Tuesday, 3 March 2020

Business of the house

Program

Ms ALLAN (Bendigo East—Leader of the House, Minister for Transport Infrastructure) (1:03:58): I move:

That, under standing order 94(2), the orders of the day, government business, relating to the following bills be considered and completed by 5.00 pm on Thursday, 5 March 2020:

Crimes Amendment (Manslaughter and Related Offences) Bill 2020

Health Services Amendment (Mandatory Vaccination of Healthcare Workers) Bill 2020

National Electricity (Victoria) Amendment Bill 2020

Project Development and Construction Management Amendment Bill 2020.

I am pleased to put the government business motion to the house and look forward to its universal support and acclamation. I also note that we have just received a message from the Legislative Council seeking support from the Legislative Assembly for a joint sitting to appoint a new member of the Liberal Party to the Legislative Council. The government has been pleased to assist with expediting that request from the Council, and indeed that request from the Liberal Party, given the preselection for this seat, I believe, was held on Saturday. I must say it is a little bit off topic, but I cannot help but note that the number of women on the benches of the Liberal Party continues to decline. I am sure there will be plenty of opportunity for that to be pointed out in various forums along the way, but I wish the new member well in the Legislative Council.

There are, as I have just indicated, four bills on the government business program for this week, and there are many, many opportunities for members to debate these. All of these contain important changes and reform that continue the strong work of the Andrews Labor government in terms of delivering a strong legislative and policy agenda alongside other achievements outside of this place, particularly the Crimes Amendment (Manslaughter and Related Offences) Bill 2020 and the Health Services Amendment (Mandatory Vaccination of Healthcare Workers) Bill 2020. They are important pieces of reform. I am sure, like many other colleagues, we are receiving the occasional piece of correspondence regarding the mandatory vaccination of healthcare workers, and it is timely that we are debating a bill of this type given the community concern and discussion around how we manage and contain outbreaks like the COVID-19 virus, which is occupying a lot of our time, thought and energy around how we respond to that as a community and that of our health professionals. It is an interesting time to be debating this bill; I know that, as I said, we are receiving various pieces of correspondence, and the government believes it is important from a community protection point of view that this bill be supported.

I would also like to commend the work of the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change. The National Electricity (Victoria) Amendment Bill 2020 continues her long program of reform in making sure that Victoria has the mechanisms it needs to deal with the various issues and challenges around energy supply. Alongside the great work she is doing—we know well the work she is doing in the renewable energy space—she is also making sure that we have the regulatory and legislative instruments that we need to support the energy framework for the future.

That is just a snapshot of some of the many opportunities, as I said, for members to consider and debate a whole range of different issues and important reform work. I hope that the chamber is supportive of all those bills, but right now the priority is to see the successful passage of the government business program, and as such I commend the program to the house.

Mr WELLS (Rowville) (13:07): It will be great news and of great interest to the manager of government business that the opposition will be supporting the government business program for this week. One of the reasons why we are supporting the program is that we are thankful to the government that we are having a joint sitting this week at 6.15 pm on Wednesday to be able to sign off and agree to the Liberal Party’s selection of Matt Bach, who will be replacing Mary Wooldridge in the Legislative Council. Mary Wooldridge did an outstanding job, and Matt will come in and do an equally fine job in his role representing people in Eastern Metropolitan Region. So we are thankful for that.

In regard to the four bills, we have two bills that can be debated today, the Project Development and Construction Management Amendment Bill 2020 and the Crimes Amendment (Manslaughter and Related Offences) Bill 2020. Tomorrow we can go on to the National Electricity (Victoria) Amendment Bill 2020 and on Thursday a bill that has created a significant amount of interest in the community, the Health Services Amendment (Mandatory Vaccination of Healthcare Workers) Bill 2020. So with those short words we will be supporting the program, and we look forward to our joint sitting on Wednesday at 6.15.

Mr PEARSON (Essendon) (13:09): I am pleased that the Leader of the House’s wish and aspiration that there will be universal acclamation of the strength, the validity, the depth and the substance of this government business program has been endorsed by all sides of the house in light of the Manager of Opposition Business’s contribution.

This is a very good program before the house. There are four bills before the house. We will have the joint sitting tomorrow night, which will enable the new Liberal member for Eastern Metropolitan to take his seat—and it is his seat, because it is another male in the Liberal Party, though I suspect there is probably a degree of diversity because his name is not David, so perhaps we should be grateful for that. But this is an important program that is before the house. It demonstrates that the government is getting on with the job of delivering good governance in this state, despite some of the challenges we are confronting in relation to the COVID-19 virus. With those brief notes, I commend the program to the house.

Mr D O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (13:10): I am pleased to rise very briefly on the government business program. I was momentarily distracted by my colleagues encouraging me to be brief, but we look forward to debating the items on the government business program this week and indeed welcoming Matt Bach to the upper house. I congratulate him on his preselection win on the weekend.

I am sure we are all looking forward to debating a number of the bills. I will be having a go on the National Electricity (Victoria) Amendment Bill 2020, and the member for Euroa will be leading the debate for us on the Project Development and Construction Management Amendment Bill 2020. I am interested in that one because it does have a relationship to the relocation of the Melbourne metropolitan market—the fruit and vegie market in particular. I know, as members across the chamber—

Ms Allan: What about the program?

