Wednesday, 13 May 2026

 Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (15:52): I move:

That this house:

(1)   condemns the Allan Labor government’s reckless disregard for Victoria’s future demonstrated in its 2026–27 state budget, and in particular:

(a) the expected increase in net debt to $199.3 billion in 2029–30, up from $21.8 billion in 2014;

(b) the expected increase in interest expenses to $11.8 billion per year by 2029–30, up from $2.1 billion in 2014;

(c) the expected increase in total taxation revenue to $50.2 billion per year by 2029–30, up from $17.9 billion in 2014;

(d) the expected increase in employee expenses to $45.5 billion per year by 2029–30, up from $18.5 billion in 2014;

(2)   notes that the financial burden on Victorian families by 2029–30 will be:

(a) net debt per Victorian household of over $70,000;

(b) an interest bill of over $32 million each and every day;

(3)   recognises that the burden of repaying this debt will disproportionately fall on, and reduce the future opportunities of, younger Victorians;

(4)   calls on the government to commit to a long-term economic plan to secure Victoria’s future so that it can prioritise policy solutions to:

(a) ease cost-of-living pressures;

(b) keep Victorians safe;

(c) strengthen healthcare; and

(d) enable home ownership.

I am pleased to move this motion on Labor’s budget and finally get the opportunity to put forward some truths about it, minus the political spin, wishful thinking and, in some cases, borderline dishonesty we have heard in the last week. It is, of course, an election budget. As ABC business reporter Daniel Ziffer observed, the most important number in this budget is not listed on any of its pages. It is the 206 days until the election. Even Pitcher Partners, sober auditors and accountants, called it a classic election year budget, which is big on voter handouts and light on any significant reforms. The Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry was blunter still. Their chief executive Sally Curtain said:

Budgets are about choices and business wasn’t chosen today.

Last year was Treasurer Symes’s first budget, and I noted at the time that we had a new Treasurer, but exactly the same attitude. A year on I can confirm: same attitude, same trajectory, same fiscal fantasies, but with one notable difference. At least Tim Pallas had the brazen nerve to own the spending. He seemed quite happy to stand up year after year and boast about how much money he was throwing around, almost daring us to complain. We had to admire the sheer brass neck, however much the numbers made us despair. The new Treasurer takes a different approach. She pretends there is a surplus – and what a surplus it is. The government trumpets an operating surplus of $700 million this financial year, rising to $1 billion next year, the first in seven years, we are told. The Treasurer declared herself very proud. The Premier said Victoria could afford to provide cost-of-living relief right now, because our economy is growing and our budget is in surplus. It is an absolute fiction; the fakest of surpluses. To say you have delivered a surplus while running $7.7 billion in cash deficits is like a household saying it saved $50 at the supermarket while adding $40,000 to the mortgage.

Independent economist Saul Eslake told AAP that the focus on the operating surplus egregiously misrepresents the true state of the Victorian budget. He warned us not to be deceived. The bottom line is that until you start running cash surpluses, you cannot begin to repay debt. Indeed, you cannot stop adding to debt.

S&P analyst Rebecca Hrvatin told the ABC that Victoria carries the highest debt in Australia and warned that there is no path to repayment of that debt and a risk that it becomes unsustainable. This is a credit analyst speaking, not a politician. The actual cash deficits tell the real story: $7.7 billion next financial year, rising to $8.1 billion by 2029–30. More than $30 billion in cash deficits over the forward estimates. The government is celebrating the fact that it is paying the minimum on its credit card while the balance keeps climbing and climbing.

I said last year that the government boasted of a surplus but that beneath the veneer lay cash deficits averaging $8 billion. Nothing has changed except the debt is now even larger. Net debt stands at $165 billion today. It will reach $175.6 billion by the end of the next financial year, and by 2030 it will approach $199.3 billion – almost $200 billion. I note that the Treasury managed to keep that figure just below $200 billion. That was clever. Imagine the late nights, the frantic rounding, the creative reprofiling required to land on $199.3 billion rather than a number starting with two. But the number that should truly horrify every Victorian is the interest bill. By the end of the decade we will be paying $11.8 billion a year in debt interest. That is $32 million every single day. Not building a school, not fixing a road, not hiring a nurse – just paying interest on money already spent.

As I said in 2024, every single week the Victorian taxpayer parts with vast sums and receives not a single cent’s worth of services or infrastructure in return. Back then the weekly figure was $180 million, now it is heading to $227 million a week. That is the price of a decade of Labor budgets and counting. If you include the whole of the public sector – the water boards, Homes Victoria, VicTrack – total state borrowings approach $300 billion. Let that settle in this chamber for a moment: $300 billion. When Labor came to power in 2014, state debt was $21.4 billion. We are now approaching $300 billion. That is $21.4 billion compared to $300 billion.

I warned about exactly this kind of gamble in previous years when Tim Pallas predicted the economy would grow by a quarter in four years. I said then that it was not just fanciful, it was practically fraud. The fiction continues under his successor. Real gross state product growth for next year has been slashed from 2.75 per cent to just 1.5 per cent, partly because of the Middle East conflict and partly because the Victorian economy is simply not performing.

And yet the entire debt strategy depends on sustained strong growth that may never come. If growth weakens, the whole framework collapses. That is not my assessment, it is the assessment of every serious commentator who has examined these papers. S&P rates Victoria at AA, the lowest credit rating of any mainland Australian state. All three major ratings agencies have warned that Victoria’s rapidly rising debt poses a serious risk of further downgrade.

What of the much-spruiked cost-of-living relief? A $2.5 billion package, rego rebates, free public transport, half-price fares – Victorians will welcome any help, of course, but Sally Curtain was right when she said:

Short-term relief funded on the State’s credit card is not an economic strategy. It may ease pressure today, but as every household knows, at some point you have to pay it back – with interest.

I liked RMIT Professor David Hayward’s description of this election-year splurge:

They didn’t want to leave any of the chocolates, just in case there was a change of government.

The problem is, Treasurer, the chocolates were bought on the credit card, and you will certainly be leaving that bill behind you.

And what about business, the productive part of the economy that actually generates the wealth this government is so enthusiastic about redistributing? Nothing – no payroll tax reform, no land tax relief, no reduction in the cumulative burden. The COVID debt levy continues until 2033. State tax collections are forecast to exceed $50 billion annually by 2030. Property taxes now account for almost half of all state taxation revenue, up from 18 per cent just a decade ago, as the Property Council of Australia has documented. As Shadow Minister for Small Business I was waiting with great anticipation and interest to hear the Treasurer’s commitment to this vital sector. I waited in vain. In an 11-page speech about the cost of living and the economy, the Treasurer found room for a bike track in Haddon and toilet facilities for Coburg reserve, but she could not manage a single mention of small business. It was not mentioned once – not the 700,000 small businesses that employ nearly half of Victoria’s private sector workforce, not the local shops, the family businesses or the sole traders. The sector seems not to exist in the Treasurer’s universe.

