Wednesday, 20 March 2024

Opposition performance

Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (17:17): It is great to speak on the grievance debate. I grieve for the people of Victoria facing an incompetent opposition devoid of policy and engagement but who are more about their own interests than the interests of each and every Victorian and their collective futures. It was a spirited performance from the member for Nepean. We know that if it is not written down for the member for Nepean then it does not quite come out right, so I am glad that spirited, spine-tingling performance that we saw just there – the call to arms to get around Grothy – was so significant ‍–

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Correct titles.

Tim RICHARDSON: I had chills listening to that. I mean, at one point –

Wayne Farnham: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, I will remind the member to address people by their proper titles.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I thank the member for Narracan. I had just said the same thing.

Tim RICHARDSON: I am glad the member for Narracan is still a Liberal for today, but we will wait to see. Someone is backgrounding, but we will wait to see if he is still a member for the Liberals longer term.

I thought that was a real spirited performance from the member for Nepean. It is not in the sort of range that we saw as an Australian hero, and he was. I used to get up in the middle of the night around Wimbledon time and just watch him smashing down the serves and hoping for better things, but he was a better tennis player than he is a leader of the opposition prospect. It was a bit like that time he took us on Postcards around his hood. Remember in 2021, he took Postcards around his hood? Where was the hood at the time? It was not Nepean, it was the electorate of Box Hill, and it was not until later on in February 2023 when the Fletchers Real Estate group on 19 and 20 February 2023, preselection time was going on, said tennis great – I agree with that, you will not have any arguments from me – Sam Groth and his wife have sold up and they are moving to pursue his political career on the peninsula. So the member for Box Hill saw off the member for Warrandyte, saw off a prospective member for Nepean, and then had a bit of a faux pas – a bit like when he did the teleprompter interviews on the sports reports on Channel 9, he should have had the answer written down today when the Leader of the Opposition looked to the member for Nepean and he was hoping to say, ‘No, no, you are the right leader. You are the leader for today, tomorrow and forever.’ No, what did the member for Nepean say? He turned to John, looked John in the eye and said, ‘No, I would absolutely enjoy to be the leader in the future.’

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Correct titles, member for Mordialloc.

Tim RICHARDSON: ‘I would love to be the leader in the future.’ So at least the record is set. While the member for Nepean wants to restate the quote, I do not think saying that there are factional issues in the Labor Party on a day like this is really the right thing to say in the grievance debate. It is a bit of a peculiar reference. But the member for Nepean – all serve, no volley does not get you grand slams or the opposition leader gig. He was better in doubles, just look at the Wikipedia entry – his singles game needed a bit of work. So my advice would be, get a partner and have a better crack, you might even have a go.

But when you think of the dysfunction that is happening on that side, it is not really a joke. We are seeing some really significant issues, because the policy debate and the leadership from the Liberal party should be so much better. This is of course the party of Menzies and the party of Bolte, which had treasurers of the level of Costello and Frydenberg. If the former Leader of the Liberal Party and former opposition leader the member for Malvern was here – he worked for Peter Costello at that time – he might be able to give those reflections. Now, the party is described by Tony Barry, who is known well to them, as ‘the Victorian Liberal party is where hope goes to die. It is clearly the worst division in the country.’ And that was only just last year in April. I thought, well that is a bit harsh isn’t it; it is a bit inflammatory, those reflections. That was just in April, and I ask what has changed? Because after the 2022 election in November we had these reflections from the honourable learned member in this place – who has not had a promotion, but he has a crack and he has a fair go on the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC) – the member for Gippsland South, who said on ABC radio that the Nationals had not considered breaking up the coalition but the discussion is on the table. He said that the Liberals

… are going to go through a fair bit of soul searching in coming days and weeks and months and we have performed very well.

‘We’ being the Nationals of course. They had a bit of a clean-out, didn’t they; they got nine seats. The member for Mildura really leans in and says ‘nine’ every time there is a vote with a bit of force and a bit of confidence, and we hear that and we acknowledge that the Nationals have done well. The member for Gippsland East took a bet each way and said:

I think we need to let the dust settle and just see how many seats they’ve won, who’s their leader and how many seats we’ve won.

