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Legislative Assembly
 
BUDGET PAPERS 2019–20

13 August 2019
Motions
Russell Northe  (IND)

 


Mr NORTHE (Morwell) (18:43:24): It gives me pleasure to rise to give a response to the budget papers. It is a few months after the budget itself, but nonetheless this is a great opportunity to talk about the budget and how it impacts upon the Morwell electorate and to say a little bit from a statewide perspective. I would describe the budget as a bit of a mixed bag. It is a little bit like Christmas time, when you get what you ask for in many cases but in some other cases you do not, and there are a few surprises along the way. From a Victorian perspective, I guess, overall there are some concerns with regard to the increased and additional taxes that have been applied to many businesses and people within our community. Cost-of-living expenses are a significant issue for many, many businesses and people, and whilst I commend the government for their infrastructure investment across the state, which is pleasing to see, ultimately it comes at a cost. It is concerning to see the significant increases in costs, particularly around our public service, and at the same time seeing diminishing property revenue coming into government coffers. At some stage or some point in the future all these infrastructure projects, including public servants and others, are going to have to be paid for. That is just a concern that I flag more generally to this chamber this evening. But I do want to focus a lot of my commentary on the Morwell electorate, and firstly, I will focus on some of the positives. I might say before I commence that I have been disappointed in the past with some budgets from this government, particularly two years ago when there was an extra $252 million of taxes on Latrobe Valley power generators. That was a bad decision and something that we have really struggled to recover from, which I will talk about more in my contribution. Thankfully the budget in May did not target a specific industry or a specific region with high unemployment by increasing taxes. Nonetheless, it is pleasing to see in the budget some planning money for a Latrobe Regional Hospital (LRH) upgrade. We have just basically completed stage 2A of the hospital, for which funding was provided under the former coalition government. To see the next stage of LRH commence, particularly through its planning stage, will be fantastic for the region. It is actually now, I think, the largest employer within Latrobe city, and that will grow and expand in the future. But from a patient point of view, having services locally whereby those requiring health services do not have to attend Melbourne clinics or seek professionals in Melbourne is really important. I commend the government for having that $7 million of planning money to start with. I might say in the same context—it is digressing slightly—Gippsland Rotary Centenary House is basically an accommodation facility and its support of people who are suffering from cancer by enabling them to stay at Latrobe Regional Hospital while they undergo cancer treatment is a fantastic initiative, so just a cheerio and call-out to all associated with Gippsland Rotary Centenary House. The reduction of payroll tax for regional businesses is certainly something that would be welcome to those that are eligible, and increasing the tax-free threshold to $700 000 at least is a start for those businesses who have to pay payroll tax. It would be described, I guess, as an insidious tax by many businesses, but nonetheless it is good to see some improvement in that, particularly for regional businesses. There is some investment in our schools. Churchill Primary School and Kosciuszko Street Primary School in Traralgon are fantastic schools, and they will benefit from those developments. While I am talking about schools, we still do not have any answers from the government with respect to Latrobe Special Developmental School. In last year’s budget there was $6 million allocated to the redevelopment of Traralgon College and Latrobe Special Developmental School. As you can appreciate, the $6 million, while welcome, will not provide for the redevelopment of both of those schools. Latrobe Special Developmental School are very adamant that they need and want a standalone school. So from my point of view it was disappointing not to see additional money to accommodate and support Latrobe Special Developmental School with a standalone school into the future that is desperately needed. It is pleasing to see some funding for sporting facilities such as the Traralgon basketball stadium, the Gippsland Plains rail trail, Traralgon City Soccer Club and the Traralgon tennis club, and while not necessarily in my electorate there is $10.2 million towards the Hope Restart facility in Bairnsdale. This is an important facility and something that I have been calling for in the region for a long time. It is a residential facility for drug and alcohol rehabilitation. The facility is very important basically because east of Pakenham there is not a single bed to support and help people who are dealing with drug and alcohol addiction. And whilst it is not in the budget, I do note and commend the government—to a point, if I can say that—on their investment in a youth drug and alcohol residential facility in the Latrobe Valley. But unfortunately that is only confined to youth. Personally I would love to see that expanded to all ages. But nonetheless, it is a start, and I give the minister and the government credit for that. I guess the things that are missing from the budget are disappointing. Before the budget was actually announced by the Treasurer of course we all had our little wish lists, and it was with some disappointment that I saw there was really no support for Latrobe city farmers. I appreciate the fact that we have had a lot of rain and people might not understand that and think, 'Oh well, it’s rained and the drought’s over’, but the reality on the ground is far different. There are so many farmers in my community who are really doing it extremely tough. There are just appalling conditions. It is just as bare as inside the chamber here. There is no feed. The feed that is available is extraordinarily expensive. Farmers’ health, mental health and economic wellbeing are really being put to the test. The point I raise here is that I appreciate that the government has some drought support programs in place, but some of those programs are not accessible for Latrobe City Council-based farmers. I just do not get it. I know it is not just this current government, but to apply arbitrary lines across municipal boundaries I think is just wrong. You are either in drought or you are not. The