Victoria is growing fast, as more and more people choose to call our state home. While that brings economic benefits, it also puts pressure on Melbourne’s suburbs.

We need to make sure our strong growth doesn’t make life in Melbourne harder – harder to travel, or access good services, or to get a job.

Building now for a better future

Our state is growing. And with this growth comes demand for services and pressure on our infrastructure. That’s why we’re building the big projects our state needs – and using local workers and products as we build.

Continuing our big build

Over the past three budgets, the Government began the biggest rebuild of Melbourne’s road and rail network in our history. This is creating tens of thousands of jobs, and modernising our transport network to meet the needs of a growing city.

These investments include:

• building Metro Tunnel to untangle the rail network
• extending the South Morang line to Mernda
•  removing 50 dangerous and congested level crossings across Melbourne
• funding road projects including the West Gate Tunnel, the Monash Freeway and the CityLink Tullamarine Freeway, and upgrades to the M80 Ring Road

The services that matter

Health

The Government is also investing $619 million in suburban hospitals, including upgrades for the Alfred Hospital, construction of the Victorian Heart Hospital and Sunshine Hospital’s emergency department expansion.

Read more about the Budget investment in health.

Education

The Victorian Budget 2018/19 provides $353 million to build and plan 28 new schools, including funding to build 12 new schools, 7 additional stages for schools set to open in 2019, and planning, design and early works for 9 new schools.

At the same time we’re upgrading more than 134 existing schools across our state to make sure every child gets a great education.

These projects will create thousands of jobs across Melbourne’s suburbs, and ensure that as our city grows, Victorians have the services they need, closer to home.

The right skills for the job

All this work – building roads and rail, opening new schools and upgrading hospitals – means that skilled workers are in demand.

More than ever, the skills we need to build our state are learned at TAFE – and with good quality training, young Victorians will be first in line for these new jobs.

The cost of TAFE should never stop kids from getting the skills they need – that’s why this Budget will transform Victoria’s skills and training sector by investing:

• $304 million to provide new TAFE places to train more Victorians
• $172 million to make training at TAFE free for priority courses—commencing 1 January 2019
• $109 million to overhaul careers education in secondary schools so students can get expert advice earlier to help them to make the right choices
• $49.8 million to improve vocational education by giving more students the opportunity to get a head start on their apprenticeship or traineeship at school and finish fully qualified and ready to work with our new Head Startapprenticeship and traineeship scheme in secondary schools
• $43.8 million to modernise apprenticeships with new training material, independent final assessments and to bring back trade papers to recognise qualifications
• $172 million to make training at TAFE free for priority courses — commencing 1 January 2019