Book 8 - Parliament of Victoria

BUDGET PAPERS 2011–12
1578 COUNCIL Tuesday, 31 May 2011
look at people and say, ‘We hear you, we see you and
we will help you’.
It is the job of responsible government to provide not
only for the present but also for the future. It is the job
of the government to do this responsibly, effectively
and efficiently. This is a government created by the
people and for the people. This is a budget for them.
Mr TEE (Eastern Metropolitan) — I welcome the
opportunity to speak on the budget. Most commentators
found the budget a bit underwhelming, and I suspect
those in the electorate did too. It has been universally
accepted that this was a missed opportunity for the
government to outline a way forward and address the
important issues that we face as an economy and indeed
as a society.
At one level you might say, ‘So what that the budget
did not fire the imagination or deliver a vision?’, but the
reality is that there is a risk with this budget, because
the budget in its mediocrity really indicates that the
government assumes that Victoria is isolated or an
island. This is a 1950s view that suggests we are not
part of an international economy. The government
seems to have assumed that we are somehow isolated
from the rest of the world. That is a very risky approach
and assumption for the government to make with this
budget.
The government has assumed that the success of the
Victorian economy — that is, the growth we have
experienced and the innovation that has been
delivered — will continue regardless, and ignores the
fact that there are a number of risks on the horizon. It
ignores the fact that in Australia we have a two-speed
economy. It is an economy where states like Western
Australia and Queensland have the privilege of digging
up minerals, which provides their economic strength. In
Victoria we have had to work hard to deliver our
successes. Success over the last 10 or so years has been
built around those key pillars of tourism and major
events and around investment in things like AAMI Park
and the convention centre.
Secondly, the strength of the economy has been based
around the manufacturing sector, the investment that
has gone into channel deepening and the success of the
government in leveraging investment around the
Holden engine plant. There has been real success there.
Thirdly, Victoria’s success over the last 10 or so years
has been based on education. We have become very
much a hub for education in this part of the world.
Those three pillars have been the basis for Victoria’s
success. We should not take any of this for granted. We
should not assume what this budget assumes — that is,
that Victoria’s success is either natural or some sort of
accident. It was earnt through hard work and hard
grafting.
What the budget and the government say is, ‘No, it is
all too difficult’. The government complains about the
GST formula. It says, ‘It is all too hard.’ It complains
about Canberra. It says, ‘Everything is Canberra’s
fault’. But the reality is that government comes with its
challenges. Over the last few years we have had the
bushfires and the global financial crisis. There are
issues that from time to time buffet the budget. The
requirement of a government is to say, ‘How do we get
that vision? How do we make sure the Victorian
economy stays dynamic? How do we make sure that
the Victorian economy keeps moving so that we keep
getting jobs and the sort of economy that we need?’.
At its heart it is about making sure we have the
environment that allows us to utilise the diversity in our
community. That is very much our strength. Those
factors that have led to our success are under threat
because of the two-speed economy. We have had six or
seven interest rate increases in a row. Those interest
rate increases have been focused very much on the
resource states. They are very much focused on how
much we get internationally for resources. They are
very much focused on mineral exports without much
regard to Victorian manufacturing exports. We know
that the Australian dollar is about US$1.05. St George
Bank says it might go up to US$1.15, which puts it in
uncharted waters. We have these challenges on the
horizon, yet we have a budget and a government that
remains absolutely silent.
Some of those impacts are already coming through.
Ford is about to slash 10 per cent of its jobs. We have
seen the impact of job losses at Heinz. These again are
the consequences of those threats to the Victorian
economy. I think the budget reveals a real vacuum in
terms of the inability of this government to provide a
vision for the way forward and a response to some of
these challenges. It is as if the government has got its
head in the sand. There is no capacity or willingness to
engage and ensure that we keep our economy dynamic,
to ensure that the vibrancy that attracts talent,
innovation and business to Victoria stays in Victoria.
I am pleased that the Minister for Planning has stepped
in because this absence of vision is very much the
hallmark of what we see on the planning front. This
government has got rid of Melbourne 2030. There is no
plan to replace it for another two years. We have two
years where councils, communities and indeed
developers are going to be buffeted by a policy