Tuesday, 8 February 2022

Program

Ms ALLAN (Bendigo East—Leader of the House, Minister for Transport Infrastructure, Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop) (14:52): I move:

That, under standing order 94(2), the orders of the day, government business, relating to the following bills be considered and completed by 5.00 pm on Thursday, 10 February 2022:

Health Legislation Amendment (Quality and Safety) Bill 2021

Livestock Management Amendment (Animal Activism) Bill 2021

Regulatory Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2021.

I am very pleased to present the first government business program for the start of the 2022 parliamentary calendar year, and I look forward each week with anticipation for the government business program that I move each week to be enthusiastically and unanimously supported by members of this house. If I cannot get unanimous support, I will at least take the passing of the motion through the chamber, because as we will see as the weeks unfold and as we have seen over the past three years the Andrews Labor government each week continues to put forward a government business program that contains a strong legislative agenda that contains policy proposals that are implementing either commitments we made through the election or other forums or indeed other important reforms from across the whole suite of different ministerial portfolios.

This week is a good example of the diversity of the work that is being done across government. These bills should be well ventilated around the chamber, given that they were second read some time ago. So I am confident that members who wish to participate in the debate this week will have worked very hard over the summer to make sure that they are across the details of the bills to participate in the debate on the various aspects of the bills. I note that the Manager of Opposition Business has sought the government’s support for the Livestock Management Amendment (Animal Activism) Bill to go into consideration in detail later in the week, and that will be considered should there be time available later in the week.

I did also want to note that it is the government’s intention to conclude this week the take-note motion on the fabulous 2021 budget. It is always a good day to talk about the Treasurer’s fabulous 2020–21 budget, but sadly we must bring that conversation, at least in this place, to an end in a formal sense. That is a signal for any colleagues who wish to speak on that fabulous 2021 budget to do so over the course of this week.

In conclusion can I once again say thanks for the work that has gone on over the summer period to have some modest changes in arrangements to how the Parliament is operating in the context of the latest—omicron—variant of the COVID-19 pandemic that, as we know, is now entering into its third year. I would like to also acknowledge and thank the Manager of Opposition Business for the discussions we have had on this matter. The ongoing wearing of masks in this chamber is a sensible measure. Endeavouring to manage where possible the numbers of people in this place—whilst we are operating with a full chamber and a full normal program, we do need to continue to be mindful of our proximity to each other. The wearing of masks is very important, as are the air purifiers. And of course I would like to say thanks for the work that the Presiding Officers and the clerks and the parliamentary staff have undertaken in relation to the provision of rapid antigen tests and the encouragement for them to be undertaken by members as we come in for the parliamentary week.

They are sensible, practical measures that mean we can operate our Parliament for full days, full sitting hours and full participation on the floor of this house with all members in this house. It has always been our intention for it to be that way. From time to time we have had to make some changes, but I am really pleased that we are at this point where we can have the full normal operation of the house. With those comments, I commend the motion to the house. I look forward to its universal and enthusiastic support from colleagues in the chamber.

Ms STALEY (Ripon) (14:57): I also lived in hope that this week we could at least not oppose the government business program given that there are only three bills on the agenda. I was hopeful that when the Leader of the House approached the minister on the Livestock Management Amendment (Animal Activism) Bill 2021 the Minister for Agriculture would enthusiastically embrace the idea of a consideration-in-detail stage. Unfortunately, while the Leader of the House has not ruled it out, she has not given a guarantee, and that is insufficient given the previous experience we have had. In other words, we have never gone into consideration in detail. As a result the opposition, which was really prepared to not oppose the government business program this week, will in fact be opposing it.

We will do so because we have repeatedly asked, and we will continue to ask on occasion, to go into consideration in detail. We will do so because we want to flesh out some of the issues around the bills that come to us. We want to fully examine some of the clauses within them and occasionally we might want to move an amendment, and we can only do that through that phase. I know the Leader of the National Party is keen to do so on the Livestock Management Amendment (Animal Activism) Bill 2021.

