Wednesday, 3 June 2026

 Wayne FARNHAM (Narracan) (17:30): I grieve for Victoria because of the corruption that has infiltrated this state, and it is interesting today that I have heard members from the other side talk about DNA. The problem with the Labor Party is that corruption is in their DNA. They cannot help it. Let us go back to 2014, when it all started, prior to the election. Prior to the election there was the red shirts scandal. Twenty-one MPs were implicated in that investigation – 21 MPs. That has set the standard for this government ever since. Ever since, this government has been dragged through inquiry after inquiry after inquiry. I think that this government should start using the term – and Deputy Speaker, with respect to you, I will not use that l-word today. I do not want to see your head explode, so I will keep that out of the conversation. But I think that the people on that side now should actually start using the phrase, ‘This is my truth.’ They should use that phrase – not that this is necessarily factual or this is necessarily what actually happened, but now they just should use the phrase, ‘This is my truth.’

I mean, the member for Mordialloc got up earlier and spoke about people being honest and accountable. That was in his thing. To be honest, he probably should have taken his coat off. He was overheating at one stage. His head was getting redder and redder. I thought, ‘Jeez, it must be hot in there.’ But ‘honest’ and ‘accountable’ – those two words are two words the government has probably failed on, in my opinion. When I talked about the red shirts just earlier – it took four years to do the investigation into red shirts, and it ended up being that they defrauded the Victorian taxpayer of $388,000, which they had to pay back. But they did nothing wrong. If you had to pay the money back, I am pretty sure you did something wrong, and the investigation found that. It could not be referred on, because IBAC did not have the powers after that to deal with what they had put through. But this government set the tone right back in 2014 about their trustworthiness and what they were going to do for Victoria and how they have misled Victorians over the last nearly 12 years.

And no bigger fraud or case of misleading was the Commonwealth Games. What a classic stuff-up that was. Seriously, they came out prior to the 2022 elections: ‘We’re going to have a Commonwealth Games around regional Victoria.’ They knew they could never deliver it. They knew that. It was logistically impossible to deliver those games around regional Victoria. Whoever’s brainchild that was – and I do not know whether it was the former Premier or someone else, but honestly – they obviously had a brain fade, because that was never going to happen. But even when we got to the cancellation of the games, they were untruthful. They misled Victorians. When the figure came out, and I remember sitting in the chamber here, it was $7 billion – ‘We have to cancel’ – scribbled on a bit of paper that long and that big by the then Premier Daniel Andrews. ‘$7 billion – we have to cancel the Commonwealth Games.’ And I remember yelling out at the time, ‘Show us the quotes.’ Then it comes out later that that figure was fabricated. It was doubled to justify the cancellation of the Commonwealth Games, and what ended up happening to Victorians? It has cost us $589 million to have those games hosted in another country.

Glasgow are laughing. They got the Commonwealth Games for nothing off the back of the Victorian taxpayer. This is the problem with the government: every time they do not tell the truth or every time they are not accountable for their actions it costs the Victorian taxpayers money. Even in the contributions I am listening to today, they are not truthful. They are fabricated – not all, but some – and this is the problem. For the government, as I said, it is in their DNA. I think it was the member for Pascoe Vale who once quoted Seinfeld: ‘It’s not a … if you believe it.’ I think that is what has happened with members on that side. They just keep believing the story they want to put out into the media, so they are not accountable and they are not honest and they are not transparent – far from it.

When we have got a Premier that has been at the centre of the infrastructure build in this state that then denies any knowledge of the corruption and the $15 billion that this state lost, I find it hard to believe. I think Victorians find it hard to believe. I can remember the interview by Nick McKenzie. It was a press conference with Nick McKenzie, and he brought up a document. The Premier, to be honest, sounded like a two-stroke lawnmower: ‘But, but, but, but have you got that document?’ Yes, he did. The funny thing was the Premier had stated time and time and again ‘I always refer it on,’ but that document had been there for 12 months. That was not referred on. I do not think the Premier was being honest with Victorians when she said, ‘Every time I found out I referred it on.’ I do not think that is true. I do not think Victorians think it is true, because you cannot let $15 billion walk out the door and not have any investigation into it.

