Wednesday, 19 March 2025

Leader of the Opposition

Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (16:46): I rise to grieve for Victoria and for Victorians if they were ever to be led by a part-time Liberal opposition leader who prioritises holidays over community safety, a Leader of the Opposition who talks tough on crime but who is the first to bail for a holiday when the going gets tough, a Leader of the Opposition who talks tough in his party room over the December Christmas holiday break but then who is doing it tough on the deck of a windy cruise ship when it is time to unwrap the new bail laws and a Leader of the Opposition who simply has no plan, no vision and no depth. He is frankly out of his depth to be the leader of this great state. He is a Leader of the Opposition who is simply all talk, all show and all holidays but no action when it counts most and no action when it comes to community safety. The fact is the Leader of the Opposition simply does not have the right stuff to lead Victoria, and I grieve for all Victorians should we be unfortunate enough to ever be led by this part-time opposition leader. Because the fact is, while the Liberal leader was living it up on a cruise ship last week, this Victorian Labor government was announcing Australia’s strongest bail laws. That is a fact.

It was his Liberal and National colleagues who are grieving over their leader being missing in action when they needed him most. As set out in today’s Herald Sun, the opposition’s favourite news outlet, it has been reported that the opposition leader even failed to fully disclose his cruise ship holiday plans to shadow cabinet. A shadow cabinet source – I wonder who it is, by the way; will they rule themselves out as being the source? – said the opposition leader only told shadow cabinet that he had taken ‘planned leave to see his parents in Queensland’.

The source went on to say:

Today we read in your paper that he was on a four day cruise and more or less visited his parents on the way back to the airport.

There was no mention of a four day cruise at all.

It’s deceptive and selective at best. Not a good way to operate.

I quote a source from the opposition shadow cabinet, according to the Herald Sun.

As set out by Shannon Deery in yesterday’s Herald Sun:

Furious Liberal colleagues have slammed the Opposition Leader … for “an appalling lack of judgment”, dubbing it his “ScoMo moment” …

a quote from a colleague again.

The story reports that the opposition leader was on the Royal Caribbean showcase Quantum of the Seas sailing to Airlie Beach. This of course left the poor old member for Malvern, the former opposition leader and Shadow Attorney-General, to front up to lead the opposition’s response to the state’s bail reform, and I respect and commend him for that.

The fact is this version of events was not incorrect, because in the same Herald Sun article today, what did the Leader of the Opposition himself admit? This is what the Leader of the Opposition said:

Was I upfront about it? No, lesson learnt.

And he went on to say, and I quote:

I did go on a cruise. I can’t deny that … Now I’ve got to start to focus on what I’m supposed to do here in Victorian parliament.

Well, you would have thought that he would have been focusing on these important issues from day dot of being elected as the opposition leader way back in December.

But the other big mystery, the other big question I have as I grieve for Victorians about the opposition leader’s holiday and his approach to how he disclosed it or failed to disclose it is: why didn’t he tell his colleagues? And why didn’t he appoint an acting opposition leader during his leave of absence? The opposition have – and I have gone through the shadow cabinet ministry list – a Deputy Leader of the Coalition, who is the Leader of the Nationals, and they have got a Deputy Leader of the Opposition, who is the Liberal member for Nepean. So the opposition have two deputies to select as acting leaders, but the opposition leader chose none of them as the captain of his ship in his absence.

We know the member for Nepean would have been too busy sprucing it up at the Grand Prix – lapping it up at the Grand Prix – over the long weekend. But why not appoint the Leader of the Nationals as the acting coalition leader? He is more than capable, I would have thought, having been on PAEC, the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee, for so long, as he keeps reminding us all about. Good on him for doing so. Or why not appoint any one of the previously failed opposition leaders or opposition aspirants as acting leader? There is plenty of experience there. There is plenty of appetite there to take the job. As I said, you have the member for Malvern – he has effectively been the de facto opposition leader in the leader’s absence last week, as Shadow Attorney-General. You have got the member for Bulleen at the table there as well, as we keep reminding ourselves. He is also the Shadow Minister for Transition to Government, which was a job, mind you, he was supposed to do as opposition leader in 2014 and 2018. The prime job of any opposition leader is to transition the opposition from opposition to the government benches. He failed in 2014, he failed in 2018 and now he gets promoted, I would say, to the formal role of having to achieve that in 2026. Good luck.

