Building Jobs, Building Victoria

It is with great pleasure that I rise in support of the budget for 2009-10. It is an important budget at a very difficult time for this state.

This state, like the rest of the world, is being gripped by the global financial crisis, and this is a budget which protects jobs and continues to not only maintain services and the rebuilding of Victoria but more importantly provide the economic stimulus in terms of infrastructure spending to really support and maintain jobs in Victoria.

We have heard from the opposition a fairly incredible rant against government expenditure and the issue of debt. In fact it has condemned the Brumby government for borrowing to build important infrastructure. It has basically said it wants to bank the money -- put the money away. It has said it wants to reduce taxes. It wants to have less payroll tax and less land tax. It fundamentally wants to rip apart our tax system and make it impossible to maintain the level of service and the building of infrastructure that is so important to Victoria and Victorians.

The opposition says it wants to maintain services and increase infrastructure expenditure, but at the same time it wants to cut taxes and reduce borrowings. All I can say is that the opposition treats the budget, the Victorian economy and the state tax system as if it is a magic pudding that you can keep taking pieces without it somehow not getting any smaller. That is the way the opposition views the Victorian economy. That fundamentally demonstrates a lack of political leadership. What we have in Victoria is very strong political leadership from the Premier. We have a good budget that will increase infrastructure spending, build the hard infrastructure we need in Victoria in terms of water, schools, public transport and roads and also build the soft infrastructure in terms of service delivery. More importantly the budget is about saving 35 000 jobs this financial year and providing an economic stimulus for Victoria as it confronts the global economic crisis -- the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Victoria and Australia are facing terrible and difficult times, but importantly we are doing it with very strong political leadership, which is totally lacking from the opposition benches. The opposition does not have a clear position or a clear policy on how to confront the global financial crisis. Its policy is to cut taxes but maintain services; to stop borrowing but increase infrastructure spending. Fundamentally that is a whole lot of nonsense and a smokescreen to hide the fact that it does not have the clear political framework, the economic understanding or the political leadership to lead Victoria in these difficult times.

The economic situation in Victoria is very difficult, as it is in the rest of Australia and the rest of the world. We cannot escape that. It is not a product of this government's actions but a product of international occurrences and weaknesses in financial markets globally.

It is not a situation of our making, but it is one we have to confront to protect jobs and to protect families in Victoria.

Unemployment is increasing. As is noted in the budget papers, it will go above 7 per cent, but it would be worse if we did not fulfil the agenda of this budget. We need governments to spend and spend well, and that is exactly what the Brumby government is doing. Not only is it spending important money in terms of infrastructure but the money is being well spent. It will provide a legacy in the form of new schools and refurbished schools and in the form of new trains and new trams. The Minister for Public Transport is at the table, and I note that we will be seeing new rolling stock in the next few years to provide for the massive increase in public transport use in this state. The budget is about providing for roads and hospital and providing those things that will benefit not only our generation but future generations in this state. We see what is happening in Victoria and Australia as a response to this global crisis.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has dropped interest rates, and the federal government is doing what is necessary to stimulate the economy. It is spending, and it is providing for infrastructure not only to stimulate the economy now but also for the rebuilding period as the economy pulls out of the difficulties that it finds itself in.

We need serious infrastructure. There is no doubt that there is a need to spend both at a state level and throughout Australia. What is really terrific about Victoria is the level of partnership between the state government and the federal government in our desire to stimulate the economy and provide the necessary infrastructure for our economic benefit.

In the short term infrastructure spending will provide an economic stimulus which will build on our ability to ride out the economic crisis and provide the necessary infrastructure for an eventual upturn in the economy.

The budget contains record expenditure on infrastructure in those areas which are important to all Victorians -- schools, public transport, roads, health and water.

Victoria is seeking to avoid a recession. The government is maintaining the state's AAA credit rating, and that is really important. Victoria will probably be the only state government that can say it has avoided both a recession and maintained its AAA credit rating. It demonstrates the strength of economic management in this state and also the underlying strength of the Victorian economy. The investments being made through this budget will secure the jobs of 30 000 people in Victoria. That is 30 000 families, and in itself it is a stimulus to the local economy. There is no doubt that the maintenance and promotion of jobs and the stimulation of the economy are the central features of the Brumby government budget.

