Wednesday, 19 March 2025

Government performance

David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (17:01): Well, what an absolute rant that was. What a rant that was. This is a government who have completely run out of ideas, so what are they doing? They are spending their time talking about us. I tell you what: what flattery that you have got a government that have got no ideas so they are going to spend their time talking about us. Let us just remind the government of this: after about 10 or 11 years of anything something starts to get a bit rotten; it gets rotten, and what do you do with something that is rotten? You get rid of it and you throw it out. I tell you what: this government has expired. It has expired, it is well overdue to be tossed out, and every single Victorian is sick and tired of a government that is doing absolutely nothing, a government who have sat on their hands and done nothing. You talk about someone that might take a holiday; well, as soon as anything gets a little bit tough and there is a bad announcement, the Premier is MIA, completely gone, missing in action. You only have to look at the last time the Wilson report came out on the corruption with the CFMEU, and what the Premier did was she quickly went out to Bendigo and did a local press conference and put the alert out 10 minutes before she did it, and then the media said, ‘Well, hang on a minute, surely she’s going to come into town and give a press conference, because this is her report.’ This was commissioned to clean up the CFMEU, so of course the Premier is going to be up there holding and waving the report around and saying, ‘How wonderful is this?’ Guess what, the Premier was MIA, completely missing in action, and had nothing to say about her own report. Fast-forward to today, six months later or whenever it was: where are we now? The Premier is up, turning around and saying, ‘We’re going to get tough; we’re going to clean up the mess. Isn’t it terrible what bikies are doing? Isn’t it terrible how women are being treated?’ – on her own Big Build sites. ‘Isn’t it terrible?’ Well, I tell you what: it is pretty terrible that the Premier had been given notice; had been told again and again and again about the corruption, about the women-bashing and about the types of criminal activity happening under her watch on her projects; and had commissioned a report that she could not stand behind; and then believes that Victorians are going to turn up and say, ‘You know what? We’ve got full confidence that this is going to be cleaned up.’ No-one has any confidence in this lot, no-one has any confidence in the Premier. This Premier is absolutely useless.

There is no accountability and no responsibility, and even just the other day, to just cap it off in terms of the CFMEU corruption – which I remind everybody with this Big Build and the $50 billion worth of blowouts we are all paying for, mind you, we are all paying for that; the cost of crime is a financial one that we are all paying for – this government stood up and said, ‘You know what? We’re going to fix it because we’ve got an operation, Operation Hawk, that’s going to deal with it. That will deal with it all. We’ll clean this up, and Operation Hawk will fix the mess, and our police are going to get a taskforce, and away we go – a new taskforce, a new one, which we’re all excited about.’ And then what happened?

The Premier had to get the acting Chief Commissioner of Police to clean up her mess and say, ‘Well, you know what, it actually was a taskforce that was set up nine months ago, but it’s going to be newish because we are going to give it a bit more whatever.’ We are still waiting, mind you, to see what the ‘new’ is. It is another press release; that is what it is – no detail, complete spin. That is all this government knows, spinning its way out of trouble. It is like a car that is stuck in big gravel. It is just spin, spin, and they are all trying to push it out of trouble. But we know now there are so many potential leaders that are lining up for the Premier’s job because this government is incompetent. We have a Premier that is completely out of her depth, a Premier that had to apologise for the crime crisis that she created. She gets up in the media and says, ‘You know what, I made a mistake. All of the mess is mine, but trust me now. We’re going to have the toughest bail laws in the world. Trust me, we’re going to have the toughest bail laws, and I know it because I’m going to call them that. Don’t worry about the detail, but I’m going to call them the toughest bail laws, and people will believe me because everything that I do people believe.’ Well, no-one believes a thing that this government does. They are useless, and the one with the top job is the one that commanded the problems in the first place.

This Premier has had big jobs. Talk about interviewing for a job. This Premier had two job interviews. Number one was major projects and infrastructure, off you go. The Premier for cutting ribbons – off we go, level crossing removal, hard hat, ribbon. This is fantastic. Another one: let us announce that we are about to do Metro, West Gate Tunnel and all these fantastic projects. Cut a ribbon – fantastic. And then all of a sudden they blow out. And then all of a sudden they have got corruption of bikies on these sites, and the Premier is hiding like it is not hers. And then all of a sudden it has escalated to $50 billion worth of blowouts, and the Premier has still signed us up to the Suburban Rail Loop, and who knows where that is going to end up. Every single commentator, every single expert, has said this is a project that Victoria cannot afford, but, no surprises, what has the Premier said? Double down and let us spend our way out of trouble. You know what, when somebody says that and they are spending their way out of trouble, you know you are heading one way and it is straight for administration, straight for receivership, straight for liquidation. That is what this Premier is signing Victoria up for: a lifetime of corruption, a lifetime of bankruptcy. This is the government that could not manage anything at all. I tell you what, what this government need to do is introduce financial literacy programs into their party room to actually be able to add up, because this government could not count to 10.

Juliana Addison interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Wendouree is warned.

