Victoria’s finance minister has revealed that “millions” of taxpayer dollars are being spent on bronze plaques for politicians and hundreds of thousands have been spent on “expensive, extravagant artwork”.
The shocking revelations come as the state’s debt pile is forecast to hit almost $200bn in 2029-30 and Premier Ben Carroll commits to a new “no-frills” approach to spending taxpayer money.
As revealed in the Herald Sun on Friday, he has ordered ministers to cut all non-essential spending including on bronze plaques honouring politicians, rented pot plants for offices and government merchandise including stubby holders and T-shitrts.
Mr Carroll has also promised to shave $70m off the government’s huge spend on private consultants over the next four years.
On Friday morning, the government further revealed it would axe the state’s independent infrastructure body that advises on necessary city-shaping projects, Infrastructure Victoria.
The move comes as Mr Carroll distances himself from the state’s corruption-riddled Big Build agenda.
The new promises follow an explosive row over taxpayer-funded coffee and pot plants earlier this month, with millions of dollars approved for these items across government offices over the past decade.
Finance Minister Enver Erdogan sensationally revealed on Thursday that the state government had expected to spend “millions” on bronze plaques over the next four years.
The Herald Sun revealed earlier this year that taxpayer forked out $70,000 to replace bronze plaques at Metro Tunnel stations because the botched Jacinta Allan’s honorary title.
Earlier this month, the opposition also revealed the former Allan government had approved a $1.6m contract for taxpayer-funded offices for hired pot plants.
While the government claimed to have only spent $200,000 of the total amount, several other contracts also show hundreds of thousands of extra dollars have been splurged on pot plants over the past decade.
Another almost $600,000 was approved for premium coffee machines for WorkSafe offices.
Mr Erdogan said “hundreds of thousands” was also being spent on rented and purchased office artwork while taxpayer were also splurging on branded in-office merchandise.
“You’ll see as you walk into every government department agency there is a proliferation of merchandise from T-shirts to stubby holders … and we feel its not necessary,” he said.
“The last two weeks we’ve had some robust discussions about pot plants and other items, and we, the premier, has been very clear on his expectations with ministers and departments going forward,” he said.
“No more spending on office merchandise, no more spending on expensive extravagant artwork or pot plants and alike in the office environment.”
Revealing the government would also shut down Infrastructure Victoria, Mr Erdogan denied that the move was not because the Premier did not like the advice he was being given.
“We’re winding it up because, as you know, there’s the cycle of our infrastructure spend in Victoria, we are moderating spending going forward,” he said.
“A lot of the successful infrastructure projects are already completed or near completion.”
On Friday opposition spokesman for transport infrastructure Matthew Guy slammed the government’s move to bin Infrastructure Victoria.
“The Andrews government established Infrastructure Victoria. It’s their body. It was designed to give frank and fearless infrastructure advice, in their words, to take the politics out of infrastructure after they scrapped the East-West link, right? Now they’re abolishing it. What’s that tell us about their infrastructure agenda? Probably that it’s based on based on votes, not based on fact.”
He added that the opposition did not have the numbers to block legislation scrapping it but said after the election that would change.
Mr Carroll is also taking the axe $70m from the state’s mammoth spend on external consultants, with an eye-watering $146m spent on external advisers in the 2024-25 financial year.
The department of energy, environment and climate action was the biggest spender, dropping almost $90m on private advisers.
Mr Carroll said it was time to cut the waste as he pledged to rely more heavily on the public service instead of splurging big money to engage private companies.
“I respect your money,” he said.
“Our public servants are hardworking and capable.
“Let’s trust them more instead of relying on the Big Four.”
Mr Carroll said he wanted a no-frills system behind the scenes where ministers and their senior staff only tick off on essentials.
“Some of these steps won’t make or break the budget, but we should still ensure every dollar we spend is necessary,” he said.
Under the new plan, Mr Carroll has instructed ministers to cease new spending on non-essential items, including branded apparel and merchandise for internal staff use, and bronze plaques for politicians.
The government says there will be “sensible exemptions” to that rule that will allow consultants to be engaged where there is a “genuine need to deliver services or expertise”.
Since taking over from Jacinta Allan last month, Mr Carroll has sought to portray himself as more fiscally responsible.
He ramped up those efforts this week as he pledged to wipe $2bn from the $34.5bn Suburban Rail Loop East project.
And promised to axe an extra 140 senior public service jobs, saying the move would save taxpayers $100m over the next four years.
His savings pledges come as the state’s debt pile tracks towards almost $200bn by 2029-2030.