Tim PALLAS (Werribee – Treasurer, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Economic Growth) (14:31): I am happy – in fact I am ecstatic, I am euphoric – to update the house on how the Allan Labor government is investing in Victorian families by growing our economic prosperity and creating the jobs of the future. That is right, we are investing in Victorians while those opposite are investing in their defamation lawyers’ Ferraris.

Victoria continues to be a star on the global stage. In the 2022–23 financial year our government secured foreign direct investment generating over 2500 jobs, $332 million in wages and $625 million in innovation expenditure. Excitingly, since 2003 Victoria now has more startups than our friends in New South Wales, with 3562 – not in per capita terms, in absolute terms. Think about that: since LaunchVic was established in 2016 the value of Victoria’s entire startup ecosystem has increased almost eighteenfold, from $5.8 billion to its current valuation of $103 billion. This is wealth and prosperity writ large. This is Victorians demonstrating to the world exactly how innovative and entrepreneurial we are.

The Allan government is continuing to assist Victorian businesses to trade in global markets. In 2022–‍23 we supported 8000 firms to achieve $704 million in export sales. Deloitte Access Economics recently forecast that Victoria would, to nobody’s surprise, over the next five years lead the nation in economic growth.