Wednesday, 14 August 2024

Grievance debate

Government performance

John PESUTTO (Hawthorn – Leader of the Opposition) (16:09): I rise today to grieve for the people of Victoria, a people who are suffering at the hands of this incompetent, corrupt government that has no solutions but has created all of the challenges that the Victorian people face today – cost of living, cost blowouts, youth crime waves, flip-flopping on policy, impositions on Victorian households and businesses that they should not have to bear.

I grieve for the people of this state because we have a Premier who cannot lead, a Premier who does not have any direction for this state, a Premier who does not have a vision for this state. What we have under Premier Jacinta Allan is a Premier, a consummate subordinate, who has risen to this job without any vision of how this state should be led and how she can lead us out of the hole she has dug for this state, because let us remember Premier Jacinta Allan has been at the cabinet table for 10 years – here we go, butter-fingers.

The SPEAKER: I would prefer that insults were not thrown across the table at members.

Danny Pearson: On a point of order, Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition well knows that in this place correct titles are to be used. He should be referring to the Premier of Victoria by that title and by that title alone.

The SPEAKER: I remind members that this debate is about respect as much as anything, and I ask members to refer to members by their correct titles, which the Leader of the Opposition was doing. There is no point of order.

John PESUTTO: I note the minister’s objection to uttering the words ‘Jacinta Allan’ in this house. I do not know why he would take objection to that.

The SPEAKER: Order! It is out of order, and I ask you to refer to the Premier as the Premier.

John PESUTTO: That is what I was doing. We have a government that is incompetent, is corrupt and is sending Victoria down the tube. Business is leaving this state. Households are wilting under the pressure of cost-of-living increases that this state and this government have imposed on Victorians who do not deserve it.

I grieve for the people of this state because when confronted with the news she always knew about – that there were corruption, intimidation, kickbacks, blackmail and violence on taxpayer-funded worksites – when Nick McKenzie and other journalists shone a light on what we have all known for many years about this corruption and the blowouts on major projects, what did this Premier, Premier Jacinta Allan, do? A Premier who has overseen all of these major projects in this state – what did the Premier do? The Premier hid for three days. The Premier did not know what to do. The Premier did not know what to do because she knew about it. Did she have the courage to stand up, front the media, front the Victorian people and admit that she knew about it, admit that she did not know what to do about it? Then, when the Premier finally came out of hiding and spoke to the Victorian people, it was pathetic. It was not leadership. It was a Premier who was trying to demonstrate that she had solutions when there were none. What has the Premier done in the face of these most serious allegations – allegations that are not remote from the lives of Victorian households and businesses? The reality of these cost blowouts, which are affecting all Victorians – whether it is education, whether it is health, whether it is child protection, whether it is our justice system, whether it is roads that are riddled with potholes – is that Victorians are paying the price for this. And what did the Premier do? Rather than admit that this serious wrongdoing needed to be reckoned with in the form of a genuine inquiry, she has appointed Mr Greg Wilson to undertake a formal review.

Paul Mercurio interjected.

John PESUTTO: What is this? I object to that, Speaker. It is offensive material.

The SPEAKER: I ask the member who is holding the pamphlet to not display that pamphlet in the chamber.

John PESUTTO: This formal review by Mr Wilson that has been established by Premier Jacinta Allan –

Danny Pearson: On a point of order, Speaker, the forms of the house are well known. Members are to refer to other members in this place by their title. It should be the Premier, not in relation to the Premier’s first name or surname.

The SPEAKER: It is a convention of the house that members are referred to by their correct titles, not their names. I ask Leader of the Opposition to refer to the Premier as the Premier.

John PESUTTO: Okay. Thank you, Speaker. The Premier has appointed this formal review because the Premier knows it will lead nowhere. It will not uncover the awful truth about the blackmail and the kickbacks that Victorians are paying for.

A member interjected.

John PESUTTO: It is indeed a cover-up. This review will not look at allegations of criminal conduct; it simply will not touch them. It will not even refer allegations of criminal conduct. It will not entertain any information that comes to Mr Wilson about criminal conduct. Will it compel witnesses? Of course not – of course it is not going to compel witnesses. So is it any surprise that the Premier, who cannot be named in this house, said happily that she would appear before this review? Of course she would appear before this review, because she knows what the questions are going to be. She knows that she is not going to be seriously questioned about her role in this.

And let us understand what the Premier’s role in this was. The Premier at all times was the minister chiefly responsible for Victoria’s infrastructure program. She was the minister at the time and is now the Premier, who did squat about these allegations of serious misconduct and wrongdoing on these major projects, and she is the Premier now who has established this inquiry that will not compel one witness, will not look at any criminal conduct and will not have any public hearings. What sort of inquiry is that? We have public inquiries for things that are nowhere near as serious as this. This is criminal conduct occurring on taxpayer-funded sites, and the Premier thinks that the idea of leadership is simply to hold this inquiry, which makes the Coate inquiry look like a Star Chamber. Really. This is a joke. It is pathetic. It is not leadership, and no Victorian should believe that the truth will come out.

