Victoria disease is the malady of a permanent Labor government leading to an ever-rising population, along with state dependency and falling living standards.
It is a national pandemic, but patient zero is Victoria, and she is now dying from a combination of crush loading, energy failure, excess debt, and inflated expectations.
One area where Victoria disease is landing hardest is the office market.
Melbourne leads the national office vacancy rate.
Hot desks are marginally better.
Demand is zero.
And supply is booming. Lol!
What is the answer? Not this.
Premier Jacinta Allan has used the Labor Party’s state conference to outline her government’s plans to develop legal protections for employees who want to work at least two days a week from home.
Ms Allan says she intends to enshrine working from home rights into law next year before the next state election.
I am all for WFH where it functions for business and workers alike. But legislating it is a preposterous overreach of state intervention that will obviously hurt productivity where it does not function well.
Victoria disease is already killing the host via the nation’s weakest productivity performance.
Victoria disease will soon require the emergency use of a defibrillator. The only one that will matter is political in eighteen months.
But will that work? The platform looks like Labor.
- Cost of Living Relief: Easing the burden on families by reducing energy costs, cutting taxes and implementing targeted support.
- Housing: Fast-tracking housing construction, making the dream of home ownership achievable again and ensuring affordable rentals.
- Infrastructure and Transport: Common sense investment in roads, public transport, and community facilities, particularly in growing areas that have been overlooked.
- Healthcare: Slashing hospital wait times, boosting ambulance services, and improving access to essential family health services.
- Safety: Focusing on crime prevention and youth engagement to create neighbourhoods where families feel safe to live, work, and play.
- Economic Growth and Responsible Spending: Reducing taxes, stopping wastage of taxpayers’ money, reducing the state’s massive debt, and cutting red tape for small and medium businesses to stimulate job creation and reignite the state’s ‘have a go’ spirit.
- Education: Strengthening schools and expanding vocational opportunities to support everyone to reach their full potential.
