Tuesday, 3 March 2026

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (13:39): Corruption costs, and what we have seen in this state is widespread corruption in the Big Build that is costing Victorian taxpayers every single day, not just today, not just tomorrow but in the future to come. $15 billion of taxpayers money has lined the pockets of bikies and criminals, and it is just appalling that the Premier has tried to say to Victorians that she did the right thing by referring the allegations to IBAC when we know that IBAC came back to her and said, ‘We don’t have the powers to investigate’; the Minister for Police has discredited Geoffrey Watson, who has got a very strong history of integrity in corruption, working with territory MPs, state MPs and federal MPs; and the Attorney-General also misled the Parliament around what she actually did, referring issues when the police said they never got any referrals.

A Liberals and Nationals government will clean this mess up once and for all, and that is why we will be unveiling our sweeping anti-corruption plan, which will give IBAC follow-the-money powers. It will establish Construction Enforcement Victoria. It will stamp out organised crime on government-funded construction projects. We will introduce tough new laws modelled on the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations – RICO – Act in the United States. This will target criminal bosses who run organised crime networks. For far too long criminals have got away with this behaviour under the Allan government.