a very long time people have been crying out for in the electorate of Bass, which has been unbelievably neglected. I remember earlier last year asking, ‘What is the Labor government’s problem with the member for Bass?’ Because they seem to be really making the most horrific decisions, just completely acting with such contempt towards the people of Bass. There are so many things we can go on about there, but I just do not have time. This government has abandoned its plans to electrify the Stony Point line in Hastings. Despite the clear need and demand from locals, there is no funding for a new SES unit in the electorate of Monbulk – none.

This budget alone saw over $50 million in direct cuts to the Victorian police budget. It is interesting: I know that Labor’s narrative is that we love to cut, but let us just forget the narratives for a tick and come back to the truth. Let us just come back to the actual facts. I am going to talk about the cuts from the Allan Labor government: $50 million slashed out of the public police budget during a crime crisis. Fifty million dollars of cuts are there in black and white in the budget papers. We are 2000 police short on the beat today. We now have 367.7 fewer full-time equivalent Victoria Police officers than when Jacinta Allan became Premier. So let us just put aside the spin for a minute, let us put aside what they are going to be telling you; these are the cold, hard facts.

In another stunning example of how the government prioritise spin over substance, they have allocated $2.8 million for police recruitment advertising, but no new funding has been provided to train or support those new recruits. That is Labor in a nutshell. If you want to see the Allan Labor government, if you want an example that sums them up, there it is. On top of that, our most senior police are taking an early retirement package because of an EBA. We have police that are exhausted. We have police that are being diverted from police stations – 43 of them in fact have had reduced hours or have been closed down altogether to babysit some 500 protests that have happened through the streets of Melbourne. These police have been taken away from community places where they are needed, and instead they have had to watch the parade, the runway of antisemitism that has happened every single week now in Melbourne for years. This government have cut funding to VicPol, and when they cut, police stations close. This government has cut funding to crime prevention programs run by 34 groups affiliated with African communities – communities that are really crying out for support. This budget was able to find $13 million, however, for some machete bins, essentially a few op shop bins that were placed at the front of select police stations for a little while under the CCTV cameras across the state. But the number of stabbings, attacks and assaults since then reveals what a failure that has been. It turns out that the people that were on their way to the machete attacks did not actually stop at the police station on the way there.

Family violence services delivery has been cut by more than $24 million. More than $8 million has been slashed from primary prevention. May I remind you, none of this has got anything to do with the coalition. We would not be managing the budget like this. The Allan Labor government has failed to provide Safe Steps with the $3.9 million needed to operate 28 high-security crisis shelters funded by the federal government. These shelters could accommodate nearly 1000 women and children each year. They could not deliver that, because they had to take the money from that program, which would help 1000 women, to pay the interest for 4 hours on the bill. That is the reality of it. This means family violence services are now working with local motels to organise emergency accommodation. That is so appreciated; I want to thank those local businesses for stepping up. That is a short-term solution, though, and it has got to happen, because this government is failing its people.

Funding for victims of crime financial services will drop from $74.2 million to just $70 million this coming year and will remain at that level for the following two years. This is while the population grows, while crime seems to be exploding, the budget is getting smaller and, again, people have got to do more with it. In this budget Victoria will spend more on interest repayments than it will on Ambulance Victoria, Victoria Police and family violence services combined. I am going to say that again: in this budget Victoria will spend more on interest repayments than it will on Ambulance Victoria, VicPol and family violence services combined.

In the last minute that I have, I want to tell you why we care about this. The reality is that in Victoria one-third of children cannot read properly. When you go out into a local community like mine, for instance – Sale, Stratford, Rosedale, areas that are regional – that is one in two, and there is not the ability to overhaul that system, because the government has absolutely run this state into the ground. The education that could break the cycle of decline in kids, that could help them get a new future – they cannot even have a hope for that. We have got 1100 young kids that do four out of five home invasions, and they are not allowed to get the rehab they need because of this government. In closing, in my last 5 seconds, the sad truth is that Labor cannot manage money.

Business interrupted pursuant to standing orders.

Lizzie BLANDTHORN: I move:

That the meal break scheduled for this day, pursuant to standing order 4.01(3), be suspended.

Motion agreed to.

 Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (18:17): I rise to speak on the budget, and in doing so I start as I did last year in saying that this is another typical Labor budget. It is a high-taxing, high-spending, wasteful budget that puts all of the state’s finances into one project in metropolitan Melbourne and totally ignores the regions of Victoria. The Allan Labor government billed this budget as focusing on what matters most, so it is clear from the budget that the people of Northern Victoria and communities in Northern Victoria do not matter to Labor. Residents in Northern Victoria will miss out on funding for roads and other vital projects as the Allan Labor government raises taxes to spend big on the Suburban Rail Loop. We will see massive increases in taxes that will hit our residents in Northern Victoria, particularly with Labor’s new emergency services levy that is set to rip an extra $2.14 billion from the pockets of Victorians over the next three years. Taxation revenue is forecast to be almost $42 billion in this budget, before growing by an average of 5 per cent a year over the forward estimates – an over $2 billion increase per year – but towns and suburbs in Northern Victoria will see very little in return. Financial mismanagement and cost blowouts will see Victoria’s debt rise to its highest ever level, reaching $194 billion by 2028–29, blowing out net debt by $6.7 billion from last year’s forecasts. And even though all of this additional debt is there, residents will have to pay more due to Treasurer Jaclyn Symes increasing taxes while cutting services and delaying or denying local projects in order to continue to fund Labor’s big single infrastructure project in the east of Melbourne, the Suburban Rail Loop.

