Wednesday, 4 October 2023
Matters of public importance
Government performance
Matters of public importance
Government performance
The SPEAKER (16:01): I have accepted a statement from the member for Hawthorn proposing the following matter of public importance for discussion:
That this house notes that the Premier takes over the biggest state debt in the country and has a ministerial legacy of waste, blowouts and mismanagement, further noting:
(1) Victoria’s debt is larger than New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania combined;
(2) the Premier has overseen nearly $30 billion in major project blowouts; and
(3) the Premier was responsible for the expensive and humiliating Commonwealth Games cancellation.
John PESUTTO (Hawthorn – Leader of the Opposition) (16:01): Last week the Andrews era came to an end, and it was not a moment too soon. We had seen a Premier who had grown tired of the responsibilities of office and wanted to spend more time on Australia’s most luxurious golf courses with his rich mates and enjoying long lunches with Australia’s elite and a government he had led that had lost touch with the community that depended on it to deliver the hospitals, the schools, the roads, the child protection services and the justice system they need the Victorian government to prepare for them and to deliver for them so they can live the lives of opportunity and promise that this state ought to give them. So it was fitting that the Premier left, and for a brief moment we thought things might change. We thought that with a new leader, despite all of the weight of the incompetence, the corruption and the waste of that government, the departure of the former Premier would provide an opportunity for someone to come along and say, ‘That was not good enough for the people.’
The people of Victoria need something better. They need their finances looked after, because when you mess up, when you cannot manage the people’s finances, who pays – the people pay.
John PESUTTO: And taxpayers will be asked to pay more, that is for sure, member for Caulfield and Deputy Leader of the Opposition. But it is people who pay the price of this. For a brief moment my colleagues and I on this side of the chamber thought maybe they would get the message that here was an opportunity for a fresh start, new leadership, a new vision. But what do we have? As we waved goodbye, as groups of people right across our state cheered when they heard the news that the former Premier was leaving – and cheer they did; we were at the Melbourne show, and as we walked through people were giving us high fives and cheering. It was like the government of the wicked witch had left.
A member: Ding, dong!
John PESUTTO: Indeed.
Members interjecting.
The SPEAKER: Order! I ask members to cease interjecting so that the Leader of the Opposition does not have to yell to be heard.
The SPEAKER: Enough, member for Wendouree! You will be removed from the chamber.
John PESUTTO: What a loss! As we waited with anticipation last week, what would emerge – a new start, fresh leadership? No. What we got was the same government, as tired as the old government, as incompetent as the old government and, I am sure we will see, as corrupt as the old government was. How do we know this? Well, the person who was the copilot in every single debacle, every single blowout, became the Premier. The former Deputy Premier, now Premier, runs the show. And what did she give Victorians? She gave them blowouts on major projects and she gave them the Commonwealth Games debacle, all of which I will talk about in a moment.
It seems that they all thought the principles of promotion that most Victorians understand – do a good job, show you can deliver, fulfil your responsibilities to the people – would be rewarded, but no, what we saw was the person who most singularly represents all of the failures of the government of which she was a part rise to the top. We saw the division that will now characterise this government on the very day when we had the humiliating spectacle of the former Premier and the current Premier having to sit outside the Labor party room.
David Southwick: Working it out.
John PESUTTO: Working it out indeed. They would not know what to do without the former Premier in charge. And then after a last-minute, humiliating compromise we have the Premier sitting there and a Deputy Premier who does not believe he should be sitting there as the Deputy Premier. So the person who lays claim to being the most incompetent person in the former government is now the most senior.
But it does not just stop with that. This new Premier has shown a clear preference for ensuring that other people who have not performed can rise to senior positions. Take the member for Essendon, for example – ‘dividend Danny’, as some people would like to call him – a person who is more concerned about his share portfolio than his ministerial portfolio, a person whose greatest single claim to fame in this place as a minister was delivering WorkCover with cumulative operating deficits of over a quarter of a billion dollars and the minister who was responsible for ensuring that the scheme that was there to support injured workers broke and then thought he was doing us all a favour by saying ‘WorkCover’s broke, and I’m here to fix it’. Maybe he does have expertise in how to fix something he broke, but how can you reward this person by giving this person the same job that the Premier had and expecting him to do anything differently? This is a guy who is plainly incompetent. He only had a couple of jobs and he fluffed them both. He should have been sacked months ago. Any government with even half the integrity of a good government would have said someone with such rampant and obvious conflicts of interest could not remain around the cabinet table. How do we do this? When was this okay in Victoria? We want a government that leads by example and sets the highest standards.
And then it is not just dividend Danny, it is Harriet Shing in the other place.
The SPEAKER: Order! I ask the member to refer to members by their correct titles.
John PESUTTO: The dividend minister – in addition to the dividend minister, we have Harriet Shing in the other place – a person whose claim to fame is that she and her office interfered with an IBAC investigation and the matters of the Integrity Oversight Commission. And what have we done? We have given her housing.
So let us look at these two people. Minister Pearson, the dividend minister, has been given charge of Victoria’s infrastructure portfolio – tens of billions of dollars under his watch. How good do we all feel about that – that this person is now in charge of the portfolio that the Premier herself blew out? He is in charge of that. Minister Shing has been put in charge of the housing statement – the housing statement that had more blank pages in it, it seems, than pages with content, when that statement was released.
Jess Wilson: Lots of pretty pictures in it.
John PESUTTO: Yes, lots of pretty pictures, as my colleague the member for Kew says.
So we see a government that have inverted the KPIs – the worse you do, the better you do. That is the motto of this new government. We have a government that as well as being tired and old and corrupt is divided. We saw that yesterday when the Treasurer went out and announced two taxes and the Premier did not know about it. She did not know the taxes were being announced. The Assistant Treasurer said, ‘I have no idea.’ Well, we kind of all knew that, but for him to say that to the press was something surprising, because as divided as the government is we did not realise it was that divided. And it is a problem. It is a problem because it is a government, clearly, of chaos. It cannot manage the program going forward, and even the former Premier – do not take my word for it – does not believe in this government. We see him quoted in recent days, and what did he say? He said something like this: ‘They’re nothing without me’. And how right he was.
John PESUTTO: We have to remain parliamentary, the member for Malvern will know. ‘They’re nothing without me’ – and in a way he is right, they are.
We have seen it today in question time and we have seen it in recent days – a government that is chaotic, a government that is divided. I say to the people of Victoria: you deserve better than this. Let us look at what we have got. We have got a Premier now who does not understand how to manage people’s money. She is in charge of the economy, with her colleagues. Debt in this state remains the highest in the country – still more than New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania combined. We have the worst credit rating. S&P and Moody’s both have us as the worst state in the country, and that matters because our interest bill at the moment is $15 million a day.
John PESUTTO: Am I correct, member for Kew?
Jess Wilson: Yes.
John PESUTTO: And it will climb to $22 million in 2026–27. And what does that mean? That means on rough calculation – let us take the way you cost things on the back of a coaster and just say $15 million a day is the equivalent, roughly, of four schools a week. Four schools a week get squandered up against the wall because that side over there cannot manage money – $15 million a day.
John PESUTTO: That is right. As my colleague points out, the same person who delivered this catastrophic financial outcome for the state remains in charge of the budget. The budget in May was a horror budget; we know that. This ‘COVID debt levy’ is just this government going up to businesses who are already doing it tough – trying to support their workers and trying to support their families and their communities – and just shaking people down. It says, we need more cash out of you.
How do you do it? You whack up payroll tax by over $4 billion over the next four years. You talk about wanting to be there for renters, for those of you who are not spending their time with Australia’s elite on their luxurious golf courses and in the best restaurants – that is what you all do, you hypocrites. But the people who pay are the people who need the most support. You talk about supporting renters, but then you go and hurt them. You hurt them by increasing land tax. Who pays for that? Renters pay for that.
The SPEAKER: The member for South Barwon! You will cease interjecting or you will be removed.
John PESUTTO: Over $4 billion extra you will squeeze – not from landlords necessarily and not from big builders. That $4 billion plus that you are going to secure out of that land tax increase will be paid by renters – Victoria’s most vulnerable people.
If that was not bad enough, the big kicker is WorkCover increases from dividend minister Pearson. Do you realise that your WorkCover increases will rip out $18 billion? Let me repeat this: the WorkCover hit on employers will raise $18 billion that is stolen from workers – $18 billion over 10 years and $4 billion over the forward estimates. So it goes up exponentially.
The schools tax is just a culture war attack on choice. So you are hitting aspiration, you are hitting enterprise, and then you are saying to families who just want to send their kids to a school of their choosing, ‘We’re going to hit you for it, and we’re going to demonise you for it’. What possible justification can you have for an education tax like this? Again it will be paid for by the most vulnerable, because a lot of our independent schools, in fact most of them, particularly those who are in a position to charge higher fees – you know what they do. They do an enormous amount for the community. They are registered as not for profits, so they are not there for profit purposes. Thirdly, they deliver about 30 to 40 per cent of their enrolments to people who need fee help. Now, if the schools cannot do that – if financially they are not in a position to cop that and they have to cut programs, particularly those community-based and charitable programs – then who pays? The most vulnerable – the people you hypocritically pretend to want to support and do not. It is all hypocrisy – a joke.
The vacant land tax we had announced yesterday – as if anything was going to be different. All this Premier has done is not waste any time. She is getting straight down to it – ‘Let’s whack up taxes’. Mike Zorbas, the CEO of the Property Council of Australia, said:
Here’s a tip for other states: don’t do a Victoria.
So here is the Premier’s first achievement: we have made it into the dictionary with ‘don’t do a Victoria’. That is something from an industry stakeholder that you would not expect. The Real Estate Institute of Victoria calls the tax disgusting, because the most vulnerable will pay for it. The Premier, having overseen the major projects, is most responsible for the blowouts.
The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Nepean, you are not in your place!
John PESUTTO: And then there is the Commonwealth Games debacle. Let me just finish by talking about the Commonwealth Games debacle, the most humiliating debacle at the hands of the Premier. What did we see today? As an omen of what is to come, of all the chaos and the division which even you all know about in your heart of hearts – the division and the incompetence. We had a Premier come out this morning and say, ‘I can’t recall when I first learned that lawyers were engaged.’
Members interjecting.
