Wednesday, 18 June 2025

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee

Inquiry into Vaping and Tobacco Controls

David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (10:15): I rise to speak on the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee’s vaping and tobacco controls inquiry. I thank the member for Point Cook for the shout-out earlier, and I notice that the member for Laverton is in the chamber here as well. Quite often we come to this place and we talk about what wonderful work our committees do, and by and large the committees do great work. This is no reflection on necessarily the committees – it is on the chaotic government that we have – but we have a government that is giving this committee work to do when they have already got the answers. What they are doing is wasting the time of the member for Laverton and wasting the time of the member of Point Cook by giving them an inquiry to do stuff when they should be doing work in their electorates, because ultimately they have put these recommendations in play for registering tobacco shops, but they were looking at ensuring vaping legislation as well. We have got vaping laws. We have got now, finally – even though we are the last state in the nation to have them – registrations when it comes to the licensing of tobacco shops. So this committee was tasked with doing work when the government already had the answers and were already introducing the legislation. What a complete waste of time. This shows a chaotic government that is just giving members of Parliament – the backbenchers, the member for Point Cook and the chair, the member for Laverton – something to do.

I was at Sunshine just the other day, when I was talking to the police forum at Sunshine in the west. The member for St Albans was there with me. We were there together, and we were hearing just how stretched Victoria Police are. It is because, we know, the members of the government are not doing their job. They are not doing their job to keep people safe. So instead of wasting your time in a committee I would suggest you go out there and do some time in your electorate, because ultimately that is what constituents are telling me in the west.

Mathew Hilakari interjected.

David SOUTHWICK: Member for Point Cook, that is what your constituents are telling me.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Hamer): Through the Chair.

David SOUTHWICK: Because when I was at the train station, let me say – and you might say it is across the road –

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Hamer): Through the Chair, member for Caulfield.

David SOUTHWICK: There are many people from Point Cook that actually use that train station. So you cannot just limit your boundary to within and what is in your electorate, member for Point Cook. You cannot limit your boundary; it is just like a school. You have got to look after everybody in your electorate, member for Point Cook, and they are telling me they do not feel safe because you are wasting your time. So if you want to get re-elected next year, member for Point Cook – and all the people – you have got to look after the people in the west.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Hamer): Through the Chair, member for Caulfield.

David SOUTHWICK: You have got to look after people in the west, because the west are being neglected. I know, member for Point Cook, you had a go at hardworking member Trung Luu in the upper house, who, I can tell you, is at a lot more forums than you are, member for Point Cook. He is out there working very, very hard in areas that you are not, so I would suggest instead of having a go –

Mathew Hilakari: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, why is Trung Luu not the delegate for Western Metro, unlike Moira Deeming? If he is such a hardworking member, why has he been downgraded?

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Hamer): There is no point of order. But before the member for Caulfield continues, I ask him to not make reflections on the Chair and direct his comments through the Chair.

David SOUTHWICK: I will not be making reflections on you, Acting Chair, but I will on those opposite because they are not doing their job, clearly. The member for Point Cook is very touchy, because he has to take a point of order because he knows he is not doing his work – he is not doing his job. Trung Luu, a hardworking member in the upper house, is doing the job for him. I can tell you that the people in the west are feeling neglected, particularly when it comes to crime and the crime crisis. I would suggest, with this particular committee report on vaping and tobacco controls, that the answers were already made before the committee started.

Let us not waste time. Let us actually do the job. We are the last to the party when it comes to registration of these tobacco shops. We are seeing firebombings of tobacco shops. We are seeing outlaw motorcycle gangs using these tobacco shops to profit from. It is appalling. Victorians’ lives are being put at risk. While you might laugh, member for Point Cook, and while the backbench may laugh, this is very, very serious, and the government needs to stand up and do something.

Mathew Hilakari: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, it is outrageous to misrepresent that I was laughing at the tragedies that have occurred around firebombings and the life that has been lost across the road from the community that I represent, so I ask him to withdraw.

David SOUTHWICK: On the point of order, Acting Speaker, I am very happy for the footage to be shown of the smile on his face while I was talking. I would like to be able to see the footage of that, member for Point Cook.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Hamer): Order! There is no point of order, member for Caulfield. The member for Point Cook has asked the member for Caulfield to withdraw.

David SOUTHWICK: I withdraw.