Tuesday, 28 July 2026

 Jess WILSON (Kew – Leader of the Opposition) (14:41): When I finished before question time I was reflecting that too many Victorians are lying awake at night, worried that their home is going to be invaded or their car is going to be stolen. We are now the car theft capital of the nation. Family violence related serious assaults have risen by 58 per cent, and in the year to March 2026 over 250,000 ‍Victorians made a victim report, an average of 735 victims a day. Every 50 seconds a crime is committed in the new Premier’s Victoria. Every 13 minutes there is a theft from a retail store. Every 28 minutes there is a serious assault. Every week there are nine carjackings. There are 1500 police vacancies and more than 40 police stations that have closed or have reduced their hours in Victoria. And this is the price that Victorians pay, with their safety and their security.

It is not an accident. It is the direct consequence of a government that has prioritised itself and the needs of its political allies ahead of Victorians. It is because almost 40 police stations have closed or reduced their hours because Victoria Police does not have the resources to keep them open. It is because Victoria Police has 1500 vacancies. It is because the government has taken PSOs off 119 train stations. This government found billions of dollars to cover up project blowouts caused by corruption and misconduct so they could keep paying their CFMEU mates, but they cannot find the money to keep Victorians safe.

Those opposite still have not found the humility to accept that it was wrong to change Victoria’s bail laws. In October 2023 Labor repealed offences related to committing an indictable offence while on bail and breaching bail conditions. When the opposition warned that the changes weakened the law and could have consequences for the safety of Victorians, the Premier told this house, in February 2024, that that was a misrepresentation of the legislation. But let me be clear: Labor weakened the law. Labor denied weakening the law. Labor attacked those who warned of the consequences. Then, when the consequences became politically impossible to ignore, Labor quietly walked back some of its own changes, although I note that bail laws today in this state are still weaker than they were a decade ago.

That failure to admit they got it wrong is emblematic of the way this government operates. They cannot admit failure. They can only deny, delay and quietly reverse when their political survival requires it and discard the leader when her personal unpopularity threatens the brand’s authority – when her presence becomes a problem and threatens Labor’s power.

But Victorians are not just paying for Labor with their own safety. There are more than 68,000 ‍Victorians paying for Labor because they are waiting for elective surgery. Victorians are paying for Labor because they are waiting longer for ambulances than they did a decade ago. And of course who could forget – certainly not Victorians – that Victorians are paying for Labor every time they get into their car and have to drive over our roads littered with potholes. That is the price of Labor.

But it does not have to be this way. Fixing it will not be easy, but on this side of the chamber we offer Victoria something different: real change. We are ready. We have the team. We have the plan. Our plan will reduce crime, because we will recruit 3000 new police officers, we will return PSOs to the train stations Labor has stripped them from, we will reopen over 40 police stations that have had their hours reduced under Labor and we will restore consequences for actions and put an end to Labor’s youth crime crisis with our ‘break bail, face jail’ and ‘adult crime, adult time’ laws.

Our plan will deliver lower costs and lower taxes. We will scrap the emergency services tax – Labor’s tax on every single home, every single business and every single farm. This will reduce costs for Victorians straight away. We will back Victorian businesses to grow by cutting payroll and land tax, and we will guarantee no new or increased taxes. We will scrap stamp duty for first home buyers on homes up to $1 million, because young Victorians are finding it too hard to buy their first home. We will expand the capital city zone and get more homes built in growth areas and regional centres. We will build with – not over – communities in our suburbs. We will stop the neglect of regional Victoria. Our 25 per cent fair share guarantee will make sure people living outside Melbourne get their fair share of infrastructure spending, because right now, under this Labor government, they are getting less than 12 per cent. We will stop government riding roughshod over regional communities by scrapping compulsory acquisition of land for divisive energy projects. We will build the hospitals Labor promised but failed to deliver in Wonthaggi and West Gippsland, and we will build them in Hamilton and Mildura too. We will fix our health system so Victorians can be confident that they will get an ambulance in time and surgery when they need it. We will invest $5 billion to fix Labor’s crumbling roads.

My first act as Premier will be to call a real royal commission into Big Build corruption – not a sham royal commission lite designed to save Labor’s furniture but an unblinking forensic inquiry into this corrupt government. I will do this immediately before Christmas. Only a government I lead will actually pursue the $15 billion funnelled to the CFMEU and organised crime. We will end a decade of wasteful spending. We will scrap Labor’s divisive treaty and save $1 billion. We will end wasteful spending, like $13 million on machete bins and $600 million not to host the Commonwealth Games. We will save $22 billion by stopping the growth in the back office bureaucracy.

Our team has a plan to keep the lights on and energy prices low. We will end Labor’s ideological war on gas and throw the doors open to new conventional exploration. We will work with the private sector to identify the best firm energy opportunities under our new energy security requirement, and we will scrap Labor’s gas ban and allow households and businesses to choose the energy solution that works best for them.

Unlike those opposite, I spent the winter recess travelling the length and breadth of this state. I visited every single seat – every single one of your seats. I did not spend the break marshalling the numbers in the caucus room. There are two stories from this tour that I want to share with you before I go to the kind of Premier I want to be for Victorians. Brenton is a small business owner in Traralgon, and he asked me about trust. He asked me how he is ever meant to trust any government anymore when they all seem to say one thing before an election and do something different after. In every part of Victoria I went I found people surprised to see me. People were surprised that a politician would ever bother to come to them in their community just to listen. I rode alongside CFA Gooram brigade captain Michael Stubbe in a more than 30-year-old truck between Mangalore and Creightons Creek, and Michael told me that he felt the government only cares about people if they go through a tunnel in Melbourne. Well, I want Michael and Brenton and every other Victorian to know I will be a Premier who governs for all of us – the entire state. I will listen, I will show up, I will make the disciplined decisions. I will be a leader who is up-front about the challenges this state faces, and I will be honest always.

You might think that perhaps this motion is all for nothing because of course the new Premier will have the confidence and support of this government. But we just had a very, very public accounting of who supports who in the caucus. Those scallywags who need a cuddle have prevailed. They have toppled the leader and installed a new one at the eleventh hour in a desperate attempt to avoid accountability in November. But perhaps I am giving those opposite too much credit, because of course we know that those who counted their numbers and marshalled their troops only want to call a royal commission so they can control the political fallout from it. Labor ministers, backbenchers and candidates have been telling journalists:

… if this government does not establish a royal commission, the next one will, with potentially disastrous consequences for Labor’s legacy, the broader union movement and workers in the building trades.

They have also said:

… does the broader labour movement want a royal commission into a sector which is obviously full of corruption?

There is going to be a royal commission, that is one thing for sure. It is just who determines its focus.

And why do they need to determine its focus? Because they want to try to divert public attention away from their own failings, from their own complicity in the biggest corruption scandal in this state’s history. Make no mistake: a royal commission called by those opposite would be a sham, a cover-up. It would not offer Victorians the answers they deserve. Victorians do not need a fake royal commission delivered by Labor; they need a new government and a real royal commission. Labor’s royal commission is not worthy of the name. It is nothing more than a cover-up commission by a panicked, divided and distracted Labor Party. The only way to clean up Victoria is to change the government.

Each one of us was elected to exercise judgement, not merely to make up numbers in a caucus. I say to those opposite: search your conscience. This is a moment that you may reflect on in the years and decades to come. You have just shown us through your caucus chaos that you know that this is a government on its knees.

The SPEAKER: Through the Chair. I ask members not to use ‘you’. It is a reflection on the Chair.

Jess WILSON: What will this government’s legacy be? This government will not be remembered well by history. An eleventh-hour transfer of power from the Premier to her partner in crime will not alter that fact. Today we have seen the government eat one of its own because she got in the way of its survival. Today we have seen the clearest example yet that the Labor Party exists for one reason only: to protect itself. The previous Premier had become a liability. She was a problem for the machine, so the machine eliminated the problem. It is as simple as that.

Those opposite are not listening to Victorians. They are not responding to the feedback that they are getting every single day on what they have got wrong. They have made a calculation that their latest iteration of Premier will save more seats than the previous one. Today those opposite need to decide whether their vote is the only thing standing between Victorians and the fresh start that they desperately need. Those who installed a new Premier but then will vote against this motion today are being dishonest with Victorians. A new leader in the chair makes no difference – not one iota of difference. It is the same Labor, the same crime, the same corruption, the same crippling debt, the same interest, the same cost-of-living crisis, the same corrupt government to its core. But the vote in this house today can make a difference. It can make a difference to all the people who elected us. It can give them an early election. I say to every member of this house: show that you are listening to Victorians. Show that you know, like you did this morning, that this is not a government worthy of the trust of Victorians. Consider your vote wisely, because Victoria is watching and history will stand in judgement.

 Anthony CARBINES (Ivanhoe – Leader of the House, Minister for Police, Minister for Community Safety, Minister for Victims, Minister for Racing) (14:57): I am pleased to put a little bit of time aside to join what is clearly a stunt from those opposite – a stunt that is not a serious motion, and the Leader of the Opposition knows that it will fail. She has moved it anyway, but it cannot succeed and it will not succeed.

The government is getting on with delivering its reforms and investments to hardworking Victorians, building schools, delivering half-price transport to Victorians and 20 per cent off their car registration. We are progressing legislation to protect the right to work from home for every Victorian who wants to do their job from home – legislation that we have heard the Liberals and those opposite offensively attack. We will continue to do that work.

What we have seen from the opposition leader is she has refused to condemn the member for Brighton and his reckless calls for a five-day office week being mandated and his fake tax scare, and instead tries to silence her caucus and keep it in the dark. I do not know why you would seek to do that. What is clear is that after six leaders in seven years the opposition are still focused on themselves, divided, and they cannot govern. Let us just go back through it again: Bulleen, Malvern, Bulleen, Hawthorn, Berwick and now Kew – six leaders in seven years. It is not a group of people that this Parliament takes seriously, and certainly not that Victorians are going to take seriously. The record is there.

And do not forget the member for western metropolitan in the other place, who was re-endorsed by – got the big tick from – the Liberal Party head honchos and who has resigned from the Victorian Liberal Party. If you cannot govern your party room, you certainly cannot govern the state. We have seen that already, because the member for western metropolitan has decided to walk away from the Liberal Party – not the first and probably not the last. That is someone who has been given an endorsement from them to be at the top of their ticket, but even she has walked away from them.

Our government is going to continue to help working families. The Liberal Party is planning, in collusion with One Nation, $40 billion in cuts to schools, to hospitals – to services that Victorians are counting on and services that Victorians are relying on. The Liberals have pulled lots of stunt motions. We have seen the waste of taxpayers time. We have had a business program today that goes very carefully and very clearly to a range of matters we would like to speak to –

Danny O’Brien: Acting Speaker, I draw your attention to the state of the house.

Quorum formed.

Anthony CARBINES: I was just touching on the fact that we know this is a no-confidence motion that will fail, and the Carroll government will deliver a royal commission into the construction sector, because we know that serious allegations require a serious, independent response. Victorians expect higher standards of integrity, whether in politics, business or the union movement; it is not optional, and it is not negotiable. We are investing in the hospitals and schools too that Victorians rely on, and we are putting more police on the streets. We are delivering the cost-of-living services that families are relying on and the relief they need right now. That is the choice in this house: a government getting on with the job against an opposition that is wasting time with these performative little stunts that will go nowhere and that will fail – they will fail today.

Let us go to perhaps the more positive record and talk about what our government has delivered to give confidence to the community and why they can continue to trust a Carroll Labor government. Let us go to the 11 new hospitals and 40 upgraded, including the new Footscray and Frankston hospitals. They are delivered by Labor governments. I am sure the member for Melton is pretty clear on the work that is coming up out of the ground for the Melton hospital. He knows of the work that is being done in his community. There have been 17,000 more nurses and midwives hired, and a 28.4 per cent pay rise for nurses and midwives. I recall those opposite – their people – giving nurses the bird. I was here in this Parliament when they did that; I remember it well. That is the lack of respect that they have for the healthcare workforce. Free virtual emergency departments were derided by those opposite. Chemist Care Now – we know the value of Chemist Care Now, so that Victorians can get a script without going to their GP.

Many of us have been here over quite some period, and I know the member for Melton remembers well the health record of those opposite. Maybe it started right back there with Intergraph and the disgraceful claims made by those opposite to dodgy up the figures about response times for ambulance services. We saw royal commissions into those matters when those opposite sought to privatise ambulance services in this state.

Fifty thousand more surgeries are being delivered by our government, and specialist appointments for kids too, because too many children are waiting too long for surgery. We want to give confidence to those families. Those 50,000 more surgeries and specialist appointments for kids are what really matters. Some of us in electorates like Ivanhoe are happy to say also the health record of those opposite was to try to privatise the Austin Hospital. We remember that well. These things go to the DNA of the Liberal Party, and they will not be forgotten by Victorians. They certainly will not be forgotten by Victorians in my electorate of Ivanhoe. I can make it very clear that a Labor government, rather than privatising the Austin, chose to build two new hospitals on one site: the Austin and Mercy hospitals. We continue with over 212,000 planned surgeries completed – the most on record. You are able to do that when you are making a significant contribution to growing our health services, with 11 new hospitals and 40 upgraded. I am pleased to say with the Austin, in my own electorate, that the new $275 million emergency department redevelopment will see more people get timely care and also ensure that our health workers and our health professionals get the quality, state-of-the-art facilities that match the great standard of care that they provide to Victorians.

But I will tell you what you cannot do. Closing hospitals is the Liberals’ record, and cutting nurses or giving them the bird. Let us be very clear: they cut a billion dollars from health the last time they were in office. There is absolutely no way, with $40 billion in cuts in collusion with One Nation, that they will be able to deliver anything more than cutting services to Victorians. I am just going to again put on the record, when it comes to health services, the hospital closures under past Liberal governments: Eildon, Koroit, Macarthur, Clunes, Elmore, Mortlake, Lismore, Beeac, Birregurra, Fairfield, Altona, Mordialloc–Cheltenham, Burwood and, for the member for Essendon, Essendon – another one closed by those opposite. It is in their DNA. That is where they start. They go after health services and they go after schools. We know this; we have seen it happen before. We will not stand for it again, and neither will Victorians.

Let us go to some matters on community safety. I went to these matters in question time. Youth crime is down 6 per cent. Aggravated burglary is down 22 per cent. Robbery is down 15 per cent. Sexual offences, family violence, theft and property offences are all down. What have we also seen – bail revocations up 50 per cent and refusals for bail up 60 per cent. They are facts; that is just how it is. We put them on the record here in this place. A $30 million violence reduction unit has been established by our government. Why have we done that – because we know we can turn lives around with the right investments. Yes, we need consequences, but we also need that opportunity to invest in our young people to give them a chance to turn their lives around.

We also have the most police in the country here in Victoria – that is an absolute fact. We have also seen some 200 police reservists, as I have outlined earlier, being recruited, and we thank those former police officers coming back as reservists to again serve their community. Operation Pulse: 1600 arrests, 3500 charges, almost, and we have seen retail theft down 70 per cent with those shopping centres I touched on earlier today because of our investment in our protective services officers and putting them where the problems are. The Liberals cut $130 million from Victoria Police when they were last in government, and they did not hire one additional police officer. They are just the facts. These are the facts, and these are clearly matters that we put on the record, because all you can really go on is the previous record.

I want to actually defend, in some ways, the last time those opposite were in government, because I was here in this place, and perhaps some would say it was rather beige. Some might even think that they do not really remember the last time those opposite were in government because there was such lack of consequence. It was inconsequential in terms of what it actually delivered in terms of positive outcomes. It did not build anything, did not deliver very much, but what it did do was it did cut services. People remember that, and they will remember it again come November when the biggest job interview in town comes to all Victorians and they get to have their say. They will remember, and we will remind them of those opposite. In their DNA it is always about cuts, it is always about chaos when those opposite occupy these benches. We have seen it before. I have outlined it here today, and there is no doubt we do not want to see it again.

Twenty per cent off vehicle registration – 2 million Victorians have applied. We have heard that today from the honourable member for Frankston. Public transport was free then half-price for the rest of the year. That has been saving commuters some $1300 a year. We have actually seen that when we travel on the trains and our public transport network: there are a lot more people using it, because they understand the value of those cost-of-living changes that we provided to them. Free kinder is saving families some $2700 per child.

We are also aware of – and I know that the honourable member for Bundoora touches on this often – the axing of Free Fruit Friday and the axing of the education maintenance allowance the last time those opposite were sitting on this side of the house. That is because in their DNA they love to cut. They like to get the scissors out, and they cut, cut, cut. We have seen it before, but this time it will be with One Nation in their back pocket, in their ear, telling them what to cut. We know it is going to happen because we have seen it before.

There is free TAFE from our government and the hard work that we have done to provide opportunities to young people in our state. What was the alternative? I was here – so was the member for Essendon and so were many others in this place – when the padlocks went on the TAFEs around our state. That is what happened under those opposite. At the West Heidelberg campus they tried to put charges in the free car park on tradie students who had to come to TAFE. They tried to put charges on people to make sure they had to pay to use the car park when they came after work to do their study. We managed to win that campaign and roll that back, but it is a demonstration of what a Liberal government does to young Victorians.

We have also been making sure that our economy has been growing faster than any state’s over the past decade. We have seen that through over half a million jobs created since 2020. That is five MCGs. Every dollar spent in Victoria we have spent wisely and treated respectfully, and we were able to demonstrate the advances that we were able to provide to Victorians.

There is so much more we could say, but I do want to make the point in broad terms that this motion will fail. Those opposite know that it will, and this is really just about wasting the Parliament’s time, when we could get on with the five bills that we need to debate throughout this sitting week. Make no mistake, the motion is a distraction from a $40 billion cuts agenda from those opposite. You have got to sack one in seven public servants. This budget goes to health and education. You cannot cut $40 billion without cutting health and hospitals, without cutting schools and without pushing down on people in the community who need our help.

That is not what you want to see. That is not what we want here in Victoria. $40 billion of cuts – we know that is where they are going. One Nation want to privatise hospitals. We have seen the privatisation of our health services under those opposite in the past. Dare I mention Mildura? Can I say also, with six leaders in seven years those opposite not only do not know what they stand for – other than cuts – they do not know quite who they stand behind.

I want to make it very clear that I have been here and seen it the last time there was a Liberal government. Often it is said, ‘Take your rubbish with you and don’t leave any footprints.’ Well, there was plenty of rubbish in the last Liberal government. They did not leave any footprints, because they did not really leave any mark of investment in the Victorian community – no services and they did not build anything. All they did was cut the education maintenance allowance and cut Free Fruit Friday; then they went after people. That is what they did the last time they were in government. I was here. I remember. So do Victorians. They turfed them out pretty quick smart, and we will remind them. Victorians will remember that when there is a Liberal government in Spring Street, this time with their One Nation mates, that means cuts – $40 billion in cuts to health, hospitals, schools and the services Victorians rely on in these times.

Victorian Labor stands against that. Victorian Labor stands to make it safer, more affordable and easier for Victorians, and we will fight every day to make sure we protect the services that Victorians rely on. A Carroll Labor government will fight hard for Victorians every day to make sure they get the care, the support, the encouragement, the protection and the investment that they need to fulfil their lives here in Victoria, that they can be successful and prosper under a Labor government that cares for them and their families and makes sure that they get the services that they need, not $40 billion in cuts from a Liberal–One Nation government. We reject the motion from those opposite and the stunt that we will call out for exactly what it is.

 Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (15:12): You can change the jockey, but it does not make any difference if the horse is already buggered, and that is exactly what has happened today. That is why all of those opposite should support those of us on this side in this no-confidence motion. In fact we know that many of you already do, because this morning you actually moved a vote of no confidence in your own government, and many of you voted for it. I am sure right about now many of you would like to come across and support us again, because there are some bruised feelings over there. There are some bruised egos.

Can you imagine the Leader of the House having the chutzpah today to talk about those of us on this side being obsessed with ourselves? If there is ever any evidence anywhere of a government that is more focused on itself than it is on the Victorian people, it is that of the Labor government today. It is just extraordinary that we get lectured by the Leader of the House today.

