Communities across the Ovens Valley electorate are paying the price for what is now being revealed as Victoria’s largest ever financial scandal under a Victorian Labor government. An alleged $15 billion corruption linked to taxpayer-funded major projects represents a devastating loss for regional Victoria, particularly the Ovens Valley. If our electorate had received our fair share, that would equate to around $170 million invested locally. That funding could have delivered safer regional roads, stronger hospitals, improved schools, and critically, new CFA sheds, upgraded fire stations and additional tankers to better protect our communities. Instead, locals are missing out while billions have been wasted. A failure to act has now become a defining issue of the Victorian government. What started out as Victoria’s largest ever financial scandal by a Victorian Labor government has now become Victoria’s largest ever cover-up by a Victorian Labor government. Premier Jacinta Allan now holds the trophy as the single largest overseer of financial corruption in Victoria’s history. Concerns have been compounded by confirmation that the state’s anti-corruption watchdog, Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission, lacked the powers to properly investigate the matters referred by the Premier. The Premier knew IBAC did not have the authority to investigate and did nothing to fix it. That is not leadership, it is a deliberate avoidance of accountability. Ovens Valley families deserve integrity, transparency and every possible dollar recovered and reinvested where it should have been all along, back into our local communities. Labor can't manage money, and Victorians are paying the price. Tim McCurdy, Nationals MP for Ovens Valley Tax breaks not building affordable homes Property investors are buying almost twice as many homes as first home buyers, shutting renters out of the housing market, new analysis from ACOSS has revealed. And tax breaks are helping investors come armed with deeper pockets. The average property investor loan is around $100,000 larger than the average loan taken out by a first home buyer. First home buyers are lining up at auctions only to be outbid by investors with bigger loans and generous tax breaks behind them. It’s clear the housing market isn’t working for people who just want a place to live. Our latest analysis shows property investor tax breaks are mostly helping high-income earners, with 59 per cent of the benefits of negative gearing and the capital gains discount for investment property flowing to the top 10 per cent. At the same time, investors add very little to housing supply. Only around one in eight investor loans are for building new homes. The rest are used to buy or renovate homes that already exist - pushing prices higher. The analysis also found the small share of new homes built by investors are unaffordable for low income people when rented or sold at market rates. These tax breaks are not building affordable homes. They are fuelling competition over existing homes and driving prices further out of reach. ACOSS is calling on the federal government to gradually halve the 50 per cent Capital Gains Tax discount and phase out negative gearing over five years. It also should set national social housing targets to end housing stress and substantially boost social housing supply to meet these targets. Cassandra Goldie, ACOSS chief executive officer Fairer, safer healthcare for all Victorians The Allan Labor government is building a fairer and safer health system for all Victorians – no matter who you are. Last Thursday the Parliament passed the Health Safeguards for People Born with Variations in Sex Characteristics Bill 2025. The new regulations strengthen protections and rights for Victorians born with variations in sex characteristics. Every person’s body is different. People with variations in sex characteristics are born with sex characteristics that do not fit typical definitions or understandings of male or female bodies. Some people born with variations in sex characteristics have experienced very serious and lasting consequences from treatment performed on them without their informed consent. This Bill ends that practice in Victoria. It means the most vulnerable – typically infants and children – do not receive medical interventions that permanently change their bodies until they are old enough to consent. Urgent treatments required to save a life or prevent serious harm will continue without delay. Parents will have access to more information and supports. This will enable better healthcare outcomes and support informed decision making. People born with variations in sex characteristics and their families also get access to peer and psychosocial support. Victoria will be first state and second jurisdiction in Australia to enshrine these safeguards into law. The Bill has been developed through extensive consultation with the community and clinical, legal and human rights experts since 2021. Mary-Anne Thomas, Minister for Health
