Premier Daniel Andrews easily won Saturday's election following a surge to Labor in a swag of seats across the state, including marginal electorates held by the Liberals. In case you forget, or have lost track, here's a simple guide to the policies and promises made by Daniel Andrews.
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Transport and Infrastructure
Suburban rail The hyper-ambitious centrepiece of Labor’s:"front-loaded" policy platform was the 90-kilometre underground suburban rail loop around Melbourne, that might cost $50 billion and take decades to complete set the tone for its campaign. It's the type of slickly presented big vision transport policy that Labor believes is the key to delivering it a second term.
North East Link Labor’s big bit of bitumen is priced at $16.7 billion and, in keeping with the ‘large’ theme, would be the state’s mostest ever road project, finally completing the metro ring road, which, right now, is not actually a ring.
Twenty-five more level crossings removed The $6.6 billion sequel to Labor’s signature high-profile urban infrastructure policy from their 2014 election win shows Andrews’ team believes it backed a winner first time around and are undeterred by the pockets of protest against sky rail.
Health
Mental health The promised royal commission into mental health is aimed at helping ‘‘sons and daughters, mums and dads,’’ Labor reckons.
Flash new hospitals $700 million for upgrades to 11 Melbourne and regional hospitals, including Labor’s beloved Royal Children’s, most of them concentrated in growth areas around the city and the state.
Big dental The $396 million pledge to get the mobile dental clinics back on the road to state schools promises to save families $400 per child, and parents need not rock-up to the appointments.
Education
Free three-year-old kinder Labor’s focus on families, and the women in them, has been almost relentless during the campaign, and its $5 billion deliver a full 15 hours of three-year-old kinder, for every Victorian child is designed to catch the eyes of hundreds of thousands of mums and dads.
Free TAFE The $27 million for 8000 scholarships to study to early years educators follows on from the $700 million in this year’s budget to put lots of people through TAFE for, well, for nothing.
Flash new schools Labor has promised to spend $850 million on 45 schools with another 55 on the way later, all with kindergartens attached.
Energy/environment
Solar Victoria A promise to spend $1.3 billion putting solar rigs on the roofs of 600,000 homes across the state.
Renewable energy target of 50 per cent The ambitious VRET both bolstered Labor’s enviro cred on its Green left flank, drew attention to the lack of policy direction on carbon emissions by its conservative opponents at state and federal level, and made climate deniers lose their minds. Clever.
Bashing power companies Labor’s promise to ban cold-calling by power companies and fine them 250 grand for dodgy cut-offs was a bit populist, but it got the government good coverage that day.
Law and order
Domestic violence More action on the recommendations of the royal commission into family violence was calculated to be a winner with female voters, particularly those in the key 35 to 49 years demographic.
Child abuse Priests no longer be exempt from child abuse mandatory reporting laws.
More coppers and cop shops New police stations at Clyde North and Narre Warren and 96 more coppers from the Frankston region.