issue I have is that a neighbour on one side of the road is eligible for certain supports and assistance, but the neighbour across the road, who is dealing with just the same conditions, is not. I think we really need to look at that and look at it seriously, because there are a number of farmers who are really struggling in the Latrobe City Council area. Also, the farmers I talk to say to me that they have never seen the drought as bad, yet 10 years ago, under Premier Brumby at that time, we had municipal rate relief. Why isn’t the same being applied now? It is really disappointing from my point of view, and on behalf of the farmers in my community, that those types of programs have not been initiated. I note the Minister for Public Transport is at the table. She will enjoy me talking about V/Line services. From my perspective I know there are a lot of investments and upgrades that are happening on the line. Obviously the Gippsland commuters have had to contend with continual disruptions and delays, and that has meant enormous frustration for many commuters, particularly regular commuters. What I would like—again I am talking about a wish list here—is to make sure that our travel times are improved into the future. With the regional rail upgrades at the moment I suspect that that is not going to be the case. From a Gippsland point of view, when you see Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo receiving significant amounts of money for upgrades to improve their services and dedicated lines and the same not applying to Gippsland, that is really disappointing. Really, at the moment, when you look at it in detail, Gippsland commuters are paying more to travel fewer kilometres with inferior services. We really need to break that nexus. There is some money across the Gippsland region for crisis accommodation, and that is really important. It is really a little bit unclear as to how that money might be spent. One of the biggest issues that is constantly coming through my office at the moment is the issue of homelessness. We have just gone through Homelessness Week, and I have observed in my office more and more people coming through who really need crisis accommodation. We need to continue to support those agencies who are helping in that space. The budget is disappointing again from a Hazelwood Pondage point of view. We all know Hazelwood power station has closed. We have tried to get the government to commit to a feasibility study. That would not be a major cost. But at the moment that particular community asset is closed. It has been closed for a while. We have had 5000 signatures that I have tabled in this Parliament to try and have it reopened or, even before it is reopened, have a feasibility study. You have got groups and organisations like the Latrobe Valley Yacht Club and the Latrobe Valley Game Fishing Club. You have got the Sailability program that helps young people with a disability with sailing activities. You have got the Latrobe Valley powerboat club. You have got the Latrobe Valley Triathlon Club. They are all stakeholders in that group, and they are basically being kicked off the site. Some of these groups and organisations have got nowhere to go. They are the stakeholders, but it is also from a business and community point of view that we are missing out. It just defies logic and belief that we just cannot get the government to commit to a feasibility study, which is a low minimum cost in the bigger scheme of things to understand what the issues are with the pondage and having it reopened. Engie say there are wall stability issues, but we say that as a community we need to explore every single option for having that unique body of water reopened for current and future generations to use. In the budget itself there is not a lot about Latrobe Valley jobs. That is absolutely critical in our community. We know that since Hazelwood power station closed and the Carter Holt Harvey timber mill closed in Morwell two years ago, on the government’s own statistics there are around 570 former workers and contractors who are currently employed in non-full-time positions or are actively looking for work—570. That tells you something about the necessity to come up with good ideas about creating jobs in our community. What is disappointing is the fact that we have businesses in our community right now who want to grow, want to expand and want to create jobs but are unable to do so because of the bureaucratic mess that exists, particularly in the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning. We have four quarries in my electorate—Matthews Quarries, Latrobe Valley Blue Metal, Latrobe Valley Sands and Maryvale Sand and Trading Supplies—who all want to grow and expand, who have all got limited life, who all provide material to infrastructure projects in this state and who have all tried to do their best to take the first step but have always put up with a stop sign in front of them. It is simply unbelievable. I raised this issue 12 months ago with the Treasurer, asking him to meet with some of these organisations, which he refused to do. I mean, the peak body is saying that unless we do something about this we will not only lose jobs in Victoria but we will be importing material from other states, and we cannot let that happen. These issues still sit here today, and it is simply not good enough. Also we have approved projects that have already gone through the realm of local development, such as the Lake Narracan precinct project and the Morwell north-west development zone. One is an industrial zone; one is a future residential zone. They have been approved. They are sitting there ready to go, but we need help from the government to get infrastructure to site. At a minimal cost to the government we could start those developments tomorrow. That would create hundreds of jobs, build local infrastructure and improve the local economic outcome for the Latrobe Valley community tenfold if we were able to do that. There are programs that exist in other states, such as the Catalyst program that exists in Queensland, which the government here could adopt tomorrow to support such initiatives to get off the ground, but they continue to be blocked. One of those particular projects, the Morwell north-west development, has been approved since 2011 and simply sits stagnant. We really need support now in getting water, sewerage and roads built to those particular developments so they can get off the ground, create local jobs, create local infrastructure and really give the Latrobe Valley economy a significant boost at the same time. So I will finish where I started. This budget is a bit of a mixed bag. Hopefully some of those initiatives that I have proposed will be taken seriously.