There’s just a year to go until Victorians get to decide whether to keep up the political self-flagellation or finally stop being woke doormats. Given their amply demonstrated gluttony for socialist punishment, it’s anybody’s guess whether they’ll finally turf out a corrupt, incompetent, authoritarian government that has plunged the state into record debt.
Victorians are funny like that. Believe me: I grew up there.
It’s perhaps a sign of just how dire the Andrews-Allan Labor government has been that even lefty chip-wrapper the Age has produced an almost even-handed assessment of the challenges facing each party. I say ‘almost’, because, this being the Age after all, they’ve notably inverted the ladder when it comes to Labor’s biggest problems. Thus, they put debt and crime last on the list of Labor priorities, which, when the state is nudging a fifth of a trillion dollars in debt, seems awfully like trying to bury the lede.
Net debt is expected to reach $194 billion by the end of the decade. To make matters worse, the Auditor-General says the government recorded an operating loss of $2.6 billion in the past financial year – $400 million worse than it budgeted for. For years, the Liberals have struggled to turn debt into a political pressure point, but Labor will need a more convincing economic narrative than it has offered to date. That means explaining which projects will proceed and how it will contain spending.
In fact, they’re showing no inclination of doing in the least. Instead, Labor is spending more and more and resorting to gouging more and more taxes. So much so that, in tandem with out-of-control, many major business are threatening to up stakes and walk.
Victoria recorded 483,583 criminal incidents in the 12 months to June 2025 – an 18.3 per cent increase and the highest number on record – with youth violence, aggravated burglaries and carjackings driving the spike. Labor has responded with tougher bail, sentencing and youth justice measures.
This means absolutely nothing when Labor-appointed lefty judges immediately turn around and bail out repeat violent offenders, especially of the dusky persuasion.
The Age also witters about Labor’s ‘social housing record’, which immediately brings to mind Premier Jacinta Allan’s clueless press op clanger where she handed over the keys to a brand-new unit to a Muslim immigrant woman who’d never worked a day since landing in the state and immediately jumped on its welfare system.
On the other hand, the Age is only half-correct about the Liberals’ disunity. What the woke rag can’t bring themselves to admit is that the Libs’ biggest problem is that they just let their ‘moderate’ wing keep dragging the party into the blue-green muck.
Meanwhile, on what the Age touts as one of Labor’s ‘strengths’ – its massive, debt-ridden, long-delayed, corrupt infrastructure programme – there’s yet more trouble a-brewin’. Even the beer-and-circuses hoopla of the ‘opening’ of its massive, over-budget, over-schedule Metro Tunnel went tits-up. Passengers weren’t able to board at one station because the shiny, new, high-tech system refused to work.
Platform screen doors at the new Metro Tunnel stations can open only if a train stops in perfect alignment, made possible by the new high-tech signalling which automatically guides trains through the tunnels.
Metro Trains CEO Raymond O’Flaherty said trains had to operate under drivers’ control following the intrusion, and in this case, overshot the platform.
But an even more ominous storm-cloud hung over the ribbon-cutting day. Suddenly, Dan Andrews’ biggest union bully-boy mates are turning on Labor.
Fire Rescue Victoria is investigating why on-duty firefighters entered a secure section of the Metro Tunnel without authorisation on Sunday, disrupting services on the opening day of the cross-city rail line.
Trains were delayed about 25 minutes by the intrusion at 11.30am, as more than 70,000 people rode the new Melbourne rail line and explored the five new inner-city stations for the first time.
Metro Trains and Premier Jacinta Allan described the incident as trespassing, but the United Firefighters Union claimed the firefighters were there for an “urgent familiarisation drill”.
Allan called it “incredibly dangerous”, but would not comment on whether it was a stunt by the union, which has waged a campaign against her government.
The UFU was key to delivering government to Andrews in the first place, in a cosy deal which allowed the city-based union to take over the rural, volunteer Country Fire Authority. The deal triggered massive protests by CFA volunteers, but a handshake with union thugs is always binding on a Labor government.
Until the bruvvas turn on them.
While Fire Rescue Victoria confirmed the incident involved on-duty firefighters, it could not explain why they were in the tunnel.
“The firefighters were not responding to an incident at the Metro Tunnel. There was no pre-organised official drill or site visit planned for the Metro Tunnel on Sunday,” an FRV spokesperson said […]
Marshall and the union are campaigning against the government and have claimed firefighters do not have suitable equipment to respond to emergencies in the Metro Tunnel and West Gate Tunnel toll road, which is due to open next month.
Oh, no – a far-left union going rogue on a far-left Labor government? Pass the popcorn.
