Tuesday, 16 August 2022

Program

Ms BLANDTHORN (Pascoe Vale—Leader of the House, Minister for Planning) (12:13): 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, 18 August 2022:

Environment Legislation Amendment (Circular Economy and Other Matters) Bill 2022

Justice Legislation Amendment (Police and Other Matters) Bill 2022

Justice Legislation Amendment (Sexual Offences and Other Matters) Bill 2022

Residential Tenancies, Housing and Social Services Regulation Amendment (Administration and Other Matters) Bill 2022

State Sport Centres Legislation Amendment Bill 2022.

I would like to start my remarks by again thanking the Manager of Opposition Business for continuing to build our relationship in these roles and—

A member interjected.

Ms BLANDTHORN: So far, so good; you are right. I look forward to a continuance of the goodwill shown by those on the other side and all of us working together to deliver the remaining sitting weeks that we have before the proroguing of this Parliament. In particular I would like to acknowledge the productive conversations we have had in relation to the possible holding of a joint sitting tomorrow in order to appoint a person to fill the vacancy in the other place due to the passing of the Honourable Jane Garrett. We also thank those in the other place and her family for giving due consideration to this important issue and the continuance of the important work of Jane in that.

For the government business program we have five important bills that we would like the house to debate and consider this week. We have the Justice Legislation Amendment (Sexual Offences and Other Matters) Bill 2022, which delivers strengthened sexual offence laws, provides additional protections for victim-survivors and ensures that those who perpetrate sexual abuse are held to account for their actions. I am proud to advise that it will deliver on the government’s commitment to introduce legislation to deliver affirmative consent laws and make it explicit that stealthing is a crime.

We will also debate the Environment Legislation Amendment (Circular Economy and Other Matters) Bill 2022 today as we continue to deliver on the significant reforms of Victoria’s waste and recycling system, and this is obviously an important issue in the current context. The bill delivers the continuation of our government’s major transformational reform of the waste and recycling sector, built on the community and industry consultation that has been ongoing over a number of years. I know that many in our local communities are really excited that this bill is coming to fruition.

We have the Residential Tenancies, Housing and Social Services Regulation Amendment (Administration and Other Matters) Bill 2022, which will make amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act 1997, the Housing Act 1983 and the Social Services Regulation Act 2021 and will establish Homes Victoria as a strong, sustainable and contemporary housing agency underpinned by a robust and enduring governance structure. This is so important to delivering both the government’s big build and affordable housing agenda and ensuring that the right to a home, the right to a roof over one’s head—which is a fundamental right in the United Nations declaration of human rights—is protected by issue of legislative instruments such as this. The Residential Tenancies Act amendments will clarify certain requirements for both providers and renters of affordable housing.

We also have the State Sport Centres Legislation Amendment Bill 2022, which provides for important changes to the State Sport Centres Act 1994, not least in relation to the State Basketball Centre out in the east, and extends and improves the management arrangements under which the State Sport Centres Trust operates as well as amending the Melbourne and Olympic Parks Act 1985. I think everyone who has been involved in the delivery of community sport across our area knows how integral good governance at the State Sport Centres Trust is to that agenda, so this is a really important bill as well.

Finally, we have the Justice Legislation Amendment (Police and Other Matters) Bill 2022. Again I thank the opposition for their cooperation in introducing and second reading this bill on the Thursday of the last sitting week. It will be debated on Thursday this sitting week, and it introduces a range of policing reforms aimed at keeping the community safe as well as protecting the privacy of applicants to the Victoria Police restorative engagement and redress scheme.

This is a really full business program. There is a lot to get through this week, and when you add in the joint sitting there is much work for all of us to do in this place over the coming days. I do thank the opposition and the other parties for their cooperation and enthusiasm for this agenda. I look forward to the debate in the house, and I commend the program to the house.

Ms STALEY (Ripon) (12:18): I rise to speak on the government business program. In my opening remarks I would like to recognise that Andrew Young, the Clerk of the Legislative Council, has announced his retirement, and I put on record our thanks to him. I particularly want to note that as a result of that Bridget Noonan, the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly, will become the first female Clerk of the Parliaments, and I congratulate her on achieving that honour.

Today we are coming to debate five bills, and I can advise that the opposition will be opposing the government business program on the grounds that we requested to go into consideration in detail on three bills and the government did not find time for us to do that. I do note that a couple of those bills have very new ministers in their portfolios, and that may be why they are not keen to go into consideration in detail on the Residential Tenancies, Housing and Social Services Regulation Amendment (Administration and Other Matters) Bill 2022 and the State Sport Centres Legislation Amendment Bill 2022.

