Labor policy record

Labor’s pitch is relief now, on a clock. The toll cap runs a year, the fare cap two, and the land tax cut arrives in steps to 2033. Underneath sit a $1.5bn hospital plan with no timetable and 1,500 police with no published cost. If you rent, there is nothing here for you.

Ben Carroll has been Premier since 28 July 2026, when he replaced Jacinda Allan. The election is on 28 November. Labor holds 56 of 88 Assembly seats and 15 of 40 in the Council, and is defending them with a campaign that offers help with bills rather than new programs.

This page is the record as it stands on 29 October 2026. It sets out what Labor has promised in its own words, with the costing where one has been published and a plain note where none has. Caretaker begins on 3 November, so what appears here is close to final.

Help with bills, most of it temporary

Three measures make up the cost-of-living offer, and all three were announced in October. The first is a $30 weekly cap on tolls from 1 January 2027 for one year, claimed back each quarter through Service Victoria, capped at $350 a week or $5,000 for the year, and covering CityLink, EastLink and the West Gate Tunnel. Labor costed it at $191 million¹ .

The second is a $30 weekly cap on public transport fares, $15 for concession, for two years from 1 January 2027, when the current half-price fares expire. Labor puts that at $206 million² .

The third reverses a 2023 change to land tax. The tax-free threshold fell from $300,000 to $50,000 three years ago; Labor would lift it back in $25,000 steps over six years from 2027–28, reaching $300,000 in 2033–34. It says that removes more than 250,000 people from land tax and saves them up to $975 a year, at a cost of $230 million over five years³ .

The three come to roughly $627 million. The Roads Minister, Paul Hamer, is candid about the toll cap: “A measure like this isn’t sustainable long-term – but it’s needed in the short-term”¹ .

The measures already running are inherited Budget items, and one has expired. A 20% vehicle registration rebate worth $759 million applied to vehicles registered in 2025–26, and its application window closed on 31 August 2026. No commitment to repeat it appears in Labor’s releases or its plan page⁴page⁵ .

Hospitals: the largest promise, and the least dated

The Slash ED Wait Times plan, launched on 25 October, is the biggest single commitment of the campaign. It would expand 12 emergency departments by an average of 25%, hire 1,500 health workers including 750 nurses, and add 250 beds, for $1.5 billion. Labor says it would cut waiting times by up to 20% and treat 210,000 more patients a year⁶ .

The plan carries no delivery timetable. Most of the beds open next year, and the Premier has not said when the rest of the policy would be complete⁷ .

• $230 million for 10 walk-in public dental clinics treating more than 100,000 people a year, plus $12.9 million for the workforce⁸ .
• $53.6 million to raise regional patient travel reimbursements from 21 to 35 cents a kilometre and lift the accommodation subsidy to $125 a night⁹ .
• $132 million over four years for 500 graduate nurses¹⁰ .
• $30 million over four years to remove out-of-pocket costs for abortion under 16 weeks, alongside a longer medical abortion window¹¹ .

Police numbers, with no price on them

Labor promises 1,500 more police, bringing the force to 17,020 sworn officers, a second permanent training academy at Wyndham, and fast-tracked entry for defence veterans and protective services officers¹² . It also promises Jack’s Law, allowing police to scan for knives with hand-held wands anywhere in public without declaring a search area, with 1,200 new wands¹³ .

Neither has a published cost. An independent policing monitor records “Cost published: Not published” for Labor, against $565 million over four years for the Coalition’s larger 3,000-officer plan. That asymmetry matters in a campaign where Labor attacks the Coalition’s fiscal credibility.

Separately, Labor legislated a tougher bail regime in March 2026 and has promised a maximum of life for rape and a 30-year standard sentence for partner murder¹⁴ . Much of what was once a Coalition argument is now government law: the ABC notes Labor legislated Jack’s Law and bail changes the previous government had avoided¹⁵ .

Tax and budget

Cost-of-living measures Labor is campaigning on
Measure | Value | Cost | Ends
Toll cap | $30 a week | $191m | 31 Dec 2027
Fare cap | $30 a week ($15 concession) | $206m | 31 Dec 2028
Land tax threshold | $50,000 to $300,000 in steps | $230m over 5 years | Phased to 2033–34¹2033–34²2033–34³

The Treasurer, Colin Brooks, says the Budget will stay in surplus across the forward estimates, and that net debt at the end of them will be lower than the 2026–27 Budget projected¹⁶ . The government also offers a three-year stamp duty moratorium for discretionary trusts restructuring because of Commonwealth tax changes, with legislation to be drafted in the new year.

A claim rather than a policy: almost every Labor release carries a version of the “$40 billion cuts” attack, which says a Liberal–One Nation government would cut $40 billion and lose 31,700 frontline jobs. The figure comes from Australia Institute modelling of the Coalition’s hiring freeze, not from a Parliamentary Budget Office costing of a published opposition policy.

Housing: supply for buyers, nothing new for renters

Labor would build 25,600 homes reserved for first home buyers in more than 20 locations, sold at market price rather than subsidised, for $499 million including infrastructure, with the first homes expected in 2027¹⁷ . It would also review the Absentee Owner Surcharge and foreign purchaser duty, and exempt developments meeting certain criteria from the surcharge during construction¹⁸ .

