Mr Herbert said the fact Holmesglen was struggling after having $25.5 million slashed from its budget should be a clear sign to the Minister for Higher Education and Skills Peter Hall that the cuts were not feasible.

“Holmesglen is the one of most innovative and successful TAFEs in the state, if not the country,” Mr Herbert said.

“If it is struggling to cope with these cuts, how can smaller TAFEs expect to survive?

“Already TAFEs across the state are weighing up whether they need to cut courses or sack staff, and the Minister himself couldn’t rule out campus closures.

“This should be a clear signal that these cuts go too far and are threatening the viability of many providers.

“These cuts amount to political vandalism to important public institutions. They are causing a considerable amount of anger in the community.”

Mr Herbert said the Baillieu Government would be held responsible if any TAFEs closed their doors.

“There will be knock-on effects from these massive cuts, both to business and the workforce as well as in regional Victoria where TAFEs are often the community’s only opportunity for further training,” he said.

“Education in Victoria is going backwards under Ted Baillieu and the cuts to TAFEs will only make the situation worse.

“Students and teachers need more support, not less, from this Government.”

Mental Health Minister, Mary Wooldridge, confirmed at a budget estimates hearing that community mental health service providers would need to absorb funding cuts.

She also failed to rule out cuts to staff or programs as a result of the Baillieu Government’s decision to reduce the rate of indexation payments to community based mental health services.

“There are 48 community mental health service providers across regional Victoria that will have to make decisions about whether to cut staff or programs – or both,” Mr Noonan said.

“In real terms, this decision will reduce the overall funding to psychiatric, disability and rehabilitation support services by $1 million each year over the next three years.

“When asked to guarantee that community mental health services would not be cut, the Minister simply indicated that it would be left to the CEOs and Boards to make those decisions.”

Mr Noonan said the Baillieu Government used the 2012-13 State Budget to reduce the level of indexation payments from 3.14 per cent to just 2 per cent for the next three years. Indexation payments are predominantly used to pay wage costs.

“Our regional mental health services do an outstanding job, but these cuts will place pressure on them to deliver more with less,” Mr Noonan said.

“The Baillieu Government’s decision to cut funding to community mental health services will leave some of our most vulnerable citizens without support.”

“We should be strengthening our mental health services, not squeezing them dry.”

The 2012-13 State Budget papers also revealed that the Baillieu Government is going to miss their target to transfer emergency patients to a mental health bed within eight hours, by a full 10 per cent.

“In 2011, more than 230 mentally ill patients waited longer than eight hours in Victoria’s regional hospitals for a bed,” Mr Noonan said.

“Ms Wooldridge must outline her Government’s plan to turn this situation around. People with a mental illness will simply regress unless they receive the appropriate clinical treatment and support they need. The Baillieu Government is taking our mental health services backwards.”

Mr Pallas said today’s Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show 16,400 regional jobs were lost in April. This means more than 26,000 full-time regional jobs have been lost since the Baillieu-Ryan Government was elected.

“Regional Victoria is going backwards under Mr Baillieu and National Party leader Peter Ryan,” Mr Pallas said.

“Every month, thousands more regional Victorians lose their jobs while the Baillieu-Ryan Government does nothing to protect jobs – let alone create new ones.

“In fact, the government is actually contributing to the jobs crisis in regional Victoria by shutting down regional government offices as part of the Baillieu Government’s drive to slash 4200 public sector jobs.

“For example, at least direct 400 jobs will be lost in regional towns due to the Baillieu –Ryan Government’s decision to close seven Department of Primary Industry offices. This decision will have flow on effects for local businesses creating even more job losses.”

Mr Pallas said the regional jobs crisis had disproportionately affected women with more than 11,000 women losing full-time work.

“It is unfair that women in regional Victoria are suffering because of this government’s lack of action,” he said.

Mr Pallas said the Baillieu-Ryan Government’s State Budget had delivered no jobs relief.

“Instead, the budget reveals the Government’s aims to facilitate fewer jobs in regional Victoria than in each of the last two years.”

Mr Pallas said latest figures show business confidence across the State had plummeted.

“Trading conditions have slumped significantly in transport, manufacturing and retail. Employment conditions are weakest in the manufacturing, construction and wholesale sectors,” Mr Pallas said.

“The Baillieu-Ryan Government’s budget dumped the First Home Owners Bonus which will hit the construction industry. It also slashed TAFE funding, a reckless and short-term saving that will result in more jobs losses and undermining the region’s long-term productivity.

“Regional Victorian’s deserve better than this.”

During a Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearing, Hugh Delahunty boasted about the new $60 million Lakeside Stadium. But today it’s been revealed Melbourne has lost the National Athletics Titles to NSW and the National Junior Titles to Perth.

“Victoria’s is going backwards under Ted Baillieu and the loss of these important athletic events highlights that this Government just doesn’t care about ensuring our state remains the sporting capital of the nation,” Mr Eren said.

“The threat now is that the $60 million dollar stadium could become the Baillieu Government’s white elephant,” Mr Eren said.

“Sporting events not only put Victoria on the world sporting stage but are important to the local economy adding more than $1 billion to the economy each year.

“Mr Delahunty and the Premier need to wake up and start fighting off challenges from other states or otherwise Victoria will continue to lose world class sporting events.

“Victoria didn’t win the title of the world’s best sports city by accident – it took hard work by the former Labor Government to not only secure, but to retain important events in the state.

“The Baillieu Government’s inaction is now threatening Victoria’s enviable reputation as the nation’s sporting capital.”

The Baillieu Government promised to deliver 93 of its 940 PSOs to train stations by 30 June this year, but with less than two months until the deadline just 36 officers have graduated.

“The Baillieu Government’s troubled PSO policy has fallen even further behind schedule and it is commuters using suburban stations that will be impacted by the delay,” Mr Merlino said.

“The Police Minister, Peter Ryan, had to admit he couldn’t meet his initial target of 235 PSOs patrolling stations by July 1 this year. He has subsequently conceded he won’t meet his revised target of just 93 officers.

“How long will commuters at suburban stations have to wait before the Baillieu Government delivers on its promise?

“Or will Mr Ryan now admit his Government will fail to provide two PSOs patrolling every train station by 2014?

“It’s time this Minister outlines to commuters exactly when their stations will be patrolled by PSOs.”

Costs to the program have also blown out with the State Budget showing that the Government has already spent up to $380 million on the program.

Mr Merlino said Mr Ryan had also failed to rule out further blowouts to the cost of the troubled program.

“Despite the slow recruitment of PSOs, the total cost of the policy has already doubled in just 18 months,” Mr Merlino said.

“And according the Minister himself there is no end in sight.

“The Government’s handling of the PSO rollout has been a shambles and no-one knows just how much the final cost will be or when it will be complete.

In a Parliamentary Accounts and Estimates Committee hearing, the Minister for Sport and Recreation Hugh Delahunty confirmed there had been a funding cut but refused to specify how much.

The Community Support Fund was set up to allow some gaming revenue to be reinvested into initiatives that benefited local communities such as facilities for local sporting clubs.

While the Baillieu Government is pocketing more money from increased gaming revenue, it slashed $46 million of funding it is providing community organisations.

