Managing our money badly or future-proofing the state: budget views

Check out the responses we got.

"I have no great expectations from the budget but I'm hoping for a lot more money for the hospitals, for starters, and more money for the roads around here. They're in a pretty awful state. Hopefully there are not too many cuts in services and things like that."

"We're Pommies. We left the UK 12 years ago and it's the best thing we ever did. We love it here in Bendigo, where we used to live, and Maryborough, where we live now. Our expectations of the state government at the moment are not terribly high. It's managing the budget badly. Dan overspent hugely, and the Victorian debt is massive. They're proposing a lot more taxes that will squeeze households. There needs to be more funding for health - we know hospital staff who are losing their jobs - and more support for business. The Commonwealth Games would've been of great benefit to regional Victoria and they left businesses hanging after cancelling them. They always says, 'We're building Victoria' but basically they're building for Melbourne. There needs to be more for regional Victoria. But they are redeveloping the Maryborough Hospital, which is great."

Chris McCormack

"They need to stop subsidising the renewables. The line is that the more renewables, the cheaper it is but actually the exact inverse is true. We used to have the cheapest electricity, now it's the most expensive because we don't have baseload power and gas-fired power, which we need when the sun isn't shining, is expensive. All the manufacturing businesses are shutting up shop or moving interstate or overseas because electricity is just unaffordable. If you want jobs and manufacturing, you need to get affordable electricity."

Carolyn Maher

"I think this government has tried to look to the future and spent funds trying to future-proof the state. Personally I think things like removing the level crossings in Melbourne are massive, and I'm a supporter of free kindergarten and the Bendigo Art Gallery [which received funding last year]. It's very difficult to see everything from everyone's point of view and I think it's hard to play the long game really. I think the opposition argue against everything without any solution; it's just knocking. But maybe we should all move to Finland!"