Wednesday, 16 October 2024

Opposition performance

Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (16:16): I grieve today for Victorians if the dysfunctional Liberal–Nationals opposition was ever to get in charge in Victoria. Goodness me, what have we seen recently? I know the member for Evelyn wanted to talk about potholes, but I think there is a huge amount of potholes that need to be filled in the Liberal leadership in our state. What an extraordinary time that we live in when we see, literally, the Liberal Party tearing itself apart when it should be an effective, united opposition holding the government to account, which is such an important segment of democracy. All they do at the moment is hold each other to account in backgrounding and in courtroom appearances the likes of which we have never seen before. We have not seen anything like this before. You would pitch this for a TV miniseries like The Killing Season. You would not get it up on that. You would not get it up on a range of other things.

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Mordialloc, ‘you’ is reflecting on the Chair. I ask you not to reflect on the Chair.

Tim RICHARDSON: Thank you, Speaker. I would not reflect on the Chair; the reflections are very much nestled with the Liberal and Nationals opposition. What we see is an extraordinary performance at the moment, where you have, literally, the Liberal opposition tearing itself apart. One could not put forward a more extraordinary TV series than by saying, ‘Look, we’re going to have a leadership battle that plays out in the court, plays out in the media, plays out in party rooms and plays out on backgrounding rather than focusing on the needs of Victorians each and every day.’ That is what is fundamental to the role of members of Parliament left, right and centre. Instead we see time and time again the Liberals focus on themselves rather than the interests of Victorians.

I grieve for Victorians if they are subjected to some of the damaging views and attitudes that those opposite have been playing out for many months now that demonise and impact people from the LGBTIQA+ communities, our treaty, people from our First Nations communities and a range of Victorians who rely on Labor governments to support working people. Do not take it from us. All you have to do is see some of the comments that have been put forward recently. They just show the damage and division. Just recently, two weeks ago – we do not know who backgrounded it – in the Herald Sun of 20 September we had:

“The party has no choice, it just cannot continue, it’s hugely upsetting, but that’s the truth,” said another senior Liberal MP who has … been regarded as a strong supporter of –

the member for Hawthorn –

… “All options are being considered.”

One has to sit there today and go, ‘Who was the person who was the once trusted person?’ It would not be the member for Nepean, would it? It would not be the member for Brighton. If the member for Brighton is a nightmare, I wonder what the dream is? You could not get a person with more tickets on themselves or more sure of themselves. The member for Brighton comes in here, comes forward using very interesting language about ‘nasty’ and ‘mean’ – he never said that to former Premier Andrews – and talks about that kind of language and that impact. Then you see some of the backgrounding that goes on. When you are more focused on yourselves, Victorians can never trust you to front up to the issues that they need addressed in their community. It goes back – you can see the comments in the first speech of the member for Hawthorn:

The motto I often recite in my mind, as a reminder, is this: politics is not about me, it is about you …

not you, Speaker, but ‘you’ in the quote, you as Victorians. The Leader of the Opposition has spent weeks down the road in Queen Street. He has not been anywhere near the Hawthorn electorate. He has not been anywhere near the community. For weeks and weeks, when Victorians rely on an opposition to be functional, to be asking the important questions, they have been missing in action. You just have to listen to the despair of the Leader of the Opposition in Canberra, who told them 12 ‍months ago to get their house in order before they come forward for a federal election – to get their house in order and front up on behalf of Victorians because there is an election to focus on.

But we see this time and time again, and we see some of the interjections from those opposite going through polls and about where polls are at. Let me remind them of where the member for Malvern was. He was up and about, sailing through in 2021 – he only had a popularity vote of about 11 per cent at that time, but we will put that to one side – and then bang, in comes the former member for Kew Tim Smith, who had some very interesting character reflections on the boys club and the old guard of the Liberal Party that once again blinds them to institutional reform and blinds them to acting on behalf of Victorians. What did former Premier Andrews say that rings true to this moment today? They are Liberals first and Victorians second. Each and every part of their policy development and engagement puts that forward.