There is no new rental policy. No rent cap, no new renter support, and no addition to social housing construction beyond the $860 million Social Housing Growth Fund already in the Budget. Labor’s record is its existing reforms, including the application fee ban and protections against excessive increases.

Transport: the rail loop continues, smaller

Tunnelling on the Suburban Rail Loop East from Cheltenham to Box Hill continues. Carroll announced about $1 billion of “unnecessary additions” cut — overpasses, walkways, car parks, community grants — and said total estimated investment falls from $34.5 billion to $33.3 billion, with a further $1 billion to be found through an independent review. No new contracts would be signed before that review reports¹⁹ .

The saving is contested. The Victorian Auditor-General found the axed interchanges and the Glen Waverley car park were never counted in the $34.6 billion total, and that only $104 million of $1.7 billion in interchange costs had been included²⁰ .

Labor would also abolish the 1% “rail improvement charge” it had been adding to annual fare increases since January 2025, which the Auditor-General revealed on 26 August. It would have raised about $8 billion to 2062 and had raised about $6.5 million by the time it was found²⁰ .

On the airport line, the $12 billion joint commitment with the Commonwealth reaches a new Keilor East station in 2031, with the Sunshine superhub complete in 2030. No date has been given for trains reaching the airport itself; that stage remains under study²¹ .

For the west, Melton electrification has $152.7 million for development works only, committed in May 2026 under the previous Premier, with construction funding uncommitted²² . The Upfield duplication gets $80 million for design and approvals, with construction expected by 2033 and no funding committed; eight level crossings on the corridor are deferred, saving $686 million²³ .

Roads get $893 million for a second tranche of 25 local upgrades, on top of 25 announced earlier, which Labor puts at $1.4 billion for the package, alongside a promise to fix 500,000 potholes²⁴ .

Energy: the targets stay, and so does the gas

Labor defends the legislated targets it inherited: 65% renewable electricity by 2030 and 95% by 2035, offshore wind of at least 2GW by 2032, and emissions cuts of 45–50% on 2005 levels by 2030 with net zero by 2045.

It has also approved new gas. The Golden Beach project was approved in the week before 28 October at about $1 billion, lifting storage capacity by around 70%, and a production licence was issued to restart the Patricia-Baleen fields off Gippsland, for up to 15 petajoules over its life²⁵ . Symes: “We know gas supplies are declining. That’s why we’re securing the gas we have and backing new projects to bring down bills.”

The energy jobs plan of 24 June promises 68,000 jobs by 2040 and more than $18 billion in regional wages, with a State Electricity Commission apprenticeship academy training 2,000 electrical tradespeople over four years²⁶ .

None of this is prominent in the campaign. Renew Economy notes the government is leaning on a successful portfolio but pushed the announcements out “in a rush” before caretaker²⁷ .

The levy Labor would keep

The clearest difference between the two major parties is a tax Labor does not propose to touch. The Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund replaced the Fire Services Property Levy in July 2025. The Coalition would scrap it and restore the levy; Labor would keep it, freeze its variable rates, and retain the volunteer rebate²⁸ .

More than $2.4 billion is going to emergency services in 2026–27, of which $1.6 billion comes from the fund. On top of that comes $167 million for 150 new fire trucks by 2030, built in Victoria²⁹ .

Treaty, integrity and the regions

Labor would keep the Statewide Treaty Act 2025 and support Gellung Warl, which began operating on 1 May 2026 and houses the First Peoples’ Assembly, an accountability mechanism and a truth-telling process. No new Treaty spending was announced during the campaign. Carroll: “I’m proud to be a member of the party of Treaty – which is a pathway for a better future for all Victorians”³⁰ .

Carroll’s first act as Premier was to call a Royal Commission into the construction sector, led by former South Australian Chief Justice Chris Kourakis, funded at up to $50 million and asked to report within 12 months³¹ . The IBAC “follow the money” powers were announced under Allan in June 2026 and legislated in the final sitting days before prorogation³² .

For the regions, Royalties for the Regions would put 100% of mineral royalties — coal, gold and critical minerals — into a fund for regional schools, hospitals and roads, forecast at more than $500 million over four years³³ . A further $20 million goes towards an antimony processing facility in northern Victoria³⁴ .

What Labor has not published

These are silences in the record as it stands, not gaps in the research. Each was checked against Labor’s releases and its plan page.

• Any rental policy for the 2026 campaign, including a rent cap or new renter support.
• A cost for the 1,500 police, Jack’s Law, the Wyndham academy, the school cleaners transition or the four-year community funding agreements.
• Construction funding for Melton electrification, or any date for trains reaching Melbourne Airport.
• A housing target for the next term, or any population or decentralisation policy.
• A commitment to repeat the 20% vehicle registration rebate in 2027.
• Positions on gambling reform, drug reform, assisted dying or local government reform.

How this compares

The Coalition would scrap the emergency services fund, repeal Treaty within 100 days, cancel VNI West and reopen gas exploration. One Nation goes further on all four and would return the age of criminal responsibility to 10. The Greens would freeze rents for two years and cap them after that. Victorian Socialists would cut rents by 25% and freeze them for five years.

The pages for those parties set out their records in the same form, and the issue notes take the same evidence by topic instead of by party.

Linked notes

https://terrain.pub/notes/cost-of-living-and-energy-prices

https://terrain.pub/notes/health-and-ambulance-response-times

https://terrain.pub/notes/statewide-treaty