Thursday, 10 December 2020

Announcements

Felicitations

The SPEAKER (17:14): Before calling the Leader of the House and the Manager of Opposition Business, I just want to echo the comments and the fine sentiments of the Deputy Speaker earlier in thanking in particular all of the parliamentary staff for their fantastic efforts this year. It has been a very challenging year for parliamentary staff to ensure that we have been able to continue operating the Parliament and our committees and acquitting the important work that the Parliament does.

Also I think all members would agree our electorate office staff this year have done a fantastic job right across the Parliament in serving our communities. I have been exposed to the amazing amount of work that members do across the chamber in supporting their communities. Regardless of people’s political views and where they sit in this place, this year has seen members of Parliament working harder than I have ever seen them work before and their officers have been put under great pressure as well. I want to acknowledge that work of all of the members as well as the staff. I know that members will continue to work during the weeks before we come back in February, but I do hope that members and their staff get time for some downtime, that people acknowledge that this year has taken a toll on people and that they do get a chance for a break, hopefully in Victoria, supporting our regional tourism operators. But if you could, make sure that your staff get a decent break to recuperate as well.

I want to thank in particular the parliamentary management, the Clerk and the clerks at the table here, Department of Parliamentary Services management and the President and his team in the upper house as well for the cooperation we have had this year in really trying circumstances.

Ms ALLAN (Bendigo East—Leader of the House, Minister for Transport Infrastructure, Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop) (17:16): Thank you, Speaker, and thank you for the leave of the chamber to allow the Manager of Opposition Business and me the opportunity to echo those statements as we normally do at the end of a sitting year. We use this time as an opportunity to reflect on the year that has gone before us and to offer our thanks and appreciation to a range of people who have worked very hard over the course of the year.

Speaker, the sentiments that you have just conveyed to the house capture very well the year that we have had. It has been undoubtedly very difficult. I do not think we could have thought at the end of 2019, even though there were fires starting to really ravage the countryside in south-eastern Australia at the end of 2019, that at the end of 2020 we would have had to battle not only fires but obviously the enormous challenge of a one-in-100-year pandemic. And then as we heard the Minister for Police and Emergency Services remind us today, we are going into another summer with both flood and fire risk. So as you rightly point out, the work is not yet over, but this is an appropriate opportunity to place on record—and I am really honoured to have the privileged opportunity to place on record—on behalf of the government and my great colleagues in the Labor caucus our appreciation and give, as we used to say back in the day, the Christmas felicitations on behalf of the government.

I would like to start with my tremendous Labor MP colleagues and the Labor caucus in both the Assembly and the upper house, but particularly here in the Assembly. As I said, it is a great privilege to have the position of Leader of the House and to have such a tremendous caucus to work with, to support, to laugh with, to sometimes cry with and to work through the challenges with. So thank you for the terrific support from my Labor caucus, and I also thank them for the tremendous work they do representing their local communities.

Can I give a particular shout-out to the whips. Now, I have had a couple of whips this year. The member for Thomastown, who served in that role for a number of years, did a terrific job and has since become a parliamentary secretary. I thank her for her support. More recently the member for South Barwon and the member for Mount Waverley have taken on the role of whip and deputy whip, and I think we have all seen how much gusto they have taken to those tasks, learning very much on the job the parliamentary procedure and the work that needs to be done. Can I also by extension on behalf the Labor caucus thank our collective staff, as you said, Speaker, in our electorate offices, in our ministerial offices and in the Premier’s office, who work really hard serving our community. I would like to thank them.

I also in turn thank all members of this chamber for their work and their roles. I know we all worked very hard during the period of the pandemic, but can I particularly acknowledge that there was a huge amount of work that went on behind the scenes, as you know well, Speaker, particularly in those weeks in March in those what now seem to be very early days of the pandemic, where collectively we had to grapple with how we ensured that Parliament could continue to sit, sit safely and perform all those really important legislative and scrutiny functions that the Parliament is responsible for.

I do particularly want to acknowledge the work with the Manager of Opposition Business. It may be revealing too much information to share that we got to know each other’s exercise routines and when was a good time of day to ring each other, and we knew that there would be some time that we would catch each other at the start of the day, sometimes very early in the day.

A member: He doesn’t have one. What are you talking about?

Ms ALLAN: Oh, was he telling fibs? Then you have got to take that up with the member for Warrandyte. Having served in the role of Manager of Opposition Business I know how challenging that role is, so I do appreciate the work that the Manager of Opposition Business did in working with me and also the crossbench members of the Parliament and you, Speaker—the Presiding Officers—to ensure that we did, by and large, have a fully functioning Parliament. That is something that is a great credit to all of us and particularly, as you have acknowledged, the parliamentary staff.