This is the state of play at the moment in Victoria. We have really critical issues around service delivery, investing in health, investing in education and the expansion of public transport services, yet we are confronted with some of these issues. This is what happens when you have policy on the run. We had Tom Elliott’s program this morning on 3AW. I do not know how many times they have gone back to the east–west link. Goodness me. This is the third time. When they go back to the east–west link, it is normally about three or four months before the member for Bulleen comes back to being Leader of the Opposition. I am not someone who sees things in the stars or a bit of a reader of the tea leaves, but when the east–west link gets reheated like a horrible three-day-old spag bol microwave dinner, you know that is when the former Leader of the Opposition the member for Bulleen is up and about. You just see that he shaves down, he gets a bit more involved in question time, he gets a couple of bootings and then he is up and about and there will be a charge.

Let us make no mistake whatsoever that the only reason we do not have a new Leader of the Opposition in Victoria is that the five or six or maybe 30 candidates that all think they can be heroes were not able to get together to make a decision here. No-one needs to record a partyroom meeting to know how divided they are. No-one needs a secret recording to know that they are deeply divided in about three different camps, and you know that when they go back to the old party elders – the father of this house, as he is affectionately known, the member for Rowville. The member for Rowville was sounded out obviously as a former Treasurer who has served this state – the Honourable, of course. But it is getting bad. The member for Rowville is 1993 era. He might keep serving for another 30 ‍years, who knows? He keeps getting re-elected, but I would not say he is necessary for the next decade.

People are approaching out of desperation the member for Rowville to save the day, because of the deficiencies in leadership and strategic direction, and bring the Liberal Party together in unity – which this government has as a hallmark. We are a hungry, supportive and inclusive team, investing in health, investing in rail and delivering projects for all Victorians. That is what this functional team has been all about. That is why we get the majorities that we have and Victorians place their trust in us to keep delivering for them. It is why we have record investments in health and why we implemented the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System, while those opposite opposed a levy on mental health and wellbeing services and would cut that and scrap mental health levy funding, which they call a tax rather than an investment in Victoria’s mental health and wellbeing. That is what we would see. We would see scrappings like we saw of education funding, we would see TAFE on its knees again and we would see major road and rail projects come to a grinding halt.

You see, they do not have one big, comprehensive rail or road project other than the east–west link. Dare we remind Victorians about the intersection removal policy of 2018? I and my Frankston line colleagues would have loved to have been in shadow cabinet when they said, ‘We’re going to start removing intersections left, right and centre across metropolitan Melbourne.’ It was a $10 billion announcement that had one doorstop, and then you never saw it again. They have never talked about it again. In Mentone in my area, Balcombe Road–Nepean Highway–Warrigal Road was meant to be one of these intersection removals, and I was like, ‘What’s going to go in acquisitions?’ And left, right and centre –

A member interjected.

Tim RICHARDSON: Off-ramps, on-ramps. It was cooked up randomly and then never talked about ever again and has never seen the light of day. This is the kind of policy you get on the run. You go, ‘Oh, the east–west link was okay; reheat that.’ You go into a policy around treaty where you are supporting First Nations people, and then the Leader of the Opposition the member for Hawthorn does not even have the courage or the decency to contact First Nations people to detail his change in policy. At least the member for Kew showed the leadership to support First Nations people in our community and listen to them and support a vote on the Voice. We saw them once again talking out both sides of their mouth.

