Wednesday, 9 February 2022

Statements on reports, papers and petitions

Department of Treasury and Finance

2021–22 Budget Update

Mr DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan—Leader of the Opposition) (17:29): My matter for the reports section today relates to the parliamentary output and the spending on the Parliament. Parliament is a very important part of our democracy. It is the foundation stone of our democracy in this state. What we have witnessed in the chamber in the recent few minutes is a Labor Party member—Kaushaliya, I pay great tribute to you—who is prepared to cross the floor and actually stand up for dignity, stand up for honesty and stand up for integrity. I want to put on record the protections that are there for members of Parliament who take that stance. The Liberal Party and other parties on our side of the chamber do not have bound members of Parliament, do not have members of Parliament who are limited in what they can say. Labor Party members are forced to sign a pledge, and that pledge if breached sees them thrown out of the party forever. I say that that is quite wrong. The Labor Party should not have that pledge. It is a direct breach of article 9 of the Bill of Rights of 1689, and if you read the sections of the constitution—

Mr Leane: On a point of order, Acting President, what report is Mr Davis talking on when he is talking about the internals of a political party? Maybe get back to the report, I would say.

Mr DAVIS: Yes, I am. I am talking about the parliamentary output section of the 2021–22 budget update. Indeed the money is allocated and the money is tracked—

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Ms Patten): Mr Davis! Please.

Mr Leane: I have got to say, Acting President, if we are going to talk about internals of political parties, it is no surprise, Mr Davis, that Liberal Party members sent you to far, far Kew, where you belong.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Ms Patten): Mr Leane, this is not a point of order.

Mr DAVIS: Thank you, Acting President. My point is that our democracy rests on our Parliament. It rests on our constitution. Section 2 of the constitution makes clear that all of the laws of England in those days, from 1689 onwards, including the Bill of Rights, are part of our system of government, including the protection of members of Parliament.

Mr Gepp: On a point of order, Acting President, you might not have accepted Mr Leane’s point of order, but, my goodness, I have not seen any report come before this Parliament that remotely resembles the contribution the thong is making over there. Not one skerrick of his contribution is even close to any report, and if he is not going to be relevant to the particular report that he is claiming to make a statement on, then he should be sat down.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Ms Patten): Thank you, Mr Gepp. Mr Davis, I have to say I do not recall any of what you are talking about being in that report either. Please, could you stick to the report for the remaining minutes.

Mr DAVIS: I will. The budget update tabled in this Parliament just recently for 2021–22 does deal with the appropriation of money for the Parliament. Amongst many other things, it deals with the appropriation of money across the whole Parliament and the tracking of that spending of money, and that is what I wanted to draw attention to: the funding of our democracy. But the underpinnings of our democracy are equally important, both through the constitution and through the protections of members of Parliament. Those who would threaten the decisions of members of Parliament, those who would apply pressure to members of Parliament and those who would make decisions that would pressure members of Parliament ought to be resisted, and I wanted to get that on the record. The Labor Party, as I have said, has a pledge which directly impinges on the Bill of Rights—the 1689 Bill of Rights—at article 9. I would say that our independent officers ought to be aware—

Mr Gepp: On a point of order, Acting President, at the risk of sounding like a cocky and repeating myself, I am not sure where this bloke is taking this. We are only halfway through the week, and he is going off on some tangent that is completely irrelevant to any report that has been tabled. He is just now flouting your ruling, and I would invite you to require him to come back to the subject matter at hand or sit him down.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Ms Patten): Thank you, Mr Gepp. Mr Davis, this is the budget update report that I believe you are speaking to in this time. There may be a mention of Parliament appropriation a little bit in that budget. I think you are going widely outside the report, and I would ask that you come back to the budget report.

Mr DAVIS: Acting President, I accept your guidance as always, and I make the point that that budget update provides a great and concerning insight into the financial position of the state. It provides information that shows that the state’s deficit has reached $19.5 billion this financial year. That is a frightening number, and it is directly the result of this state government’s mismanagement. Of course COVID spending is part of it. Of course COVID spending has increased the size of the deficit. But it is important to put on record that we were in deficit at the end of December 2019, before the COVID pandemic began to impact. Victoria, uniquely, is in a very difficult position across the forward estimates, and that forward estimates period adds more than $30 billion to our budget debt, to the overall debt, and over the forward estimates period it is clear that the net debt of the state increases to over $160 billion.

This is of course subject to discussion today with the Moody’s investor group report, which looks at the state’s financial position. In common with other ratings agencies, Moody’s has also singled out Victoria as having a uniquely weak budget position. That report, released this afternoon, makes it clear that the financial position of Victoria is much weaker than any other jurisdiction in the country. This is again a direct result of the mismanagement of this government. It looks at the property receipts in the budget, but it also recognises that the major projects that are in action in this state are a major contributor to the financial position of the state. I would make a point about those major projects: many major projects have value, but they must be kept within budget and the waste must be prevented.