Book 8 - Parliament of Victoria

GOVERNMENT: ELECTION COMMITMENTS
1616 COUNCIL Wednesday, 1 June 2011
members of the parliamentary Liberal Party — will
bring down utility prices and bring down supermarket
prices.
This is what I find interesting about keeping election
promises. We have three Liberal Party members of
Parliament — and this advertisement was authorised by
the now director of the cabinet office, Mr Tony Nutt, so
you would think it would be a tad authentic — and this
impartial public servant who is in charge of the cabinet
office, who have put a document in the newspapers
saying, ‘Under a Liberal government watch utility
prices come down and watch grocery prices come
down’. Those are fantastic aspirations. It is a bit like the
teaching profession aspiration, but what we are talking
about here is keeping a promise.
When is a promise a promise? Three Liberal lower
house members of Parliament — Mr Battin, the
member for Gembrook; Mrs Fyffe, the member for
Evelyn; and Ms McLeish, the member for Seymour —
have gone out to their constituents and said, ‘Elect us,
and we will bring down utility prices’.
Mr Drum interjected.
Mr LENDERS — Let us look at what this actually
means, Mr Drum. Let us look at Ms McLeish, for
example, who ran around her electorate opposing a
north–south pipeline while most of her electors had
higher water bills because water that Melbourne Water
users had paid for was not being delivered.
Ms McLeish said to her constituents, ‘You’ve paid
$300 million for the right to water. You’ve paid
$900 million for a pipe, but you’re not getting it’. In the
same breath she said, ‘We’re going to bring down your
utility prices’. Her electors are not going to get
something they paid for. Let us just think that through.
Mr Drum interjected.
Mr LENDERS — Mr Drum gets very excited about
this, and fair enough. He is advocating for some of his
electors in the north of the state, which is a good thing,
and I congratulate him for that, but Mr Drum is also
condemning electors in the south of his electorate to
higher water prices.
Mr Drum — No, I am not.
Mr LENDERS — I say to Mr Drum that he should
go through the Macedon Ranges and explain to his
constituents why they are not going to get the water
they have paid for.
Mr Drum — It is still dearer.
Mr LENDERS — What I would say to Mr Drum is
that the water has been paid for. If Mr Drum thinks that
is an issue, and if he thinks pumping water costs
money, I can tell him that it takes the same amount of
energy and cost to pump it from the Thomson
Reservoir as it does from the Eildon Reservoir.
Mr Drum — I don’t think it does.
Mr LENDERS — I suggest that Mr Drum checks
the cost of pumping water from Eildon or from the
Thomson. I think he will find that he is saying to the
constituents in the southern half of his electorate, ‘Pay
more for your water, because my Minister for Water
has an ideological obsession which means that
4 million Victorians have to pay more for their water’.
The second thing I will say to Mr Drum and to the
house — and let me make myself very clear on this —
is that if we are keeping the prices of groceries down,
we cannot be all things to all people. I happen to
support the Minister for Agriculture and Food Security,
Mr Walsh, when he urges people to buy Australian and
to buy local. I support him because it will assist us with
jobs in the north of the state. I support Mr Walsh when
he says, ‘Buy local’. What I ask Mr Drum and the
house is: how can government members come in here
as a party and say they will do everything they possibly
can to bring grocery prices down and then in the same
breath condemn any company that tries to bring
cheaper prices in? That is the contradiction in
promising to be all things to all people.
I support Mr Walsh when he says, ‘Buy Australian’,
but what we have here is a group of people who go out
there and say, ‘We will keep grocery prices down and
do everything we can to keep them down — trust us,
we are Liberal politicians’. Then they condemn any
supermarket that tries to bring prices down and take
action to put up the price of water. It is interesting.
My point is not that this aspiration is not good; it is
good. My point is that this mob has promised to be all
things to all people. They promise whatever it takes to
get a vote and to get elected, and then they come in here
and rant and rave, like Mrs Kronberg, about all sorts of
hypothetical issues. In the end a government is elected
to deliver on promises, and it delivers on what it has.
Mrs Kronberg might rant about the fact that the
Australian economy has contracted, which is a third of
the reason why the GST has gone down. She might rant
about the fact that the Commonwealth Grants
Commission, under a formula set in place by her
factional mate Peter Costello, a former federal
Treasurer, has put in place a formula that in the short