Thursday, 16 November 2023

Commonwealth Games

John PESUTTO (Hawthorn – Leader of the Opposition) (14:26): My question is to the Premier. Today it has been revealed that the Premier has instructed departmental secretaries to not provide documents to the select committee on the Commonwealth Games. Why is the Premier attempting to muzzle witnesses and hide the truth about the games debacle?

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:26): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question, and the Leader of the Opposition is wrong. No such instruction has been given. I am advised that the relevant departments have received requests for further information from the Legislative Council committee and those requests are currently being assessed and processed. So the Leader of the Opposition is just flat out wrong once again with his little conspiracy theories over there. In terms of the question of executive privilege, I say to the Leader of the Opposition – I thought he was watching these proceedings a little bit more closely than what this question belies – executive privilege indeed has been waived on a number of occasions in terms of providing information to the committee to provide that advice to the committee.

This also goes to the heart of the issue at hand. Why the government made a decision to not proceed with a 12-day sporting event is because it was all about the cost and not about the benefit for regional Victoria. What we are focused on right now is building more homes in regional Victoria, investing in community sporting facilities, in supporting our tourism and major events industry, and that is the task we will continue to focus on.

John PESUTTO (Hawthorn – Leader of the Opposition) (14:28): Now that her attempt to muzzle departmental secretaries has been revealed, will the Premier do the right thing and allow officials to hand over documents to the select committee on the Commonwealth Games?

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:28): Maybe the Leader of the Opposition in his busyness of being more focused on interjecting across the table missed my previous answer. I am happy to repeat it for the benefit of the Leader of the Opposition. I apologise to the house for what may be a little bit of repetition because I know other colleagues may have already heard this – it was that the Leader of the Opposition is simply wrong.