ACM Victorian state correspondent Ben Silvester brings us the overview from Parliament House in Melbourne.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00This is Victorian correspondent for ACM Ben Sylvester. We've just got out of the
00:04budget lockup for 2025 and the Treasurer Jacqueline Signs has handed down the
00:09first surplus in five years for the government. Now the big ticket item on
00:15this budget is investments in the health system with 11 billion dollars for health
00:20including 9 billion for the hospital system and that follows on another 11
00:25billion dollars from the previous year's budget so it's a huge amount of money
00:28flowing in as the local health service networks get up to speed in July this
00:34year. There are also lots of cost of living measures including free public
00:39transport for school-aged children and also for seniors at specific times and
00:45for regional Victorians there might be a few concerns about the roads. There have
00:50been new investments of 976 million dollars into repairing the roads but the
00:56budget also reveals that the current works that have been underway haven't got
01:03through like they would like to. Only half of the works that were scheduled for
01:06this year have actually been achieved so there are big question marks over the
01:10state of those roads. The other item that people would be thinking of from the
01:16centre is the emergency services and despite the very controversial levy which had
01:21protests just out here earlier today there isn't any more money for the CFA or
01:28Victorian SES operational services in the budget today.