Just on that bill, the Leader of the House did correctly note that we have had the summer to look at this bill and the other two and to fully understand them. I would like to remind the house that it was only through the efforts of the Leader of the National Party that we even got this bill brought into the Parliament in the dying days of the 2021 sitting. The Minister for Agriculture had to be embarrassed into bringing this bill forward, because the government had said that they would legislate to stop animal activists invading people’s farms and not being properly fined or held to account for that but then nothing happened. Nothing happened and it went on and on and on. And it was only after—

Mr Walsh: Two years.

Ms STALEY: Two years, the Leader of the National Party tells me, since it was announced that that would happen and only when that pressure was applied that we belatedly saw a bill. Now of course we do actually have some further questions. We do not oppose—could I give you the mail—the idea of you legislating in this way. We have been asking for it for years. So again, it is not always about us being in opposition. We actually do want to make things better. This is about something we care deeply about.

Ms Ryan: Improving the legislation.

Ms STALEY: We really want to improve the legislation. That is absolutely right, Deputy Leader of the National Party.

Now, on to the other two bills that are before us today. The Health Legislation Amendment (Quality and Safety) Bill 2021—there will be a number of speakers from our side wanting to address this bill. It does go to some important issues around how the health system is run in this state and some of the problems that are clearly evident with the government’s management of the health system. The final bill, which is the Regulatory Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2021, is a catch-all. It amends maybe 10 pieces of legislation in various ways, and I am sure that many members across the whole Parliament will have something of interest to them and want to speak on that bill.

So I agree that there are interesting and worthwhile bills that need consideration. We really want the Livestock Management Amendment (Animal Activism) Bill 2021 taken into consideration in detail. I have every faith that the Minister for Agriculture, having spent two years trying to get it to this, should be across the brief and be quite capable of managing a consideration in detail. It would be unacceptable if in fact she is frightened of that and that is why we are not getting a guarantee. In a week when we only have three bills we should have the time—at least for an hour. We are not actually talking about the whole of Thursday; we are talking about one hour of consideration in detail to go through a few clauses and perhaps move some amendments. With that, I conclude by saying that the opposition will be opposing the government business program motion.

Mr FREGON (Mount Waverley) (15:02): Well, that is disappointing but not surprising. That is okay. That is what we are here for: to talk about these things. I am a bit confused about the Manager of Opposition Business’s comment that there seems to be only one way of raising amendments. I am pretty sure I have been here for about three years now. I am relatively new still, but I seem to have seen a lot of amendments done in other ways. All right, things have changed apparently.

Welcome back, and isn’t it good that we are all back, we are all up and about and we have all had a bit of a pep talk and had a break? I believe the word of the morning was ‘the fourth quarter’. That was interesting—the fourth quarter. I thought about that. I thought about it coming into the fantastic government business program that we have in front of us. I know that the Leader of The Nationals has been speaking about the Livestock Management Amendment (Animal Activism) Bill 2021 for a long time, and I am really looking forward to hearing his support for it. I might be surprised, but I am still hopeful because that is what we do in here: we are hopeful and we are optimistic. Even though I am disappointed about those not supporting it, we will still try and get it through. We will see how that goes.

But I did think about the Health Legislation Amendment (Quality and Safety) Bill 2021 coming through, and part of that is about being open and transparent—again, these are things that we all agree with. I again wanted to hear their support, but we did not get it. And obviously there is the omnibus Regulatory Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2021, which is coming up at the end, so we will all have a chance with that.

I will make my comments brief because we all really want to get into this fantastic government business program. But I do think, in relation to the fourth quarter, most games of footy I have seen do not change the captain at half-time—it is not usually a good idea—and usually the coach is present before the game starts. But sure, bring him in at the fourth quarter huddle, and good luck. I commend the government business program to the house and cannot wait until it passes.

Mr D O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (15:04): Well, that went well. There were some zingers in there, member for Mount Waverley—really, really good. I am pleased to rise to speak on this, but I am always perplexed when the Leader of the House gets up with great optimism, and the member for Mount Waverley also has great optimism. Every week with the government business program there is one thing we ask for—one thing. We ask if we can go into what the member for Mount Waverley said is an open and transparent process, actually go into consideration in detail. And the Leader of the House every time says she is optimistic and she is hopeful that we might support her, but every time she fails to give us what we ask for.