The SPEAKER: Member for South Barwon, you can leave the chamber for 20 minutes.
Member for South Barwon withdrew from chamber.
John PESUTTO: Obviously they went around and scurried through all the documents, and she came out here in humiliating fashion and said ‘I was advised on the 14th’. Well, to all members present, including those members across the chamber, this will not end. There is more to come out, and we will see that what the Premier said puts her at odds with what she told this house and what she told the Victorian people – completely misleading.
I will finish on this: Victorians deserve better. Victorians deserve leadership and a fresh vision for our state, one that puts you first – your schools, your health, the roads you drive on, the services you depend on. Victorians deserve better, and they are not getting it. This change of leadership is nothing more than a new coat of paint on an old, dilapidated house. We will see the same problems, and even those members opposite can feel it in their waters. You know it is over. For the next three years this government is going to hunker down, but we are going to see more of the division and chaos. Victoria deserves better. We will continue to fight on their behalf and provide the scrutiny that is needed to keep this rotten, tired and incompetent government, as old as the last one, in check.
Members interjecting.
The SPEAKER: Order! Before I call the next speaker, I ask the house to come to order. If a member has the call, I expect them to be able to be heard in silence. There is too much noise in the chamber.
Nick STAIKOS (Bentleigh) (16:17): Well, that was pretty excitable, wasn’t it? It was pretty excitable, but there is more excitement out of the roof seals, I think, than the seals on the front bench. I will just say this: if you have tuned in from home and you have maybe turned the screen off because watching it and listening to it at once was a bit too much, I will describe the scene for you. There was a bit of backslapping, the same sort of backslapping we saw when they won a race against no-one in Warrandyte. Warrandyte was a one-horse race, and every time a journo asked him, ‘Why are you so down in the polls?’ – there was a poll recently that had them going backwards – it was like, ‘Oh, but Warrandyte’. This is a seat they have held consistently since I was two years old. That is when they won the seat of Warrandyte. That is how long they have held it. But this self-congratulation over winning the seat of Warrandyte – over retaining Warrandyte – just shows the depths they have plunged.
Normally when you do something for a long time, you get better at it. These people have been in opposition a very, very long time, and they just get worse and worse and worse. The Leader of the Opposition reckons he was at the Melbourne Royal and people were cheering when Dan retired. Well, if that is the case, it has not translated into support for them, because they just get worse; 2014, 2018, 2022 – they just get worse. You even lost your seat in 2018. You are the worst opposition in Victoria’s history. You are the worst opposition in Australia, each and every one of you.
The SPEAKER: Order! I would ask members not to use the term ‘you’. It is a reflection on the Chair.
Nick STAIKOS: I am not surprised that they are the worst opposition, because when they were in government for that one term, they were the worst government. They did not do anything. After the first 100 days of our government, a member of the press gallery asked the then Premier Dan Andrews, ‘Can you keep up this pace?’ I can guarantee you they never asked Ted Baillieu that question, because that government was characterised by inertia, inertia that we had never seen before. I mean, what did they do? They did not complete any level crossing removals in those four years. They dumped the Metro Tunnel, which we will be opening a year ahead of schedule. They took the axe to TAFE. But I tell you what, speaking of TAFE, after the contribution that we just heard from the Leader of the Opposition, I reckon we need to make opposition a free TAFE course, because I am absolutely concerned about the skills crisis, the greatest skills crisis in Victoria we see each and every day – and it is on the other side of the chamber.
This is probably the most egregious example of the neglect of those opposite when they were in government: they presided over the highest unemployment rate on the mainland. That was absolutely shameful, because there were less people experiencing the dignity of work under that government. Under our government we have historically low unemployment. We got to work straightaway when we came to government.
All that this matter of public importance is about is opposing the major projects that are setting Victoria up for the future. Let us not forget that by the end of this decade we are going to overtake Sydney as Australia’s largest capital city. By the 2050s we are going to be the size of London, and we need transport infrastructure befitting a great city of the world. And those of us on this side of the house believe that Melbourne is a great city of the world. Those opposite want to rock Victoria to sleep, because that is what Liberals do – they do not do anything, and they criticise others who get into government and want to make a difference for the people that they represent.
So we got to work straightaway. We are removing 110 level crossings. Seventy-two of them are already gone. We have got more to do. We are making a number of train lines level crossing free, including the Frankston line. That is so important in the lead-up to the opening of the Metro Tunnel because it will add so much capacity to the network. I was very fortunate that the first three level crossings to be removed were in the Bentleigh electorate. Do you think we got any support from those opposite? Did they support it? They said, ‘Of course we support level crossing removals.’ But then I was alarmed to find Georgie Crozier, with a clipboard and a petition, marching up and down Centre Road opposing our level crossing removals – ‘Of course we support level crossing removals, but sign this petition. But no, we support level crossings – of course we do.’ And then there was David Davis on the Dandenong line. The term he coined was ‘sky rail’. We loved that term so much we adopted it. Yes, we are building sky rail around Melbourne, and the communities there could not be more thankful. We are removing level crossings. We have also been removing Liberal MPs like no government before us.
I will move on to the Metro Tunnel. The Metro Tunnel is going to be a game changer when it comes to commuting around Melbourne, because it will connect our train system, our rail system, to parts of the city currently not connected by rail. I think in particular of the University of Melbourne and the hospital precinct at Parkville, which as of 2025 will finally have a rail connection. We have been down to have a look at the progress of those wonderful new stations. I was down at Town Hall station with a number of colleagues recently. I have been to see Arden station as well. This is going to transform Melbourne. Those opposite opposed the Metro Tunnel when they were in government. In fact, in government, as I said earlier, they dumped the Metro Tunnel.
This Metro Tunnel is going to change the way we commute. Just in my local community, the Frankston line currently does not go through the existing city loop, but because the Dandenong line will go through the new Metro Tunnel it will mean that the Frankston line – and Pakenham, member for Pakenham – can resume services into the existing city loop tunnel and it will mean more frequent services, and that is something that our community does welcome. It is only possible because this government is building the Metro rail tunnel and is removing 110 level crossings. It is growing our network, creating capacity in our network. And who is responsible for all of that – the current Premier of Victoria. She does not deserve a motion like this. She deserves a simple ‘Thank you’, frankly, because it is Premier Allan who is building this state and this wonderful, great city of the world for the future – and it will be the size of London in the 2050s.
Now I turn to the Suburban Rail Loop. We hear a lot from those opposite about the SRL. I am really proud of the Suburban Rail Loop as a project. It will actually start in the electorate of Sandringham, member for Sandringham. It will start in Cheltenham, adjacent to the border that we share. That is also going to be a game changer because a great city of the world like Melbourne needs a transport system befitting a great city of the world. If you have been to cities like London or Tokyo, you would know why Melbourne needs the Suburban Rail Loop. If you look at some of the tangible, practical benefits that this SRL will bring, for starters, it will finally connect Australia’s largest university – Monash University – to rail. When Monash University was built in the 1960s, it was one of a number of megaprojects in the 1960s. There was always an intention to connect it to rail, and it has taken this government to have the vision to actually get it done. I thought to myself, ‘If you lived in Cheltenham – let’s say you lived in the member for Sandringham’s part of Cheltenham – and you needed to take public transport to Monash University today, how would you do it?’ So I went on the app, and at that point it told me –
Brad Rowswell: The 631.
Nick STAIKOS: No, at that point it told me that the quickest way would be to take the train to Bentleigh station and to get on the 703 and go to Monash University. I timed myself – it took me an hour. Clayton is not in the middle of nowhere, it is a nearby suburb to Cheltenham. But when the Suburban Rail Loop is built, a train ride from Cheltenham to Monash University on the Suburban Rail Loop will take just 11 minutes. From 1 hour to 11 minutes – this is exactly the sort of tangible benefit that this will bring. In terms of Suburban Rail Loop East, the first stage of the project, it will not just connect Monash University, it will also connect Deakin University and Box Hill TAFE. This is truly a game changer, and we support it. It is a pity those opposite do not, but it does not really matter because they are not relevant to what we do. The Suburban Rail Loop was endorsed by the Victorian community at the 2018 election and at the 2022 election.
We have been hearing from this temporary Leader of the Opposition. I do not think he has long to go. He is someone who gets booed by his own party members. He is currently getting sued. Have you ever heard of a leader so hated by his own party members as the current Leader of the Opposition? I tell you what: I have been attending state Labor conferences for the last 20 years, and I have never seen a leader of the Labor Party booed by the state conference. This was something completely out of this world. This is an absolute rabble of an opposition. Now there is not one member breathing down his neck, there are two. It will be sooner rather than later that the Leader of the Opposition packs his bags. I am going to ring up John Kennedy and ask him to make a comeback, because I reckon Hawthorn are regretting some very poor choices at the last election.
This government is investing in these major projects that are setting Victoria up for the future – a future of growth – and at the same time we are making sure that we are leveraging that investment to create jobs and opportunities for Victorians. I have always been proud that under our government 10 per cent of all labour hours worked on these major projects are being worked by engineering cadets, trainees and apprentices. If you visit any government project site, you will meet some of these young people getting their first go – getting their start – on these government projects, and we are proud of that. It is not just cadets and trainees and apprentices. We have a number of First Nations Victorians working on our level crossing removals, for instance, something we are also very proud of. We have a number of ex-service men and women working on our major projects. We have got a record number of women working in construction as well. That is all thanks to our government, because the central mission of this government has been to provide jobs and opportunities to Victorians.
Under the last government not only did they not invest in anything, not only did they not build anything, not only did they preside over the highest unemployment rate on the mainland, they also took the axe to TAFE. We made TAFE free. We have got more than 70 free TAFE courses. On that, I am really, really proud that one of the most popular TAFE courses at the moment is the diploma of nursing. At the moment in Victoria thanks to our government you can do your diploma of nursing for a year and then move on to the bachelor of nursing, both for free because we are investing in more nurses for this state. We are investing in more teachers for this state as well with the recent announcement.
In the minute I have got left I do also want to mention the housing statement. We are going to ensure that 800,000 additional homes are built over the next 10 years. There is nothing more important than having a roof over your head, and that builds on the government’s Big Housing Build, because without the dignity of having a roof over your head you do not have any hope of training, of attaining greater skills or of getting a stable, secure job.
