Budget Response


“John Brumby’s Bandaid Budget”



This is John Brumby’s bandaid budget. We have a crisis in transport, a crisis in water, a climate crisis, a housing crisis and a preventable disease crisis (including drugs and alcohol). This budget treats the symptoms, but it ignores the causes of the crisis.

The Greens want to get to the root of our state’s problems.


Health
Problem
Australia has one of the highest rates of hospitalisation in the world because budgets like this continue to prioritise end-of-the-road treatment, rather than preventative health.

What is The Greens solution?
The Greens know that the healthier we are the less we need to go to hospital, which is why we want more money for community health centres. Community health centres work because they're a convenient one stop shop of nurses, dieticians, GPs etc. They’re essential to keeping people out of hospital.

Climate Change
Problem
Kevin Rudd has walked away from the climate change challenge, but John Brumby is the one in charge of most of our state’s emissions. Brumby has not tackled faced the climate facts in this budget, except in the most tokenistic way.

What is The Greens solution?
The Greens would implement a plan to close Hazelwood power station ASAP and we would make up the energy shortfall by reducing energy use and using renewable energy sources.


Water
Problem
The government now spends nearly a third of a billion dollars on concessions for low income people who cannot afford their water and energy bills - that makes it one of the fastest growing cost areas in the budget. Why is this cost skyrocketing? Because water and energy bills are skyrocketing. This budget does little to address that.

What is The Greens solution?
The Greens know the smart solution is to provide a water and energy conservation program for low income households. That program will save low income households money, it will save the budget money, and environmentally, it just makes sense.

Education
Problem
We are still the lowest spending Australian state on education. The Brumby Government is short changing our children’s futures. Victorian parents make their child’s education their number one priority – why doesn’t the government honour that commitment?

What is the Greens solution?
The Victorian Government needs to spend an extra billion dollars in every budget from now on to match the other states on education spending. The Greens want to see that happen. We want to reduce class sizes to cater for the needs of high achievers, students with special needs, and indigenous children.

Public Transport
Problem
The government is paying more than ever for privatised train services even though Metro Trains are failing on their targets. We're only getting 2.5% more train services, despite the budget predicting 4% more passengers. Where will they fit?

What is The Greens solution?
The Greens would put our trains back in public hands so that it can be planned and run efficiently. We want to create a service that runs 24 hours, so that the people of Victoria will never have to wait longer than 10 minutes to get where they need to go in peak times.