Hansard debates

Mrs McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (11:23): I rise to speak in this cognate debate on the Appropriation (2021–2022) Bill 2021 and the budget papers. I would say at the outset: here we go again, yet another Labor budget leaving regional Victorians high and dry—well, perhaps not dry in eastern Victoria at the moment, but high and dry economically. The government’s gravy train runs on the tram tracks but never takes the V/Line. Once again, rural and regional Victorians have been left waiting at the station. The government are more than willing to fork out money and raise taxes in aid of any number of their woke pet projects or to cover up their own flagrant incompetence. Labor seem completely unwilling or incapable of protecting taxpayers money from themselves.

In my electorate, which stretches from Melton to the actual state border with South Australia—just for the geographically challenged opposite me—we will see very little if any of this massive tax-and-spend budget. Where is Labor’s funding for the northern aquatic and community hub in Geelong, and where have those Labor members in Geelong been in advocating for this project long before I even came into this place, or the long-planned and desperately needed Bellarine link?

Every single new school announced will be in Melbourne, and barely a third of the school upgrades will be in the country. Labor’s budget only allocates $53 million for road improvement in the whole of south-west Victoria. Our roads are just a catastrophe. We have slow-down signs because we do not fix the roads. They expect people in country Victoria to drive on appalling roads but yet produce the food and fibre that feeds this city. They do like rolling out wire rope barriers, which are a massive issue in themselves, with gay abandon. That $53 million is just a drop in the bucket compared to what the region really requires. In fact it would barely cover the cost of one of Labor’s massively expensive level crossing removal projects, let alone fix the sorely neglected road network in my electorate.

As many people in my electorate would know, the desperately needed Murray Basin rail project has stalled, with little progress towards completion in several years. Unfortunately this critical infrastructure project has been placed in the too-hard basket, and the Andrews Labor government is abandoning regional business once again. I mean, some of this train track moves slower than Cobb and Co did. It is appalling if we want to move produce productively and efficiently. Rather than using the potential revitalisation of this Murray Basin rail project to jump-start the regional Victorian economy and enhance the movement of freight across Victoria, another state budget has passed us by on those train tracks when business and residents are hurting the most.

Contained in this appropriation bill are massive increases for government departments. This has been the modus operandi of this government since its election. The Labor Party are turning Victoria into the public service state. Businesses are fleeing over the Murray—if they can get to another state—after being decimated by lockdowns and now tax hikes. Why would Labor care? They probably do not vote for them anyway, all these people in rural Victoria. The private sector is also largely beyond the reaches of the social engineering and the cultural indoctrination perpetrated by the political left. The Education State has become the re-education state. Over the next financial year the public sector wage bill is set to increase by 9.6 per cent. By mid-2025 the public sector wage bill is forecast to reach $38.69 billion. That is the same amount of money that the commonwealth spent on the entire defence force budget last year, which is a primary responsibility of the federal government.

The ballooning of the bureaucracy is simply unsustainable. We cannot become a state where everyone is dependent on the taxpayer while other states thrive through productive business. The Victorian public sector now employs over 300 000 people. There is waste and duplication, and government services that could be provided by the private sector. A prime example of this was the creation of the new Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority in my electorate last year. There are 14 public authorities which currently manage often overlapping sections of the road and infrastructure area, and there are nearly 30 statutory consultees for matters such as planning. But rather than replacing these authorities, they guaranteed everyone would stay in existence and every job would be kept. The new authority was merely slapped on top, and the minister promised that all existing staff would retain their jobs. I ask you: how is that efficient? If we are to fix the ballooning of the bureaucracy, we have to change our strategy. I do not expect this government to do that, however.

As I said on Tuesday in the debate on the State Taxation and Mental Health Acts Amendment Bill 2021, I would be far less concerned about the growth in government if I could believe it was good government, but Victoria shows yet again that big government is not good government. With this huge expansion to 300 000 employees in the public sector do we see better project management, efficiently delivered services, competent project management or timely and on-budget delivery of infrastructure projects? Sadly, we do not. At least there were enough public servants this year to produce the budget paper on capital spending after last year’s glaring omission. And what did it tell us? All the spin in the world cannot hide the fact that the Big Build is just the big bust.