This government under Premier Allan is making the right investments to ensure that all Victorians have the opportunities that they deserve, and we are doing that without the support of this absolute rabble of an opposition. But I tell you what, we do not need their support, because we are here in great numbers, and that is because we have been endorsed time and time again by the people of Victoria.
Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (16:32): I rise to support the matter of public importance that has been proposed by the member for Hawthorn, the Leader of the Opposition in this house:
That this house notes that the Premier takes over the biggest state debt in the country and has a ministerial legacy of waste, blowouts and mismanagement, further noting:
(1) Victoria’s debt is larger than New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania combined;
(2) the Premier has overseen nearly $30 billion in major project blowouts; and
(3) the Premier was responsible for the expensive and humiliating Commonwealth Games cancellation.
In history there are moments when people remember where they were when those particular moments happened, like when man walked on the moon – when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. People remember where they were when that moment happened. Those that were there when the Berlin Wall, which was an atrocity in Eastern Europe, came down, they remember where they were when the Berlin Wall came down. For those that were Elvis fans, they remember where they were when tragically Elvis Presley died. For a lot of us, we remember where we were when Daniel Andrews resigned. For us, as the Leader of the Opposition said, we were at the Melbourne Show at a show lunch, and the rapturous applause that came through when the MC said ‘I’ve got a message that Daniel Andrews has resigned’ shocked people. It shocked the MC that Daniel had resigned. But it was not just here in Victoria. I had a mate that was in Sydney at a business conference up there, and in Sydney when that motion came through there was rapturous applause, because other states understand how we lived under the heel of the Andrews government in this particular state.
Everyone in Victoria was relieved that the Premier actually resigned. There was a slim sliver of a chance where we thought: a new Premier, a new start, things might actually be different. I said that at the press conference with the Leader of the Opposition after the former Premier resigned: there is a chance for a reset here in Victoria. But we have seen, one week in, no reset. It is business as usual. It is more taxes. The first two big announcements were two new taxes coming in. ‘We’re going to spend the money on the Suburban Rail Loop. We’re going to keep spending on projects that are already over time and over budget.’ There was no opportunity for a reset. Everything is the same. So tragically, that collective sigh, ‘We’re going to have a change’, has turned into a real moan, because it is the same old business as usual.
If you actually look at what business as usual means for regional Victoria, you can go through the investment – or the lack of investment – in infrastructure projects in the last two budgets. In last year’s budget – regional Victoria has got 25 per cent of the population – we got 13 per cent of the capital spend. The year before we got 12 per cent of the capital spend. The funding for road infrastructure has been cut by 45 per cent since 2020. That is down from $700 million to about $450 million.
There are more people losing their lives on Victorian roads now than there were before because the roads are dangerous. There has been a 22 per cent increase in the number of people killed on regional roads, because they are unsafe. I would have thought that a Premier coming from regional Victoria, who uses a regional road, might have actually thought there need to be changes to road funding here in Victoria, but there has been no talk of that at this particular moment.
If you go through the greatest project that I could think was going to happen to regional Victoria, the Murray Basin rail project, it was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to standardise and upgrade all the freight lines of north-west Victoria. It has not been talked about for a while in here, but it will get talked about again, because the now Premier was the minister responsible for that project. It has not been finished. The now Premier says that this project is finished, it is all done. It is not all done – there are still lines there that are broad gauge and not standard gauge. The minister put out a press release a couple of years ago saying that the Maryborough to Ararat line was finished, all the level crossings were done, the train speeds could actually increase. I drove through there a few weeks ago and there is still work going on on those level crossings. The train on that line has not increased its speed. The train from Mildura is not getting to Melbourne any faster than it was before. It means that the turnaround, as they go around the long loop to get to Melbourne, actually takes longer than it used to.
Richard Riordan: You’ve gotta take an esky.
Peter WALSH: Well, they have to take more than an esky; they have to take a cut lunch and a sleeping bag to get from Mildura to Melbourne and back with that particular train. So that project, with so much hope for regional Victoria, is an absolute fail of the now Premier, ruling a line through it and saying, ‘We’ve done our job; this is an issue for a future government’. Can I remind the Premier that she is now the future government, and perhaps she might want to pick that project up and actually finish what she destroyed as she went through those particular circumstances with that.
We saw the now Premier sit around the cabinet table when the native timber industry here in Victoria was closed down, an absolute disgrace for regional Victoria. We saw the now Premier sit around the cabinet table while the CFA, the proud volunteers of Victoria, was absolutely trashed. We saw the now Premier sit around the cabinet table when Jane Garrett as a minister was a lone voice for the CFA, and we know tragically how it ended for her with her political career. So we have a Premier who we have seen will not stand up for regional Victoria, and we are very, very concerned about that.
We saw the IBAC Operation Daintree report that said that the Labor Party has developed a culture of bending or breaking the rules, that it unfairly favours the allies, the friends and the networks of the decision-makers. Are we actually going to see a reset with the new Premier? I think the evidence of the last few days would say no, we will not. The Premier will not come clean, will not talk about the facts, when it comes to the Commonwealth Games. We have seen in question time the last two days that it is made up on the run – it is an answer for this question – but if you are going to tell lies, you have to have a good memory. What is happening here is that the truth is going to come out. Victorians will learn that the government misled them for months and months and months – that the Commonwealth Games was effectively a hoax to get through last November’s election and to give hope to Victorians, particularly regional Victorians, that they would actually get something from this government. What you have seen ever since then is them slowly walking it back and walking it back, engaging lawyers on how the hell do we get out of this mess we have got ourselves into here, till finally the then Premier had to come clean with the now Premier, who had to come back from holidays to make that particular announcement. So the truth will come out. It will take time, but the truth does come out, and that is happening.
I congratulate our team in the upper house and all the crossbenchers in the upper house who came together to have an inquiry into the Commonwealth Games debacle, as we have seen it. That is democracy working as it should work, where the houses actually hold executive government to account, and I would encourage the now Premier: appear before that committee. If you have got nothing to hide, do not use this issue of cognisance between the houses – actually front up. Set an example of integrity, of accountability and of telling the truth, and front up at that committee. But dare I say it, I am sad to say, I do not believe the Premier will do that and front up to that committee.
So after a glimmer of hope, a slight glimmer of hope, with a possible reset of the way Victoria is going to be governed into the future, I must admit I am extremely disappointed that very, very little is going to change, and what we are going to see is that life is going to continue to get harder for Victorians under this government. It was 50 taxes, now 52 taxes – the first reading of legislation today was about how many more taxes we might get into the future. It is going to keep going and going and going. There is a very good saying about Labor governments, apart from the fact that they cannot manage money, and that is, more importantly, that when they run out of their money, they come for your money. And I think a lot of Victorians can now feel the Labor government dipping into their pocket, getting into their wallet, taking it away. The cost-of-living crisis that we are having in Victoria is actually the Labor government. It is the Labor government and their policies that are driving the cost-of-living pressures that we have here in Victoria. Whether it be energy, whether it be taxes or whether it be the property taxes that are being put in place, it is all driving the cost-of-living pressures, and, I would say, nothing is going to change under this current Premier.
Paul HAMER (Box Hill) (16:42): It is a delight to rise today to speak on the opposition’s matter of public importance. Who would have thought we would have an opportunity to speak on the opposition to our government’s transport infrastructure agenda? I also want to start by talking about some important dates in our collective memory, and the first one is 26 November 2022. I know that the Leader of the Nationals talked about some loud cheering, and there was certainly a lot of loud cheering in Box Hill on 26 November 2022 as I was returned as the member for Box Hill along with 55 of my colleagues. There were certainly a lot of cheers on that day – many more cheers than sorrows.
John Mullahy: Great news.
Paul HAMER: Absolutely, member for Glen Waverley – a wonderful new member of the class of 2022. As you said, it was great for the east – a fantastic result. There were cheers that rang out throughout the east as a result of the election, and there certainly was not any sorrow as a result of the election.
I also want to talk about another date, and that is also in 1969. It was perhaps not as internationally significant as man’s first landing on the moon but one that was very important to my heart, even though it was before I was born, and that was the release of the 1969 Melbourne transport plan.
Peter Walsh: I cannot remember where I was.
Paul HAMER: I am sure you were around, Leader of the Nationals. But in that plan there were a number of very important transport infrastructure projects, and as I am sure the opposition remember, that was a signature policy of the Liberal Bolte government. It is sad to say for the Nationals that they were not a party of that government, but the Bolte Liberal government did release that plan. It had a range of transport infrastructure improvements that were to guide Victoria and Melbourne through to the year 2000. How did they fund these projects? Well, they funded them through debt and debt borrowing, and it is interesting that Premier Bolte used state debt to build more infrastructure in Victoria than any other state leader. During his 17 years as Premier debt as a percentage of state economy reached as high as 58 per cent. Now, that seems to have been completely lost on the members of the opposition in the current debate. The position that they seem to want to take is that no debt is good debt, even if it is to deliver the essential infrastructure projects that we need for the future.
The other specific project that I want to talk about from that plan is the city loop. It had been identified earlier, but it was put in the 1969 plan and construction began in 1971, and if I am correct I think the first stations opened in 1981.
John Pesutto: They had proper business cases, Paul.
Paul HAMER: Well, there has been a business case for the Suburban Rail Loop and all of our transport projects. But under the opposition’s consideration of transport projects as they are at the moment you would only be looking at 30 years of benefits. That period would have run out at the end of the century, which means that since the turn of the century there would not have been a single benefit derived from the city loop project, which is obviously just complete rubbish. Everybody who uses that service every single day knows how important the city loop is to the functioning of our city and not only the ability to move around the city from a transport point of view but its ability to reinvigorate those areas of the city that the new stations are in. This Parliament precinct, the area around Melbourne Central and the area around Flagstaff Gardens have changed dramatically in the 45 years since the city loop was opened, and it is because of this transport infrastructure investment that drives further investment and further development and the ability for jobs and job creation and investment.
I think if we are to learn from and take heed of the lessons from the past, they are about the importance of investing for our future. The infrastructure projects that this government and particularly the Premier in her previous role as the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure have had carriage over will set up Melbourne for the next hundred years, because this is the lifetime, the legacy of these projects. The rail lines that were laid down in Melbourne back in the 1850s to 1900s continue to provide exceptional service to the people of Melbourne and Victoria. When we look at the Level Crossing Removal Project, when we look at Metro Tunnel, when we look at the Suburban Rail Loop, these are the projects that are going to sustain Melbourne as it continues to grow from a city of 5 million people to a city of 9 million people in 30 or 40 years time.
