Hansard debates

Mr NORTHE (Morwell) (10:37:21) — I am pleased to rise to provide my response to the Victorian government's budget. It is interesting to hear many of the contributions: on the government side it is a perfect budget, of course; and on the opposition side it is less perfect. But my comments will be confined to the issues within the Morwell electorate. Probably a little bit like the member for Shepparton, I acknowledge the fact that there are some positive aspects to the budget, but I think all of us would like to see more done in our electorates, and I will talk about that as well.

From a positive perspective, some of the investment in our educational facilities in the Morwell electorate have been well received. There have been announcements with respect to Traralgon Secondary College, my old school, for some infrastructure upgrades, and they are very much needed. It has both junior and senior campuses. While the junior campus is relatively new from one point of view, certainly the secondary college is not, and any investment in that is well received.

In particular, I am also very pleased to learn of commitments made towards the Latrobe Special Developmental School. I am a regular visitor to the school, and it is an absolutely marvellous school. From principal Barb Walsh down to staff, teachers, volunteers, parents and students, it is a wonderful school. Certainly for the last couple of years they have been crying out for improved facilities. I cannot articulate here how bad the conditions of that school are — you can only see that adequately when you visit the school and talk to the school community. Hopefully investment in that school will happen sooner rather than later.

The government also announced some funding for the TAFE Morwell campus. Again, the infrastructure investment is welcome for those facilities, and it will be interesting to see how that evolves over time. However, it does also raise a question that has been asked in our community, and that is: what is the future of the TAFE Yallourn campus? The Yallourn campus is in pretty horrible condition and is in desperate need of an upgrade. There is much uncertainty about the future of the Yallourn campus. Not much has changed since I was there doing some apprenticeship schooling way back in the day. But the question being asked by local residents is: will the Yallourn campus survive? There is no funding in this budget for the Yallourn campus, and I think the government needs to articulate to the community about the future of the Yallourn campus. Unfortunately, like many other campuses across the state, there has been a significant reduction in student numbers, but hopefully with that investment in the Morwell campus we can see that rise again.

The member for Shepparton spoke about some payroll tax relief for regional businesses. Again, increasing the threshold amount to $650 000 for those who are eligible and reducing the payroll tax to 2.45 per cent has been well received by those who fit the criteria and have to pay payroll tax, which is a significant burden for many businesses.

I was also pleased to see in the budget in excess of $40 million allocated towards three rural alcohol and drug residential rehabilitation facilities. It has been noted that one of those is to be constructed in Gippsland. Whilst I am hopeful that it will be in the Latrobe Valley, I also acknowledge the fact that the Hope project in East Gippsland is well underway and well advanced, but the point I make is that I think there is an inherent need for two facilities in Gippsland. Gippsland is a massive area. We basically do not have any residential alcohol and drug rehabilitation beds in the whole region, so if the Hope facility advances and is constructed first, that is great, but there is still an inherent need for such a facility in the Latrobe Valley. One only has to look at the statistics of drug use and crime rates associated with drugs in the Latrobe Valley, in Latrobe city, to understand the need for such a facility.

The feedback from local residents and constituents in regard to the budget is what I would describe as a mixed bag. I have spoken about some of the positives, but from a more general point of view some concerns have been expressed to me from the local community about the significant investment in, for example, the AFL and maybe the lack of opportunity for grassroots sports and local sporting clubs, which may be disadvantaged compared to that AFL investment.

Certainly I raise the broken commitment on taxes by this government, and I will elaborate on that a bit more in a minute. The public sector wages growth is of concern to many people. For those who live within our region certainly the tolls are an issue. They may not be discussed in the media too much, but there is a lot of anger from a lot of transport companies, businesses and individuals about the western distributor project and some of the roads projects that are happening in the west of Melbourne because those who live in the east are now having to pay tolls for a longer period of time, have more tolls and have increases in their tolls. That is grossly unfair for those who live in the east. That has a massive impact on the Morwell electorate, where there are a substantial number of transport businesses and industries that will not actually use the roads that are under construction in the west of Melbourne but will be forced to pay tolls for a longer period of time at an increased cost.

More generally there is concern that a lot of the focus is on major projects in Melbourne and not in regional areas. The cost of living is a massive one as well. When we talk about taxes, I know it has been relayed many times by members in opposition but the fact is that just before the election in 2014 the Premier, then in opposition, said there would be no new taxes and no increases to existing taxes. We now have 12 new taxes just in this term of Parliament, a 35 per cent increase in taxes in this term, totalling an extra $6.2 billion. That comes from people. It comes from businesses that have to pay that, and subsequently cost-of-living expenses rise substantially.