This is about no confidence in the Labor government, and a whole heap of them opposite today have voted no confidence in their government. This is already one of the most successful no-confidence motions in probably 80 years, because we moved this no-confidence motion today, and the Premier has fallen. So we have actually achieved it.

Jade Benham interjected.

Danny O’BRIEN: It actually was the press release of the member for Mildura this morning, I am sure. I am reminded about the change of Premier that we have had today. I was watching Pirates of the Caribbean with my son on Saturday night – Dead Man’s Chest. If you know the story, it is all about Davy Jones, who is the captain of the Flying Dutchman, and the saying is ‘Part of the crew, part of the ship’. If you are part of the crew, you are part of that ship forever. Well, the new Premier has been part of the crew and has been part of the ship. There is no fresh start for this government. Everything that we are facing in Victoria today the new Premier has been part of. Indeed, to continue the analogy, he has been the first mate of this ship, and you cannot stand there and pretend for some reason that we have got a big change, because we have got a government that has virtually destroyed this state. Just like Davy Jones and the Flying Dutchman do to ships on the open seas, they have had a real go at doing that to Victoria.

We see that in so many ways. We see it in the debt that this government has racked up, which will be being paid by our children’s children’s children for decades to come. Two hundred billion dollars of debt we are heading for, and we have got $1.2 million an hour in interest that we are heading for. Debt is not in itself a problem. I see the member for Essendon sitting up there looking as quiet as a monk. He will have arguments, I know, about debt. Debt is not a problem in itself, but when the interest on the debt is $11 billion of your budget and it is more than what the government spends on police, ambulance services and kindergartens, with change left over, that is a problem. This mob here talk about services all the time and things for Victorians. It is $11 billion of opportunity cost that we are missing out on because of the debt that they have allowed to grow. Imagine what that could do for education, for health services, for roads – all of those things. This government has absolutely failed when it comes to management of the budget.

We have seen what they have managed on crime too. Crime is out of control in this state because we have got a government that is soft on crime, that weakened the bail laws and that has left police with 1500 vacancies. There are 1500 vacancies – that is what this government has done. As a result, we have, from the latest figures – and we heard the Minister for Police just then misleading the house, frankly, when he talked about crime going down. It is like saying – I cannot even come up with an analogy. But crime has been rising for virtually every year of this government, and then when it has ticked down a little bit in the last three months, they say, ‘Crime’s falling under our government; everything’s good.’ We have now got a criminal offence occurring across the state every 50 seconds. Every 50 seconds there is a crime occurring in this state, with 735 Victorians becoming victims of crime every single day – that is according to their own figures – because we have got a government that has turned its back on crime.

It comes back to that financial management as well. If we were not spending $11 billion on interest repayments, maybe we could employ those 1500 police. Maybe we could actually employ more police. That is the failure that we have got from this government. If we had some of that money, some of that $11 billion, maybe we would spend a little bit more to invest in regional Victoria. Regional Victoria is that other part of the state that this mob forgets all the time, beyond Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong.

Juliana Addison: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, as a regional member of Parliament, I take offence at what the member for Gippsland South said, and I would like an apology.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Meng Heang Tak): The member has called for an apology.

Danny O’BRIEN: It actually did not refer to anyone specific, Acting Speaker, so you cannot ask for a withdrawal.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Meng Heang Tak): It is a matter of debate. There is no point of order.

Danny O’BRIEN: If they were so keen to support regional Victoria, maybe we would hear some of those ones that are from regional Victoria speak up occasionally. Maybe they would speak up publicly and talk about things like the simple fact that, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, regional Victoria gets 12 per cent of the infrastructure investment in this state, despite the fact we are 25 per cent of the population. I can hear them chirping up the back there: ‘Wrong, wrong.’ This is the Parliamentary Budget Officer that they established. And he has not just done it once; he has done it five years in a row, and it has never got better than 13 per cent. Indeed this year, in the 2026–27 budget, it is actually less than 12 per cent. That is regional Victoria getting dudded by this government, absolutely, and I will come to our solution to that in a moment.

On corruption, there is one figure that just about everyone in Victoria knows, and I reckon even the preppies starting school this year know it: $15 billion on corruption. I know all of those on that side know about it, because you have only got to look at their social media posts and go about three comments in and you will find ‘$15 billion’ on everything that you see – $15 billion, at a minimum, that we have seen of corruption, and that is not accounting for the waste that has gone on in the Big Build projects; that is just the corruption element. It is $40 billion of cost overruns at a minimum on the Big Build project, and so much of that – virtually all of that – here in the city. Regional Victoria has missed out again.

When it comes to the infrastructure that we do use in regional Victoria, the single biggest thing – and it is absolutely appalling – is the state of our roads. The state of our roads in Victoria is appalling. Like most country MPs, I spend a lot of time on the road, and in the five-week break that we have had from Parliament I spent a lot of time on the road, and I saw some shameful stretches of road on the Hume on the Goulburn Valley Highway. I drove up to Bendigo, to the former Premier’s own seat, and there were multiple stretches of the dual-lane highway blocked off because of the potholes. What did the signs say? They said, ‘Warning: potholes ahead. Storm damage.’ Apparently the roads fall apart when there is a storm. That is the sort of duplicity we have got from this government. It is not about a lack of investment in maintenance, it is not about the preventative maintenance that has failed for the last 10 years; it is storm damage.

With the change of Premier this morning, I did a little bit of research and I went back to the budget, because of course this is all about what has been done in the past. Over two years, 2021–22 and 2022–‍23, there was $214 million of cuts to the road maintenance budget. Can anyone guess who the minister for roads was back then? Do not tell me. It was the member for Niddrie, the now Premier, who oversaw $214 million of consecutive cuts to the road maintenance budget. I did find, talking again about comments on Facebook, one of the best comments I saw over that break when we were showing people exactly how bad the roads had got, which was from a commentator who said, ‘It’s not a pothole, it’s just the start of a new tunnel.’ I think that was probably spot on, because that is exactly what it looks like.

We have got a government that has wasted so much money. Very pertinent right at the moment: $600 million was lost on the Commonwealth Games – $600 million for nothing. A bit like the $1.3 billion we spent not to build a road, the east–west link, we spent $600 million not to host the Commonwealth Games. Indeed $200 million of that went to Glasgow to pay them to host the Commonwealth Games literally on the other side of the world. We have seen a government that have failed in health, and they like to say how good they are at managing health, but we have got 68,000 ‍Victorians on the elective surgery waiting list at the moment. We have had a war on farmers. We have had a government that is so determined to get through its renewable energy agenda that it just is running roughshod over farmers right around the state. And we had the spectacle of both the Premier and the Prime Minister last year talking about how they had got it wrong with transmission lines and they need to do better, literally a day after they passed legislation in this place granting the government more powers to fine farmers who do not let authorised officers onto their land. Subsequent to that, they passed new compulsory acquisition powers, which are just an affront to farmers.

We have seen the waste. There is so much waste that it is hard to say what has been the worst: the $600 million on the Commonwealth Games is one, and on the CFA, in the former Premier’s own electorate, there was $2.4 million on a temporary fire station that was not and still has never been used. Indeed they made an announcement only a month or so ago of more money to bring it up to scratch so it can be used after sitting idle for four years. We have literally today had the bushfire inquiry report tabled in the other place, which highlights that the cost of building CFA stations has grown three to four times since the government brought in its new agency.

I know it is important not just to highlight the failures when we are talking about no confidence, because Victorians can have confidence in this side, and we are ready for an election. If this no-confidence motion is passed today, we have got a plan already outlined. We have got more to come, but we could go to the election now, because we will end the waste and we will stop the corruption, and by doing that we will be able to deliver a 10-year plan to fix the budget.

We will be able to employ 3000 new police. We will be able to introduce our policies for ‘break bail, face jail’ to ensure there are consequences for Victorians who do the wrong thing. We will introduce a genuine royal commission into the corruption on the Big Build – not a quick and dirty one to cover things up so the unions are protected. We will give IBAC new powers to follow the dollars. We will introduce Construction Enforcement Victoria to ensure there is a cop on the beat.

We will introduce the fair share guarantee to make sure regional Victoria gets its fair share. Instead of the 12 per cent that those opposite have given, we will ensure that we get the 25 per cent that we are entitled to in regional Victoria and make sure that we get the investment we need. We have got a plan for regional health. We have already announced commitments to the Mildura hospital, to the Hamilton hospital and to Wonthaggi in West Gippsland – two of those are projects that this government promised and failed to do. We will give the farmers their rights back – we will repeal those fines that I talked about earlier and the compulsory acquisition powers – and their ability to appeal projects at VCAT, which have been taken away by a government that does not care about farmers.

As I said earlier, this is probably the most successful no-confidence motion in about 80 years, because already it has brought down a Premier today. We know many of those opposite, at least 14 of them, did not support the current Premier. We know many more did not support the previous Premier. I am reminded of the quote from a Labor powerbroker yesterday who said, ‘This is about saving the furniture.’ But he added, ‘If you put some of this furniture out on the footpath, no-one would take it.’ Those opposite should support this no-confidence motion and give Victorians the election they deserve.

 Gabrielle WILLIAMS (Dandenong – Minister for Transport Infrastructure, Minister for Public and Active Transport, Minister for Women and Girls) (15:27): Let us be clear: this is not a serious motion. This is nothing but a stunt to distract from all the things that those opposite plan to take away from the Victorian people, and they will flap their arms in this place and hope that we do not notice that they are planning to fleece the pockets of communities across this state with their secret plans to implement cuts to the health system and cuts to the education system, to take away social services and to take away the social infrastructure that this government has built over the last 12 years. They are not transparent about that. They want to pretend in front of the Victorian community that they can do it all and be it all as they roam around the state with their little rent-a-crowds, taking photos and social media reels to make it look like anybody actually knows who the hell they are – because of course they do not. So they are forced to come into this place and put through this chamber motions that are little more than time-wasting distractions.

Meanwhile on this side of the chamber we are focused on delivering for all Victorians, making sure that we are sharply focused on the issues that are the topics of conversations around kitchen tables in the suburbs, in the regions and in the inner city around this state – things like the cost-of-living pressures that we know are weighing on families around our community. We are focused on making sure that we are implementing real measures that put money back into household budgets. We have done that through things in my portfolio like free public transport through April and May and half-price fares for the rest of the year. Of course we have got 20 per cent off car rego as well, and that is on top of the focus that we have had on cost of living over the last 12 years and the initiatives that we have been delivering like free kinder, like free TAFE and like building more homes, making sure that we have a focus on ensuring that that next generation can get a foot in the door and that home ownership is not one of those things that becomes a relic of the past and an unachievable dream for those coming through and generations of future Victorians.

Those opposite will tell you that Victoria is faring very badly, and they have been effectively on a campaign to make Victorians feel as though life is rougher than might actually be the case, particularly in economic terms. They focus on certain aspects, but what they do not ever talk about is the economic growth being experienced here in Victoria. You never hear them talk about that. They will focus on the measures that suit their narrative without talking about the key foundational driver of our prosperity here in our economic growth. That is not a new phenomenon; that has been a feature of the Victorian economy for some time. Victoria’s economy has grown faster than any other state over the last decade. Over 500,000 jobs have been created since 2020 alone. Of course we also have the only budget surplus on the east coast of this country.

You do not hear them talking about that, because they play in an environment of the politics of fear and they spend all of their time talking down this state. In doing so they have it as their agenda to develop a lack of confidence. If that is what you have to offer the Victorian people, then you need to have a real good look at yourself as to why you would enter politics in the first place. We are all in this place on this side of the chamber because we love this state and because we want it to be as good as it possibly can be. We are not going to get out there and tell people that where we live is a terrible place to be, like they do each and every day – walk out there pointing at things and making people feel bad about their own communities. Is that your agenda? Is that really why you worked through your careers to get elected to Parliament and hope to serve high office? Is that what you want to do in government ‍– talk down Victoria?

David Southwick: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, I would ask if you could direct the member to direct her comments through the Chair and not use ‘you’, as she continues to do in her contribution.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Meng Heang Tak): It has been a wideranging debate, but I do ask the Deputy Premier to come back to the bill.

Gabrielle WILLIAMS: Apologies. It is a fair call; I am willing to accept that. I will direct all comments through you as the Chair, Acting Speaker. I do not intend to speak much longer on something that is so frivolous, but I will finish up by also making this comment: not only have those opposite made it a feature of their entire narrative to talk down this great and beautiful state and its people, but they are also deeply focused in back rooms, outside of view, on working out what they can take away. I talked about cuts to health and education, but they are also trying to undo important reforms like working from home. They are trying to do things that will fundamentally make life harder for Victorian families – fundamentally make that juggle of work and life balance much harder for Victorian families. They are looking to undo things that free up, for example, women to enter the workforce. This is a regressive opposition – one that would seek to take Victoria back to the Dark Ages and then try to convince us that that is a positive thing that we should celebrate.

This motion does not deserve much attention, because it is clearly nothing more than a distraction. Any good government should instead be focused on the priorities of Victorians and be focused on making sure that we are delivering the things that make their lives easier, whether it be a better education system, a better health system or whether it be focusing on bringing crime rates down. We had a wonderful contribution from the Minister for Police earlier, and we heard him talk about the improvements we have seen in our crime statistics. A good government should be focused on how we can take the pressure off families, off household budgets and off their time – giving them time back into their day, not just money. A good government should do that, and that is exactly why the Carroll Labor government is focused on just that and making sure that our attention is very much – and meaningfully and tangibly – on the priorities that Victorians rightly expect us to be focused on.

 David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (15:34): We have 123 days to go before we have an election in this state and a fresh start for all Victoria and all Victorians, but we cannot wait 123 days, and that is why we need this motion of no confidence supported today, immediately. We cannot wait another day. I think even many members of the government acknowledge that. In fact this was meant to be a motion of no confidence in the former Premier, who has been pushed out today and replaced by another Premier – two unelected premiers in a term, two that have not gone to the public to be elected and two that have wrecked this state. And no matter who is at the top, this government is responsible for the waste, the mismanagement, the corruption, the debt and the crime. Whether it is Jacinta Allan or Ben Carroll, they have both wrecked this state, and it is time for a change.

Juliana Addison: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, through the Chair, may I remind the member for Caulfield to use correct titles, please. It is the member for Bendigo East and the Premier.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Meng Heang Tak): A point of order has been called, so I ask the member to –

David SOUTHWICK: Thank you, member for Wendouree. You know what, Victorians do not know who the Premier is. They wake up the next day and it is another Premier, but the same problems, the same mess, the same corruption and the same waste. That is what we are dealing with here in Victoria. And this government has the opportunity to do something. Only 2 hours ago we heard screaming and carrying on in the party room of the Labor Party ‍– screaming and carrying-on to sack the former Premier and replace the former Premier with a new Premier. If those members are so angry at what the former Premier has done and want to see a change, take it to the voters. Let us have an election tomorrow. Let’s not wait 123 days. Let Victorians decide for themselves. If this government and those members were serious about things, they would cross the floor, because we know there were many that were screaming and fighting in the party room a few hours ago, wanting the member for Carrum to be the Premier.

Juliana Addison: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, the member for Caulfield is misleading the house.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Meng Heang Tak): It has been a wideranging debate. That is a matter of debate.

David SOUTHWICK: The member for Wendouree is clearly concerned about what is going on as part of her government. There are members here that supported the member for Carrum. The members for Thomastown, Bayswater, Bass, Footscray, Mill Park, Bendigo West, Macedon, Clarinda, Eureka, Bentleigh, Hastings, Oakleigh, Melton and Mordialloc did not get the Premier up today that they wanted and deserved, as far as they were concerned. How about those members cross the floor? How about those members that did not vote for the Premier cross the floor? How about they cross the floor and support the motion of no confidence? If they are unhappy with the current Premier – the unelected Premier, the member for Niddrie, just like the unelected member for Bendigo East – how about they cross the floor, because Victorians are fed up. They are sick of this government, a government tied up in corruption – $15 billion of corruption.

We hear today from the former deputy, now the Premier, who was silent when every other Victorian called for a royal commission and who now says we will have a sham, a Temu royal commission. A Temu royal commission, the current Premier is going to offer up. Why? Because you cannot have the students mark their own homework. That is what they are doing. That is what this government is doing. This government has created the corruption, and they are going to run their own royal commission over their own corruption – a very deliberate attempt to cover it up. The only way to get to the bottom of the corruption and lock up those people that are responsible for it is to have a proper royal commission under a Wilson Liberal–National government. That is what we will do.

Again, the member for Wendouree and others will mislead in terms of what the coalition might be. The coalition has been, for a very, very long time, a Labor–Greens coalition, because many of those members would not have been in Parliament without –

Mathew Hilakari: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, the member on his feet is misleading the house. It will be a One Nation–Liberal coalition on the opposition benches. Again, he should not be saying it will be a One Nation–National one. The Nationals will be gone.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Meng Heang Tak): There is no point of order.

David SOUTHWICK: There is no point of order, again, because you have a government that has caused so much corruption. The member for Point Cook needs to explain where the $15 billion has gone from the corruption. Who did the member for Point Cook vote for? Was it the member for Carrum, or was it the member for Niddrie? That is what the member for Point Cook needs to understand – who did he vote for? Because we need a change now. The corruption, the waste, the mismanagement have all been under this government. We know – we have seen it. And what do we have? We have a new Premier, the former education minister, who failed as an education minister, who has now been promoted up. He could not run the VCE exams. His schools are in complete disarray in terms of all of that – unfunded schools. And thirdly, he has got teachers that are on strike. They are on strike for the second time. The Premier could not do a deal with the teachers the first time, and now he has left that job because he messed the teachers up and he messed the education system up. And now he is going to have a crack as the so-called Premier. Well, good luck with that.

Daniela De Martino interjected.

David SOUTHWICK: The union have even questioned why we have ‘the Education State’ on our licence plates when our own government has failed, member for Monbulk. That is why – this government has failed. What we need is a change. We need a fresh start. This government turns around and says, ‘You know what, coalition’ – whatever. I will tell you the coalition – the coalition that we have is a government that we have that is firmly involved in corruption. They are smiling. The member for Wendouree cannot wait for a royal commission. Were you involved in any of the corruption stuff, member for Wendouree? Did you have any involvement in the corruption? I would like to know that.

Juliana Addison: My first point of order, Acting Speaker, is that the member for Caulfield is reflecting on the Chair every time he says ‘you’, so when he thinks he is accusing me of something, he is actually accusing the Acting Speaker. So I think he needs to withdraw on that front. I would be interested in your ruling on that.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Meng Heang Tak): Through the Chair, member for Caulfield.

David SOUTHWICK: The member for Wendouree clearly has something to hide. We are looking forward to the eventual royal commission.

Juliana Addison: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, I am offended by the accusation made by the member for Caulfield, and I ask for a withdrawal.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Meng Heang Tak): It is a point of debate; it is not a personal reflection.

Juliana Addison: On the point of order, Acting Speaker, I am seeking withdrawal because it was not a point of debate. It was a direct accusation going against my reputation, and I would like a withdrawal.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Meng Heang Tak): The member can withdraw.

David SOUTHWICK: I am happy to withdraw. I would say that it is really important for us to get to the bottom of the corruption, the $15 billion that this government has covered up. Each and every member of the government really should be looking over their shoulder when we have a proper royal commission that gets to the bottom of it, because we know that there have been cover-ups, we know there have been massive cover-ups. We know that this government has been completely connected to the CFMEU and the corruption that we have seen on the Big Build. We have seen so many of these contracts that have been awarded. Women in Construction – it was an absolute disgrace that women were used in this particular way, that contracts were awarded by a domestic abuser. It is completely ridiculous for a government to claim that they support women and at the same time award contracts to those that support domestic violence.