I do want to focus specifically on some of these important investment projects and what they mean not only for my local area but for the state in general. The level crossing project: 110 projects have been announced, 72 of which have been completed, including three very important ones that are in my electorate, two which have been recently completed, at Union Road and Mont Albert Road. Seventy-two have so far completed across the metropolitan area, and 110 in total have been funded. These level crossing removals make such a difference to both their local communities and also the ability to then change the service patterns of the metropolitan train system, reduce delays and allow a clock-face timetable so that people can turn up and go get the train services that they need. We should not be stuck in a 19th-century mentality of having level crossings at major road intersections.
I know in our own area it was a big challenge and an enormous infrastructure project – one of the biggest and most complex level crossing projects of any of the metropolitan projects that have been undertaken. I want to thank the Premier for her leadership on the project and the team at the Level Crossing Removal Project for getting this project done in difficult circumstances and of course thank the Surrey Hills and Mont Albert community, who did have to put up with many, many disruptions but are now able to see the results of that work. The vast majority of the community are enormously pleased with the outcome that it has provided.
On the Metro Tunnel project, another vitally important infrastructure project to allow and facilitate the growth in our community – we know that the city loop, as I mentioned before, has provided such an enormous benefit to the city over its almost 50 years of life, but it is reaching capacity. In order to provide the additional access for commuters into the city, there needed to be additional train paths, and the way to achieve that was through additional tunnels such as the Metro Tunnel. The Premier has shown leadership through driving this project through. As the member for Bentleigh said, this was taken off the agenda during the Baillieu and Napthine years, and it was only on it when Premier Andrews was elected and the Andrews government committed to this project in full – without any single level of support from the federal Liberal government throughout the entire period of that government, which forced the Victorian government to make that important decision, which will provide a long-lasting legacy to the Victorian people and particularly to the people of Melbourne.
Finally, in the very short period of time I have left, I just wanted to congratulate and acknowledge the foresight of the Premier in driving the Suburban Rail Loop project. This is going to make a huge difference for suburbs and particularly suburbs such as Box Hill.
David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (16:52): I rise to support the member for Hawthorn’s matter of public importance. What we now know is that it was party time in Victoria when the North Face jacket left the building. I can safely say that we have had the most divisive Premier that this state has ever seen – a Premier that still needs a security detail, a Premier that nobody wants to play golf with on the golf driving range. Somebody that loves playing golf, when they see him, walks a million miles. Let me tell you, people celebrated when Daniel Andrews left the building, and so they should, because he delivered pain, suffering, debt and mismanagement to this state.
And who was his copilot? The current Premier, who had an audition that we were all watching, who had an audition to say what is this Premier going to be like. Well, we all should have actually realised what this Premier would be like because the waste and mismanagement absolutely started and finished with the current Premier – $30 billion of budget blowouts and a Commonwealth Games non-delivery. This is a Premier that actually was a former minister for budget blowouts, the former minister for the big bill, the former minister for the non-delivery of Commonwealth Games – what an audition, an audition that shows absolutely, as we have said and as we have seen time and time again, a government that cannot manage money. And what is the result of that? Victorians end up always having to pay more. It is a government that have their hands in taxpayers pockets to actually fill the gaps that they cannot manage themselves.
We knew, when the Premier had left the building to get onto the golf range, that it was time for a new Premier. And you would have thought this all would have worked out pretty smoothly. You would have thought that the Premier that had been auditioning for 10 months after the election was ready to go, starting to do that work, ready to take over. She had the Deputy Premier all set to go, the Treasurer – those two were all ready to actually take over from Daniel Andrews. It was not so smooth, was it? We had fighting, we had divisiveness, we had such chaos that the Premier had to come back from his golf – Daniel Andrews – to sort it out. And what did he say? ‘What have I done for this? What have I done to you?’ – as if he did such wonderful things for the state and expected just a smooth transition and that everything would be right. Well, we know that has not been right.
We have seen the first two days of what was an audition and is now absolutely a mess – a shambolic mess. You see such divisiveness. You have got the Deputy Premier sitting there looking and saying when is it going to be my turn. You have got the member for Essendon that has taken over the minister for budget blowouts legacy to cut the ribbons on all these projects, whenever they are going to be delivered. This is a mess. And why is it that this government cannot manage money? Why is it that the Premier cannot manage money? Why do we have $30 billion of budget blowouts that we are all paying for? The highest debt in the nation, the highest taxing state in the nation – more taxes than anybody – and what does this government do? ‘Oh, we’ll add some more taxes: some more property taxes, a holiday tax, a health tax, an education tax.’ It goes on and on and on – and more property taxes. They will just keep going. You know why? None of this government have actually done a day’s real work in their life. They do not know what it is like to hold a real job, to run a real business. None of them sitting on the back bench have an idea how to run a real job. But I will leave the backbench aside.
Let us look at the ministry. Let us worry about the front bench. We have got 21 members on the front bench. You talk about waste and mismanagement – 21 members on the front bench. Here we go. Of the 21, how many are trade unionists? Nine. How many political staffers? Thirteen. How many trade unionists and political staffers? Three. How many public servants? Two. How many small business owners? Two.
A member interjected.
David SOUTHWICK: No, no – two. We need to go through a bit more detail. But at least that was stated there, so I will give them the benefit of that. Two. No wonder the state is broke.
David SOUTHWICK: Shoppies? Yes, probably. But fair dinkum, no wonder this government has got their hand in every single taxpayer’s pocket. Fair dinkum, this is a government that could not manage a chook raffle. And you know why? Because when they run out of money, they just tax you more. You can imagine having the Premier say, ‘You know what, this is your shop. Away you go. Open it up. Off you go.’ All of a sudden – like we see with rents continuing to go up – how do we pay for that? You cannot use the taxpayer. All of a sudden, what do we sell? Well, you know what, you cannot sell what you want to force people to sell. You have actually got to have real product. You have got to actually work hard. You have got to roll up your sleeves. You have got to know what it is like to go without. None of this lot know about any of that when it comes to real work. Not one single person knows about real work – none of them. They are very, very happy to take off the taxpayer. It is greed. It is envy. It is looking after yourself, looking after your mates. They have no idea what it is like to work hard. No wonder we are broke. No wonder we have got the highest debt in the nation. No wonder Victorians are paying for it. There is pain and suffering like you have never seen before, and they do not care. Up the back they turned around when we said more taxes: ‘Oh, that’s all right. Developers will pay for it.’ Well, it was very, very easy to say there was going to be a honeymoon between the property and the private sectors to build all of this housing. How many? 220 new homes a day. The total being?
Wayne Farnham: Eighty thousand a year.
David SOUTHWICK: Eighty thousand a year. Let us extrapolate it. I will tell you what, if there are any punting people over there on the other side, I will lay you good odds that those houses will not be delivered. They will not be delivered, because where do you get the materials from? Where do you get the labour from? Where do you get the money and the debt to pay for any of this stuff? It is not magic. It is not confetti. It does not come from nowhere. You cannot keep taxing people out of existence. People have got other options. If Victoria is a state that taxes you more, if Victoria is a place that sends you broke, what do you do? You go somewhere else.
The best way to be able to stimulate the economy is to get some competition, get some confidence and get people to invest back in the state. They are not doing that, because Labor only know one thing – taxing you more. When you work harder, they tax you more. When somebody actually really has a go, you do not turn around and say, ‘Good on you, keep going,’ you say, ‘You’ve earned too much money. It’s greed.’ It is just targeting people. This is tall poppy syndrome like you have never seen. That is what this government is like. It is class warfare like you have never seen before. That is why Victoria is not the place that it used to be. That is why it is harder now than it ever was before to be able to buy your first home. Housing affordability – absolutely forget about that. The former Premier said, ‘Who wants to buy a home? We’re quite happy with people renting. Who wants to buy a home? Young people don’t want to buy a home.’ That is the former Premier, who is now at the golf course. No wonder there is no reward for effort, opportunity or getting the reset that we need in this state.
The state needs a reset. We thought we would get that from the new Premier, but it is more of the same. The Commonwealth Games was a big test for this current Premier. Two billion dollars – that is what it was meant to be. She keeps talking about the $4 billion blowout – $4 billion. That was not under us, that was under this Labor government. They could not manage the Commonwealth Games. We are all paying the price. The Labor government is spending $2 billion to pay for something that we are not even going to deliver in this state. The Commonwealth Games is a classic example: this is a government that cannot manage money. We are all paying the price. Taxpayers are worse off. Victoria is broke, and it is the Labor government that has caused the pain and suffering to all Victorians.
Martha HAYLETT (Ripon) (17:02): I rise to speak on the matter of public importance submitted by the member for Hawthorn today. Firstly, I am really surprised that this MPI does not have the word ‘nasty’ in it, as I know it is a word that those opposite love to use when describing the first female Premier that we have had in the last 30 years. The notion of those opposite in this MPI is simply wrong. Victorians know that the legacy of our amazing new Premier lives on in the vast amount of transport infrastructure projects she has delivered. She has done more for this state than you could ever hope to imagine in your lifetime. She wrote the book on ensuring rural and regional voices are heard in this place. Her positive legacy runs deep not just in Bendigo and Melbourne but across the entire state. She has overseen the Regional Rail Revival project, which is delivering upgrades on every single regional train line across this state.
John Pesutto: Rubbish!
Martha HAYLETT: It is not rubbish at all. In my neck of the woods she has led work on the $500 million Ballarat line upgrade, which has seen 135 extra weekly services delivered for Ballarat, with trains every 20 minutes during the peak and every 40 minutes off peak. She has delivered stabling upgrades at Ararat and extra services on the Ararat and Maryborough lines. She has saved jobs at Alstom by building trains in Ballarat and Dandenong – rather than overseas, like those opposite.
Martha HAYLETT: This is in stark contrast, member for Hawthorn, to the dark days, the dark era when those opposite ruled this state and closed five country train lines, shut 176 country schools and 12 country hospitals and went on a relentless privatisation rampage that left lasting scars across our communities. My community has not forgotten what you did to the Maryborough line and the Ararat line. They will never, ever forget that you closed those train lines and we reopened them.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Leader of the Opposition! Without assistance, please.
