Ms GARRETT (Brunswick) — I find, members of this house, that it is always better if you are going to boast, if you are going to have a bubble bath in your own hubris, if you are going to light candles, put on the soft music and slow dance with yourself, to have something genuine to boast about. Otherwise, members of this house, it is more than a little awkward and a little embarrassing. That is what we have seen this morning from members of this government — a whole lot of awkwardness and an enormous amount of embarrassment. From the puff and nonsense we heard from the Deputy Premier, the half-truths and smokescreens, to the last speaker who spent 5 minutes explaining why this government did not spin while using analogies of engines and motor oil, this matter has been awkward and embarrassing in the extreme.
The second speaker for the government, the Minister for Local Government and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, obviously did not get the memo that this was a self-congratulatory love fest as she spent her time basically apologising for the disgraceful dog whistle that appeared on the front page of the Herald Sun in relation to the government’s decision to abandon a longstanding protocol on welcome to country. It was clear that she was ashamed, and so she should be.
In this awkward and embarrassing matter of public importance, this slow dance with itself, the government has served up self-congratulatory, insular and out-of-touch nonsense. I inform members opposite that no-one else in this state is cracking open the champagne or popping the streamers about the record of this government over the last six months. There are many reasons for that, not the least of which is that this government has repeatedly and flagrantly failed to deliver on the smokescreen of promises it presented to the people at the last election.
It is a litany of failure in that regard, from its promise to end the spin to its promise to deliver on key services for Victorians.
The current hallmark of this government is the number of reviews it has commissioned. Soon we will have an announcement about a review into the number of reviews. Before the ink was dry on the Governor’s signature, this government was clothing itself in hollow words and weasel speak. It was backtracking on commitments such as making our teachers the highest paid in Australia quicker than a case of champagne disappears at the 500 Club. It revealed itself to be a deeply conservative government determined to wind back the clock on rights and committed to removing protections for working families, the vulnerable and the disadvantaged in our community.
I will touch on a few reasons the people of this state are not joining in this government’s self-congratulatory soiree.
The core responsibility of any state government is delivery of and investment in education — proper education for our children to give them the best start in life — and access to quality of opportunity and education for all, yet what have we seen in the first six months of the Baillieu government? The Minister for Education has refused to rule out larger class sizes. We know that larger class sizes mean a lesser education for our children.
As I have already said, the coalition promised to make our teachers the highest paid in the nation, and where did that go? Out the back door like so many other promises. It has slashed capital funding for new and upgraded schools by approximately 50 per cent, making it the lowest spend in eight years. Most disturbing of all, this government has played politics with the education of our children. There is no funding for schools in the north and there is no funding for schools in the west, and in my own electorate the master plan for an upgrade of Brunswick Secondary College has been abandoned.
Every modern country and jurisdiction in the world has moved towards valuing our environment and acknowledging the need for action on climate change. What has there been from this self-congratulatory, out of touch mob on the environment? Let me name but a few things. There was a classic smokescreen performance prior to the election with a rubbery commitment to follow through with the 20 per cent reduction in emissions by 2020 made by the Premier and members opposite, but what has happened? We heard on the day of the federal budget an announcement that the closure of Hazelwood would be abandoned. There was no other announcement about how the 20 per cent reduction in emissions would be achieved. There was another self-congratulatory performance from the Minister for Energy and Resources in the house yesterday. He was laughing at his own jokes and celebrating very happily the fact that the dirtiest power station in Australia will be chugging away for many years to come under this government.
The hallmark environmental announcement was made by the Minister for Environment and Climate Change very early in the piece. It was about returning cattle to the national parks for grazing and calling them fuel reduction service providers. Of course there is no spin in this government! It was an outrageous decision, not based on science, that required federal intervention, but that is this government’s record on the environment. It is shameful: there has been no action, no commitment to targets and no vision in the budget, and the government has its head in the sand. The big polluters are coming to town under this government, and it should be absolutely ashamed. It was all noise prior to the election but there has been no delivery, and that is what this government is about.
Let us examine the investment in public transport, or should I say the lack of investment. For example, there were no new trams delivered in the budget, despite massive increases in tram patronage, particularly in my area and those areas around mine where people are crowded onto trams. They expected this government to step up to the plate and deliver what it said it would. Would members believe that it has not delivered, but here we are, six months into its term, listening to government members congratulating themselves on their outstanding performance?
Every government speaker today has failed to show why this matter of public importance was put before this house.
