Last year we put a positive plan to the Victorian people and we promised to keep doing what matters.
It was a plan to keep removing level crossings to build the hospitals, schools and roads Victorians need now and for the future.
And to keep supporting thousands of jobs with our Big Build.
It was a plan to invest in renewables, helping families install solar panels and batteries, and to bring back the SEC to help keep power bills down.
It was a plan to make kinder free, to save families thousands and give kids the best start, for the best life.
These are the things that matter to Victorians and with this budget we're getting on with it.
Victorians remember the State Electricity Commission.
It meant fair power prices and good stable jobs.
That's why we're bringing it back.
We're getting started on building 4.5 gigawatts of new government owned renewable electricity, the equivalent of replacing Loy Yang A.
The new SEC will help create more than 59,000 jobs.
So we're opening a new Wind Worker Training Center, the SEC Center of Training Excellence and six new tech schools to train the next generation of energy workers.
Across the state we're delivering state-of-the-art hospitals so you can get the care you need, close to home.
And we're getting started on Australia's biggest hospital project ever.
The redevelopment of the Royal Women's and Royal Melbourne Hospitals.
But new hospitals are nothing without a team of doctors and nurses to staff them, which is why we've made nursing free, to help train more than 10,000 nurses.
As well as a package of incentives to retrain and recruit health care workers.
Right now, it's almost impossible to get in to see a doctor, particularly one who bulk bills.
So, we're stepping up and boosting access to primary care with 25 free Priority Primary Care Clinics, including seven in regional Victoria.
Women make up more than half our population, and yet their health care is seen as a niche issue.
We're giving women's health the focus it deserves.
With 20 women's health clinics and an Aboriginal-led clinic.
And we're doubling the number of surgeries for endometriosis and associated conditions.
We've opened six Mental Health and Wellbeing Locals and we're getting to work on delivering 44 more.
Building our mental health system from the ground up is a huge job, but with these investments we're getting on with it.
From kinder right through to TAFE education changes lives.
That's why we've rolled out Free Kinder across the whole state.
And now we're starting work on opening 50 new government owned and operated childcare centres.
So more kids can get the best start, for the best life.
We're building more schools.
100 by 2026, and this budget delivers another nine across the state.
We're transforming our specialist schools too.
We’ll help fix one of the biggest challenges families of students at specialist schools experience by expanding out-of-hours care to 30 specialist schools.
We'll deliver more extra-curricular activities and put more speech pathologist and occupational therapists into specialist schools.
When we came to government, we saved TAFE and got to work making it better than it had ever been before.
Today, there are more than 70 courses on the free TAFE list and now we're extending it to all Victorians so you can get the skills you need for the job you want.
Whether you already have a higher qualification or not.
We haven't wasted a day building the roads, rail, trams and trains our state needs.
We've removed 68 level crossings and we'll get rid of 110 by 2030.
Tracks have been laid in the Metro Tunnel and it's on schedule to open a year early.
And we're not slowing down.
We'll upgrade the Melton line, build 23 more Vlocity trains.
And we’ll keep upgrading roads across the state, including those affected by last year's floods.
We'll keep standing with those flood affected communities because we know that work is so important because our regions are booming.
And as they grow we're making sure the services regional Victorians rely on keep pace.
With this budget we'll invest $5 billion across our regions.
It'll mean upgraded schools, expanded emergency departments, cheaper public transport, more skills training, more jobs and more support for our farmers.
The Victorian economy is strong and it's growing.
Unemployment is around the lowest it's been for nearly 50 years and in regional Victoria it's near a record low.
It's no mistake.
Our investments have delivered the jobs we needed in the short term and they're supporting our growing state into the future too.
Right now, countries across the world are grappling with high inflation and interest rates hikes.
And Australia is no different.
But Victoria will weather these challenges from a strong position.
With this budget, we're doing what we said we'd do.
We're starting work on every single one of our election commitments, all while paying down our COVID debt.
They're the things that matter, and we are getting on with it.
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