Government that works.

We are ready to make the disciplined decisions. A Liberal and Nationals Government will deliver Our Plan by working to reduce the debt and end wasteful spending, including:

• Pursuing the $15 billion funnelled to the CFMEU, using new “follow the money” powers and an enhanced Royal Commission into Big Build corruption
• Hiring freeze on back office roles to guarantee essential services
• Stopping the $1 billion being spent on Labor’s divisive Treaty
• Ending wasteful spending like $13 million on machete bins and stopping silly contracts like paying millions to hire pot plants in government offices
• Saving $22 billion by stopping the hiring of more and more back-office bureaucrats
• Identifying and fixing infrastructure cost blowouts in Labor’s out of control projects

We will establish a Public Spending Tracker, so you can see how your taxpayer dollars are being spent.

Together, we can rebuild this state and restore the promise that Victoria is the best place to build a life and a future.

We will be open and transparent and manage your money responsibly, strengthening oversight and ensuring government operations are open and accountable. Our Plan will deliver:

• A legislated Charter of Budget Honesty requiring governments to deliver clear, accurate financial reports to restore trust in government
• A Public Spending Tracker to allow Victorians to see how taxpayer money is being spent, and to monitor major projects and departmental budgets
• An enhanced Royal Commission into CFMEU misconduct, investigating allegations of corruption and unlawful behaviour within the construction sector
• A Victorian-first Intergenerational Report to provide a long-term view of our economic health

We will always work for Victorians, not against them.

Their dodgy deals have made bikies rich, pushed up the cost of construction, and made it more expensive to build new homes. This must stop. But without new laws and a change of government, Victorians will keep getting ripped off every single day. Our Plan will:

• Enforce the law. Corruption has consequences. We will ban bikies from worksites and put corrupt union officials behind bars
• Find the money. We will shine a spotlight on the deals and open the books to find where your money is really going
• Stop the rorts. We will return construction to what’s in the public interest, not what’s in the CFMEU’s interest

Enforce the law

Anyone with known links to organised crime will be banned from employment on Victorian major construction projects. We will require mandatory criminal history checks on government projects with better information sharing with Victoria Police.

We will establish Construction Enforcement Victoria, an independent watchdog with real teeth to get tough on the rorts and prosecute crimes, with a Victorian Code of Practice for the Building and Construction Industry for all taxpayer-funded construction sites.

Find the money

We will immediately set up a special taskforce within Victoria Police, working with the Australian Federal Police and the ATO, to seize assets relating to the criminality and fraud identified in the Watson Report on the CFMEU.

Our Plan will introduce US-style racketeering laws to target crime bosses and criminal organisations, allowing anyone who commits two or more qualifying offences, such as extortion, fraud, bribery or money laundering, within 10 years to face racketeering charges where those offences form part of a pattern linked to a criminal enterprise.

Stop the rorts

At least $15 billion in taxpayer money has been wasted or ripped off. That’s more than $5,000 per household, money that should have gone into roads, hospitals and jobs, not to criminals and bikie gangs.

That’s why we will deliver an enhanced Royal Commission into serious misconduct linked to the CFMEU. It will expose how deep the rorts go, where the money ended up, and who knew what and when inside the Labor government, and look at how to stop it happening again.

We will return construction to what’s in the public interest, not what’s in the CFMEU’s interest.

The Fair Share Guarantee will help:

• Improve road quality on regional highways
• Upgrade classrooms in regional schools
• Build new health facilities and regional hospitals
• Deliver better quality services in regional hubs
• Upgrade sporting facilities for regional clubs
• Close the divide between regional and urban investment in Victoria

Right now, Labor is allocating just 12% to regional Victoria. It’s time regional Victoria got its fair share.

Listening to regional communities

For too long Labor has run roughshod over regional Victorians, with fines for farmers refusing access to their own land and compulsory acquisition of land even before planning and environmental studies have been done.

