Mr McCurdy said the budget revealed the current Victorian Government is taxing more, spending more, yet delivering less, as debt levels spiral out of control to record heights.
Mr McCurdy said despite major cuts in funding to health, education, disability, housing, roads maintenance, and basic community infrastructure projects, Victoria would hit $187 billion in debt, with interest repayments of $25 million a day.
Mr McCurdy said it was a disastrous budget that Labor had brought upon itself.
“We have been warning Labor for years about their reckless spending on infrastructure projects in Melbourne,” Mr McCurdy said.
“Labor can’t manage money, and regional Victorians are being left to pay the price.”
He said the Victorian Government continued to ignore regional concerns in favour of Melbourne.
“There are cuts everywhere you look — except in Labor’s Melbourne seats,” he said.
“Labor has decided to continue ahead with its $216 billion tunnel for Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs yet ... Our roads are getting worse and worse, yet the maintenance budget remains 16 per cent lower than it was in 2020.”
Despite the budget being framed as ‘helping families’ Mr McCurdy said there was very little to help families in the long run.
“The one-off $400 payment will help families who are doing it tough in the short term.
“However, it is clear that with soaring interest repayments, the ever-increasing tax burden, and lack of housing development, families will suffer in the long term.”
Mr McCurdy said if the Victorian Government was serious about families, they would invest in housing, invest in education, invest in health, and stop pandering to their union mates in the city.
“Given the chance to make life easier for families, Jacinta Allan has squandered it, and continued the legacy of waste and mismanagement we are so used to from this government,” he said.
The Victorian Government has been contacted for comment.
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