Mr PALLAS (Treasurer) (11:30:28) — It gives me great pleasure to rise to update the house about the Victorian economy and a number of facts relevant to it. Since we were elected in November 2014, promising to get Victorians back to work, we have created almost 350 000 jobs — fact. That means that more than one in 10 jobs that currently exist in the Victorian economy has been created under the watch of this government — fact. More than 200 000 of the jobs we have created have been full‑time jobs, five times more than those opposite managed to create in four years of nothing — fact.

While business confidence is strong, a sure way of undermining it is dodgy dealings and of course meetings with developers, where politicians dine at the expense of mobsters — fact. Anyone knows that when you are eating lobster, you always go with white wine — fact. Infrastructure spending under this government is more than double the long —

Infrastructure spending under this government is more than double the long‑term average, which means that after four years of dithering by those opposite, we have invested more in schools, public transport, hospitals and roads than ever before — fact. Anyone whose political idols include Richard Nixon and Joh Bjelke‑Petersen has got to be short on morals and taste and of course cannot be trusted — fact.

The Victorian economy is growing faster than any other state’s — fact. We have the highest wages growth, the highest consumer confidence and the strongest retail trade in the nation — fact. And the biggest threat to the Victorian economy is the bloke sitting right there — fact.