Tuesday, 3 February 2026

 Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (20:38): (2245) My adjournment matter is for the Premier, and it is regarding, I have got to say, a pretty concerning media release I saw from her office over the weekend titled ‘Equality is not negotiable under a Labor government’. It is as though the government only looks at equality through the LGBT rights lens, and it is just such a limited lens to look through because the concept of equality is so much broader than that. According to the Australian Human Rights Commission website, equality is where we all have the same rights. We should all receive the same level of respect and have the same access to opportunities. If that is the case, then this government have not done a great deal to advance real equality in this state. We only have to look at things like the treaty legislation, which enshrines inequality in law; the emergency services tax, which disproportionately punches down on country Victorians; or the VicGrid legislation, which harms farmers’ property rights disproportionately; let alone that people in my electorate of Western Victoria do not have the same access to health care, closeness to schools or public transport, which in some parts barely even exists, or even the poor state of our roads.

If the rest of Victoria was treated the same as my electorate, you would be out protesting – and many in my electorate actually do. But leaving the government’s curated version of equality to one side, I have to call out the extremely disappointing judgement the Premier has displayed in her release. Let me quote:

You’ll never see this Premier marching in Pride on one day and cosying up to One Nation on the next.

I have got two issues with that statement. Firstly, the Premier and indeed her staff lobby or cosy up to One Nation all the time, and they need to do that to pass legislation in this very chamber. The Premier is just an angry hypocrite. This extremely selective and delusional reality the Premier wants people to believe is undone by two simple things: facts and truth. The second issue I have is the inference that Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell, the Parliament’s only One Nation MP, is somehow homophobic. That is completely offensive to someone like me, who is Rikkie’s friend. I consider you a friend, Rikkie. It is also just plain wrong. It reeks of political desperation from a Premier that seems more interested in attacking other people than focusing on the needs of Victorians. That is not leadership. I know Rikkie very well as a gay man. She is one of my closest friends in this place. Anyone who tries to call her homophobic will have to go through me first. Rikkie is not homophobic, and what is worse is I know that the Premier knows that. Rikkie works with everyone across this chamber from all different parties. I have got to say it is extremely disappointing to use sexuality as a pretext to make attacks like that. The Premier owes an apology, and that is the action that I seek.