Mr Delahunty also confirmed he had axed the Sustainable Sport program which assisted drought affected sporting clubs and the Community Sport Code of Conduct program which assisted state sporting associations.

“The Baillieu Government either doesn’t care or doesn’t understand how important community sporting clubs are to local communities,” Mr Eren said.

“Community sporting clubs are the lifeblood of many country towns and the axing of these funding programs is a kick in the guts to the members and volunteers who work tirelessly to support these clubs.

“Cutting money from these programs will hurt local sporting clubs across the state and will either force clubs already struggling to make ends meet to spend more time fundraising or go without important facilities.

“These cuts will have a significant impact on local sporting clubs desperate for basic sporting facilities such as safe playing surfaces, toilets and change rooms.

“Not only do local sport competitions develop the next generation of Victorian sport stars, they help bring local communities together and have a positive social impact.

“The Baillieu Government needs to explain how it can waste nearly $300,000 on toilet facilities at railway stations for the exclusive use by two protective service officers but can’t provide funding that benefits hundreds of sports players in local communities.”

In a Parliamentary Accounts and Estimates Committee hearing, Minister for Higher Education and Skills Peter Hall refused to rule out the possibility of campus closures following the Government’s $290 million a year funding cuts to TAFE.

In a recent letter, Mr Hall had admitted he had considered resigning over the cuts.

“The future of many regional TAFE campuses is increasingly uncertain,” Shadow Minister for Higher Education and Skills Steve Herbert said today.

“This is the second time Mr Hall has had the chance to rule out campus closures, and it is the second time he has refused.

“It’s clear higher education in Victoria is going backwards under Ted Baillieu and these cuts that could force campuses to close will only make the situation worse.”

Mr Herbert said the Baillieu Government either didn’t understand or didn’t care what impact its massive funding cuts would have on the TAFE sector or regional Victoria.   “In many regional areas, TAFEs are the only option for people who want to take on further study or training,” Mr Herbert said.

“Forcing TAFEs to close campuses will limit the educational options for thousands of students, and could cost hundreds of jobs with campuses often a major employer in the local community.

“If a campus closes, the flow on impact to regional business and the local economy that rely on not only the jobs the campuses provide but the skills training they deliver will also be devastating.

“These cuts are bad news for people wanting to take on further training and bad news for communities in regional Victoria.”

Pedestrian safety is a real concern for local residents but particularly for parents of teenage children who attend South Oakleigh Secondary College, which is located on Bakers Road, and arrive via bus from the east. The nearest bus stop is on the corner of Jacks and Centre roads, some distance from the Bakers and Centre roads intersection, and the students either cross at that point or walk up to the intersection of Bakers and Centre roads and cross there. Centre Road is extremely dangerous for pedestrians to cross, as this section of road between Jacks and Bakers roads has a rise and a speed limit of 60 kilometres per hour. There are no 40‑kilometre‑per‑hour variable flashing speed signs along this section of Centre Road at all. Also, many vehicles turn right into Bakers Road as the next street up, Cameron Avenue, is deemed a no‑right‑turn road due to this intersection being at the top of another rise in the road and too dangerous to enter. Many accidents occurred before the banning of right turns for vehicles travelling west.

Installing traffic lights would make crossing this busy road safer and reduce the chances of an accident involving a student. I call on the minister to seriously consider this proposal for inclusion in the VicRoads pedestrian crossing program for the sake of all the students at the secondary college.

This bill makes some amendments of a technical nature to the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (Control of Use) Act 1992 relating to the use and control of veterinary and agricultural chemicals. Section 69(3) of the principal act deals with infringement notices and prescribes the penalty for an offence under the act as not exceeding 2 penalty units. However, clause 7 of this bill substitutes 2 penalty units with 5 penalty units, effectively doubling the penalty units, yet there has been no explanation from the Minister for Agriculture and Food Security. All the minister said in his second‑reading speech was that the amendments to the principal act are minor. Why then does the bill provide for a 150 per cent increase? Both Parliament and industry are entitled to an explanation. Is there a problem? Has there been a substantial increase in offences? Are the offences becoming more serious? Presumably these are the reasons one would consider for such a massive increase in penalties. Surely penalties of any kind are for the purposes of, firstly, acting as a deterrent, and secondly, punishing illegal behaviour. However, the minister has not outlined a problem; he has said only that the amendments are minor.

Perhaps the hiking of penalties has been imposed upon him by the Treasurer, and he is too embarrassed to admit this to the Parliament. As this do‑nothing government takes the state into recession it may be banking on a penalty‑led recovery to balance the books. This government should be investing in infrastructure, which would promote economic activity and lead to growth and jobs and increased revenue. Relying on increased penalties is regressive, and Victorians expect this government to meet its commitment to keep charges down. It has been interesting to hear over the last couple of days members make contributions concerning the budget, particularly from the other side of the house. Government members tend to blame the international environment. They forget that when Labor was in government we had to deal with the global financial crisis, and we came out of it with flying colours. However, that fact seems to be completely ignored or overlooked.

The other amendments this bill makes are to the Domestic Animals Act 1994. Firstly, the bill increases from 17 to 18 years the minimum age a person needs to be to be the legal owner of a cat or dog. The rationale behind this is to avoid offences being heard in the Children’s Court, which is understandable. I assume the government expects that children will still have pets but that their parents will be the legal owners. I hope it will not lead to a reduction in the involvement of kids with pets. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has this to say about children and pets:

For children, it has been shown that growing up with pets (particularly dogs) during infancy helps to strengthen the immune system and reduces the risk of allergies linked to asthma.

Children who have pets including dogs, cats, fish and birds are also less likely to miss days of school.

I add that owning a pet encourages responsibility in children, which is hopefully something positive that can be taken into adulthood.

The other amendment to the act relates to the payment of concessional rates for the registration of cats and dogs. This is to be removed for new owners but will be grandparented for existing owners. This is fair enough, as it was understood to be a temporary measure to encourage microchipping. However, the grandparenting provision will not apply to people who move municipalities. They will end up paying an additional $30 for their existing pets, which is yet another way the government is finding to slug people. What should be a reasonable bill has become another example of this government’s incapacity to give Victorians a full and frank explanation, and it shows that the promise to keep down charges is on the never‑never. I have said enough. I hope the minister will take all of this into consideration.

The explanatory memorandum also lists the acts under repeal and separates them into three categories. The first category covers five principal acts which are spent or redundant because their provisions have taken effect. They are the Australian Alliance Assurance Company’s Act 1867, the Aboriginal Affairs (Transfer of Functions) Act 1974, the Aboriginal Land (Manatunga Land) Act 1992, the Appropriation (2008/2009) Act 2008 (No. 32/2008) and the Appropriation (Parliament 2008/2009) Act 2008 (No. 33/2008). The Australian Alliance Assurance Company, now known as Australian Alliance Insurance (AAI), was founded in Melbourne in 1862 — the member who spoke before me has referred to that already — and in a pub, no less! Originally Alliance was an unincorporated company. The purpose of the 1867 act was to allow the shareholders to sue and be sued in the name of the chairman. In the following century and a half Alliance has gone through a number of mergers and is now a niche company. Clearly the original act has served any useful purpose.