The budget papers give a similar message. Last year the government committed $2.5 million for small business support programs. That commitment has apparently vanished, in its place $1.6 million for one-year-only programs with no ongoing funding. New commitments across the industry, small business and medical research portfolio have fallen 67 per cent, from $26.3 million to just $8.6 million. At a time when small businesses are being hit by payroll tax, land tax, energy costs, insurance, retail crime and falling consumer confidence, this government’s answer is a package that expires almost as soon as it begins and a budget speech that pretends the sector does not exist.

As for regional Victoria and my own electorate of Western Victoria, this budget does not just neglect us, it actively takes money away. The mayor of Warrnambool and chair of Regional Cities Victoria Ben Blain said:

It really seems the budget papers are on Ozempic when it comes to what’s coming out to regional and rural Victoria.

The Ararat and Beaufort bypass projects on the Western Highway, critical road safety projects on some of the deadliest stretches of roads in the state, have had $35.5 million stripped from them. Both have been reduced to just $500,000 each in spending for next year – effectively mothballed. The government says the money has been ‘reprioritised’ to the Western Highway duplication between Ballarat and Stawell, but that project’s total cost has been changed, ‘to be confirmed’, and its completion date is also ‘to be confirmed’. So the government has gutted the bypasses and cannot tell us what the duplication will cost, when it will be finished or when the bypasses will ever be built.

The Western Highway has one of the worst crash records in the state, and the duplication was supposed to be completed between 2009 and 2014. More than a decade later we get ‘to be confirmed’. The Allan government found $432 million for free and half-price public transport, mostly in Melbourne. But Ararat and Beaufort cannot even get a confirmed timeline for a road upgrade that would save lives.

So regional roads remain a catastrophe. Agriculture funding remains inadequate. And the cost of living measures that dominate the headlines – free trams in Melbourne, half-price trains – do precious little for families in Colac, Warrnambool or Hamilton who depend on their cars and are being hit by the very fuel prices this government blames on Donald Trump. Meanwhile the billions continue to flow into the Suburban Rail Loop – $34.5 billion for the first stage alone – a project that gets nowhere near us. There is still no Melbourne airport rail completion date. The Geelong fast rail was axed two years ago, and the $2 billion promised to our region has simply vanished. To me, this is a rotten budget with dubious figures and cynical spin, based on an economic philosophy and political creed which I firmly believe is completely hostile to growth and prosperity in Victoria.

But at the end of the day, it is not what I think that matters. It is for the people of Victoria to decide. When they do, I hope they look beyond the handouts, beyond the fake operating surplus and beyond the weird slogans. Labor has not repaired the roof while the sun was shining. Instead they have borrowed money to print brochures telling us the weather is improving. The Treasurer has given us the final instalment in a decade-long story of higher spending, higher taxes and higher debt – the same old boasts, the same old excuses and the same inevitable course to a poorer, harder future reckoning. As I have said before in this place, Labor politicians are short-term populists who do long-term harm. This budget is the proof. In November Victorians will have their chance to say ‘enough’.

So we call on the government in this motion:

… to commit to a long-term economic plan to secure Victoria’s future so that it can prioritise policy solutions to:

(a) ease cost-of-living pressures;

(b) keep Victorians safe;

(c) strengthen healthcare; and

(d) enable home ownership.

I commend the motion to the house.

 Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (16:09): I am pleased to speak to the motion put forward by Mrs McArthur today. I acknowledge that she bothered to turn up for this one, so it is good to have the opportunity to debate it. Indeed it was a curious contribution there from Mrs McArthur and there is quite a lot of content to get through, so I will try and keep my remarks to the point as much as possible.

We saw this morning the Liberals completely misunderstand the budget once again by not understanding that payments that emanate from 2028 do not actually make any difference to the operating surplus in 2026, but here we go again. I was interested – it piqued my attention – when Mrs McArthur drew attention to comments from the economist David Hayward, particularly in light of his other perhaps more recent comments, which were given just today in the Age, where he said that the opposition’s path to a cash surplus does not stack up and they had not shown a credible path to achieving it, with the quote:

One of the problems is they’re going to depend on pretty significant cuts to infrastructure to achieve it.

He also said:

A cash surplus by 2032 seems only possible with major cuts elsewhere …

giving away the game that when the Liberal Party come in here and call to abolish taxes and to reduce debt, what that means is a cut to services. We know that no matter how much they might protest – ‘We’re doing this; we’re doing this’ – David Hayward, the economist that my friend Mrs McArthur herself is quoting, says that it would not be possible to do that in the way in which the Liberals are putting forward. It is a facade. It is a joke, and we know it is a joke because we have had members of the Liberal Party in this place advocating for us to remove and abolish frontline services. We had an adjournment from Mrs Hermans last year, the day of the violence reduction units coming in, calling on the government to abolish what is an early intervention crime fighting unit. I will come back to your key points down in point (4) later, Mrs McArthur.

You yourself have called on us to remove free TAFE, a cost-of-living measure for Victorians, empowering Victorians to train up and skill up for the future. It is a bit hard for any of us to believe it when the Liberal Party say ‘We’re not going to make cuts to frontline services,’ when all you need to do to see that they are is to look at the statements of Liberal Party members in this chamber. In this chamber you are calling for cuts to frontline services, so do not turn around and say, ‘Oh, no, no, we can do all this. Here’s our magic pudding of cuts that’s not actually going to affect anything or anyone.’ It is simply laughable, and it shows once again the economic immaturity of this Liberal Party opposition in Victoria. It is no wonder your interstate colleagues are ashamed to associate themselves with you. It is no wonder they are appalled at the antics which you have displayed, because even when it comes to this topic, which you are supposedly the better managers of, despite all recent evidence to the contrary, you simply cannot get anything to stack up. If you come into this place saying that the government is relying on cash into the budget in two years time for an operating surplus this year, you are simply not credible.

Point (4) of your motion, Mrs McArthur, goes through a number of key points and calls on the government to plan forward in a number of important areas. Cost of living – the government has already brought in 20 per cent off all car and light vehicle registrations for Victorians this year, a very significant cost-of-living measure that is going to go directly to helping working Victorians who need it the most. We have also partnered with the Commonwealth, adding to their cuts to the fuel excise by taking that off and giving that concession back for the GST that the states would otherwise be taking as well, therefore increasing the benefit there. There is free public transport for the months of April and May and of course half price fares for the rest of the year and free fares ongoing for kids under 18 as well. Of course in fact we could also include the regional fare cap. Even under full circumstances regional commuters all the way from Mildura to Mallacoota – wherever you are – only pay the maximum of a metropolitan fare. Those are all real and genuine cost-of-living measures, as is free TAFE, which you call on us to remove; as is free dental for kids; and as is three-year-old kinder, which you also come into this place and advocate for the abolition of. Frontline services: time after time we have brought in cost-of-living measures and they have been shouted down – ineffectively shouted down of course, because you are the Liberal Party I have to say – by those opposite. Every time, almost every cost-of-living measure that we provide that provides meaningful benefit to Victorians is laughed at, dismissed and ignored by the Liberal Party.

