Thursday, 18 June 2026

 James NEWBURY (Brighton) (14:15): My question is to the Premier. Given the Premier’s previous answers, can she rule out meeting the Electrical Trades Union, who were acting as an intermediary for the CFMEU, on a regular basis?

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: The member for Werribee and the member for Lara will leave the chamber for an hour.

Members for Werribee and Lara withdrew from chamber.

 Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:16): I refer the member for Brighton to my previous answer, where I answered yes. I have declared all of my meetings in accordance with the rules, which, I remind the member for Brighton, I introduced as Premier.

James Newbury: On a point of order, Speaker, on relevance, the Premier is being evasive. The question was whether she met the ETU as an intermediary of the CFMEU.

The SPEAKER: I do not uphold the point of order.

Jacinta ALLAN: The answer is, as I said earlier, that all of my meetings are appropriately held and appropriately declared. I say this: another thing about the ETU is that they are pretty big and strong enough to speak for themselves, member for Brighton.

James Newbury: On a further point of order, Speaker, again on relevance, the Premier is refusing to answer the question.

The SPEAKER: I cannot direct the Premier how to answer the question. The Premier has concluded her answer.

 James NEWBURY (Brighton) (14:17): Can the Premier guarantee that she has had no meeting with the Electrical Trades Union where they were acting as an intermediary for John Setka and the CFMEU regarding the Big Build?

Anthony Carbines: On a point of order, Speaker, that was very much the same question. I would rule it out of order as a repetitive question.

The SPEAKER: It is marginally different, Leader of the House.

 Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:18): The answer is yes, and I will say this about what I discuss with the ETU when I meet them, as appropriately declared in my diary declarations: we talk about how we need to get more young sparkies into a new career. We talk about how we can do that because our government believes in renewable energy. We do not want to scrap renewable energy, like the One Nation–Liberal partnership would do. We all know that they want to cut the pipeline of renewable energy projects. Do you know what that means? It will drive up energy prices, drive down investment, drive down jobs and deny young kids an opportunity to get a great career. That is what we talk about when I meet with the ETU, about how we make sure that we change the system through our first publicly owned apprenticeship academy so young kids today get the chance my dad had all those years ago before Jeff Kennett sacked them as part of privatising the SEC.