The second category is ‘Spent amending acts with transitional or substantive provisions’. There are 12 acts in this category: the Port Authorities (Amendment) Act 1986, the Legal Aid Commission (Amendment) Act 1989, the Kew and Heidelberg Lands (Trust) Act 1990, the Subdivision (Further Amendment) Act 1994, the University Acts (Amendment) Act 1994, the Melbourne and Olympic Parks (Amendment) Act 1995, the Retail Tenancies (Amendment) Act 1995, the Professional Boxing and Martial Arts Act 1996, the Transport Acts (Amendment) Act 1997, the Accident Compensation (Miscellaneous Amendment) Act 1997, the Investigative, Enforcement and Police Powers Acts (Amendment) Act 2005 and the Consumer Credit (Victoria) and Other Acts Amendment Act 2008.

The third category of acts to be repealed contains two acts which are spent because their provisions are wholly in operation and have amended the acts they were intended to amend. They are the House Contracts Guarantee (HIH) Act 2001 and the Fire Services Funding (Feasibility Study) Act 2009.

In its report on this bill the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee has found no problems and it has received the appropriate chief parliamentary counsel’s certificate.

The final comment I would like to make is that section 14 of the Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984 makes various provisions in respect of the repeal of acts. Section 14(1) prevents acts being revived that were previously repealed by the acts now being repealed. Section 14(2) prevents things that have been done from being undone, and importantly it does not affect rights acquired under the repealed acts. With those few words, I have no difficulty with the passage of this bill.

We certainly make the same commitment.

Sadly, this was an empty promise to mislead the electorate at the 2010 state election. On March 24 2011 the Premier made the following statement in this place:

The Monash children’s centre will be an important addition to the Royal Children’s Hospital and health services in this state. We are committed to it. We were committed to it in the election campaign period and we are committed to it on a time frame which we stand by.

The Premier also made the following statement in this place on 7 April 2011:

Our commitment to the Monash children’s centre was made in the election campaign, and that was a clear commitment. I referred to that when this question was asked previously. We stand by that commitment, and it has been accurately described by the Minister for Health.

With only $8.5 million allocated to purchase land in the 2011 budget, I wish to remind the Liberal Party and the Premier that time is running out and that residents in the Clayton electorate and the inner south‑east are furious. On behalf of all constituents in the south‑east corridor I call on the Premier to act now.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER — Order! The member’s time has expired.

Jobs will be cut at Murray Goulburn processing distribution sites in Rochester, Cobram, Koroit, Leongatha, Maffra and Kiewa. The 300 job losses equate to 12 per cent of the total number of staff at the Murray Goulburn co-operative.

“These job losses are devastating for these regional towns,” Ms Pulford said.

“There are now hundreds of families facing uncertain futures, unsure of how they will pay their mortgages or their bills.

“The Deputy Premier and Minister for Rural and Regional Development Peter Ryan needs to immediately outline what support his Government will provide these workers.”

When questioned by the Opposition today in the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearing, Peter Ryan said he was not even aware of developments at Murray Goulburn.

“This is outrageous — how can the Minister who is supposed to be responsible for generating jobs and investment in regional Victoria not even know about such a significant event?

“Peter Ryan is a senior member of the National party and he again has failed to protect jobs in regional Victoria. “If Mr Ryan thinks a few ads on television in Melbourne spruiking country Victoria is a substitute for a jobs plan, he is dreaming.”

Ms Richardson said that Liberal Public Transport Minister Terry Mulder had raided Labor’s Premium Station upgrade program to pay for the exclusive PSO toilets.

“Instead of upgrading stations to premium status and providing staff from first until last train as well as toilet access for commuters, the Liberal Government will waste $268,000 per station installing toilets for the exclusive use of PSOs,” Ms Richardson said.

“The Liberal Government’s decision to scrap Labor’s Premium Station program and lock commuters out of the $268,000 dunnies gives new meaning to the expression ‘flushing money down the toilet.

“Queensland has the golden pineapple and now, thanks to the Liberals, Victoria will be the home of the golden loos.

“The $17 million allocated in this year’s Liberal budget is only the beginning, with the remaining premium station money also earmarked to be frittered away on future PSO toilet installations across the network bringing the total cost to over $54 million.”

Ms Richardson said that while the Liberal Government had over $17 million in cash to splash on toilets for PSOs this year, important projects across the state had been slashed.

“On the one hand the Liberals are ripping money out of education, health and public transport and on the other hand they are splashing out over $268,000 per station for PSO toilets,” she said.

“Commuters have every right to be angry with this decision by the Liberal Government given that we are still waiting to see any new investment in major public transport infrastructure”.

“It is becoming clear that the needs of commuters simply aren’t a factor when it comes to the decisions being made by this Liberal Government.

“The Liberal Public Transport Minister has once again demonstrated that his pet projects like the Brighton Level crossing and now PSO toilets are more important than the needs of commuters.”

The Baillieu Government used its second budget to rip million of dollars of funding from the TAFE sector.

Over $290 million a year will be stripped from TAFE budgets and cost as many as 1500 jobs this year.

Shadow Minister for Higher Education and Skills Steve Herbert attended the rally to lend support to the TAFE sector, which is already forecasting plans to scrap courses, close campuses and making massive job cuts.   “Victoria’s education system is going backwards under Ted Baillieu and these latest cuts to training will gut TAFEs and hurt students and teachers,” Mr Herbert said.

“TAFE workers across the state are warning the Premier that his multi-million dollar cuts will force them to cut training to some of the most disadvantaged people in the Victorian community.

“The victims of these savage cuts will be the thousands of Victorians who desperately need training to get a job.

“I hope today’s rally is a wake up call for Mr Baillieu and he will finally realise his savage cuts are wrong.

“For many parts of country Victoria, TAFE campuses are an important local employer and are often the only higher education facility available for students to access close to home.

“The Premier should get out of his comfortable Spring Street office and travel to TAFE campuses across the state to see first hand what impact his cuts will have on students and teachers, as well as the local economy.”

“This Government is more interested in penny pinching than making our roads safer for motorists,” Shadow Minister for Roads and Road Safety Mr Donnellan said.

“These units are an important way of making our arterial roads safer by responding quickly to car breakdowns and accidents.

“These cuts will mean more road congestion and will put drivers and inexperienced road maintenance staff in harms way.

“Instead of funding experienced incident response service staff, the Baillieu Government expects road maintenance personnel and RACV staff and inexperienced VicRoads contractors to carry out the work.

“Mr Mulder can’t claim the funding cuts are an operational matter when he and the Premier approved the service cut as part of the budget process.

“Motorists’ safety on Melbourne’s arterial roads should be paramount but instead the Baillieu Government is more interested in slashing important funding.”

It’s been revealed the Liberal-National Government will close DPI offices in Ararat, Birchip, Camperdown, Cobram, Kyneton, Ouyen and St Arnaud.

Other DPI staff will be shifted from Department of Sustainability and Environment offices in Alexandra, Broadford, Corryong, Edenhope, Heyfield, Mansfield, Orbost, Seymour, Swifts Creek, Traralgon and Wangaratta.

“Regional Victoria is going backwards under Ted Baillieu and these DPI office closures will just add to the economic woes these areas are already facing,” Mr Andrews said.

“The question the Premier needs to answer is how many jobs will be lost as part of his plan to shut seven DPI offices and relocate other DPI staff.

