Book 8 - Parliament of Victoria

BUDGET PAPERS 2011–12
Tuesday, 31 May 2011 COUNCIL 1571
In his contribution to the house Mr Lenders, the former
Treasurer, talked about Evita, a musical by Andrew
Lloyd Webber. I would have thought that the previous
government would have been more like the song by
Britney Spears, Oops! … I did it again. This budget is a
lot more like Elvis’s A Little Less Conversation — and
a little more action!
This government faced a number of challenges with
this budget, not the least of which were bungled
projects like myki and the desalination plant which
have left funding black holes. It is not an episode of
Star Trek; this is money that does not exist and was
never there in the first place. There are also bizarre
additions to projects like the ridiculous West Gate
Bridge project which involved placing fairy lights on
the bridge to make it look pretty. Fortunately we were
able to remove the decoration and apply those funds to
more tangible outcomes. We have had to deal with
natural disasters in this state, with the recent floods in
north-western Victoria, fires in Gippsland and the
much-publicised weather conditions which caused the
Wilsons Promontory to be closed off.
Another complicating factor we have had to deal with is
the $2.5 billion reduction in GST revenue by the federal
government. That has put a great strain on this
government in its preparation of a responsible and
responsive budget. The reduction in GST revenue has
also placed a great strain on Victorians in general. I
hope we can work with the federal government to
deflect some of that burden in some way.
At the election the coalition made a commitment to the
Victorian people that it would restore Victoria’s
economic credibility. We have done that by taking
measures in this budget which will provide us with the
wherewithal to turn our economy around. The previous
government was increasing spending by some 8 per
cent while revenue was increasing by only 7.6 per cent.
This was unsustainable. While this budget has
increased net government debt through investment in
long-delayed and much-needed infrastructure, it has
also put us in a position which will enable the
government to reduce the overall rate of increase of
expenditure over the next year. This budget is about
providing services to people across the board. It is
about providing us with the safety, health and education
we deserve.
We will be providing $103 million to reintroduce
concession fees for TAFE places for people aged
between 15 and 24 who are undertaking a TAFE
diploma or advanced diploma course. Trade training is
something the previous government all but ignored. It
made it harder to gain vocational training by increasing
TAFE fees across the board. This has put a great strain
on the community, as we know. A trade training
shortage has led to a shortage in skilled labour. This in
turn has increased house prices as the labour needed to
build homes is just not available. So much for the party
of the workers.
Across the west in the area of education there are issues
to do with our existing school infrastructure after
11 years of Labor. Labor members who supposedly
represent the west in the other chamber have the cheek
to now plead innocent after years of allowing these
schools to degrade. The only reason they have such an
acute knowledge of the school maintenance issue is that
they ignored these problems while they were in
government. An allocation of $208 million has been
made in this budget to renovate existing government
schools, build new schools and acquire more land.
Mr Lenders and Ms Mikakos bemoaned the schools
funding and denigrated that funding by claiming that
there was a political motive behind the allocations that
we have made.
This budget has provided for two new schools in the
city of Wyndham, one of the fastest, if not the fastest,
growth corridor in the country. One will be situated in
Tarneit, which, when I last checked, was not a marginal
seat. The other will be in Point Cook, in the seat of
Altona. Even though Labor copped a shellacking
during the by-election there, it is not a marginal seat.
We have also committed to the continuation of funding
for a senior secondary college in Tarneit.
Children with special learning needs have also been
cared for in this budget, with over $50 million
committed to special schools. While I spoke about this
matter in a members statement in the last sitting week, I
am particularly proud to say that the Liberal-Nationals
coalition has been able to provide $9.5 million to the
Rosamond Special School, a school which was
promised an upgrade some eight years ago by the
previous government but which received nothing at all.
Frustration in this school community was expressed to
me upon my becoming a member of Parliament. Even
more recently I received correspondence — which
could be described as colourful, to say the least — from
those who were sick of sitting around waiting for the
government to do something. At this point I repeat that
I am proud that we have committed $9.5 million to this
school so that it can be completely rebuilt from scratch,
moving it from its current site in Maidstone to a new
site in Braybrook.
In the area of law and order we will be allocating
$7 million to improve electronic monitoring of serious
offenders who are subject to community corrections