Latest news with #Baillieu-era
Sydney Morning Herald
20-05-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Symes' budget baby steps no match for her fast spending
When Jaclyn Symes was sworn in as Victorian treasurer, she signalled the state's finances were under new management. To the consternation of the Community and Public Sector Union, she brought in a Baillieu-era public service chief, Helen Silver, to find ways to shrink a bloated public service. To the welcome surprise of people long concerned by the opaque methods used to account for the expenditure of public money in Victoria, she promised to have a hard look at how things were being done inside her own department. In her plain speaking, born-in-Benalla way, Symes sounded serious about improving Victoria's budget processes and fiscal position. When it came to delivering her first budget, Victoria's new treasurer reverted to type. Loading Gifted an unexpected GST windfall in March, she spent the lot before her budget made it to the printers. The extra $3.7 billion barely lasted two months in her hands. Symes took over responsibility for the state's coffers shortly after long-serving treasurer Tim Pallas handed down his final budget update last December. In the five months since then, enough extra dosh came in from federal government grants to leave the state's sagging bottom line $2 billion better off. Instead, the government found a way to spend all this and more, with $3.1 billion in new funding initiatives going to free public transport for kids, more beds in juvenile prisons, more money for school excursions, support for victims of family violence and farmers doing it tough.
The Age
20-05-2025
- Business
- The Age
Symes' budget baby steps no match for her fast spending
When Jaclyn Symes was sworn in as Victorian treasurer, she signalled the state's finances were under new management. To the consternation of the Community and Public Sector Union, she brought in a Baillieu-era public service chief, Helen Silver, to find ways to shrink a bloated public service. To the welcome surprise of people long concerned by the opaque methods used to account for the expenditure of public money in Victoria, she promised to have a hard look at how things were being done inside her own department. In her plain speaking, born-in-Benalla way, Symes sounded serious about improving Victoria's budget processes and fiscal position. When it came to delivering her first budget, Victoria's new treasurer reverted to type. Loading Gifted an unexpected GST windfall in March, she spent the lot before her budget made it to the printers. The extra $3.7 billion barely lasted two months in her hands. Symes took over responsibility for the state's coffers shortly after long-serving treasurer Tim Pallas handed down his final budget update last December. In the five months since then, enough extra dosh came in from federal government grants to leave the state's sagging bottom line $2 billion better off. Instead, the government found a way to spend all this and more, with $3.1 billion in new funding initiatives going to free public transport for kids, more beds in juvenile prisons, more money for school excursions, support for victims of family violence and farmers doing it tough.