I am not going to list yet again the $22 billion in total overruns, so let us look at just the most recent revelations. In the past two years the metro rail tunnel cost has risen by $1.37 billion; the new E-class tram project by more than $700 million; the Chisholm Road prison is up $429 million; the youth justice centre in Werribee, $140 million; the state’s station car park upgrade is now $264 million in blowouts; and the Monash Freeway upgrade, $351 million. Do these people get quotes? How do they embark on a project and not know the final cost? It is extraordinary. How would this work in the private sector? You would go bust.

Last, and most painful for a regional MP passionate about providing the essential and vital infrastructure our productive rural economy needs to thrive, is the latest $244 million overrun on the plagued Murray Basin Project. The history of that project has been beyond woeful. It is yet another example that the model of big government just does not work. It is not a lack of money spent, it is not a lack of people employed, it is the essential philosophy of an ever-expanding public service spending ever greater sums of public money on centrally managed projects. When will we learn it just does not work? And what is the painful consequence of this? Not just the short-term inconvenience of projects not delivered, opportunities wasted and private sector investment and growth delayed but real, long-term damage to our future in the form of debt—debt which will weigh on future generations. Net debt is forecast to reach $156 billion. As revealed by my esteemed colleague the member for Polwarth, Richard Riordan, MP, in Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearings last year, the Premier has no plan to repay this debt. This demonstrates the Labor Party’s complete economic illiteracy.

I fear for this state that there will come a time when the currently comfortable interest rates rise. When they do we will no longer be able to ignore this debt or kick it further down the road, let alone down the train tracks. Interest repayments will increasingly become a core part of our government expenditure or perhaps even the largest cost one day. This is reckless. In essence the Labor government is depriving future generations of vital services, road funding and infrastructure to spend on today’s elections. I hope that you will all read the article in the Financial Review from a few weeks ago by economist Saul Eslake, who analysed the Victorian economy. Under this government Victorians have become poorer than all other states and territories except South Australia. Mr Eslake found that household disposable income per person in Victoria was $48 107—more than $3200 below the national average of $51 394. When the Liberal government left office at the end of the century, soon after, Victoria had the third-highest household disposable income in the country. Now, Mr Eslake says, Victoria has become a relatively poor state. From 1999 to 2000 Victoria’s economic output per capita was 1 per cent above the national average. Now, after decades of Labor governance, with a short interim, it is nearly 10 per cent below the national average—from 1 per cent above the national average to 10 per cent below the national average. The average Victorian’s economic output is $7000 less than the average Australian’s. Think about that. These are extraordinary figures, but they come as little surprise. Victoria should be the business capital of the country, not the hardship capital of the nation.

In the Treasurer’s speech he said that Victoria is proud to be the creative capital of Australia. He should tell that to the events, arts and tourism industries that have been totally decimated by this government’s draconian lockdowns. They are on their knees, and yet the government continues to use these extreme measures of lockdown and restriction.

Victoria used to be the events capital of Australia, but the events sector, especially the business events sector, have had no events since March last year. Many of these highly talented, expert technicians have left the country. They have moved interstate or overseas, or they have become baristas if there are cafes open somewhere. The business events industry was worth over $15 billion alone to the Victorian economy. Now that has been crushed and may never return to the same extent again.

I will just quote Cian Hussey, research fellow from the Institute of Public Affairs:

The disconnect between the public and private sectors explains why Victoria keeps going into lockdowns. The public servants who implement lockdowns do not bear any cost for making these decisions …

…

Each time the Andrews government places Victorians into lockdown, they are knowingly inflicting an economic and humanitarian tragedy which disproportionately impacts the most vulnerable members of our society.

I implore you to look carefully at this budget and its outcomes.