There was also a major investment in mental health, one year after the government committed almost $2 billion to family violence. The state's overburdened mental health sector will receive $705 million for facilities including 90 acute inpatient and 90 drug rehabilitation beds, more mental health support workers and new hospital outreach sites for people who have attempted suicide. Six new emergency department crisis hubs will also be created within existing hospital emergency departments at Monash, St Vincent’s, Royal Melbourne, Geelong, Sunshine and Frankston hospitals. The hubs will separate drug-addicted patients and those with serious mental health problems from others waiting in emergency departments. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video

Patients will be treated by a team of psychiatrists, mental health nurses and social workers, and can stay overnight. Businesses based in regional Victoria can also bank on tax relief, with the government cutting back country payroll taxes to half the metropolitan rate. The tax cut will apply to businesses based outside Melbourne who pay at least 85 per cent of their payroll tax to regional employees will be eligible for the lower rates. Treasury forecasts that about 4000 existing businesses in regional Victoria will benefit from the cut. Mr Pallas said Victoria was blessed with good economic circumstances but he insisted the government was preparing for the possibility of slower growth in years to come.

“Sometimes I can’t believe how well the Victorian economy is performing,” he said. Students enrolled in dozens of "priority" courses will also be given free access to TAFE training. The training sector will receive $172 million to make 30 TAFE and 18 pre-apprenticeship courses free in areas of skills shortages, including construction, engineering, concreting, plumbing, disability, agriculture, horticulture and nursing. The TAFE sector will get another $304 million for new classrooms and more than 30,000 additional places. Mr Pallas conceded the bumper investment in TAFE was in part a response to a skills shortage of the government’s own making, brought about by its mammoth infrastructure spree.

But the alternative was to sit back and let population growth overwhelm the state, he said. "It’s about making sure that we get the skills that the economy needs, the practical skills that the economy needs," Mr Pallas said, "and we need to shed ourselves of the view that there is only one path to excellence in the workforce – an academic one." The state school sector will gain a total of $1.25 billion, including $483 million for upgrades and repairs. There will be $353 million to plan and build new schools to cater for soaring demand in the public education system.

Victoria's opposition said it was clearly an election year budget, with money being splashed around in many directions, but that it was a missed opportunity to ease worsening cost-of-living pressures. "Compared to four years ago, cost of living is up, taxes are up, debt is up, the crime rate is up and there is nothing tangible in this budget to help families or households get ahead," Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said. Despite the record spend on infrastructure, Mr Guy said the budget contained "no clear plan to manage Melbourne’s out of control population growth". Many of the new schools and road upgrades are aimed at growth areas in marginal electorates.

The bumper budget has largely been funded by continued growth in revenue from land taxes and stamp duty, which are forecast to raise more than $10 billion in 2018-19. The 2018-19 financial year is expected to deliver a surplus of $1.4 billion with average annual surpluses of $2.5 billion over four years. Net debt has reached $19 billion, representing 4.6 per cent of gross state product, budget papers show. Many of its biggest investments had already been announced.

Several congested roads in Melbourne’s north and south-east will be expanded, at a cost of $2.2 billion, while $571 million will go to power and signalling upgrades for the Pakenham and Cranbourne rail lines. Five more trains will be built for the Metro system, at a cost of $103 million. Victoria’s embattled childcare system will get $225 million to hire 450 more child protection workers. In child services, almost $400 million will be spent to move young people out of residential units and into family and kinship care. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video And $690 million will go towards a new maximum-security prison in Lara.