Consideration in detail remains a core part of this chamber interrogating bills to make sure that they are fit for purpose, and it is also the only opportunity that members in this chamber have to move textual amendments and have them put if we or the Greens or any of the independents want to do that. So we are disappointed that once again the government, when asked if we could go into consideration-in-detail stage, chose to deny that. We have only had a couple of opportunities in this Parliament to have consideration in detail, and we remain of the view that that is an important part of this chamber and it should be used more frequently than this government does.

As the Leader of the House has noted, we will be having a joint sitting on Wednesday to choose a replacement following the untimely death of Jane Garrett. We will be, as the Leader of the House has said, facilitating that joint sitting and looking forward to that as well.

Beyond that we do have these five bills. I note that for most of this year and last year the Assembly has considered three bills. We are now in these dying days of the Parliament and we have five bills, some of which I recognise are advancing the government’s legislative agenda, but some others appear to be the departments trying to get in at the end—get cleaned up at the end. I am not convinced that they have managed their legislative agenda over the whole of the Parliament in the most optimal way, such that we are now faced with slamming through five bills this week. We have only had one introduced today, so let us see what we get tomorrow, shall we, in the introduction of bills. But as I note, we will be opposing the government business program.

Mr CHEESEMAN (South Barwon) (12:21): It is with some pleasure that I rise this morning to speak on the government’s business program, and as has been noted through the course of the debate already, the government has five bills that we are looking to see through this chamber in the course of this week. Of course all of these bills in some way have a profound impact on key parts of the Victorian community, and particularly I want to note the Environment Legislation Amendment (Circular Economy and Other Matters) Bill 2022. This particular bill will set out new legislative arrangements going forward to have a circular economy. Just on the weekend indeed, when I was out engaging with my community, people were raising with me how they might participate in the circular economy, and I am very pleased to see this bill brought to this chamber so that we can advance the government’s very substantial public policy reform in this space. I think Victoria is a leader, particularly in the commercial construction space, for using recycled materials—and I note that we do have key roads, such as the Tullamarine Freeway, that have glass used within that road-making material. I think that particular legislation is important, and those trials are important to prove that recycled goods can be recycled into our economy, and particularly—

The SPEAKER: Member for South Barwon, it is not appropriate to go into detail on the bill.

Mr CHEESEMAN: No, no. I am just talking about this particular issue—and I say my community is very keen on that.

But also we do have in Victoria and indeed in other jurisdictions around Australia profound housing challenges, and I do think the Residential Tenancies, Housing and Social Services Regulation Amendment (Administration and Other Matters) Bill 2022 will help with responding to those particular challenges. I did note the opposition contribution a little earlier that we do have five bills before this chamber. We have a very busy legislative reform program. This is the third-last sitting week before the Parliament is prorogued, and I am wishing these five matters that we have in this chamber speedy passage through the course of this week. I do note that there have been many conversations today and indeed over the last few days about whether Matthew Guy, or Matt Guy, will survive as the Liberal leader—

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for South Barwon, please refer to members by their correct titles.

Mr CHEESEMAN: Indeed I am very pleased that we do have the opportunity to put these five matters through this Parliament through the course of this week. We have a very ambitious agenda for this state. These are important matters that we advance, and I am very much looking forward to hearing the debate through the course of this week.

Mr WALSH (Murray Plains) (12:25): Can I also offer my congratulations to the Clerk on her elevation. It is good to have a senior Clerk back in the house of government, where they deserve to be into the future. I look forward to the Clerk fulfilling that role as well as she has fulfilled every other role in the Parliament in the time that I have been here. Congratulations on that.

If we look at the government business program, there are five bills. As the Manager of Opposition Business has said, for most of this year we have spent the weeks filibustering to deal with probably only three bills, and not necessarily three bills of major consequence, in this Parliament. The government has finally realised that there is an election shortly and is in a mad rush to get stuff through this Parliament. I think the former Leader of the House in this place has managed the legislative agenda of this chamber, the government’s legislative agenda, probably as effectively as she has managed major projects in this state. They are a mess, an absolute mess—$28 billion in cost overruns on major projects in Victoria. So this is just another example of that particular minister not being able to manage the portfolios that she has had over time, and we have seen that in this house and in this state over a long period of time.

The fact that the government are now bringing five bills in when they could have had additional bills in previous weeks through this year and the fact that they are refusing any consideration in detail just shows how out of touch, how arrogant, the Andrews government are in that they think they can just ram stuff through and not debate it properly. We come to this chamber as members of Parliament to represent our communities and to be legislators, and part of being a legislator is to consider in detail the bills that a government puts before this house that will affect Victorians’ lives into the future. We have got three shadow ministers who, upon reflecting on and reading the legislation that is before the house, would actually like to examine it in detail with the relevant minister. That is part of putting legislation through this chamber. That is part of what has been enshrined in the Westminster system for literally hundreds of years. When legislation comes forward from the executive government, the opposition, Her Majesty’s loyal opposition, should be able to have that legislation examined in detail and should be able to ask the minister questions clause by clause if they see fit.