• Repeal Labor’s compulsory land acquisition laws that allow farmland to be acquired for transmission line projects before environmental and planning approvals are complete
• VNI West will be scrapped. We will not waste billions on a project that does not have social licence and will not help keep the lights on
• Western Renewables Link. Fundamental changes will be required for it to proceed, if it ever does proceed, and we will undertake a rigorous review of the project and its impact on farmers, regional communities and household energy bills
• Reinstate VCAT appeals so landholders can again challenge major planning and infrastructure decisions
• Restore a 2km buffer so wind turbines cannot be built close to people’s homes

Agriculture

• Cut red tape to reduce the regulatory burden on farmers and producers
• Protect biosecurity with stronger safeguards against pests and disease
• Grow regional exports by boosting trade, logistics, and value adding industries

We will audit Victoria’s agricultural land to identify and protect the state’s best farming country, so prime dairy, cropping and grazing land is not lost, fragmented or compromised by poorly planned development.

Investing in regional roads

Regional Victorians rely on local roads and bridges every day to get home, to school, to work and to the shops. But too many local roads across country Victoria have been neglected. Labor abolished the Country Roads and Bridges Program, leaving rural and regional councils without the funding they need to maintain local infrastructure.

In addition to investing $5 billion to rebuild, repair and resurface roads, a Liberal and Nationals Government will invest $288 million to restore the Country Roads and Bridges Program. Each of Victoria’s 48 rural and regional councils will receive $1.5 million every year for four years to upgrade the local roads and bridges their communities rely on.

We will also upgrade and build critical road infrastructure in regional Victoria, including:

• Swan Hill Bridge replacement
• Kilmore Bypass (planning and design)
• Shepparton Second River Crossing (planning, design and early works)
• Western Highway duplication between Buangor and Ararat

Investing in regional trains

Regional communities deserve more frequent and reliable transport options. Under Our Plan an additional 25 three-car V/Line trains will be freed up for regional Victoria, boosting capacity, helping reduce crowding and keeping regional communities better connected. Additional capacity will be shared across the regions and include network reserve with a V’Locity set retained to deploy as required across the network.

We will also deliver a Wimmera Mallee Rail Plan to restore regular passenger rail services across western and north-western Victoria, improving connectivity and growing access to jobs, education, healthcare and services. Passenger rail services will operate three times per week between Mildura and Melbourne, connecting with the V/Line network at Maryborough. We will also introduce three times a week passenger services between Dimboola and Melbourne, supporting Victorians in Dimboola, Horsham and Stawell.

Supporting our CFA

We will increase support to the Country Fire Authority by upgrading CFA stations, delivering up to 100 new trucks each year to renew the CFA fleet and end single-cab tankers, and recruiting 10,000 new volunteers. By investing in this essential service we are investing in the heart of our regional communities.

We will deliver regional Victoria its fair share.

Victorians deserve a health system they can rely on, so they know they can get the help they need when they need it most. Our Plan will:

• Invest to retain our doctors and nurses
• Deliver new and upgraded hospitals
• Fix ambulance response times
• Reduce emergency department waiting lists
• Fast track elective surgeries
• Improve hospital safety

Fix ambulance response times

We will put experienced paramedics into the Triple Zero call-taking process to improve dispatch decisions and ensure a focus on priority responses. We will also build new ambulance stations, including at Armstrong Creek, Mansfield and Donnybrook.

Supporting our doctors and nurses

We will work to reduce burnout in our health workforce so we aren’t losing skilled professionals, and provide targeted attraction and retention incentives for regional doctors, nurses and health workers.

Safer hospitals

Doctors, nurses and patients should not be confronted with violence every day in our hospitals. We will improve safety at hospitals to reduce assaults on our health workers by deploying 70 Protective Services Officers across 7 major hospitals, providing around-the-clock security.

Reducing wait times

Our Plan includes improving emergency department wait times, funding additional inpatient beds, and publishing real time ED waiting and capacity information. We will reduce ED wait times by freeing up inpatient beds at the most under pressure hospitals, investing in up to 10 new or expanded patient transit lounges where patients ready to leave hospital can wait for medication, transport and final discharge arrangements.

