Wednesday, 3 May 2023

Liberal Party

Paul EDBROOKE (Frankston) (17:45): I rise to contribute to the grievance debate this afternoon, and I grieve for the current state of the Liberal Party. We will throw barbs at each other, we will have the cut and thrust of politics, but I would like to start by saying that a shadow has been cast over Parliament today. I would like to think that Parliament is a safe workplace for everyone that works here and for visitors. I would like to think that when accusations of bullying and bringing women to tears are made they will be investigated, and we have not heard that today. It is truly ironic that we would stand here today wearing ribbons that signify Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and in the same day we would have Peta Credlin coming out and using her editorial today to talk about or reveal that a junior member, a female member, of the opposition was reduced to tears by the Victorian Leader of the Opposition during the party room meeting yesterday. This is a really slippery slope. Apart from the whole argument about a safe workplace, it is –

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Members who are not in their allocated seats will cease interjecting.

Paul EDBROOKE: Apart from the argument about a safe workplace and OH&S and that everyone deserves a safe workplace, it is a very, very slippery slope to be on the other side of that chamber wearing a purple ribbon and not calling this out. Do we accept zero bullying? Do we have zero tolerance, or do we just accept a little bit when someone is in tears? Do we work further down the line? It is a very slippery slope. It is very dangerous, and it affects every one of us in this room. It affects every person that is working here, and those members opposite who are new might want to just rewind the history books and think that there was a person over there –

James Newbury interjected.

The SPEAKER: The member for Brighton!

Paul EDBROOKE: There was a person over there, a former member, that was being investigated in the last Parliament for the way they were treating people who are staff in this Parliament – in this house. I think that that casts a real shadow over our whole workplace – not just you as Liberals, not just us as Labor. We need to know that this is investigated. We need to know that these allegations – these accusations – are looked into and investigated and that the opposition leader will make a statement on this, because accusations have been made that are very, very serious. This side of the house stands for zero tolerance of bullying. We have got a huge record to go through on what we have done in the prevention of family violence, but to stand here today and be wearing purple ribbons and hearing that a member of this Parliament at a caucus meeting –

A member: Stop comparing it to domestic violence.

Paul EDBROOKE: We generally call it ‘family violence’, but ‘domestic violence’ – we will go with it.

A member: You will go with it?

Paul EDBROOKE: Well, we will accept it. That a member has been brought to tears in a meeting is totally unacceptable.

Now that I feel we have aired that, and I think we should – I think it should be taken very seriously – we will get into a couple of things that have happened locally in Frankston. The Liberal shadow cabinet came on a jaunt down to Frankston. I think it was a bit of a listening tour, which is great. That is politics, and we accept everybody no matter what their views on LGBTIQ people in Frankston are as long as they do not come out and tell us. They had their shadow cabinet there. We heard the Leader of the Opposition shouting out today ‘What major projects have you finished?’ Well, let me tell you. The opposition leader was sitting in the Frankston football clubrooms, which were built by the Labor state government. He was sitting in the clubrooms of a club, the VFL Dolphins, that was saved by the Labor state government. He looked out onto the oval, and he saw lights that were paid for by the Labor state government. He could throw a tennis ball in any direction, and it would bounce back and hit him in the face, rebounding off a project that the Labor state government has built and finished in Frankston. And that goes for all of Victoria.

When we hear ‘What major projects have you finished?’, the Premier put it pretty well today. Have a look at those level crossings for an example. When the shadow cabinet visits – they came to speak to some people – I would say to them, if you really want to hear from people in Frankston, go on a walking tour. You know, I would love to have you. You could come to my office. But you could walk around Frankston and see all the things that this government has done – stage 2 of TAFE has now been built, a $1.5 billion hospital, a new station. We would take you on a street art tour and you could actually speak to people in the street who might not necessarily engage you in conversation by coming to a football clubroom and are wanting you to listen to them. Ask people how they feel, because I know in Frankston and in many other parts of Victoria people feel like their communities are progressing, their livability is up, things are being built that they have wanted for years, things are progressing in the direction they want.

You could even talk to the local constituency and your constituency about things like free kinder. As I said yesterday, free kinder – albeit three- and four-year-old kinder being the subject matter – has been an issue in Frankston for many a year. We love knowing that as part of our actions to increase the savings for people and really address the cost of living, from this year each family in Frankston and across Victoria will be two and a half grand better off per child through the free kinder program. That includes a kinder kit, which many people are seeing, and then we have got sports vouchers. We will do some quick maths here – we can make a meme later – but two and a half grand. Keep that in your mind; that is free kinder if you have got a kid. If you have got an older kid, it is $200 worth of sport vouchers. These are to address the cost of sporting gear so we can make sure that, whether kids be in Mildura or Frankston or Shepparton or Tarneit, the superstars of the future – the AFL superstars, the netball superstars of the future – have what they need right now.

We have got in our schools – apart from the massive school building program, which is just unprecedented – the free Glasses for Kids program, with free dental as well. I know there have been 32,000 eye tests done in Victorian public schools and 5000 sets of glasses handed out to kids, with a spare pair as well, because you know what happens with glasses. As a former teacher I can tell you this is one of the most crucial things in education besides free kinder, because when you go to a classroom and you see a kid who might be disruptive, who might have some bad behaviour issues, who might just not seem to be concentrating, they get an eye test and all of a sudden we get a diagnosis. We get diagnoses quite often that they cannot either hear what is being said or see what is being done, and all of a sudden that door is open through the Andrews state government’s program, where we have tested 32,000 kids. I talked about free dental – the Smile Squad vans are everywhere, saving parents a lot of money, from root canals to fillings. It is a very, very good initiative and very appreciated. Those are two things. You cannot put a monetary value on that. I do not know what a root canal is worth these days, and I do not want to know either.