Because of Labor’s mismanagement residents have missed out on vital funding for projects. In the seat of Yan Yean we can talk about Donnybrook Road and the flyover bridge over the Hume Freeway. Mr Mulholland and I talk about Donnybrook Road every week in Parliament because it is such a disgrace, but this budget completely ignores it. There is some reference to a small amount of money that came from the Commonwealth government to redo the intersection at Mitchell Street and Donnybrook Road, but it fails to complete the project. By the way, that Mitchell Street and Donnybrook Road intersection – only a couple of years ago the state government put a roundabout in there. They are going to rip that up to put traffic lights in there now that the Commonwealth are paying for it.

There is a bridge over Kalkallo Creek, but residents trying to exit off the Hume Freeway will have to go over the single-lane flyover bridge, which is actually the biggest bottleneck of the whole thing. Then they will come to this new intersection, a duplicated bridge over Kalkallo Creek, but then it will come back to a bottleneck of a single-lane bridge over the Merri Creek and a goat track from there on that does not even have footpaths on it for people to walk to the railway station. Donnybrook Road is a disgrace, and this government must get on with funding the full duplication of not only the road but also the flyover bridge over the Hume Freeway.

Yan Yean also missed out on funding for other infrastructure projects that are vitally important to that population, like a new Beveridge train station, the Wollert rail extension and a new police station in Whittlesea and also one in Wollert. The annual report for the police in 2021–22 stated that land had been acquired for this new police station in Wollert, but we have not seen any money for the construction of it. That is despite crime increasing dramatically in the Whittlesea police service area. What we have seen is crime go up and our police stations there actually have their hours reduced. There is only one 24-hour station, at Mill Park. When Mernda was built, it was promised to be a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week station. It is now down to just 8 hours a day, between 10 and 6. Whittlesea is only open on two days a week, and Epping station also has 10 to 6 operational hours. But the police tell us that they are operating at only 30 to 50 per cent of their designated numbers in these police stations, so no wonder the stations are closed. It is because this government are not putting enough police in that area, where crime is absolutely out of control.

Victoria may like to sell itself as being the Education State, but Wandong Primary School in the seat of Yan Yean, although it was funded in 2023, still has not been finished. It did not have a completion date; that has been pushed back in the budget to quarter 2 in 2026–27. So that is the second half of this year – if it is completed by then.

We also saw the city of Bendigo miss out on crucial funding for projects. Things like upgrading the intersection at Howard Street and the Midland Highway, voted by the RACV as being the most dangerous intersection in the state – no funding to increase it. The Calder Highway and Maiden Gully Road, which is the number one priority for the City of Greater Bendigo – no funding for that. White Hills Primary School – the budget papers show that their upgrade that was promised before the 2022 election will now not be complete until the winter of 2027, so again, delayed projects. We are seeing delayed completions on nearly every project.

They failed to fund an Education First Youth Foyer for Bendigo. The TAFE there has a building ready to go – ready to be transformed into a foyer – and yet this government will not work with the TAFE to deliver that service that can actually change young people’s lives in Bendigo. The Epsom Primary School also missed out on funding for its drop-off and pick-up points. This is the Premier’s own electorate, and they are still missing out on funding for projects.

In the Macedon electorate there were crucial projects that were not funded, including an upgrade of the intersection of Urquhart Street and High Street in Woodend, planning work for the Hanging Rock to Daylesford rail trail and the Daylesford hospital redevelopment. If anyone has been to the Daylesford hospital, they would be in no doubt that this hospital needs money. This is in the Minister for Health’s own electorate, and she is not even funding that hospital. That just shows you how bad the finances must be in Victoria. Riddells Creek public pathway upgrades were overlooked, and the Lancefield park redevelopment was overlooked. Again delays on projects were revealed in the budget. The Gisborne Secondary College, which was promised before the 2022 election, still has not been finished. It has been delayed six months, to quarter 1 of 2026–27.