David SOUTHWICK: While I am on that, they could not count to 10 because they cannot manage a project, and then when they try to manage a project all that happens is corruption. This government only knows one thing, and that is corruption. Let us just give you an example. In 2014 we saw the red shirts scandal. That is what we saw – a state election campaign, branch stacking, all involving the Premier, right involved in it, right in the heart of it. Then we had Operation Richmond in 2019, which reported investigating secret deals between the former Premier and the government and the United Firefighters Union – again, corruption. Then we saw Operation Turton in 2019 with Peter Marshall running the firefighters union involved in hacking emails and leaking confidential information. It all happened again with the Premier in the job right alongside former Premier Daniel Andrews. Then we had Operation Sandon in 2019–20 with allegations of serious corrupt conduct in relation to planning and property development decisions at the City of Casey council. Again, we were told the former Premier praised Woodman’s donations to the Labor Party. This is a government that is now promising big housing and big developments. Where are the kickbacks going to come from all of that? Do we trust them with any of that? Is there going to be more corruption in some of this big high-rise precinct stuff? Where is that money going, one may ask? That is heading for another IBAC investigation quite possibly.

Then we have the Commonwealth Games. Hang on a minute, because I said the Premier had two job interviews. The first one was the Big Build. Well, I think everybody knows, including Nick McKenzie, that was the big corruption. What did he call it? The rotten big build, I think. In the last 60 Minutes he called it the rotten big build, and then he was asked, ‘Is Victoria completely ruled by bikie gangs and crime?’ He said, ‘Well, you know what, if you look at the Big Build, then unfortunately it is.’ Who was responsible for it? Who signed off on the Big Build? The Premier. On the top of her resume is the Big Build. But we also have the Commonwealth Games, because the Premier got up and said this was going to be fantastic for regional Victoria. As a regional Victorian in Bendigo, we are going to provide all of this infrastructure to regional Victoria to ensure we have the Commonwealth Games. Well, we are still waiting for the infrastructure. I do not know where that is happening. But Glasgow got a big fat cheque as part of all of this.

Juliana Addison: On a point of order, Speaker, the member for Caulfield is misleading the house. If he followed my socials, he would have seen that we turned the sod on the Commonwealth Games projects in Ballarat –

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member for Wendouree will resume her seat. That is not a point of order.

Matthew Guy: While we are doing points of order, the member for Wendouree is constantly hectoring the member while he is trying to speak. It is becoming really quite frustrating and annoying for all of us who are trying to listen. She is even hectoring now. I ask you, Deputy Speaker –

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member has been warned and I am watching closely, thank you, member for Bulleen.

Danny Pearson: On the point of order, Deputy Speaker, we are not going to take lectures from the angry little man from Bulleen. He spends all his time yelling and hectoring whenever he is here.

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Can everyone just take a little bit of a chill. I am going to rule on the point of order, because there was not one. The member for Wendouree has been warned and is very close to being removed from the chamber. I ask all members to listen to the member on his feet without assistance.

David SOUTHWICK: Again, when the government hears the truth, like the member for Wendouree has been hearing about her electorate – about the fact that it has been neglected by the member for Wendouree, that the major infrastructure has not been delivered by the member for Wendouree – the best way to cover up is to heckle, and that is what the member for Wendouree has been doing, interjecting and heckling because she is not standing up for her community. Regional Victoria has been let down because the Commonwealth Games were cancelled and we had to provide a big fat cheque for the cancellation. That is on the head of the Premier because it was the Premier’s big job. Some members of Parliament in regional Victoria, including the member for Wendouree, did not stand up for their communities. They have failed. So the member for Wendouree can heckle as much as she likes, but come election time we will remind the people of Wendouree that the member for Wendouree has failed –

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Wendouree can leave the chamber for 30 minutes.

Member for Wendouree withdrew from chamber.

David SOUTHWICK: The member for Wendouree has failed Victorians and has failed her electorate. But let me get back to where we need to be here, because on top of all the corruption, which I mentioned, we had another allegation today of corruption with Victoria Police, and this is very, very serious. We have had a commissioner and a deputy commissioner taken out because they stood up to the government and provided important advice when it comes to crime and the crime crisis. I remind the house that every single government member has stood up and said how great they are doing with this crime crisis, on the bail laws, on the machete laws, which are our ideas. That is great. They can take our homework and try and improve it. It was not mentioned for six months. It was never mentioned at all. It was mentioned by the opposition and Victoria Police, and what have they done? They have criticised the opposition and they have sacked the two heads of Victoria Police. That is what this government has done, and that is why – unprecedented – a deputy commissioner today has referred the government to IBAC and the Ombudsman for political interference from the Minister for Police and the Premier and this government. This is unprecedented. Where there is smoke, there is fire.

Members interjecting.

David SOUTHWICK: The member for Essendon can jump up and down and rant as much as he likes, but this is a very, very serious allegation.

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The minister is now warned.

David SOUTHWICK: This is a very, very serious allegation. I know the minister, the member for Essendon, is concerned because these are all serious investigations. The member for Essendon might be calling a 37-year veteran of Victoria Police a liar. At the end of the day, this is about a referral by someone that had spent 37 years, a lifetime of his career, in Victoria Police. The member for Essendon might call him a liar – that is fine – but there is an investigation –

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Before the point of order, the member for Caulfield knows that word is unparliamentary.

Danny Pearson: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, I did not refer to Mr Paterson as being a liar.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: That is not a point of order; it is a matter for debate. The member to continue without unparliamentary words, please.

David SOUTHWICK: This is the most corrupt government that I think we have ever seen in the history of Victoria. It is a corrupt government. It is a government that has led us to a crime crisis, a cost-of-living crisis, a housing crisis and a health crisis. At every point we are in crisis. There is no way out. No matter where I go, no matter who I talk to, people are pleading in Victoria to get rid of a rotten, tired Labor government. They have had enough. They want to see the back end of this government, and they finally want to see confidence restored in this government, and that is what the Liberal–Nationals will do.