We also announced the early parenting centre located down in Hastings on the Mornington Peninsula the other day with my great friend the member for Hastings and the Minister for Health, the minister at the table – again, something without a cost imposed on parents. They can learn and their kids can learn how to sleep properly. We can get them in a rhythm and avoid all sorts of other issues. We have got the priority care centres. Again, the health minister has been down to Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula a couple of times, and we love having her there. The priority care centres – we have rolled out 21; four more are on the way and one is in Frankston, saving people up to $40 above the Medicare cap out of pocket every time they go. That is for things like cuts, broken arms, this, that and the other – those minor things that you do not need to be sitting at triage centre at an emergency department for 4 hours for; you can actually go to this doctor.

I am going to just touch on the power saving bonus for a minute – pretty popular.

Mary-Anne Thomas: Great initiative.

Paul EDBROOKE: A great initiative. One million Victorians have claimed that. We have had members who have had the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory golden ticket where they actually had not claimed the $250 before; they claimed it before the cut-off and then got the other $250 – 500 bucks in your pocket like that. Those people are very, very happy. We had a day where my office hired a table at Karingal Hub shopping centre, the doyen of fashion in Frankston. We have got some good shops in there. But people actually came for the power saving bonus. We had a table set up. I was a bit afraid, to tell you the truth, member for Mordialloc. I had the management come up to me and we had a line out the door, and the Minister for Energy and Resources walked in. I was a bit nervous, you know, we were disrupting this shop. The manager came up to me and said, ‘We’re going to put some cones out because we want to have these people in a zigzag fashion like at the bank, but can you come back? Because these people are getting 250 bucks and then they’re going shopping.’ I went, ‘Okay. Well, it is to save them money on bills or to spend however they want’, but 40 per cent of these people are having a look at their bill and saying, ‘I’m going to move providers because I’m going to save a hell of a lot of money there.’

It would be remiss of me not to talk about the support package we also put out for the LGBTIQ community. When some of those opposite were attaching themselves to a terrible debate, there were some people in this government that, as Shakespeare said, ‘screwed their courage to the sticking place’ and said, ‘We will actually put the rainbow flag outside of 1 Treasury Place, outside the government offices, because we are proud of these people. We are proud of you. At the same time we will put a funding boost into the budget for the mental health of LGBTIQ –

The SPEAKER: Member for Tarneit, you need to acknowledge the Chair when you pass by the mace.

Paul EDBROOKE: community.’ Sorry, Speaker, I thought you were going to kick me out.

The SPEAKER: Do not tempt me.

Paul EDBROOKE: We have also got the solar panel program, and I note that 130,000 people have enrolled – sorry, no, they are not quite the numbers. But there are many, many people who have enrolled in free TAFE and free nursing. My daughter is one of those. I am not sure if she got the free side of it, but certainly nursing is one of those industries that this government has always supported. Labor governments always support; we do not give them the bird.

We have also seen a huge uptake of the V/Line cap. Now, the V/Line cap means that you can spend only $9.20 a day, capped, to go basically anywhere in the V/Line rail pattern. We heard a story of a gentleman on Facebook that said, ‘You know, why not? I’m going to go from Melbourne to Merimbula in a day.’ He got off shift, he packed his bags and off he went on a day trip. I have got to say, I am very attracted to that. I might do that sometime.

We have also got the free licence tests, the paid sick leave and 30 million breakfasts have just been served at state government schools. That is kids who are getting dental fillings, glasses, GP checks. They are getting free breakfast. They are getting free kinder. They are starting their day off right, and that is going to pay dividends in the future. That is going to pay dividends in the way that we are going to have a smarter, more engaged population in 10 to 20 years because these kids can learn better, and that is just a fact that I think is well acknowledged.

So if you go through a couple of those things, we have got the $2500 for free kinder. Add a $200 sports voucher to that. That is $2700. Free glasses and the power saving bonus – you might have got the golden ticket of $500. You are saving $40 every time you go to the GP at a priority care centre – well, up to $40. You have got the V/Line cap. You have got free TAFE. You have got the solar panel program, the breakfast clubs and free licensing –

A member: Sports vouchers.

Paul EDBROOKE: Sports vouchers as well. Thank you very much. Someone has been listening. Well done. You know, you can add that up –

Jackson Taylor: Boronia station.

Paul EDBROOKE: I love this guy. He slipped Boronia station in. I love it. But what we are getting to is the point that as far as cost of living goes, we know cost of living is rising. We know there are pressures on families. But realistically, potentially right here there is $3000 to $4000 of savings for your average family. Some of these things you do not even have to apply for. Things like free dental and the glasses for kids you do not have to apply for. Those power saving bonuses we are helping people apply for on Friday at another shopping centre. We will probably be overrun with people wanting to apply for that power saving bonus, also knowing that on top of the $250 40 per cent, 40 out of 100 people we serve, will possibly change their provider and save more cash than ever on their power bills, which is really, really powerful and helps with that cost-of-living pressure that we are seeing now.

There are some things that we cannot control with that. We have just seen the interest rate rise – thank you to Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe – and there are things that we cannot control at a federal level, but what we can do is take action to make sure that families in communities like Frankston across Victoria get what they need from a supportive government who listens, who makes sure that we act on what people are saying and who makes promises and commitments and actually rolls them out. That is what this Labor government has done, and that is why people vote for this government.

Question agreed to.