And then the Leader of the Nationals just came through and knocked them all out and condemned Mr O’Brien – he got in a bit of trouble; got put in the freezer it looked like. He said the Gippsland South MP

is totally outside his remit in saying that because it’s not a discussion that’s been had in the party room.

…

He is way out of bounds by saying something at this stage without the party room talking about it.

Well, if they were not talking about at the end of 2022, I bet you they are talking about it now. Where we find ourselves now in Victoria in the policy debate and the interests of Victorians could not have gone further from their needs and their aspirations.

If it was bad then, what is the situation we have where the Leader of the Opposition is more interested in issues happening at Flagstaff station in the court precinct than he is in the Parliament precinct right here on Spring Street? When you get to that position where you are not focused on Victorians and the alternative policies you set forward, you really are not fit to govern. And where do we see that? We have seen two of the most senior and eminent people in the Leader of the Opposition’s office go and leave recently. It is so destabilising to see figures of that nature. We saw a communications director go, we saw the chief of staff go and we saw the former member for Ripon step back in and save the day and try to salvage the Leader of the Opposition’s office. It is because there is a huge amount of dysfunction, disunity, leaking, backgrounding impact and when you get to that point we all know what that looks like. We all know what it looks like when you go out and attack the media rather than talk about the issues of the day. So rather than fronting up and answering those questions that Victorians are entitled to ask – we saw an Auditor-General report put forward today; questions asked, Premier answers. But when questions about transparency were put forward about the Leader of the Opposition yesterday, what did the Leader of the Opposition say? He blamed the media. ‘You’re giving me a hard go. It is all so hard, it is all too much.’ What did Neil Mitchell say – that real fearsome supporter of progressive politics and the Labor Party and our former Premier and the labour movement? Neil Mitchell’s comment to Jacqui Felgate was:

He has lit a fire under himself and now he’s complaining about the smoke.

I think each and every person can see that playing out right now. It is never the Leader of the Opposition’s fault. There is never a moment of reflection. It was not the people in Hawthorn that made the judgement on him. It was someone else that got it wrong. It was the media getting it wrong. It is someone else; it is someone else’s fault. It was not him that defamed someone; it is someone else’s fault. These are the types of things where you do not front up and you are not accountable. This is what it looks like. How can you lead Victorians when your own party and your own people do not trust you?

All you have to do ask is another good colleague and another good PAEC friend of mine, the member for Polwarth, who coalition people suspected and backgrounded. They did not know why he went on ABC radio the other day. I know why. He has a fair crack. He speaks his mind. He goes off onto weird podcasts sometimes and talks about various different things. We know he has had a crack at wire rope barriers and wind farms. You know, he leans in and speaks his mind, and we commend the member for Polwarth. But when asked and cornered – not, ‘How are you going, member for Polwarth?’ – the obvious question was going to be about leadership. He panicked, deer in the headlights, or it was orchestrated: ‘He is the best leader we have today.’ At that stage he fronted up to Raf Epstein’s program at about 9:30, so 9½ hours had lapsed and there was, on the books, about 15 hours to go. So for the next 15 hours the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Hawthorn, was still the best option for the day. You could not get a more surreal circumstance right now other than the circus that we saw in the Herald Sun about who the prospect might be.

We all know – I have said this before, and this is absolutely true – if the member for Bulleen is still the best prospect and the best answer, what is the question that they are asking? Clearly, his performance and authority yesterday on the doorstops knocked everyone out of the park. He is still the best option for the Liberal Party. Maybe in another time and another era – you know, the Jeff Kennett days – he might have been. But when he is still the best answer, what is the question?

So we had a spirited defence in the grievance from the member for Sandringham talking about where we find ourselves on the economy. I want to remind him, like I have the member for Kew, about their superstar hero, their Prime Minister-in-waiting until the teals took him out, the former member for Kooyong, Josh Frydenberg, who did some very important work during COVID on that program – I do not know if you saw it – Nemesis. It was high rating. There were millions that watched it. Our former Premier reflected on the work that Prime Minister Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg had done. Well, in Josh’s own words, this is what Josh said about debt:

There is a great deal of uncertainty. You can’t overlook the fact this is primarily a health crisis that has had a severe economic impact.