“When the Minister talks about consolidation we all know that is code for job cuts.

“These are frontline staff who are often the first point of contact for many local communities so these office closures will have a real impact on regional and rural Victoria.”

Mr Andrews said the DPI office closures were part of the Baillieu Government’s savage cuts to regional and rural Victoria.

“Since taking office regional families are seeing a government that is continually turning its back on rural and regional Victoria,” he said.

“As the Deputy Leader of the National Party and the Minister who is directly responsible for the DPI, Peter Walsh has yet again failed to protect jobs in regional Victoria.

“Mr Walsh’s comments that his government was ‘refocusing’ the DPI are an insult to employees and an attempt by the National Party to rid itself of any responsibility of impending job cuts to DPI staff.

“Mr Walsh needs to outline to rural and regional communities how many jobs will go as a result of these DPI office closures?

“It is clear the National Party has forgotten the communities that they represent.

“When will the National Party stand up against their Liberal colleagues and fight hard to protect jobs in regional and rural Victoria?”

Ms D’Ambrosio said that senior Victorians will get an average increase to their pensioners’ rebate of just 2 per cent, significantly below the forecast rate of inflation.

“Mr Baillieu’s budget, far from addressing the spiralling cost of living for older Victorians, has made it harder on them through this miserly increase,” Ms D’Ambrosio said.

“By providing an increase that is two thirds of the forecast inflation rate of 2.75 per cent, Ted Baillieu is hurting older Victorians.

“Yet Ministers and MPs will have a bump of 2.5 per cent to their pay packet, adding insult to injury to older Victorians.”

Shadow Minister for the Seniors and Ageing Ms Mikakos said that despite promises made before the election, the budget made it clear Mr Baillieu had simply given up on cutting the cost of living.

“If this government cared about easing the cost of living for senior Victorians, Mr Baillieu wouldn’t have broken his promise,” Ms Mikakos said.

“When provided the opportunity in a parliamentary committee to explain why seniors will be stuck with a rebate that is far below inflation, the Premier failed to answer the question.

“Seniors are already paying more for public transport fares, and stamp duty and car registration.

“Mr Baillieu warned that this budget was going to be tough, but it has become clear that he meant it would be tough on the hip pockets of senior Victorians.”

Since 2009, the Victorian Government funded free vaccinations for parents and carers to protect newborns from the current whooping cough epidemic.

In a Parliamentary Accounts and Estimates Committee hearing today, Health Minister David Davis revealed the free vaccine for parents would not be available after 30 June this year.

As of 6 May 2012, there have been 1655 notifications of whooping cough (pertussis) to the Department of Health this year.

Shadow Minister for Health Gavin Jennings said the Government’s decision to dump the vaccine program was ill-considered and unfair.   “Victoria’s health system is going backwards under Ted Baillieu and it’s now the health of newborns that will be impacted by this Government’s latest cut,” Mr Jennings said.

“Whooping cough is still a significant public health issue in our community, and the Baillieu Government has now removed this added protection for newborns against the serious illness.   “Without knowing it, parents and carers often pass whooping cough on to very young babies who are not immune to the illness until after their third immunisation at six months old.

“If it was good enough for the Baillieu Government to extend the vaccine program to protect newborns last year, why isn’t it good enough to continue funding it now?

Last week’s State Budget showed the Baillieu Government had ripped a further $134 million from the health budget, on top of the $482 million cut last year.

“If this Government cared about reducing whooping cough risk to newborns, it would be investing in vaccinations for parents and carers, not slashing funding for a program that protects them.”

The Commonwealth Bank has announced it will close its mortgage service site, with 100 workers set to lose their jobs.

This follows today’s NAB Monthly Business Survey which reveals business conditions had ‘deteriorated very heavily’ to be in negative territory and business confidence is now at zero.

While ANZ Research into job advertisements also released today shows Victoria suffered a massive 30.9 per cent drop in the last year – the largest of all the states.

“This is a devastating blow for these workers and their families,” Mr Pallas said.

“It seems not a week goes by without more job losses being announced yet the Baillieu Government failed to use its budget to deliver a plan on how it will grow the economy and create jobs.

“Victoria’s economy is going backwards under Ted Baillieu.

“New figures today show the jobs crisis is continuing while business confidence is plummeting.

“Under Mr Baillieu’s watch, trading conditions are down significantly in transport, manufacturing, retail and employment conditions are weakest in manufacturing, construction and wholesale sectors.”

The Government used its State Budget to cut $12.8 million from the Department of Business and Innovation’s Small Business Assistance programs, including Skills for Growth and Time to Thrive 2.

“The Baillieu Government has also dumped the First Home Owners Bonus, slashed more funding to TAFEs, is cutting thousands of jobs and is failing to provide any significant funding for major infrastructure projects,” Mr Pallas said.

“Planning Minister Matthew Guy brags that he is currently steering the State through the biggest reform of planning in Victoria’s history,” Mr Tee said.

“He is also set to open up huge swathes of land to allow developers to eat into Melbourne’s prized Green Wedge.

“Yet, the very department that is to oversee these important and complex changes has had its resources slashed in this year’s State Budget.

“This can only mean one of two things – massive planning backlogs, or a privatisation of Victoria’s planning system, where developers and highly-paid consultants takeover at the expense of government accountability to communities.”

Mr Tee said programs cut include initiatives to improve housing affordability as well as a $9 million program to manage Victoria’s population growth through better planning.

“The $9-milllion Planning for Victoria initiative was a highly successful government program to improve planning expertise for new residential zones,” Mr Tee said.

“Mr Guy has abandoned this program at the same time he is opening up Victoria’s precious green wedge for open slather development.

“It makes no sense, unless, of course, Mr Guy is planning to outsource this expertise to the property development community.”

Mr Tee said Mr Guy had already flagged his plans to introduce legislation to set up “code assess” – a one-size-fits-all mandatory planning code that will set height and density standards.

“Any development application that meets the ‘standards’ will get the green light. Victorians who prize the liveability of their suburbs should be very worried about Mr Guy’s plans to streamline planning regulation and systems.”

Shadow Housing Minister Richard Wynne said the government had cut funding in several areas of the housing portfolio despite growing demand across the State.

“Mr Baillieu’s second budget is a horror budget for families and individuals waiting for housing in Victoria,” Mr Wynne said.

“Mr Baillieu has cut spending on housing, at a time when it should be increasing funding: Social Housing investment has dropped 2.2 per cent from $181.3 million in 2011-12 to $177.3 million in 2012-13, and Housing Support and Homelessness Assistance has fallen 1.5 per cent from $226.1 million in 2011-12 to $222.8 million in 2012-13.

“The budget papers also show that next financial year there will be no new funding to build any new public housing – another year of inaction for the Baillieu Government.

“In June, the Federal Government’s massive injection into social housing stock will be complete, meaning there will be no new money to build public or social housing in Victoria going forward.”

Mr Wynne said Mr Baillieu had also lowered targets for the number of housing property upgrades to 1600 ­– the lowest in more than a decade, and waiting times for the most needy have blown out to more than 10 months.

“The results of this budget will become clear in coming years: more people waiting longer for housing.”

