For years, Victorians have displayed Stockholm Syndrome regarding the state Labor government.
Victoria’s nine-month lockdown during the pandemic was among the most prolonged and brutal worldwide.
The state government’s failures with hotel quarantine and draconian lockdown enforcement should have scared voters away. Yet Labor was elected back into power with an enlarged majority.
Cost overruns and infrastructure waste totalling billions of dollars are rife, leaving the state heavily in debt and with the lowest credit rating in the country.
The Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) is the most wasteful Australian infrastructure project I’ve ever seen, with an estimated cost of more than $200 billion—more than four times its initial projection.
Nearly every infrastructure expert and Victoria’s Auditor-General has rejected the SRL because it makes no sense economically or socially and fails any objective cost-benefit analysis.
Despite this, the Victorian government signed the SRL contracts, putting residents on the path to financial ruin and lower living standards.
The enormous funding required by the SRL will also syphon vital resources away from Victoria’s growth areas, depriving residents of critical infrastructure and services.
Former Treasury economist Stephen Anthony accurately summed up the state of play in Victoria as follows:
“Victoria is on a suicide mission to record borrowing, just as global interest rates are about to hit 5%”.
“Potholes can’t get filled, emergency departments can’t afford clean linen, primary schools can’t fix heaters”.
“Things are about to get very ugly”.
We have seen significant cuts to hospital and health spending across the state, as well as cuts to road maintenance and other areas.
Finally and belatedly, Victorians are waking up to the abuse, turning against the state Labor government.
New polling from pollster RedBridge reveals that only 31% of Victorians would vote for Labor if an election were held today, while support for John Pesutto’s opposition has surged to 40%.
However, once preferences of minor party voters are distributed, Labor and the Coalition would be tied 50-50 on a two-party preferred basis.
Redbridge Director Kos Samaris noted on Twitter (X) that “Labor has hovered in the mid 30s for most of the last year and now in the low 30s. The Coalition has gone up 5% since last year”.
Samaris also noted that “Labor has lost ground within two main groups. Younger Victorians to the Greens, older Victorians to other parties and the Coalition”, and “health cuts” are a significant reason behind Labor’s demise.
A key reason why Labor has remained in power for a decade is because the Liberal opposition has been weak and disorganised.
Accordingly, the Victorian Labor government has been allowed to fail upwards and remain in power despite appalling incompetence and waste.
Unfortunately, with signing the contracts to build the SRL, the financial harm has already been done and appears irreversible.
Victorian living standards will continue to fall due to rapid population growth, rising debt, and deteriorating infrastructure and services.
The hospital and road spending cuts amid the population explosion are just the start.
