Tuesday, 5 April 2022
Business of the house
Program
Program
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, 7 April 2022:
Road Safety Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
Transport Legislation Amendment (Port Reforms and Other Matters) Bill 2022.
I will only speak briefly on this motion that I am moving to the house, because I have some level of optimism that it will receive unanimous and fulsome support from the chamber today, given some conversations I have been having with the Manager of Opposition Business, and whilst there are two bills on the program, I note that the opposition has requested that the Road Safety Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 be taken into consideration in detail. The government is considering that request and will make time available in the program towards the back end of the week to deal with that process in the usual way. I have advised the opposition accordingly, so we look forward to that taking place some time on Thursday.
I also note for completeness’ sake we have just moved the motion for a joint sitting to be held tomorrow evening in this place to deal with the two matters of the Senate vacancy and the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation vacancy, and we look forward to welcoming our friends from the Legislative Council into this place for that to take place.
I also note, as has been advised to colleagues, that on Thursday there will be an opportunity for members to make a contribution on the passing of Shane Warne. Following the memorial service that was held last Wednesday evening, it is now an appropriate opportunity for this house to consider the passing of the greatest cricketer in modern time. He was a fabulous sportsperson, and as we have seen from many of the personal comments and tributes following his passing, he clearly had a level of generosity and community service that went, by many observations, unremarked and unreported on. It was that reaching out and talking to people of all walks of life that he touched that I think is as equally a great tribute to his service as both a sportsperson and a member of our community. So it will be an appropriate opportunity on Thursday for a range of members to condole the passing of that great Australian cricketer. He was a brilliant cricketer, a great Victorian and, as I said, by all accounts a man who had a warmth and generosity of spirit in touching many, many people and groups not just here but around the world.
With those comments, as I said, I come with a level of optimism that this government business program will be supported. We have got a lot to do this week, as we do every week in this place, and I am looking forward to the support of all members of the house.
Ms STALEY (Ripon) (12:21): I can confirm that on this occasion the Liberal-Nationals will not be opposing the government business program. We never oppose the government business program on a whim, we always do so because the government refuses to go into consideration in detail or does some other abomination to the standing orders of this place, but in this particular case the government has acceded to our request to take the Road Safety Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 into consideration in detail. I thank the Minister for Roads and Road Safety for agreeing to do that, and I note that this is the second time this term that we have been able to take a bill into a consideration-in-detail stage despite asking for it on many more occasions than that.
I do wonder whether the fact that we are now getting an opportunity to examine bills in detail is because we only have two bills on the government business program. The government has a very skinny legislative agenda and can only manage to bring two bills to this house. It would be, I think, particularly churlish of them to then refuse to go into consideration in detail when they only have two bills.
I note, as the Leader of the House has and for completeness, this week we will also be holding a joint sitting on Wednesday evening to choose a new senator for the Labor Party as a consequence of the untimely death of Senator Kimberley Kitching, and we will also be holding a joint sitting to replace one of the members of the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation.
I also note that we will have an opportunity to debate a condolence motion for Shane Warne. I was fortunate enough with my mother and one of my sisters to be at the final MCG test that Shane played in in Melbourne. He was a brilliant cricketer. He brought to the game a new series of fans and then, as the Leader of the House has said, he went on to become a great support to many people—and much of that was unheralded. I particularly note the number of comments that were made at his service at the MCG about what a fabulous father he was and the comments by his three children which paid incredible tribute to what a brilliant father Shane had been. With those brief remarks I also will conclude my comments for today and we can move on with this debate.
Mr D O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (12:24): I just want to say a couple of words about the government business program. I think the member for Ripon has highlighted pretty well what the situation is—that is, that it is getting a bit light on towards the end, and so we are suddenly getting the opportunity to actually interrogate legislation that we always should have done. There are two pieces of legislation this week: the Road Safety Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 and the Transport Legislation Amendment (Port Reforms and Other Matters) Bill 2022. I look forward to speaking on both of those, actually; both have some pertinence to my electorate.
As the Leader of the House has indicated and the house has just resolved, we will meet on Wednesday night to select a replacement for the late Senator Kimberley Kitching. I would just like to take the opportunity now—I did not know the senator, although my wife did work with her in a previous life and said she enjoyed working with her—to extend my condolences to all those in the labour movement and the Labor party and to Senator Kitching’s family as well. I know it has been a difficult time for all.