In addition, the Opening Doors program, to improve housing services for the homelessness, has had its funding slashed. This program had previously been funded at over $7 million each year, now it will only be funded at $1.7 million a year.

Mr Wynne said Housing Minister Wendy Lovell’s record of poor support for public housing was stacking up against her. She had:

·      Failed to rule out selling off public housing;

·        Released a homelessness ‘plan’ that failed to set out any plans for assisting young people experiencing homelessness, women and children escaping domestic violence, or people currently living in crisis accommodation; and

·        Proved no new funding for building new housing since coming to office in 2010.

The former Labor Government provided $50 million over three years for the Arrive Alive II program, while it appears the Baillieu Government will provide a measly $17 million over four years for Victoria’s Road Safety Action Plan.

“It appears the Baillieu Government has cut more than $30 million from road safety while at the same time significantly increasing revenue from fines to more than $300 million,” Mr Donnellan said.

“This Government seems more interested in raising revenue and fining Victorians than providing sufficient funding for road safety initiatives to protect Victorian lives.

“The Baillieu Government needs to do more to reduce drink driving and speeding, as well as support cycling and pedestrian safety and driver education. So far it’s delivered very little.”

Mr Donnellan said the Government needed to explain to Victorians how much funding it had dedicated to road safety and what new road safety initiatives it would deliver in the next 12 months.

“The Government should be doing more to promote safety on our roads, not less,” he said.

“It is not good enough for the Baillieu Government to be hitting taxpayers with increased fines, while decreasing spending on road safety measures.”

Appearing before the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee, the Treasurer was asked to provide a guarantee that no Victorian currently paying the fire services levy would pay more under the proposed change.

Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Shadow Minister for Rural and Regional Development Ms Pulford said the Treasurer categorically refused to give such an undertaking.

“This admission will send a chill down the spine of thousands of Victorians hoping to be reassured that the Government’s changes won’t just be used as an excuse to gauge even more money from families struggling to meet cost of living pressures,” Ms Pulford said.

“This Government has delivered the highest taxing budget in Victoria’s history, with tax revenues set to increase by $740 million next year.

“For regional Victorians, this budget has included the cruel blow of the abolition of the First Home Owners bonus, which will add thousands of dollars to the cost of a newly-constructed home for first home buyers.

“The dumping of the School Start bonus and cuts to the Education Maintenance Allowance are further blows that will hurt people living in regional and rural areas.”

The Government has failed to provide the VicRoads Bicycle Program any new funding in this year’s State Budget after years of record investment by the previous Labor Government.

“This is a horror budget for Victorian bicycle riders,” Mr Donnellan said.

“There is doubt that bicycle safety improvement projects will be delivered by the Baillieu Government.

“This means communities may miss out on much-needed funding for new bicycle lanes, intersection upgrades and bike trails.   “This is a major kick in the guts to the hundreds of thousands of families and individuals who cycle to work, school, train stations, for recreation and exercise.

“Numerous studies have shown that the investment in bike safety improvements reduces the risk of injury and death. Roads Minister Terry Mulder must explain why the Government has failed to provide one new dollar to this program and why the safety of cycling families is not a priority for the Baillieu Government.

“If the Baillieu Government cared about families it would reinstate funding to improve bicycling infrastructure.”

Numerous bicycle safety projects throughout Victoria – many part completed – may now come to a standstill. Projects such as the Federation Trail connecting Werribee to Altona, Darebin Creek and Yarra bike trails as well as numerous road safety upgrades to Geelong and Surf Coast are now at risk and Mr Donnellan called on the Minister to guarantee they will be completed.

“The Priority Hazard Road Works report, undertaken by the Bicycle Infrastructure Group, which comprised VicRoads, Geelong and Surf Coast councils and Bike Safe, identified $14 million worth of projects in the Geelong region, which are now at risk and may now not proceed,” he said.

“Labor understood the importance of cycling to Victorians and that is why we had a $115 million Victorian Cycling Strategy.”

The Victorian Health Services Performance Report shows that at 31 December, 2011 there were 43,725 patients on the elective surgery waiting list – up from 38,166 a year earlier and a rise of 2320 in the three months since the last report.

Shadow Minister for Health Gavin Jennings said Ted Baillieu and his Health Minister, David Davis, should be ashamed for allowing the waiting lists to blow out so significantly.

“Victoria’s health system is going backwards under Ted Baillieu,” Mr Jennings said.

“This report shows that more Victorians will be waiting longer for their surgery.

“If this government cared about improving Victorians’ access to healthcare, it would be investing more in hospitals, not stripping them of the funding they need.

“These figures will only get worse, with the Government using this week’s State Budget to rip a further $134 million from the health budget, on top of the $482 million that was cut last year.

“When it comes to delivering better health services, Ted Baillieu and David Davis are failing Victorians.”

Victorians are waiting longer in emergency departments and for ambulance transfers to hospital, with the Baillieu Government failing to meet four major targets. These are: • Emergency Department Category 3 seen in 30 mins; • Elective Surgery Category 1 seen in 30 days; • Elective Surgery Category 2 seen in 90 days; and • Ambulance transfer within 40 mins.

The figures show that 27 per cent of emergency patients are not treated on time, with 24 per cent of non-admitted emergency department patients’ waiting for more than four hours.

The number of mental health patients waiting longer than eight hours for admission to emergency departments has increased significantly to 765, up from 611 the previous quarter.

“Yet again, Ted Baillieu and David Davis are trying to hide their dreadful performance in health, with this report released under the cover of a ministerial scandal and too late to allow for questioning in Parliament – just as the previous report was released just before Christmas,” Mr Jennings said.

“It’s not surprising the Health Minister tried to hide this report given how many hospitals have failed ambulance and treatment time targets.”

Today the TAFE Association announced that the Baillieu Government’s estimates of funding cuts to TAFE institutes could rise to about $290 million a year by 2013.

The Association has also estimated job losses could be as many as 1500 across the sector this year.

In parliament today, Leader of the Opposition Daniel Andrews asked Ted Baillieu to rule out the closure of any TAFE campus as a consequence of his savage cutbacks to the sector.

It followed the refusal by the Minister for Skills and Higher Education to rule out campus closures.

“Ted Baillieu was given plenty of opportunities to rule out whether his funding cuts would force the closure of any TAFE campus but he failed to give Victorians that guarantee,” Mr Herbert said.

“These cuts are cruel and will cost hundreds of jobs and hurt students across the state.

“As more jobs are being lost, Victorians need to have access to services that can provide training and skills.

“Many TAFEs are based in regional and rural Victoria, providing education close to home for students and are a significant local employer for regional areas.

“Any closures will impact on the local economy and limit education options for Victorians.”

Today it was revealed that the Baillieu Government’s own Minister for Higher Education and Skills Peter Hall had written to Victorian TAFE providers and admitted he had considered resigning over the funding cuts to the sector.

“We all acknowledge that the journey ahead is going to be a very tough one. The easy thing to do would be to give up, to throw in the towel. Believe me I have thought of doing that on many occasions in recent months.” (Peter Hall)

“This letter confirms that there are major divisions in the Baillieu Government,” Mr Herbert said.

“If the Minister can admit these cuts will devastate training in Victoria, it’s time the Premier did as well.

