Broke state on way to being broken

By PETER WALSH

UNDER the Andrews Labor government, Victoria is basically broke.

And on its way to being broken as well.

In its latest failure, this government has handed down a brutal State Budget which, despite all its bloodletting, has done nothing to slow our state’s soaring debt – the latest projections state that will hit $171.4 billion by 2027 and our current punitive interest payments will more than double to an eye-watering $22 million a day.

In a budget that highlights total financial incompetence, Labor will make life harder for regional Victorians with funding slashed in key areas such as roads, health, and agriculture.

Which is the last thing regional Victorians wanted to hear, with our road network already teetering on the verge of collapse after years of decay and neglect being compounded in many areas by last year’s floods and/or the incredibly protracted wet season.

Any investment of taxpayer dollars into agriculture, regional Victoria’s economic engine room, would be welcome, but Andrews Inc keeps clawing back money from staffing, research, extension, and support services, forcing farmers to turn to commercial experts for the help they should be getting from government as a small reward for the billions of dollars generated for the state’s bottom line.

On health, there is no plan in this budget to solve regional Victoria’s workforce issues. Not only will this leave more regional and rural Victorians on waiting lists, struggling to receive the urgent care and treatment many desperately need, it will also

Letters To The Editor

Transparency chorus doesn’t ring true

Sir, Another option. Now Option 5A. “The preferred option is a double circuit overhead transmission line between Victoria and New South Wales… Crossing the Murray River, north of Kerang.” (Option 5 had crossed the Murray River at Echuca).

“The preferred option 5A is a variant identified through responses to the additional Consultation Report published in Feb 2023. 5A presented fewer environmental constraints and avoids intercepting the Patho Plains – a grassland habitat known to support the endangered Plainswander. It also avoids passing near Ghow Swamp, a place of national cultural significance ...”

Little to no comfort to the farming communities who woke to the news of Option

State Perspective

force more of them onto our increasingly dangerous roads making long trips to bigger regional hubs, or Melbourne, for treatments they could, and should, be receiving much closer to home.

In fact, Labor has cut a further $1 billion form the health system after cutting $2 billion in the previous year’s budget, despite the crisis gripping the system.

There was also no funding in this budget for the desperately needed hospital infrastructure in Mildura, or Shepparton, or Bairnsdale, or countless other regional communities that have been waiting, and waiting, for any sign Daniel Andrews and his ‘governing for all Victorians’ will include them and their communities. And the answer, as usual, would be no.

Labor is also further risking the lives of Victorian motorists by taking money from the Transport Accident Commission to try hide its mountain of debt, leaving lifesaving road safety initiatives on the cutting room floor.

Our road toll must be a number which keeps going down, but once you start dismantling the very positive programs which have helped achieve that, you are asking for trouble.

Daniel Andrews knows the trauma of road accidents, he has been through his own high-profile crash so surely he can see the need for more, not fewer, road safety campaigns.

Added to which our crumbling regional roads will also be left to disintegrate with maintenance funding slashed by 45 per cent since 2020, with a $260 million cut this year alone. These savage cuts come despite 124 deaths on Victorian roads in 2023 by the day of the budget, up a shocking 30 per cent on this time last year and follows Federal Labor’s slashing of $1.3 billion from Victoria’s roads.

The regional development budget has been halved from $211.5 million to $106.6 million in this year’s budget in a devastating slash of 80 per cent since 2020.

Funding for agriculture hasn’t escaped the axe either with a 34 per cent slash from last year’s budget, and AgVic could be set for more job cuts and service reductions with a further 4000 public service jobs set to pay the price for the Premier’s total inability to manage an economy.

The Andrews Labor Government has also signed the final death warrant for Victoria’s sustainable native timber industry, a senseless and unnecessary kowtow to the green fringe of inner-city voters whose lack of understanding on how this industry works, and has done for almost 200 years, is jeopardising the very future of entire communities in the state’s east. Despite promising a staged transition through to 2030, Labor has brought the industry’s death day forward to 1 January 2024 in a shameless attempt to win back those voters.

Simply put, regional Victorians are being punished for the Government’s own incompetence.

PeterWalshisthememberforMurray Plains

1. What is the national flower of Japan?

2. Which species of kangaroo has the largest population?

3. True or false – The Incan empire did not have a written language?

4. What does EFTPOS stand for?

5. George Lazenby played the lead role in which James Bond film?

6. What is Roald Dahl’s best-selling book of all time?

7. That book was adapted for screen in 1971, but what was the name of the film?

8. Aztecs were native to which modern-day country?

9. A 90 degree angle is also known as a _____ angle?

10. A violin normally has how many strings?

11. Someone who is Scouse comes from which English city?

12. What is the largest national park in Australia by area?

13. Composer Joseph Haydn was born in which country?

14. Is Mars’ day longer or shorter than Earth’s?

15. What plant does tequila come from?

16. Lemurs are native to only one island. Which island is it?

17. What is the 5th letter of the Greek alphabet?

18. In the TV series Bewitched, what is the name of the nosy neighbour?

19. What do we call a baby deer?

20. What is the longest muscle in the human body?

Answers

5A. Option 5A minimally different to Option 5, a wider area now.

But still impacting the same farming communities who have voiced their concerns loudly with over 500 submissions detailing concerns to their communities, livelihood and wellbeing, but now impacting additional communities, who haven’t been consulted.

I wonder how they will learn about this devastating proposition being dumped on them?

Will it be like us, via text message and facebook and whisperings in the community. AEMO’s chorus about transparency appears to be blatantly false.

What has not been explained is why a detailed report by independent experts in energy transmission, has been disregarded.

Professors Bruce Mountain and Simon Bartlett in a detailed report state that all that needs to be achieved with future renerawbale energy can be achieved in a more efficient and effective manner without AEMO’s proprosed transmission lines.

AEMO simply must not be allowed to continue its ‘no care’ course of destruction through regional Victoria.

GlendaWatts

Charlton

Online Words

‘INADVERTANT’ MAP RELEASE AND QUICK REMOVAL FROM WEBSITE BY AEMO DRAWS RESPONSE FROM LODDON HERALD READERS

Jack van den Dungen wrote: But they did consult the community. They didn’t listen but they did consult.

David Price wrote: What an absolute circus.

Lynne Sinclair wrote: Really! Does their left hand know what their right hand is doing? And now this map has been taken down from website! I stand by my original comment!

Michelle Lawrence wrote: No one will be happy for this

From the Loddon Herald facebook page

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