Book 8 - Parliament of Victoria

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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
GOVERNMENT: ELECTION COMMITMENTS Wednesday, 1 June 2011 COUNCIL 1617 term has disadvantaged Victoria — no question. No-one disputes that. However, for anyone to make an excuse for not delivering on every election promise, when they are serious, as one hopes Mr Wells is, about how they are going to construct a budget, they would have to know that GST revenue goes up and down. If they are serious about finding someone to blame, they should get stuck into who the big beneficiaries of this are — and that happens to be New South Wales and Western Australia. But Mrs Kronberg will not have a go at her Liberal mates, nor will Mr Baillieu or Mr Wells, by saying ‘Take the money from Western Australia or New South Wales’. No, they will not do that. They will try to blame a federal government that is administering a grants commission formula that is actually a legacy of Peter Costello. The grants commission is what the grants commission is, and if the government wishes to do something about what the grants commission is, there are ways — — Mr Drum — You know that is not true. Mr LENDERS — Mr Drum, let me suggest to you that if you think you are going to come into this place and say that you understand the grants commission formula, you are courageous. If you are saying that, let me say in the absolute of Yes, Minister terms, that you are courageous if you think you understand the grants commission formula. If you say to me that that is not something that was inherited, that the grants commission has been in place since tariffs were abolished at the end of the first decade of this federation and that most of the iterations on this grants commission formula are a legacy — — Mr Drum — Who just altered the model? Mr LENDERS — Mr Drum, the grants commissioners were appointed by Peter Costello. They have come up with this formula — — Mr Drum interjected. Mr LENDERS — Mr Drum gets very excited in his place. The ACTING PRESIDENT (Mr Finn) — Order! I ask Mr Drum to come to order. Mr LENDERS — Despite Mr Drum’s excitement, the grants commission is what the grants commission is, and it is truly amazing that those opposite suddenly find the grants commission is a reason to slash their commitments. They do not say boo about the fact that circumstances have changed since Western Australia’s budget adventure. They do not mention that. Their rhetoric is about blaming somebody else. They blame the weather, they — — Hon. M. J. Guy interjected. Mr LENDERS — Mr Guy, I was certainly happy to do a Moscow on the Molonglo, and you held me to account for it. We are having an exciting debate in this place. In my concluding remarks I would say that Mr Viney’s motion seeks to hold the government to account on its promises. The promise of the Monash University railway station was made 52 years ago and has as much credibility as any other promise that has been repeated many times by the Liberal Party and never delivered. In relation to the spin that comes from four Liberal candidates saying that they are going to keep utility bills and grocery prices down, their actions do not reflect their words at all. That is incredibly disappointing, and on that I would say that to think they can control grocery prices and go and solemnly promise that to their constituents is false. To say that they can keep utility bills down but then take every action to put utility bills up is false. I am very supportive of Mr Viney’s motion because it holds the government to account. I conclude on the final promise, which I will reiterate. To go out in 2007 and 2010 and say that they are going to make Victoria’s teachers the highest paid in the country when they have no intention whatsoever of delivering on that is a broken promise, a cruel promise, a hoax and something that I think 60 000 to 70 000 teachers will hold this government to account for. It will be something that will damage, to quote Mr Guy, the ‘Liberal brand’ — do not believe a word that people say — and it will come to haunt them at every juncture in every school, as every teacher feels absolutely and completely betrayed by a promise that was never deliverable. There was never any intention of delivering on that promise. It was a cruel hoax to win votes, and now, given that they have won, they are saying, ‘How do we get out of this undeliverable, insincere promise that was never going to happen?’. With that, I urge the house to support this very good motion of my colleague Mr Viney. Business interrupted pursuant to standing orders.
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