It is pretty simple: if you want us to support the government business program, give us a bit of that open and transparent process and let us go into consideration in detail, which, as the member for Ripon has pointed out, is all we want to do on the Livestock Management Amendment (Animal Activism) Bill 2021, which we have been waiting for for years. As the member for Ripon quite rightly pointed out, this is a bill that was pushed by the Leader of The Nationals. I want to give great credit here to my colleague in the other place Melina Bath, without whose work on the committee that looked into this issue we would not have had this recommendation and would not have had the government dragged kicking and screaming into introducing some penalties for people who invade farms, so great credit to her. We want to actually debate this bill. I am not giving away any secrets. I think the member for Ripon has already said we are happy to support this bill, but there are a couple of things we would like to pursue a bit further, things we can improve. We would do that if we had the openness and transparency that this government likes to talk about and if it allowed us to go into consideration in detail. I continue on that. I liked the words of the Leader of the House when she said that these three bills had been well ventilated—boom, boom! Right on message—we have got the ventilators, the air purifiers in here. So these bills have been well ventilated, according to the Leader of the House, a bit like the pandemic bill before Christmas was well ventilated—oh, no, hang on, we had three days to consider that one. But for legislation of great importance, like the Regulatory Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2021, we get months. The record of this government should stand: when it comes to openness and transparency, when it is something important, there is none from this government.

I also would like to just pick up—and it is great to be back here; we are here to do our job and it is great to have a full chamber—that the Leader of the House mentioned that we have got the full, normal operation of the house. I do not know whether anyone else was interested to note during question time where the government members were. I looked across to my left, where there is normally quite a lot of noise coming from. There was no-one here in the supposed full operation of the house.

Ms Allan: I have a point of order on two matters, Deputy Speaker. One is on relevance. The presence of members in the chamber is not a subject canvassed by this motion directly. However, I will also note that when I discussed in my contribution the arrangements that have been put in place for this sitting week, I did directly go to the point that the discussion that the Manager of Opposition Business and I had was that we would collectively work, where we can, to see if we can get the numbers down in the chamber just a little bit to manage the safe operation of the house. It is the agreement I have with the Manager of Opposition Business. The fact that there are so few members on that side of the house, thanks to the decision of the Victorian community at the 2018 election, is a matter for them, and I would ask that the member for Gippsland South not cast those sorts of negative aspersions on my colleagues.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I uphold the point of order, and I ask the member for Gippsland South to come back to the government business program.

Mr D O’BRIEN: Thank you, Deputy Speaker. I am glad I have been schooled and educated. I noticed when we started up this morning the entire chamber was in here, so it is beyond me as to why there were so many disappearing from question time. But anyway, it has been explained. I would just like to finish up by saying the actual bills on the government business program are quite pertinent to the last couple of years. We have got health legislation, we have got regulation legislation—we have all lived under all sorts of regulations for the last couple of years—and we have got livestock, and that is probably a reference to herding cats, because that is what it has been like here in the last couple of years as well.

We continue to live in hope that one day the Leader of the House will actually listen to us and deliver some of the openness and transparency that the member for Mount Waverley talked about. But as it stands, we are still not getting the opportunity to go into consideration in detail, so we will oppose this government business program.

Ms CONNOLLY (Tarneit) (15:09): I do not usually get up to speak on the government business program, but I am starting today with a really big smile because this is quite a lively debate and quite interesting indeed. It reminds me of something very, very similar that happens in my house on a daily basis. I have got an eight-year-old and an 11-year-old. Quite often there are a lot of things that they want and I have to make a ruling, and I have to say they quite often do not get what they want. The behaviour of those opposite and the narky little jibes just remind me of little Leo and little Emily, who will soon be picked up from school by their father.

