Victoria is a great state with limitless potential, but it is being held back by bad decisions and broken promises by state and federal Labor governments.

Analysis of ABS State Accounts data shows that in the year to June 2023, Victorians faced the fastest decline in real household disposable income per person, at a rate of 6.5 per cent.

Victoria has the potential to once again lead the nation in manufacturing, but unaffordable energy prices and increased costs are driving local business interstate or overseas. According to the ABS, the number of Victorian businesses going insolvent has more than doubled since Labor took government, an increase of 117 per cent. That means Victorian jobs are leaving too.

Too many Victorian women face the scourge of domestic violence and tragically at least three Victorian women have been killed this year already. This includes Melbourne mother Chaithanya Madhagani who was found inside a wheelie bin on an isolated dirt road at Buckley, half an hour west of Geelong, on Saturday.

As of February 2024, the Albanese Government has not delivered a single domestic violence community worker out of the 101 promised to the state of Victoria at the last election. That is simply not good enough.

At a time when Victoria needs skilled Australian workers more than ever, Labor is overseeing a collapse in Victorians taking up a trade or beginning a new qualification.

In Labor’s first year in office, Victoria lost one in ten apprentices and trainees with a drop of 11,630 or 12.8 per cent; new starts of apprentices and trainees in Victoria dropped by 38.8 per cent; and in 2023 under the Albanese Government’s Fee Free TAFE there were 6,695 fewer students undertaking government funded training than in 2021 when the Coalition's JobTrainer program was in place.

This will make it harder for Victoria to build the homes it needs for the next generation of families. It will make it harder to staff Victorian childcare centres and aged care homes. It will mean less opportunity for the next generation of Victorians.

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Sussan Ley, who will be visiting nine Victorian seats over the next three days, said despite promising to leave no one behind, Labor is not delivering on its promises to Victorian families, businesses and communities.

“Victoria is an incredible state that can have a bright future ahead of it, but it needs policies which support the aspirations of Victorians, and we just aren’t seeing that from Labor,” she said.

“Victoria has a lot of potential, but two years into wall-to-wall Labor governments, I am asking Victorians whether they feel better off.

“From skyrocketing cost of living, a doubling in business insolvencies, a loss of one in ten Victorian apprentices and trainees; and, a failure to deliver any of the promised domestic violence workers for Victoria, across the board we are seeing Anthony Albanese leaving Victorians behind. This great state deserves better than this.”

Proof points of Labor’s failures across the Deputy Leader’s portfolio:

  • As of February 2024, none of the 101 Domestic Violence community workers promised to Victoria have been delivered.
  • The number of Victorian businesses going insolvent has more than doubled since Labor took government with an increase of 117 per cent.
  • In Labor’s first year in office Victoria lost one in ten apprentices and trainees with a drop of 11,630 or 12.8 per cent. In the final year under the Federal Coalition the number of apprentices and trainees in Victoria went up by 15,985 (or 21 per cent).
  • In Labor’s first year in office new starts of apprentices and trainees in Victoria have dropped by 38.8 per cent.
  • There were 6,695 fewer students undertaking government funded training under the Albanese Government in 2023 under Fee-Free TAFE than in 2021 under the Coalition's Job Trainer program.