I mean, this is a disgrace. This is what this government has been involved in. This is why we need a proper royal commission, not a sham royal commission. We will have a proper royal commission under a Jess Wilson government, not a sham one that has been forced here today simply because – we have even heard the Premier say it; the only reason why the Premier put his hand up for the job was because of polling. Can you trust this new Premier? What kind of integrity does this new Premier have when only a few weeks ago, when asked whether he would back the former Premier, Premier Allan, what did Premier Carroll have to say? Well, Premier Carroll had to say at the time:

I’ve got a young daughter at home, and I couldn’t be more proud to make sure she grows up knowing that I supported Jacinta Allan …

That is what he said only a few weeks ago. And you are going to trust this bloke, the Premier, with the top job? What kind of integrity is that? Each and every day I am sure every one of us that has children comes into this place to make sure that our children, our families, are proud of what we do. The member for Dandenong I absolutely support in terms of what she had to say – that people do come here to make a difference. Why would you say two weeks ago that you were going to support the Premier because it was the honourable thing to do? You said that only a few weeks ago and invoked your own daughter’s name, your own child’s name. It shows that this bloke, this Premier, has complete disregard as a Premier – complete disregard. What will this Premier do going forward in selling Victoria –

Mathew Hilakari: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, repeatedly through this contribution, if you would like to call it a contribution, the member on his feet has been using incorrect titles, and you have cautioned him several times already on this. If he cannot do this, if he cannot follow your rulings, he should probably be sat down, because it is not the first time and it is not the second time, and he continues to go on like this. I encourage you to caution him again or sit him down.

David SOUTHWICK: On the point of order, Acting Speaker, throughout my contribution we have had backbenchers that have been wasting time because they do not like the truth. They cannot handle the truth.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Meng Heang Tak): Member for Caulfield, your point of order?

David SOUTHWICK: I am coming to the point of order. They cannot handle the truth about crime, corruption, waste and mismanagement. I ask you to rule the point of order out of order because all it is is time wasting from a government that clearly have got something to hide. These backbenchers have got something to hide.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Meng Heang Tak): It is a wideranging debate, but I do ask that it be through the Chair.

David SOUTHWICK: I have been mentioning, through the Chair, in my whole contribution that this is a failed government that we need to change. I implore anyone with any kind of integrity – unlike the Premier, who has invoked his own daughter in the contribution – I would ask any of those members with any integrity to cross the floor to vote on this motion of no confidence and to do the right thing for Victorians. We desperately need a fresh start. We have the plan to do it. We have the plan to fix the crime, fix the corruption: 3000 more police, 200 PSOs back on the beat. We will build housing, and we will get rid of the 43 per cent of taxes and regulations in building homes. These are all an impediment. Whether it is building homes, tackling crime, dealing with the health crisis that we have, the cost of living – the whole thing is a mess under this government.

We need hope, we need confidence, we need certainty. We need a government that actually does something. We need a government that works, not a government that looks after itself. This government has been inward looking. The last couple of weeks have shown that this government is all about themselves.

Juliana Addison interjected.

David SOUTHWICK: The member for Wendouree can laugh and joke. Member for Wendouree and everyone: you are all a joke. It is time for a change. It is time for a fresh start, Wendouree.

 Martha HAYLETT (Ripon) (15:50): I am just going to bring it down a notch from the member for Caulfield, because that was a very horrific contribution. I rise to speak on the motion, and let us be clear: this is a stunt, not a serious motion, as the Deputy Premier previously said. The government opposes this motion. After six leaders in seven years, the opposition is in no position to lecture this government about confidence. While the state Labor government is helping working families, the Liberal Party are planning their $40 billion worth of budget cuts. While they pull stunt motions and waste taxpayers time in here, wasting the time of this house, this government is getting on with delivering for Victorians.

I would like to take a moment just to talk about what the Labor government on this side is delivering for the community of Ripon. It is a big, long laundry list, and I really do not have time in my contribution today to share everything that we have done in the electorate of Ripon in our 12 years in government, but it is huge. Even just in the last 3½ years in my time as the member for Ripon, we have seen extraordinary delivery in the electorate of Ripon. In the community of Ararat –

Brad Battin: Acting Speaker, I bring your attention to the state of the house.

Quorum formed.

Martha HAYLETT: As I was saying, this government is getting on with delivering for Victorians, and we are delivering for the people of Ripon. In the amazing community of Ararat we have added eight new weekend services to the Ararat line, including a late-night service on weekends. We have secured $9 million for upgrades at Ararat 800 Primary School; $4.6 million for upgrades at Ararat College; a $2 million upgrade of Marian College; a $2 million upgrade of St Mary’s Primary School; over $1 million to upgrade Ararat North Primary School; over $340,000 for new student toilets at Ararat West Primary School; over $500,000 for upgraded sport courts and ovals at Ararat 800 Primary School; a new kinder coming onsite at Ararat West Primary School; over $700,000 to upgrade the Jack & Jill Kindergarten, which is looking beautiful, and that work is now complete; 30 hours of free four-year-old kinder across Ararat; over $10 million to upgrade Ararat hospital, including expanded theatre, radiology and pathology services and a new CT scanner and prac lab for healthcare trainees; over $1.6 million to expand the Budja Budja Aboriginal Cooperative medical clinic; an upgraded Ararat ambulance station; MICA paramedics delivered for Ararat; new Optus and Telstra mobile towers and broadband upgrades for Ararat; a brand new fire station; $15 million to expand the East Grampians water pipeline; over 40 new social housing properties built in Ararat; 25 new homes for key workers in Ararat; over $1.4 million for more local mental health services through One Red Tree Resource Centre; a new Islamic cultural centre for Ararat; a new sports pavilion at Gordon Street reserve; a new off-leash dog park coming to Centenary Park; and $600,000 for pedestrian safety upgrades around Ararat.

When those opposite talk about how this government does not deliver for the regions, I find that personally completely offensive, and incorrect. There is no government that has delivered more for regional and rural Victoria than our amazing state Labor government. That is really just one community of the over 100 in Ripon. I could talk about our beautiful smaller communities: upgrades to the Redbank hall, upgrades to the Raglan hall, upgrades to the Barkly hall, $150,000 for a new big fill unit for the Amphitheatre CFA, maintenance upgrades at Amphitheatre Primary School, reduced speeds to 60 kilometres on Trawalla Road and Langi Kal Kal Road, a new NBN broadband tower in Waterloo, a brand new CFA station and ultra-heavy tanker for Natte Yallock and upgrades to the Natte Yallock community hub. There is so much; our record of delivery is truly phenomenal.

I am going to share a little bit more. For the beautiful community of Ross Creek: the $11.1 million upgrade of Woady Yaloak Primary School, including the Ross Creek campus; $450,000 to upgrade the Ross Creek Recreation Reserve; an upgraded intersection at Lacys Road and Sebastopol-Smythesdale Road; a new field command vehicle for the local CFA brigade; upgrades to Haddon Primary School, the expansion of Haddon Preschool Centre – the list goes on. It is a huge list. We have delivered incredible things in our time in government.

While we have delivered so much, those opposite have had six leaders in seven years. They have been completely focused on themselves and focused on what they are going to cut if they get into government – the $40 billion worth of cuts that they are planning. They have not been secret about it; they have told us. It is truly scary to think what would come if they get their hands on government come November. I truly hope that that does not happen. I have full confidence in this government; I know the people of Ripon do. We will continue to get on with it while they continue to be a rabble.

 Brad BATTIN (Berwick) (15:56): As I stand up to talk about this motion of no confidence, it brings to mind some movies that have been made around politics, some of the things that have happened on the big screen and some of the movies of the past that you could probably refer back to today, like Dave. If anyone has not seen Dave, Dave is where they bring in a President of America and he has got no say and no power at all; he is run by those in the back office or the back room – the faceless men and women. They are the ones that make all the decisions in the background. It kind of reminds me of the new Premier. He has got no power himself. It could be The Apprentice, the person that was there for all the decisions that were made along the way and then comes in and says, ‘I’m going to be doing something different.’ Or if you are the former Premier, you could be In the Line of Fire because, let us be honest, the Premier this morning found out well and truly that she was in the line of fire. But no, the actual movie that I think has the most resemblance today is Liar Liar. We have got a Premier who has come into this place that is willing to mislead, cheat and lie his way to get into this. We know that while Labor will call this a stunt they know the reality. This is a motion of no confidence not just in the Premier today; it is in the Premier yesterday, it is in this government and it is in each and every minister, and Victorians are sick and tired of it.

Acting Speaker, if you went upstairs – and I am sure you were there this morning – and you walked into the Labor caucus room, closed the Australian cedar wood door and made a decision, and that decision was to roll the Premier and bring in someone new, it would not be because the Victorian community wanted it. It would be because it protected the members here in this place. This was not about any single person on the Labor side of this chamber other than to protect their seats. We heard it, didn’t we, because the new Premier came out and said the only reason he is here is because of polling. His answer was that short. He could not explain anything afterwards. He just said he was here because of polling. It was actually evidence that this Premier was not worried about the things that we are concerned about on this side. He is not worried about what Victorians are thinking. He is not worried about people being unsafe in their homes. He is not worried about the debt. This Premier is not worried that potholes here in this state have got to a point where cars are literally getting damaged each and every day, that emergency vehicles have had accidents because of potholes. Yet on this side of the house the Leader of the Opposition has travelled in 36 days to 88 seats to listen to what the community are saying, and they are very concerned about the things that have been happening. They are concerned about crime. They are concerned about the impact on their local communities of having record debt here in this state.

I heard just before – obviously crime is a bit of a hotspot for me – the Minister for Police, who came in here and said crime is down. He wanted to come in here and say crime is down. His own statement said crime was down in Victoria by 3 per cent. An hour later the Chief Commissioner of Police put out a statement that said crime was down by 0.2 per cent here in this state. Any person that could stand in here and claim crime is down here in this state is kidding themselves, because the one thing I will say is that, whilst doing that tour with the Leader of the Opposition, we met with the families who have lost a child to knife crime here in this state. We have met with the police men and women who are out on the front line who are saying they are tempted not to stay in the job because they are sick of arresting the same people over and over again. They are sick of the fact that this government is telling them that we have the toughest bail laws in the country, when we continue to see offenders get bail over and over again. But if the police minister, who is included in our motion of no confidence, says that crime is down, let us go through the real statistics.

Residential aggravated burglaries since 2023 have gone up 24 per cent. Aggravated burglaries have gone up here in this state. Residential non-aggravated burglaries are up 10 per cent, and non-residential non-aggravated burglaries are up 34 per cent. This is when the stats get big. Motor vehicle theft in Victoria has gone up 82 per cent. Let us put this in perspective. When the last crime stats came out, across the country car theft had gone up by just under 1 per cent. Every single state other than Victoria had seen a decline in car theft, but because Victoria was so bad when it came to car theft, the average went up across the entire country. Yet this minister comes in here and says, ‘Look at me and pat me on the back. I’m doing a great job. I’m doing a wonderful job.’ Steal from a motor vehicle is up 62 per cent. Steal from a retail store is up 89 per cent. Here come the big ones – arson-caused damage by fire is up 57 per cent. Every single person in this place has been impacted and affected by the firebombings going on in Victoria. This is not an Australia-wide problem, this is a Victorian problem.

The reason that these crimes have increased and the reason we are seeing more and more of these young offenders go into the system and get back out again is because of the Victorian Labor Party under the current ministers that are still here today and under the ones that this Premier will reward for giving him the top job. Each and every one of them understand that it was their laws that were weakened here in Victoria, meaning more criminals get on the street. Then they come in here now and say that we have got more people getting put on remand today than we did 12 months ago and we have got more people getting their bail revoked than we did 12 months ago. All of these statistics, let us put them in perspective. If they had not changed the law, if they had not weakened the bail system and if we had had serious consequences since 2023, crime would not have gone up in the first place, and if crime had not gone up, we would not have to worry about what is happening right now.

Each time we lock up a young person here in this state, it costs us nearly $2 million a year. I could put 40 kids through Scotch College for the same price that I could lock up a kid in the jail system here in Victoria. This government now want to brag that they have filled up Cherry Creek and they have filled up Parkville. They have had to reopen the prison they closed up in Malmsbury, the one that they hastily shut down because, as they said, they were so on top of crime that they were not locking anyone up anymore and were taking care of the community. Yet because of their reactions and because of the way they have acted, they are now spending millions of dollars to reopen a facility that they had spent millions of dollars to close down. The investment that went into Malmsbury of $35 million prior to it closing was an absolute waste of money that could have been invested in the things that this government say that they do all the time – like education, crime prevention and keeping kids safe. All of these things are missing out on money because the Labor government have failed each and every step of the way. It is simply not good enough. It is the reason here in Victoria that we put forward this motion.

I know there will be a few more speakers over there who are going to get up, and they have got their lines – we all know they have got their lines right in front of them – which will say, ‘This is a stunt’. They will regurgitate the same one: ‘Here is a stunt; the Liberal Party are doing a stunt.’ If it was such a stunt, why did you all vote this morning to remove the person that this started off about? The person in that seat this morning was the member for Bendigo East. That is what started this motion. And, guess what, you voted to get rid of her. You voted to change, because polling was impacting your seats. It will not worry the member for Macedon; she is retiring anyway. She is going anyway. There are no dramas there. But it will affect someone like the member for Narre Warren North. The member for Narre Warren South is going as well; he is on his way out. But Point Cook, Werribee – these are seats that are going to have massive issues.

Out in the west, Melton and those areas out there, they know Labor has done a terrible job. When they see in their local news – they see it in the Herald Sun, on Seven, Nine, 10, ABC; it does not matter where they look – that kids are getting killed in the streets, they know the government has failed. When they see the government pretending to do things to reduce knife crime and then knife crime still increases, they know the government has failed. When they see car thefts continue to increase at a rate so much higher than the rest of the country, they know the government has failed. When they hear debt is going to reach $200 billion, they know the government has failed. When they know that we are going to spend $11 billion on interest each and every year – enough for the police, the paramedics and kindergartens all combined, with some change left – they know that the government has failed.

I say to those people specifically this morning – and I was not in the room, so I cannot say who voted where. Some of them had the courage to say it outside, some did not. But I say to those that voted to remove the former Premier or those that voted to keep the former Premier: maybe it is time you take this vote to an election, because if you really want to be brave, if you really want to send this out, stop making decisions in this place behind the Australian cedar door so that you get to choose who the Premier is. The government get to pick the Premier each and every time. That should be a choice for the Victorian people. The Victorian community deserve that respect, and they simply do not get it when it comes to the Labor Party. This is a decision that is purely made by people probably not even in this room. It is made by the unions, and let us be honest, let us be sure: I reckon a part of the deal that happened here was: ‘Hey, hey, what we’ll do, member for Niddrie’ – at the time – ‘is we’ll go in and we’ll put you in the spot. We might not really want a royal commission, because a royal commission won’t actually help, probably, a lot of us. But why don’t we go in there. We can put the terms of reference in, and we will make sure it skips things like members of Parliament, former ministers or ministerial staff. Or, heaven behold, we might even hold off on any other report like Operation Richmond.’ Operation Richmond will hopefully be tabled in here shortly; then we will see what this Premier’s decision-making is like.

Do not forget this Premier appointed Tony Bates as the Secretary of the Department of Education here in this state. It will be interesting to see what Operation Richmond has to say about Tony Bates. What involvement did Tony Bates have when it came to the merging of the MFB and the CFA? How much was he involved in any illegal activity between the unions and the Premier’s office under Daniel Andrews? How much say did he have in that? What accusations will be in there about letters or emails that he may have written? What evidence will be there to say that he was involved in corruption? All are questions that should rightly be answered, all are questions that should be public, and when they do come out it could be very interesting, because that will highlight exactly how this new Premier operates, because he appointed Tony Bates as the secretary of the education department here in Victoria knowing that Operation Richmond was investigating Tony Bates. If he says he did not, I will go back to the movie at the very start: it is just Liar Liar. The Premier cannot come in here now and say, ‘I didn’t know about Operation Richmond,’ because let us be honest, the former Premier Daniel Andrews was interviewed in Operation Richmond. I am sure there were many discussions around the cabinet table about Operation Richmond.

I hope no-one on that side would disrespect the former Minister for Emergency Services, who was one of the people that took Operation Richmond forward. I hope each and every one of them now gets behind that decision to make sure that becomes public, because Jane Garrett, as a former member of this Parliament, deserves that report to be public. Every single person – every single one of them who was in cabinet and made the decision to allow her to go – should do that, because I am going to be honest: she did something that many of us in this Parliament may never do. She had the courage to stand up against unions and she had the courage to stand up against a Premier, and that report should become public. When it does, it will highlight that it was not just the member for Bendigo East and it was not just the member for Mulgrave; it is each and every person in the Labor cabinet and it is each and every person in the Labor caucus who has actively worked to stop a royal commission, to delay these reports coming out from IBAC, to protect themselves and to never once stop and think how this is impacting every person in the community. At the same time they have found all the time in the world to make phone calls around changing leaders or to stop reports coming out.

People are struggling in this state. They are struggling to put food on the table. The new Deputy Premier said, ‘I don’t believe people are struggling as much as you’re saying on that side.’ Well, I invite her down to some of the food banks. Now she is Deputy Premier I am sure she would love to join me down there. You come and meet the families who feel like they have had their dignity taken away as they go and pick up a meal. That is why Victorians need a fresh start. That is why they need a Wilson-led Liberal–Nationals government.

 Ella GEORGE (Lara) (16:11): I rise today in opposition to this motion. Let us be clear about what this is. This is not a serious motion; this is a stunt. While the state Labor government on this side of the house is helping working families – while we have an agenda that we are progressing in this state when it comes to investing in health care, in education and in protecting the right for Victorians to work from home – the Liberal Party on the other side of this house are planning their $40 billion in budget cuts. What are they going to cut? How much are they going to cut from health care? How much are they going to cut from education? How much are they going to cut from local communities that rely on government to support them?

On this side we are committed to supporting working families, and I want to talk a bit about that, because we could be doing that today in this house. We had a choice to do that today in this house. We could be debating the Equal Opportunity Amendment (Work from Home) Bill 2026, legislation that protects the right of Victorians to work from home two days a week from September this year, but instead the opposition have chosen to waste the Parliament’s time on a motion that they know is doomed – a motion that is not a serious motion and that is just a stunt. I want to talk about what this means for my community, because my community is not interested in stunts and motions like this. My community is interested in what we are doing to support working families and what we are doing to legislate their right to work from home. As a regional Victorian, the ability for families to work from home two days a week is a massive, massive issue for us. What that means for a family is you do not have to spend a couple of hours each way commuting on the V/Line. It means that you are home for school pick-up and school drop-off. These make real differences in people’s lives. They improve their livability, and that is what we are focused on. We are ready to be debating this legislation. We want to debate this legislation, and we want to see this legislation pass the Parliament. But instead we are stuck here spending the day on a stunt, not on a serious motion at all.

My community is not interested in this. What they are interested in, as I said, is the working-from-home legislation that this government is bringing before the Parliament. They are interested in our investment in health care and education. When it comes to health care, this government is investing in it, not cutting it. There will be $40 billion worth of cuts if the Liberals have their way, and I would like to know what they plan to cut first, because I can tell you right now that in Geelong we cannot afford Liberal cuts. Across Victoria we have seen this government invest in 11 new hospitals and 40 upgraded hospitals. We have seen 17,000 more nurses and midwives hired, with a 28.4 per cent wage increase for nurses and midwives. You will not see that from a Liberal–One Nation government. We have seen the free virtual emergency department and Chemist Care Now so that Victorians can get their scripts without going to the GP.

We have seen 50,000 more specialist appointments for kids and surgeries, because too many children are waiting too long for surgery. You will not see that with $40 billion worth of cuts to Victoria. Is that $40 billion worth of cuts to the healthcare sector? Is it $40 billion worth of cuts to education? Is it 50–50 – $20 billion to health, $20 billion to education? Quite frankly, we do not know. While they are planning their cuts, they are not willing to tell the Victorian public what they are going to cut.

We cannot afford those cuts in Geelong. I am so proud of the investments we have made in health care across our region, from the brand new kids emergency department at Barwon Health to the $500 million women’s and children’s hospital being built right now in Geelong, the biggest investment in health care in regional Victoria ever. There are cranes in the sky. The hospital is looking different every single time you drive past. This project is coming to life before our eyes in Geelong, and I know that projects like this are at risk with a Liberal government, because they are going to cut $40 billion out of our state, and $40 billion worth of cuts means you do not get a $500 million women’s and children’s hospital in Geelong.