From a local point of view many people in our community have not forgotten the fact that two years ago in the budget, while we are talking about broken promises on taxes, coal royalties in the Latrobe Valley rose by an extra $252 million, which was just extraordinary at the time. There was no other industry and no other community forced to pay such a specific increase in tax in the budget, and it was at a time when unemployment was a massive concern. The fallout of that is the loss of jobs. We have had electricity prices increase and go through the roof. Security of supply has been threatened.

Even now with Hazelwood power station being closed we have Hazelwood Pondage under threat. That might not mean much to many people in this chamber, but with Hazelwood Pondage now closed there are a number of user groups, such as the Latrobe Valley Yacht Club, which is a massive local organisation with hundreds of members, that now do not have a home effectively. This long weekend coming their annual Sauna Sail has had to be cancelled, causing not only consternation and grief to the Latrobe Valley Yacht Club but also a loss of income to our local economy. There are people from all over Victoria and beyond who come to that Sauna Sail event. It is just disgraceful that at this point in time the user groups of the pondage, including the Latrobe Valley Yacht Club, face an uncertain future.

It all comes back, in my view, to the imposing of unnecessarily high taxes on our power generators, as I say, and that has had a massive cost for everybody. Whether you are an individual or a business, cost-of-living expenses have gone through the roof. I know there is a lot of focus on electricity and gas prices being the main source of burden for people in terms of cost-of-living expenses, but we should also not forget that Gippsland Water customers between 2008 and 2013 endured a doubling of their water prices on top of all of this. Those of us who live in the Morwell electorate have had to endure a lot when it comes to these types of imposts.

We can talk about infrastructure projects, and I know the Treasurer spoke very broadly about the number of infrastructure projects and how good they are for the state, but heavens above, I have been at the Treasurer in his capacity as the Minister for Resources for months to have a look at the quarry industry within the Latrobe Valley. We have got Maryvale Sand, Latrobe Valley Blue Metal, Latrobe Valley Sands and Matthews Quarries that all want to grow and expand and provide material for these infrastructure projects for Victoria, yet they have just been stifled for more than two years. The government's own departments and agencies have breached constantly their own statutory time frames in trying to be advanced when it comes to these particular projects, and it is simply not good enough.

Again I plead with the Treasurer in his capacity as Minister for Resources to please come and meet with our local quarry owners and see what they want to provide not only for our local community but for the state of Victoria. What will end up happening is we will be in a position whereby we will be importing material from interstate if we do not intervene and do something about not only supporting good, local businesses who employ local people but providing material for the benefit of Victoria.

In the budget there is reference to some V/Line projects. We hear about that investment, but the reality is the Gippsland line is a Third World service at the moment. It is just crazy. There are so many people who have contacted my office over the previous months who have missed medical appointments or who have been late for events or meetings or functions. There have been people who have missed out on work. If you are a casual worker and you are relying on a train to get to Melbourne for your casual work and you turn up late, what do you think happens? You get a call from the boss to say, 'Don't bother turning up today', and this is reality. This is happening constantly.

I understand that investment on the track has to occur, I understand the level crossing removal program and I understand the government's baby in sky rail and other projects, but right now Gippsland commuters are asking the question, 'What benefits are we going to derive from all this work?'. I have posed this question to the minister and to Public Transport Victoria, and I do not get any response. The real fear of Gippsland commuters is the fact that they are not going to see any benefit and they are not going to be better off, yet they have had to endure all of these disruptions, delays and cancellations. Right now as we speak there are buses replacing trains on our line again, with no end in sight.

In closing, I want to refer to jobs in the Latrobe Valley in the Morwell electorate. The facts are that unemployment in the last three and a half years has increased substantially, and that is the reality. We have had the Hazelwood power station close, we have had Carter Holt Harvey close, we had Target in Morwell close their doors just last week and we have Coles in Morwell about to close in August. This is real, and this is happening all the time.

I understand on the one hand that the government have imposed an extra $252 million of taxes on power stations in the Latrobe Valley, but on the other hand they are saying we have got a $266 million rescue package for the Latrobe Valley. We need to do something about not only creating jobs but retaining existing jobs. My concern is we are seeing businesses like this walk away from our community without any intervention or conversation with government departments, agencies, the Latrobe Valley Authority or whoever it might be. We have to focus on retaining jobs as well as creating new jobs. We have to get rid of the red tape that is prohibiting businesses that want to grow and expand in our electorate.

Another one at the moment is that we have got builders who cannot get electricity and gas connected to properties. It goes on and on. So there are things that government can do to intervene to help jobs and create employment and support businesses in our community.

Finally, as we always say, there is a whole lot more that could be done, and we will continue to advocate for those projects that have missed out on funding in this year's budget.