Martha HAYLETT: The Premier’s work in transport has transformed our rural and regional areas. It has transformed the train network. It has created jobs. It has boosted our local economies, with more fantastic projects to come.
I am also so grateful for the Premier’s support in delivering lasting legacy projects across the Ripon electorate, including a brand new sports facility for Miners Rest, new mountain bike trails in Creswick and future affordable social housing and key worker housing as part of the $1 billion Regional Housing Fund. She has personally joined me on several occasions to spruik these projects, including in Miners Rest and Creswick. Local schoolkids from Miners Rest Primary School were so excited to meet the now Premier, and the entire Miners Rest community cannot wait to see their brand new sports facility delivered soon. It will include a competition-grade oval, sports pavilion, change rooms, amenities, car parking and more. It will mean Miners Rest locals will be able to play sport close to home, which is a huge win for our kids and locals of all ages. The Creswick trails project is also much anticipated by locals and mountain bikers across the state. It will form a network of mountain bike trails around Creswick, and it will boost tourism across our whole region. These projects would not happen without the leadership of Jacinta Allan. She has always had rural and regional communities at the heart of her decision-making, and without her tireless work over the past 24 years our state would not be what it is today. She has more leadership in her pinky finger than any of those opposite have in their entire body. It is not just transport and sporting infrastructure that she has led the way on across Ripon but so much more.
I remember the day last year that she joined the member for Wendouree and me in Ross Creek with members of the Ballarat Indian community. It was such a proud day, and the Premier had moved mountains to be there to announce $900,000 for a new Hindu temple and cultural centre for the local Hindu community. I remember her generosity and kindness and how happy the committee members were to have her there. This project will mean locals will no longer have to travel to Melbourne to attend temple. It will deliver a new prayer hall, commercial kitchen, children’s playground and more. I want to thank the tireless volunteers who have advocated for this project, including my friend Pradush Narayanan, and Gobi Anand, Harisankar Parippaayillam, Raveen Chilukuri, Sundram and other committee members. Supporting the many incredible multicultural communities across Ripon and the entire state is something our new Premier has always done, because she deeply cares about inclusion and community. She values diversity, and she backs people with actions, not just words.
Another big piece of work that she has led the way on is the development of the Ballarat West employment zone in my electorate. It will become the engine room of jobs and growth in Ballarat over the next 20 years and involves the development of surplus Crown land for industrial, commercial and residential use. It will be home to a new intermodal freight hub, getting freight trucks off our roads and onto rail, and it is powering ahead, with work well underway and new business busting to be a part of it, including McCallum Disability Services and a food bank. Our Premier has not wasted a single minute getting on with state-shaping projects. She has inspired a generation of women to get into politics, including me.
While she has been delivering project after project, getting elected time and time again, those opposite have just continued to sink further and further into irrelevance. They are divided, and they bicker with each other while the far right continues to infiltrate their party. The Leader of the Opposition is even booed by his own party members, many of whom live in my electorate of Ripon, when he speaks at the Liberal state conference. His party runs racists and bigots as state election candidates. They have been writing op-eds and running community forums in country Victoria, causing fear and spreading misinformation about the Voice to Parliament. Many of the members opposite do not even believe in women’s fundamental rights over their own bodies. Even the federal Leader of the Opposition says that the Victorian Liberals have to sort out their mess. So if I were them, I would probably focus a bit more on themselves rather than throwing cheap shots at this side of the chamber. Meanwhile, unlike those opposite, who need to settle their disputes in court over defamation proceedings, our new Premier has the full support of her entire caucus.
Members interjecting.
Martha HAYLETT: She truly does. We are united on this side of the chamber. We are united, unlike those opposite. We are focused on delivering projects our state needs, including better transport infrastructure, upgraded schools and hospitals, safer roads and more social and affordable housing, which you will all claim the credit for, I am sure, when we do it all. I am so honoured to be a member of the Allan Labor government, and I love the sound of that. It sounds fantastic.
I know that our new Premier will do the whole state proud with her passion, determination and commitment to those who need it most. She was the very first woman to represent Bendigo in any Australian Parliament when she was elected into this place as a young 26-year-old. At that time she said true representation ‘means caring about people, listening to the people and speaking out for the people’. She wanted to make a difference, and she has. Her track record is one of delivery, and those opposite would be wise to take note of her leadership style. I cannot wait to see all the good that she does for this state. We will all be backing her along the way, united in supporting her.
Emma KEALY (Lowan) (17:11): It is always wonderful to speak on a matter of public importance, particularly one which is as important as this – something that says this is just same same but different. It is the same old Labor government that Victoria has had to deal with for the past nine years – we are nearly into the 10th year of this government. The same bad decisions are being made. The same strategy is being put in place, where you just tax Victorians more and more and you cut spending on the services that Victorians need – the job of government – while our hospitals are falling apart. They are rat infested. There are some which have got non-compliant cladding still on their walls that is not being addressed. We have got members of the government who are instead treating this like a bit of a cheer squad opportunity and totally rewriting the history of the current Premier and her fingerprints, which are all over what has happened to Victoria over the past nine years. It is just laughable.
I had to choke back a few tears of laughter when the member for Ripon was talking about how great the investment in the roads in her electorate are. Have you travelled on the Western Highway recently? You do not drive on the left of the road, you drive on what is left of the road through that area. Holy smokes, it is not many times that I drive along that highway, in the member for Ripon’s electorate, but you have cars on the side of the road, with the tyre invariably flat and ripped open, rim damage and chunks taken out, and people waiting for the RACV to tow them away. This is not an unusual sight. I have spoken to many, many people, and as a standard rule they drive on the right side of the road, because the left side is just critically dangerous. There are not just potholes along the left side of the road on the Western Highway, there are craters. If you are driving a smart car, you would possibly lose it. It is absolutely disastrous what is going on there, and this is an extra cost that we are seeing every single Victorian having to pay, because we have got the token little spray of white paint around the pothole, we have got the little sign up – ‘Slow down; road hazard ahead’ – but there is no sign of any road crews. Instead of investing in our roads, what we have seen from the Allan Labor government is a cut to the road asset management budget. In fact what we have seen is a 45 per cent cut since 2020. That is a critical cut, and it is not just for roadworks, it is for road waterproofing as well. The waterproofing is so important, because if we do not keep water out of our road surfaces, those little fissures quickly turn into potholes and your road totally falls apart. When we were in government around $350 million a year was put into the road waterproofing.
Tim McCurdy: How much?
Emma KEALY: About $350 million a year. Under the Labor government it has been about $250 million a year. This year it has been cut back to $30 million a year. But wait, it is not just the $30 million a year. They are not actually putting that out to tender. They are keeping it up their sleeves for, literally, a rainy day. So this year no road resurfacing for waterproofing will take place in Victoria – no road waterproofing. This is absolutely disgraceful and will have critical impacts in years to come.
If this is how this Labor government – from what we are hearing from these MPs, the people opposite – looks after regional Victorians, then no wonder they have got no idea what they are doing. That is why regional Victorians do not vote for Labor – because they know that there are never any projects that are put in place in regional Victoria. The current Premier could only ever talk about projects in Melbourne. And do you know what came with those projects in Melbourne? Massive cost blowouts, massive debts, more taxes and Victorians having to pay more for less. That is what we saw every time. So any time the Premier gets on her feet and we think, ‘Wow, we’ve got someone from regional Victoria,’ let us face it, we had it before, didn’t we? Premier Andrews, that country lad from Wangaratta.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Tarneit is warned.
Emma KEALY: Didn’t he have that little country attitude at heart? He loved the country. They did not speak so highly of him, though. He never, ever put country Victoria first, and we saw that in every single budget that Labor have handed down – every single budget. Regional Victorians make up 25 per cent of the state’s population – 25 per cent. We do not get 25 per cent of the state’s infrastructure spend.
Members interjecting.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Interjections have gotten too loud, and it would be very nice if I could hear the member speak.
Emma KEALY: I can raise my voice even further, Deputy Speaker, if you like. I have got a bit of voice left after Collingwood’s fabulous grand final win last Saturday, and I congratulate all the boys in black and white for that fabulous win. We should have all been cheering, and I would love for the Speaker to make the effort to bring that premiership cup to Parliament House so we can all feel how good it is to have Collingwood as premiers in 2023.
Let us come back to our so-called Premier for regional Victoria. Gee, she has done a lot of things that have really harmed regional Victoria. I reflect upon the member for Murray Plains’s contribution about what you were doing when you heard that Daniel Andrews had resigned. I was at that same function with the Leader of the Nationals at the Melbourne Royal Show, and the cheers and the jubilation – not just in that room but right around the showgrounds – were absolutely palpable. Not just in the conversations that I had, you could hear people walking by – and they were not just country people; these were city slickers who were talking about, ‘I can’t believe the bloke’s finally gone’. They were cheering. They were happy. But it soon went from being happy, from having the free beers out the front of Parliament House – people got on the beers – to people remembering what harm Labor did to the state of Victoria when he was Premier and Jacinta Allan was his deputy. That is what people remembered. I heard terrible, terrible stories, where people remembered their dying mother during COVID – they could not go and hold their hand.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Wendouree is not in her seat.
Emma KEALY: That is exactly what people said. That is exactly what people were talking about. People were grieving about circumstances where people died and the whole family could not attend a funeral because there were 17 people in the family and only 10 could go to a funeral in an LGA – Hindmarsh council, where there had never, ever been a case of COVID.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Tarneit, you are pushing it.
Emma KEALY: Now, the people opposite might think that this is not serious. They are having a joke and a laugh about people dying during COVID. I think that is disgraceful, and that is a reflection upon each and every one of you, because the harms from COVID lockdowns were horrific, and they were particularly horrific on people who live in regional and rural Victoria. We have seen so many studies come out now about the lingering impacts on people’s physical health but also particularly their mental health. We are seeing critical surges when it comes to people using alcohol and other drugs, which are impacting on them severely as a result of Labor’s lockdowns over COVID, but there simply are not any rehab services to go to.