We have invested in Barwon Health North, which is now seeing hundreds of people every single day across its urgent care clinic, dental, its dialysis programs and the medical imaging services that it has. In North Geelong we have a brand new early parenting centre, supporting families in those first few years with their little ones when they need the support most. We have got a children’s rehabilitation centre for kids who have suffered really awful injuries, and we have got the Geelong mental health and wellbeing local, which is already supporting thousands of people. When they need support with their mental health, they need free accessible support close to home. But this is all at risk with $40 billion worth of cuts slated by those opposite.

It is not just health care that we are investing in. When it comes to education, no government has a better record of investment than this Labor government, opening over 100 new schools and countless upgrades to so many schools across all of our communities in Victoria. There is not a town in Victoria that has not seen the benefits of investment into education in our state. In the community that I represent, the largest secondary school, Northern Bay College, has seen a brand new performing arts centre and school entrance and new classrooms and learning spaces for its students. We have just announced we are investing in a new kinder onsite to support local families. When the Hendy Street campus burnt down, Labor was there to rebuild it, and we are rebuilding it right now. Construction has already started. I attended the sod turn with the Premier to acknowledge that really important moment for the Hendy community, for the Northern Bay community, who did so well after they had a horrific fire on their school campus. They came together and they got through that, and who was there to back them in at that time? Labor was. Labor was there to back them in, to commit funding to rebuild their school. If you have got $40 billion worth of cuts coming from those opposite, what happens when your school burns down? Is there enough money to rebuild it? I do not think so.

Western Heights College is another incredible school in the community that I represent. We have just finished construction on a brand new gym at that school. That is an amazing school that has a specialist sports program across football, netball, soccer and basketball. They did not have a gym onsite, but Labor built them a gym at their school. Again, with $40 billion worth of cuts coming their way, I do not think they would get a gym like that from those opposite.

St Francis Xavier School in Corio has received $2 million for another recently completed project, a brand new administrative building with staff areas, reception, first aid and other amenities. It is an amazing new upgrade to the school and has really significantly improved safety for students and teachers there at that school – again, another project that this Labor government has funded, because we are committed to investing in education and we are committed to investing in our communities. With $40 billion worth of cuts coming from those opposite, projects like the $2 million upgrade at St Francis Xavier would not go ahead.

It is not just about the buildings at schools. My mum was a teacher, and she taught me so much about how schools can be a place for students to thrive and really grow. Yes, classrooms are incredibly important, but what sits around the classrooms is just as important. This government has seen an unprecedented level of investment in that, from our school breakfast programs, meaning that every kid has a full tummy when they go to learn in the mornings, and from our camps and excursions fund, meaning that no kid has to miss out on what some of the best moments of school are all about, to our Glasses for Kids program.

I have to say, I think I have spoken about this before, but I wish there had been a program like this when I was in school, because I was one of those kids who could not quite see the whiteboard but did not realise anything was wrong. I was okay at English because I could work out what the words were saying, but I kept getting my maths wrong because I could not see the numbers. If I had had my eyes tested at school, I reckon I would have had glasses in primary school, but instead I had to wait until about year 10 to get them. Kids dental, of course, is another really important investment that this government has been making to support students and families by delivering dental services at school ‍– not only supporting students and families but also easing the cost of living, which we know is so important for our communities right now.

This motion is a distraction. It is a distraction from the opposition’s real agenda, which is to cut $40 billion from Victorian communities and sack one in seven public servants. In Geelong that represents hundreds of jobs, and behind every single job is a family, a family that relies on a good job to support them. Most of our state budget in Victoria goes to health and education, which makes one thing clear: if you are going to cut $40 billion from it, you cannot cut it without cutting hospitals and without cutting schools, and we know that those opposite have a track record on that. Just mention the two words ‘Jeff Kennett’. We know what Jeff Kennett did. He cut schools, he cut hospitals, he sold schools, he sacked teachers, he sacked nurses. But the Liberals, those opposite, cannot do it alone. Along with One Nation, they would form a coalition of cuts and closures. Under a Wilson–Hanson government, One Nation will not stop the cuts. They will vote for every single one of them. One Nation wants to privatise hospitals and cut wages, and Victorians cannot stand for that. Victorians cannot afford a One Nation–Liberal coalition cutting the things they rely on: cutting health care – the free, accessible, world-class health care that they rely on; cutting the public education that Victorian families rely on to ensure that every student, no matter where they live, gets the very best start to life. Victorians cannot afford a One Nation–Liberal coalition government. They cannot afford the $40 billion of cuts that they have committed to making.

In closing, this motion is a statement of Liberal desperation, not of Liberal vision, because they have no vision unless you count the $40 billion worth of cuts they are going to make. While this government and we on this side of the house get on with delivering more hospitals, more homes, more schools – investment in our communities – those opposite are focused on what they are going to cut first. What does that $40 billion worth of cuts look like? Which community are they coming for? I condemn this motion. I commend the state government for its investment in our communities – for its investment in housing, in hospitals, in health care and in education.

 Ellen SANDELL (Melbourne) (16:23): Let us be honest about what Victorians have been watching today. What a circus. We have a Labor government in chaos with this farcical leadership musical chairs and we have a Liberal government who have had six leaders in seven years –

Members interjecting.

Ellen SANDELL: a Liberal opposition, rather, who have had six leaders – you are right – in seven years and are spending the time in Parliament today kicking the boot into the other side with this no-confidence motion while they have their own MPs resigning or about to be expelled from the party. I bet the Liberal Party are feeling pretty smug that they got to bury that news today under all the Labor leadership chaos. But to be honest, for Victorians looking from the outside at their government, this is the best advertisement for getting rid of the outdated two-party system that you could possibly get. It is exactly why Victorians are fed up with the two old parties. In the last 24 hours we have seen Labor MPs fighting harder for their own jobs than they are fighting for the people of this state. This tells you everything that you need to know about the Labor Party in Victoria, a government where almost all the decisions that they have made in the last few years have been more about hanging on to power than actually using that power to make Victorians’ lives better.

Let me be clear where the Greens stand today. We will not be backing Labor in this no-confidence vote, but we will not be backing the Liberals either, because neither of them have the confidence of the Victorian public and frankly neither of them deserve it. We have no confidence in a Labor Party whose recent track record consists of selling off and privatising Victorians’ public assets, leaving Victorians paying more for worse services; Labor demolishing public housing for private development; Labor gutting environmental funding and environmental laws in this state; Labor approving the biggest new gas projects in a decade when we are about to go into an El Niño summer with catastrophic climate impacts bearing down on Victorians; Labor introducing cruel and punitive laws to lock up kids; and Labor continuing to refuse to clean up corruption. We have no confidence in a Labor Party who have that as their track record.

But the Greens also will not play any part in helping to prop up a Liberal Party that has One Nation waiting in the wings to help it form government and help it to rip up Victoria’s groundbreaking treaty, which was decades of important work; a Liberal–One Nation government that wants to demolish climate action in Victoria and open us up entirely to the fossil fuel industry, selling us for a song to overseas fossil fuel companies; a Liberal–One Nation government that wants to bring back native forest logging; a Liberal–One Nation government that wants to introduce even further cruel policies – if you could even get more cruel than what the Labor government has done, it will be a Liberal–One Nation government that wants to put more kids through the adult court system and lock them up for life; and, let us be clear, a Liberal government who, while it says it wants to clean up corruption, has actually voted against expanding IBAC’s jurisdiction, voted against giving our anti-corruption watchdog the powers it needs to clean up corruption in this state.

Here is the truth. Both these two old major parties care about themselves, their own power, their donors and their powerbrokers, not Victorians – not people struggling to get by, struggling to pay the rent, struggling to buy groceries or struggling to find a good school to send their kids to due to Labor’s underfunding. They are not the people that Labor and the Liberals care about. So today the Greens will not throw our support behind either Labor or the Liberals in this vote. We will abstain from this vote. We are not going to hand our vote to bad and we are not going to hand it to worse, and Victorians too do not have to settle for that choice. My message to Victorians is this: this November at the Victorian state election you do not have to choose between bad and worse. You can demand better, and you can elect more Greens to replace these two tired, old, hopeless parties. Electing Greens means electing people who do not take dodgy donations from big corporations and billionaires and do their bidding. While Labor and the Liberals work for their corporate donors, the only people the Greens work for is you, Victorians, now and in the future.

While major parties spend their time fighting themselves, the Greens spend our time fighting for the things that Victorians need to live a decent life. Our plan is for free, frequent and accessible public transport, something that Victorians need to make their lives better; for caps on rent increases so that your rent can never go up more than your wages; to double public housing, not demolish it like the Labor government is doing and sell it off to private interests; and to scrap stamp duty for homes up to $1.6 million and reduce stamp duty so that people can buy their first home or downsize without barriers paid for by making the ultrawealthy pay a bit more tax, because if you can afford more than $5 million in investment properties that you do not even need to live in, you can afford to pay a bit more tax so that all Victorians get one home to live in. Our plan is to stop coal and gas drilling by the big overseas fossil fuel giants from destroying Victoria and to make these big polluters pay for the damage that they are doing to our climate and our communities, for the bushfire and flood clean-up and for the huge insurance premiums and skyrocketing energy bills that we all pay due to coal and gas companies’ actions and their causing of climate change.

Labor and the Liberals will not deliver these things: free public transport, rent caps, real climate action, fully funding our public schools, paid for by taxing the big banks and fossil fuel and gambling corporations. Labor and the Liberals will not do this, because they do the bidding of those big corporations. It is only the Greens that are fighting for these things. It is only the Greens that are providing this genuine, hopeful, progressive alternative to the tired old parties and to One Nation. Honestly, today is the best advertisement for ending the two-party system that money could buy. The Victorian people are sick of both of them, and Victorians deserve so much better than this. The Greens are not here to tinker around the edges. We are not here to make the two old parties a little bit better. We are here to replace them, and we will be doing that this November.

 Mathew HILAKARI (Point Cook) (16:32): Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak on this debate. I just want to take up the member for Melbourne on some of her commentary about big donations from dodgy providers, gambling, tobacco – all these things. I want to quote from the Sydney Morning Herald, Caitlin Fitzsimmons, on 19 December 2021:

Businessman Graeme Wood made political history by donating $1.68 million to the Greens in 2010, and over the decade gave the party’s state and national branches a total of $2.49 million.

Of course I cannot verify whether this information in this august paper, the Sydney Morning Herald –

Ellen Sandell: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, members in this place are required to be factual in their contributions, and these are not donations from corporations. They are not donations from big business, as I have made very clear.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Lauren Kathage): Yes, all members are required to be factual. There is no point of order.

Mathew HILAKARI: Indeed it is an interesting factual statement around the donations that the Greens have been receiving. But my question for them is: what does $2.49 million buy you from the Greens? No? Not interested in responding to that one? I will get on, then, to the Liberal and National parties, as the Greens leave the chamber. It sounds like a Thursday afternoon when they are not usually in the chamber; they have tapped out for the day.

Members interjecting.

Mathew HILAKARI: For those chortling from the opposition, I am sorry to say a few things about you too and some of the contributions that you have made. The Liberal–National parties: I have got to say, if you describe them as fruits, they would be the durians of the Australian political scene. You are spiky, you are a bit stinky, you are an acquired taste, you are banned on public transport and so many other places and you just do not grow south of the border – the durians of Australian politics, the durians of Victorian politics. We have had this stunt put before us by the opposition, and it is a stunt because there is seriousness going on within this government on the types of policies that we need to lead forward, and I am going to keep my contribution short because we have the business of government to undertake in this chamber.

Firstly, I would like to talk about work from home, something that the opposition is deeply desperate not to talk about. I understand there are even mandates from your leadership not to talk about this wonderful policy. Why is work from home a wonderful policy? Well, apart from those people who are doing it already, it will save people in the community that I represent 1.5 hours each way each day. For those opposite, who talk about a crisis around improved productivity, where is the productivity in being stuck in your car one to two days a week? Where is that productivity? I do not hear them talking loudly about that, about the tiredness that it brings and about the challenges for building great communities and being able to volunteer at your local club or organisation and able to pick up your kids on time after school. Those opposite talk about family values, but they want people to spend all this time, up to two days a week, in their car. They are so offended by working from home that some in the Liberal Party call it apartheid. We have seen the opposition’s member for Brighton call for a reckless five-day office mandate and fake a tax scare to suggest that people will be paying more taxation. It is an extraordinary thing that the Liberals are moving this sort of motion in this place, particularly when we are doing some amazing things across our communities.

I want to talk about our record on health, and health particularly in the area of Point Cook and beyond is getting massive improvements from this government. The emergency department at Werribee Mercy Hospital is being doubled right now. It will be open by the end of this year. What I loved when I was onsite with those people who were building it was that they were able to describe how we are building it future ready. There are panels that are plastered over in the walls there that are ready to be cut out and made into new treatment spaces when they are required. We all know, because we have been doing this as a government for a long time, that from the moment you announce a hospital, it takes 10 years to cut the ribbon. We have been doing that over the course of this term of government. When we cut the ribbon on Footscray Hospital, it was the most substantial contribution for a single site for health at that time. We are building those for the future. Within Point Cook directly, we are building the Point Cook community hospital right now. It has come up out of the ground and the cladding is going on as we speak, and at that site we will see chemotherapy, dialysis and urgent care. We will see those things that our community need close to home. I talked about wasted time in the car around work from home, and it is also a difficult time when you need to get to ongoing and repeated care at hospital. For dialysis three times a week, travelling an extra 20 minutes or 40 minutes every time – that is another couple of hours added to your life – is unnecessary and makes life just that bit harder. Buying back time for people is a huge thing. I want to also talk about how we have opened 11 ‍new hospitals and have upgraded 40 more. The member for Frankston I know is so excited about the hospital that has been built there, and it is enormous. 17,000 more nurses and midwives have been hired at a 28.4 per cent pay rise as well. These are extraordinary things that we are doing across our community.

I want to talk to some of those other things in the community that I represent: the increase in work on Point Cook Road at dangerous intersections like Sneydes Road, which has been traffic lighted, and like Central Avenue and Point Cook Road, which is under construction right now. I know that is a challenge for the community that I represent in getting around that space. It is a job that should have been done 30 years ago, and we are doing it right now. I could keep talking about all the wonderful things across our community, but I want to get on with the work-from-home legislation because that is important for our community, and that is a good use of this Parliament’s time.

 Emma KEALY (Lowan) (16:39): Today I rise in support of the no-confidence motion. It is ironic because I knew, because it was on the business program, that we would be debating a no-confidence motion here in Parliament today, but little did I know that Labor had a no-confidence motion of their own that they were about to put through their own caucus. We started the day with a female Premier, one that we have heard so many times would be celebrated. In fact the new Premier of the day actually looked her in the eye – let us never, ever forget that – and said:

I’ve got a young daughter at home, and I couldn’t be more proud to make sure she grows up knowing that I supported Jacinta Allan to be a world-class premier and get re-elected in her own right.

He looked his daughter in the eye and said that. The Deputy Premier who was willing to say that in the media, in public, to all Victorians to show his integrity, to show his honesty and to show his commitment to the Premier is now the Premier of the day. It would seem that there has been a change of heart or perhaps a level of dishonesty one could assess from that, and certainly this is what Victorians are feeling today. We have got another Labor MP who is in it more for themselves and their own gains than they are for the Victorians who voted for them to be there in the first place. Today has been a day of utter chaos in the Victorian Parliament –

Colin Brooks: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, imputations against members of this place are out of order.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Lauren Kathage): Does the member wish to withdraw?

Colin Brooks: I am not seeking a withdrawal.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Lauren Kathage): I ask the member to continue without impugning.

Emma KEALY: We know today Victorians are at home with their jaws on the ground at the level of self-absorption of Labor MPs in Victoria. They are so sick of the ongoing headlines where there are allegations of corruption, not just by people who are whistleblowers but by people who are out on the streets who have seen this with their own eyes – women who have been sexually assaulted on worksites. We have got the KC who has came forward as well who has come out and said that there is at least $15 billion missing due to corruption on Big Build sites.

Jade Benham interjected.

Emma KEALY: Geoffrey Watson – thank you for the reminder. We know that this is the case. Yet up to now we have not even seen an acknowledgement from Labor that this is a problem. It has been, ‘The matter’s been dealt with and shelved, and we’ll just move on.’ This has been used as a tool by today’s Premier – Carroll – to say they are going to do a royal commission now that they see it is a problem. It was not a problem yesterday. It is a problem today, though, and they are going to fix it. We can trust him, because he is going to look Victorians in the eye and say, ‘This is going to be a very good royal commission. We agree that this is going to get to the bottom of the corruption, and you should believe me because I’m honest, like I’m always honest with my daughter who I told I wouldn’t roll the female Premier because I wanted her to be proud of me for being a good man and standing by a woman.’ You have not done that. The Premier has not done that –

Luba Grigorovitch: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, I would ask the member on her feet to come back to the resolution at hand. She is completely going out of bounds here.

Wayne Farnham: On the point of order, Acting Speaker, there is no point of order. It is a no-confidence motion, and that is what the member is being relevant to.

Nathan Lambert: Further on the point of order, Acting Speaker, you did caution the member on her feet about impugning other members, and making implications about the honesty of other members is impugning other members under standing order 118.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Lauren Kathage): I remind the member for Lowan that imputations are disorderly, and I ask her to just be mindful of that as she continues her contribution.

Emma KEALY: We know in Victoria, and all Victorians know, that the Labor government is not representing Victorian interests. They are not paying attention to the waste that is going on in this environment. They have done nothing to end the corruption in this state, and they certainly are not delivering a fair share for rural and regional Victorians.

Time and time again I go out into my community and I hear another story, which is horrific, about the implications of a government that has lost its way. They have lost the focus of the Victorians that elected them to be there, because they have been only interested in propelling their own career at the expense of everyday Victorians who are living through terrible conditions.

We have got horrific roads. The roads are the worst that I have ever seen in my life. There are more potholes than there is road surface on some of our roads, and it is entirely dangerous. It is so dangerous, the condition of these roads, that we have people coming forward initiating concerns in the media themselves, because they do not want to see a family member or a friend in a truck rollover or a school bus rollover. They do not want their friends and family, the people they know, to lose their life on these roads, because it is the CFA volunteers who are turning up, it is paramedics who turn up to that and it is people who are SES volunteers who have to chop their loved ones out of vehicles. It happens over and over and over again and causes so much mental trauma in our communities. It simply is not fair.

We have the additional cost of this infrastructure that is failing in our regional areas. Judy from Lake Bolac is currently travelling to Melbourne for cancer treatment. In a period of just four days she blew seven tyres and fractured four rims. Can you imagine having to travel that far anyway for your local cancer treatment – a couple of hundred kilometres away – being unable to work and then having an additional cost of seven tyres and four rims? That is also time out of her life to get them repaired. It is the cost of Labor. It is how Victorians are paying the price for Labor’s neglect of our country roads. Glenn from Rainbow, who can no longer access cancer check-ups in the local area, now has to travel to Ballarat, hundreds of kilometres away, at additional expense to him. Donald from Mumbannar contacted my office with deep concerns about road safety because people were driving on the wrong side of the Princes Highway near Dartmoor just to avoid the potholes. It goes back to that old saying: you no longer drive on the left side of the road, you drive on what is left of the road. That is what is happening and putting lives at risk in regional Victoria today. Rob from Edenhope got an extraordinarily high PSA test result, and when he saw his doctor at Grampians Health, they prescribed him magnesium so he could sleep better because there was nobody he could be referred to in western Victoria. He is now getting treatment in Adelaide, along with many other people from western Victoria who cannot access treatment in Victoria.

It is a disgrace, and this is what we get when we have a government that are more interested in their own careers as members of Parliament and that turn a blind eye to corruption by their Labor mates and taxpayer money being misspent. Victorians are doing it worse because money is being spent on corruption rather than on fixing our roads, delivering a world-class health system, making sure that we have got an education system that can support our young people to be the best they possibly can and making sure we have got sufficient housing available so that people can get a rental, so that people can build their first home if they want to and so that someone who wants to develop a housing estate actually has the means and the interest, the levers and the rewards that make it worthwhile.

