Tiger in the tank

Far from being the tiger in the nation’s economic tank, Victoria is more akin to the goldfish in a bowl - suffering memory loss and going nowhere. By Beverley McArthur.

On Thursday, the Victorian Treasurer, Tim Pallas, presented his 2021-22 State Budget to the Parliament.

It began along these lines: “If 2020 was defined by anxiety and fear, this year is defined by the relief and joy of normal life resuming.”

And so it went.

It must have sounded fabulous to the comrades. But to war veterans, it was surely gut wrenching.

Less than a month ago, the state locked the bulk of our veterans away from the Victorian War Memorial on Anzac Day. It then let 80,000 attend the football at the MCG.

It would seem this is the Andrews Labor Government’s ‘joy of normal life resuming’: the haves and the have nots. The vote getters, and the vote losers.

“The crisis of our lifetime,” as Pallas put it, may not have even begun given the burgeoning blowout for major projects, 30 per cent over budget and 30 per cent behind time.

Tim Pallas needs to get real.

“The crisis of our lifetime” was hardly felt by Mr Pallas and his ever-growing team of bureaucrats – some of whom failed dismally in their sole task to protect 801 Victorian lives in the Hotel Quarantine disgrace.

For the families of the dead, it probably was the ‘crisis of their lives’, given they couldn’t even say good-bye to their loved ones. But perhaps that was what the Treasurer really meant when he said, “We want them [Victorians] to know that in their worst moment – their state is there with them.”

In Labor-speak it was a deadly shamble ‘made by Victorians, in Victoria, for Victorians.’

To those who lost their jobs – for the businesses that closed their doors or still can’t open fully – this might still be the ongoing crisis of their lifetimes. 

But for Pallas and the Government’s Zoom-guard of stay-at-home workers – half of whom are still staying at home – that this represents the ‘crisis of our lifetime’ must indeed be a joyous day. With their pay uninterrupted and jobs never in doubt, they have survived the crisis in their pyjamas and done the hard yards of their lives from their couches.

Treasurer Pallas said, “This isn’t over until it’s over for all of us, the Government wants no Victorian left behind.”

He must mean, of course, everyone other than businesses and families facing nearly $6 billion in new and increased taxes, children who have fallen forever behind having been unnecessarily locked out of the classroom for 12 months, or tourist destinations still stifled by interstate fear that borders can close at the click of a finger.

The State of Emergency, remember, is booked in until December 16th this year.

The ‘tiger in the tank’ as Pallas described Victoria’s role in the nation’s economy, is more akin to the ‘goldfish in the bowl’ suffering a short memory and going nowhere.

Having already introduced 30 new or increased taxes during its recent reign, the Government added another on Thursday, a `Levy for Mental Health and Wellbeing support’.

And who would be paying this levy? Why, it’s ‘big business’ - the easiest target in town - those companies that have total wages of more than $10 million will pay the cost, an extra 0.5 per cent in payroll tax, the worst tax of all.

For a really big company with a wage bill of $100 million+, add another 0.5 per cent. Such a company, potentially based elsewhere in Australia, with a handful of employees in Melbourne, will have to pay Tim Pallas an additional one per cent.

It could send businesses north, and Victoria’s woes further south.

The tiger in the tank just coughed and spluttered.

The $3.8 billion mental health splurge is big. It is the centrepiece of the sales pitch. Quite the distraction.

Mr Pallas introduced the Mental Health plan by saying he wanted to ‘talk about feelings’, about the ‘panic’ and `fear’ that the state endured during the Coronavirus heights of last year.

What he didn’t mention was that it wasn’t the virus that caused the fear in Victoria, or Australia for that matter, it was the fear deliberately generated by a would-be Emperor in a North Face jacket and his CHO lieutenant as interested in climate change as health.

Included is an expansion of the Mental Health in Schools program to 100 schools, creating 100 jobs because as Pallas said, “Last year was a tough one for our kids”. One wonders if Greta’s tear-inducing ‘the world is burning – how dare you?’ mantra, has contributed to such fear, panic and stress?

Maybe it is the removal of parents’ rights that has the students genuinely worried? Perhaps they are mentally exhausted having to constantly question if they really are a boy, or a girl, or something else that might chestfeed one day?

For the $10.9 billion going into new or upgraded schools, we look for the equivalent increase in educational outcomes for our students.  They will surely be brilliant with all that money spent – and doubly so after their teachers pass through the newly announced Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership – a Centre of Teaching Excellence. The students will be unsurpassable at their next street rally when they go gaga for Greta.

Again, the Gang-of-Eight’s wounds on Victoria were most evident in our hospital’s emergency wards.

The Premier locked down hospitals, closed wards, stopped elective surgeries. Now we have ambulances ramping like never before, waiting lists longer than that tiger’s tail and chronic and deadly illnesses only now being assessed months overdue.

This was an emergency of Andrews’ making.

And now we are paying for it with $7.1 billion going into hospitals and healthcare, $3.7 billion of that for emergency departments and staff.  $1.3 billion is going to contact tracing and vaccine rollout. Given Victoria’s utter failure at contact tracing, these funds might just be the beginning.

The Treasurer at least got it right when he said: “The pandemic has had a lasting impact on our whole health system”. It is not The Rona that has caused the real toll.

It is almost in passing that we throw around the word ‘billion’ these days. Once multi-million sounded like plenty.

But with the Treasurer focusing our eyes on the mental health of the state, he is hoping the spotlight remains off the horrific budget blowouts.

It is mismanagement, incompetence and disgraceful ‘social’ procurement processes that have resulted in a $22.3 billion blowout in costs. Promised at $5 billion, the North East Link, without a shovel turned yet, is already $10.79 billion over budget. Just wait till they find toxic soil.

Surrounded in mystery, one also wonders what role the now defunct Belt and Road agreement has played in these budget figures.

The gaps in this financial plan will continue to emerge in the coming days.

But for regional Victorians already slowing to 40kms on some roads due to their deadly state of disrepair, this budget does nothing. Good luck with your safe journey to our regional holiday hotspots given this budget will “affirm Victoria as a holiday destination”.

As Treasurer Pallas said, “Our tomorrow depends on the choices we make today.”

Buckle up.

Beverley McArthur is a member of the Victorian Legislative Council.