Only by suppressing the virus can we … have success into reopening our economy and getting people back to work.

And this is the kicker:

The more debt and deficit is the price on saving livelihoods.

So that was the equation for the Treasurer of the day – the top of the pops in Victoria, the most senior minister at the time, Josh Frydenberg. That was the equation he put forward. Victorians know that when you come in and you are putting forward a narrative like the member for Sandringham has, you have got to have a bit more than just the ranting, raving and whingeing. You have got to actually have a policy alternative. The member for Sandringham had 13½ minutes; he had 1 minute and 27 seconds to go and then said, ‘This is what we’ll do differently.’ He will have – not a review but a wholesale review, whatever that means. It had the level of depth that his Shadow Treasurer speech had, which was 7 minutes of the greatest – I mean, it was spine tingling; there were goosebumps. We all went, ‘Oh, gee, I tell you what, he’s definitely a contender going forward.’ But that was the equation that was put forward – the price of saving lives. The price of saving lives was what was put forward in the economic circumstances.

Then another treasured Liberal Premier, the one that actually got some stuff done on behalf of their state – no, not Ted Baillieu. What did Tim Smith, the former member for Kew, say about Ted Baillieu in a tweet recently?

You know it’s getting desperate when Staley and Pesutto send poor old @TedBaillieu out to defend him …

referring to the Leader of the Opposition. Harsh – Ted is looking fantastic. Ted was a great leader for them and put forward and brought them back to government. Harsh reflections, but I think the salient point is the absolute desperation from those opposite.

What did Dom Perrottet put forward? Dom Perrottet put forward and said:

With a building boom in … infrastructure on Australia’s east coast pitting states against each other –

it is –

… “OK” if costs increased from estimates at the start of projects.

That was the most successful Liberal leader in government that they have had recently. I will say that again:

With a building boom in new infrastructure on Australia’s east coast pitting states against each other, Premier … Perrottet said it was “OK” if costs increased from estimates at the start of projects.

What were those opposite saying all through the last Parliament? ‘New South Wales is the standard. We should be more like New South Wales. In fact forget the new state of Victoria; let us unify. Forget Canberra. We should be all one state; it is all a wonderful place in New South Wales.’

You cannot fanboy and fangirl over a Liberal leader in Dom Perrottet and hope that you can be like Dom and then turn around when Dom puts on the record cost increases and issues and put that forward as a prospect. That just gives the member for Sandringham a reference. I acknowledge he is having a fair dip, there is a bit of that Toastmasters training really coming through, you know, the real emphasis on pause, the downloaded speech. He is a really active member around our community. We share an electorate, but it was not lost on everyone in this Parliament – and the member for Berwick and the member for Nepean and even an outside chance that – there he is, the member for Berwick as if like, come in on the hook, here we go. It was not lost on everyone that the member for Sandringham did a street stall in Highett for about 30 minutes –

Members interjecting.

Tim RICHARDSON: If you listen, you might actually learn something. The member for Sandringham did a street stall and there Channel 7 was waiting for him, waiting in the wings. I do not know if the rumour is right, but I heard Brad got there a little too early, and then the member for Sandringham –

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Correct titles.

Tim RICHARDSON: had to wait a little bit because 7News was not there. His next street stall in Mentone was a little delayed for the constituents because of the grab to say, ‘I am not interested in the leadership’ – wink – ‘not yet’ – wink. But that was the key point that the whole street stall engagement was putting forward – not like the member for Berwick, who is a two-time failed candidate and has to be the unified choice because three times and you will never come back. We know what has happened with Bulleen. That is a bit of a sore point if you come back for a third time. I mean there is Lazarus with a triple bypass and then there is the literally walking-on-water miracle. And the member for Nepean is so underdone.

What we see is chaos in the Liberal Party, diminishing our democracy. Luckily, we are focused on the interests of Victorians, while they are focused on rolling their leader in a month’s time.