Wednesday, 14 August 2024

Leader of the Opposition

Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (17:54): I grieve today for the people of the electorate of Hawthorn and Victorians who were sold a dud by the Leader of the Opposition, who has vacated the field, and his values and what people were promised in fireside chats in the lead-up to the last state election: a progressive leader that was going to be Malcolm Turnbull like but is a Malcolm in the Middle dud. We are at the moment not far away from not the race that stops the nation but the case that stops the nation. We have got 800 hours until Oprah Winfrey would be saying, ‘Everyone gets a subpoena! You get a subpoena, you get a subpoena – every single person gets a subpoena!’ There are 21 witnesses from Moira Deeming in the other place and eight from the Leader of the Opposition, of which some are frontbench shadow cabinet members. I mean, if there was ever a time to settle your grievances, this would be the moment.

Brad Rowswell: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, the member for Mordialloc should know that if he is going to raise such claims against the Leader of the Opposition, that must be done by substantive motion, not in the form of a grievance debate. I would ask you to counsel the member on his feet.

Tim RICHARDSON: On the point of order, Acting Speaker, this is publicly on the record. There are no imputations made about whether there is guilt or innocence. The fact is people are being subpoenaed. That is publicly on the record. There are cases afoot. There is no reference to how those cases are playing out other than the fact that there are cases underway.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Edbrooke): Thank you, member for Mordialloc. I will rule on the point of order. There is no point of order.

Brad Rowswell: On a further point of order, Acting Speaker, I would ask you to pay careful attention to the member on his feet and what he is saying, as sub judice may be a consideration that he needs to take into account.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Edbrooke): On that point of order, I have reminded people of the principle of sub judice, and I do not believe the member for Mordialloc is anywhere near breaching that principle.

Tim RICHARDSON: That is the reality that we find ourselves in here – a Liberal Party so divided that they are going to take each other to court, a Liberal Party in so much turmoil that they are literally having fireside chats around who would be the best alternative leaders, a Liberal Party so divided that Shannon Deery literally does not have to write another story in the Herald Sun other than another leadership rumour and another pile-on and another background on the Leader of the Opposition and how he runs his show. When someone shows you their true self, when they reveal their true self, you believe them. When the people closest to you in your party cannot stand the sight of you – and we have got hundreds of hours of the most depressed looking people over there on that side who do not buy anything that the Leader of the Opposition puts forward – believe them.

The Hawthorn electorate will find that out in the time to come. We see an electorate where literally 772 people change their minds and the seat of Hawthorn changes hands. That was a teal vote that was 20 per cent, the Greens 11 per cent and the ALP 22 per cent. There are more progressives now in the seat of Hawthorn, and that is why the member for Hawthorn fronted up the nice middle-of-the-road centre-left vibes. ‘I’m for treaty. I’m here for climate action. I’m here for trust and integrity.’ Remember all those Raf Epstein chats? You know, ‘Get me on, I just want to have a little yarn. I’m just that small-l liberal that is not offensive at all.’

Wayne Farnham: On a point of order, Speaker, the member is using the word ‘you’ a lot, which is a reflection on the Chair.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Edbrooke): I remind the member that using the word ‘you’ is reflecting on the Chair.

Tim RICHARDSON: Jeez, the wet lettuce. You know the best defence is coming when they get you on a point like that. You know it is in full flight and you know it is hurting; that is when you get up.

Wayne Farnham: On a point of order, Speaker, he is defying your ruling.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Edbrooke): The member for Mordialloc may continue.

Tim RICHARDSON: ‘You know’, as a colloquial term of knowing, is not actually reflecting. I do not want to go to dictionary definitions of the word ‘you’, but that is not reflecting on the Chair.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Edbrooke): Through the Chair, please, member for Mordialloc. There is no point of order.