Safety – we have a clear plan addressing sentencing, the bail laws and resources. We acknowledge that there is a large resourcing issue with Victoria Police, as there is in every jurisdiction and indeed many places around the world, and we are investing in it. We are investing in putting reservists into police stations. We are investing in those reservists in police stations and in PSOs so that they can go into hotspot shopping centres, as they have already very successfully done on a trial basis over the past few months, including in places like Fountain Gate in my electorate. We have brought in tougher laws for people that assault retail workers – we are bringing in this year workplace protection orders to keep retail and other frontline services safe. We have also brought in the violence reduction unit (VRU), the very same unit that the Liberal Party seeks for us to abolish the day it comes in.

Evan Mulholland interjected.

Michael GALEA: Mr Mulholland, a member of your party, who then went on to be specifically endorsed by the leader of your party, called upon this government to abolish the VRU, and we have still not heard any condemnation of that from anyone in the leadership team. Dr Heath has condemned it, and I commend her for that, but no-one in the Liberal leadership team, let alone your leader, has condemned that. If it is not true, Mr Mulholland, as you are saying, then put up and say that.

Health – we could talk about the new hospitals. We could talk about Frankston Hospital, Monash hospital, Dandenong Hospital, Casey Hospital – all the investments that we are making, and that is just in my region. We could talk about the community hospitals, including again Cranbourne Community Hospital, which is already providing services to the community. Through this budget we will also provide an urgent care clinic, one of the many urgent care clinics – more than 30 – that we will now have across our state, providing that essential primary care that was delivered by this government exclusively at a time when the federal Liberal government was too preoccupied to bother with providing these options to Victorians or Australians. We now have a government investing in it, whether it is Chemist Care Now providing easier access to prescription medications without the need to go through the primary health care network, or whether it is the Victorian virtual emergency department – again rubbished by those opposite. If they even bother to know that it exists, they rubbish it.

And housing – where do I begin? Where do I begin, Mrs McArthur? I note that this is motion 1420, which was given notice of yesterday. Notice of motion 1430, which was given notice of yesterday by your colleague who sits two to the right from you, is a motion to revoke planning amendments which provide for activity centres, for reasonable density and for townhouse codes, providing those housing options. As the Grattan Institute has said, the number one lever that a state government can pull in order to provide more housing is planning. I know Mr Mulholland knows this and I hope very much that one day he comes back into the fold of supporting housing ambitions and aspirations for young people. I very much look forward to that in his contribution today maybe.

The Grattan Institute has said that is the number one lever, and we are pulling it. We are pulling it earnestly, and Mr Davis and his Liberal Party are trying to handbrake it. You are trying to stop us from building housing, and then you come in here and complain that we are not building housing. Never mind the fact that we are building more houses than any other state or territory. We are already doing that. We acknowledge we have more to do, but you are stopping housing in the areas where it is needed most. You say, like Mr Davis said yesterday, ‘Just build it in Clyde South’ at the very time when you are saying you are going to have to cut back on government spending and when you have got economists saying you have to dramatically cut back infrastructure. Who is going to service these suburbs? Where are the roads? Where are the schools? Meanwhile we have got empty capacity in the inner-city areas.

Bev McArthur interjected.

Michael GALEA: I will take you up on that, Mrs McArthur. I will take you on a trip to Clyde North and show you all the things that we have invested in. I can tell you we have done so much and it is barely keeping pace with population growth. Meanwhile activity centres are sitting there so close to the city with surplus capacity in schools, transport services and everything else, and they are not being fulfilled because of people like you in the Liberal Party who block and try and stop us from doing anything to support the housing ambitions of young Victorians. On all these issues Labor has a clear policy, and at every opportunity all we see from your side is spin and hypocrisy and dither.

 Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (16:19): I always enjoy a good Wednesday debate, and I thank my colleague Mrs McArthur for her contribution and for bringing to the chamber this motion condemning the Allan Labor government’s reckless disregard for Victoria’s future, as demonstrated in this state budget. This budget is all excuses and no solutions. We see from this particular budget that the government claims to be in operating surplus. It does not want to talk about a cash surplus, because I think we can see from the comments from the Premier, the Treasurer and from ministers that they do not actually want Victoria to return to a cash surplus, which means they do not actually have a plan to reduce what is growing rapidly into a $200 billion debt pile that will punish future generations of Victorians for decades to come. They do not actually want a cash surplus and have no plan to realise that, as the Auditor-General has found.

They are not talking about community safety because they have shut police stations and have less police on the beat. They are not talking about health because elective surgery waitlists have nearly doubled since 2014. They are not talking about education because teachers are marching in the streets. Instead, what are Labor talking about at the moment? They are talking about the Leader of the Opposition, Jess Wilson. They seem to be quite obsessed with the member for Kew. We see all these Labor MPs having a go at different catchphrases. We saw Mr Erdogan try to do it, laughably, yesterday, saying, ‘You’ll get less with Jess.’ They are really trying to road test this, pathetically.

John Berger interjected.

Evan MULHOLLAND: I will take the interjection from Mr Berger, because you will get less taxes with Jess. You will get less waste. You will not see $200,000 go into pot plants for the Suburban Rail Loop Authority or money go to painting a tunnel-boring machine. You will not see $15 billion go out the door to the criminal underworld and bikies on construction sites through the CFMEU. And you will get less crime on our streets with 3000 new police officers on the beat under Jess Wilson’s plan. You will get less congestion, particularly in our growth areas, which have been starved of infrastructure due to the government withholding money from growth area infrastructure taxes. One thing you will get less of – and the Labor MPs know it, so they keep delaying their preselections – is elected Labor MPs under Jess Wilson, and they all know it. No wonder they are putting off group voting tickets and putting off Labor preselections, because they know they have a lot to worry about with Jess. They have a lot to worry about. You will get less taxes, you will get less crime, you will get less congestion and you will get less waste under Jess Wilson.

It is so hilarious to see the scare campaign of those opposite. They are all trying to wheel out and say, ‘Jess Wilson’s ruthless cuts’. They are saying of a $22 billion plan that it is over $40 billion worth of cuts, but also some of them are saying there is an $11 billion black hole. Well, I know Labor’s not very fond of economics and the Treasurer wants to dumb down the economics in her department, but it cannot be both. It cannot be an $11 billion black hole and over $40 billion worth of cuts. Clearly even they – the smarter people over there – understand that.

We see them wheel out with a literal wheel their new attack dogs Paul Edbrooke and Steve Dimopoulos. It is pathetic that they are the attack dogs. I mean, really, it kind of makes you wish to have people like Martin Pakula and James Merlino back if they are the kind of generation they are sending out to be their attack dogs with that pathetic display yesterday. Again, it is the only scare campaign I have ever seen where those perpetrating the scare campaign are blocking comments, deleting comments, and not allowing comments on their social media platform from those opposite and from the union as well.

Bev McArthur interjected.

Evan MULHOLLAND: They are getting absolutely ratioed. Have a look even on the Premier’s posts. They always have more comments than likes, which is a good way of telling the punters’ sentiment.

There was one particular comment by a great Victorian comedian, Dave Hughes, who said on the Premier’s post about Jess Wilson’s so-called cuts:

[QUOTE AWAITING VERIFICATION]

We pay the price for Vic Labor’s ridiculous rorting to the tune of $2 million a day and growing interest repayments. Please stop the BS. Our children will be saddled with this debt. Just stop it please.