I note too the intention for there to be a condolence motion for the passing of Shane Warne, on Thursday. In the expectation that I may not get the opportunity to speak, I would also like to just comment on that. I extend my condolences to his family, in particular his children, and to the many people who were touched by Shane Warne’s brilliance. I well remember that ball of the century to Mike Gatting, as does everyone, I am sure, who has even a passing interest in cricket. I still watch it today, and I still cannot comprehend the physics behind that delivery, just as Mike Gatting was dumbfounded at the time and bamboozled. In fact I go and look it up sometimes and just watch that delivery again, because it was very well described as the ‘ball of the century’.
The joy that Shane Warne brought us continued for another decade or more afterwards in what was an extraordinary career. I think the Leader of the House had it right. He is certainly the greatest cricketer that I have seen in my time, bringing back leg spin bowling at a time when it had been completely unfashionable and when the Windies pacemen in particular had dominated world cricket for a decade or more. Shane Warne brought with him a larrikin attitude—I suspect he was not always a saint, and he never claimed to be one. Certainly I was very sad, as many Australians and Victorians in particular were, to hear of Shane Warne’s passing, and I look forward to sitting in the Shane Warne Stand in the future.
The agenda this week is quite light, but it is good that the government is starting to see the light and we are getting the opportunity to actually interrogate some legislation through the consideration-in-detail process. So I look forward to that opportunity for my colleagues on Thursday afternoon.
Mr FOWLES (Burwood) (12:28): It is my pleasure too to join the debate on the government business program. Whilst some would characterise the agenda as light for this week, I could not disagree more fully, because in fact it is one of the most varied agendas I think we have seen in my time in this place. We have got a joint sitting in there, we have got a take-note motion in there, we have got a condolence motion. We have got a couple of bills, sure. There is plenty of colour, life and movement and there is plenty of meat for the punters, I am sure, who are following along closely at home—and may I say hello to the entirety of our audience.
It is very important of course that we continue to progress the good work of this government through the Road Safety Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 and the Transport Legislation Amendment (Port Reforms and Other Matters) Bill 2022, and we do so cognisant of the other parliamentary obligations.
There is of course a government business program, but there is a parliamentary program as well, and that extends to that joint sitting. I am very pleased that we are going to have the opportunity, by means of the joint sitting, to pay our respects to the late Senator Kimberley Kitching and to spend some time perhaps thinking about our own mortality.
We will also spend some time thinking about the great contribution made by Shane Keith Warne. I had the great pleasure to be at the memorial service last week. It found that difficult balance between showbiz and memorial. I was a bit surprised when I saw certain groups of people taking group photographs at it. I did not necessarily think that that was the right place or time for group photos for political representatives, but nonetheless that was a matter for them. It was a very well thought through event. I think it found the right balance, that important mix, between remembrance and pathos as well as celebration. There is much to celebrate in the contribution that Shane made not just to cricket and to sport but to public life, and I certainly found it revealing, as others did, just how much work went on behind the scenes that he did with a whole range of charities—a much broader group than I had previously understood—and indeed with one of the organisations that sits within the United Nations, such is the breadth of the reach of a man who played a sport that is frankly not played to any great degree beyond the boundaries of the old British Empire. Nonetheless he had global reach and assembled over the course of his time an outstanding roster of friends and people of influence that allowed him to pursue a whole bunch of his interests outside cricket. I think it was a terrific event and well executed, and I thank the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet as well as the Premier’s private office, the Melbourne Cricket Club, the MCG Trust and Shane’s family for putting together what was a terrific event.
We will get an opportunity this week too to consider a take-note motion. We have just seen handed down a federal budget that I am sure many of us have a range of views on, and it will be terrific to be able to share some of those views as part of the take-note motion. It is an important role of this Parliament to comment on not just the actions of members of this place and the government that is derived from this place but also actions of governments elsewhere that impact Victorians. This is a budget that impacts Victorians negatively in some respects, I would submit, and fails to impact Victorians through what it does not do, but I am sure there will be plenty to be said about that as we progress through the week. I am happy to commend this government business program to the house. I think it promises to be a week full of interest and variety, and I for one am looking forward to it.
Mr ROWSWELL (Sandringham) (12:32): I promise no Mr Squiggle references this week in addressing the government business program motion; I know some will be disappointed by that. I am looking forward to the joint sitting of the house; very important business will be undertaken on Wednesday afternoon to replace in the Senate the late Senator Kimberley Kitching. My condolences to Andrew and to her family as well—a tragedy of great magnitude and the great loss of a warrior for truth and goodness in our federal Parliament.
We are pleased on this side of the chamber that the Road Safety Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 will go into consideration in detail. As the Manager of Opposition Business raised, it is the second time in this Parliament that that has taken place, and I would like to think that what we as a Parliament—clerks, Speaker, Deputy Speaker, acting speakers, members of the opposition, members of the government—saw during the course of the last sitting week, with the first time this Parliament went into consideration in detail, was not all bad. In fact it is a good opportunity to further interrogate and to investigate in detail complexities within legislation that this place considers.
