Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas refused to bite when repeatedly asked how much a potential lockdown would cost the state.
Liberal MP Richard Riordan on Thursday used the opening minutes of a Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearing to demand Mr Pallas reveal details about Victoria's imminent lockdown.
"You're going to announce a lockdown in one hour - have you got money in the budget for it?" Mr Riordan asked.
The parliamentary committee's deputy chair said he understood Victoria would be plunged into a seven-day lockdown and asked whether he would be able to buy a takeaway coffee on Friday.
"That is not a matter related to the budget papers," Mr Pallas replied.
"We have stood side by side with Victorians and Victorian businesses when the necessity of lockdowns has occurred."
Victoria's three-day lockdown in February this year cost the state about $1 billion, Mr Riordan said.
Liberal Democratic MP David Limbrick asked Mr Pallas whether his statement made last week that Victoria had a "renewed sense of freedom" had aged well.
"Nobody's pointing a finger of blame around how we seeded from South Australia quarantine the pandemic back into a community that was effectively free of the virus," Mr Pallas responded.
"Am I disappointed that where we were a week ago is not where we are today? Yes I am. But this dance will go on until we've got to a point where every Victorian (has been) vaccinated".
Mr Pallas said the government would follow health advice, but that he could not speak to the cost of a lockdown that had not yet been announced.
Meanwhile, the treasurer said 243,000 jobs had been created since September, roughly half the new jobs across the nation.
By comparison, Mr Pallas said, NSW had created 61,200 jobs in that time.
"The Victorian economy is the best-performing economy in the nation at the moment," Mr Pallas said.
He added that the Victorian government was introducing "modest" and "targeted" tax reforms on high value land holdings and purchases.
This, Mr Pallas said, would ensure those who had "done well" during the pandemic would contribute their fair share to Victoria's economic recovery.
The introduction of a windfall gains tax from 2022 on rezoning decisions would ensure the community shared in windfall profits along with property developers, he said.
Victoria's payroll tax-free annual threshold is also set to increase to $700,000, up from $650,000 during the last financial year.
Mr Pallas also said roughly 50 per cent of all Victorians would experience mental health problems during their lifetime.
To address this, he said, the Victorian government had invested $3.8 billion in "transforming" mental health support.
"While we might think that the cost of fixing the system is too great, the cost of not fixing it is even greater," Mr Pallas said.
More than $167 million would be set aside for the continued roll-out of three-year-old kinder, the treasurer said, making it available for every local government area in Victoria.
Mr Pallas also said the Victorian government had removed 46 level crossings and was on track to meet its target of 50 level crossing removals by the end of 2022.