There are plenty of other aspiring members there as well that could have fulfilled that role too: the aspiring member for Kew; the member for Brighton, who I would like to, I think, describe as the Frank Underwood of the 60th Victorian Parliament; and the member for Caulfield, who would have taken such thorough notes, especially audially, while he was acting leader. He would have reported word for word what happened in the opposition leader’s absence. And of course we have the member for Hawthorn, who quite easily could have stepped back into that role and probably should have, to be frank, after that performance, because just look at the words of the previous opposition leader, the member for Hawthorn. There is a really subtle but obvious dig at the current Leader of the Opposition in the papers today:

I didn’t get a chance to take … leave. I worked pretty hard but I’ll let Brad handle that.

Doesn’t that say it all? To his credit, the member for Hawthorn, I have got to say, worked bloody hard. For all the disagreements we had with him –

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Pascoe Vale, I remind you about the use of unparliamentary language.

Anthony CIANFLONE: Thank you, Speaker, for your guidance. The member for Hawthorn worked very hard. He worked very hard while he was opposition leader, when he was not being dragged through the Federal Court by his colleagues, with colleagues lining up to testify against him and the constant sniping and undermining and attacks, all to make his leadership totally untenable.

The member for Hawthorn and I, to be fair, do have some very fundamental philosophical differences. There is no doubt about that in terms of policy, the approach we take in terms of addressing the issues and pursuing the opportunities for this great state. But we do share an Italian cultural heritage, and we share a Calabrian cultural heritage as well, which we are both proud of. His work ethic is fantastic. I have seen him outside this place and inside this place. He is always working, and he is right – there he is. Here is the member for Hawthorn. The guy does not stop working. I can attest he has come out my way to many community events and he listens. He works with the community, and I have got to be fair to him: he shows up, he fronts up.

He did not take a holiday in the whole time he was opposition leader, not one holiday, yet 10 weeks into this job the current opposition leader was the first to fly the coop – just absolutely outrageous. And to be treated with such disdain, the member for Hawthorn – it is an absolute disgrace on the Liberal Party to treat a member of Italian heritage in particular in that fashion.

We have also heard from the member for Nepean, who is out there aspiring himself as I grieve for the state, as I grieve for what a Liberal opposition government would mean. We have got an opposition totally focused on itself, including the current deputy leader of the coalition or opposition. I am not sure which one he is, but he told the Herald Sun on 5 July 2024:

“I want to be premier, yes,” …

“I don’t sit here in this place wanting to be the next Jeff Kennett, or the next Robert Menzies or the next John Howard. I want to be the first Sam Groth and do things my way …

That is what he said. And the reality is the coalition party room is simply more divided than ever before. The reality is the opposition leader cannot even run his own party room. How can you trust him to lead this great state?

With the opposition leader so focused on managing all these various Liberal Party internals, and Frank Underwood over there too, how can he possibly be focused on making our community safer? Holiday time is over, and the Leader of the Opposition should get back to work asap and support the bail and knife reforms that we currently have before this house. That is why I grieve for this state, because if a Battin Liberal government were to be elected, it would be one that is totally focused on itself, with no plan for the future.

We do not have to look that far ahead to imagine what a Battin Liberal government actually would look like and do. When previously asked who his political inspirations were, he named who else but Jeff Kennett. On 6 August 2024 – just go look at the opposition leader’s Facebook – he described Jeff Kennett as a fearless leader. This is the same Jeff Kennett, by the way, let us remind ourselves here, who sacked record numbers of frontline public service staff and sold record amounts of public-owned assets and land. We should never forget that he closed 354 schools across this state, 12 of which were in my community, which I have previously named – Oak Park, Coburg, Newlands, Hadfield Primary, Hadfield High, Fawkner Technical, Fawkner North Primary, Glenroy High, Coburg Technical, East Coburg Primary, Merlynston Primary, East Coburg Primary. He closed every single one of those schools. This is the opposition leader of today’s political hero. Jeff Kennett is the same person who ripped $1 billion out of education. He sacked 8000 teachers. He sacked 3500 nurses. He sold off the SEC, and again, all in the name of progressing the so-called ‘Let’s move Victoria forward’ agenda.

The Shadow Cabinet Secretary, again, Joe McCracken, has already foreshadowed what will be happening in a future Liberal government. I will quote again:

We saw what Campbell Newman did in Queensland, he cut extremely, he probably had to, but he lasted for one term.

