Woe is our second-largest state

No wonder Victorians are grumpy with their politicians. The state’s long-suffering citizens pay the nation’s highest state taxes – especially on property. They are experiencing the worst unemployment (4.4 per cent compared with 4 per cent in NSW and Queensland), and property values have tumbled down the ladder from second to sixth in Australia. After S&P Global downgraded Victoria’s credit rating by two notches, from triple A to AA, in 2020, the state is again on credit rating watch as Labor battles a debt spiral set to balloon to $194bn by 2028. Unfunded infrastructure projects, deteriorating basic services and a youth crime wave are increasing problems.

And little relief is in sight, at least in terms of better governance. A new Newspoll, conducted for The Australian, has found Victoria is in a depressing predicament of suspended political animation. The poll, released on Monday, reveals 59 per cent of Victorian voters believe Labor does not deserve to be re-elected. Yet much as Victorians recognise it’s time for a change, slightly more, 60 per cent, believe, understandably, that the Liberal-National opposition is not ready to govern.

In one potential green shoot for the opposition, dissatisfaction with Premier Jacinta Allan is so deep (61 per cent of voters are unhappy with her) that she trails Opposition Leader Brad Battin 36-41 on the question of who would make the better premier. Yet 500 days from the next state election, due in November next year, Labor is clinging to a winning lead of 53-47 per cent. That is just two points down on its emphatic 2022 election victory, Victorian editor Damon Johnston writes, which would see Mr Battin’s Coalition fall well short of the 16 seats it needs to win office on November 28, 2026. While the major parties are neck and neck on 35 per cent of the primary vote each, the Greens on 12 per cent will help Labor, with 18 per cent of voters looking to support a minor party.

The government’s strongest asset is the Victorian Liberal Party, which is in tatters after its bitter two-year civil war, centred on former leader John Pesutto and Moira Deeming. With the help of a $1.5m loan from the party, Mr Pesutto has managed to pay Ms Deeming $2.3m to cover her legal costs from their high-stakes defamation battle over comments he made about her. Unless party hardheads prevail on the protagonists and their supporters, once and for all, to fade out of the spotlight to give the opposition a chance at rebuilding, nothing will change for the opposition or for our second-largest state, to the detriment of the nation.