Mr PALLAS (Treasurer) — …Since taking office we have created nearly a quarter of a million jobs for Victorians. We have created around 50 000 jobs in regional Victoria. That is nearly 10 times more than those opposite created. But of course we cannot compare ourselves to the mediocrity of those opposite. It is a good thing too, because if we were comparing ourselves to their efforts in job creation, we would have stopped early last year. But I do occasionally have a look at what we are up against. Of course they appear to have benched the member for Malvern, which is a good start. Much like a one-ended straw, he sucks but he never delivers.

The task of delivering some credible economic policy has been given to the member for Kew and his mates from the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA)… It shows how far they have gone that they have actually had to resort to calling on the member for Kew and his IPA interns to provide policy advice to the opposition. Of course, I hear he is quite an accomplished oarsman, but pull the other one.

The Andrews government has an actual plan to support jobs growth in regional Victoria. It is delivering the lowest regional tax rate in the country, an upgrade to every single regional train line through our regional rail revival plan, and of course the largest investment in regional Victoria ever through the 2017–18 budget. But there is still more to come. We still have another year and a half of our term, and we will continue to try and exceed our own efforts, because if we compared ourselves to those opposite, we would have stopped a long time ago.