“Slashing millions of dollars from TAFES will hurt thousands of people who are in need of skills training and force hundreds of jobs to be lost.”

And while I would never suggest that there are many followers of Karl Marx opposite, there are more than a few that do a pretty good impression of Groucho, who said:

“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies”.

This budget would make Groucho proud. And that’s on top of the uncanny resemblance to the ever-silent Harpo that has become the Treasurer’s stock in trade in the lead up to budgets.

Certainly the Treasurer is pretty good at looking for trouble. He’s now spent 17 months blaming everyone and everything for Victoria’s economic woes. If it’s not the former Government, the Federal Government, the carbon tax, the GFC, the Euro-debt crisis, Japan’s earthquake or the high Australian dollar – it’s the Reserve Bank that is playing the role of villain in the pantomime that has become Victoria’s fiscal strategy.

If imitation is flattery, Groucho would be touched to see how the Treasurer has gone about incorrectly diagnosing the State’s problems. Victorians are supposed to believe that the Treasurer was right last year when his budget denied there was a jobs crisis and contained no measures to stimulate economic growth and generate jobs. Victorians remember – his entire budget speech and the word ‘jobs’ was not uttered once. Victorians are now paying the price for that arrogant miscalculation.

And as for applying the wrong remedies, Victorians might have been better off with Harpo’s whistling and horn-blowing than the directionless drivel offered up in Tuesday’s budget.

The sad truth is that this Government was told last year that for our State to thrive we needed a plan to create jobs. But the Baillieu Government knew better – and instead invested its energy in trying to trash the economic legacy of the former Government.

Victorian families are now bearing the cost of that choice.

We’ve all heard the now notorious story of the Premier being asked at a boardroom lunch about his vision. He’s said to have got out of his chair, walked to the window, looked into the distance and declared “I can see my house from here”.

The Premier may hate being asked “the question” but Victorians don’t need stand-up, they need a statesman.

Our State needs a vision comparable with the journey that we’ve been on, and commensurate with the challenges we now face.

Victoria has led the nation for decades. We’ve come up with the big ideas for reform of our federation. We’ve driven the National Reform Agenda. We’ve run Australia’s best health system. We led the nation for jobs creation. We pioneered to create the world’s safest roads. We’ve staged the best sporting events. We’ve led culturally and creatively. Our regions thrived, even in the face of drought, floods and fire. And Melbourne became the world’s most liveable city. We’ve created a thriving and diverse community – the most multicultural in the world.

This legacy was not the creation of one government, or even one political party. We’ve had continuity with successive governments building on the strengths of those that came before. Victoria has set the benchmark for the rest of Australia. But setting the benchmark demands an ambitious government. A government that looks forward to make things better, rather than one that looks back to find something to blame.

Victorians have always had to peddle faster. Not blessed with abundant natural resources, Victorians can never afford to be complacent. But now our vital signs are showing the strain.

The Government’s own budget reveals that economic growth has fallen from a healthy 3 per cent to 1.5 per cent this year.

In 2009, in the middle of the global financial crisis, 92 per cent of the full time jobs created in Australia were generated right here in Victoria. Last year, the Treasurer promised us 55,000 jobs a year. Instead we are losing 900 a week. And the Government’s own budget reveals that employment growth is now forecast at 0.00 per cent. Yesterday, with only two months to go, the Treasurer wouldn’t even guarantee reaching that.

Unemployment is now at 5.8 per cent, higher than any state in mainland Australia. While the Government tells Victorians that they’ve got their backs on jobs, if you look at the budget, the Government actually expects to fail. Its ‘investments facilitated’ performance measure reveals its target – to facilitate only half the investment achieved during Labor’s last year in office. That’s right Mr Speaker, it’s not just that they’re expecting to fail, they’ve actually stopped trying.

The outlook for Victoria’s regions is sadly even worse. For all the Deputy Premier’s bleatings, the Government aims, that’s right it actually aspires, to facilitate fewer jobs in regional Victoria than in each of the last two years. As the Deputy Premier loves to boast Victorians “have never seen anything like it”.

In our last budget, Victoria’s population was growing at 2.2 per cent, the highest rate since at least 1971. Now, our population growth is slowing.

In the 11 years that Labor was in office an average of $581 million each year was invested in health building projects. This Government’s own budget reveals that it will spend $100 million less over 4 years than we spent on average each and every year.

While the Treasurer spruiks training as the key to productivity, this budget boasts the single largest cut to the TAFE sector in the State’s history. The Victorian TAFE Association estimates that $100 million will be lost to the system every year because of the choice this Government has made.

And today Victorians are confronted with the astonishing revelation that the Minister for Higher Education, the Honourable Peter Hall, appears to have contemplated resignation as a consequence of these changes. But now he expects us to believe that he thinks that these changes will make Victoria’s TAFE sector “the strongest in the country”. That’s right, he expects us to believe he contemplated giving it away, because he was making the system the strongest in the country. They must take Victorians for fools.

Peter Hall is actually the canary in the mine. His first letter speaks for itself. He had the courage to call it, but not the courage to stand his ground.

Instead of telling Victorians that our State can be even better and delivering a budget that is a pathway to take us there, this Government has driven expectations through the floor, they’ve cut and run and smashed our State’s confidence. This budget’s not an answer, it’s an alibi.

As Tim Colebatch observed yesterday in The Age: there was not “anything resembling a jobs plan, or anything aiming to get the economy to fire on all cylinders again. And there was nothing to answer the question Victorians are asking: ‘why does Ted Baillieu want to be Premier? Where does he want to take us?’ At some point, his Government is going to have to tell us what it stands for. The budget was a missed chance to do that.”

Mr Speaker, many Victorians are asking the same questions. This budget contains no vision for our State, just a litany of excuses about why things can’t be done. There are no plans for transport, infrastructure, health, education, or jobs, just a narrative about tough times.

Well Labor faced tough times too – our worst drought, our most tragic natural disaster on Black Saturday and the Global Financial Crisis, the worst economic downturn since the Depression. And these budget papers acknowledge that our GST write-downs during those times were as significant as the ones this Government now claims prevent it from taking action to tackle some of our State’s biggest challenges.

No state government can control the economic cycle or fix the dollar. But a strong state government can invest in infrastructure to improve productivity and generate jobs. A strong state government can use its significant spending power to source locally rather than offshore. A strong state government can prioritise its spending to boost the construction industry. A strong state government can invest in skills and training. And a strong state government can support Victorian companies seeking to become more innovative and globally competitive.

But this State Government refuses to accept that it has a responsibility to do any of these things.

The Government’s entire strategy is built on the premise that it is hostage to events rather than shaping them. Victorians are entitled to ask: ‘what did Ted Baillieu think he was running for when he offered himself to lead our State in November 2010?’

It’s bad when politicians promise to fix problems that they know they cannot fix. It’s even worse when politicians fail to fix the problems that they can.

When Labor faced the Global Financial Crisis we re-cast the First Home Owners Bonus to support the building industry by targeting our assistance to new housing construction starts, particularly in regional Victoria. This and other actions that we took proved a great success. Victoria’s property market defied expectations and stayed stronger than forecasters anticipated. This Government has scrapped this bonus. This decision makes new houses less attractive than existing housing stock. Make no mistake about it, this decision will cost Victorian jobs.