SurgerySooner

We will fast track elective surgeries that have blown out under Labor by partnering with private hospitals to reduce wait times, at no extra cost to Victorian patients. Based on a successful Queensland program, our SurgerySooner plan will deliver 25,000 extra elective surgeries each year, working with private surgical hospitals and day surgeries across Victoria.

Proton beam cancer therapy

Despite years of announcements and planning, Australia still does not have an operational proton beam therapy service, critical for targeting radiation on complex cancers with minimal long-term side effects or healthy tissue damage. A Liberal and Nationals Government will end this failure and support the establishment of Australia’s first proton beam therapy service at Victoria’s world leading Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, so Victoria will remain at the forefront of medical research and treatment and Victorian families will no longer have to travel overseas for this essential treatment.

Support for carers and people with a disability

We will back Victoria’s unpaid carers and the people they care for. We will ease the cost of caring, deliver support closer to home and give carers a real say in the services they rely on.

As part of our Fair Share Guarantee, we will upgrade hospitals across Victoria’s regions, including:

• Mildura Base Public Hospital Expansion, including more emergency department beds, a Medical Assessment and Planning Unit, and a new 30-bed acute ward
• New West Gippsland Hospital, with a 33-bed emergency department and modern training facilities
• Wonthaggi Hospital Stage 2 and 3 Redevelopment, including additional beds, expanded maternity services, new outpatient facilities and completion of the radiology precinct
• Hamilton Base Hospital Upgrade, delivering a new emergency department and a refurbished intensive care unit
• Colac Urgent Care Department Expansion, delivering modern, fit-for-purpose facilities including waiting rooms and new cubicles
• Bairnsdale Hospital, including a new emergency department to more than double the number of treatment spaces
• Rosebud Hospital Rebuild, including doubling bed capacity and reducing wait times through an expanded emergency department
• Albury Wodonga Full Redevelopment, including 50 additional beds, parking, and Youth Acute Mental Health beds
• Goulburn Valley Health Integrated Cancer Centre Stage 2, including a single world-class cancer services location and onsite radiotherapy

Regional health workforce

Under Our Plan, eligible doctors, nurses, midwives and allied health professionals will be offered incentives of up to $10,000 a year to fill critical jobs in rural and regional Victoria.

We will establish the Victorian Rural Health Workforce Incentive Scheme, helping regional hospitals attract and keep the health workers they need, and where suitable, accommodation for health workers will be incorporated into new regional hospital developments.

We will deliver regional Victoria its fair share.

The Liberals and Nationals will get mental health reform back on track. By restoring accountability, auditing mental health levy expenditure and strengthening early intervention and service delivery, we will rebuild Victoria’s mental health system.

This includes $63.5 million invested into local communities to expand early intervention, build community capability and reduce pressure on acute services as part of our Mental Health Early Access Plan. As part of this plan we will also invest almost $70 million in proven statewide support services, strengthening crisis support, suicide prevention, youth mental health, counselling for children and families, parent support, and community-based mental health education to ensure more Victorians receive help earlier, closer to home.

Youth mental health

While younger Victorians will benefit from these investments, to meet their specific needs Our Plan will:

• Invest $5 million to deliver the masterplan for a standalone youth mental health facility at Parkville, with up to 50 specialist youth inpatient beds for Victorians aged 12 to 25
• Establish a new Youth Mental Health Centre of Excellence, in partnership with Orygen, to drive coordinated youth mental health and suicide prevention efforts across the state

System reform

Importantly we will ensure maximum benefit from these investments by delivering a mental health reform agenda in Victoria, including:

• Independently reviewing implementation of the Royal Commission recommendations
• Auditing mental health reform expenditure and the Mental Health and Wellbeing Levy
• A new Mental Health Workforce Strategy in our first 100 days
• Strengthening the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission
• Publishing a Mental Health Reform Blueprint

To drive this investment we will also establish a $50 million Targeted Mental Health Workforce Fund as part of a new Mental Health Workforce Strategy within our first 100 days.