There is no funding for metropolitan grade separations and slashed funding for level crossing upgrades in regional Victoria. There are no new bus services, no new station staff at railway stations and significant cuts to the premium station program. Most of all, most concerning, and it has been touched upon by speakers on this side of the house, is the absolute debacle and blow-out of the flagship promise around protective services officers (PSOs). It has blown out by tens of millions of dollars.
The policy was completely ill-thought out prior to the election, and it has been shown to be completely mismanaged by the current government, which still seems to crow about this policy when we know that we will not even be getting 10 per cent of PSOs on our stations in the first year and that none of those PSOs will be on stations where there is the most need for extra security because of assault rates. There will be no PSOs on those stations, which is an embarrassment for this government that has seen fit, despite its flagship promise going so badly, to nonetheless congratulate itself after six months. So quickly this conservative government has reverted to type. How quickly it has forgotten the commitments it made.
Let us go through some of the attacks that have been made on working families: the backdown on higher pay for community sector workers; the backdown on teachers’ pay; the debacle that is the enterprise bargaining agreement negotiations with police; the proposal for wage increases below inflation for public sector workers; the disgraceful performance in relation to the changes to Easter trading, forcing workers to work on Easter Sunday without penalty rates of pay; the attempt to force 90-minute minimum shifts of work on young people; and the axing of JobWatch, which was a lifeline for people to find out about their rights and act on those rights in the workplace in relation to unfair dismissal, harassment, bullying and wage-related issues, to name just a few.
And this very week we have seen at its heart the conservative nature of this government play out with the Equal Opportunity Bill that is being rushed so hastily through this house.
We have seen for the first time in a decade a government that is determined to wind back the clock in relation to discrimination legislation. Instead of increasing protections against discrimination, this government is decreasing them. It should be extremely ashamed.
The government has squashed opposition scrutiny of government, despite saying it would be open and transparent. When it came to government it certainly engaged in the most extraordinary spin — hollow words, weasel words — despite having promised that that was something it would not do. It has made announcements based on the postcode of electorates, not on need. I again point out how widely the north and the west have missed out on much-needed funding for education, health and infrastructure, including transport infrastructure.
In my own electorate there has been the failure to provide funding for the Brunswick Secondary College and the failure to fund community health.
Despite the fact that these are the fastest growing regions in Australia, they have been forgotten because this is a government that is not interested in governing for all Victorians. In fact it is not interested in delivering on its own promises. Half the time it does not know what its own promises are or should have been, and when it does attempt to deliver on them it is an unqualified mess — need I mention protective services officers and cattle grazing again? Yes, I do.
We stand here today debating one of the great matters of public importance of all time! Six months in, this government has seen fit, having hardly been out talking about its budget, a budget that fails to have a vision for this state and fails to mention jobs — for the first time in a decade a Victorian budget does not mention the word ‘jobs’ — to back away from its own budget. It has clothed itself in hubris.
There were promises that this would be a government that was open, transparent and free from spin, delivering for all Victorians — fail, fail, fail, fail on every count. This is an embarrassing matter of public importance (MPI). The performances on the other side of the house were awkward and embarrassing and revealed that this government does not even believe it has begun to deliver on any promises and is questioning the validity of those promises to start with.
I grieve for the people of Victoria that this is the best this government can serve up. It is a self-congratulatory proposal, filled with hollowness — –
Mr R. Smith interjected.
Ms GARRETT — I am so glad you are interested in what I am saying, Minister, because you — –
The DEPUTY SPEAKER — Order! Comments are to be made through the Chair.
Honourable members interjecting.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER — Order! Members will come to order! The member for Richmond and the Minister for the Environment and Climate Change will cease interjecting in that manner.
Ms GARRETT — The interjectors are showing more animation about my subject matter than they are showing about their commitment to delivering on their promises, and that is a shame.
What we have here today is an embarrassing MPI. We on the opposition side have highlighted a range of failures of this government to deliver on its own promises. How quickly it backtracked on them, how quickly it let the people of Victoria down, how quickly it showed its true conservative colours, how quickly it moved to wind back rights and protections, how quickly it moved to govern on the basis of postcode and not on the basis of need and how quickly Victorians have seen this government paralysed by inaction.
It is a government that is unable to make a decision and a government that is determined to wind back the clock and catapult us back into the past and to let down the people of Victoria.
(Hansard – 25 May 2011)