I grieve for the people of Victoria because of this financial mismanagement that we are seeing, with debt approaching $200 billion. Let us remember. We see figures floated around. What the ratings agencies actually look at are amounts of debt of this order: $184 billion this year and $224 billion in 2028 – that is if the forecasts hold. Our debt is the highest in the country. I want all Victorians to know that because of the Premier’s incompetence and mismanagement of this state and because Labor cannot manage money, this debt is putting upward pressure on inflation and it is putting upward pressure on mortgage rates. Victorians are paying higher mortgage rates thanks to the member for Bendigo East, the Premier, who cannot manage money.

What has this financial mismanagement resulted in? It involves interest of about $6.5 billion this year, going up to over $10 billion, and involves the highest taxes in the country and the highest cost of doing business in the country. It is no wonder businesses are fleeing. It is no wonder businesses are looking at investing elsewhere other than in this state. But what are the other consequences of this financial mismanagement? It is in areas like health, where we rely on vital services, that we see savage cuts. Do not believe last week’s charade of an announcement of money for health. After months of imposing savage cuts on these health services, many of which have already been passed on, and because of the government’s total mismanagement and the Premier’s critical role in that, they are insisting that health services like the Royal Children’s Hospital find $60 million of cuts this financial year – after the Premier turned up on Good Friday to hand over a $1 million cheque. It is unconscionable. When they come out and say that they are going to provide money to the health services but do not say where the money is coming from and do not say where the money is going, how can anybody believe a word this Premier says? The Premier lacks the leadership to guide our state out of the hole the Premier has dug for Victoria.

Today we had more of the truth come out, because ultimately the truth does catch up with any government. As much as this government has tried to run as fast as it can to stay in front of the truth, the truth will always prevail. The Treasurer Tim Pallas, the member for Werribee, came out today and said, effectively, that this $1.5 billion will be paid for in the form of either increased taxes or cuts to services. Understand that you cannot just do that by taxes, because $1.5 billion in one financial year is a very hefty imposition if you are going to rely solely on taxes. It is going to be a combination. It has to be a combination of increased taxes and cuts to services, and that is what will happen.

When we asked the Premier today to explain where these tax rises are going to come from and these savage cuts, whether they are in health or other service delivery areas, what did the Premier do? The Premier did what she does so well, and that is ignore the question and refuse to answer the question. But I make it known to this house, and I want to remind all Victorians: the reason we on the side of the house ask these questions is for the benefit of the Victorian people. We just want the truth, and the Premier will not provide the truth, just like she refused to answer basic questions last sitting week on her role in the CFMEU – blatantly refused. It is not the way our state ought to be governed.

What we are seeing increasingly is just a media strategy. There is no plan to guide our state, and the Premier is not up to the job of leading our state. We saw that last sitting week. Do not think that this Premier is different from her predecessor; her predecessor did the same thing. When there was panic last year under the previous Premier, they raced out a housing statement. It was a 30-odd page glossy document; half of it was just pictures. There was so little detail in it that the Treasurer then attended a breakfast a couple of weeks later to announce the tax measures. There was so little detail in it. Let us remember that it came only a few months after the budget in May last year, which said nothing about a housing statement. So we had the former Premier release a housing statement with nothing in it. It was a media strategy. Then last week, when it was clear that nothing was working and it was clear that we are building nearly 3000 less houses this year than we did last year, what did this Premier do? She did the same thing her predecessor did, because she was his understudy.

David Southwick interjected.

John PESUTTO: They held a summit, a housing summit. It was an ideas factory, as the member for Caulfield says: ‘Tell us what we should do.’ It is up there with President Jimmy Carter when he said malaise is affecting America: ‘Come and tell me how to lead our country.’ It is up there with Jimmy Carter. The ideas factory: ‘Tell us how to lead. Tell us what we should do to get us out of the mess we’ve dug Victoria into.’ And what did they do? When they held the summit, they did not even listen to the people they had invited along. They had their own walkout. But at least our walkout last sitting week was with a purpose; it was done on behalf of the Victorian people to send a message, and the people understood and appreciated it. This one was just a pure media strategy. So do not think that this Premier is different to the last one. It is the same show, it is the same fraud, it is the same circus, it is the same charade – just media stunt after media stunt, no real solution to anything.

Even today we have been questioning the Premier on crime. This Premier is a master at walking both sides of the streets, it seems, if she is a master of anything. She wants to claim credit for toughening the bail laws she weakened earlier in the year. I mean, it takes some skill and it take some hide to actually ruin the system and then try to take credit for fixing the mess. Well, it will not fix the mess. The Premier talks about victims in our justice system, yet the Premier’s own bill – which is different to the bill she passed in this house – in the other place actually denies victims of crime an opportunity to have a say on the release of violent offenders when they appear before the parole board. How can you be serious about putting community safety first when you are prepared to actually silence victims?

What I say to the Victorian people is: we do not need a one-party state. The Labor Party has been in office in Victoria for most of the last 25 years, and our state is worse for it. It is far worse for it. We are the laughing-stock of our country now. Once upon a time, before this government and the Labor government before it, we used to be lauded around Australia. We had global headquarters wanting to set up here, and we had a public service that was the best. This government has ruined it, and I say to the Victorian people: there is a better way. We will manage your taxes better, we will manage your finances better, we will put you first, not politics first, and we will govern with the integrity that this government lacks. We have already made commitments to that. I grieve for the Victorian people, but I say: do not lose hope; there is a better way, and it is coming.