We have spoken to Jess and Karissa in Stawell. They are being great mums, getting their kids off the screens and taking them down to the local skate park in Stawell, but one of their sons was robbed at the skate park – just a young lad. He was robbed at the skate park, and now these mums have gone ahead off their own bat to drive a petition to get CCTV set up at the local skate park. Of course Stawell is one of the 40 police stations across the state where there are reduced hours, which is just another implication of mismanagement by the Labor government. We simply do not have enough police. They do not have the laws to be able to do their job. They are spending so much time going in circles, watching the people they arrest be let out on bail just to offend again, that it is wasting their time and people do not feel safe. When mums who are taking the initiative to actually drive their kids down to the local skate park and get them out and get them active do not feel safe in doing so, it is a bad situation. It is a terrible situation. These are good mums. They are trying to do the right thing, but they are worried because the government is failing them. The government have let them down. They have been more focused on supporting corruption in this state than on stopping the crime. Today we have seen Labor are more interested in fighting each other than in fighting crime and fighting for these mums who just want a safe skate park to drop their kids off to.

Of course down at Hamilton hospital, which has been fighting for a redevelopment for years and years and years – this is a hospital I worked at a very long time ago now – we know that that emergency department needs an upgrade. It has needed an upgrade for a long time. It is simply not supporting the wonderful staff that are working at Hamilton hospital. They are doing an absolutely incredible job in one of the smallest and busiest emergency departments in regional Victoria. It is amazing what they are dealing with, but it is simply unfair to be working in those conditions. It is difficult to see where the evidence is that this government are supporting healthcare workers when they are happy for them to continue working in conditions like that, because it is not right.

Do you know who has come through and made the time to meet with these people and talk to them locally? It is Jess Wilson, the Leader of the Liberal Party, and Danny O’Brien, the Leader of the Nationals. I have been out there with them over the past weeks as they did their tour around the 88 ‍seats around the state to actually engage with Victorians, to listen to them and to make sure that we are delivering what Victorians are looking for. It is very, very clear that what Victorians want right now is to see an end to the waste, to stop the corruption and to give Victoria the fresh start that it needs.

It is clear that there are massive infrastructure needs right across regional Victoria. The only way that we can deliver on those and fix them and get them up to a standard where they should be is to introduce a fair share guarantee. That is what the Nationals have committed to: if regional Victoria has 25 per cent of the population, we should get 25 per cent of the infrastructure spending in the state budget. It is only fair and it is only right. But under Labor we only see 12 per cent of the infrastructure budget. It simply shows that Labor are not interested in supporting rural and regional communities, the communities that work so hard to deliver billions of dollars – over $20 billion a year just through agriculture alone – to the state budget.

Instead, what do we see? Labor wants to roll out yet another tax that targets country people, the emergency services tax. We have made a commitment to scrap the emergency services tax. I would love to hear the position of the newly minted Premier, as to whether he stands by this unfair tax which specifically targets and impacts productive land that cannot just be sold off and then you can just move on and hope you make more next year. It is a tax on productive land, and always, as an agreement, we would never tax that. Yet here are Labor looking for another bucket of money, putting their hand in the pocket of people who are growing our food and fibre because they want to fill the budget black hole in Melbourne from the waste on Melbourne projects and the corruption on Melbourne projects. It is better for them to tax regional Victorians than it is to stop the corruption. Regional Victorians see that. Victorians in Melbourne see that.

So while this no-confidence motion is a point in time today – and as I said, we have already seen a no-confidence motion in the Labor caucus today – we know that this is going to be just more of the same. The current Premier stood by the former Premier in every single decision that was made under this government. Make no mistake, this is just a shuffling of the deckchairs on the Titanic. I did see a quip in a newspaper recently that said this is just a move to try and save some of the furniture in the Labor caucus at the next election. The problem is no-one wants to pick that furniture up – it is sitting on the kerb, it is waiting for hard waste day, nobody is picking it up. Nobody is buying what Labor is selling, because they are sick of the corruption, they are sick of the waste and they want a fresh start for this state.

The worst news out of today, apart from the fact that we have got a Labor government that is totally distracted from the job that it has to govern for all Victorians, is that you have taken the one thing away that Victorians desperately wanted, and that was to vote out Premier Allan and this stinking, rotten, corrupt Labor government. That is the biggest regret that I am hearing from people right across the state today, that you have taken their opportunity away. But they will not forget. They know that it is the same government. They know that it is the same corruption. They know that it is the same waste. And they know exactly what they need to do on 28 November, and that is to vote for the Liberals and Nationals for a fresh start for all of Victoria.

 Nathan LAMBERT (Preston) (16:54): I rise to oppose this no-confidence motion brought by the member for Kew. There sometimes seems to be a little bit of confusion from those opposite as to exactly what we are debating, so I will just read out the motion:

That the Premier and the other ministers … for the state of Victoria no longer possess the confidence of this house.

The Premier to whom the motion refers, as previous speakers have noticed, has changed since this motion was first put on the notice paper. You would have thought perhaps that the opposition could have withdrawn it, but they have not. In a way they –

Members interjecting.

Nathan LAMBERT: I take up the interjections. They have not, because it is actually true and correct that, broadly, no-confidence motions are about the government. As we all know, they have a special place in the Constitution Act 1975. In fact were one to pass, which certainly will not happen here, they do actually trigger an election. Perhaps those opposite would be pleased they will not trigger an election. They will certainly be pleased up in Preston and Reservoir, where they are having real trouble finding a candidate for the Liberal Party to run for them. Were they only given two more weeks, I am not confident they would actually have someone on the ballot paper for the Legislative Assembly in our part of the world. But we genuinely wish them luck in their search for a candidate locally. We do want to see a genuine contest, and I will say this: we have all been out engaging with our community, knocking on doors, and there are people in Preston and Reservoir who do support the Liberal Party. I have had the opportunity to talk to a number of them, and they do want someone to vote for, so I do encourage those opposite when they do get organised. I know the member for Kew very briefly dropped into Northland to tick off our part of the world on her grand tour. She did not get to Reservoir, unfortunately, which people up there were not so impressed with, but hopefully we will have a candidate locally soon.

On this specific no-confidence motion, when this was first introduced I was asked by journalists – I think Jessica Maggio was the one who asked me directly – on my way into the building about it, and I gave what was probably an overly elaborate answer on the history of these motions. Then when I turned on the television that night, I was quite embarrassed to see that they played my cumbersome answer and then they played the answers from the members for Williamstown, Laverton and Hastings. They all said, I think, one-word answers to the effect of, ‘It’s desperate and it’s a stunt.’ I watched that and very much thought, ‘That’s what I should have said; that is the correct answer.’ In fact really that is the correct answer today. I could say that it is a stunt and just sit down. In ordinary circumstances perhaps I would have, but as we know, today’s circumstances in this place are not ordinary circumstances.

I think it is strange, but we almost need to thank the member for Kew. Perhaps we do not need to thank her, but I imagine the Governor is thankful to the member for Kew, because we have recently of course had a change of leadership in the Labor Party. When you are the Governor, an important thing you do is make sure that the Premier has the confidence of the house, and I suppose we are grateful to the member for Kew that very shortly we will be proving to everyone that of course the new Premier has the confidence of the house when this no-confidence motion is soundly defeated. I think those who tuned in for the member for Kew’s speech might have noticed that she effectively conceded as much in her remarks.

To go to the substance of this question of whether the Victorian people should have confidence in the government, of course they should. It is a government that has fine leadership amongst all its ministers and a fantastic leadership team. I do want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the role of the member for Bendigo East – the very longstanding role of the member for Bendigo East – in that leadership team. We have been hugely grateful locally for the former Premier’s help with us on a number of significant local issues.

Just on a personal note, I know that the former Premier, the member for Bendigo East, shared with our family the experience of having spent a lot of time at the Royal Children’s Hospital. I know she was a huge supporter of the hospital and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and very proud of the fact that we have such fantastic, world-class – really, top 3 world-class – paediatric healthcare and research institutions and precincts right here in the state of Victoria. I know it was a thing that she was passionate about. She has spoken publicly about her daughter Peggy and some of the very profound challenges that Peggy faced when she was very young, which fortunately she has fully recovered from. We have also spent too much time in the Royal Children’s Hospital. No-one wants to spend time there, but we will actually be back there on Friday for another CT scan. I just want to express our gratitude to the former Premier for her understanding and her generosity. Actually, she extended an invite – she and her team – to us to come along to the Good Friday Appeal, which is of course something we all get behind in this chamber, to raise money for the Royal Children’s Hospital. It was an opportunity for us just to go there and thank so many of the wonderful healthcare workers and clinicians who have supported us, and of course the leadership team there – Peter Steer and Tom Connell; Professor Kathryn North; Professor Andrew Davidson, who heads up the Melbourne Children’s Trial Centre; and Ryan Brown from the foundation there – and all of the remarkable staff at the Royal Children’s Hospital, who we all support here. That was a particular passion of the member for Bendigo East, and I am grateful for her supporting that as a shared passion that we have in our family as well.

As I said, locally she made a huge difference. She played a key role in some protections that we put in place on Preston Market – she was very supportive of us locally on that issue – and of course in her former portfolio we saw the major level crossing removal projects that have so positively transformed particularly the area between Preston and Bell stations and then, after that, up at Keon Park. The new open space underneath those train stations is very successful. A lot of people take the Northern Pipe Trail to ride their bikes into and out of work; I did it yesterday, actually. Often people will use that new open space instead of using the old one because it is much safer for cyclists. It is protected and separated from traffic. Of course there are a whole lot of lovely trees and they continue to grow nicely there. It is a really nice, green open space. We did have some challenges with those trees. It is sometimes not easy planting trees. They planted some, particularly down near Herbert and Emery streets, where they did not grow as we would have liked; in fact quite a few of them died. It is just a tribute to the member for Bendigo East that, although the trees near Emery Street might not be the biggest issue in the state, she was absolutely happy to get down there, recognising that there needed to be a bit more work done to make sure that local people got what they wanted. We appreciated her support in doing some replanting there, and we now see the benefits of that with it turning into a really lush and green area for those local residents.

Also, if I can, I would just like to acknowledge the leadership. The reason we have confidence in this government is we have the leadership of course of the new Premier, the member for Niddrie – again, someone who has been so helpful to us locally in supporting many of our projects, particularly in his role as the Minister for Education. We have an issue up at William Ruthven Secondary College with the oval there. He and his team have been very supportive in attempting to get that resolved and fixed. I know he has been a huge supporter of some upgrades at Reservoir High that we have delivered through the first two stages of that master plan. Certainly we were working closely with him on the third stage of that master plan. Then of course, as local residents in Preston are very aware, we announced the very exciting news about a second campus for Preston High that will be built on the Melbourne Polytechnic site on Cramer Street, and that will be a complex build. It is not a huge site, and there will be quite a few students at it. It will certainly be multistorey; it might be five or six storeys, depending on how many students they end up putting there. There will be some challenges to work through in terms of safe access for pedestrians and cyclists and the kids as they get to school, managing pick-up and drop-off and those sorts of things. Again, I was just so impressed by the fact that the member for Niddrie, in his then role as the minister, was someone who was prepared to personally get himself involved in these issues to make sure that we got good outcomes for local Preston residents in this case. We look forward to him continuing to show that fantastic leadership as he moves into this new role as Premier of Victoria.

Can I just touch on one example that really struck me of that, when he came up to visit us at Reservoir East Primary School. It is an absolutely wonderful school, run by James Cumming and Linda Lavelle. He sat down with Nikol and some of the team there to have a really in-depth conversation about the disability inclusion program. People know the disability inclusion program is a reform of our government that I think is up to its sixth or seventh year now, replacing the old program for students with disabilities. It is a big and an important reform, but like any reform, as you roll it out, you take that feedback from the people on the ground as to how it is working and whether things could be tweaked. I thought the member for Niddrie, the Premier, was just fantastic in the way he engaged with the team up at that school, listening to some of the challenges that there have been with the administrative burden. I say that the program has the best of intentions, but part of it is a great deal of attention is focused on each individual student, their individual strengths and the individual support that they need. That is a wonderful thing on the face of it, but there is a question of the administrative work that then goes into that for schools.

There is I think a little bit of a question – I remember this was raised when the Premier came up – around the moderation processes and the transparency of those processes and the final outcomes and also just that question of whether, with that disability inclusion program having moved, for really positive reasons, in that direction of assessing every student as an individual and thinking about what they individually need, there perhaps might be a need to move back just a little bit and think about whether we codify some of the supports they might need in order to just to make that process that schools go through of getting evidence a little bit faster and perhaps to make the outcomes of that moderation, those final assessments, a little bit more predictable for people.

As I say, it is a program that absolutely has the best of intentions and a program that we are immensely proud of as a government – one that I know the minister, the now Premier, was immensely proud of. But I just give that example that he is a great leader not only because of these reforms that he is driving but because of his preparedness to sit there and listen to teachers, to listen to allied health professionals, to listen to school staff generally and to take back some things that he could further review and change in order to ensure in this particular case that we get the best possible outcome in our schools and in our government schools for children with a disability. I know that is work he was continuing to do. We look forward to doing that with the new Minister for Education.

Wayne Farnham interjected.

Nathan LAMBERT: I suppose strictly speaking, member for Narracan, he continues at the moment as the Minister for Education, so we will continue working with him. We will look forward to any further announcements should they be announced.

Jade Benham interjected.

Nathan LAMBERT: If only the member for Mildura had a vote in our caucus, but she does not. You could always join.

I might finish – I probably should finish – but I just want to touch on briefly that there have been some comments from those opposite about chaos. We have heard about alleged chaos, and I just want to finish on this note. There is only one important real risk of chaos in this state, and that is the possibility of us electing a Liberal–One Nation government. That is a serious risk. There are so many reasons why we will do our best to stop the election of a Liberal–One Nation government, but one of those reasons, and a key reason, is the absolute chaos it will be. I say that as someone who lived up in Far North Queensland back in the day. I lived up there in a part of the world where One Nation had had a great deal of electoral success. I think, if I remember correctly, up in the Tablelands there near Cairns was Rosa Lee Long, and Rosa Lee Long has the remarkable claim to fame of being the only lower house One Nation MP who has actually completed a term and been successfully re-elected. Anyone who has spent time in Queensland politics knows that the track record of One Nation MPs is they quit, they form another party, they join all sorts of parties at random or they fail to get re-elected. Literally of all the MPs they have ever elected in Queensland, only one has successfully completed a term of government.

This is the thing I fear for Victoria. If we have a Liberal–One Nation coalition, not only do I fear for Victoria because of the values of that group, I fear for the absolute chaos that will ensue. We will see MP after MP from the One Nation side drop off and cross the floor in bizarre fashion and so forth. We have seen this before, that they do not have a clear picture of what they are trying to do. They do not have a cohesive picture of how they work together. They do not really have a clear picture of how they even work to represent their values – values we disagree with – and how they work to implement them as a team. I just want to finish by saying that for any talk of chaos in this place that we have had repeatedly on this particular no-confidence motion, there is only one form of chaos that we should all be in fear of in this place, and that is the chaos of a One Nation–Liberal government in this state.

 Bridget VALLENCE (Evelyn) (17:08): It is clear that what is happening is we are in a bubble here in the Parliament, and outside of the bubble Victorians absolutely have no confidence in this tired and corrupt Labor government. This motion should absolutely be upheld today. The Premier and all of the Labor ministers of the state of Victoria no longer possess the confidence not only of this house but of Victorians right across my electorate of Evelyn and right across the state. What chaos today – a Labor government more worried about their jobs and losing their grip on power. They are in complete disarray. We saw that on display over the last 24 hours. Labor is corrupt, and we need to bring on an election today. It does not matter who Labor’s Premier is or who Labor’s ministers are. The Labor government is divided. They are dishonest; they are distracted. The economy is cooked, crime is up, our roads are stuffed and Victorians need a fresh start.

If there was any better illustration of what rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic looks like, then you only need to have witnessed what has happened in the Labor government over the last 24 hours. It has absolutely imploded. They have knifed their leader. Not only do Victorians no longer have confidence in this tired, dishonest and corrupt Labor government, but it is clear now that Labor MPs no longer have any confidence in their leadership and in their government. They have already voted no confidence in their leader and knifed their leader today. We moved a motion of no confidence in the Premier –

Luba Grigorovitch: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, members on their feet need to be factual.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Mercurio): As is often said in this chamber, we all expect members to be factual, so there is no point of order.

Bridget VALLENCE: The Victorian community has no confidence in this chaotic Labor government. Under Labor, Victoria is broken. Under Labor, Victoria has become bankrupt, corrupt and lawless. Crime is out of control. Debt – $200 billion – is the highest in the country. Taxes – 70 ‍new or increased taxes under Labor – are the highest in the country. Labor has enabled corruption to fester and spread throughout the bureaucracy. Labor has enabled organised crime to infiltrate the Big Build infrastructure projects, letting over $15 billion be stolen from taxpayers – a rotten culture under a rotten Labor government. Labor has enabled organised crime to recruit children for violent home invasions and firebombings and has done nothing to fix the revolving door of bail. Victoria’s economy has been broken by this Labor government, with net debt soaring to $200 billion, the highest of any state in the country. There is no plan to pay the money back, leaving this debt bomb for our children and our grandchildren to have to pay. Interest repayments on that debt exceed $1 million each and every hour. That is money that cannot be spent on frontline services like more police, more nurses and more teachers. It is money that cannot be spent fixing potholed roads and upgrading hospitals. We know how many broken promises there have been under Labor in terms of hospitals they promised and have so far failed to deliver.

It is why Victoria has the lowest paid teachers in the country, because Labor’s priority has been to allow billions of dollars of taxpayers money to pay off corrupt CFMEU bosses and outlaw motorcycle gangs and pay for strippers on Big Build worksites instead of ensuring enough money is available to pay hardworking teachers properly. Tens of thousands of teachers have been protesting on the steps of Parliament because Labor has abandoned them. All of the teachers I speak to tell me that they feel abandoned because the education minister and now Premier Ben Carroll undervalues and underpays teachers. Labor’s pick for Premier, Ben Carroll, refused to listen to teachers and has for years allowed teachers in Victoria to be the lowest paid. Victorian schools continue to decline and decay, full of asbestos that Labor promised to remove from our schools. They promised to remove the asbestos; they never have, because this Labor government cut $2.4 billion from the education budget. Both teachers and students have suffered under Labor’s cruel school funding cuts.

With debt soaring to $200 billion, Labor has broken the Victorian economy. The debt-to-GSP ratio under Labor is nearly 25 per cent. That means debt is now a quarter of the Victorian economy under Labor. Economic growth is flatlining. Labor’s budget forecasts economic growth to decline. Again, Labor forecast in their budget just two months ago economic growth to decline. Business investment in Victoria recorded negative growth of 0.1 per cent last year. Businesses are, sadly, leaving Victoria, and what does that mean – that means less investment and less jobs. Exports from Victoria have declined over the last year. Recording negative growth of 2.5 per cent in the last quarter, export sales fell by over $690 million in just one quarter under Labor.

Last week we saw Victoria’s unemployment rate soar to 5.1 per cent. We are the only state in Australia to have an unemployment rate over 5 per cent, the highest unemployment rate of any state in the country. It is higher than the national average and higher than what Labor forecast in their budget just two months ago. That means 205,000 Victorians do not have a job under Labor. They are unemployed under Labor, and the unemployment rate under Labor is only going up. Youth unemployment under Labor is worse – 11.8 per cent – higher than the national average.

Labor’s so-called fiscal strategy to repair Victoria’s economy has been an unmitigated disaster and an absolute failure. The reason why Labor and this government have lost the confidence of Victorians is because they cannot manage money, they cannot manage the economy and they do not respect Victorians’ hard-earned taxpayer dollars. Just last week we heard that Coles Supermarkets, one of Australia’s largest retailers and employers of workers, is shutting its store in Elizabeth Street in the city because it can no longer put up with the crime under Labor, the theft from its stores and the violence towards its retail workers. This is as retail crime is at record highs under Labor. We have lost confidence in this Labor government and in the Labor Premier, and we need an election now. That is what Victorians want, and that is what they should get. The fact that major retail stores in the CBD are shutting up shop because of this horrendous increase in crime is real proof of how much this Labor government has failed ordinary Victorians. Aggravated residential burglary is up and family violence is up under Labor.