As a result of having this massive, massive debt based on cost blowouts, mismanagement and corruption by the Labor government, in Victoria we are paying $15 million a day of interest to the big banks. That is $15 million of taxpayers money that should be directed into our services, into our hospitals, into our schools, into our infrastructure, but instead it is just being paid as interest and being frittered away. There are so many things that that money could be used for. It is about a million dollars per kilometre of road, so that money could upgrade 15 kilometres of road each and every day. In fact – and the member for Ripon will support this – if we did not have this massive interest debt to pay, in three months we could resurface the entire Western Highway right from my electorate in the west, from the South Australian border, through the member for Ripon’s patch, right the way through to Deer Park. That is what we could do by saving that interest. In just 8 minutes we could fund Lifeline Gippsland for one year – in 8 minutes. We could fund Mildura’s second river crossing in less than a week. We could fund the Goulburn Valley stage 2 redevelopment in less than two weeks. We could fund the Kilmore public secondary college – a town which has got 10,000 people in it but does not have a public secondary school – in just two days. We could redevelop Western District Health Service in about a day. We could build a new swimming pool in Rochester – one was destroyed by floods – by lunchtime. We could then of course, as I said before when I was talking about the impact of lockdown, build in every two days a brand new drug and alcohol rehabilitation bed. Tell me that is not something that Frankston desperately, desperately needs at this point in time – as does Shepparton, as does Warrnambool, as does Latrobe Valley, as does Mildura. I urge the government to do better – and do better for regional Victorians.
John MULLAHY (Glen Waverley) (17:21): I rise this afternoon in the face of this matter of public interest that is equally as ridiculous and laughable as it is insulting to the people of Victoria, because time and time again, over the past three elections, the people of this great state have voted for a government that gets on and does the things we promise. At each election we have expanded our majority in this place, because the people of Victoria have seen that this government invests in what matters – in housing, education, health care and transport – and that is what Victorians can count on.
The rabble opposite are convinced that our track record of delivery is something to be ashamed of, but the Glen Waverley district has a message for them: the Liberals’ dream of Thatcherism and neoliberalism is Victoria’s nightmare. It is why time and time again Labor has expanded our presence in the east, in no small part thanks to the leadership and the tireless work of our Premier. In her previous role the now Premier oversaw the greatest transformation of Victoria’s transport infrastructure, I would argue, since Victoria’s gold rush of the 1850s. It truly cannot be overstated, because the consequences of our Big Build are visible in every suburb of the city and in every corner of our state.
The bold Level Crossing Removal Project is a great example of the terrific work done by the Premier. Back in 2014, after four years of inaction and stagnation under the Victorian Liberals, we promised we would remove 50 of our most dangerous and congested level crossings. Victoria backed the plan, and our Premier delivered on our promise. In fact we went well and truly beyond. Fast-forward to 2023 and we now have 72 level crossings gone for good, plus over 40 new and rebuilt train stations across the state. The Level Crossing Removal Project is supporting thousands of jobs, creating award-winning public open spaces, busting congestion and creating level crossing free rail corridors so we can run more trains.
Under the leadership of the Premier, we are not stopping at the original promise of 50 level crossings, we are removing 110 by 2030. Not only do the Victorian people back the Premier’s work, they see right through the Victorian Liberals, who seek to tear it up at every step of the way. I remember back in the lead-up to the 2018 state election the Liberals’ vicious campaign against the Cranbourne and Pakenham line level crossing removals, railing against the project at every single turn. But the Victorian communities saw right through their negativity and comprehensively returned Labor MPs all along that corridor to office. Now those communities enjoy world-class train stations, the new Djerring bike path and great open spaces thanks to Premier Allan’s great work in the transport infrastructure portfolio.
But for whatever reason, the Victorian Liberals never learn. Stuck in their same old ways of whingeing and screaming at any sign of investment into transport infrastructure, you would have thought they would have learned their lesson by 2018. But they did not, because come 2022 the Liberals were at it again, and this time in the east – at every step of the way, nothing but whingeing and screaming about the level crossing removals across the Belgrave and Lilydale lines. Well, they were once again proved to be deeply out of touch with Victorians, because Victorians know that these level crossings must go. That is especially the case in Surrey Hills, where two people were killed at the Union Road crossing. The Surrey Hills and Mont Albert community resoundingly re-elected the member for Box Hill in the face of an anti-level crossing removal campaign by the Victorian Liberals, and now that community is level crossing free, with the terrific new Union station now open and taking passengers and beautiful new open spaces being planted as we speak. Make no mistake, the brilliant progress is possible thanks to the leadership of the Premier. It is progress that is stifled every step of the way by those in the Victorian Liberal Party opposite.
It is not just level crossing removals where Victorian Liberals do their best to halt our city-shaping investments in transport infrastructure, because in my part of the world, the Glen Waverley district, we back the Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) and the incredible work the Premier has done to make it a reality. For context, it is hard to overstate the importance of the Suburban Rail Loop in reshaping Melbourne and our transport network for decades to come. The twin rail tunnels will connect every major line in the state and create beautiful, highly livable communities around each of the station precincts. It is a concept we first took to the Victorian community back in 2018. Once again, as you might have guessed, it was the Premier who spearheaded this great project from the start, and it was the Victorian Liberals who opposed it, first at the 2018 state election, which saw the Liberals spectacularly lose what they call their ‘crown jewels’ – the seats of Box Hill, Burwood and Mount Waverly in the east. They all flipped to red, as did the adjacent seats of Ringwood and Hawthorn, because the people of Melbourne’s east want a government that is visionary and has the guts to deliver the bold infrastructure projects we need for the years to come, like the Suburban Rail Loop.
Ever since the game-changing election in 2018 it has been the Premier leading the charge to complete a massive body of work on the Suburban Rail Loop – first the business and investment case process, then the most detailed environment effects statement of any project in national history and the rollout of the Suburban Rail Loop community funds in the communities along the rail corridor. Thanks to its hard work and leadership, the Allan Labor government is getting on and getting it done.
The first stage of the SRL, SRL East, will connect Cheltenham to Box Hill, with stations at Clayton, Monash University, Glen Waverley and Deakin Burwood in your electorate, Deputy Speaker. Early work is now underway. There has been intense geotechnical drilling all along the corridor. In Glen Waverley I recently visited the construction site with the now Premier, where a team of workers have already been relocating services around the future station box, and in Box Hill there is major construction underway as we speak to build a brand new high-capacity tram terminus in preparation for the SRL station construction. The Suburban Rail Loop is not a pipedream; there are hundreds of workers on the ground right now making the SRL East a reality. The Victorian community sees it and the Victorian community likes it.
You would think that the Victorian Liberals would recalculate after the disaster that was their SRL policy in 2018. You would think they would recognise the community’s support for the project and acknowledge the Victorian community want a government that is bold and then delivers. But that was not to be, and once again for whatever reason they promised yet again to tear it all up, not dissimilar to their stance on the level crossing removals or any number of transformational infrastructure projects across Victoria: too hard, too expensive, too tricky. For an opposition that was trying to win over the hearts of Victorians and form government, it was deeply embarrassing stuff to adopt a no-can-do attitude. Imagine for one moment if we applied the same logic to the city loop or the construction of the international terminal at Melbourne Airport or the electrification of the rail network: we would be stuck in the dark ages. Yet for the Victorian Liberals that is where these things seem to be at, both with their internal social policy debates and also with their transport infrastructure policy. Their 2022 election policy of cutting the Suburban Rail Loop was no different, but once again it failed dismally in every single seat along the SRL East corridor, from Mordialloc and Clarinda to Oakleigh, Glen Waverley and your seat, Deputy Speaker, Ashwood as well as Box Hill, because Victorians have seen Premier Allan’s leadership and the body of work we have done so far and they want us to keep going and get the job done.
When I doorknocked thousands of people as a candidate last year, even the most staunch, traditional Liberals were telling me to just get it done. So that is what we are doing. As I mentioned just before, there is a power of work already underway and we are not slowing down, because by 2026 there will be tunnel boring machines in the ground beneath the eastern and south-eastern suburbs, building the Suburban Rail Loop. This is not just an ambition, it is going to be a reality, because we have just signed the first two tunnelling contracts to make that happen – and I believe you, Deputy Speaker, were there with the Premier the other day to announce that Glen Waverley to Cheltenham section. It is happening thanks to the leadership of Premier Allan, and it is happening because the Victorian community backed the Suburban Rail Loop – not once, but twice.
That is why this matter of public importance before the house today is just so laughable. It is like they do not understand the reality of Victoria in 2023. The community rejects their hands-off, Thatcheresque approach to infrastructure and service delivery. The community wants the state to act and to get things done, and whether it is level crossing removals, the Metro Tunnel, the Regional Rail Revival, the North East Link, the West Gate Tunnel, the Monash widening or the Suburban Rail Loop, the Victorian people want to see it happen. For almost a decade it has been the Premier that has been making these projects a reality.
Believe it or not, though, of course these projects cost money. But it is an investment for all Victorians because this spending is on productive infrastructure that not only creates jobs during the construction but grows the economy in the long term. It is this spending that supports our strong and diverse economy and maintains our position as an economic powerhouse of Australia. The good people of Victoria owe the success of our Big Build to the leadership of the Premier. With a short bit of time: Victorians want better than that, and I am proud to be part of the Allan government, which is doing what matters.
Bridget VALLENCE (Evelyn) (17:31): One week in and the honeymoon is over. The ghost of Daniel Andrews is just lingering there. Daniel Andrews would not have let taxing Treasurer Tim get away with going rogue on day two of Parliament. The ghost of Andrews is there; the expletive-laden rants of Andrews – ‘They’re nothing’ – dot, dot, dot – ‘without me’, he said. Rather than Premier Allan beginning with a fresh start and a reset, Premier Allan is just a pale imitation of Daniel Andrews. That is all she knows – day two here in Parliament, on the job, and a new Premier but same old Labor, introducing not one, but two new taxes –
A member: Already.