In Shepparton once again we saw that farmers do not matter to Labor, students with disabilities do not matter to Labor, kids playing sport do not matter to Labor and training future medical workers does not matter to Labor, because the projects that were not funded there include the Shepparton sports and events centre, stage 2 of the Banmira Specialist School redevelopment, stage 1 of the Shepparton bypass, a clinical health school at Goulburn Valley Health and a new school crossing for the Kialla West Primary School. None of these projects were funded. But we did see delays in projects – things like Shepparton’s early parenting centre, which had been pushed back to the middle of 2026, and now this year’s budget delays it by a further six months to early 2027. Planning for early works at the Shepparton bypass that were funded in 2017 have been pushed back to the middle of 2026. The saga of the stage 3 upgrade of the Shepparton rail line continues. They said it was all going to be finished by last December, by 14 December. But no, we have not seen those traffic lights in Wyndham Street turned on that are waiting for the completion of the railway line. And even though they had the big switch – turning on the big switch for all these additional rail services – they did not include any extra rail services for Shepparton. So has that line been completed, or did Labor lie to us last year when they said it would be completed by December? Where are Shepparton’s promised nine return daily services to Melbourne? They are on Labor’s never-never. They are never, never going to deliver it to the Shepparton electorate, because the Shepparton electorate knows better than to vote for a Labor member.

We will see interest rates go up for this state, and we now know that the state pays over a million dollars in interest rates every single hour, almost $25 million a day, just to service Labor’s debts. When are we going to see these projects built if the debt is taking up so much of the budget? There has been gross financial mismanagement under Labor. This is the single greatest threat to Victoria’s future: Labor’s gross financial mismanagement. For more than a decade Labor’s waste and reckless spending, such as their $200,000 on office plants, has driven our state deeper and deeper into the red. Victorians have had enough of this. They know that Labor cannot manage money, they know that Labor will drive us further into debt, they know that Labor will bankrupt this state and they know that they will have to pay to fix Labor’s debt. Victorians will tell Labor quite clearly at the at the ballot box this year in November that they have had enough of Labor and they want a new government.

 Moira DEEMING (Western Metropolitan) (18:29): I realise that we are at the end of a long sitting week and that time has been extended so we can get this done, so I am happy to keep my speech shorter for the sake of everybody. When it comes to Labor what we are seeing is that, in addition to the weasel words we are treated to every second week, we are now being treated to weasel numbers. We keep getting told by Labor that they are investing – investing in the future, investing in Victoria – but that is not actually what the word ‘investment’ means. Investments, by definition, should be committing resources with the expectation of a return. We should get something valuable in return for the taxes that we invest. Instead it is very obvious that Victorians are paying more and more and more and getting less and less and less. That is not investment; that is more like exploitation. That is like pillaging the coffers. That is like lining your pockets. That is like the however many hundreds of millions of dollars that have just been exposed as being put into the pockets of Labor mates. It is a rort, isn’t it? If Labor was a company, its shares would be a liability.

We know in this state that taxes are up 183 per cent since Labor was elected and that there have been 70 new or increased taxes since 2014. Families are suffering. They cannot get to work. They cannot pay their bills. They are unsafe. Their children are not being educated. Their children are also unsafe because not only is money being wasted and pillaged but the job of regulating this society, of making sure that there is law and order and justice in this society, is being squandered. Maggie Thatcher did say that you cannot have political freedom without economic freedom, and obviously that is the state of affairs here in Victoria.

State debt is growing at $1.7 million per hour. Our credit rating is the worst in the nation. Debt is going to be about $200 billion by 2028–29. We are all worried about going bankrupt, but we know, as my colleague said, how inaccurate every single budget has ever been from this government – it makes me wonder if we have already reached that stage. It is absolutely terrifying. Interest payments alone in Victoria every single hour could fund 11 police officers, nine nurses and 12 teachers. I mean, that is not just mismanaging money, that is a total moral failure. While Victorians are struggling to pay their bills, government departments are blowing money on social media budgets, renting pot plants, commissioning bronze statues, firing experienced police officers, ignoring firefighters who do not have roll bars in their trucks and have to use Melway to get to fires and taxing volunteer firefighters to pay for their own equipment when they put their lives on the line.

This state is absolutely out of control under Labor. The only people doing well, lo and behold, are Labor and their mates. You think of the Eloque disaster. You think of Greater Western Water. You think of the West Gate Tunnel, which we are now being tolled for. You think about the desalination plant. This is intergenerational theft. You think of the absolute catastrophe, the loss of freedoms in the COVID era. The so-called party of workers rights – everyone’s rights got trashed under this government. Labor is supposed to be the party of women, but women do not even exist in the law and under this government now. Honestly, Victorians are finally understanding the cost of voting for Labor, the cost of supporting socialism, because it all sounds good but it just does not work, and it is too easy to corrupt.

The one thing Labor does invest in is excuses, and they do get a good return on that investment. You think of Daniel Andrews with his ‘I cannot recall’. You think of ‘evolving commitment’ rather than ‘broken election promise’ for the Melton rail. You think of the Melton hospital in the forward estimates forever and ever. The list is absolutely endless, and it is a disgrace. But look, so that we can all go home early, I am going to leave it there and just encourage Victorians to vote for what is best for them at the election, which is not going to be Labor, so that we can get this state back on track.

Motion agreed to.