This is going to be a jam-packed week, with three fantastic bills coming before the house. I do have to take a moment to mention the Manager of Opposition Business making comments towards the Minister for Agriculture, talking about her feeling afraid—I do not think she called her a coward but she called her afraid of having the debate or talking about different amendments to the legislation. Well, I have to say I do not think on this side of the house the Minister for Agriculture has ever been called anything like afraid or a coward. I think it is in quite the opposite way that we would refer to the minister. I just happened to be outside a moment ago, stopping the minister on her way to the chamber and said that I have read through the Livestock Management Amendment (Animal Activism) Bill 2021—yes, I am speaking on that this week—and that it is a really great bill. It is a very, very important bill that is going to come before the house that we will be able to debate. I cannot wait to sit here and look at the other side of the house and see if they actually turn up to debate the bill in any kind of numbers or grouping because over the past three years as a new member I still have never seen that side of the house full to talk about anything or support members on that side of the house on legislation that is going through or on amendments and motions they feel strongly about. I have never seen them sit here and take the time to listen to and debate something in any kind of way that suggests any of the seriousness that they are trying to pretend they have when it comes to amendments to legislation that we have got before the house.

One of the bills that we are putting up this week that we will be speaking on—I am actually looking forward to speaking on it on a personal note—is the Health Legislation Amendment (Quality and Safety) Bill 2021. This is a bill that is really important. It is important for all Victorians who have interacted in some way with our health services and health system and have had an incident, had something happen to them. I am hoping to be able to tell—and I am not sure about the way in which it will come out for me—a very personal story about the benefits of this legislation and how it will help people to move forward and find closure.

The other piece of legislation I am really excited about getting up and speaking in favour of is the Regulatory Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2021. It is a biggie but a goodie, and there is a lot in it. I know we will have a full remit of speakers on that piece of legislation, and I have no doubt it will cause a bit of debate here in this chamber as we kick off a brand new year with the first sitting week for 2022.

I am going to finish up by saying not only that I look forward to debating the bills in the chamber this week but also as the Premier has said on so many occasions—I know I do not need to remind anyone on this side of the house of what the Premier has said to us on many occasions—that every day in government is a precious gift. It is really important not to waste it—not to waste your time here and not to waste one day we have in government. The bills that are before the house this week, these three bills, are an indicator of the massive legislative reform agenda that we are going to go ahead and roll out this year—a very exciting election year, with two elections that will be underway no doubt and will very much affect the future direction that Victoria goes towards. If we keep up the pace on delivering and debating legislation, as we will go forward and do this week, as we have throughout this term of government, I have no doubt that we will live up to the saying of the Premier and make every sitting week count.

Mr ROWSWELL (Sandringham) (15:14): I also rise to address the government business program this week. It is a fascinating government business program. There are some very interesting bills there. There are some colleagues who are very interested in addressing those bills as well. But I feel like it is a bit like groundhog day again, for the times that I addressed the government business program over the course of last year, time and time again members of the opposition raised the same point. We on this side of the chamber would like to take some, not all, pieces of legislation into consideration in detail, and we do so with good reason. The consideration-in-detail stage allows us, as the member for South-West Coast has mentioned, to address the detail of the bill and to scrutinise the bill—to get ministers of the Labor government on their feet answering questions that relate to the bill itself and to go line by line through different clauses of the bill in order to look at it in more depth. That is a fair request by the opposition. That is a request that has been made by the opposition in good faith to the government, and once again the government has said that they may get around to allowing us that opportunity. For us, that is not good enough. It is simply not good enough. What we want is certainty. What we want is confirmation that we will in fact move to a consideration-in-detail stage for the Livestock Management Amendment (Animal Activism) Bill 2021, which the Leader of The Nationals, my good friend and colleague, will be leading the debate on. He will very enthusiastically lead that debate, followed by the member for Gippsland East, the member for Polwarth, the member for Eildon and others. I think it is a fair and reasonable request from this side of the chamber to move into consideration in detail in relation to that bill.

Of course during the course of these sitting days we will also consider the Health Legislation Amendment (Quality and Safety) Bill 2021, and I know that the member for Lowan will enthusiastically and vigorously lead that debate on behalf of the opposition. Then we will move to the Regulatory Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2021. To say that the member for Brighton will address that bill with vigour and enthusiasm is an understatement. I think that that will be an epic contribution from the member for Brighton, an absolutely epic contribution from the member for Brighton, and I would encourage those members of the government and those members of the opposition who wish to see the member for Brighton in full flight to attend the chamber at that time because I fully expect the member for Brighton to deliver with both barrels during the course of the debate on the Regulatory Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2021.