Bridget VALLENCE: just on day two in Parliament – same old Labor, same taxing Labor, tired and divided after nine long years, with Daniel Andrews leaving the sinking ship. All they know is to spend more and tax you more for it. Premier Allan only knows one way. She is continuing the legacy of Daniel Andrews’s government of financial incompetence, reckless spending, a $200 billion debt – sinking the state into astronomical debt that our children and our grandchildren will be burdened with – and increasing taxes. There have been 52 new or increased taxes since this Labor government has been in power – same old Labor, same taxing Labor: a new jobs tax, a new rent tax, a new housing tax, a new schools tax – punishing everyday Victorians each and every day for its economic incompetence, making life harder for Victorians because it has sent this place broke. It should be ashamed of that. It is absolutely shameful that they have sent Victoria broke. They have sent the place broke because, in major part, the Big Build projects and the canned Commonwealth Games projects, under the watch of former Minister Allan and now Premier Allan, have been responsible for such massive waste, massive cost blowouts of over $30 billion, at least that we know of – is it $30 billion, is it $60 billion, is it $100 billion? – on these major projects.
I call on the Premier again to come in and come clean with Victorians, to name just one project that she has been responsible for that she has delivered on time and on budget. I bet she will not come in, because she will not be able to name one. She will not be able to name one project that she has delivered on time or on budget. Every project that she has touched is years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget and has contributed to tracking towards $171 billion, and then $200 billion in the forward estimates, of budget debt that she is leaving for our children and grandchildren to have to pay back.
No wonder they are cutting services and taxing Victorians more – the economic position of Victoria is really terrible. There are so many things on which Victoria is the worst of any state in Australia. It is not a legacy that I think I would want to inherit as Premier, but this Premier has been the copilot with Daniel Andrews, hand in hand making these decisions that sent our state into spiralling debt. Unprecedented cost-of-living pressures – the cost of everyday Victorians’ budgets is going up, and it is as a result of many of the decisions of this tired Labor government. Escalating energy prices, the cost of grocery bills going through the roof, fuel – this government will blame the war in Ukraine, but we all know that there are many decisions of this government that are contributing to the cost-of-living pressures that Victorians are experiencing every day.
That brutal budget they handed down in May – though we would ask: is anything worth the paper it is written on in terms of the budget? Because the Commonwealth Games was there front and centre in the budget but only weeks later was canned. It is a budget of higher taxes, continuing deficits and spiralling debt well into the future. As we have said before, 52 new or increased taxes, and we think that this government is foreshadowing another 10 to 12 new taxes just overnight. We are very concerned that these taxes are contributing to the increased cost-of-living pressures for Victorians. Victorians pay the highest taxes in Australia. Victoria is the highest taxed state of any state or territory in the country. This is just ridiculous – more than $5000 per person in taxes.
John Pesutto: Ridiculous.
Bridget VALLENCE: It is crazy. As the member for Hawthorn, who brought this matter of public importance forward today says, it is ridiculous that everyday Victorians are having to pay more than $5000 in taxes. That is $5000 that they cannot spend on other things: on their children, on getting food on the table, on just general maintenance around their household.
We have said that the debt is going up to $171 billion, but of course that is not the real figure. So many experts say it is going to be well over $200 billion in just a few years time. That is larger than the combined debt of New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania – again, a shameful legacy of this tired Labor government. These interest payments – as of today, just today, we are spending $15 million of Victorians’ hard-earned taxpayer dollars just to pay down the debt. In a few years time that will be $22 million a day just to pay off the debt. That is money just gone to pay the debt bill.
Just think of what you could do with $22 million. In my community that would mean fixing the dangerous and deadly roads throughout the Yarra Valley: the Warburton Highway at Seville East and the Maroondah Highway at Killara Road, Coldstream. It would mean duplicating the rail track between Mooroolbark and Lilydale on the Lilydale line to improve the frequency of those trains. It would mean changing the single-lane bottleneck under the Hull Road rail bridge so that there would not be that congestion for all of the people in Mooroolbark, Lilydale and surrounds. It would mean fixing and upgrading the local schools so that our children in my community would have the best possible learning environments – not pork-barrelling all of the schools in the neighbouring Monbulk electorate but actually spending some money on the schools in the Evelyn electorate too. We could spend some money on upgrading vital equipment for the Lilydale State Emergency Service, the SES and the CFA brigades. That is what we could do with the massive interest debt that we are paying: $15 million a day just in my community. Think what that could mean for communities right across Victoria. But under Labor all they know is debt and taxes. Victoria is broke, and life is getting harder for Victorians. Everyday Victorians are being punished for Labor’s incompetence.
Look at the West Gate Tunnel Project: a $5.5 billion project, now $10.2 billion. That is a $4.7 billion blowout. It was a broken 2018 election promise to have this built by 2022. Remember all of the banners up, saying ‘You’ll save 20 minutes’ and ‘It will be built by 2022’? When they realised they could not deliver on that, they ripped down all that banner wrap. Premier Allan was the one saying that that would be done by 2022. That is a broken promise. When I was on the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee in 2020 and asked the then minister and now Premier when the West Gate Tunnel Project would actually be delivered, she said, on record at PAEC, ‘in 2023’. Well, there are only a few months of 2023 left and that project is nowhere near being delivered, and the cost blowouts are just going to get even worse still.
The Level Crossing Removal Project promised $5 billion. The current estimate is that that project has blown out by $3.3 billion. Look at the Lilydale and Mooroolbark level crossing removals – projects that I have been calling for since 2017, which were finally done but at a cost of half a billion dollars to do those Lilydale and Mooroolbark level crossings, and they failed to take up the opportunity to duplicate the track. So the frequency of the trains has not improved – not a second’s improvement in the train services on that line – the car parks are leaking, the concreting has led to flooding in the local shops across the road and the Parkiteer bike cages have not been working for 12 months. It is absolutely a botched project, and the traffic congestion around there is nuts.
We have not even got to the Commonwealth Games project. How could you say a $2.6 billion budget blew out by $7 billion? That is under the watch of this Premier. How could you get it so wrong, Premier?
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Before I call the member for Kororoit, I would like to acknowledge the presence of former Minister for Environment and Climate Change and Minister for Youth Affairs and former member for Warrandyte Ryan Smith.
Luba GRIGOROVITCH (Kororoit) (17:41): I rise to speak to the matter of public importance, which was put by the member for Hawthorn. I have got to say, when reading through this motion, I had to laugh at the hypocrisy of the mover. Those opposite are people who, when last in office – and I believe that was 2010 to 2014, and we all remember those dark days of Ted Baillieu and Denis Napthine – did absolutely nothing but slash spending on hospitals and schools, destroy our TAFEs and attack our unions. And I speak on good authority with that as I was at the Rail, Tram and Bus Union. Those opposite engaged in pure and arrogant self-indulgence, and the people of Victoria rightly rewarded these clowns with simply one term.
I dread to think what might have happened if those opposite had have been in charge of this state during the unprecedented pandemic crisis. Instead of spending the necessary money to protect, they would have stood back and let the people fend for themselves, especially the most vulnerable. If this government had not stepped in and spent during the pandemic and lockdowns, this state would have fallen into recession, and that is what those opposite wanted – a recession where it is dog eat dog. Those opposite hate government stepping in and protecting people in hard times because in their heart of hearts they believe in the market’s law of the jungle – if people suffer and lose their jobs or the roof over their heads or the small businesses, well, then that is simply just too bad. The truth is it was this government, alongside ordinary working people, who got us through the darkest days of the pandemic. Through their sacrifice and hard work they got all of us through, and those opposite want to talk working people down and scoff at them whenever it suits them, with contempt.
The opposition claim major cost blowouts, but the truth is that this government is the government that gets things done, and we all know that. It is this government, the Allan Labor government, that is going to continue to get things done for Victoria – the Allan Labor government alongside our amazing leadership team. Let us not forget the Victorian people have endorsed our government’s positive plans for three elections. Yes, that is right – three elections. We are increasing the margins each and every time. We have proudly been serving the Victorian community and delivering on our promises since day one. We are ensuring that Victorians receive the care that they need, closer to home. We are getting rid of 110 of the most congested and dangerous level crossings. We are continuing to drive a package of planning reforms from our housing statement, clearing the backlog of approvals, making sure that good decisions are made faster and guiding the way that our suburbs grow. We are building the transport which our state desperately needs. We are making sure that Victoria has a pipeline of work and that we can keep up with the demand.
We are doing what we need to do – we are not wasting a day. We are investing in teachers and nurses and ensuring that we get on with what matters, and that is because under our leadership, all Victorians will get what they deserve. Doing what matters is at the forefront of our Premier’s mind, and our side of politics is completely behind the Allan government, as we are united. We will continue to get on with what matters, and in my patch of Kororoit that has been evident. As you all know and you have heard many times before, Kororoit picks up two local government areas, the City of Brimbank and the City of Melton. As I have said in this chamber before, the City of Melton is the fastest growing LGA in Australia – 58 babies per week. Thanks to our side of the house, we are keeping up and investing money there.
Let us start with transport, one of my favourite subjects. We have got additional rail services: 10 new peak services a week on the Ballarat line; bus services and infrastructure: changes to the Caroline Springs route 426; Caroline Springs station: 400 car parks which are new and have been upgraded; and then the Deer Park train station, which has 150 new spaces. I was actually there two weeks ago with Deputy Premier Ben Carroll. We have got more services on the Ballarat line: 125 new services each week, with 45 services across the busy morning and afternoon peaks, when they are needed.
Then we move over to level crossing removals. Well, we have been very lucky in Kororoit. We have got Fitzgerald Road, Ardeer; it is complete. We have got Mount Derrimut Road, Deer Park, also complete, alongside Robinsons Road, Deer Park, also complete, and we have commenced Hopkins Road because we are ahead of schedule with our level crossing removals – because this government knows that they are needed. Coming up, this government has a lot more planned for the west. We have got the Derrimut Road, Hopkins Road and Boundary Road, Tarneit, intersection signalisation – something desperately needed. This investment will upgrade the intersection of Derrimut Road, Hopkins Road and Boundary Road in Tarneit by installing traffic lights to improve the safety and operation of the intersection.
Then I turn to the Growing Suburbs Fund, and I am proud of this: $1.5 million to Aintree Community Centre; $850,000 to Brookside community pavilion; $1 million to Caroline Springs town centre recreation reserve and $800,000 to Mount Atkinson Children’s and Community Centre – a growing and fantastic suburb. Looking over at health, we have got the Changing Places facilities at Caroline Springs Leisure Centre, but it does not stop there. We are providing suitable facilities for people who cannot use standard accessible toilets. The facility allows people with high support needs to fully participate in the community.
