Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

During the pandemic, Victorians knew that they were on their own when it came to support from this federal government—that the Prime Minister, from Sydney, never met a Victorian he didn't want to leave behind. He had no interest in supporting Victorians during their hard days, because he's all about the politics, this bloke.

I hear the interjections from the member for Goldstein.

Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Order! The member for Goldstein will cease interjecting.

Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

There are many on that side of the House that are from Victoria, but there are none that are for Victoria, because the Liberal brand from Victoria is all about taking support away from Victorians. We had Victorian Liberals in the state parliament calling for the Prime Minister to remove financial support for Victorians; it was ridiculous. The Victorian Leader of the Opposition also wants the Prime Minister to reduce the GST intake of Victoria. The Liberal Party might be from Victoria, but they are not for Victoria, and, if you wanted further evidence of that and of the Liberal Party abandoning Victoria yet again, you only have to look at the latest budget that the Treasurer and the Prime Minister delivered.

Victoria is 26 per cent of this country's population, and yet how much infrastructure spend did we get from this budget? I'll tell you. It wasn't 26 per cent. It wasn't 20 per cent. It wasn't 15 per cent. It wasn't 10 per cent. We've got to keep going south, to six per cent. Six per cent of new infrastructure spend in this budget went to Victoria. Six per cent! And do you know why the Prime Minister is spending only six per cent of his infrastructure spend on Victoria? It's because he's all about the politics, and he's given up on the political wins possible in Victoria.

If you want further evidence of that, it's not just in infrastructure spend. The federal government, apparently, are throwing around the fact that they're spending $7.1 billion in the regions. You'd think that would get shared pretty evenly amongst the states, especially to a state with a quarter of the population of this country. Not a dingleberry, not a cent, of that $7.1 billion regional spend on infrastructure is happening in the state of Victoria—not one cent. This Prime Minister and this government have never cared about Victorians. The things that they do promise to Victorians are things like car parks. They'd promised $15 million of car parks in my electorate, until they removed it because they hadn't spoken to the council and the state government and so hadn't realised that the location for the car park they wanted to build at Balaclava station had already been allocated to a completely different purpose: social housing.

They are throwing good money after bad. It's hardly surprising that the modern Liberals are putting out new, teal paraphernalia and pamphlets in their electorates, and they're dropping the word 'Liberal'—because there is nothing modern about this Liberal Party. They're ashamed of their brand, unlike those on this side of the House.