The State Government has again shown how hypocritical it can be, announcing business mentoring vouchers to create jobs in the same week it is cutting more real jobs in East Gippsland, according to local MP, Tim Bull.
This week staff at the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (government firefighters) were told jobs will be cut in Orbost, Swifts Creek, Bairnsdale and Heyfield – more than 200 to go in total in the state.
“These are the towns that were impacted by the closure of the timber industry the government said it would support,” he said.
“However, Labor expects us to be grateful as, in the same week, it announced a $530,000 voucher program to give businesses six hours of mentoring / tuition.
“You have got to be kidding.
“To make things worse, I’m reliably told the media release was wrong – it is $30,000 not $530,000 – slight difference there of just half a million.
“This on top of Labor cutting the CFA budget by $4 million despite the Fire Services Levy (which funds the CFA budget) increasing. You pay more, and your local CFA gets less.
Mr Bull said it is another blow to a long list of issues East Gippslanders have faced in recent years.
“It comes as they still have not finalised payments to local timber families they put out of work, payments that were meant to be concluded in 2023,” he said.
“It comes as we enter a fifth holiday period with our bushfire impacted tourism infrastructure not rebuilt at Cape Conran and Thurra River. Five years.
“It comes after they have slashed millions in roads funding over recent years to leave our highways and streets in a horrible mess.
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“It comes after country hospitals, including ours locally, have been told to cut their budgets.
“It comes after they have reduced public housing homes in eastern Victoria by more than 20 over the past 10 years in the face of a housing crisis,” he said.
Mr Bull said when challenged on this recently, local Upper House MP, Harriet Shing, chose to talk about what The Nationals and Liberals did in government more than a decade ago.
“You’ve been in government for 10 years Harriet, take some responsibility. The numbers came from your own Department’s annual report, so if they are wrong, please correct the record,” she said.
“It comes after Labor has massively increased the land taxes of those mum and dad investors who have invested in property.
“And just this week they have brought in a short stay tax that exists in no other state and means we will pay more to holiday locally.
“This is not support for country Victorians.”
Mr Bull said the voucher program as part of the timber industry transition response is a business therapy session, not job replacement in industries that were promised.
“Labor has mismanaged our state’s funds so badly its own figures show we are headed to a state debt of $186 billion, which means interest repayments of $26 million per day (more than $1 million per hour),” he said.
“It is barely believable the financial train wreck this government has us in.
“To give some perspective, we have around 2.6 million households in Victoria and if you break down the state debt per household, it is a $71,500 debt.
“Our other local Labor Upper House MP, Tom McIntosh, said this voucher program is about ‘creating jobs’.
“If you want to talk jobs, the first thing you can do is save our Departmental Forest Fire Management jobs you are cutting – which are real jobs – rather than sell us a voucher program that I doubt will create one.”