The opposition’s request for the Livestock Management Amendment (Animal Activism) Bill 2021 to go into consideration in detail is a reasonable request. We are actually quite disappointed that the government will not agree to that outright, and for that reason we will be opposing the government business program.

Ms SHEED (Shepparton) (15:18):(By leave) I rise to speak on the government business program, and I have to say it is with some disappointment that we are starting a new year and we are still fixed in the ways of not having the opportunity for consideration in detail in this house. I think we all know that this is where the ministers sit—most of the ministers on most of the important bills that get debated in this house—and it is surely the role of ministers to step up and answer questions from the opposition, independents and Greens. There are no opportunities for this to happen in this house, and it really starts to make a mockery of what the role of an opposition is in a Legislative Assembly. It is very disappointing.

We do have three important bills before the house. The Health Legislation Amendment (Quality and Safety) Bill 2021 has some very important issues in it, including that notion of a duty of candour by hospitals to allow people to understand what may have happened to them and to have a full, detailed explanation of things that have happened to them in hospital and even an apology, and it sets up a situation where that can happen, among many other things.

The Livestock Management Amendment (Animal Activism) Bill 2021 has been on the table for a long time, and there are aspects of that where fleshing out some of the detail I think would be very useful for all sides of the house to better understand, because it will have a significant impact.

The Regulatory Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2021 contains many small issues, some of which are incredibly important, and one may well relate to the future of regional newspapers. The planned removal of advertising in the printed form in newspapers may well lead to the reduction of advertising. Small newspapers depend enormously on government advertising to actually exist. We are losing our capacity to be heard in regional areas: newspapers are disappearing, regional radios are being soaked up by multinationals and television has almost disappeared, with WIN Television going and Prime television going. Very little coverage is left for anyone to tell the stories of regional people within their communities. These are really important issues that are here to be debated.

I think the opportunity for members on this side to be able to debate and have a say on these issues often only comes in consideration in detail, because here in this house we have no non-government business program—the only house in the Westminster system that does not provide an opposition with a non-government business program, and that is truly an astounding thing. I have stood up here every Tuesday to move a motion to remedy that, and I am not getting the support that is required. Here on this side the Greens certainly support me, and other independents do. I am yet to hear others speak up in support of such a fundamental change to bring back into the Victorian Parliament in this Legislative Assembly the sorts of democratic processes that we should have. So I oppose this for all of these reasons, but particularly that removal of the ability for us to do our job and for us to be able to address ministers, raise questions and get answers in what is really a very civilised fashion. You only have to see how that operates in the upper house and in other parliaments to see that it is the one opportunity that members get to really flesh out the details around a bill. It disappoints me to have to oppose this government business program, because the bills themselves are important and generally supported, but because of the lack of capacity to investigate and to ask questions, I will be opposing the government business program.

Ms SANDELL (Melbourne) (15:23):(By leave) I just very briefly put on the record that the Greens will also be opposing the government business program. I wholeheartedly agree with so much of what was just said by the independent member for Shepparton. We have never had consideration in detail of any bill in this entire Parliament. Nearly four years we have been here and we have not had it. It is a fundamental part of our democracy. We only had it a couple of times in the last Parliament. There are many new members of Parliament here who have never, ever experienced it.

The Greens do not actually support the Livestock Management Amendment (Animal Activism) Bill 2021. We think it is a bill that is overly punishing people who try and stand up against animal cruelty. But nonetheless, even though we do not support the bill, we support going into consideration in detail where the minister answers questions about it. We would have a chance to ask questions about how it would work in practice. It is a fundamental part of our democracy. There is no reason why the government should be hiding from that transparency. It is something that we should do on every single bill in fact. We have done it on no bills in the last four years. I think it is a reasonable request that when an opposition, an independent or a Green asks for consideration in detail on a bill, it is given. And when that happens and it is not given, we do not really have much choice apart from opposing the government business program.

House divided on motion:

Motion agreed to.