VICTORIA is wrestling with South Australia for the title of Australia’s poorest as its downtrodden citizens take flight from Labor’s police State.
Under its current premier, Daniel Andrews, Victorians have become poorer than all other States and territories except South Australia.
- Victoria sunk to the second-lowest disposable income per person in 2019-20.
- It was also the most heavily policed State, with its citizens copping double the fines.
- Kennett blames clueless Andrews government for economic mess.
Victoria sunk to the second-lowest household disposable income per person in 2019-20 at $48,107 – $3200 below the national average and $5300 below NSW.
According to former ANZ chief economist Saul Eslake, Victoria was also the most heavily policed State, with its citizens copping almost twice the fines of other Australians ($116pa vs $60pa).
INCOMPETENT
Mr Eslake said Victoria had done itself “severe damage by its incompetent handling of the pandemic”.
The woeful Victorian performance marks a major deterioration since former Liberal Premier Jeff Kennett left office in 1999.
An almost tearful Mr Kennett told Sky News anchor Peta Credlin yesterday that he was heartbroken.
“It’s terribly sad,” the 73-year-old said. “Victoria is very quickly becoming the sinkhole of Australia.
“Our economy is shrinking. This isn’t the first or second lockdown, it’s the fourth and many businesses aren’t going to survive this,” Mr Kennett said.
“We are losing population to other States.
“We are finding that we haven’t even learned sufficiently from previous lockdowns how to put in place the resources to handle this, the fourth.
“You can demolish a house in a day, but it takes months or years to replace it.”
DAMAGE
Mr Kennett said, likewise, it would take years to overcome the damage inflicted by the Andrews government.
“The damage just hasn’t happened under this pandemic,” he said.
“It started well before that when the government started borrowing considerable amounts of money for projects which are now overdue and substantially over budget.
“It breaks my heart to think of all the work that has been done in the years previously for us to become the sinkhole of Australia’s economy.
“The government needs to talk to us frankly and tell us how they’re going to get us out of the mess that they’ve created.”
Mr Kennett said the task of rebuilding would be made more difficult as people continued to take flight from Victoria.
“People are leaving in droves and particularly young people,” he said.
“I fear that as the government tries to tax their way out of the problems they’ve created, there will be another impost on the community.
“Who’s going to come here when you have a reputation as the highest taxing State in the country?”PC
During the 1980s with Union Labor in government Victoria became known as “the rust belt state” as the economy collapsed, businesses closed down, service stations boarded up and chained off, a financial and economic basket case.
Now in 2021 the corrosion is obvious again, but worse.
Well said Jeff, the political ‘Great’ in Victorian politics. And he is one who would know the hardship being created for the state having pulled it so skilfully, and determinedly out of a similar hole!!
Andrews complains that no one is following his QR code rules, so it is hard to track and keep contained the various Covid outbreaks.
Could that have something to do with the respect he has ‘lost by the avalanche’ – from the Victorian people??
Cheers Melanie
And to thank (not) Premier Jeff Kennett the majority of voters in Victoria voted the government he led out of office in favour of returning to Union controlled Labor.
Reminds me of Queensland and Premier Campbell Newman, too hard the voters complained.