And that is the sentiment of all Victorians. I mean, have a look at any of your social media feeds. That is the sentiment of all Victorians. They have had a gutful of dishonest politicians not telling the truth, of dishonest politicians not having a real plan to tackle the $200 billion of debt. What Jess Wilson is doing is putting forward a real 10-year economic plan to tackle the debt crisis here in Victoria, to tackle the economic problems here in Victoria, and we will end Labor’s waste, absolutely, including the waste such as the $13 million on machete bins, the $200,000 on pot plants and the $15 billion lost to corruption on CFMEU construction sites that has gone to the criminal underworld. We will save $1 billion over the next 10 years by repealing Labor’s treaty process. We will save $20 billion over the decade by capping excessive public service salaries, as we have seen highlighted again in the last few days. This is a real economic plan. We will also reduce the cost of living for all Victorians by scrapping the emergency services tax, by exempting first home buyers from stamp duty up to $1 million, by having land tax relief and by abolishing the schools tax and the GP tax, which will save families on average $534 a year.

I guess the briefing was true a few months ago that MPs in electorates were only allowed one budget commitment – you know, one soccer club in Greenvale gets a couple of hundred thousand dollars, I think less. The poor member for Yan Yean: they have clearly given up on her, because they know the sentiment in that seat. While everyone wants Donnybrook Road duplicated, what does the member for Yan Yean get? What is the member for Yan Yean posting about? A bike cage for Donnybrook station, when it is almost impossible, as cyclists have told me, to ride a bike on Donnybrook Road due to the safety of that road, due to the potholes on that road. I mean, how pathetic, how insulting to the people waiting up to an hour in their estates just to get onto Donnybrook Road that they will be getting a bike cage for Donnybrook station, when currently it is a V/Line station and the V/Lines are not even running. How insulting. And you have also got the member for Yan Yean trying to go to war with the council for them to build a $90 million pool, when the state government is only contributing $10 million because that is all it can afford. And so she is trying to blame the council for something they clearly cannot afford.

You have consistently these examples. Again, I go back to the point that they all got one budget commitment per seat. Yet the Member for Bendigo East – how many commitments does the member for Bendigo East get? Five commitments. Five different commitments worth millions of dollars. Isn’t it funny? Did the member for Pakenham or the member for Bass get five commitments? I do not think so, which proves Andrew Lethlean is actually already delivering for the people of Bendigo East. He is already. And as Labor sources have said anonymously, the Premier is more likely to lose than win. I would agree with that, with the response of people in Bendigo. We also see the government trying to promote themselves on the Suburban Rail Loop. I would remind that as early as March this year Labor plotters against Jacinta Allan were actively proposing – what were they actually proposing? – pausing the SRL:

A wide range of MPS, especially from the north and western suburbs, also remain deeply concerned about the affordability and viability of the SRL …

Labor insiders say those opposed to the project, which have privately included Mr Carroll, view it as a dead weight hampering the government’s ability to drive down debt and invest in key areas of health and education.

What do you know.

 John BERGER (Southern Metropolitan) (16:30): Well, I am not too sure what to think of that last contribution, but anyway, I will go through a few of the facts that will really ring true here. I rise to speak on the motion regarding the Allan Labor government’s 2026–27 budget. Before I speak to this motion I would like to take a moment to acknowledge and thank the Treasurer for delivering the Victorian budget last week. It is a budget that speaks to the values of this government, one that delivers real help to Victorians at a time when global economic pressures and uncertainties are being felt in every household across our state.

Young Victorians do not benefit from a government that refuses to invest. They benefit from better, cheaper public transport, modern schools and stronger healthcare systems. This government is getting on with growing the economy and delivering on our fiscal strategy, unlike those opposite who announced a plan last week that requires more than $40 billion in cuts in its first five years. At its core, the Labor government’s budget is focused on easing pressure on Victorian families while continuing to invest in the infrastructure, health care, education and transport systems that our growing state relies on. It is a budget that recognises the real cost-of-living pressures many households are facing, while also taking a long-term view about the future of Victoria, and it is one that makes me proud to be part of the Allan Labor government.

This motion calls on the government to prioritise policy solutions in four areas: ease cost-of-living pressures, keep Victorians safe, strengthen health care and enable home ownership, which is funny because that is exactly what this budget does. It contains $2.5 billion in cost-of-living support and housing initiatives to make life more affordable for Victorians. We continue to prioritise investments in Victoria – in services and the future of this state. Under the Labor government the Victorian budget is and always has been focused on what matters most. This motion just goes to show that those on the opposite side of this chamber would cut funding to what is important to Victorians. This budget is funding hospitals; we are funding schools, we are funding transport infrastructure, we are funding frontline services. Those across the chamber only want to cut. This budget is not an abstract announcement but supports real relief.

To combat pressure at the pump we are giving Victorian motorists a 20 per cent rego rebate on light vehicles at a cost of $755 million. The Allan Labor government is also making record investments into a road blitz across the state, investing $1.04 billion to rebuild, repair and resurface roads across Victoria, with $36.9 million to clean up our 10 busiest freeways, with a focus on rubbish and graffiti removal, mowing and more. This is following up on last year’s then record investment on road maintenance. We are supporting Victorians not just on our roads but through our public transport system as well. We provided instant relief with $155 million to make public transport free for everyone in April and May, taking the pressure off fuel demand, and invested a further $278 million to halve the price of public transport until 1 January 2027. That includes trams, trains and bus services across the state. These are just some of the practical examples of the Allan Labor government responding directly to everyday cost pressures.

With this budget we are providing further cost-of-living help with $120 million to support families with kids, including $28 million for affordable school uniform programs; $24 million for outside-of-hours school care for young Victorians with disabilities; $16 million to continue and expand the Glasses for Kids program; $15 million to continue providing free admission for under-16s to zoos across the state on weekends, public holidays and during school holidays; $14 million for school breakfast clubs; $11 million for approximately 55,000 more Get Active Kids vouchers; and $7.4 million for more kinder kids.

On community safety, we have responded to the increase in violent offending by introducing Australia’s toughest bail laws. We have made adult time for violent crime laws that mean children charged with serious violent offences will face adult courts. This budget backs those policies with investments including $62 million to recruit up to 200 police reservists for police station counter duties; $55 million to support Victorian police operations; $51 million to deliver 50 new PSOs; $229 million to increase capacity in the corrections system, including youth justice; and $43 million to deliver programs within prisons to reduce reoffending. This budget also invests $81 million to respond to and prevent youth crime. Somehow, I do not know if the opposition has even read this budget.

The Allan Labor government believes in investing in our frontline services, not cutting, which is why we will be injecting $32 billion into our healthcare system in 2026–27 alone. Through this budget we are providing $3.9 billion in new investment. As part of this commitment, we are also continuing our support for Victorians through the affordable urgent care clinics and virtual ED and Chemist Care Now. Additionally, $109 million will deliver 45,000 more specialist paediatric appointments and 4000 additional planned surgeries for children. But this budget also commits $2.3 million to support the secondary school immunisation program, saving families time and money on a trip to the doctor; $284 million to open and operate hospitals; and another $145 million for upgrades, making it easier and cheaper to access the healthcare services Victorians rely on.

