This week in State Parliament – 7 May 2015

This week in State Parliament, Liberal and Nationals MPs had plenty to choose from in pointing out the shortcomings of Labor’s first state budget.

We exposed that the budget slashes $6.4 billion from infrastructure spending over the next four years, despite Melbourne being the fastest growing city in Australia.

We forced Treasurer Tim Pallas to admit that large numbers of election promises Labor claim to have met in the budget have in fact been given only a fraction of the money promised, with the Treasurer repeatedly claiming the rest of the money is “in contingencies”. Other promises have missed out altogether.

As well as cutting infrastructure, the budget has cut the surplus, imposed new property taxes and included hidden slugs on motorists and on homebuyers buying newly constructed homes. Dividends on the Transport Accident Commission have been increased, and for the first time ever dividends have been imposed on the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority, which provides insurance cover for domestic building projects.

In the Legislative Assembly, Labor’s most significant legislation was a Bill to replace the Coalition’s Regional Growth Fund with a Regional Jobs and Infrastructure Fund. Coalition MPs pointed out that Labor is already planning to divert money from the Fund in order to pay for items that were previously paid for separately.

In the Legislative Council, Coalition MPs forced the Minister for Training and Skills to admit that the budget doesn’t provide funds for any extra TAFE places, despite Labor’s repeated false allegations of Coalition TAFE cuts when in opposition.