So I guess it’s a really difficult balancing act of how much do you cut, what do you cut, what services can you live without, what services can’t (you).

… it’s going to have to be, I suspect, a wholesale audit of what’s going on in government, where we can make efficiencies …

Those are the conversations I think we’re having first.

This is what Mr McCracken has said. And we know that is code for more cuts to schools, cuts to education, cuts to health and cuts to frontline public services.

In very stark contrast, our record speaks for itself. We have been a government committed to safe and secure well-paid jobs. Where is the opposition’s plan for well-paid jobs? Delivering the Education State – where is the opposition’s plan for education in this state? We are delivering the big transport infrastructure build, record investments in our health and hospital systems, improving community and sporting facilities, delivering on new social justice reforms around family violence, mental health, women and gender equality and community safety. It is the Liberal opposition’s approach to community safety that I particularly grieve about, because again, as the opposition leader was away on holidays we were moving those stronger bail laws. They need to get behind these reforms as soon as possible.

In addition to that, it is all the other measures that we have been progressing, which they have stood to the sidelines of. There is $4.5 billion to support Victoria Police, with more frontline police officers sworn in in Victoria than any other state, with 3600 additional officers since 2014, including 180 extra officers across my community of Merri-bek. Of course the stronger bail laws that have been introduced will specifically call out serious crimes, including home invasion and aggravated burglary as examples of offences that present unacceptable risks for community safety. We have introduced those stronger laws to crack down on organised crime, outlaw motorcycle gangs, unexplained wealth, the illicit tobacco trade, illegal and dangerous weapons such as machetes, and again I cite the reforms that are before the Parliament at the moment, which I again call on the opposition to support as a matter of priority. We have also worked to support victims of crime, and we have continued to invest in all the things that are about tackling root causes of crime.

The Big Housing Build – where is the Liberal’s policy when it comes to housing? You would never have seen a Liberal government turn around and announced a big housing build – never. It is not going to happen.

Free TAFE – 83 TAFE courses to help some of the most marginalised and disadvantaged community members. This is a party that closed TAFE. They closed at least one TAFE campus in my electorate on The Avenue and The Grove during their last term in office. When would you see a party like that delivering on free TAFE and opening up new TAFEs? It would never happen.

We progressed those landmark royal commissions into family violence, mental health, historic sexual abuse, men’s behaviour change and respectful women and children’s programs. Again, when would you see a Liberal government ever pursue any of those policy reforms? They never have and they never will.

But do not just take my word for it. Again I draw the house’s attention to the article by James Campbell in the Herald Sun on 13 March 2025 – their favourite news outlet – where he says:

The Coalition’s sudden need to exhibit a timeline of Liberal machete based policy illuminates how little they’ve had to do with –

the government’s –

decision to change … bail laws.

The Leader of the Opposition’s staff:

… felt the need at Thursday’s press conference to hand out a timeline of all their … initiatives since 2023.

What makes this even sadder is the people being given this – widely spaced – two-page reminder are the only people in Australia whose job is to keep an eye on what the opposition gets up to.

…

The sudden need to impress upon us how busy they’ve been is no great shock.

Because during months and months in which the Herald Sun had been drawing attention to … the state’s bail laws, the alternative government of Victoria has refused to tell us what they would be doing if they were in power.

That is why it was a bit rich for the Shadow Attorney-General and the Shadow Minister for Police to:

complain in a press release on Wednesday that despite the announcement the government had yet to release the legislation …

Where’s the detail? Where are the bills? If the government was serious … they’d have legislation available today …

As James Campbell accurately puts, and I do not often quote him, but he says:

Sorry mate but where’s your homework?

Where is the homework of the Liberal opposition? Again, where is your homework on crime policy?

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Through the Chair.

Anthony CIANFLONE: Where is the homework on jobs policy? Where is the homework on education policy, health policy and social justice policy? We as a party have a 121-page platform document which is our policy platform. The Liberals have a one-pager. Even the Contiki tour has a brochure that is 21 pages long.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Pascoe Vale knows better than to use props.

Anthony CIANFLONE: It has all the fantastic European getaways, cruise holidays interstate, intrastate and overseas that the –

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Pascoe Vale knows well not to use props. His time has expired.