Victoria’s big-spending economic blueprint worth $288 billion

NEW hospital crisis hubs to separate ice addicts and the mentally ill from other patients, free TAFE courses and a splurge on city and country roads have been unveiled in today’s State Budget. Read the full wrap.

NEW emergency department crisis hubs to separate ice addicts and the mentally ill from other patients, free TAFE courses and a splurge on city and country roads have been unveiled in today’s State Budget.

Treasurer Tim Pallas has announced a big-spending economic blueprint worth $288 billion, underpinned by soaring property and payroll taxes fuelled by massive population growth.

More than $100 million will be spent creating the emergency department “crisis hubs” for mental health patients, at six sites across Victoria.

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They will be built at Monash Medical Centre, St Vincent’s, Geelong, Royal Melbourne, Sunshine and Frankston emergency departments.

The Victorian-first project is part of a $705 million splurge on mental health, with an extra 12,800 people expected to benefit.

What we know so far.

Among the 30 priority TAFE courses that will become free of charge, in order to get trainees into jobs the government says are needed, are Diploma of Nursing, Certificate IV in Engineering, and a Diploma in Building and Construction.

Many of the courses are designed to get people into infrastructure-building jobs, spurred by a $40 billion spend on roads, rail, schools and hospitals contained in the Budget.

Mr Pallas also revealed payroll tax would be slashed to 2.4 per cent for regional businesses and the tax-free threshold would also be lifted across the state, in a bid to keep growth going by 2.75 per cent a year.

But the tax take will still increase from $22.5 billion in 2017-18 to more than $24 billion in 2018-19, and rise to $27.5 billion in 2021-22.

Public Sector wages have soared $2.57 billion in the past year, to $25.5 billion in this year’s Budget, and will increase to $28.3 billion by 2021-22.

A huge amount of cash has been parked in surpluses worth $9 billion, paving the way for expensive pledges closer to the November state election.

Other big ticket items unveiled in the Budget include:

A COUNTRY and suburban roads package worth $3.3 billion;

MORE than $480 million to upgrade 130 schools;

A $50 energy bill bonus aimed at easing cost of living pressures;

ALMOST $400 million to fully fund the first stand-alone heart hospital;

AN EXTRA $226 million to expand the child protection workforce;

MORE than $300 million to create thousands of new TAFE and training places.

Mr Pallas said his fourth Budget “encapsulates everything the Andrews Labor Government stands for”.

“It’s our blueprint for Victoria’s future, a Victoria that leads the nation, a Victoria that aims high while reaching out a helping hand to its most disadvantaged,” he said.

Mr Pallas said the state had the highest growth in Australia, but that population pressures meant there could be no rest.

He said that the government’s economic management meant new investments were possible, and defended the increase in public sector jobs as necessary to keep pace with population growth.

“There is no doubt we are paying for more public servants and more public servants are getting fair and appropriate compensation for the work that they do,” he said.

On Wednesday he dodged questions that paying public servants $70 million a day was an efficient use of taxpayer funds telling 3AW: “this government is picking up the pieces of the wreckage we inherited”.

“And we are doing a substantially and dramatically improved job than what we saw,’’ he said.

When pushed to confirm the size of Mr Andrews’ office — believed to include 80 staff — Mr Pallas defended the army of employees being larger than the Prime Minister’s.

“He’s doing a much better job than the Prime Minister,” Mr Pallas said.

Meanwhile, Mr Andrews visited Moorabbin to spruik the State Budget centrepiece which was a massive boost for TAFE including $304 million for new classes funding more than 30,000 new places and a further $172 million for almost 50 free pre-apprenticeship training courses to help alleviate the skills shortage.

However, Opposition Leader Matthew Guy continued to champion that everyday Victorians were losing out despite the record spending.

He visited a family in Carrum Downs who said there was nothing in the budget for normal Victorians.

Glenn and Dayle Tasker said they both worked multiple jobs to make end meets.

Ms Tasker said cost of living was “a significant chunk of our wages”.

“Electricity is always going up and I am looking at hundreds of dollars a month just for heating and lighting,” she said.

Glenn and Dayle Tasker with their family. They work multiple jobs to make ends meet.

Mr Pallas said on Tuesday that the TAFE course were designed to skill Victorians in jobs that were emerging, including in the public sector due to the infrastructure boom.

Opposition Leader Mathew Guy warned there was nothing in the budget to ease cost of living pressures and flagged a Coalition plan to be released in the coming weeks that would be more focused on families.

Shadow Treasurer Michael O’Brien raised concerns about public sector costs which will blow out to $25.5 billion in 2018/19.

“These guys are more interested in looking after their mates,” he said.

“We want to see more frontline services, we want to see more police officers, more nurses. “We don’t want to see more bureaucrats pushing paper.”

While, Nationals Leader Peter Walsh said regional Victoria had also been overlooked with “very little” in the budget for the country.

He said there was not enough funding for regional schools with the majority of the record education spending designated for suburban areas.

He also claimed the majority of the roads funding announced was not new putting lives at risk as country roads continued to deteriorate.

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