When Labor came to office, we established the Victorian Industry Participation Policy, to ensure that where possible government spending supported local jobs. This policy was a direct result of the rolling stock replacement program undertaken by the former Kennett Government in its last days in office, which saw hundreds of millions of dollars in new rolling stock destined to be sourced from overseas. Our policy gave Victorian companies seeking to supply goods and services to the Victorian Government a fighting chance.

From emergency service uniforms to new trains for our transport system, sending this work offshore is a sure fire way to kill local jobs. But this Government just doesn’t seem to get it. In review after review, commissioned by the Government, the Government’s hand-picked experts recommend applying the blowtorch to Labor’s Victorian Industry Participation Policy.

Even in tough times, our Government kept striving to maintain our State’s leadership. Instead of raiding Workcover’s strong balance sheet to prop up the budget as this Government has done, our Government used Worksafe’s strong capital position to establish Work Health –  a world-first workplace preventative health check to identify the risk factors for chronic health conditions amongst Victorian workers.

We established the Victorian Cancer Action Plan.

Two strategies to deal with the biggest health challenges facing the Victorian people.

This budget closes the door on Victoria’s Cancer Action Plan.

The Treasurer continues to peddle two myths about Labor’s economic record to justify the harsh measures that this Government has taken.

The first is the furphy that our state expenditures were on an unsustainable growth path. The Treasurer knows that this is not true. Once the federal stimulus funding is netted out, Victoria’s revenue and expenditure growth pretty much paralleled each other over Labor’s period in office. This can hardly be a revelation to the Treasurer – after all, it’s the very reason every one of Labor’s budgets over 11 years received an emphatic Triple-A credit rating from Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s.

In the same breath, the Treasurer advances the spurious claim that Labor’s budget was in structural deficit. If the Treasurer’s logic – oxymoronic though that phrase may be – is accepted, then his own budget, dependent on unsustainable cash grabs from public entities, can be critiqued in precisely the same way.

So every Victorian should know that the very foundations of the Treasurer’s budget are based on spurious claims justifying cruel cuts that will hurt Victorian families.

But this budget’s cruellest claim surely must be the Treasurer’s boast in his speech that “the Government’s spending priorities are focussed on ….. protecting the State’s most vulnerable citizens”.

Who are Victoria’s most vulnerable citizens that the Treasurer has pledged to protect? Are they not the thousands of Victorians whose concessions, by the Government’s own admission, are set to fall in real terms.

Think about it. CPI is forecast at 2.75 per cent. Government wages policy is 2.5 per cent. But our State Government will only give the poorest Victorians 2 per cent. If 2.5 per cent is right for nurses, for teachers, for police, for public servants, for politicians –  surely it’s not right that the poorest Victorians are funded for only 2 per cent.

Who are Victoria’s most vulnerable citizens that the Treasurer has pledged to protect? Are they not the 40,000 Victorian families who in 2013 would have been eligible for the Government’s means-tested School Start Bonus that has now been abolished? Abolished because according to the Premier, his family didn’t need it. Last time I checked, his family isn’t even eligible for it.

Who are Victoria’s most vulnerable citizens that the Treasurer has pledged to protect? Are they not the thousands of Victorian families who receive the Education Maintenance Allowance? The Government’s own Department of Education describes the EMA as “assistance to low income families for helping with the costs associated with the education of their children”. It would be difficult to have designed a more targeted attack on vulnerable Victorians than this Government’s decision to discontinue the schools component of the EMA.

Those of us on this side of the chamber know better than anybody that education is the great driver of opportunity. When I look into the eyes of the parents of young people who’ve come from so many different backgrounds and settled in my electorate, I see people who trust that education will be the thing that gives their kids a chance for a better life than they had hoped for for themselves. What were the members of the Government’s Budget and Expenditure Committee thinking when they decided to cut this funding? These Tories with their mantra of rugged individualism, of people dragging themselves up by their bootstraps, taking money away from the poorest Victorians trying to get the very education that would give them a fighting chance to achieve their dreams. How dare they?

Who are Victoria’s most vulnerable citizens that the Treasurer has pledged to protect? The TAFE sector has always had a responsibility to provide access for disadvantaged people. But now we learn that TAFE leaders have been told that community service obligations can be discarded as part of the cuts contained in this budget. As Homesglen Institute of TAFE chief Bruce Mackenzie said: “this is an attack on the most vulnerable people”.

When it comes to protecting Victoria’s most vulnerable citizens I’ll give the Treasurer credit for choosing his words carefully. Because when the Government decided to slash funding for refugee support, while they may be vulnerable, they’re not yet citizens.

Mr Speaker, Victoria is not like other states where rednecks question immigration every day. Immigration has been unambiguously good for Victoria. Celebrating our diversity and our multiculturalism crosses the political divide. Surely our most vulnerable migrants are our most recently arrived refugees. This Government should be ashamed that it has so significantly reduced support for their health, education and justice needs.

One group of vulnerable Victorians who found a voice in the Government’s budget priorities are the residents of New Street Brighton. There it is, ranked 223rd on the ALCAM list. That’s right, our rail safety experts tell us that there are 222 busier or more dangerous crossings throughout Victoria. When the budget priorities were being set, no-one can accuse the Member for Brighton of being caught napping. Make no mistake about it, $2 million has been allocated already but it will cost tens of millions to grade separate and we will hold every government member accountable for unfunded crossings higher on the ALCAM list in their electorates that they claim there are insufficient funds to fix.

The Government will wear this outrageous boondoggle like a crown of thorns.

The chasm between rhetoric and reality is no wider than in the Government’s claims about infrastructure. Like a bawdy burlesque dancer, the Government has taken to teasing Victorians. A hint of a road here, a glimpse of rail there, a peek of a port, a flash of a tunnel.

Take the $15 million for the so-called East-West Link. This is a ploy, not a plan. It’s a tactic, not a tunnel. Industry sources tell me that $15 million buys approximately 15 metres of this $5-$7 billion project. Mr Speaker, that’ll get you and me from your chair to the front door. Just. Trust me. I measured it this morning.

And this is typical. The then Opposition gave a shout out to all sorts of communities that a myriad of big-ticket projects stood a chance of being funded if this Government was elected.

The people of Geelong were wooed with the promise to relocate Melbourne’s car trade to the Port of Geelong. A thousand jobs and $200 million injected into the local economy. The Ports Minister even put on a shindig and issued the obligatory press release marked with the ‘policy implemented’ branding iron. And then yesterday, the admission, snuck out under the cover of the budget, that the Government has abandoned the idea. I think the branding iron will be waiting for him next time he visits Geelong. So no car trade, oh and by the way, still no Red Bull Air Race.

And in Doncaster and in Rowville we see the same choreography. The illusion of action. Corridors and consultations, workshops and working groups. But no cash and no jobs.

So while the Government brags of its ‘record infrastructure program’ the truth is that the Treasurer has turned off the tap on new capital works. Three quarters of the capital works underway in Victoria over the next year are the result of projects started by the former Labor Government.

So while the Treasurer wearies Victorians with his contradictory boast of ‘record infrastructure investment’ for which we’re supposed to be thankful, and unsustainable debt, for which Labor is supposed to be blamed, he would do well to remember that Labor’s projects represent the last vestige of a Victorian jobs plan.

