For various reasons, I have spent virtually all this year in Melbourne. Being here month in, month out, really focuses the mind on the challenging problems that confront the good citizens of this state.

It has forced me to pay more attention to the state’s multiple economic challenges as well as avoiding the numerous potholes in the streets on which I regularly travel. It has been a sobering experience – no, I haven’t taken to the devil-drink, tempting though it was.

Let’s be clear on one thing: Victoria is an economic laggard. Its rate of unemployment is 5.1 per cent compared with a national figure of 4.7 per cent. In Western Australia, the rate of unemployment is 4.2 per cent.

Victoria has the highest taxes in the country yet has the highest government debt.  (Some other states are making a good fist of catching up on the debt front, with Queensland and Tasmania being prime examples.) The roads are in a shocking state of repair and crime is everywhere. Victoria takes the ‘crown’ when it comes to the incidence of shoplifting.

Sure, the state has Aussie Rules and the Spring Racing Carnival, but sadly sporting events are insufficient to make a state prosperous. There was something symbolic that the last Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island was washed out – the race will be conducted in Adelaide in the future.

The abiding impression I get from all these long months holed up in Melbourne is just how incompetent and far left/woke is the Labor government. Its guiding principle seems to be: ‘why spend less when you can spend more’. Monies are wasted left, right and centre.

Evidently, the vast Pride Centre in St. Kilda – I’m not sure why there is even one built by taxpayers – is in all sorts of financial troubles. The completely forgettable current Treasurer Colin Brooks (hint: this could be a good trivia night question) made the astonishing claim that the Victorian public would be happy to see the Pride Centre’s $6-million debt forgiven.

‘The Pride Centre is an important part of our community and our support of the LGBTIQA+ community, gender-diverse community here in Victoria. So, we really do support it, and we support the decision that’s been made to provide it with some financial security into the future.’ Yeah, right, Colin.

But this is small beer compared with the astonishing waste of taxpayer money on the Victorian Treaty. Since 2016, it is estimated that nearly $800 million has been spent on the Treaty and related activities.

This financial year alone, it is expected that $100 million will be expended. The members of the Treaty Authority are paid around $380,000 per year. It is estimated that only 5,000 eligible voters participated in this year’s poll for the First People’s Assembly, at a cost of over $70 million.

It’s really one of the biggest gravy trains in town with only insiders – there is a small group of well-connected families who understand the political process – reaping any benefit. The fact that most Victorians voted against the federal Voice referendum in 2023 didn’t make the slightest impact on the thinking of Victorian Labor.

Thankfully, the leader of the Liberals in Victoria, Jess Wilson, has pledged to abolish the Treaty within 100 days of coming to office. Unsurprisingly, a lot of the spending is guaranteed under legislation so she will really have to get a move on to make sure she keeps this promise.

Talking about gravy trains, the Suburban Rail Loop is the most pointless and egregious project ever devised by a sitting government to placate its union mates.

The first stage is currently under construction, from Box Hill to Cheltenham – two suburbs between which virtually no one travels. The idea is to create an orbital train loop around the edge of the metropolitan area, which then connects with the rail link to the airport. There has been no endorsement of the project from any infrastructure authority or expert in the field.

The cost of this first stage is put at the mid-$30 billion, with a third of that to be financed by so-called ‘value capture’. No one thinks there will be any value to capture, so that’s an immediate enormous fiscal hole.  The current Victorian government is also planning on further financial contributions from the Albanese government – some billions have already been handed over.

The response of Jess Wilson to the future of the Suburban Rail Loop has been less than convincing. She goes on about needing to see the contracts. Here’s my advice: it is all sunk cost; cease the project immediately; break the contracts and negotiate exit deals with the contractors who don’t want to get offside with a state government which may offer work in the future.

As for the revelation that state bureaucrats were leant on by ministers to show the Sunshine Railway Station as the preferred route for the airport rail link, the mind boggles. Who wants to go way out west to reach the airport when the most direct link is essentially north of the city? But when politics intrudes, this is what happens.

The most depressing aspect of this revelation is that the integrity and competence of the Victorian public service is completely shot. There was a time when there were some excellent public servants in Victoria – even in the Bracks/Brumby era. Not anymore.

The fact that public servants hid a substantial misuse of a Covid-era grant – it was claimed by ineligible Australian Business Number holders who then sought backdated registration for GST – tells us a great deal.  No one has taken the fall, and the politicians are running around claiming they were not told.

There is no way that this bungling pretence of a government should be re-elected; the public seems to get this point at least.  But the challenge for Jess is immense and she is inclined to controversy-avoidance as the way to power. She would be well advised to promise very little in the way of additional spending while sticking to her plans to slash spending in key areas.

It’s a long way back to any sustained improvement to the state’s fiscal position. Indeed, she is only promising that a cash budget surplus will be delivered in 2032, well into her second term in office. Even then, the figures look tight. She needs to make Victoria a more competitive place in which to do business, and this will involve some reduction in taxes, including land tax.

There are also some very substantial challenges in relation to the energy system, with the Yallourn coal-fired station due for closure in 2028. Certain steps taken recently in connection with the mine at that site suggests that this will happen. The utterly inept former state energy minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, has left a disaster waiting to happen.

So Speccie readers, spare a thought for put-upon Victorians. But beware, the same fate could befall you if great care is not taken. Barmy politicians consumed by fashionable woke ideas of what government should do, ‘assisted’ by unqualified, politicised public servants, will lead all states down the same path. The sign says: wrong way, go back. It’s good advice.