Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (11:16): Let us let us talk about this contribution that we have heard. I am very pleased to support the motion in Mrs McArthur’s name. Let us talk about a hotchpotch. ‘A hotchpotch,’ says the speaker. What about the hotchpotch of government that we have seen over the last decade tearing down what should be good governance, tearing down what should be democracy and, within their DNA, systematically abusing taxpayer funds again and again? This is a fundamental failure of government. It is in their DNA to have a smorgasbord – a hotchpotch smorgasbord – of corruption under Labor. When you think about this, this is taxpayer funds.
I want to go to part (b), the $15 billion, and I know that is something that Mrs McArthur has been calling out across the chamber, as we heard from others. $15 billion is not an abstract figure, it is a truth – that is the reality. What could it have done if it was not lining gold-plated criminal pockets? Condominiums, snort gangs, corruption, strippers – whatever it is, it has missed the pockets of people who deserve it. We are here in this place as members of Parliament, with Labor as executive government and as the custodians of taxpayer money. Well, they have abandoned that, and now they are quibbling around the outsides in relation to Johnny-come-lately follow-the-money powers that the government, after consultation in 2027, may introduce in 2028 when all is done and dusted. They hope that the polls are reversing and that with Jacinta Allan’s negative 37 points or whatever it is and doorknocking in desperation in Bendigo East – with a fantastic Nationals candidate in Andrew Lethlean – they can hang on for grim death and that people will somehow be placated by these arbitrary, sometime-in-the-future follow-the-money powers. They are completely conned.
Let us talk about what could happen. We know, through the Parliamentary Budget Office – and I am not going to shy away from this; this is an important fact about this loss of $15 billion to our Victorian community – that regional Victorians make up 25 per cent of the population, but over time, over the last years, we have been getting under half of that in our infrastructure. If you took a sliver of that $15 billion – these are the facts, and it has been borne out by others of high integrity making that comment, Geoffrey Watson SC being one of them – with that, what could be done? One-fifth of our schools across the state are in a poor condition – that is not ‘needing work’, that is ‘poor condition’. We can label a whole heap in my Eastern Victoria electorate that have leaking roofs and are so antiquated and in need of upgrades. We also know that our CFA volunteers are having to go cap in hand to the government. They are ageing fleets. I think there are somewhere around 700 that are well over the age of replacement, and it is on the never-never. Ten million dollars each year is absolutely not going to cut it.
If we look at the West Gippsland Hospital and talk about people there, there is a gentleman who pays taxes who owns one additional house, and he rents that out. He is not a big fat cat. He goes to the hospital with chest pains, and the hospital is completely overrun. It has fantastic people, dedicated staff, nurses and professionals who try hard. They do not have a bed for him, so he ends up in the paediatric ward. He is 6 foot 2, and he is sitting in the paediatric ward and then ends up back in the corridor. This is the sort of thing where this rorting government should be spending taxpayer funds, not lining corrupt pockets, in essence going back to its DNA.
This is an arrogant government. We saw that with the red shirts. We saw that they thought that they could get away with it. We have heard Deborah Glass come out and say that this government and Daniel Andrews at the time was an artifice. We know that this government think that they have the right to do this, and then they have got the cheek to come back and nitpick. Well, the Liberals and Nationals have a plan. We will instruct and instigate a royal commission and get rid of the rorting. We have to do it for the sake of Victorians – we will. We put through our follow-the-money policy private members bill only in March. This government rejected it, and now it is kicking the legislative tin down the road for the never-never.
I do think facts matter, and the fact of the matter is this government has been taking Victorians for a ride. And all the while this government is asking Victorians to tighten their belts. They are asking Victorians to cope with debt that is eye-watering in magnitude. They are asking Victorians to cope with lower services that are under pressure. It is completely unacceptable. All these allegations are truly shocking, and this government bats them away like it is business as usual. Well, it is not business as usual. I completely support the motion before the house. I thank the crossbench and the Greens for taking on board this motion. We have to cleanse this government, we have to have a fresh start in November and we have to bring back proper integrity into this state.