We cannot avoid the impact of the global financial crisis. As I noted before, this is the greatest economic crisis to hit the world since the Great Depression. None of the post-war recessions have been akin to this either in their scope or in the level of decline in trade, manufacturing and financial activity on a global scale. We know the enormous impact it has had on the United States of America and the difficulties that country has experienced, but it has also affected Europe and Asia.

Some of the largest declines in exports have come from the Asian economies, from Korea and from Japan. It is an economic crisis that demonstrates weaknesses in world financial markets but which also demonstrates problems in world trade and manufacturing which inevitably will be dealt with but which will create problems. While we cannot avoid the impact of the global financial crisis, what we can do in the state budget is lessen the impact on Victorian families and on working people by securing 35 000 jobs and providing opportunities for people to work so they can ride out this difficult period and prepare the state for when the economy improves on a global scale.

This budget contains projects which are critical to my electorate of Brunswick. It is an electorate which has undergone significant changes in recent years. It has become less of a manufacturing centre and more of a service area. To some extent it is a dormitory for the inner city, for the central business district, for universities and for hospitals.

A large proportion of the population of the Brunswick electorate are students or people who work in the education institutions, in the central business district and in the hospitals.

The money this government is putting into schools, together with the federal government's Building the Education Revolution program, is significant to people in my electorate. We have a lots of small schools with just over 200 students. Often the students are in buildings that are over 100 years old. The sort of money we are now spending on those schools is significant. They are great schools and great communities with great educational outcomes, but the buildings are old and they need to be tidied up. They need new buildings, and that is exactly what is happening. Schools which, dare I say, had been largely neglected in the period of the Kennett government are now receiving significant investment.

People living in my electorate are heavily dependent on public transport. The area is rich in its provision of public transport. We have tramlines, a train line and a number of bus services. We have experienced an enormous surge in the use of public transport, and the purchase of new trains through the budget and the procurement of the 50 new low-floor trams is significant. I represent an area with six tramlines, so the increased number of low-floor trams will be significant as we meet the increasing demands for public transport use.

Hospitals are important not only in servicing my community but also because a large number of members of my community work in inner city hospitals. The government is making a significant investment in hospitals. A large number of people work in the Parkville biotechnology industry. A new cancer centre was announced today, and the various investments in the Parkville biotech precinct are important for my electorate.

We have already seen money for the rebuilding of our schools. The Pascoe Vale South Primary School in my electorate has been funded with a $2 million investment for a new block and the demolition of a very old breezeblock building in the front of the school. Over a relatively short period we will see a number of announcements about the refurbishment and rebuilding of primary schools in the Brunswick electorate.

I am pleased we are committed to increasing the number of kindergarten places. That commitment is significant not only because of the importance of kindergartens -- and Labor has been committed to increasing kindergarten places since it was elected in 1999 -- but also because of the baby boom there are large numbers of children now wanting to enrol in
four-year-old kinder. It is terrific to be able to provide places for those children in some terrific institutions throughout my electorate.

The budget will provide for 20 000 more dental patient visits and more dental chairs. It has probably been the biggest area of demand in terms of community health in my electorate. Obviously there are community health centres in my electorate, but there is also a large demand for dental care, particularly as the dental hospital is nearby. That allocation was well received.

As I said, there will be new trains and $5 million to begin the procurement of 50 new trams, which is significant to my electorate. There is also $55 million to upgrade bus services, and while I have said that the Brunswick electorate is very much a tram-dependent area -- having six tramlines and a train line is not bad -- there are also significant bus services running on our east-west routes. This year the government will be reviewing those services as part of the bus review, so it is significant that money will be available to improve and finetune those services and to ensure that public transport use is being looked after. Brunswick is probably one of the biggest areas for public transport use in metropolitan Melbourne, if not the biggest.

Increasing the water and sewerage concession cap and allocating $42 million for water and sewerage bill concessions is also significant. Water and investments in water come at a price. It is important to protect low-income earners and to improve concessions as we invest in water and the provision of water in Victoria.

We are piloting a bike hire project which will provide 600 bicycles at 50 bike stations in inner Melbourne. It is common for people who visit European cities to see bikes for hire.