That is what the member for Hawthorn has done with his colleagues time and time again. Again, I am only observing public commentary by the Guardian; the Age; channels 9, 7 and 10; and the Herald Sun. Who is putting all that information and all those articles out there? The Liberal Party members of Parliament in this place. You do not need any better example than the Leader of the Nationals begging them just to pull out the cold shower. The Leader of the Nationals has never had so many grabs and so much gravitas than telling the Liberals to have a cold shower. I know the member for Gippsland South was put in the freezer when he said at the start of this parliamentary term, ‘The coalition agreement’s absolutely atrocious. We would be better just going out on our own. We’ve renewed our ranks.’ The member for Gippsland South looked a bit sad for little bit – he was clearly put in the Nationals’ freezer – but he said some truth there. They are completely and utterly dysfunctional. When you have got a coalition partner begging them to sort it out and you have got the leader of the federal opposition begging them to sort it out, you see just how dysfunctional they are.

How can Victorians ever have confidence and trust in a Liberal Party who do not even want to vote for their own leader? They do not even want to support their own leader in their community. That is what Victorians are fronting up to now. How can you have a coherent and consistent policy narrative when you cannot even trust that the things you say in shadow cabinet will not be recorded? That was an extraordinary moment. I have no idea how the Deputy Leader of the Liberals, the member for Caulfield, is still at the leadership table. Literally it was eight months between the recordings and the member for Hawthorn having a clue. That is the most egregious breach of trust of colleagues ever, and they know it. They know over there that this is such a dysfunctional place and environment after a decade of leadership changes, of challenges and of impacts. Over and over and over again we see that they are not fit even to govern the Liberal Party, let alone govern Victoria. That is what their challenge is in our state, with 107 weeks to the next campaign. If the people in the party room do not support the member for Hawthorn, then how can Victorians have trust and confidence? How can they have trust and confidence when a member for Western Victoria in the other place, when asked about 15 or 16 ‍times whether she supports the Leader of the Opposition, just blanks it and says, ‘Oh, it’s a nice day today. It’s a good day to be up and about in spring.’ You could not get a more undermining comment on this environment.

If only the basket case that is the Victorian Liberal Party were the only issue. The problem is that it undermines democracy across our region. We have seen when parties are more focused on themselves the impact that that has had on holding governments to account. I would grieve for Victorians if they were subjected to such dysfunction. Can you imagine around a cabinet table? I do not even know how shadow cabinet functions; I would have loved to have seen the address to the Nationals –

Emma Kealy interjected.

Tim RICHARDSON: Neither do you, member for Lowan. You do not know how cabinet functions. I know you have got leadership ambitions. I know both of you at the table have strong leadership ambitions –

The SPEAKER: Member for Mordialloc, through the Chair. Member for Lowan, your turn will come.

Tim RICHARDSON: I know that the member for Lowan has strong leadership ambitions, but the member for Lowan cannot front up in this environment and say this is a good environment to work in at the moment. You look at your coalition partners, and they have got more backgrounding and more discussions. Maybe have some guts, Nationals. Maybe front up and say, ‘No, no. We’re the dominant force now.’ The Nationals carry the load in this place. We see that. The part-timers in the Liberal Party front up half the time. It is absolutely astonishing just how little they do.

We suspect who the real contender is. I think we say it is the member for Berwick at the table. I know the member for Berwick will be on his phone and will not want to look up, but he has had a crack. He has had a crack before; he got within one vote. I will read that out again. There is this senior Liberal MP, member for Berwick, floating around that until now was regarded as a strong supporter of the member for Hawthorn. I know you had a struggle, falling just one vote short, but this article says that there is one up for grabs and they are senior. There cannot be too many because there are only about 30 of you and there are not too many that would be considered senior, so there is a really good chance if the member for Berwick could finally get some of the crew together. Maybe a puff piece about the member for Berwick’s version of ready to serve would be an opportunity. That could be an opportunity to really showcase, because we see at the moment more people backgrounding in the media than there are supporters of the member for Hawthorn. There are more people on the record for backgrounding; there are so many sources, it is not funny. They are lining up to background. If the member for Berwick could get his house in order, with maybe that one vote sitting out there who says it is all over, then the challenge would be up. But we grieve for Victorians if they are ever confronted with the divided Liberal–National opposition that we see here today in Victoria.