This budget is increasing housing supply to make housing more affordable, including $97 million to continue delivering housing reform and to improve confidence in the building industry; $16 million to protect consumers and raise standards in the building industry through registration and licensing requirements; $860 million into the Social Housing Growth Fund towards the delivery of more than 7000 additional social housing homes over the next decade; $16 million to continue delivering on our 10-year plan for Melbourne’s greenfields and unlock new family homes with backyards; and we are extending the temporary off-the-plan stamp duty concession to April 2027, reducing stamp duty for eligible apartment and townhouse purchases, helping first home buyers get into their homes.

This motion allows me to highlight some of the remarkable things the Allan Labor government is providing for Victorians within this budget. The Allan Labor government will continue to invest in our children because we know they are our future. Across Victoria, schools continue to benefit from investment in upgrades, modernisation programs and improved learning facilities. In my community of southern metropolitan Melbourne, local school communities are already seeing the benefits of these investments through improved classrooms, learning spaces and infrastructure upgrades. Every child deserves access to a high-quality education regardless of their background or postcode.

This budget also invests in the industries of tomorrow – data centres, mRNA manufacturing – and critical minerals and other priority sectors will receive an investment of $12 million to attract global talent.

We want to make sure that our investment stays here and benefits our state, so we are putting $1.7 million back into Labor’s fair jobs code to ensure that companies benefiting from the government contracts treat their workers fairly. We are also investing $99 million towards food relief and financial and homeless support for Victorians who need it most.

The Allan Labor government will not cut critical funding. Despite continued investment into hospitals, roads, schools and the cost-of-living support, Victoria is projected to deliver an operating surplus. The budget shows that the government is on track to deliver five consecutive surpluses between now and the end of the forward estimates, with an average surplus of $1.7 billion over the budget and forward estimates years. The last budget in 2025–26 was able to deliver a surplus of $700 million, the only one amongst the eastern states. That demonstrates a government balancing responsible fiscal management with investing in the infrastructure Victorians rely on. What this budget demonstrates is a government focused on practical support while continuing to invest in long-term needs of the state. It is a budget that acknowledges the pressures Victorians are facing right now, through the cost-of-living relief measures, transport affordability and household support. At the same time, it continues investing in the infrastructure, healthcare system, schools and transport networks that Victoria will rely on well into the future.

Strong economies rely on strong infrastructure. They rely on skilled workers. They rely on functioning transport systems. They rely on accessible health care, and they rely on a government willing to invest beyond the news cycle. For communities across southern metropolitan Melbourne, many of these investments will be directly felt in daily life. This budget reflects a government that understands that strong public services and strong infrastructure are not optional extras. This is a budget grounded in long-term planning rather than short-term politics.

Those opposite are quick to speak about fiscal responsibility yet continue to make unfunded commitments without clearly explaining how they would fund them, leaving Victoria with a growing Liberal budget black hole and no credible long-term plan. Jess Wilson’s $40 billion in cuts cannot happen without cutting hospitals and schools. Her plan will slash one in seven public servants, including health workers, disability workers and child protection officers, and we all know the Liberals will not stop there.

 Gaelle BROAD (Northern Victoria) (16:40): I am pleased to be able to speak on this motion about the state budget put forward by Mrs McArthur. The Nationals are very pleased to support this motion, because I think it highlights quite a number of issues. When you think about the state budget, it is so important because it sets the priorities for where we spend money. If you think about it in terms of your own household, if you have a home loan and you are paying a lot of interest on that home loan, then you have got less money to pay to go and see your doctor, you have got less money to go and pay for your groceries and you have got less money for kids’ sports. There are a lot of decisions that get made when that interest bill continues to rise, and we have had 13 consecutive interest rate rises so there is a lot of pressure on families at the moment. This budget shows that the government is under a lot of pressure.

We are now 199 days away from the next state election. It is interesting timing that we are debating this today, because we have state net debt that is approaching $199 billion. If you think about every day between now and the state election a billion dollars, that is a huge amount of money that we have in debt in Victoria. When I think about the interest, I think back to just a couple of years ago. I remember talking then about $15 million a day that we were paying in interest. This next financial year, we will be paying, or we are currently paying because we are nearly there, $24 million a day in interest. Just think about that: $15 million a couple of years ago to now $24 million and we are predicted in this budget to soon be heading to over $30 million every single day in interest. Think of that money just going off on interest. Every dollar that goes in interest is a dollar less for schools, is a dollar less for hospitals, is a dollar less for improving our public transport.

It is important to highlight with the debt we have got – higher debt, as I said, higher interest, projected cash deficits totalling over $30 billion over the next four years – that there is no plan under this government for that graph to head in a different direction. It just keeps going up. When you consider behind the scenes as well, the bonds that are due for renewal – it was cheaper to borrow money during COVID. Now it is more expensive and that interest is continuing to grow, so the cost of borrowing is also increasing rapidly. Our credit rating, as Mrs McArthur spoke to, is on shaky ground. It has been on shaky ground. Victoria’s rating is very low compared to other states. It is really, I guess, an analysis of how likely the government is to pay it back.

That risk is continuing to grow. We have a government that talks about saving money and everything else, but we see expenditure just continuing to boom under this government. They do not seem to care when money goes out the door. We saw that with the CFMEU, with the corruption, not even a willingness to follow that money and see where it has been going. It is extraordinary to me when we have such a need for services in this state and a growing population that you would not care about where taxpayer money is being wasted and chase every dollar, but perhaps it is a reflection on the culture.

You can see that in the Premier’s own office with approximately 83 staff, it has been reported. That is quite extraordinary. I know each of us, including shadow ministers, get an allocation of two and a half staff, but 83 staff in the Premier’s office and it continues to grow. We have the Suburban Rail Loop mentioned in the budget papers. There are lots of question marks over that ‘TBC’ next to it. That is incredible. And the Commonwealth, we had their budget and they certainly have not committed the amount of funding that Victoria was hoping, because Victoria is hoping that the state puts in a third, the Commonwealth puts in a third and value capture makes up the other third. When you look at the budget papers, it is very entertaining reading seeing where that value capture is coming from. It is all sorts of things: development, new levies and car parking. It is very creative indeed. I would be very keen to hear from this government how they intend to pay for that, apart from a TBC.

Revenue is a big part of this budget. We are paying a huge amount of tax in Victoria and it keeps going up. No doubt about it. We have had this government introduce a whole lot of new taxes and increased charges – over 60 in fact.

We have got the emergency services tax. There is the holiday tax, and there have been increases to land tax. They have also got payroll taxes going up in this budget and the schools tax as well, so it is quite incredible. Yet with GST, you look at what we are actually receiving from the Commonwealth and Victoria is doing pretty well. Certainly compared to New South Wales we are doing a lot better, and yet the money is gone – out the door under this government. It is just astounding. The lottery licence extension that was granted – over $1 billion – there was a nice little uplift there. Guess what? No-one really knew about it; it was just announced during the budget. To hear the minister actually say today that he did not know much about it I think is a bit of a reflection on the lack of transparency in this government that we see time and time again.