We will strengthen Victoria’s health system and improve access to high quality care.

Under Labor, one in four kids are failing to meet NAPLAN proficiency benchmarks in reading, writing and maths. Our Plan will support teachers, improve school infrastructure, and strengthen vocational pathways. We will:

• Establish a Literacy and Numeracy Guarantee with a long term goal of 90% proficiency under NAPLAN
• Support our teachers in their vital work
• Tackle classroom behaviour so students and teachers can focus on learning
• Review and improve our school curriculum

Our Literacy and Numeracy Guarantee

Our Plan backs every Victorian student to reach their full potential by modernising learning, decluttering the curriculum and backing teachers with professional learning. The Guarantee includes an interim target of a 15% increase in the number of kids deemed proficient in literacy and numeracy under NAPLAN.

Tackling classroom behaviour

All students should have the opportunity to focus and learn, and behaviour has flow-on effects for teacher retention and wellbeing. We will introduce reforms to address classroom behaviour, not leave it in the too-hard basket.

Select entry schools

Every Victorian student deserves the opportunity to reach their full potential. But Victoria currently has just four fully selective government high schools, leaving too many high-achieving students without access to a select-entry place.

We will build three new select-entry high schools in Melbourne’s outer west, north and south-east, in areas where population growth and demand are high. The schools will be targeted to open before 2030. We will also expand selective and accelerated learning opportunities in six existing government schools, increasing the number of places available to high-achieving students across Victoria. Entry will be based on merit and opportunity, helping more students from every background to succeed.

As a parent, I want my son, Patrick, and every child in Victoria to get the best start in life.

But Labor has failed to deliver even the basics. Overgrown roadsides and graffiti in our streets make it hard to be proud of where we live. Under a Liberal and Nationals Government, we will:

• Keep our cities and towns clean
• Ensure routine maintenance gets done, like mowing roadsides
• Clean graffiti from buildings, train stations and schools
• Boost roadside maintenance such as grass slashing, graffiti removal and drain clearance

We will be a government that gets the basics right, to restore pride in our great state.

• Make our parks accessible and enjoyable
• Bolster recycling
• Protect our public land

We will prioritise the core maintenance functions of Parks Victoria, keep walking tracks open and safe, upgrade campsite amenities and improve accessibility for all Victorians.

We will boost recycling through upgrades to high-capacity regional sorting facilities, and scrap the controversial mandatory fourth bin, which local councils argue adds millions in costs for no environmental benefit.

We will implement proactive, science-backed land management that meets fire mitigation targets and controls feral pests while protecting native flora and fauna, and invest $15 million to establish the Nursery & Garden Industry Victoria Horticulture Centre of Excellence.

• Create a Victoria First strategy
• Retain and attract major events and support local artists
• Establish a Night-time Economy Strategy
• Abolish the Holiday and Tourism Tax

Victoria should once again lead the nation in events, culture, and tourism that drive jobs and pride in our state. Our Plan will support major events, creating a single point of contact for event organisers to make it easier to run events in Victoria. We will work to retain and attract more major events, including live music.

And we will abolish Labor’s Holiday and Tourism Tax that hurts our tourism industry and costs Victorian holidaymakers more.

A Night-time Economy Strategy

Under our Victorian Night-time Economy Strategy we will introduce a suite of reforms to revitalise Victoria’s night-time economy and give hospitality businesses greater certainty to invest and employ. We will turbo-charge Victoria’s night life revitalisation with support for outdoor dining, façade activation, signage, lighting and other improvements.

Under Our Plan we will also develop 24-hour economy precincts within the Melbourne Metro area, including parts of the Cities of Port Phillip and Yarra. And we will work to retain, support and attract more live music events across the state and rebuild Victoria’s festival calendar.

Outdoor recreation

Alongside our major events and entertainment opportunities in Victoria, we are home to some of Australia’s best outdoor recreation activities. To capitalise on these wonderful natural advantages, we will make it even easier to enjoy fishing, hunting and boating by addressing the practical barriers currently restricting enjoyment of these great activities.