There is the waste and disappointment of the Commonwealth Games. Australian athletes are winning gold at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, funded by Victorian taxpayers. Labor denied Victorian athletes from competing here in Victoria and their families and Victorians from celebrating their gold medal successes here at home and denied the economic boost that such an event could have brought to Victoria. Can you imagine the economic activity and the buzz that would have been around our city and our regions now if the Commonwealth Games had been held here in Victoria. But Labor broke their promise. Regional tourism operators and businesses have been left with broken promises, shattered dreams and infrastructure that was promised but never delivered. Labor said the Commonwealth Games would contribute around $3 billion to the economy, creating over 4000 jobs ‍– what a joke and a failed promise. They shamelessly misled Victorians, and what did we get instead? A nearly $600 million bill – money that was wasted to not host the Commonwealth Games.

Labor said they had no choice because of the cost blowouts on the games, but the Auditor-General discovered one of the cost blowouts was a $2 billion contingency fund for industrial relations risks and cost escalations – in other words, a slush fund to pay off corrupt CFMEU bosses on what was meant to be Comm Games infrastructure builds. What is even worse is that the Auditor-General found this CFMEU contingency fund had been approved by Labor – by the former Premier and the now new Premier – in cabinet for their games budget. This demonstrates just how corrupt this Labor government is. They will do anything to appease and pay off corrupt CFMEU bosses, and Labor knew that they would need that money, because that is what they do – $15 billion in corruption on Big Build major infrastructure projects, which are over $50 billion over budget, just to pay off corrupt CFMEU bosses. Labor has consistently paid them and the bikie gang members off. Premier Allan and the now Premier Carroll are beholden to these union thugs. It was only revealed last week that Labor had approved an additional $837 million in CFMEU pay-offs just to get the Metro Tunnel completed.

Under Labor, Victorians have been victims of corruption for over a decade. In 2015 Victoria Police told the Heydon royal commission that outlaw motorcycle gangs had infiltrated government-funded projects and were being used by union officials as hired muscle for debt collection and standover tactics to intimidate contractors to give in to CFMEU demands. Now, that was 10 years ago, and both the former Premier and the new Premier Carroll have sat at the cabinet table during this whole time. Former Premier Allan and her deputy and now Premier Carroll have presided over this corruption for years. They made government decisions that enabled corruption, extortion and exploitation of women on taxpayer-funded Big Build sites. Let us not forget that – that women were forced to perform sexual favours and feel unsafe at work just to keep their job on a CFMEU-run Big Build site, and the now Premier and former WorkSafe minister let it happen.

Labor has failed to be honest and decent with Victorians. Labor has no integrity left. Labor has lost all legitimacy to govern. Victorians have no confidence, and they want to vote them out now, so everyone in this chamber should vote up this motion today. For years Labor has been dishonest with Victorians, because they did not just turn a blind eye, they actively covered up the corruption. No sham commission of inquiry will do. It will just be another cover-up. Only a proper royal commission under our Liberal plan will follow the money and stop the rorts, and we will stand that up in four months time in a new Liberal government.

Victorians have lost all confidence in this corrupt Labor government. There is an old saying that a fish rots from the head – the double head of Allan and Carroll. Premier Carroll was Premier Allan’s right-hand man. Labor changed their leader, but the corruption and exploitation of women on Labor’s Big Build has happened under both of their watch. The new Premier has been sitting at that cabinet table for nine years and stood shoulder to shoulder on every decision of former Premier Andrews and former Premier Allan that has seen debt skyrocket, Victorians taxed more and corruption let run rampant –

Juliana Addison: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, on correct titles by the member on her feet, the former Premier is her title, or the member for Bendigo East.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Mercurio): I ask you to use the correct titles, please.

Bridget VALLENCE: There have been 70 new taxes under Labor, adding to cost pressures for Victorians in a cost-of-living crisis. The Premier has an appalling track record. I have no confidence in this Premier. Victorians have no confidence in the Premier and this rotten, corrupt Labor government. The crime, the corruption, the crippling debt, the new taxes and our crumbling roads are what Victorians will remember about Labor, and they will vote them out in November.

 Will FOWLES (Ringwood) (17:22): I rise to speak to the motion that the Premier and the other ministers of state for the state of Victoria no longer possess the confidence of this house, and I do so on a day that has obviously been seismic in Victorian politics. I rise today to speak against this motion, and I will outline the reasons for that. I think, frankly, it might have been a little bit more difficult for me to argue against this motion as recently as the last sitting day. But today I think has been a good day for the government – today has been a good day for your party, the Labor Party – and I think there is an opportunity now for the government to address a number of the issues that I have argued for in this chamber, including the establishment of a royal commission, and I welcome the Premier’s announcement in that regard.

But I wanted to take us back in the first instance to the formality of this motion, exactly what it is that it is attempting to address. I appreciate that circumstances have intervened, but of course when the notice of motion was given, the Premier to whom the notice referred was the member for Bendigo East. The Premier now has been the Premier for 4 hours and 40 minutes, and it is a bit tough, frankly, to characterise anyone as no longer possessing the confidence of the house when they have only been in the job for a matter of hours. I appreciate that that is not by design, that is by circumstance. Nonetheless, the opposition did not need to pursue this motion today. They could have held their fire and taken it out for another run at some other point before the conclusion of this Parliament in some four sitting weeks time. Nonetheless, this is a motion that is about government holding confidence – confidence in the government, confidence of supply, the ability to call themselves the government, which is a function of having a majority in the chamber – and I anticipate that will not change as a result of this motion, because the motion will, as indeed it should, be defeated.

We have fixed terms in Victoria. That is a policy I have long supported, and I was very pleased when fixed terms were brought into this state – and I should say I support them at a federal level too. I like fixed terms because it means that the timing of elections does not become the plaything of the leader of the government of the day. I think that provides a better framework and a bit of democratic rigour around the timing of elections than might otherwise be the case. In fact we might very well have been trotting off to an election were we under the previous model of the Premier simply being able to nominate a date, and that is an example where self-interest perhaps might have triumphed over the interest of the broader body politic.

So I am pleased that we have fixed terms in this state. I am pleased that we have a stable democratic government. The opposition have been fond of talking about an unelected Premier, and I appreciate that the focus of modern politics is very much on the leadership of political parties, not of the parties as a whole. It is very much on the policy positions of the leader as opposed to the policy positions of the party. That concentration of power into the leadership of political parties has been a long-established trend in Australian politics, sometimes referred to as the presidentialisation of Australian politics. That is a trend that was very much exacerbated under the leadership of former Premier Andrews, who probably did more to centralise power in the office of the Premier than any Premier before or since. That is something that I hope a future Premier or the current Premier might address, because I think it is an unhealthy feature of Victorian democracy now. I think it is an unhealthy feature of any Westminster democracy to have so much power concentrated in the leader, whoever that leader might be. I would like to think that we could go back to more of a cabinet-led government, which is the Westminster tradition, than has been the case in recent times. That is a matter of first democratic principles. It is not about who holds the office. I think there are various leaders from both sides of politics broadly who you could characterise as having run cabinet-led governments, and various leaders who have demonstrated more leader-focused governments or governments where the leader has dictated policy and dictated the running of these things. As a broad trend, I think that is bad, and I think it is important that those tendencies of leaders of parties be addressed, and that requires some rigour within their parties. I think there are certainly some indications of a bit more healthy rigour inside the government caucus than perhaps has been the case in recent years.

So fixed terms are good and they are healthy, and that is one of the reasons why I will be opposing this motion. Victorians voted in a government for a period of time, namely four years commencing on I think it was 25 November 2022, I can be corrected, through until November something this year. The 24th, is it?

Members interjecting.

Will FOWLES: 28th, thank you. These are the members who are more focused on these matters. Some of us are not going to be around, so I am very, very pleased that others are focused on the exact date. But four-year fixed terms are a good thing.

The other thing I would say is that the bar to vote up a motion of no confidence – and I have always tried, not always successfully, to cast my vote like it is determinative in these matters, even though it clearly is not – ought to be very, very high, because the consequences of carrying a motion of no confidence are so substantial. The state is plunged into, immediately, a sense of chaos. An election is brought on without the usual preparations having been made and without the degree of preparedness one would ordinarily want. It is a very serious matter to vote up a motion of no confidence, and I do not think, frankly, that the bar, irrespective of one’s subjective view about the performance of the government, could meet the objective test of having the inability to govern, as opposed to accusations of maladministration or poor policy decisions or poor decision-making in government. These are accusations that get levelled at every single government, state and federal, right across the history of the federation. That happens all the time. It should be no surprise to anyone that that happens in a democracy. We have robust debate. We have lots of perspectives about these things.

It should surprise no-one that there will always be people who are not necessarily great supporters of what any government is doing. There will always be people who oppose them. But the test for a motion of no confidence is higher than that. It is not whether you agree with government policy or not and it is not whether you think the government is failing to undertake the things that you would like them to do. To go even further, it is not even just instances of maladministration or even chronic or widespread maladministration. The test for no confidence, in my submission, is that the government simply can no longer function – it cannot in fact govern at all or can only govern by the barest of abilities. That test we are miles and miles and miles away from fulfilling based on the performance of the Andrews–Allan and now Carroll government over the course of this term. As I say, I will always try and cast my vote as though it is determinative. Clearly the government is going to vote against this motion today, and the motion will fail, as it should. But I will be casting my vote against the motion because I do not think that my constituents in Ringwood would actually like to be trotting off to an election tomorrow, and I do not think that the government has fallen so far short of their mandate as to warrant a motion of this nature being successful.

I want to take the last couple of minutes in my contribution to talk a bit about what in fact is in contemplation at the next election, which is of course the spectre of the orange peril, One Nation. This is something that has clearly shaped thinking inside the government in recent days and hours. It is clearly shaping the thinking of members of the opposition and, undoubtedly, the appeal of One Nation has spread far more broadly across the electorate. I have spoken previously in this place about having been a protester at Pauline Hanson’s first attempted meeting of her One Nation party in 1997 or 1998 outside Hawthorn town hall. I think there were some 6000 or 8000 of us protesting that one meeting. That was to be, I think, her first or second meeting of a relatively new political movement in Victoria. The things she stood for then are the same things she stands for now. In fact, if consistency is a good thing in politics, it is about the only thing I would ever give Pauline Hanson credit for – she has been utterly consistent. Her xenophobia, her bigotry, her small-mindedness, her intolerance, her populism, her culture of grievance, her inability to propose actual solutions or policies that would do any good for any jurisdiction in the country – she has been utterly consistent in that regard. Sadly and regrettably, she has not changed, but the electorate has, and this is the challenge that every single member in this place will be reckoning with, I suspect, right now in their communications with their constituents. Those members contesting the upcoming election – which I am not – will be reckoning with it at the polling booths and right throughout the course of this campaign.

It is a very, very difficult moment we find ourselves in in Victorian politics and Australian politics. Probably for the first time in my life in professional politics, and really in my life involved in politics, I find myself not very optimistic, or in fact even pessimistic, about the state of the state and the state of the nation. That is a very unnatural circumstance for me. I was born an optimist, as you know, and for me to find myself feeling pessimistic about the future is very, very unusual. But we now find ourselves in a situation where I am very concerned about the prospect of perhaps this part of the Parliament, perhaps that part of the Parliament, being occupied by those aligned with Senator Hanson and those who subscribe to her view set. That would be a very, very bad outcome for Victoria. It also holds significant national ramifications because there is a very real possibility that come 29 November, One Nation will be a party not just of government, but a party in a government. That is a possibility. Whether it is probable or not kind of does not matter – we have to reckon with the fact that it is a possibility. We have an extraordinary circumstance as we stand here on 28 July, where One Nation do not have any candidates, do not have any policies and do not have a leader – no candidates, no policies, no leader – and yet, it would seem, they are commanding the attention and the first preference vote of a third of the electorate.

That says not much, frankly, about the appeal of One Nation; it says a lot about the dissatisfaction with the major parties. That is something everyone in this place will be reflecting on, because it is not just rural seats up near the Murray that are under threat, it is urban seats like Melton, like Werribee, where the One Nation vote clearly, if the current trends hold, will be significant. That is something for all of us to reckon with, because Victoria, on the face of it, is the least compatible jurisdiction with One Nation ideology to the extent that ideology can be divined from 30 years of accumulated rantings from one senator. But that is an enormous challenge for members in this place and an enormous challenge for the body politic, because Victoria is so diverse. Victoria is a multicultural success. Victoria does intuitively, I think, protect the rights of workers. Victoria does support working families. Victoria does believe in investment in education. Victoria does support resourcing and support women fleeing domestic violence. There are so many things that Senator Hanson fundamentally opposes that are in fact fundamentally Victorian values.

We all have a reckoning, and it is coming in relation to One Nation, in relation to their grievance, in relation to their vicious characterisation of the frankly magnificent contribution that immigrants have made to our nation but more particularly to our state, extending all the way back to the very first European migrants back in the late 1700s. So I will not be supporting this motion, because the motion goes to very serious matters and the way in which governments ought to be constructed and derived from chambers of Parliament. I deplore the increasing presidentialisation of Australian politics, but I accept that that is part of the landscape. Notwithstanding that, this is not a motion that ought to succeed, and I will be encouraging any members who take the time to listen to vote it down.

 Cindy McLEISH (Eildon) (17:37): I rise to support very strongly the motion put forward that the Premier and other ministers of the state of Victoria no longer possess the confidence of this house, and, gosh, haven’t things moved very quickly. I am sure if this had been debated at 9:30 am we would have had everybody supporting this, because we have seen things take an interesting turn today, with the government deciding that they actually had no confidence in the former Premier, the member for Bendigo East. I think what that has shown us is that we have a very distracted, dishonest and dysfunctional government that is not fit to govern or interested in governing.

There are clearly very, very strong divisions on the government benches at the moment, and this was evident from the number of different people speaking out in the last couple of weeks against the Premier and then the very, very lengthy caucus meeting today. If we had not been starting Parliament, it might have continued, because there were raised voices throughout that meeting and there was yelling that could be heard on the other side of the walls. But the outcome is that we have just been dished up a little bit more of the same. I think playing musical chairs around the cabinet table, as the Leader of the Opposition mentioned earlier, is not going to solve the problem of confidence in the government in this state. I am out and about all the time, and I am out with different candidates in different places. Whilst the former Premier may not have been popular, nor was the Labor government. I think that they think now they might have got – I do not know if it is a silver bullet – probably a brass bullet, and they hope that it is going to save them. But I think the people in Victoria really have lost faith, and we on this side of the chamber have definitely lost faith.

I want to contrast that to what we have with the Liberal–Nationals opposition. We have a united team. We have a very united team around our leader. We have a plan, and we can offer a fresh start. We can offer a very fresh start, not a rehash of 14 years of Labor government. Our leader, unlike the current Premier, is smart, capable, passionate and energetic, and she has a plan. We have seen this at play during the winter break, when those over there were sunning themselves in warmer climes. We saw the Leader of the Opposition visiting all 88 seats –

A member interjected.

Cindy McLEISH: it is warmer than here – in the Victorian lower house. She went from Mildura to Gippsland East. She went from Eildon down to South-West Coast and everywhere in between. In 36 days she visited 88 seats, and that was an incredible effort from her. When I caught up with her I think it was day 18, seat number 40. She had left the Healesville Hotel, where she had met with a number of traders and pubgoers, and they said, ‘Wow, how fresh and energetic she is.’ I thought that was pretty amazing, because she was halfway through what was a pretty punishing schedule that no-one else has ever bothered to do, and she was absolutely hitting the goals. Yes, she was hitting goals. I have never seen somebody do 88 seats in 36 days –

Nick Staikos: You’ve never been in government.

Cindy McLEISH: No, and I have never seen any of you do that. The member for Niddrie might be the Premier now, but he leads the same corrupt government, and Labor cannot pretend for a minute that he is the solution. He is not focused on Victoria, and in fact there was no better demonstration of that than during question time, when virtually the first words he uttered were ‘Polling shows’. Hang on a minute, are you governing for Victorians? No, ‘Polling shows’ and ‘We know we needed to make some changes because the former Premier was very much on the nose.’ ‘Polling shows’ – he is not interested in Victoria.

What we also know is that the current Premier was the member for Bendigo East’s Deputy Premier and her partner in crime. He was right behind the Premier for a long time around the cabinet table. He has been there since the chairman appointed him in October 2017 as Minister for Industry and Employment.

A member interjected.

Cindy McLEISH: You are a bit slow. He was the Minister for Industry and Employment, and we know that there are big problems in that area. There were so many issues with the closure of important manufacturing businesses across the state. The major glass company out at Dandenong is no longer able to manufacture glass, and this is a real slight on Victorian business and Victoria, because now we have to import so much more from overseas. Our glass in the main now comes from China. Did the Deputy Premier stand up for them? He knew all about industry and employment. Did he stand up for them then? Nope. Now? Nope. He was the Minister for Corrections, Minister for Youth Justice and Minister for Crime Prevention in 2018. Did he speak out against the constant increase in crime? Uh-‍uh. The budget for crime prevention was slashed. In fact it almost became non-existent and it pretty well disappeared, morphing into the department. There was no crime prevention at a time when people around the state were calling out for a stronger stance on this.

In 2020 he was Minister for Public Transport and Minister for Roads and Road Safety. Need I say more? I thought at the time the minister for roads needed to get out of town. I talked to him about an issue very close to my place where I have to very dangerously make a right-hand turn into my property. It is on a highway. He said, ‘How fast are you going?’ I was like, ‘Well, the traffic goes 100 kilometres an hour, normally, on a highway.’ And he went, ‘Wow, really?’ And I thought, ‘At every property off a highway in Victoria, the traffic is travelling at 100 kilometres an hour.’ I thought, ‘He really does need to get out to the regions and understand what is happening there.’

Up until very recently he was the Minister for Education, and there was the year 12 stuff-up of the exams. It was not just once.

Members interjecting.

Cindy McLEISH: He probably still is. I am not sure. It happened twice. Really, this is something that should be able to be dealt with fairly easily, but it happened two years in a row, and I think it got worse the second year.

Roma Britnell interjected.

Cindy McLEISH: Sixty-eight exams. He was the Deputy Premier, pretending he was behind the Premier, backing all of those decisions.

He has not been the Treasurer, but he has backed every budget since he has been around the cabinet table – all of those budgets, making cuts, adding taxes. We are up to 70 new or increased taxes. He was around the cabinet table when the $589 million was determined to be given to Glasgow so they could host the Commonwealth Games and the $13 million for machete bins. As I said before, he has been the Minister for Youth Justice and Minister for Crime Prevention. I did not hear him speaking up, saying, ‘Gosh, that’s a kind of high figure, isn’t it?’ Two hundred thousand dollars for indoor plants ‍– seriously. I guess the biggest is the $15 billion in waste and corruption – that $15 billion that has gone to organised crime, outlaw motorcycle gangs and thugs within the CFMEU. I know that there are a lot of decent, ordinary people in the CFMEU – I know some of them myself – and these are not the thugs. But there are thugs, and it is organised crime that has infiltrated it. Everybody on this side of the chamber knew of the crime and corruption. They had heard of the ghost shifts. They had heard about sexual favours and strippers and the exploitation of women. We had all heard this. We had all heard of invoices that were not right, adding an extra million for the CFMEU. I heard a story about that again just on the weekend. We on this side of the chamber all knew – the opposition knew well and truly – and it beggars belief that the government say that they did not know anything about this. The minister, as Deputy Premier, would have known.

As the minister for WorkSafe, his performance at the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC) was something that was really quite extraordinary. We had heard of the issues about Women in Construction from Nick McKenzie and Lachlan Abbott. They had reported this story about violent men cashing in on the government’s pro-women policy on their infrastructure projects. The member for Mildura asked the question:

The company was owned by a male serial domestic violence abuser who had links to drug trafficking, bikies and criminals. Had WorkSafe investigated this company prior to this report?