The government does like to talk about the economy and how it is growing and businesses that are growing. When you look at the data they like to take credit for the growth in the business. I would say when you look at the analysis of that ABS data it is interesting that the majority of the business growth comes from sole traders with just an ABN; they do not employ anyone. And when you look at the employment figures, those businesses have actually been declining. You could say that is people feeling more pressure, because I know a number of teachers and people that work in banks, for example, who are taking a second job. They are doing a side hustle, doing a little business on the side, trying to earn some extra money. That is a situation that so many families are in now, where it is not just a dual income, they are doing extra jobs as well or having an ABN on the side. That is a reflection – not something the government should be bragging about, but perhaps instead looking at the pressure that the increases in taxes are certainly placing on communities.

This budget also has a huge amount of money that is kind of allocated to unforeseen circumstances – things like the Treasurer’s advances where there is not much forewarning about where money is being spent. It could be for election promises; we have got the election around the corner. But I think it is important for people to remember that this government does like to make big promises, but they do not deliver on what they promise. We saw that with the Commonwealth Games, which was spruiked right before the last election, and we know the history of that.

It is important to realise, too, that a budget is a prediction. It is how we expect money to be spent and allocated and what money is coming in. But when you look at the track record of this government, they have been off the mark time and time again. There have been cost blowouts and interest costs, and debt continues to rise. I think when you look at the actual budget papers themselves there is a nice $2.6 billion deficit at the 2024–25 financial year. We have seen before that they have been off target, and no doubt we will see that again.

I think it is so important to realise that Labor just does not manage finances well at all, and finances are too important – we have to get them right. We know in regional Victoria we have seen about 12 per cent allocated to new infrastructure spending, and yet we have 25 per cent of the population. We would certainly like to see our fair share of funding. Is this a responsible budget? No. Is it a disciplined budget? No. Is it a Labor budget? Well, with higher debt, higher taxes and higher interest, I would say yes. It was very good to see an increase in funding for financial counselling in the state budget, but I would suggest that perhaps the Treasurer and Labor members go and make an appointment. There is a Bring Your Bills day, and I would suggest they take along some of those bills and get some advice, because we certainly need a fresh start in Victoria.

I am part of the Liberals and Nationals team, and we are committed to ensuring respect for taxpayer money, making sure that we have value for taxpayer money and making sure that government works effectively, because what we are seeing under this current government is an absolute mess, and we need to get this state back on track.

 Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (16:49): Well, what do you say? The Liberal Party is undertaking a desperate attempt to undermine the solid foundations of the Victorian budget, placed there by Labor, by the Treasurer, last week. And they will do and they will say anything to undermine the Victorian budget, to undermine the fiscal strategy here in the state of Victoria, before they get the chance to totally wreck it if they are elected in November. Because what we have seen from the Liberal Party in the last week is an absolute determination to drive investment in Victoria into the ground, to swing the axe on jobs and to curtail infrastructure spending right across the state. I will come to the utter hypocrisy of members of the Liberal Party and members of the National Party getting up in this debate and outside this Parliament and complaining that there is not enough spending on certain infrastructure projects, while their leadership commits to stopping infrastructure spending here in the state of Victoria.

Last week’s budget, delivered by the Treasurer, delivered on yet another step in Labor’s fiscal strategy for Victoria. We know there is a five-step fiscal strategy in the state of Victoria. There was creating jobs coming out of the pandemic, delivering a cash operating surplus and delivering an operating surplus after transactions; there was stabilising debt and then reducing debt as a share of the state’s economy. We are absolutely on track to achieve all five of those steps in our fiscal strategy, and the budget papers clearly show how Labor is doing that.

What we have had in response from the Liberal Party is a reply to that budget, a response to that budget, that rests on sacking thousands of public servants, that sharpens and swings the axe on jobs in the state of Victoria. Thousands of public servants face the axe under the Liberals. If the Liberal Party seriously think that they can cut $40 billion out of the state budget without affecting frontline services, tell them they are dreaming, because it is just not possible. You cannot swing the axe like Jess Wilson wants to and not affect schools and not affect hospitals and not affect police and our emergency services. You cannot make the cuts the Liberal Party want to make without affecting frontline services here in the state of Victoria. If the Liberals try and tell you otherwise, they are lying. Because that is what the consequence of the Liberals’ alternative plan for Victoria is. It is built on job losses.

The second thing it is built on is stopping our infrastructure investment, because the centrepiece of the budget reply, given the other day by the Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Treasurer, who are the same person obviously, because the Leader of the Opposition has such little confidence in the rest of her team that she does not think any of them are up to the job of being Shadow Treasurer. None of them, she thinks, are capable of being the Shadow Treasurer in the state of Victoria. She has got to do the job herself. She said that over a 10-year period the Liberals want to get us back to a cash surplus and fund all of our infrastructure investment without borrowings. That is the Liberals’ plan. In her contribution Mrs McArthur made reference to and quoted David Hayward, an economist and emeritus professor at RMIT, to justify and support her argument, so we can assume that Mrs McArthur thinks that Professor Hayward has some credibility. Well, this is what was said in the paper today:

Economist David Hayward said the opposition’s path to cash surplus did not stack up, and they had not yet shown a credible path to achieving it.

And to quote Professor Hayward:

One of the problems is they’re going to depend on pretty significant cuts to infrastructure to achieve it.

An expert that the Leader of the Opposition in this place thinks is credible enough to speak on the budget has just said that the Leader of the Opposition’s and the Shadow Treasurer’s economic plan – as put in a very beautiful, glossy document last week – rests on infrastructure cuts being delivered. What Victoria faces under the Liberals are cuts to services and cuts to infrastructure, and it is everyday Victorians that are going to pay the price. If you are in the growing suburbs of Melbourne and want access to a new school – like the nearly 100 new schools that Labor has opened – under the Liberals the school building program is going to come to a screeching halt because the only way, according to the independent experts, the Liberals can make their plan stack up is through cuts to infrastructure.

All those members of the opposition that were out last week criticising Labor for not investing enough are going to have to come clean with their communities and say that they are not going to deliver anything. For example, Mr Mulholland gets up and says there has got to be investment in Donnybrook Road. Well, you cannot fix Donnybrook Road, Mr Mulholland, if you are going to cut infrastructure investment. If you are not going to use the balance sheet and borrow to invest in infrastructure, no-one is getting a road, no-one is getting a school. Under the Liberals there will be nothing built in Victoria. They will stop building the new schools in our growth suburbs that we need. Frankly, those growth suburbs do not just include the parts of the community that I talk to, for example, Mr Galea about out in Clyde and Clyde North, but one of the big growth areas in our region is Southbank and South Melbourne. That is why this budget is investing millions of dollars to build another campus of South Melbourne Primary School. I am glad Mr McIntosh is here, because he will know the reason why Labor has had to build new schools in South Melbourne, and that is because the Kennett government closed them in the 1990s, because that is what Liberals do. The Liberals swing the axe. The Liberals cut schools. The Liberals sack TAFE teachers. That is what Liberals do. They have got form, because that is what they did in the 1990s. Labor had to fix their mess and deliver the infrastructure that Victorians need, deliver the schools that Victorian children and their parents need.