Luba GRIGOROVITCH: Exactly. We are respecting people. We have got $34.9 million allocated to the Sunshine emergency department, and then of course there is the Footscray Hospital – absolutely state of the art. Our local member for Melton has absolutely championed the delivery of a new Melton hospital, with construction starting in 2024. Nine hundred million dollars will be allocated to this project. The hospital will be powered by 100 per cent renewable energy. It will include a 24-hour emergency department, more than 100 medical and surgical beds, an intensive care unit, maternity services, mental health services, radiology services and outpatient care. It is fantastic.
Then of course, being Labor, education matters to us. Labor has invested $1.657 million from the Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund over 11,894 payments. Labor has invested $23.591 million in equity funding for Kororoit schools. More than 504 students in Kororoit benefit from the state school relief program every year, with more than 4681 items of clothing being distributed since 2015. One of my favourite programs of all time, and I know we touched on it in this place earlier today, is the breakfast program. Over 96,200 breakfasts have been served to kids in Kororoit as part of our breakfast-in-schools program. I have seen this with my own eyes, and it is something that we must continue to keep up. We have got school funding. We have done a lot for the west, and we will continue to do that.
Before my time is up, the Leader of the Opposition said that he thought we might elect someone ‘better’ – I think was his word. Well, let me tell you that our Premier Jacinta Allan, as we all know, has the experience, has got the energy and has got the smarts to lead us to victory in 2026 for a fourth term – a fourth term of Labor. I know that Premier Allan can do that and our entire team is behind her. Alongside our Deputy Premier Ben Carroll and the rest of Labor’s leadership team, we have a united and unstoppable team. Now, he further said that we were – I think ‘chaotic’ and ‘divided’ were his words. Well, I would say to the opposition leader that you may simply need to look in the mirror. But we all know that that could be quite scary. As we know, while on this side of the house we are delivering on our commitments to Victorians over three periods, the opposition is an absolute rabble. The opposition is filled with disunity. There are challenges and splits left, right and centre. Those on the other side have grown accustomed to speaking out of both sides of their mouths. They are split on nuclear, on equality and even on who should be their leader.
The Leader of the Opposition and the member for Caulfield actually had a lot of fun in trying to tell us what happened at last week’s caucus meeting, but I know many of us in the house were actually there. I can say wholeheartedly that we unanimously supported the now Premier, Premier Allan, and we also supported the Deputy Premier Ben Carroll unanimously. So although you would like to claim that, you know, we are split, it is absolutely not the case.
I just want to rewind a little bit, and if memory serves me well, the leader who is vocally speaking out at the moment, the Leader of the Opposition, won his leadership by – was it one?
John Mullahy: It was one.
Luba GRIGOROVITCH: One vote. Okay. So now, after the recent by-election in Warrandyte, it makes me wonder how many votes he has actually got in his party room. I am not sure; are you?
A member: How many ministerial portfolios do you have?
Luba GRIGOROVITCH: I do not want to be a minister; do not worry. I also see that Matthew Guy is back in the shadow cabinet – back to the future, we say. So it makes me wonder how you are going over there. He is being sued by his colleagues, and it looks like the party is not going to support paying his legal fees.
In conclusion, because I can see I am running out of time, I would like to say that I will not stoop to the level of the opposition leader by going on and trying to discredit some of our senior MPs, who we all have faith in. We 100 per cent support Premier Allan, and we are united and proud to be in government.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Before I call the member for Narracan I would like to acknowledge Senator Jane Hume in the gallery. Welcome.
Wayne FARNHAM (Narracan) (17:52): I am really pleased to talk on the matter of public importance today submitted by the member for Hawthorn, our fantastic leader. And it is quite funny – I want to reference the Leader of the Nationals and his comment, ‘We will remember this. Where were you when Daniel Andrews resigned?’ Well, I was right here in this place.
A member interjected.
Wayne FARNHAM: I was. I was right here when Daniel Andrews resigned. I walked him into the annexe. I walked in with him, and when the former Premier came out, I gave him a bottle opener to say, ‘You can have your first beer on me’. People did not believe me when I did that. They said, ‘Why would you do that?’ I said, ‘Well, if I had have known he was going to resign, I would have bought him a slab if it was only going to cost me $50 to see the back of him.’ What a great investment that would have been for Victoria, because every other investment this government has made for Victoria has been absolutely disgraceful.
Let us talk about the history and what we have to deal with. And it is actually quite funny – the Premier the other day said, ‘We’re in our DeLoreans. We go back in time.’ Well, every member of that side of the house must have a DeLorean, because all that they talk about is what happened 20 years ago or 30 years ago. But it is good to know that everyone over there has got a DeLorean. But it was interesting to note – on trying to choose the Premier – when we have got two people fighting over a nearly $500,000 a year income, two people fighting over that, Victoria’s cost of living is out of control. How do you think the Victorian public felt about that, the selfishness of these two fighting over a half-million-dollar job while they cannot afford to pay the bills?
And there is no wonder, when an election commitment was we are going to bring back the SEC, and we are going to lower power bills. That is the biggest load of hogwash I have ever heard, because there is no-one in this chamber that can tell me that their power bill has gone down – no-one. Everyone’s power bills are going up. Everyone’s gas bills are out of control. There is not one policy this government has brought in that has reduced a power bill yet. The only thing you have done is given away $250 of taxpayers money to help people out. That has not reduced the price of electricity. No matter how much you give away, it is not reducing the price of electricity. And your SEC is flawed. You have no idea what is going on. You do not know how much it is going to cost. No-one can actually give us a final figure. You have not even told us how many solar panels are going to cover regional Victoria, and that is going to be another budget blowout.
But let me talk about the May budget. In the May budget with the increased taxes –
Mary-Anne Thomas: On a point of order, Speaker, I wanted to draw your attention to the fact that the member for Morwell keeps referring to ‘you’ and ‘your’.
A member: Morwell?
Mary-Anne Thomas: Sorry, not Morwell, Narracan – the member for Narracan keeps referring to ‘you’ or ‘your’ and of course in doing so is reflecting on you.
The SPEAKER: Order! Thank you, Leader of the House. As the member for Narracan and other members know, the use of the word ‘you’ is not appropriate.
Wayne FARNHAM: My apologies, Speaker, I was obviously getting a little bit excited.
But let us talk about the May budget and the taxes that were introduced in the May budget. This shows me how incompetent this government is. In the May budget the taxes that were introduced were going to bring in $9 billion worth of revenue – that is, $9 billion. But the fact is Victoria today pays $15 million a day in interest. Now, if you do the calculation for that – and remember this $9 billion is to pay down the COVID debt – the interest bill over that same amount of time is $21.9 billion. As a person that worked in business a long time, my advice to the government is: you are going backwards. You are not reducing debt. And that is on $15 million a day of interest today, not the forecast $22 million. It is not on the forecast debt of $226 billion but is on the $171 billion that is actually quoted at the moment.
And let us talk about that $171 billion worth of debt. Thirty billion dollars of that debt has been contributed by the new Premier who sits in that seat – $30 billion is her contribution to that debt. Then we have got $30 billion of COVID debt. So what is the other $111 billion? Mismanagement and incompetence – that is all it is. And that is what happens when you have that side of the chamber who do not know how to run a business. They do not know how to budget, and they do not know how to run a job.
Brad Rowswell: How can they run the state?
Wayne FARNHAM: They cannot run the state. They cannot do that. Twenty-five major project blowouts – I do not know how they estimate this. I have no idea what process the government goes through to actually estimate jobs. If I go through some of the jobs, it is a big list of blowouts that the Premier was in charge of. Let us be very specific here – the Premier. I am not going to go through them all, because I do not have enough time. North East Link was promised for $5 billion – a $13 billion blowout. That is one. Let us go to the next one. West Gate Tunnel has a $4.7 billion blowout. Let us go to the next one. Metro Tunnel has a $3.36 billion blowout. And it all becomes a little bit redundant because it is all the same reading after a while, and it just makes you sad really.
But what has this government done? Unfortunately this again, I believe, shows the incompetence of this government. We had an industry that was creating billions of dollars worth of income, and what did the government do? They shut it down. They ripped the guts out of it, and not only did they rip the guts out of it, they ripped the guts out of regional Victoria when they did it. They decimated the timber industry. That did not have to be done. They did not need to do it, but they did it as always to curry favour with the Greens, because they need the Greens in the upper house to get legislation through. And that is what the government does: it curries favour with the Greens. What you have done now is decimate an industry that was contributing to Victoria’s economy. Let us not forget that. The timber industry was contributing to Victoria’s economy.
But let me go through a couple of things that $15 million a day will actually get you. For the cost of one day’s interest in Victoria we could have had 160 maternity nurses. We could have had 260 child protection support workers, an extra 179 paramedics, 218 classroom teachers or 306 Victoria police recruits. Now, this is in one day, but I think the Labor Party might be a bit upset to know this. They could have got, for one day’s interest, 500,000 Labor members –
A member: What?
Wayne FARNHAM: 500,000 they could have got.
A member interjected.
Wayne FARNHAM: Well, that would be subjective, but they could have got 500,000.
As the member for Euroa said earlier, we feel as though this is same same but different. We could have had a fresh start, and we have not had a fresh start, and what it is: while the old Premier was writing the cheques in the name of our children, it was the new Premier that was cashing them in, and that is a debt that is going to be carried on for years – years; our grandkids will not be able to pay this off. $15 million a day is a disgrace. All I can say is, I was hoping that the new Premier would do something different, but day one in that seat, two new taxes come through. I do not even know if she knew about the new tax. She may have; she may not have. I do not know if they told her or not, but two new taxes straightaway – absolutely no idea. I do not know how this state is going to end up after the end of this term, but I am tipping that this state will not end up in a good space.
A member: Keep going! It’s not over yet.
Wayne FARNHAM: I will keep going, do not worry. I have got plenty to say. I could have spoken for 40 minutes about this.
Let us talk about the Growing Suburbs Fund. It got slashed from $50 million to $10 million, and then they ripped the peri-urban councils out of it. You ripped the peri-urban councils out of the Growing Suburbs Fund. You do not care about regional Victoria, and there is more to regional Victoria than Bendigo, Ballarat and Geelong. There is a hell of a lot more than that. In my electorate we do not get a thing. We were not even on the list for funding for anything. It is an absolute disgrace, and I totally support this motion from the Leader of the Opposition.
Business interrupted under resolution of house of 3 October.