Meanwhile Victorians wait for the second Geelong hospital. 30,000 kids are forced to wait even longer for the Monash Children’s Hospital. The people of Bendigo are still waiting for the additional $81 million for their hospital. The Eye and Ear Hospital has received a miniscule $2 million out of a promised $165 million.

All solemn promises, made by this Government in the lead up to the last election. None of them properly funded, none of them close to being delivered.

I’m sure the Premier now hopes that Victorians have forgotten the very first answer he gave in this place after being elected when he said: “the Coalition was elected by the Victorian people with a promise that it would deliver on all of its election commitments and indeed that is what we intend to do.” In his own words this was to be a demonstration of his integrity.

Mr Speaker, it was Shirley Mclaine who said: “never trust a man when he’s in love, drunk or running for office”. But when our Treasurer makes a promise, let’s be frank, he doesn’t mess around. Not for him caveats and qualifications.

Let me take us back to before the election. The scene is the parliamentary dining room. The cast: an intrepid reporter from the Australian Financial Review and our very own Treasurer before his admission to the witness protection program. And the promise: the now Treasurer said “we are happy to look at savings, but we will not include under any circumstance any reduction to the public service”. Mr Speaker, he went on; “so our commitment to the public service is rock solid. No ifs, no buts. No job losses in the public service. So we’re clear on that, aren’t we?” Mr Speaker, we’re crystal clear. But the sceptical interviewer pushed on and our Treasurer was not going to resort to lily-livered weasel words. He insisted “there will be no job losses in the public service”. “There will be no job losses in the public service,” he repeated. And just to be sure, in case the pesky interviewer had missed it, he finished with “thank you. I just want to make sure the point is clear”.

Mr Speaker this was not, “the cheques in the mail”, “my diet starts on Monday” or even “I’ll call you”. This is the now Treasurer of Victoria.

And there he was, 12 months later, handing down the Mid-Year Financial Update and announcing 3600 voluntary redundancies from the public service. Promise broken.  Fetch the branding iron!

You would think that having so comprehensively and emphatically broken this promise, he’d have exercised just a modicum of caution as he returned to the scene of the crime.

But, our Treasurer is nothing if not a slow learner. He promised first that the 3600 was it, finito, done, and secondly, that at least Victorians could take comfort from his promise that there’d be no forced redundancies.

So with two new promises to break, our Treasurer set feverishly to work.

Of course Tuesday’s budget contained another 600 job cuts. And the humiliating admission from the Treasurer that when voluntary packages are not enough, they will indeed resort to forced redundancies.

Three promises, emphatically made. Three promises, emphatically broken.

Mr Speaker, unlike the Member for Frankston, I’m not often given to quoting scripture, but wasn’t it Jesus who said to Peter that “before the rooster crows you will betray me three times”? Our Treasurer was so quick out of the blocks that the poor rooster hadn’t even cleared his throat, and he’d managed to break the one promise 3 different ways.

As John Ferguson noted in The Australian yesterday “Wells seems to be making a habit of telling big-time fibs”.

If Victorians were under any illusion as to the confusion that inhabits the mind of our State Treasurer they had only to listen to the nonsense that he proffered yesterday during question time. Where in the one answer he attacked Labor’s so-called ‘structural deficit’ but boasted of his own wafer thin surplus. Itself, on his own definition, a structural deficit.

Mr Speaker, if I can finish where I started, with the priceless words of Groucho Marx: “He might look like an idiot, and talk like an idiot, but don’t let that fool you. He really is an idiot.”

This is a budget that fails Victorians. It fails Victorians desperate for a job. It fails our most vulnerable. It fails to keep promises solemnly made. It fails to provide leadership. It fails to live up to our State’s historic promise that each generation passes to the next a belief that our State can lead the nation.

No jobs. No heart. No vision. No hope.

“In last year’s Budget Speech, the Treasurer Kim Wells devoted a whole section to cost of living. This year, Mr Wells did not mention ‘cost of living’ once,” Ms D’Ambrosio said.

“Clearly, the Baillieu Government no longer cares about the thousands of households across Victoria facing the daily challenges of paying ever increasing bills.

“In fact, new Budget initiatives will actually make things worse.”

Ms D’Ambrosio said the following budget cuts and initiatives would place further strain on Victorian household budgets:

·        Stripping back the Education Maintenance Allowance and removing the program from schools to provide help to needy kids. For example, breakfast clubs, and to help cover costs for excursions;

·        Ripping $100 million in annual funding for TAFEs that provide Victorians of all ages to up-skill in a volatile employment environment;

·        Scrapping the First Home Buyers Scheme that provided financial assistance for families keen to purchase their first home;

·        Cutting $9.4 million for free financial counselling services that helped families in hardship balance household budgets.

·        Abolishing the School Start Bonus. This program provided $300 grants to help parents cover school costs for prep and year 7 students;

·        Scrapping $3.3 million for additional Kindergarten Inclusion Support Service placements to support children with high and complex needs; and

·        Increased motor vehicle registration by $35 and more speeding fines. The Government will reap an extra $70 million a year from speeding fine revenue, an increase of almost 20 per cent.

Ms D’Ambrosio said Victorian households were paying for a Government that had no idea and no vision.

“With no relief in this year’s Baillieu Budget, Victorian families are beginning to realise the Government they voted for is very different from the one they have now”.

The budget provides no capital funding to expand kindergartens that are bursting at the seams, while it cuts programs that support young children with special needs.   Shadow Minister for Children and Young Adults Jenny Mikakos said the Baillieu Government’s razor gang had targeted those who need support the most: families with young children.

“Mr Baillieu’s failure to invest in bigger and better kindergartens is sending Victoria backwards,” she said.

“Victoria’s kindergartens and the young families who rely on these services will be the ones paying the price.

“This failure to invest in kindergartens demonstrates that Mr Baillieu is walking away from his Government’s obligations under the National Partnership Agreement to provide 15 hours a week of kindergarten for all four year olds.

“This lack of investment also fails the Government’s own commitment to undertake the recommendations in the Protecting Victoria’s Vulnerable Children Inquiry Report which recommends investment in expanding kindergartens to help vulnerable families.”

Ms Mikakos said the Baillieu Government axe had also fallen on $29 million worth of early intervention programs including: ·        $23.9 million for 1000 extra Early Childhood Intervention Services places; ·        $3.3 million for additional Kindergarten Inclusion Support Service placements to support children with high and complex needs to participate in mainstream kinder programs; and ·        $1.8 million to provide incentives to practitioners in the early intervention area to upgrade their qualifications post graduate level in early childhood intervention studies.

Shadow Minister for Women, Danielle Green said this Budget had let women down on the issue of family violence.

“Mr Baillieu failed to provide adequate funding for the Government’s forthcoming family violence strategy,” Ms Green said

“Victorian women’s health will also be affected by the axeing of the Victorian Cancer Action Plan, which would have seen breast cancer screening increase by 20,000 tests per year.

“TAFE cuts to hospitality and tourism courses, which encourage large numbers of women to obtain formal qualifications, will make more difficult for women in these sectors to obtain higher paid work.

“Victorians are beginning to realise the Government they voted for is very different from the one they have now.”