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Shadow treasurer David Davis is due to hold a press conference any minute now.
He’ll be joined by the Coalition’s transport infrastructure spokesman Matthew Bach.
Watch live below.
Shadow treasurer David Davis says voters can expect a larger surplus than Labor by the 2025-2026 financial year, should the Coalition win Saturday’s state election.
Earlier today, Treasurer Tim Pallas said Labor expected a surplus of “more than a billion dollars” in three-and-a-half years.
Shadow treasurer David Davis.Credit:Paul Jeffers
While handing down the Coalition’s election costings this afternoon, Davis said his side of politics is projecting an $11 billion surplus during the same period.
The Liberals and Nationals have also pledged to bring the state’s budget back to surplus a year before Labor. The Coalition wants a $2.1 billion surplus by the 2024-25 financial year.
“The debt at the moment is like a runaway freight train,” David told reporters in Melbourne a few moments ago.
“It’s snowballing. Trying to stop that debt train that Daniel Andrews and Tim Pallas have put in place is a real challenge. We’re grappling with this and working our way to a better future for Victorians.”
Davis added that the 2024-25 surplus would be achieved by, among other things, shelving the Suburban Rail Loop, introducing a debt cap and paying down debt sooner.
Earlier today, we told you that Opposition Leader Matthew Guy wants to lower the probationary driving age for Victorians.
Currently, Victorians have to be 18 before they can drive independently. That’s different from other states, such as NSW, where people can get their Ps at 17.
It’s a popular issue in regional areas where there isn’t reliable public transport and parents still have to ferry their older children to and from school, work and social commitments.
However, some are worried that lowering the probationary driving age will add to the annual road toll.
We want to know where you stand.
Forget late night shopping. Tonight is all about late night voting.
The Victorian Electoral Commission is reminding voters that they can head to an early voting centre until 8pm tonight.
Normally, early voting centres close their doors around 5-6pm.
Here is the VEC with yet another cursed meme:
Also, not to be a pedant, but the sun actually sets at 8.19pm, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
Labor is promising a $1 billion surplus at the end of the next term if it wins the election despite an extra $3.3 billion of campaign spending announcements, according to a final tally of the government’s spending promises.
In a final pitch to voters ahead of Saturday’s election, Treasurer Tim Pallas declared that all of Labor’s campaign announcements have been fully funded, “providing a massive boost to the economy without privatising, increasing net debt or introducing new taxes”.
Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas is predicting a surplus by 2025-26.Credit:The Age
But figures, which have been independently checked by State Treasury, reveal the politically crucial 2025-26 surplus prediction is being delivered entirely by raiding the budget’s rainy day contingency reserve, which is designed to insulate the budget from economic shocks and squirrel cash for other unforseen events.
The tally shows 89 spending and savings initiatives announced by Labor during the campaign, collectively worth $3.27 billion over the next five years.
After factoring in the new spending announced since Treasury’s pre-election budget update released at the start of the campaign, Labor estimates the state is on track to record a deficit of $10.2 billion this financial year.
But it predicts the state’s precarious financial position will rapidly improve, with a $3.6 billion deficit expected for 2023-24 and then a relatively narrow $534 million deficit the year after that.
Labor believes the state’s financial fortunes will have turned around in 2025-26, with a surplus prediction of just over $1 billion.
If delivered, this would allow the start to finally start paying down Victoria’s hulking public debt, which is expected to reach about $166 billion by June 2026, equivalent to about one-quarter of the total value of the state economy.
Today’s tally shows the budget would, in fact, remain deeply in deficit were it not for a $1.1 billion “drawdown” from hollow log contingencies built into the budget.
Mining magnate Clive Palmer is in Victoria today for the first time this election to help out his lead candidate, Geoff Shaw.
Palmer infamously spent $100 million on the federal election campaign to elect just one senator: Victorian Ralph Babet. Altogether, 276 United Australia Party candidates put their hands up across the country.
UAP candidate Geoff Shaw. Credit:Scott McNaughton
The billionaire has spent a much smaller amount for the Victorian election. According to Crikey, neither Palmer nor the UAP have spent a cent on advertising in the past three months.
Only 11 people have made donations above the threshold, according to the Victorian Electoral Commission.