The only way the Liberal Party is going to be able to make their promises stack up is if they start swinging the axe across Victoria, stop infrastructure spending and sack workers who are delivering essential services. That is exactly what they plan to do. Thousands of public servants are going to be sacked, including public servants who are delivering regulatory and inspection services like at the new Building and Plumbing Commission, who out there trying to support people who are building their own homes and cracking down on dodgy builders. They are going to get sacked by the Liberal Party. Those who are out there trying to enforce the law – Mrs McArthur often gets up and asks where these inspectors are – are going to get sacked by the Liberal Party because the Liberal Party’s plan is built on sacking public servants and stopping infrastructure spending. There will be no schools, no hospitals and no roads under the Liberals because their plan relies on stopping infrastructure spending, and the experts have belled the cat in the paper today. The experts have belled the cap on the Liberal Party today: they cannot achieve their plans without infrastructure spending cuts. They should come clean and tell the Victorian people what their plans really are.

 Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (16:59): What an extraordinary display that just was about swinging the axe on Victorians when the government for the past 10 years have been economic vandals who have taken the axe, to use Mr Batchelor’s words, to the Victorian economy, making it so hard for Victorians to – let us forget about thriving and prospering – survive. I might just start with a couple of facts that are going to be a little bit uncomfortable for Mr Batchelor and his crew over there. When Labor came to office net debt was $21.8 billion, less than 6 per cent of GSP – $21.8 billion. Fast forward, and by the end of the forward estimates that number is going to be almost $200 billion. It is because of their reckless spending, their lack of management and their lack of foresight. I just want to remind you that you cannot spend like a drunken sailor and expect that no-one has to pick up the bill. Victorians have been footing the bill for your decisions now for almost a decade, and I am going to go through exactly what that means for Victorians.

Victoria’s interest payments have exploded from $2.1 billion a year to $32 million every single day. So every hour – every single hour – the interest repayments are more than $1 million alone. Businesses like those on Bald Hill Road have lost 70 to 80 per cent of their revenue because the Big Build on a 1-kilometre stretch of road has taken over a year, blocking off access to their businesses, and not a single one of them has received any compensation. Imagine just alone what 1 hour of interest repayments could do for them. Let me tell you, it would be absolutely life changing.

What about the other issues that are going on like crime prevention? There is a crime committed every 50 seconds in this state since there are less police on the beat today than there were when Labor came into government. Imagine what $1 million, just 1 hour of interest repayments, would do for that area alone. It is pretty insulting when you spend day in, day out talking to Victorians who are legitimately suffering, who are finding it hard to even put food on the table, for them to hear a rant like that about apparently how the coalition, who have not been in government for a decade, are apparently taking the axe. You can figure out whether or not you are okay with that.

Victoria is now the worst performing state economically in the country on almost every single key metric. Labor is borrowing from the future to pay for things right now. It is pretty amazing that right now, every child that is born in the state of Victoria inherits at least $20,000 of their own little patch of debt. I think it is amazing that Labor have stood there blowing their own trumpet, but here are some other things that you really should know about Labor. They have introduced or increased taxes 67 times – 67 new or increased taxes since this lot came to government. Payroll tax alone has more than doubled. Land tax bills have quadrupled for many Victorians. I stood here not that long ago and I spoke about Goldstream RV in Pakenham and how their land tax had increased so much that they had to put off 40 full-time staff. That is in your electorate, Mr McIntosh. Those are the impacts of what Labor government policies are doing to the people that you are meant to represent. Forty people! I sat with the owners of that business as they went through their land tax bill and told me what that meant to them. Not only that, but the land that the government then acquired for the duplication of the road there smashed these businesses. It is things like land tax and payroll tax that are making it so hard and causing businesses to flee this state, and the new taxes keep on coming. We could talk about the emergency services levy and the fact that that money is going into state revenue. Things have been so poorly mismanaged that people are still driving around in trucks that are more than 30 years old while they are going out to protect their communities. The investment into the CFA has decreased, regardless of the fact that the emergency services levy is affecting every single landowner in Victoria.

There is the GP payroll tax, the school tax, the short stay tax, the windfall gains tax – the taxes go on and on. It is pretty unbelievable when that side of the house talks about us apparently taking an axe to Victorians. That is absolutely disgraceful. Families are under enormous cost-of-living pressures in this state. I actually had Ben Smith in here today, who I saw probably about a year or 18 months ago at the food bank in Mornington. He said 18 months or a year ago that for the first time mortgage holders could not even afford to put food on the table and were accessing help there. This is the economic environment in Victoria that you have created.

What about small businesses that are struggling to survive every single day in Victoria? Three hundred and fifty small businesses closed their doors for good because the environment in Victoria has become so tough for small business. Recently I heard one of the government members getting up and talking about how business is actually wonderful and flourishing in Victoria. When I went down and I looked at those numbers, they were talking about the number of sole traders. Big businesses that have employed people, that have been the lifeblood of the communities, have been fleeing this state because they cannot afford to survive here, and then people have become sole traders so they can have a second or a third job to make ends meet, and this government are somehow patting themselves on the back and celebrating themselves. I think it is just so out of touch.

Investors are leaving Victoria. About one year ago I spoke in this place about how I was talking to some real estate agents in Pakenham who said for every four rental properties that come onto the market, only one of them returns. The reason for that is the burden of red tape – because of all the different regulations and because of all the property and land taxes. It costs more to have a rental property in Victoria than it does in any other state, and that is causing them to leave. Well, about a month ago I spoke to that same real estate agent to ask if that same statistic was true, and he said, ‘No, it’s not.’ He said it was four, but now for every six properties in that area that come onto the market that are rental properties, only one returns, exacerbating the housing crisis, which then of course explains why rental prices are rising.

When Labor runs out of money, which they have well and truly done, they come after yours. They come after it with the 67 new or increased taxes that they have brought in, and then they have come in here today and they have blamed the coalition because we actually have a responsible plan. We know that this is going to be tough. There are tough days ahead for Victorians because of the mess that this government has left us in. You have to realise when you get here and you hold a taxpayer dollar, you have got to be responsible with that. It is not just our children, it is our children’s children that are going to be dealing with this mess. Labor claims a surplus while admitting a seven –

Harriet Shing: Do you drive on the Monash?

Renee HEATH: I do not know what Ms Shing is talking about right at the moment.

Harriet Shing interjected.

Renee HEATH: I am talking about businesses in your area, Ms Shing, so show some compassion. Labor claims a surplus while admitting to a $7.7 billion cash deficit. Imagine that. Imagine having $7.7 billion just on the credit card statement and saying you have a cash surplus. That is delusion at the next level. This budget relies on unrealistic assumptions about spending growth. When businesses are fleeing the state, and they are, and when rental properties are fleeing the state, and they are –

Harriet Shing interjected.