The final point I would like to make is simply this: I note that there are two bills for consideration on the government business program this week. The two bills that have been introduced by the government for consideration this week are frankly fairly safe bills to introduce and to discuss in this place, and I raise this as what I see as a legitimate question: is the government raising these two reasonably safe bills for consideration at this time in this Parliament because of the state of the government’s hold, or lack thereof, in the Legislative Council? It is simply a question to raise—a valid question to raise, in my view. As the Manager of Opposition Business indicated, we will not be opposing the government business program.
Ms CONNOLLY (Tarneit) (12:34): I too rise to join the debate on the government business program. I have to say we have a lot to get through this week: two great pieces of legislation, the Road Safety Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 and the Transport Legislation Amendment (Port Reforms and Other Matters) Bill 2022. I am really looking forward to getting up and making a contribution on those two bills before the house, but most of all, I have to say, this week I am really looking forward to the joint sitting. You will have to indulge me here because it is my first week back after getting COVID—I am very excited to be here—and I am still suffering through the brain fog that is COVID. I am very much looking forward to the joint sitting in which we are going to welcome a brand new, amazing Victorian senator to fill the vacancy created by the very, very sad and tragic passing of Senator Kimberley Kitching. I pay my condolences to her husband and her family—indeed a very sad time for everyone. I am very much looking forward to seeing the smiling, happy face tomorrow of an incredible woman that I consider a good friend, Jana Stewart. I have no doubt she will fill that position and take to it like a duck to water. She will be the first Aboriginal woman and Victorian traditional owner to go ahead and represent Labor in the Senate, so making history. I am really looking forward to being part of that.
I am also looking forward to hearing the condolences in this place. How do we describe Shane Warne? He has been described as many things; just here in the house he was described as a true larrikin. I would say, yes, he was a larrikin, an incredible cricketer, an incredible Aussie and, by the sound of it, an amazing dad. I did not have the opportunity of attending the memorial service last week, but I did switch on the TV and listen to the beautiful contributions and words said about a man who passed away much too early, much before his time. Those speeches that his children made are something that will stay with me for some time—very beautiful speeches indeed. I have no doubt that their father, wherever he might be, will be looking down at his children and feeling very proud.
I am looking forward to pulling my weight this week and speaking on everything before the house. We have such a full agenda of lots of exciting things before the house.
Ms SHEED (Shepparton) (12:37):(By leave) While I do not oppose the government business program, I do rise to express my great disappointment at the fact that the motion that I seek to have debated before this house on the Tuesday of every sitting week does not succeed in being put before the house and debated. It is a really important piece of work that this house needs to do because the non-government business program is an essential part of ensuring a responsible and representative Parliament in any Westminster system. Victoria’s Legislative Assembly is currently the only house in Australia that does not provide meaningful opportunities for non-government members to move motions, to progress bills and to utilise a number of other procedures in the house. It would certainly benefit this place if the non-government business program was returned and if notice of motion 48 on the notice paper, which details fully the amendments that are required to the sessional and standing orders to reinstate that opportunity, was debated and we came to be a house that was really in line with so many others.
There is a fairly light business program, although I see the government has been able to get its motions up and we will be able to debate in this house a number of other matters, including the condolence motion for Shane Warne and of course the impact of the federal budget handed down last week. I have to say in some of our regional areas there is extreme disappointment as a result of that budget. In my area alone I think we would have to express great disappointment that the Shepparton bypass did not receive the funding that many of us may have hoped for—a business case that is already prepared and ready to go from the Victorian government is languishing on the desk of the infrastructure minister in federal Parliament. If ever there was an opportunity in an election year to fund a major project in our region—80 per cent to come from the federal government, 20 per cent from the state government—that was an opportunity. I am very much looking forward to participating in that debate if at all possible.
We are also seeing in this place a move to more consideration in detail, and that is just one small step that gives me some heart in this process of trying to return this place to a true democratic house—this Victorian Legislative Assembly—to create opportunities for members on this side to be able to hold the government to account, to hold ministers to account, to have them answer questions on bills before the house.
So there is some hope in that we are seeing some progress, but consider that on this side of the house we could move motions and debate them, we could seek specific outcomes, we could seek the production of documents, we could refer matters to inquiries, we could move disallowance motions and we could take the opportunity for bills—not only bills but also petitions—to be debated if we were able to frame our own non-government business program. All of these things would create a situation whereby minority voices in this place were provided with the opportunity to more fully represent their communities, their electorates, and really ensure a much better and smoother operation of this place.
Motion agreed to.