Thursday, 31 October 2019

 Ms STALEY (Ripon) (11:16): My question is to the Treasurer. Last sitting week, in response to a direct question as to whether the government will privatise the VicRoads motor registration unit, the Treasurer told the Parliament:

Can I be very clear that we will not be divesting assets and operations of government. We just will not be doing it.

Following that question time, the Treasurer was quoted in the media as saying:

We’ve been very clear on this. We will not privatise the registration and licensing function of VicRoads.

Yet this week details of this privatisation have emerged, including the time frames, the likely investment bank to handle the deal and the potential sale proceeds. Did the Treasurer mislead the house or is he misleading the investment banks he has had working on this deal for months?

 Mr PALLAS (Werribee—Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Industrial Relations) (11:17): No.

 Ms STALEY (Ripon) (11:17): I will take that that he is saying that he has not misled the investment banks and therefore he misled the house. The Australian Financial Review has reported that investment banks have been called in to present their ideas for the sale of parts of VicRoads functions such as registration. If what you told the house last week is true, then why have these meetings been called?

 Mr PALLAS (Werribee—Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Industrial Relations) (11:18): Well, just to clarify: there will be no privatisation of licensing and registration. We will continue to look at joint venture options internally—

Members interjecting.

Mr PALLAS: Oh sorry, a joint venture apparently is our privatisation, which means that the $38 billion worth of public-private partnerships are privatisations.

Mr Andrews interjected.

Mr PALLAS: Yes. We know of course that those opposite know a lot about misleading people. I mean, for example, they go around touting their leader as a serious alternative Premier.

Ms Staley: On a point of order, Speaker, I suspect you might anticipate the point I am going to raise here. Once again, a member of the government is using question time to attack the opposition and I would, once again, ask you to stop them from doing that.

Ms Allan: On the point of order, Speaker, and it also relates to the point of order that was taken earlier by the Manager of Opposition Business, if you are going to rule as you did on the previous point of order, I then also ask you to rule out of order additional commentary that is added into questions given by those opposite where they use questions as an opportunity to attack the government. So if it is going to be one rule for this side of the house I would ask that there be another rule for that side of the house.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! The house will come to order. The member for Oakleigh is warned.

Mr R Smith: On the point of order, Speaker, maybe the Leader of the House could point to the standing order that says that the opposition is not allowed to attack the government in questions. If you could just refer me to that standing order or to Rulings from the Chair? Can you show me that?

The SPEAKER: Order! The Treasurer will not use an answer to a question as an opportunity to attack the opposition.

Mr PALLAS: Just to clarify: we are undertaking a detailed scoping study to investigate future options for the VicRoads registration and licensing division. We are looking at a range of options including the role of Service Victoria and, might I say, the private sector. We are not against working with the private sector to improve services and to benefit motorists.