New Victorian Opposition Leader Jess Wilson has pledged that a future Coalition government would not cut frontline services as it works to repair the state budget, while urging Premier Jacinta Allan to join her in creating a bipartisan commission to address Victoria’s soaring debt.
Delivering her first major speech as Liberal leader to the Committee for Economic Development on Tuesday, Wilson warned that Victoria’s net debt — forecast to reach $194 billion by 2028–29 — and the rising cost of servicing it had become an “existential threat” to the state’s economic stability.
“Today I provide my essential services guarantee: there will be no reductions to frontline services under a Liberal government,” Wilson said. “We don’t want to fix the budget for its own sake. We want to fix it because Victorians rely on essential services, and we want to strengthen those services, not diminish them.”
However, Treasurer Jaclyn Symes swiftly rejected Wilson’s proposal for a bipartisan Victorian Commission for Fiscal Responsibility — a body that would include equal numbers of former Labor and Coalition treasurers and deliver recommendations before next year’s state budget.
In a letter to Allan earlier on Tuesday, Wilson said Victoria urgently needed a plan to rein in debt and that she was willing to set aside partisan differences. She declined to commit to keeping the commission if the Coalition wins the 2026 election, arguing that the financial situation was too urgent to wait.
Symes dismissed the idea as the “Liberals’ cuts commission”, arguing that Labor would not join a body with former Liberal treasurers who had previously cut services.
“We will not join their frontline cuts squad,” Symes said. “We will not be part of cutting schools, cutting TAFE, cutting hospitals, or cutting free fruit Friday — which is what the last Liberal cuts commission delivered. We stand with people, not cuts.”
Labor has intensified its attack ads on Wilson, warning that a Coalition government would slash services to bring the budget under control. The Allan government has also accused the Liberals of creating a multibillion-dollar black hole by maintaining a commitment to cut five taxes.
The Liberals estimate the cost of their tax policies at $5 billion over four years, while Labor claims the figure is more than double — around $11 billion.