Tim RICHARDSON: We have a situation here where those opposite are literally on the court step in literally 800 hours time. The case that stops the nation. That is the position they are in. Let us see how we got to this. It goes back to actually the 58th Parliament when the member for Hawthorn got up for his maiden speech. He said:

As legislators I believe we must be able to put ourselves in the shoes of those we represent …

It is an honourable statement, a statement that is true of everyone in this place. But with a median age of 34 in Hawthorn, with 45.6 per cent of people in the seat of Hawthorn renting and people wanting progressive and inclusive policies, which have seen the establishment of the teal political movement, which had its epicentre in the Hawthorn electorate and went after the former Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, we have an example here of a Leader of the Opposition who is an absolute straw man in values and policy. We see someone who came forward and who was in support of treaty in the lead-up to the state election, who said he was for standing with First Nations peoples and abandoned that policy as quickly as he could. The Leader of the Opposition did not actually come out after the state election and change that, it was not until he was put forward after the Voice representation, after the vote, after it went through this Parliament on multiple occasions.

Even his own party members backgrounded him during March 2024 when they said:

… issues raised by MPs included –

the member for Hawthorn’s –

… lack of consultation, poor communication and bungled handling of major policy decisions …

such as the walk away from supporting the treaty with First Nations people. At least the member for Kew had the guts to come out and say she supports a Voice to Parliament, step up against the trend and show courage and conviction to represent her electorate and her people. It is a pity that across the neighbouring electorates there is an absolute gulf and deficit and no courage whatsoever to even front up to the First Peoples’ Assembly and show them the decency to say why it had changed. The Leader of the Opposition scurried away and said to media before the First Peoples’ Assembly –

Brad Rowswell: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, again, reflections on other members of this place such as the ones that the member for Mordialloc is currently making must only be made by substantive motion. I would ask you respectfully to counsel the member for Mordialloc, please.

Tim RICHARDSON: On the point of order, Acting Speaker, the member for Sandringham is the one that is trying to defend the Leader of the Opposition in points of order, but let us be clear: this is substantive debate and policy. I know they are trying to protect the record, but they are the facts that play out. This is substantive policy. If you want to protect against that, then you are really losing the plot.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Iwan Walters): I will rule on the point of order. There is no point of order, but I will encourage the member for Mordialloc to ensure that his comments do remain appropriate.

Tim RICHARDSON: Mind you, I have got a bit for the member for Sandringham about the hero Premier and Treasurer at his fundraiser a little while ago, Dom Perrottet – that great, sophisticated Liberal leader who was put up there as the next saviour. There was a bit of a bromance between our Premier and their Premier. I will get to a bit of that soon, because with some of Dom Perrottet’s comments it is really interesting that the member for Sandringham would get him along to a fundraiser, after what he said about cost escalations and major projects. We might just leave that to the back of the program for the member for Sandringham. With such a forward-thinking leader like Dom Perrottet, who talked about eastern seaboard contracts and governments under pressure with cost escalation and the need to push forward to get those projects done on behalf of their communities regardless of budget impacts, it is very curious that the aspiring Shadow Treasurer, which the member for Sandringham is, would have him at a fundraiser when on the record he talked about the impacts of debt and the power of investing in infrastructure that is of generational significance.

The Leader of the Opposition is all at sea on climate action. His is an electorate that wants to see investment in renewables. Thirty-four is the median age, as I said before. When you see the polling and the satisfaction surveys and the interest in renewable energy, when you see that this is the epicentre of the teal movement, you know they want to see action on climate change. It is what the Leader of the Opposition strongly put forward in his campaign for the seat of Hawthorn, decided by just 772 constituents. What has been the journey to that point? Not really backing renewables and then supporting the nuclear position of Peter Dutton federally. We see the huge impacts that this would have on costs, the bill escalations and the impact that this would have into the future. When you stand for nothing, no-one can support you. When you show your values up close to your electorate and to Victorians, they will not trust you. When you change just based on the ebbs and flows of the wind, like crossing live on a weather report, then people will not respect you into the future.