Renee HEATH: When Ms Shing says more affordable rentals, she is bulldozing public housing, and there will be less bedrooms. (Time expired)

 Tom McINTOSH (Eastern Victoria) (17:10): I have been really, really looking forward to an opportunity to contribute on this motion. The motion in itself is not a good one, but the opportunity to explore some of these topics is.

I do not know what Menzies and Bolte would think of those that claim to occupy that party now. They have not taken an eye to building our state, to being nation builders, for decades and decades and decades. I have talked in this place about those seats now being occupied by people that through their university clubs worshipped Thatcher and Reagan, and they took that – I know I get criticised for referencing Kennett; I am not going to lose time here – and they acted on that in the 1990s in a way that communities across Victoria have not forgotten. You are so quick in the very many hearings that we sit in and the political conversations and narrative, whether it is in the media or in this place, to call any investment debt.

Minister Shing was highlighting before that Bolte was a nation builder. There were investments in dams. There were investments in roads, in bridges, in powerlines – things that made this state productive, things that made this state competitive. You know what? I am sure at the time people thought, ‘Gee whiz, are we going to invest’ – I do not know, maybe it was $5 million – ‘for a new powerline’ or maybe it was $20 million for a new road. I am sure that at the time those in positions of power had to make decisions and there would have been those saying, ‘Hey, Mr Bolte, you are at 55 to 58 per cent debt to gross state product (GSP),’ but boy, have we as a state benefited out of those investments. If you have a look at the cost of those investments now, it is nothing compared to the return for multiple generations of Victorians.

When you take the approach that the current Liberals have, which is a far cry from what it was decades ago, you do not invest in people, you do not invest in the community and you do not invest in the productivity of this state. When you slash jobs, when you slash training pathways, you do not get people coming through qualified to work. We are seeing this in our trades. Everyone looks around and goes, ‘I wonder why it is hard to get a sparky to come and wire my house sometime.’ Remember what you guys did to the SEC, to the trainees, to the apprenticeships, to the pathways? Have a think about that.

We have seen in this budget surpluses. We have seen the consistent plan to get to surplus to reduce the net debt to GSP is on track. The way you lot bleat on and try to talk Victoria down at every single opportunity on every single measure is despicable. It is absolutely despicable. What worries me is if you lot had your hands on the levers, the things that we have built back up, whether it is our investment in early education, whether it is our investment in aged care – you know where a lot of those are, they are in regional areas where private operators might not fill the gap – it worries me that if you lot get in, you will bundle it up and you will sell it off in a heartbeat. Regional towns will be the first to suffer under a Liberal-National coalition, like they did in the past.

Train lines were ripped out around Victoria, schools were closed and things like the SEC were sold off. It is all very well for short-term decision-making for people today to sit there and go, ‘Yes, we are going to flog that off. We are going to bring some money in.’ But it is future generations that will suffer. Thank goodness we legislated to protect the SEC. because we have gone in and we have built what was at the time – still is, I think – the biggest battery in Australia.

We have got our solar battery hybrid in Horsham and now our wind farm at Delburn. This is the biggest investment in the valley – $700 million, hundreds of jobs – and the Nationals still have a petition against it. What does that say about the Nationals and the Liberals? They never stood up for it. So it is this mentality that we have seen from the Liberals – their $40 billion of cuts – and we know they are going to come after services, services that people rely on. We invest in our communities. When we enable families to get back to work, when we give our kids a world-class education to start their lives, when we give them the training and skills when they come out the other side of school, do you know what? They are more productive when they enter the workforce, and that leads to a stronger Victoria.

The investments we have made in our road networks, in our freight networks – you never hear the other side talk about the freight networks that take hundreds of trucks off our roads for every container on the back of a train, because they ripped the trains out. They let them decay into nothing, and we had to come and build it all back up, and that enables our grain to get to the ports. We have built those infrastructure connections so we can move our economic goods as efficiently as possible and ship them so we have got $22 billion of agricultural output coming out of this state. But that does not just happen by turning a blind eye. It takes a commitment to investing in our state, investing in our people and investing in our infrastructure so that we get the most out of every single thing we do.

I am confident that Victorians are very mindful of the constant negativity of the Liberals talking down our state and what they would do, given half a chance, to the services in this state and the jobs and the families and communities that absolutely rely on them.

 Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (17:17): Well, all we have heard from the opposite side over there is lies, lies and more lies. That is what we have had from you today. That is what has happened. You cannot defend this budget. You cannot defend the Premier. You cannot defend the Treasurer – the Treasurer who could not even mention the words ‘small business’ in her 11-page speech, could not mention the small businesses that make up the bulk of the productive population of this state, could not give them a mention. What we have got in this place here today is an absolutely abysmal defence of a shocking budget – absolutely appalling.

You talked about investment on roads. You have got to be joking. You need to get out of Northcote or Fitzroy or wherever you live, Mr McIntosh; get out on the western roads. You have probably got an EV – well, it would fall into a pothole. Try going down to western Victoria. My colleague from the western Victoria region, when asked by the Warrnambool Standard what she had delivered for South-West Coast, could not name anything and referred them to her colleague Gayle Tierney, our colleague in this place, who is no longer in the ministry. She could not even answer the question. You are a shocking bunch.

We have got interest now at $1 million an hour. How can you possibly defend this budget? You are losing your credit rating; it is going down the gurgler.

Michael Galea: No, we’re not.

Bev McARTHUR: You are. You have got more taxes than anybody anywhere else in this country. We have got more debt than most of the east coast joined together. You are a monumental disgrace, and you want to criticise Jess Wilson. Well, I will tell you this: Jess Wilson is Victoria’s best friend and she is Jacinta’s worst enemy; that is what Jess Wilson is. And as for that fabulous candidate in Bendigo East, he said that is what we are going to get less of – less Labor MPs and less Jacinta Allan. That is what is going to happen. Who have you got lined up for your leader now?

We need to know whether the Minister for Health is going to get the number one spot in Eastern Victoria Region or Mr McIntosh, who lives in the city.

Our plan is to bring this economy back on track. That is what we are going to do. We are going to make sure this state is moving forward at a great rate, unlike you. You are sending us backwards. We are going to go forwards. You are making sure that our children and our grandchildren are going to bear an enormous debt. It is never going to be able to be paid back. And as for housing, the whole federal budget was predicated on providing more housing. Forty-two per cent of the cost of a house in this state is caused by you – your costs.

A member interjected.

Bev McARTHUR: Bolte was a fabulous fellow. What a great man Bolte was. If only you took some notice of what he did. You are a disgrace to even consider yourselves in any way like Bolte.

But anyway, I want to thank my colleagues Mr Mulholland, Dr Heath and Mrs Broad for their contributions. Look, I will even thank you, Mr McIntosh. I will thank Mr Galea. I will thank Mr Berger. He is a fabulous member in my electorate. He lives in my electorate. How is Southern Metro going, Mr Berger? Was it a good trip in from Teesdale today? How many potholes did you encounter coming from Teesdale into here?

John Berger: None.

Bev McARTHUR: Well, you did. What did Teesdale get out of this budget, Mr Berger? Nothing – not a brass razoo. Anyway, I do thank everybody for their contributions, and I just urge you to support the motion.

Council divided on motion: