OVER the next six weeks, Victorians need to brace for a horror show that will be the Andrews Labor Government’s State Budget.
The Premier and Treasurer have been tempering our expectations, finally acknowledging the presence of Victoria’s record state debt.
Despite Premier Andrews promising no new taxes on live TV in 2014, Labor has since slapped Victorians with 44 new taxes. It is very likely more taxes are set to be introduced in the May budget.
Victorians are paying a staggering $10 million every day to simply service Labor’s debt. That’s enough to resurface 10 kilometres of road every day, or to resurface the entire Calder Freeway between Melbourne and Bendigo every six months.
The reported axing of 10 per cent of the public service shows that Labor is desperate to cut costs. Treasurer Tim Pallas himself has said this will have a massive impact on key services, but they’ll charge ahead with 5000 job cuts anyway. That could mean fewer nurses in a health system already in crisis, and fewer teachers in our classrooms.
The carnage won’t end there.
Labor is already struggling to pay invoices to businesses that helped with the flood response, road maintenance funding is likely to be cut further and community support grants are set to be scrapped entirely.
Only time will tell how Daniel Andrews will try dig himself out of this Labor-made crisis, but make no mistake, it will be Victorians who will pay for it.
Peter Walsh
Leader of The Nationals
Member for Murray Plains