Mr D O’BRIEN: I am talking about a bill on the program. The member for Gippsland East will also know that Gippsland produces some great produce, and indeed it is good that I have got an interjection from the Leader of the House, because not only have we got a gift for her in supporting the government business program but I have brought another gift for her this week. As I said, Gippsland produces some wonderful produce. It also has in recent times produced some not so good produce. On the Princes Highway there is a section in my electorate that has been set aside for duplication. But it has not proceeded for so long now that—

Ms Allan interjected.

Mr D O’BRIEN: Darren has put $132 million on the table. Where is your money? There is $132 million on the table from the feds. Anyway, in this time an apple tree has grown up in that area. I have here for the minister a special apple for her that she can have as a gift.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member for Gippsland South knows not to bring props into the chamber whether they be apples or not.

Mr D O’BRIEN: It is not a prop, Deputy Speaker. It is a reminder of the failure of this government and the minister, who claims to represent rural and regional Victoria, to actually provide funding for this highway. It has been there that long that an apple tree has grown.

Ms Allan: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, this is a debate on the government business program, not an opportunity for the member for Gippsland South to criticise the hardworking federal member for Gippsland and the excellent work that Darren does in representing his community in Gippsland. I think it is a great shame that the member is being critical of the hard work that Darren has done, and I would encourage him to come back to debating the substance of the motion that is before the house and perhaps put his apple away.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I uphold the point of order. The member for Gippsland South has strayed far from the government business program. I do ask him to come back to it.

Mr D O’BRIEN: I will do so, Deputy Speaker, but will correct the Leader of the House when she suggests that I am reflecting on the federal member for Gippsland, who has got his money on the table for this highway—a fact that she very well knows and she has failed to deliver. I look forward to the debate on the program this week.

Mr FOWLES (Burwood) (13:13): It is my pleasure to make a contribution on the government business program. Perhaps in reflecting on earlier contributions the apple does not fall far from the tree vis-a-vis the member for Gippsland South, because here we are once again beating the drum of the leadership of the state Nationals, running their smoke and mirrors exercise about which money is on the table and which money is not on the table. We all know that the only government that is currently delivering for transport in regional Victoria is this government. It is the Andrews Labor government, the state government, that is doing all the delivering. As much as we might hang about waiting for the feds to get their act together in and amongst all of their internecine fighting and in and amongst all the ructions inside the federal Nationals party room, in the meantime we are getting it done at a state level. This government business program demonstrates absolutely how the Andrews state Labor government is in fact getting it done.

There are four terrific bills for consideration by this house, and I am pleased that the opposition is supporting the government business program this time around. I am sure that has contributed to the lowering of the blood pressure of the manager of government business in the house. That is appropriate, given the number of the matters that we are debating this week. We will be very interested to see what stance the opposition takes in relation to a couple of these bills, but I did want to add to my comment that the bills before the house, particularly the National Electricity (Victoria) Amendment Bill 2020, are very important matters. It needs to be debated, it needs to be implemented as legislation, because what we are seeing, sadly, is that new renewable capacity that has been brought into the grid, brought into the system, is not able to be fully harnessed and fully accessed; it is not able to run at 100 per cent. That is a tragedy, because we are obviously seeking as quickly as we can and as substantially as we can to move away from coal-fired power and embrace this change in renewable energy. In order to do that we need a grid that better supports the development of those projects.

Why do we need more renewable energy projects? Well, we need them because the climate is changing. Unlike some members in this place and the other place, this government recognises that the change is human induced. It is human-induced climate change. What you do when the climate is changing as a result of carbon pollution is you seek to put into the electricity mix some power sources that are not carbon producing. And that is what we are seeking to do. Of course as a state government we have very ambitious renewable energy targets, renewable energy targets that are causing a great deal of navel-gazing and consternation at the federal level and a great deal of finger-pointing at the very sensible renewable energy target and carbon targets being adopted by the federal Leader of the Opposition in a environment where the federal Parliament is populated—I guess I want to say ‘littered’—with climate deniers, littered with those who seek to use this issue—

Mr Wells: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, I think we have allowed a fair latitude for the member for Burwood, and I would ask you to bring him back to the government business program.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Burwood should come back to the government business program. It is not an opportunity to speak on bills before the house. It is a motion to speak on the government business program.

Mr FOWLES: It is indeed the government’s business program that at least acknowledges that this is an issue that warrants attention in this place and, I think we would say, warrants attention in other places as well, including the federal Parliament.

In relation to the joint sitting, which comprises part of the program, it is obviously a longstanding convention of this place that members of political parties in the other place nominate their nominees for the positions that have been won by that party. But we find ourselves once again having to assist the coalition parties in taking yet another retrograde step, vis-a-vis gender representation in the coalition party rooms. That is regrettable. It is nonetheless part of the government business program, and I do commend the government business program to the house.

Mr Wells: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, the internal workings of the Liberal Party are no business of the member for Burwood, and I ask you to bring him back to the government business program yet once again.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Burwood has concluded his government business program contribution. If there are no more contributions, the question before the house is that the motion on the government business program be agreed to.

Motion agreed to.