Thursday, 2 April 2026

 Chris CREWTHER (Mornington) (10:02): In Victoria the government has been good at wasting taxpayer money. We have had $15 billion on CFMEU corruption and waste, $600 million on the Commonwealth Games – and more. Soon we will have a bronze statue of Daniel Andrews. Yet before they do that, perhaps this government should not ignore the contribution of a Premier well before Daniel Andrews who was a former Mornington representative and who helped to build the foundations of this state. That is Sir James McCulloch, who originally represented the Wimmera, where I grew up, but then represented Mornington from 1862 to 1872 and served as Premier across four terms between 1863 and 1877. He served for well over 3000 days and is Victoria’s third-longest serving Premier, but he to this day still has no statue. We should not be wasting money on newer premiers like Daniel Andrews when we do not have a statue to this day of our third-longest serving Premier. He was indeed a leader of substance at the time, and he led a government that ruled almost continuously until 1871, making genuine land policy and other reforms and much more. But this is in contrast with this government that continues to waste money. That occurred under the former Premier and continues under this Premier. Let us not continue to waste money on statues, CFMEU corruption, Commonwealth Games and more.