But let us just go through then the trust and integrity issues that we see right here and what we see of reflections going forward. Remember that maiden speech reference I made before – the second real statement that stands out for me is that the Leader of the Opposition said:

The motto I often recite in my mind, as a reminder –

and you know this would have been done in the mirror as a practice –

is this: politics is not about me –

it is about the people –

it is about you.

Well, there could not be a further statement from how the Leader of the Opposition carries himself in policy – abandoning treaty, abandoning meaningful climate action and then those in his party having the most dangerous reflections on him. It starts with the member for Polwarth, who innocently said, ‘He’s the best leader we have today’ – I mean, you are not meant to say the quiet bit out loud – or during that wonderful 7000-word –

Brad Rowswell: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, I was just wondering when the member for Mordialloc was going to move on to comments about me.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Iwan Walters): The member for Sandringham knows that is not a point of order.

Tim RICHARDSON: In Sandringham it is all about him! He has got the number one seed at the table – the absolute number one seed in Nepean. I tell you what, when the member for Nepean put on the Olympic suit the other day with the gold medal, yellow tie, I had goosebumps. I am going to say, I was a bit excited. I thought, ‘This is leadership. There’s gravitas, there’s power, there’s leadership here.’ Just ask him: in a recent Herald Sun piece the member for Nepean is ‘Ready to serve’. I would have loved to have seen the clips. We all get the clips. We got the clips. Our WhatsApp chat went off its chops; it was absolutely lit. You should have been in there, member for Nepean. There were 5000 ‍comments: ‘Was this sanctioned?’ Louise Staley, the former member for Ripon – you could imagine what Louise was thinking: ‘Oh my goodness. I’ve got to show John this.’ You know when you do the 4 am ‘Here are all the clips’? The fireside chat that the Leader of the Opposition had was maybe about 1500 words. The member for Nepean’s keeps going. You scroll; you have got to put the iPad on charge to keep going. It is just absolutely massive. But power to him, because he does have a bit of institutional strength. He has got the former Treasurer on board as his backer.

I do love some of the reflections that were put forward by the member for Nepean:

I have a vision of how I think Victoria should look. I just don’t know when that opportunity is going to present itself to be able to deliver that.

When you say you have got a vision and you have got the Leader of the Opposition there, the inverse of that is he does not have a vision. When you do not say, ‘The member for Hawthorn’s and my vision as a shadow cabinet minister is so grand and so amazing’, but you say, ‘I want to put forward my vision’, you are saying that your side does not have any vision.

I loved some of the family shots. It was a beautiful piece. Some of us here could not dream of column inches like that. I did like the honesty – the real, strong honesty that was put forward by Britt, the member for Nepean’s partner, who said:

… he is inherently loyal … to the … Liberal Party … for as long as that needs to be.

Now, that is a tennis reference, right? When you front up to that and you see that, you go, ‘The cat’s out of the bag. The member for Nepean’s on the charge.’ She said later on that when the time comes he will definitely put his hand up. He is only 36. Maybe when he is 37 he will have a crack, but he is absolutely up for the charge. It just shows that they have such a deficit on that side that they are literally puff-piecing themselves and trying to put themselves forward, opinion piece after opinion piece.

Then there is the massive amount of leaks. There is not a week that goes by that they are not leaking like a sieve. You have got Jeff Kennett. The former Premier has gone from ‘The trial of the century is a bad thing’ to ‘It’s going to be a good thing because we get to figure out who’s not being loyal and who’s not part of the team. We are.’ On 16 September I am literally going to go to the public gallery. I am going to be lining up with so much media there, just wanting to watch, just like Moira Deeming from the other place was in here watching over the chamber today. That sort of presence is going to be ratings galore, like we have not seen since Postcards. It is that kind of ratings bonanza that we have got ahead of us. So I grieve for the people of Victoria if they ever have to front up to the absolute charlatan that is the member for Hawthorn and Leader of the Opposition.

Question agreed to.