Mr BRUMBY(6.21) —I begin, Madam Deputy Speaker, by warmly congratulating you on your election and I ask you to convey to Mr Speaker my congratulations also on his election to that position. I know from my experience during the Thirty-third Parliament that you will each discharge your responsibilities with very great distinction during this Thirty-fourth Parliament.

For government today efficiency, honesty and competence must be the minimum requirements. They must go hand in hand with social planning, justice and a clear sense of direction-a vision for the future. While Australians may have their political differences, most of us share a similar vision for the future. We look for government which offers a sound combination of good management and good policies and we want a society that is both prosperous and fair and in which every person and all families have a chance to grow, to participate and to share in the nation's wealth.

As a Victorian, I am proud of the quality and the achievements of both the Federal and State governments and of the very close partnership and co-operation that exist between the Hawke and Cain governments. Victorians want good government and not just cheap gimmicks. In just two days time all Victorians will choose between a further term of good government or an alternative of gimmicks and advertising hype. Over the last four years Victoria has been properly managed. The State Ministers have been welded together into a tight and competent team. The State is now being run efficiently with long-term plans and co-ordination between departments. Budgeting and financial management have been modernised. There are no land deals under the Cain Government. Instead there is a widespread recognition, even among non-Labor supporters, that the Cain Government is a clean and honest government. The Victorian Government has faced up to difficult and tough decisions. Those decisions have been made when they have had to be made. Some examples have been the proposed reforms in workers' compensation, the Alcoa smelter decision, the issue of casinos and action against the Builders Labourers Federation. Under the Liberals those decisions were put off for ever, and they would be again under a divided Liberal-National Party coalition.

Most importantly for all Victorians is the fact that in just three short years Victoria has become Australia's strongest and fastest growing economy. Victoria is, indeed, leading Australia's economic recovery. Almost all of the objective evidence, such as the major economic indicators and statistics, now confirm this. Victoria has the nation's highest job growth rate and its lowest rate of unemployment, especially and particularly among young people. Economic and investment growth in Victoria tops that of all States. Industrial disputes have been reduced by some 70 per cent since 1981 and the inflation rate is half what it was under the Liberals. The Victorian housing industry also leads Australia's housing recovery. The results of that economic recovery are starting to be recognised outside Victoria. New projects, worth literally billions of dollars, are getting under way, like the Chia development in South Yarra and the Esso-BHP oil and gas project.

Last month Victoria was awarded a triple A rating-the highest international rating given to a government for the performance and reliability of its economy. Victoria is the only Australian State to achieve that recognition, which has actually been given to very few national governments. Finally, late last year Commonwealth statistics showed that for the first time in more than 14 years more people were actually coming back to live in Victoria than were leaving it.

These are achievements of which all Victorians can be proud. By a combination of positive policies and long term planning and, importantly, by working in partnership with the community and the Hawke Government, Victoria now faces its brightest economic future for many years. There have been claims during the Victorian election campaign that the Cain Government is a high-taxing government. Similar claims were made of the Hawke Government prior to the recent Federal election. What is so ironic about these claims by the Liberal Opposition is that its own policy documents show clearly that taxes increased by 29 per cent under the previous Hamer-Thompson Liberal Government in Victoria and they have increased by a far more moderate 8 per cent under the Cain Government.

What is even more remarkable in the context of taxes and charges is the claim by the Liberal Leader, Mr Kennett, that under a Liberal government there would be no increase at all in taxes in the first year of a Kennett government. Mr Kennett's promises, of course, simply do not add up. It is something of a mark of his inexperience and perhaps ineptitude as a political leader that there is now a $1 billion credibility gap between his spending promises and the potential revenue base. Mr Kennett has released a package of promises which is quite intentionally unachievable. In fact, it is totally unachievable. His only objective in that approach can be to diminish people's faith in the democratic process. No doubt many Victorians will make their own assessment and judgment of Mr Kennett's ability and experience to lead Victorians. No doubt all Victorians will question whether a man who makes the claim that the Victorian Premier, John Cain, is unfit to leave alone with one's daughter, is himself fit to represent the people of Victoria. Similarly, the people of Victoria must judge whether Mr Kennett's claim that the Hawke Government's national economic summit was akin to a meeting of the Grand Council of Fascists is really an accurate description of the many distinguished business and community leaders, unionists, and politicians who made up that summit.

Finally, the 20 per cent of Victorians employed in manufacturing industry must wonder whether Mr Kennett's economic development policy, which makes not one mention of Victoria's vital manufacturing industry, is really a competent document from an aspiring Premier.