They did not know the answer, and it was classic to watch that because the minister and the CEO of WorkSafe Victoria were shuffling papers, looking at each other, not sure what to say, moving their hands, sitting on their hands. They took it on notice, and it came back that they had not investigated an entity called Women in Construction. This is on the committee’s website – PAEC’s questions on notice. Further, another answer to a question on notice said:

Construction is a priority industry for WorkSafe due to the significant number of fatalities and injuries each year.

But they neglected to mention how unsafe it has been for women. The member for Hawthorn asked during that same PAEC hearing:

Are there any prosecutions at all … in relation to any Big Build project, prosecuting an individual or entity for intimidation, violence or other improper behaviour on worksites at the moment? Are you aware of any prosecutions by your organisation?

What a shock. ‘Oh gosh, I don’t know. We’ll have to check as to whether there are any Big Build prosecutions at the moment.’ Again, it was a great sight to watch. They were shuffling papers, looking at each other, not knowing who should answer before they said they had better take that on notice. And what happened when we got the answer back to the question on notice?

There are no current prosecutions pursuant to the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 involving risks of violence on Big Build projects.

The Premier was the minister, and you cannot tell me for a moment that the Premier did not know these were happening, and he should have had the foresight to check with WorkSafe to see whether or not they were investigating these very, very serious allegations that were put forward and well documented in the press.

My areas of no confidence are quite detailed. There is the Premier’s performance as a minister, whether it be WorkSafe or the TAC – there is an inquiry up on the TAC at the moment about issues related to claims made through the TAC, including processes and circumstances and systems. He has got an inquiry about him there. His performance at the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee around WorkSafe was appalling. We know that he sat around the cabinet table and clearly did not have the strength of questioning or the influence.

Roma Britnell interjected.

Cindy McLEISH: He was a yes man. He did not get that influence. Regional Victoria has been let down particularly, and I have mentioned roads, but also it only gets 12 per cent of infrastructure spend. We are now going to change that and make sure that there is 25 per cent. Where 25 per cent of people live will have 25 per cent of the spending. We have had enormous cuts to roads in regional Victoria: $214 million in cuts while he was roads minister – $214 million in cuts to road maintenance. Well, look what happens now. You cannot drive too far without potholes, crumbling roads and deteriorating sides. It is appalling, and as the minister he oversaw this.

The failings of this government and ministers are many. In planning: bypassing communities, bypassing councils to make decisions. The Attorney-General is slackening off on crime and is not doing enough, loosening the legislation there. On family violence, I have got to say, it has been minister after minister. We have had one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight family violence ministers since January 2017. Do not tell me that you are serious about the prevention of family violence. The deputy –

A member: We held a royal commission.

Cindy McLEISH: That was well before then, and things have changed a long time since then. You have had eight ministers and not shown that you care. I will tell you what, the sector notices. The budget has been cut in the environment. They are not fixing things. A new Premier does not mean a new government. It is the same minister, the same factions, the same union powerbrokers and the same failures. He was not elected by the Victorian people. He was installed by panicked MPs.

 Juliana ADDISON (Wendouree) (17:52): I am absolutely delighted to have the opportunity to respond to this motion moved by the member for Kew that the Premier and other ministers of state for the state of Victoria no longer possess the confidence of this house. Can I say: you could not be more wrong. You could not be more wrong, and this motion is going to go down because you are so wrong. The reason this motion will be lost is because this is a great government. We have a great Premier; we have a great Deputy Premier. I want to congratulate our new Premier, I want to congratulate our new Deputy Premier and I want to thank the former Premier for the incredible job she did. As a regional Victorian woman, I say that for what she has delivered to make the regions of Victoria a better place to live and a safer place to live, we are all indebted to her. I want to put on the record how grateful I am for the incredible work of the member for Bendigo East and for what she has given to this state. If everyone in this place could make the contribution she made, Victoria would be an even better place to live.

I want to say the reason this motion will fail, the reason it will go down, is because it is Labor who is making the lives of anyone living in Victoria – all Victorians’ lives – easier, safer and more affordable. We see that across my electorate of Wendouree. We see that in the suburbs of Ballarat. We know that families across Victoria continue to face the cost-of-living pressures and the economic uncertainty as a result of the war in the Middle East, as a result of Donald Trump’s decisions. What we are doing is we are focused on making lives easier for Victorian families. We are doing that by protecting the right to work from home, we are doing that by introducing half-price PT and we are doing that by making access to health care easier and more affordable through our incredible chemist care program.

As the daughter of a pharmacist, I know what a great thing we are doing in terms of empowering chemists in our community – frontline, trusted health professionals – to do more. They want to do more. They want to step up. They want to be a place where people can receive health care immediately without having to go to a GP. We are also making amazing investments with our free 24/7 virtual emergency department. We are providing funding for additional specialist services for children. We know that 4000 more planned surgeries for children are going to make a huge difference to families across the whole state, and we know that 45,000 additional specialist clinic appointments are going to make a difference for so many families. But we are not only doing that for children; we are also supporting people who want to be parents for the first time, because we know that if you cannot afford private IVF, you should not be denied the opportunity of being a parent. That is why I am so proud of Victoria’s leading public fertility program providing free IVF and fertility treatment. This matters. It really does matter to so many families.

But we are also doing more. We are helping families with the free glasses program. I have had the opportunity to go to Sebastopol Primary and try on the specs with the kids – gee, they are really fancy ‍– and see kids go, ‘I love them all. I don’t know which one I want to pick to take away.’ I know we have got plenty of members of our caucus who rock a pair of glasses – the member for Albert Park, the member for Laverton. They are making glasses very cool. Can I say, thanks to the Glasses for Kids program that this government is funding, we are making glasses cool for kids who need them. As a former teacher, I know that when a kid cannot see properly because they do not have glasses, they cannot learn properly. This is another reason why I have confidence in this government and everything that we are delivering.

Let us talk about dental care as well. I remember that when I was a part-time teacher and Mike was working in the factory in Wendouree the thought of taking the girls to the dentist instilled fear in me. It absolutely instilled fear in me, and we hid out from the dentist for a few years because I was so concerned that I would go in and I did not have that blank cheque to pay for the dentist. We were able to access dental through Grampians Health at the time in Ballarat, and my kids were able to go and get access to public dental in Sebastopol, which was amazing. But that should not just be because we had public dental in Ballarat. All kids should, and that is what our Smile Squad is about, taking away that additional cost of living for families who are struggling, because we know when times are tough and you have really got to prioritise what you are going to spend the family budget on, things like dentists get pushed back and pushed back. We know that kids’ teeth are important, and we want them to have great dental health.

Another reason why I have absolute confidence in this government is because of our free kinder program. When my girls, who are now 17 and 15, were at kinder, I had to pay extra for them to go to kinder. It was really, really tight. You knew when the kinder fee was coming in that something else would have to go. Now no families in Victoria have to do that anymore, because we are covering free kinder. What is fantastic about that as well is that parents are not umming and ahhing: ‘Should I get my kids into early education? Should I give them every opportunity, the best, brightest start in life?’ Well, thanks to this government, they do not have to worry about that anymore.

Let us think about our latest budget. When you talk about the values of our new Premier, it was our new Premier in the most recent budget who announced $2.2 billion in funding for students with a disability – the most vulnerable students receiving more support. Who could vote for no confidence in that? What type of low-life does not think that kids with a disability deserve extra services and deserve to be given every opportunity to succeed?

We have had a lot of talk about our commitment to keeping Victorians safe. That is why we have got more PSOs and more frontline police and we have introduced adult time for violent crime. I want to give a shout-out to the Ballarat police. They are doing an incredible job and really getting on top of many issues that we have got in our community. I am not going to put my head in the sand. Yes, it is an issue in my community, but, guess what, we have got the most amazing leadership at Ballarat police. We have got the police assistance line in my electorate of Wendouree, employing hundreds of people to free up frontline police officers to be able to go and be on the beat. I had the opportunity to visit there with the Minister for Police recently to meet the people taking those calls, and gee, they are outstanding people. They are not just outstanding because they are from Ballarat, they are outstanding people because they work at our police assistance line, and with every call they take they are supporting our frontline police and they are making our state safer. When I was in there I had the opportunity to listen to a call. Someone called in from Doncaster and had a question, and we were able to listen in to the call. The person on the end of the call was able to address the concerns of this community member from Doncaster, answer all their questions and provide them with advice, which meant that they did not have to go to a local police station and which then freed up resources to be able to tackle issues of community safety. That is something I want to get behind, and that is what this government is doing.

Whether we are investing in community safety or whether it is health care, education, transport or safety, we are doing a great job. I am proud of our Chemist Care Now program. I am proud of our half-price PT. Not only that – as regional Victorians, just four years ago it cost you 40 bucks to go from Ballarat to Melbourne and back. Now it costs you $5.70. Talk about cost-of-living relief – $5.70 with half-price PT to be able to go from Ballarat to Melbourne. When I was a student – we are talking a long time back now – in 1992, it used to cost me $8.80 to catch the V/Line. Remember the paper tickets? They used to write them out. $8.80 for a return concession ticket 30 years ago; it is now $5.70. Thirty years on, that is how cheap it is thanks to this government and its commitment to public transport.

There are two points I want to refer to before I wind up. I could keep talking; I could filibuster this all night. There was talk about manufacturing and criticism from the member for Eildon about supporting manufacturing. What can I tell you about supporting manufacturing? In this budget we announced $673.6 million to deliver 25 more locally built X’trapolis 2.0 trains in my electorate of Wendouree. We are manufacturing trains in Ballarat for the whole of Victoria – not buying them from some overseas mob, but supporting manufacturing in regional Victoria. I am getting a bit sick of everyone having a go that we do not care about regional Victoria. Well, that is 673 million reasons to show you just how much we care about manufacturing in regional Victoria. I am sick of the opposition saying that we do not invest in regional Victoria, because we damn well do.

I also just want to briefly talk about mental health for our young people. It was amazing to have the Minister for Mental Health from the other place come to Ballarat on Monday to open our youth PARC, our youth prevention and recovery centre, in the heart of my electorate, which is a multimillion-dollar facility that will provide 24/7 residential support for young people aged between 16 and 25. This voluntary 10-bed facility addresses key recommendations of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. Can I say the builders who built the Ballarat one built the Morwell one. ‘Oh, you don’t invest in Morwell, and you don’t invest in the regions.’ Well, guess what, there is a YPARC in Morwell. Guess what, there is a mental health local in Shepparton. There is a mental health local in Traralgon. So if the opposition want to stop trashing us and actually recognise the great work we do in regional Victoria, they would be truthful to their constituents, because that is what we are doing.

But there is more. We are guaranteeing free TAFE. We have announced that in the Victorian budget. We are doing the Pick My Park program, which is going to be fantastic. I have just got to mention a member for Western Victoria in the other place, Mr McCracken. He does not like that we have invested in Ballarat train station to make it accessible for all people in our community – for people with wheelchairs, for people with illness and for people with disease – to be able to go up and down in a lift. He is critical of me for getting disability access at our train station. Well, Mr McCracken, come after me and say that I am a bad person because I support people with disabilities. I dare you.

When the member for Kew did her whistlestop tourism tour of regional Victoria, she criticised me for supporting people with disability in my community. If the best thing the member for Kew has got to say about the member for Wendouree is that she spends too much money supporting people with a disability in Victoria, come at me every day of the week. And can I just say, while we are at it, you visited 88 electorates, but you have not even got a candidate for Wendouree. So stop talking about how you are doing all this for regional Victoria. Put up a candidate for Wendouree. Bring them out. Let us do it. Let us have the discussion. Let us have the contest of ideas. I am up for it, anywhere, anytime. I have full confidence in this government. I have full confidence in our investment in regional Victoria. And I have full confidence that this government will be returned in November.

 Tim McCURDY (Ovens Valley) (18:05): Thank heavens that is over. I needed earmuffs. I am pleased to hear that is finished. I rise to confirm what all Victorians have known for quite some time, and that is that they have absolutely no confidence in this government. We have known that there is no confidence in this government, and certainly I now find those on the other side have no confidence because we have seen what has unfolded today. They have finally agreed with the Liberals and Nationals after all this time we have been telling them that this government is broken, it is fragmented and it is shattered. Now we find they agree with us and they boot out the Premier, who has been there for a little while, and have replaced her with the 3IC.

So there is obviously no confidence in this leadership. The wheels started to wobble as soon as the dictator slid into the night and left Victoria financially ruined. But guess who was the 2IC at the time, the member for Bendigo East. And look how well that went: shared all the secrets with the former Premier before that – one who helped create the mess and one who thought that continuing the lies and the legacy would be easier than not changing course, not steadying the ship but going full steam ahead over the cliff. You have to ask why did it take so long for this government to work out what Victorians knew three or four years ago, what Australians knew five or six years ago. But Labor backbenchers, who are now starting to jump ship, saying they do not want to be part of this leaky boat and are starting to bail out left, right and centre, do not want to be around to do the hard work, to do the heavy lifting and help clean up the mess that we are going to find when we reach government at the end of November this year. Jumping off the ship is an easy option.

Let us look at why there is no confidence in this Labor leadership. It has permanently damaged Victoria, particularly its finances. Let us go way back to 1970, when Victoria owed $6 billion or thereabouts. That is what our debt was – $6 billion in 1970. When we left government in 2014, 44 ‍years later, it had gone from $6 billion to $18 billion. That is what happened over 44 years. Now in only 12 years we have gone from $18 billion, and $200 billion is what Victoria is headed for. If Labor are reinstated this November, $200 billion will only be the start – they will not finish there because it is in their DNA. They do not know how to stop spending. They only know how to raise taxes to try to raise revenue, but they simply do not have it in their DNA to be able to stop spending. And this is only scratching the surface because we have seen the Suburban Rail Loop blowouts will be massive, just like every other project they have had in Victoria. The waste and the corruption and the lies and the stolen money from the CFMEU have finally been exposed. You really cannot make this stuff up – the jet skis, the motorcycles, the Ford Raptors and more, the proceeds of crime. And, guess what, if you are in possession of stolen goods, you can expect a knock on the door when we do a royal commission. It will be a real royal commission, not a sham one, not a pretend one – this will be a real one. It is not a Coate inquiry in which we have a retired judge who cannot subpoena, cannot do much but ask a few questions and then everyone can say ‘I don’t recall’. This will be a real royal commission. We have had 12 years of theft, 12 years of deceit, and this bubble is about to burst. So if you are one of the recipients of the stolen goods, you want to start sleeping with one eye open because we are coming after you.

Crime in Victoria has got out of control; we all know that. Victorians are living in fear. They are in fear of their home being invaded at night if they live in metropolitan Melbourne, in fear that their car is going to get stolen. I have had one stolen. I do not know whether anyone else has, but I have had a car stolen in Melbourne.

A member interjected.

Tim McCURDY: You have had one, too? And your son lost his? You do not have to go very far to find someone who has had a car stolen.

They are all concerned about whether they will be a victim of a machete attack in one of the major supermarkets or one of the centres in Melbourne. Look at the machete bins. You wonder why there is no confidence in this government – a $13 million stunt on machete bins. That was an absolute joke. It has been confirmed, and we all know, that the only people with machetes in Victoria are criminals, because everyone else has handed theirs in. It is only the criminals with machetes, and that is not great news.

Our jails are so full we cannot afford to lock people up, so bail has become a standing joke as well. Fancy a state where, if you break bail, there is really no effect, no criminal offence committed. No wonder people see bail as a right rather than a privilege. They are just thumbing their noses at the law. Victoria is a lawless state at the moment, and that is why there is no confidence that the criminals will be dealt with and no confidence that people can stay safe in their homes.

I also want to address the arrogance and the hypocrisy of the Commonwealth Games. What an absolute con that was. Regional Victoria missed out – all of Victoria missed out – with the $600 million that we paid to not have the games. Communities missed out on infrastructure; Victoria missed out on massive visitation and tourist dollars. We all missed out on those tourist dollars by not having the Commonwealth Games, and that was a disgrace. But the premiers and the leaders of this state just laughed it off – another Labor lie, another stolen opportunity. Victorians have lost confidence in Labor many times, but that was one of the major things that people just shook their heads at and said, ‘I cannot believe it.’ Now we see Scotland is the recipient of $200 million that we lined their pockets with so that they could run the games, and I must say they are doing a very good job. But regional Victoria could have done a very good job as well.

I want to touch on the roads. When we talk about no confidence, come to regional Victoria. I have heard some speakers in this place say the roads are fine in regional Victoria. Well, let me tell you, you are obviously not in the right part of regional Victoria. If you come to the Nats seats, the Liberal seats and many of the other seats, the roads are an absolute disgrace. Never before have we seen roads so damaged. Potholes look like craters. I went through my whole electorate last week driving around, taking photos and identifying where there are holes and craters, and it really is out of control. People are ringing me on a daily basis. Kev Keenan is a truck driver out of Yarrawonga. He has done $45,000 worth of damage to his truck. A front steer tyre blew and it wrecked the rim as well, but then it did damage to the bonnet and all the guards on his truck. That was a $45,000 damage bill, and his truck was off the road for five weeks. He said he was going to forgo another $30,000 worth of work that he had to pay a subbie to come and do for him.

On Friday night on Messenger a person from Wangaratta came to me and said they had just done $3000 worth of damage. For another one yesterday it was $2500, and again today – they just keep rolling in. As we focus on it on our social media, I understand that people are very, very cranky and they are just saying ‘Fair’s fair.’ It is one thing to blow a tyre, but when you are damaging rims and doing thousands of dollars worth of damage in a cost-of-living crisis, it is just unfair. While premiers of this state focus on tunnels, our regional roads are like war zones. They are actually death traps, and there is just no fairness, no equity, within the regions. Victoria needs a fresh start. We all know that.

The member for Kew and the member for Gippsland South are ready and poised to give Victoria that fresh start, and we look forward to that fresh start. They have a vision, they have a plan and they have integrity, and that is something we cannot say we have had for quite some time here in Victoria from our Premier or our leadership team. They will bring integrity, a plan and a vision, and they will make sure that Victoria gets back off the ropes and gets back to where it should be.

The Leader of the Nationals, the member for Gippsland South, described it as a horse. In racing parlance, it is still the same old horse, which is getting older and getting slower and has run out of ideas. Changing the jockey is not going to change that, and this is what the Labor Party has done today. They have changed the jockey, but I am afraid to say it is not going to change the way this horse is travelling. It is over for this horse, and it is time to for it to back off, start to slow down and retire. Changing the jockey will not change that. Victoria is on its knees. It is reminiscent of the Cain–Kirner days, where we are financially bankrupt, morally bankrupt and intellectually bankrupt as well.

A royal commission is the number one item on our list. That is a real royal commission, as we have spoken about, not a sham – a real royal commission. I look forward to the opportunity to have that royal commission. It is the first thing that we will do as soon as we get going in government. We will search for the money, we will put our criminals on trial and we will stop the rorts. It will not be another Coate inquiry with a retired judge; this will be a serious royal commission.

Seventy new taxes – we just cannot believe the amount of taxes that this government has put on. We will scrap the emergency services tax and give confidence back to business that they can continue to do business. Police stations have been closed or had hours reduced, and there are other things going on. I am going to end my comments there. I am trying to give others an opportunity to have a say as the night goes on. If I stop now, I will give an opportunity for them to say a few words, but certainly from where I sit I fully support this motion that says:

That the Premier and the other ministers of state for the state of Victoria no longer possess the confidence of this house.

I support this motion.

 Wayne FARNHAM (Narracan) (18:16): I am pleased to rise today on the motion of no confidence put forward by the Leader of the Opposition – and for good reason. I have sat through a lot of the contributions today, and the one thing I have not heard the government ask themselves is, ‘Why did we get to this point?’ At what point in time do they take responsibility as to why we got to a no-confidence motion in this government? There is a good reason for it. I will admit the member for Wendouree made an impassioned plea for regional Victoria and her region, but there is more to regional Victoria than Bendigo, Ballarat and Geelong. At the time, I did interject on the member for Wendouree and asked her if she could name something in Narracan. The member for Wendouree could not, unfortunately. But they have to ask themselves why we got to this point of a motion of no confidence, because the Victorian public has lost confidence in this government – not just us on this side, the public.