Now the Premier says, ‘We’re cleaning up the industry. We’re using every lever.’ And I think I keep hearing quotes, ‘We’ve cancelled 151 labour hire companies’ licences.’ Great job. You know what that tells me, though? If the government has cancelled 151 labour hire company licences, how much corruption was in there that we have ignored for the last decade? That is a problem. That is a massive problem when the government states ‘We’ve cancelled this many licences’ – only because Nick McKenzie from the Age brought it to light for the Victorian public. ‘We’ve now cancelled 151 licences’ – that is the level of corruption that this state has, and it is not over. It is far from over. We have not cleaned up the CFMEU. Yes, it is in administration, but the corruption is still there. For the government to turn a blind eye to that for the best part of a decade really makes them complicit in the corruption. If the government are aware of something that is costing the Victorian taxpayer money and they ignore the problem, the government might as well have done it themselves. You cannot ignore that level of corruption for so long and then just claim, ‘Well, we’re cleaning everything up.’ That is not right, because every dollar wasted, every dollar that has gone to a bikie, every dollar that has gone to a drug dealer, a standover man – whatever – a sex offender or a stripper, could have gone to something else. It could have gone to the West Gippsland Hospital. That would have been a nice little chestnut for me. But no. It could have gone anywhere.

A member interjected.

Wayne FARNHAM: I would not start mouthing off about the hospital on that side of the chamber if I was them. They know very little about it. They know very little about the commitment, and probably hardly any of them have ever been there, so I am happy to take up the interjections and debate the West Gippsland Hospital if they want to. And this is my point: every time corruption is ignored, it costs someone, not just the taxpayer but the service, a frontline service. The member for Tarneit actually got up earlier and stated, ‘We’re cut from the same cloth.’

Well, to be honest, Labor is cut from the same cloth at the federal and state levels. Albanese said, ‘For the fiftieth time I’m not going to do anything about negative gearing and capital gains tax.’ What did he do?

Mary-Anne Thomas: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, I would ask that you counsel the member on his feet to use the appropriate titles for members of Parliament, including the Prime Minister.

Matthew Guy: On the point of order, Deputy Speaker, we have just heard previous Labor speakers referring to the former Premier Jeff Kennett as just Kennett. If you are going to counsel any members in this chamber, can I also ask you to counsel government members on the appropriate usage for former premiers?

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is no point of order.

Wayne FARNHAM: I will refer to people in this chamber by their proper titles or those in the other place, but if they are not in this chamber, I do not care. Talk about being cut from the same cloth.

Members interjecting.

Matthew Guy: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, respectfully, members on this side of the chamber heard the last number of Labor speakers in silence. They were given that respect. The member for Narracan has been constantly interrupted for the second part of his presentation. I ask you to bring the government members back to order.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: All members should be heard in silence. Interjections are disorderly. The member to continue without assistance.

Wayne FARNHAM: My point is: the state Labor Party and the federal Labor Party are cut from the same cloth. They mislead the public, they are not honest with the public and at the end of the day the public pays for it. There have been so many investigations into this government – Operation Watts and Operation Daintree. Operation Richmond – we are still waiting for that to see the light of day. It is tied up at the moment. There is no bigger rort than the CFMEU and the Big Build. There is no bigger rort. Even the treatment of women in construction – that behaviour has been abhorrent. The government gets up and virtue signals all the time but does not do anything about it. The issues with women in construction are still going on today.

The Victorian people have had enough. I have had enough. Everyone has had enough. The Victorian public does not believe this government anymore. They just do not. Whatever this government says, the Victorian public now rolls its eyes and thinks, ‘Here we go again.’ It is the same story, but there is no result. ‘We are doing everything we can’, but the government does not do that. The Premier has nearly flat-out denied that there is any corruption on Big Build sites, has denied that the figure is $15 billion. That is okay. Have an investigation into it to find out how much it is. It is pretty simple: if there is an allegation made – where there is smoke, there is fire; there always is – have an investigation into it and find out how much money it was and who is implicated. Because I would hope and pray that no-one from government is implicated, or I would hope no department heads are implicated or anyone within this precinct.

We need the investigation into the corruption to clear up the rumour and innuendo, if you will. Members on that side always shout at us: ‘It’s not true. It’s not true. It’s not true.’ The government is not doing anything to find out the truth, and that is the problem the Victorian people are having. Every time I go out and talk to people, they go, ‘Can you find the $15 billion?’ That is the one thing they say. It is constant. Even on the government members own social media sites – I guarantee government members read their social media – they would see the same comments as well. People are asking, ‘Where is our $15 billion?’ The member for Laverton has probably seen it on her social media as well.

Sarah Connolly interjected.

Wayne FARNHAM: Maybe the member for Laverton should read her comments –

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Through the Chair. That is enough.

Wayne FARNHAM: because then she will get an idea of what the Victorian public is thinking. That is the problem with the government. The member for Laverton is a classic example of the attitude of the government, that you bury your head in the sand and ignore the issue.

That is why we have got the corruption. That is why we have massive debt and a massive interest bill, and that is why the government needs to be honest and accountable, as the member for Mordialloc stated. It is not a hard thing to do. Why don’t you try and break the perception of a dishonest government? Why don’t you start telling the truth? Why doesn’t the government start telling the truth, rather than saying, ‘This is my truth’?