By Callum Ludwig
Eildon MP Cindy McLeish has concerns about 2022/23 Victorian State Budget handed down on Tuesday 3 May.
Ms McLeish said the large debt accrued by the Victorian State Government was the biggest issue that jumped out at her,
“What’s really staggering is by 2025, Victoria’s debt is on track to equal that of New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia combined, even prior to COVID, prior to the bushfires, Victoria had tripled the debt,” she said.
“They’ve just continued that borrowing, so compared to the other states, we are way, way behind. Interest rates have been very low, but they’ve just started to go up, and for the government, that means that they have to pay more in interest on that debt.”
The ABC reported that the Victorian Government’s debt is set to sit at $101.9 billion at the end of this financial year, slightly better than the $104.5 billion forecast in the budget update at the end of last year.
Ms McLeish said there have been too many budget blowouts under the Victorian Government.
“Whilst we’ve got record debt that we have to pay back, there’s so many budget blowout, around 24 billion,” she said.
“You’ve got roads, projects like the Maroondah Highway, having to fix just after they’ve done it and paid for it, the quality of some of the work that’s being done isn’t what it shouldn’t be, then things have to go back and get fixed and it adds to the costs.”
Ms McLeish said she thinks the 2022/23 budget is based on assumptions that are unreasonable to make.
“The other thing that really jumped to me is assumptions of the budget are based on population growth and the return of international travel and students to pre-pandemic levels in a couple of years,” she said.
“I can’t see those numbers taking off at huge rates, because there are still some people that are going to be reluctant to travel. If you’re a student and you started a course in Canada, you’re not going to all of a sudden come and do your last year in Australia, you’ll finish it where you’ve started.”
Ms McLeish also said she was unhappy with the funding being shaved for the Asset Management program for roads, cuts of $47.8 million from the agriculture and regional development budgets and the taxation of an extra $603 million in land taxes.
Ms McLeish said she has a couple of key concerns for Eildon she will be continuing to advocate for.
One of the things I have already been pushing forward on is certainly the road in the area,” she said.
“In Healesville, I also want to see the Maroondah Dam upgrade done, to get that park back to pristine condition rather than the state that it has fallen in now.”
