Book 8 - Parliament of Victoria

BUDGET PAPERS 2011–12
1568 COUNCIL Tuesday, 31 May 2011
from a reduction in ministerial staff and media costs.
We have all been aware of the spin and hype that was
part of the previous government’s modus operandi, as
well as Labor’s marketing positions, consultants,
government advertising and political opinion polling,
not to mention travel expenses and the cost of office
floor space and consumables.
This government has also terminated Labor’s wasteful
plan to spend $20 million on fairy lights for the West
Gate Bridge and immediately halted taxpayer-funded
party-political advertising.
Mr Elsbury — They are so embarrassed they have
all left.
Mrs PETROVICH — There is not one member of
the Labor opposition in the chamber.
The cost pressures facing the budget were compounded
by $2 billion black hole left by the former Labor
government’s incompetence, mismanagement and
underfunding of infrastructure projects. No wonder its
members have left the chamber.
Because of Labor’s incompetence many Victorian
major projects are subject to serious cost blow-outs. We
are all aware of the myki debacle, which this
government is endeavouring to fix. I have already
mentioned the HealthSMART system, and there is also
the cost of the regional rail link, the relocation of the
Melbourne wholesale fruit and vegetable market to
Epping, the upgrade of the West Gate Bridge, the
desalination plant and the project I spoke about on
many occasions in the previous term — the north–south
pipeline. The pipeline took water from the north of the
state to Melbourne because the previous government
failed to acknowledge we had a drought and leapt into
that project without any consideration of what it would
do to those farming communities.
Labor conducted 1100 reviews during its time in office.
Given that the reviews already completed by the
coalition government have revealed that Labor’s
incompetence and mismanagement in government were
even worse than we previously thought, it is no wonder
Labor is very nervous about these reviews. The mess
may have been the fault of the former Labor
government, but the coalition government is
determined to fix that mess.
I turn to my electorate of Northern Victoria Region, and
I will list the highlights of this budget for areas in the
north of the state — an area of which I am very proud.
Some $1 billion will be available in the Regional
Growth Fund from July. There is also funding of
$259 million to upgrade regional health services,
$16 million to provide extra ambulance stations and
$151 million to hire 340 new ambulance officers. There
is funding of $140 million for regional highway
upgrades and $20 million over four years for the
Regional Aviation Fund. The budget also delivers on
the first stage of the government’s commitment to slash
stamp duty for eligible first home buyers by 50 per
cent, with an initial reduction of 20 per cent.
There is $1.2 million to extend the first farm grant,
which is a great boon for our rural communities. There
is a young farmers stamp duty extension and
$3.5 million to help address the recent decline in
regional tourism. The budget provides $602 million to
recruit 1700 more front-line police and the
940 protective services officers who will help make our
railway system safer.
The budget provides $30 million to build and upgrade
police stations around Victoria, $65.8 million to
upgrade and build more than 60 Country Fire Authority
(CFA) stations, $32.8 million over four years to
continue the delivery of vocational education and
training in government schools, $239.5 million for the
growing non-government school sector to create a
strong and diverse education system in Victoria and
$100 million for the school maintenance fund to
address years of neglect of schools under Labor.
I am very proud to represent in this place the area of
Macedon, which is in my electorate. Motorists will
benefit from major safety improvements to the
Melbourne-Lancefield Road, which will be delivered
through $5.2 million of funding. During the election
process the community told us very strongly that this
road had been neglected for many years. Cars were
being damaged on a daily basis, and there were many
accidents. The coalition acted on that message; it
committed to the project and it is delivering. Lancefield
and Newham will have their CFA stations upgraded as
part of a $65.8 million commitment, and the
government has committed and allocated the first
$2 million for the Melbourne-Lancefield Road.
A $19.75 million public safety infrastructure fund has
also been set up to provide grants of $250 000 to assist
councils in improving security infrastructure, such as
CCTV (closed-circuit television) cameras in the city of
Sunbury, which that community had called for. The
police and the traders association were supportive of
their introduction, and we will be delivering on CCTV
cameras in the near future.
Whilst talking about Sunbury it is important to also
highlight the issue of the Sunbury out of Hume
campaign, on which the community was denied a