Hansard debates

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (14:58): I thank Mr Puglielli for his contribution, and I also rise to speak on Mr Davis’s excellent motion on letters of comfort. We saw this reported on in the Australian Financial Review: the state of Victoria has delivered significant budget deficits that are scheduled to exceed $190 billion at the end of the forward estimates. We note that the number of agencies that, due to their financial stress, have required letters of comfort includes Museums Victoria, Greater Western Water, Alpine Resorts Victoria, Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Geelong Performing Arts Centre Trust, VicTrack, V/Line and many, many health services.

I could not help but hear Mr Batchelor speak. He was going on about us going around the state scrapping taxes. That is because we are the party of lower taxes. I am old enough to remember the former Premier, the then opposition leader, on the eve of the election saying, ‘There will be no increases in taxes under a government I lead’ – there would be no increase in taxes. Over 55 new taxes or increased taxes later, where did that promise go? They broke it almost immediately, so they lied their way into office. We know they rorted their way into office through the red shirts, but they lied their way into office because they knew that tax increases were not popular with the Victorian people.

Mr Batchelor is repeating the old same cuts scare campaign, just like the Mediscare campaign of the past. We know that Jess Wilson has already announced a frontline services guarantee. They want to talk about cuts, this from the party who are cutting VicHealth. We have former Labor luminaries like Nicola Roxon and others saying that you people are mad for even considering this. Surely there are some people in the Labor Party thinking that this Treasurer cannot manage the books. Surely there are some people on that side of the chamber who think we should be putting some money into VicHealth instead of the Suburban Rail Loop Authority spending $200,000 on pot plants, instead of bungling ministers spending $13 million on machete bins. Maybe we should be putting that money into VicHealth, into some of our health services that the government has tried and tried and tried again to merge, and they want to talk to us about cuts.

Mr Batchelor was going on about an $11 billion black hole, which on her first test the Treasurer failed, because she had a massive black hole within her accusation of our black hole by suggesting that we were going to scrap all forms of emergency services taxes rather than reverting to the previous emergency services levy. Rather than scrapping it completely, we want to go back to the previous tax that existed. But the Treasurer is either incompetent or misleading Victorians, which is what she is doing. Mr Batchelor wants to talk to us about black holes. Maybe he did not see the announcement from Ms Shing about the Suburban Rail Loop and their value capture plan. The government now – which was never in the business case, by the way – wants to hypothecate all existing taxes around SRL stations: stamp duty, land tax, you name it. Money, and we are talking billions, that would usually go to consolidated revenue and fund frontline services like our hospitals and our schools across our state is now going to be going towards a rail line from Cheltenham to Box Hill that does not add up unless you build the northern section, which the government is not going to do.

I notice Mr Batchelor has gone a bit silent, because they cannot explain their own billions of dollars in black holes and how they impact on the budget. It is extraordinary that the government has announced a value capture plan to capture the value in the area to that is going to add to the budget bottom line. The government is already funding a third of this project, and now it is going to be funding most of the value capture of this project as well for an eastern section that does not even provide a return. It is crazy, and this government wants to lecture us about cost.

This government is cutting health services. This government has attempted over and over again to merge health services. It is cutting VicHealth. There are 400 less police since this Premier came to office, and this government wants to talk to us about hypothetical cuts. Look in your own backyard. It is just astonishing that this government once again is going to rely on an imaginary cuts campaign when people see the slashing of services in their own backyards. I am going to name one thing the government should cut, and that is the lawn on Mickleham Road in Greenvale. You know the difference between a council road and a state government road from the length of the grass. As soon as you get off at the airport onto the Tulla and then onto the ring-road, you are greeted by graffiti, you are greeted by weeds and you are greeted by overgrown grass – it is completely different to the experience when you get off in Sydney – because this government cannot manage money. How are we meant to attract tourism and investment and good impressions of our city when your first impression is graffiti and weeds and overgrown grass and potholes? There is no pride in our state under this government. This state is in a malaise under this government due to lack of funding of our essential services, of our roads and of our government agencies.

Ryan Batchelor interjected.

Evan MULHOLLAND: I am not talking the state down. I am proud to be a Victorian. I am bloody proud to be a Victorian. I want to restore pride in our state, unlike this government, who have left our state in despair, who have left our roads in despair, who have cut our CFA, who are cutting VicHealth, who are trying to merge health services – and they have the gall to lecture us about cuts. Really? I mean, they are hypothecating taxes, existing taxes like stamp duty and land tax, to pay for a rail line from Cheltenham to Box Hill that does not even have a cost–benefit ratio that adds up. You want to talk to us about cuts – really? There is a reason why we have a frontline services guarantee under our opposition leader Jess Wilson, which has completely muted their argument. We want to do things like pay nurses properly, we want to do things like pay our teachers properly, and we want to do things like keep VicHealth. They do not – you know they do not – because they would rather spend billions of dollars on a train line from Cheltenham to Box Hill. That is not going to build a new hospital in the northern suburbs. That is not going to fix Donnybrook Road. That is not going to help anyone.

You have communities that are starved of infrastructure. The government twice – twice! – have promised to electrify the rail line in Melton and Wyndham Vale, at two different elections. There is still no further progress – all election promises, all spin. But they can get the SRL going very quickly. They can get it quickly on an election timetable and rush through multibillion-dollar contracts consigning our state to hundreds of billions of dollars worth of debt – over $190 billion of debt. We are going to be paying over $25 million a day – over $1 million every single hour – and that is going to keep going up with interest rates as well. I tell you households are very unhappy about an interest rate increase. But the second most unhappy person in Victoria will be the Treasurer when she realises her balance sheets are going to go through the roof because we do not have any leg room for economic shocks. Our agencies are on their knees, and our health services are on their knees. We had that case of a health service in the member for Euroa’s electorate that was asked to dip into workers’ annual leave entitlements in order to pay down their debt. That is the crisis of economic management that is happening under this government, and I will not take any lectures from those opposite on the state of our finances.