The fact is that we have got new ministers who may not think they are across their briefs well enough. There are officers that sit in the advisers box. We have not seen it in this house because we have not considered bills in detail, but we have seen in the upper house that ministers go to the box and ask advice. Justin Madden, when he was planning minister, has the record for the number of times he went to the advisers box to get advice on a particular piece of legislation. I do not think there is any shame in a minister actually asking advice if they do not know the detail, so I cannot see why the government is hiding its new ministers from scrutiny. That is part of the parliamentary process. That is why they are paid a minister’s salary. They are paid a premium as ministers to do their job as ministers, and part of that job is being a legislator and being open to scrutiny from the Parliament. The three shadow ministers that want to do that are being denied that right because of the arrogance of the Andrews Labor government. I think that is wrong. I think it has been a failing of this Parliament for now two terms that the government does not want any scrutiny. It is a particular failing of the Premier that he believes he should be able to tell everyone in Victoria what to do, and we saw that through COVID, when we were lectured for over 100 days on how what went wrong was everyone but the Andrews government’s fault with COVID management in this state.

As the Manager of Opposition Business has said, we will be opposing the government business program because we believe the government is not doing its job in the Legislative Assembly in allowing scrutiny of these particular bills. I think it is just very, very sad for democracy in Victoria that the Andrews government is dumbing down the parliamentary process and the legislative process so much because of its arrogance.

Mr FREGON (Mount Waverley) (12:30): I rise obviously in support of the government business program. It is disappointing to see colleagues on the other side not supporting it, but that is our system and we will follow that through and see how we go. And what a great program it is we have this week ahead of us.

Members interjecting.

Mr FREGON: We will. That is the system. You never know in this place, no. But I would also like to join with the Manager of Opposition Business—

Mr Walsh interjected.

The SPEAKER: Order! Leader of The Nationals, you have had your turn.

Mr FREGON: on the other side and the Leader of The Nationals in congratulating Andrew Young for his service and thanking him for everything that he has done and will continue to do until his retirement but also congratulating Bridget Noonan for her elevation. There is a lot of duck on the water in this place with our clerks, and you do not necessarily see what our fantastic parliamentary staff and clerks do. But we really cannot thank them enough, and I guess as we come to the close of this parliamentary term—we have three weeks left—we can never really thank all of our staff enough, because they have done a pretty tough job over the last couple of years. So I thank them wholeheartedly for that, and I am sure my colleagues join me in that.

We have a number of very, very exciting bills ahead of us. The Environment Legislation Amendment (Circular Economy and Other Matters) Bill 2022—I am very much looking forward to standing up on that later today. I will be able to reflect on my local council and their work in recycling. That will be a really good listen. I invite you all to come and listen to that. It will really excite you all.

The Residential Tenancies, Housing and Social Services Regulation Amendment (Administration and Other Matters) Bill 2022—

Members interjecting.

Mr FREGON: I can see you checking your diaries as we speak. We will all be here.

We have done a lot of work over the last four years on residential tenancies. As you are doorknocking and you are out and about, you speak to many renters. Whether it be allowing pets in the house or whether it be allowing them to put up picture frames, there are a lot of things that we have done and we continue to do, like the bill today—and I will not debate it now obviously, but we will get to it.

It is commendable what our ministers do. The funny thing about our ministers is they all have their own jobs. I mean, there are multiple portfolios, but they do not tend to assign themselves to other ones. I think, with some news around the country, we are all shaking our heads, wondering how someone made themselves Treasurer and then made a budget in Canberra. But anyway, I will let our federal colleagues prosecute that one.

What else have we got? We will get to talk about sport. Obviously we will not have Roy and HG here to do that, but I am sure there will be some wonderful contributions.

Finally, of course we will have our joint sitting, which I am sure will be a very sombre event and occasion, and I hope we all remember our colleague Jane Garrett from the other place, because her passing is so untimely and, yes, very sad. On that note I will commend the government business program to the house.

Mr Wynne interjected.

Mr ROWSWELL (Sandringham) (12:34): Thank you, member for Richmond, for your encouragement.

I do not know how many times we need to have this conversation—fair dinkum. Why are government ministers so afraid, so scared, to answer pretty basic, simple questions about legislation which they are responsible for? That is the—

Mr Wells: The sports trust.

Mr ROWSWELL: The sports trust! Forgive me for being ill disciplined. I should not take interjections. Please, member for Rowville. This Parliament has gone into consideration in detail twice, and I have been in the chamber—

Members interjecting.

Mr ROWSWELL: I agree with you, Leader of The Nationals; the member for Rowville should know better than that. We have gone into—

The SPEAKER: Member for Sandringham, through the Chair!