When we have the issues with the CFMEU that have been well reported and there has been no action taken, then the Victorian public starts to lack confidence in the government to govern. There have been members on that side today that have called this a stunt, yet they grasped the opportunity of the stunt to remove the member for Bendigo East just today. If it was such a stunt, why did that happen? Because even the Labor caucus lost confidence in the former Premier. That is why she was removed today. So you can imagine the attitudes of Victorians are expressing the same frustration, not just at the Premier but at the ministers of the government as well, because unfortunately for the former Premier – my apologies – she has borne the brunt of the incompetence of the ministers as well. That is part of the problem. She was the leader, she has to take responsibility, but it was others in the room as well that maybe did not convey strongly enough that a royal commission was needed and was not to be ignored. Maybe it was ill advised. Maybe she did not listen. I am not part of that caucus, I do not know, but I do know that Victorians have had enough.

The reason there is no confidence anymore in this government is because of the constant poor decision-making of the government. When you spend $200,000 on pot plants, that is a waste. When people are under real cost-of-living pressure and you spend $200,000 a year to hire pot plants – not even to buy them – that is waste. When Victorians hear we have lost $15 billion in corruption payments – and that is not a figure the Liberal Party made up, it is a figure that came out of Queensland, that reported $15 billion – Victorians lack confidence in the government.

I do not think the new Premier is going to be any different. The new Premier is saying he is going to have a royal commission – great. Is the new Premier going to consult with the opposition on the terms of reference for the royal commission, because Victorians will not trust this government to have that royal commission and get an effective outcome of what Victorians need? The member for Ovens Valley rightly said earlier that if you have been involved in corruption, watch out; we will come after you if we are in government – and so we should. Victorians deserve to know where that $15 billion went. They deserve to know.

When we talk about the Commonwealth Games, it was probably one of the biggest loads of – I cannot say it, but it was the biggest con of all time in this state. Even the cancelling of the games was a con. They said they had to cancel the games because it was going to cost too much, but then it came out that that figure was inflated. It was put forward as $7 billion. It came out that that was doubled. That was a con that cost this state $600 million – to have that games somewhere else.

This is why Victorians have lost confidence in this government. When it happens time and time and time again and the government does not do anything, then that is a problem. The credibility of the government is a problem. The credibility is the main issue. Talking about my electorate, when the government makes an election commitment and does not follow through, its credibility is shot. You have no credibility left. When you promise to build a new West Gippsland Hospital, to start that hospital in 2024, and you do not deliver, you have no credibility; you are done. That is what is happening in this state at the moment. Integrity is the biggest issue with this government. It was the last thing my father said to me before he died: ‘Never let go of your integrity. In this job it’s all you’ve got.’ But the government has let go of its integrity. This is why people have lost faith in them; this is why we have no faith in them.

I do not think that the new Premier is going to be any different. There is an old saying that I will say here: a new broom sweeps clean. It might sweep clean for a month, but we are going to go back to the same old, same old. We are not going to have transparent government. We are not going to have a government with integrity. We are not going to have a government with honesty. We are going to have a government that is going to put forward a royal commission, and it is going to set the terms of reference.

A member interjected.

Wayne FARNHAM: That is not a royal commission. It will be a cover-up, as rightly pointed out. This is the problem. I challenge the new Premier: reach out to us and let us work with you on the terms of reference. He will not do that, I guarantee it, because out of all of this he has still got to protect his mates at some point.

Like today, they did not do the change of leadership for Victoria; they did it for polling. He said that himself: ‘I did it for polling.’ He swore black and blue. He looked the former Premier in the eye and said he would not roll her and that she had his support. He told his daughter that he was going to back this Premier because he wanted to see her being ‘a world-class Premier’. I am glad I am not the new Premier tonight going home to tell his daughter why he went back on his word. That comes back to integrity. This new Premier has shot his integrity in the foot from day one because he has just knifed the member for Bendigo East. After looking her dead in the eye and saying she had his full support, to then turn around and say that a few colleagues came up to him and told him to run – he has no integrity. This is why I believe we are going to get the same old thing from the new Premier as we did the old.

That is a problem for Victoria, but it will not be a problem come 28 November, because under a Liberal–National coalition we have a clear plan. We have a leader that is honest; she has been honest with Victorians. We have a leader with integrity, and this is something that the Labor Party lack. They do not have anyone that can step forward. This is why when we come to 28 November we will get a fresh start in this state, not the same people that are there now. There is no freshness under this new Premier. It is the same caucus and it is the same people. Nothing has changed. It is the same attitude. We will not get transparency. I am going to cut it short because my colleagues want to speak on this, but I will end with this: come 28 November I do believe there will be a change of government, and it will be a fresh start under a Jess Wilson government.

 James NEWBURY (Brighton) (18:25): I rise to speak on this no-confidence motion because not only do the Liberals and Nationals not have confidence in this government but Victorians do not have confidence in this government, and Labor MPs proved today they do not have confidence in this government. They knifed their Premier, as their new Premier said, purely because of the polling. They have worked out that Victorians know it is time for change. Victorians know they desperately need a change of government. This motion allows it, and I call on every member in this place to put their good conscience first in considering how they vote. This is your opportunity to represent your community. If you vote against this, you are voting to keep this government – a government that today imploded in a way that Victoria has never seen before. Victoria has never seen two unelected premiers put into office back to back. It has never happened before in the history of this state. In the weeks, some might say days, before people vote – it is only some three months before an election – Labor has installed a second unelected leader as Premier. I know, like Victorians know, you can change the face of this government, but it is the same corrupt Labor government. We know and Victorians know that the issues that matter to Victorians will not be fixed by changing the leader of this government.

At every opportunity this government could have fixed the crime crisis facing our state, and they have not. They have weakened the laws. They have opened the bail door. Only recently, last week, an offender alleged to be training as a terrorist was bailed in Victoria – terrorism bailed in Victoria – and the federal government has intervened to appeal against that decision. The national government has said this bail system is broken, because it is. How often do we hear about a horrific crime because that person was on bail, let out and allowed to commit a further crime – hurt people, damage people, kill people – because the bail laws are so weak, because this government believes in giving people endless chances. Shame on them.

On behalf of Victorians, we know it is time for change. With corruption, this government has not only presided over $15 billion of corrupted taxpayer money but knowingly allowed it. There is no question that this government knew that corruption was occurring, that on taxpayer-funded worksites the most vile corruption was occurring. You can see organised crime have moved their headquarters into Victoria. It is the place to do business if you are organised crime on government worksites. You wake up every day and see a firebombing on a business. These are hardworking people who put their time and money into trying to get ahead to provide a product and service, to open and put their shingle out, hang their shingle on the door, and they wake up to a firebombing because of the weak laws in terms of arson. In most cases you are seeing the offenders, when caught, out on bail. Offenders are now so brazen they are joking about getting bail as they are being arrested.

How shameful to know that this government has overseen the level of corruption that has occurred. It has been an affront and a shame to our great state. I have said before that when the former Premier found out about the level of corruption, did she say, ‘I want to get to the bottom of it’? No. Did she say, ‘I want to understand the depth of it’? No. She said, ‘I want to cover it up,’ and she talked it down. I suspect that is a very large part of the reason why her own party has knifed her, because they know that Victorians have had enough. Changing the face of their party is not going to change the future of Victoria. The only way to see a change in Victoria is to elect a new government, and this motion is an opportunity for every member of this place to call an election now. Effectively, if you vote for this motion, you are voting for an election – and Victorians want an election. You cannot hide it. You cannot spin your way out of it. Labor will vote against the motion, I suspect. It does not matter how eloquent any of our speeches are. They are, I suspect, going to vote against this motion because they want to keep this government in place for another almost four months. But Victorians will get their say, and the longer Labor MPs cover up what they are doing, the angrier Victorians will be.

I have said it in this place for years: Victorians have worked it out. They have worked out this Premier. They have had enough of the crime. They have had enough of the corruption. They have had enough of the wasteful budget mismanagement. When you are $200 billion in debt, projected soon to be one in 10 dollars spent on that debt, Victorians say, ‘What am I paying tax bills for? Budget mismanagement and corruption – is that why I’m paying taxes?’ That is not good enough. It breaks the compact between government and people, because at the end of the day, every taxpayer dollar has first been earned by a taxpayer through their hard work. You heard the new Premier say today that he wants to respect taxpayer dollars and then refuse to answer any questions on the Suburban Rail Loop or its costs. He said in this place he wanted, before making a decision, to take it through cabinet – after holding a press conference where he announced five policies which had not gone through cabinet. You do not get it both ways, new Premier. No, Victorians know that a change in face is not a change in this corrupted government. I have seen closely this happen before. I saw closely what happened with Gillard and Rudd. Victorians will work it out. I saw closely what happened in New South Wales with Minns and Keneally. All that happened was voters got angrier, and when they came to the ballot box they had their baseball bats ready. That is what is going to happen in November because Victorians have had enough.

You know what Victorians want? Victorians want a safe state. They want a state that is cleaned up, don’t they? They want change. Desperately they want change. They want a fresh start, and that is what they will get. The Leader of the Opposition and I talk about this often, and I can see the passion in her eyes and the rest of the team’s eyes: we want to fix this state. The Liberals and Nationals, at our core, want to fix this state. The government will throw whatever scare they can, but Victorians have worked it out. The Victorian community can know with certainty that under a Jess Wilson Liberal–National government we will fix this state. We will clean it up, and it is about time for the good of the future of Victoria.

 Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (18:35): Obviously I rise to support this motion of no confidence in this Labor government, and I am sure today Victorians are shocked, bewildered and disappointed in this utter circus that presents itself once again. I have said many times in this place, quoting some of the greatest poets of our time: ‘Welcome to the circus.’ This is what Victorians have grown accustomed to, and they are so sick of it. They are disgusted. The member for Brighton is absolutely right: they know exactly what is going on. While members on the other side sit there and try and deflect and dodge and pretend that everything is okay, Victorians know better. We know that Victorians know better.

Over the winter break, those of us that were out in our communities, whether or not it was part of the Fresh Start tour – I appreciate the Leader of the Opposition coming to Mildura to announce some physical investment helping out health care in Mildura and the broader community in that tri-state area; we are the only ones that have committed to doing anything about Mildura Base Public Hospital ‍– were out talking to our communities, and the message was very consistent. It is not even anger anymore – Victorians have done anger. It is like the seven stages of grief, it really is. They have gone through a journey: there was sadness, there was anger and now we are at exhausted. Victorians are just exhausted, shocked, bewildered, disappointed, disgusted and honestly not surprised at what comes next – at what the next headline is going to be when they open up the newspaper in the morning. Honestly, this is completely unprecedented: two unelected Premiers in one term. Like those before me have said today, just because you change – I have heard many, many wonderful, I assume, proverbs today, such as ‘It doesn’t matter who is steering the ship, it still remains on course.’ That is true. It is another 2IC – well, Dan’s 2IC did not work out very well, so the member for Bendigo East’s 2IC is going to work out just as well, I would assume. Victorians are sick of it. They are so sick of it. They are sick of the corruption, and they know what is going on. As much as the Labor Party in this state deny it, they know what is going on.

It is not even whistleblowers that are coming out now. I get text messages on my socials, I get emails, I get phone calls to the office from people who have been involved in the Big Build and construction in this state with stories. It happens often. We know that this is continuing to contribute to Victoria’s growing debt – that debt that is hurtling towards $200 billion, which means we are not getting the schools we deserve, we are not getting the investment in regional hospitals that we deserve and we are not getting the investment in the police force and corrections that we deserve. Because of that, children are dying on our streets. We have experienced that in my community over this winter break, and it is disgusting. When I say that Victorians are shocked, bewildered, disappointed and disgusted, I mean it. Children are dying on the streets of Victoria, and it is not good enough. Anyone with any sense of integrity, with any sense of service to the state of Victoria, will back this no-confidence motion, because Victorians have lost confidence in the Labor Party to stand up for them. All they are doing is serving themselves.

 Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (18:39): I rise to speak on the motion that we put to the Parliament:

That the Premier and the other ministers of state for the state of Victoria no longer possess the confidence of this house.

Before we went to the winter break I was stopped by the press and asked whether I believed this motion would be successful, and I answered that, yes, I did believe it was possible for it to be successful because it was quite evident that Labor were turning on themselves and turning on the Premier. And here we are today, where the Premier has been knifed in the back by her own MPs, just as I predicted. It is clear now to Victorians; they are seeing the scale of the corruption, the waste and the mismanagement that has metastasised under Labor. Labor is in such a mess that the entire government has ground to a halt. While Labor solve their internal conflicts, it is every Victorian that is suffering, and that is what we have been seeing for weeks on end. It is quite clear that Victorians have had enough. They have seen clearly now the $15 billion, minimum, that has gone from taxpayers in corruption and been fed through to bikie gangs and criminal organisations. Victorians are ready to take the baseball bat to the Labor government. They have had enough of the waste – $200,000 in pot plants that they hired to pretty up their offices, $13 million in machete bins that served no purpose. But if the Labor MPs think that getting rid of Jacinta Allan today as the Premier will save them from the voter tsunami in November – I think Victorians are smarter than that. Victorians can see that the new Premier and ministers are the same men and women that rolled over when the former Premier Daniel Andrews anointed Premier Jacinta Allan in her elevated role.

Now we have a new Premier, who has been her deputy, who has accepted her leadership and who has accepted her crippling debt, her diminishing of basic services that Victorians desperately need, her overseeing of projects rife with corruption and the uncertain return on projects that no business case exists for and no budget has highlighted we can trust or recognise. All the Labor members are complicit, and they will all share the electoral pain, because they have forgotten Victorians and are too focused on themselves, which was all too evident today and has been evident for many, many months. We heard the new Premier Ben Carroll say it had to happen because the polls were indicating they were going to fail. Well, it is not about polls, it is about delivering for Victorians, and that is what Labor have forgotten.

Let me point out that the new Premier Ben Carroll was at one point recently the Minister for Roads and Road Safety. This was the time a few years back when this government started their absolute mismanagement of the roads and road infrastructure, and the same corrupt government put money into corruption rather than focusing on the roads that we needed in the regions. That minister at the time, who is now the Premier, oversaw roads maintenance cuts in the order of $240 million, and that is why regional Victoria is so bad and our roads are crumbling so significantly. Let us make sure we remember how Ben Carroll was happy to treat regional Victorians, particularly in South-West Victoria.

The SPEAKER: I remind the member for South-West Coast to call members by their correct titles.

Roma BRITNELL: That is why Victorians need a fresh start and know they need a fresh start, and that is why a Jess Wilson Liberal–Nationals government will take Victoria and absolutely turn it around, back to where we need it to be and better. We will make sure we stop the waste, address the crime and never, ever allow corruption, by putting a royal commission in place that will get to the bottom of it and not exempt politicians from being questioned. That is a change Victoria wants and Victoria needs. This is my prediction for November at the state election: this Labor government and their rotten and corrupt history will be gone.

 Anthony CARBINES (Ivanhoe – Leader of the House, Minister for Police, Minister for Community Safety, Minister for Victims, Minister for Racing) (18:44): I move:

That the question be now put.

The SPEAKER: I will hear the member for Warrandyte.

 Nicole WERNER (Warrandyte) (18:44): I rise to support the motion that we have at hand, which is a motion of no confidence against the current Premier. Our plans today and for the past six weeks, seeing we announced them prior to the winter recess, were that we were moving a motion of no confidence against the then Premier, the member for Bendigo East. Today, with the change of circumstances, because the Labor caucus in their own right decided, ‘You know what, we’re going to try and beat you to it and move our own motion of no confidence against our own Premier,’ they have now replaced her with someone equally complicit and corrupt, in the Deputy Premier – her right-hand man, her buddy, her person that was there and that was the architect of every one of the former Premier’s failings, whether it is the $15 billion of corruption, whether it is the nearly $200 billion of debt, whether it is the fact that we are spending more on interest as a line item than on ambulance services, kindergarten services and police with a billion dollars to spare. It is the case that he was the architect right alongside her and, as the Leader of the Opposition calls him, her partner in crime from the very beginning.

Victorians do not get an opportunity to vote on the Premier – no. What has happened here is within this short span of time this is the second unelected Premier that Victorians did not get to vote for. That is why we are moving this motion of no confidence today, because Victorians deserve a say in who their Premier will be. Victorians deserve a say to vote down the most corrupt Premier in history, except her caucus beat us to it. Victorians deserve a say as to who the Premier is in this state.

Matt Fregon: On a point of order, Speaker: imputations.

The SPEAKER: I remind members that it is inappropriate to reflect on particular members in this chamber. This is a ruling that was made at the start of the motion before the house today.

Nicole WERNER: That is why we are moving this vote of no confidence, because Victorians, who we represent in every one of our electorates on this side of the house – I do not know about on that side of the house – have lost confidence in this Labor government. No matter who the Premier is, they are all cut from the same corrupt cloth, and that is why we are calling for an early election today. That is why we are calling for the Premier to be voted down today, because confidence has been lost and there is no confidence left in this government as they have presided over and overseen corruption on worksites, as they have presided over and overseen all of these – it is unspeakable, the amount of corruption that has been seen from this government. This is why we are on this side of this house. Whether it is another Premier, whether it is another person for another day, it has been the case that under this government over these past 12 years Victoria has been sidelined. Once the greatest state in Australia, we now have the highest unemployment, we have the highest crime, we have the highest debt. If you were to add New South Wales, Tasmania and Queensland all up together, our debt still surpasses all of that debt.

That is why we on this side of the house are moving this motion of no confidence, particularly against the Deputy Premier, who has now been elevated to Premier simply because the polling looked bad, not because they want to fight for Victorians, not because they actually care about working hard for Victorians or working hard for working Victorians and working people, but because, in the Premier’s own admission, by his own words, he saw the polls. ‘Why did I change my mind? Why did I decide to roll the sitting Premier? Because I saw the polls,’ he said. ‘I saw the polls, and we wanted political survival. I saw the polls, and we wanted to make sure that we would survive in these individual seats, and we want to save some furniture today.’

That is what the current Premier said, by his own words, by his own admission. That is why we are moving this vote of no confidence today. We must go to an early election. Victorians deserve to have their say. Victorians who did not get to vote out this corrupt, complicit Premier, in the member for Bendigo East, deserve their say today. I invite and I welcome members of that side to vote with us today in this motion of no confidence to say that we must go to an early election. We must let Victorians have their say, we must honour and we must actually believe Victorians when they have so clearly defined to us –

Anthony Carbines: On a point of order, Speaker, in the midst of the member for Warrandyte’s contribution I believe there was an imputation made on another member who is not present in the house. I think, according to your earlier ruling, that that should be avoided.

The SPEAKER: I do remind members about imputations on particular members of the chamber. Member for Warrandyte, be careful how you address the house, please.

Nicole WERNER: Again, not imputations, but these are the facts that we are speaking about and why we have moved a vote of no confidence against the Premier and the ministers in this government. It is not isolated to one person. It is the whole mob. It is every single one of them. Every single one of them is corrupt. Every single one of them is complicit. We have insiders telling us all the time –

Anthony Carbines: On a point of order, Speaker, in relation to imputations on members, again, not for the first time or the second time I would ask that the member for Warrandyte reflect on her remarks.

The SPEAKER: The member for Warrandyte did not refer to a particular member, but I do remind members to try very hard not to reflect on members in this chamber in their contributions. Imputations are not allowed. They are disorderly.

Nicole WERNER: That is why I rise to support the vote of no confidence today.

 Anthony CARBINES (Ivanhoe – Leader of the House, Minister for Police, Minister for Community Safety, Minister for Victims, Minister for Racing) (18:52): I move:

That the question be now put.

James Newbury: On a point of order, Speaker, I am concerned that we have had about a dozen speakers on a motion of no confidence, which, as you know, can only be moved once in this term. We have dozens of members in this single opportunity who have not spoken. I do appreciate that the minor parties have spoken, but I think it is only reasonable that a larger number of members have the opportunity to speak.

The SPEAKER: I have looked at the list of speakers, and I do believe that there have been a significant number of contributions by members in the chamber.

Assembly divided on Anthony Carbines’s motion: