Tuesday, 18 November 2025

 Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (12:36): My question is to the Treasurer. Treasurer, you commissioned the Silver review in February claiming it would zero in on waste and inefficiency to find savings for Victorian families struggling with cost-of-living pressures. Yet we now know that your government spent over $2 million on external consultants to write the review, including a massive $1.3 million deal for Gilbert + Tobin, a law firm that coincidentally had just donated to the Labor Party months before winning this lucrative contract. The Silver review was delivered to you at the end of June, nearly five months ago, so for nearly five months it has been sitting on your desk while workers wait for the axe to drop. My question is: just when are you going to release it, and when are we going to see this report that we have paid for?

The PRESIDENT: I think it is the same question, but the Treasurer would be happy to give the same answer, I suppose.

 Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Treasurer, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Regional Development) (12:37): Dr Heath, the best way to probably answer this is to refer to my answer in Hansard that I gave to the former Leader of the Opposition in the upper house. I have been asked this question several times in different formats, and the way you have asked it has not presented anything new except to continue to discredit a very respected and qualified independent person who has conducted a review. Please refer to Hansard.

 Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (12:37): I thank the Treasurer for her response. Treasurer, credit-rating agencies in New York knew about this review’s contents before Victorian workers facing redundancy and many of your own ministers. You have commenced restructures in multiple departments based on its recommendations, but the Victorian people who funded this $2.3 million exercise have been kept in the dark. Treasurer, can you confirm to this house whether you personally or anyone in your office had any discussions with Gilbert + Tobin around their role, the cost or their donation prior to the contract being awarded?

The PRESIDENT: I think that has been a very similar to question before too. There is a six-month same question rule in the standing orders. I find the Treasurer very helpful in the chamber and usually very happy to help. She can give the same answer if she wants.

 Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Treasurer, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Regional Development) (12:39): First of all, I reject the premise of the question – to suggest that you know what I said in a meeting. I would like to see where you have drawn that information from. Continuing to talk about an independent review and the way they commissioned the work that they did in the way that you have is just a little bit nastier, but it is the exact same question that I have been asked already. I am a bit confused; we have a new leader, but it does not erase everything that happened before. Hansard has evidence of that same question twice. Dr Heath, I assume that you did not write that, so I do not mean to take a swipe at you. But it is in breach of the standing orders, and I think it is just best if I refer people to Hansard. If you need to check, have a look at the questions that Mr Davis has asked me, because they are just rehashed today.