To our clerks, who have guided us carefully and considerately through this period with strong advice—we did establish some precedents along the way, and there will be an opportunity in the new year for us to reflect on some of the new practices that we have adopted that we may want to continue, but that perhaps is a conversation for the new year. But thanks to you, Speaker, to the clerks and to all the Department of Parliamentary Services staff—the wonderful staff—Hansard, the attendants and the dining room staff. I should give a particular shout-out to the dining room and the kitchen staff who made that wonderful contribution to the Victorian community by cooking meals and donating those meals through the Salvation Army. I think that made all of us very, very proud to be members of this Parliament, regardless of political colour. It was a tremendous contribution. Thanks to our wonderful library staff—I am going to run the risk of leaving people out—and to the wonderful gardening team. I hope I have not left anyone out, and if I have, I apologise, because we are well supported in this role.

I do wish everyone a very happy and safe festive season. I hope we do get the chance to cherish that time around Christmas with the 29 other people we are allowed to have at our Christmas table, if you have a family that large. But I do hope that everyone takes the opportunity to have a wonderful festive season, to have a safe festive season and to also hold close those we love. There has been great loss this year. There have been many milestones that family members and loved ones have missed celebrating with each other. So hold those loved ones close. We spend a lot of time away from our beautiful families. We should cherish the time we have with them over these coming weeks and come back with renewed vigour and refreshed for 2021, which will be a fabulous year, implementing the wonderful budget of the Andrews Labor government along the way. It will be a great year, and it will be because of the hard work that all Victorians have done to get us to this point. We have to keep at it, and we look forward to keeping at it in 2021.

Mr WELLS (Rowville) (17:22:572:): The year 2020 has been a difficult year for everyone, with COVID-19 hitting our state with such force—many deaths, small businesses that will never open and many, many jobs that have been lost. Everyone says COVID-19 is a one-in-100-year event, but I do not think so. I do not think it is going to be another hundred years before we see the next pandemic. I think the next one is just decades away, not 100 years away. I am not even sure I am going to be in Parliament when the next pandemic hits. I am just not sure I am going to be here if it is in 30 or 40 years time. So with that can I thank the incredible effort by many people to make the Victorian Parliament functional during these difficult times.

To you, Speaker, and your adviser, Jason McDonald: we have not always agreed, but I am grateful for your guidance sometimes—and at times in good humour—so can I sincerely thank you for the work that you have done. To the Leader of the House, I hope next year is an easier year. Patience has been tested—my patience has been tested to within an inch of its life. And, yes, you are right, there were those long, very detailed conversations we had, but in the end we got there. In the end we actually got there. So thank you.

To the clerks—to Bridget, Robert, Paul and Vaughn—we thank you for your guidance; even if you have to go back a couple of hundred years to get that precedent, we thank you for doing that.

The attendants, always cheerful and helpful, we thank you. The catering staff—a really big thanks to Paul, Jacquie and their team and to the many, many cleaners that we have had to have during COVID. A big thanks to the maintenance guys, and I hope that we can get things back to normal and they can have their general knowledge tests in the afternoon. The IT guys, they are just so good, their skills are so good, and we thank them.

Hansard, thank you for making us sound so good when we read back our speeches. To the library, thank you so much. To security and the PSOs, thanks for doing a good job keeping us safe. To the gardeners—John, Rachel and the team—it is always great to have fantastic-looking gardens when we do our walks around. Thanks to the parliamentary committees and the hardworking staff—I will give a big shout-out to the Integrity and Oversight Committee team. I know the Department of Parliamentary Services do not get much of a thanks, but thanks to Peter Lochert and Matt Smith, who have done an incredible job in impossible times. Matt Smith and I would talk two or three times a week going through issues. They look after the staff and manage budgets, security, IT, and they do a fantastic job.

In conclusion, can I thank the leaders of the parties on our side of the house, the Liberal and National parties. To the Leader of the Opposition, a great leader, who has been outstanding taking the fight up to the government all year in really difficult circumstances, thank you. To the Leader of The Nationals—again, a great leader and a deep thinker with great parliamentary judgement—thank you. To the whips, a special big thanks to the member for Benambra, who was ably covered by the member for Narracan and the member for Gippsland South from the National Party. I really appreciate, guys, the work that you have done. To all the coalition MPs, to your electorate officers and to your families, can I wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy new year.