Mr ROWSWELL: We have gone into consideration in detail on two occasions in this Parliament. I have been in the Parliament when that has happened. It is a good part of the process. Just recently I was on a panel that was organised by the Parliament. The soon to be former Clerk of the Parliaments, Andrew Young, was on that panel, as was the president of VCAT as well. During that time and as part of that conversation with secondary school students and teachers around the state we were discussing just how important that consideration-in-detail process is to the judiciary understanding and interpreting the laws that this Parliament gives it to interpret and how without that the judiciary is somewhat disadvantaged in understanding sometimes the intent of the laws that pass this Parliament. It should be a process that we engage with more regularly than we do, and I cannot for the life of me understand why the government does not want to go into consideration in detail on the three bills as requested by the opposition.

I join with the Manager of Opposition Business, my colleague the member for Ripon, in congratulating the Clerk of this chamber for her soon to be elevation as Clerk of the Parliaments. I think that is a wonderful, wonderful thing.

Just finally, again, there are five bills this week, as the Leader of The Nationals pointed out. For the majority of this Parliament there have been at most three, sometimes as little as two, bills considered during the course of a parliamentary sitting week in this chamber, and in the last couple of weeks there have been up to five. There are certainly five this week as well. That says to me that by some measures, by some definitions, the permanent government, those government departments, are shaking the tin, rattling the can, knocking on the door of their minister, saying, ‘Come on, we’ve got to get this through’ and pressing these new ministers to get legislation through cabinet processes and through other processes before they make it to this place, because time is running out. That says to me, as the Leader of The Nationals pointed out, that the process has not been managed entirely well at all for the term of this Parliament. It also says to me that there is no clarity or certainty of agenda from a government that is tired at this late stage of the 59th Parliament. We will be opposing this government business program this week, and we do so on very strong, very stable and very credible grounds.

Ms SHEED (Shepparton) (12:38):(By leave) I too join in opposing the government business program just as the Manager of Opposition Business has done and for the same reasons. Consideration in detail is an important part of this Parliament and others have spoken on it, but it is only one of many democratic processes that have been set aside over a number of years in this place. It is time, as the dying days of the 59th Parliament draw to a close, that we consider very hard what we want the next Parliament to look like and what sort of processes we want to see in this place. Might I say that the parties have over the years proceeded on the basis of allowing this sort of denigration of the parliamentary processes within the house to continue. I think it is really important from the point of view of operating a government business program that the government business program provides all the opportunities that ought to be there for the process to take place in a proper fashion.

There are so many things that we are not given the opportunity to do. Of course having no non-government business program means that members on this side of the house have very little opportunity to do many things. Just some of those things are moving motions on general debates, seeking an order for the production of documents, referring a matter to an inquiry or to a standing or select committee, disallowance motions under standing order 151, revocation motions and motions seeking to amend standing orders or introduce sessional or temporary orders or motions. There are so many things that this side of the house cannot do that are part of what ought to be a non-government business program. That we only have a government business program in this house—and the parties, for over 20 years, have stood aside and let that occur and be chipped away at—and do not have a consideration-in-detail stage is just another example of the final stage of shutting down this side of the house. Whether it be the National Party, the Liberal Party, the independents or the Greens, they are being denied the opportunity to have their say and to represent their electorates. It is an issue that needs to be debated in this place, and there needs to be a restoration of these things.

Let me say that, given the reform that clearly needs to take place within the parties now, I maintain that the Parliament also needs to have a level of reform to get democracy operating in the way that it was intended to do and should do and that consideration of all these bills, which are important bills, is properly taken into account and a minister does stand there for that.

I am very concerned too, I might just add while I have got the chance, that we have the Minister for Agriculture and the Minister for Water in the upper house. Two of our most important regional ministers are not here and not introducing legislation in this house. This is the house where government is formed, and yet these ministers are not in this house. What does that say about regional Victoria? It is important that after this election important ministries that affect regional areas are overseen in this house. I think the government should take note that that is a very important issue. We have seen what the neglect of regional Victoria has done in previous elections, and I think it is really worthwhile to note that, when we have a pandemic and we are seeing major impacts on food chains and on food security, ministers responsible for those things are in this house where government is formed.

Today we are simply debating opposition to the government business program because of the lack of consideration in detail. But these are much bigger issues, and they are issues that will be discussed during the forthcoming election campaign. I think the people of Victoria are ready to try and introduce some of the reforms that are needed to make this place work better to make sure that communities are better represented. We have seen what has happened at the federal level, with the biggest crossbench now in the lower house, the house where government is formed. I believe that the community of Victoria are now ready to see some commitment to that sort of process to get good government back and operating within the Victorian Parliament.

House divided on motion:

Motion agreed to.