As Federal member for Bendigo I have been able to witness at first hand the remarkable development of the Bendigo area in the three years of the Cain Government. I have seen the new police station, the new fire station, the new White Hills primary school and the new tourist information centre. The North Bendigo railway workshops have been upgraded, more than 40 elderly person's units have been constructed and only last week the Premier officially opened the new $10m Sandhurst reservoir. Most pleasing of all is the strong economic recovery in Bendigo's private sector, which has seen unemployment fall by 20 per cent and the strongest ever program of support for decentralised industry by a State government. In context of Bendigo's development, it is somewhat amusing to hear the Liberal Party of Australia again claim that the Cain Labor Government discriminates against country people. Apart from the programs I have just mentioned, such as the new police and fire stations, new school buildings and new tourist infrastructure, the Cain Government has embarked on a major program of bringing new services to country people.

Sitting suspended from 6.30 to 8 p.m.

Mr BRUMBY —I was talking earlier of the great partnership and the great co-operation which have developed between the Hawke Government and the Cain Government in Victoria. One of the areas in which that partnership is very evident is in the fight against inflation, in which nationally and in Victoria we have seen inflation halved during the last two years. It is essential for continued economic recovery and for international competitiveness that the fight against inflation be continued, and both the Hawke Government and the Cain Government are pledged to continue that fight and to support fully the very successful prices and incomes accord.

It is a matter of great concern, when looking at the policies of the Liberal Kennett Opposition in Victoria, to look particularly at its policies in the so-called areas of deregulation. In the release of its policy on deregulation, it has announced 11 critical policy areas in which it would be deregulating areas of government activity. Deregulation of those areas which the Opposition has suggested would be in no small way a recipe for economic disaster. Indeed, it is estimated, on very conservative measures, that the deregulation in the areas it has suggested would add between 5 and 10 percentage points to the consumer price index. I mentioned that 11 areas are involved. I shall briefly refer to four of those. First, of course, the Kennett Opposition is totally in support of the deregulation of wages. I do not think there is any doubt that in a period of strong economic recovery, as we have at the moment, deregulation of wages would lead to increases above and beyond those of the consumer price index. As evidence of that claim, we need only look back to the years of 1981 or 1982 under the Fraser Government, when it walked away from centralised wage indexation and we saw a very significant increase in wages.

Secondly, deregulation of health care would be of great concern. It is noticeable that only some months ago the Victorian Liberal Opposition supported a 17 per cent increase in hospital charges, compared with a 5 per cent increase which was approved by the Cain Government. All Victorians would be asking themselves how people would cope if hospital charges rose by 17 per cent under a Kennett government because, in addition, it is the Opposition's policy to allow catch up in private health insurance, so we would see significant additions to the cost of family health care.

Thirdly, agriculture is an area proposed for deregulation, and there is no question but that the Liberals' policy states that they intend to abolish the orderly marketing boards which have provided such stability to our primary industries. Prices in many areas would rise or fall erratically and our farmers, who are so vital to the economic prosperity of Victoria, would become virtual supermarket employees.

Fourthly, petrol pricing concerns me greatly as a country member of Parliament. Here again, the Kennett Opposition is pledged to removing the Cain Government's trigger price maximum on petrol. That would see the price of petrol throughout Victoria leaping overnight by up to 2c per litre. In the other context of petrol prices, the Liberals' transport policy commits them to removing motor registration fees and replacing that money with a levy on petrol equivalent to approximately 5c per litre. In just those four areas there is a recipe to add between five and 10 percentage points to the consumer price index. That would throttle the economic recovery which has been so strong in Victoria.

I conclude by reinforcing a point I made earlier. The claim of the Liberal Opposition is that the Cain Labor Government has somehow, in its past three years of government, discriminated against country people. Apart from the programs in Bendigo which I mentioned earlier, such as new fire and police stations, new school buildings and new tourist infrastructure, the Cain Government has also embarked on a major program of bringing new services to country people. More than 5,000 children in country Victoria have been seen by the school dental service, and the elderly citizens have warmly welcomed the new low-cost denture and spectacle scheme for country pensioners. Government departments, such as the Department of Health, have been regionalised, and Bendigo's designation as a Strategic A Growth Centre has brought new assistance to country industries which have never before been assisted by a State Government.

The expenditure of more than $40m over the next four years on upgrading Victoria's grain handling facilities is sound evidence of the Government's commitment to our primary producers and, of course, the $32m program for salinity control really puts the Liberal and National parties to shame over their total absence of support for salinity control in Victoria during some 27 years of conservative government. They did nothing for salinity control.

A great deal of long and overdue good work by the Cain Government and an excellent and co-operative relationship with the Hawke Government have substantially benefited Victorians. What a State government does affects not merely our lives but those of our children and of all Victorians. Victorians demand and deserve the best possible government. That means government with the best performance, the best leadership, the best team and the best policies for the future. In summary, Victorians deserve good governments and not just cheap gimmicks and advertising hype.

Mr SPEAKER —Before calling the honourable member for Mayo, I remind the House that this is the honourable member's maiden speech. I ask the House to extend to him the usual courtesies.