Peter Dutton claims Allan government is ‘destroying Victoria’s economy’ while state businesses and families are ‘suffering’

Federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton criticized the Allan government’s economic management during a visit to a housing development north of Melbourne on Monday.

Mr Dutton launched an attack on the Victorian Labor Party at a press conference after being asked what lessons he believed had been learned from the LNP’s Queensland election victory.

“The lessons are that if you treat people with contempt, if you have huge debts, you mismanage the economy, you create a cost of living crisis, you can expect the electorate to punish you and that’s exactly what happened in Queensland “, he said.

“I think the same thing will happen at the federal level because the Prime Minister has promised Australians a lot but has delivered nothing.

“He was distracted by The Voice for the first 16 months, he spent $450 million, and in those early budgets when they should have been making decisions to protect us from what was happening in the economy, they just didn’t do it. those decisions that were necessary.

“Now they’re talking about huge additional debt and that will lead to higher inflation, interest rates will stay high for a long time and I think that’s what will happen when you get a long-term Labor government.

“Here in Victoria, the Allan Government is destroying the Victorian economy and Victorian businesses, families, small cafes and other micro businesses are really hurting here in Victoria at the moment. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Labor governments are doing.”

The Queensland LNP, led by David Crisafulli, defeated the Queensland Labor Party, led by Steven Miles, in Saturday’s state election, ending almost 10 years of Labor rule.

Labor had won three elections in a row before Saturday’s defeat, which came after Miles replaced Annastacia Palaszczuk as leader at the end of the parliamentary term.

In Victoria, Labor has also won the last three elections, with Ms Allan succeeding Daniel Andrews as premier in September last year, less than a year into a four-year term.

Mr Dutton’s remarks in Beveridge come as CommSec published its latest State of the States report, which assesses the economic performance of each state and territory.

In the October edition, Victoria dropped from third place to fourth, behind Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland, but ahead of Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and the Northern Territory.

Victoria came out on top for construction work completed, but equipment costs were seen as the state’s weak spot.

Ms Allan told reporters at a press conference in Melbourne on Monday that Victoria’s economy continued to grow, creating new jobs and attracting business investment.

“Victoria is already a great place to live, a great place to work and a great place to invest in a business,” she said.

“The ABS data confirms this. We are number one in the number of jobs created in the last 12 months, with 130,000 jobs created here in Victoria. This is against the backdrop of the largest business investment of any state in the state. nation.

“When you add to that the fact that we are a state that approves and builds more homes than any other state, it is a combination of economic factors that support our strong and growing economy here in Victoria.

“An economy that Deloitte Access Economics forecasts will continue to be the fastest-growing economy of any state in the country over the next five years.”

Victoria’s net debt will reach $156.2 billion this financial year and reach $187.8 billion in 2028.