During a joint press conference earlier today, Shaw – a former Liberal MP turned independent for Frankston – claimed the UAP had an engaged membership who would be helping out at polling booths.
Palmer, meanwhile, made several disproven claims about the COVID-19 pandemic and Victoria’s hotel quarantine program.
Shaw hopes to be elected as an upper house MP for the Northern Victoria region.
In news that is just as serious, we’re searching for the best democracy sausages and cakes on offer at polling booths across the state.
Is your local school or community group cooking up a storm? Are there any particularly interesting culinary delights on offer for hungry voters?
Please let us know.
Treasurer Tim Pallas insists Labor’s election commitments are measured and responsible and that the party will bring the state back to surplus in 3½ years.
His comments come as Labor hands down its election costings for just over 80 of its policies for this election – including new hospitals, bringing back the State Electricity Commission and providing free tampons and pads.
Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas.Credit:Joe Armao
“We’ve put in place what I see as, effectively, a very modest set of commitments to the Victorian people,” the treasurer told journalists in Melbourne a few moments ago.
“Modest in terms of their cost, but quite dramatic in ... the ability of the state to deliver on its agenda.
“We anticipate that there will $3.3 billion in additional output expenditure. On the asset side, it’s about $8.4 billion in new infrastructure investments.”
The treasurer said he expects there to be a surplus of “over a billion dollars” in the 2025-26 financial year.
He added that Labor won’t introduce new taxes or increase net debt because the funding for its fresh policies comes from “existing” government funds.
“The funds already exist. The money will be drawn from those funds, but for purposes entirely consistent with those funds.”
Treasurer Tim Pallas held a press conference around 12.45pm.
Watch the playback version below.
Staying with Matthew Guy’s press conference, and the opposition leader was asked about the possibility of the seat of Benambra – centred around Wodonga – falling to an independent on Saturday.
Here’s what he had to say:
I won’t make any comment about independents suffice to say that, if you want a new hospital ... an independent member won’t give it to you because they’ll be supporting Daniel Andrews. And he’s not going to give it to your hospital.
Pushing for one and being able to deliver one are very different things. An independent can push for a hospital, but they won’t deliver one. The only way to deliver a new hospital is to get a Liberal change of government.
We’ve got the plan to build a new hospital in Wodonga. Only the Liberal Party and only Bill Tilley as a local MP can guarantee that.
Benambra’s independent candidate, Jacqui Hawkins, says she will work with whoever forms government.
The Coalition, though, has been arguing that if Liberals lose seats to crossbenchers, that will guarantee another Labor government.
In response, independents and their supporters say the Coalition only has itself and its policy agenda to blame if it cannot win enough seats to form government in its own right.
The teals and rural independents would also argue that, while they cannot form government and therefore control the state’s purse strings, their very existence influences the platforms of the major parties and brings more attention to certain seats.
Earlier today, one pollster predicted that independents could gain three to five seats on Saturday.
Roy Morgan Research, a separate polling agency, is tipping that independents could win up to six seats.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMitgFodHRwczovL3d3dy50aGVhZ2UuY29tLmF1L3BvbGl0aWNzL3ZpY3RvcmlhL3ZpY3Rvcmlhbi1lbGVjdGlvbi0yMDIyLWxpdmUtdXBkYXRlcy12ZWMtZmlndXJlcy1yZXZlYWwtb25lLWluLXRocmVlLXZvdGVzLWFscmVhZHktY2FzdC1hcy1jYW1wYWlnbi1lbnRlcnMtZmluYWwtZGF5cy0yMDIyMTEyMy1wNWMwcWQuaHRtbNIBtgFodHRwczovL2FtcC50aGVhZ2UuY29tLmF1L3BvbGl0aWNzL3ZpY3RvcmlhL3ZpY3Rvcmlhbi1lbGVjdGlvbi0yMDIyLWxpdmUtdXBkYXRlcy12ZWMtZmlndXJlcy1yZXZlYWwtb25lLWluLXRocmVlLXZvdGVzLWFscmVhZHktY2FzdC1hcy1jYW1wYWlnbi1lbnRlcnMtZmluYWwtZGF5cy0yMDIyMTEyMy1wNWMwcWQuaHRtbA?oc=5
2022-11-24 05:01:03Z
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