Book 8 - Parliament of Victoria

QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Wednesday, 1 June 2011 COUNCIL 1623
to other programs and that federal funds were now
going to be used for the workforce programs. My
supplementary question is: can the minister confirm
that this is the case and that she has advised the federal
government of this decision?
Hon. W. A. LOVELL (Minister for Children and
Early Childhood Development) — The accusation that
this is money from previous Labor budgets is
inaccurate. This is funding we have been given this
year as part of the National Partnership on Early
Childhood Education, and it is the money that we will
be using to fund these qualifications.
The member talked about the inadequate funding from
the federal government. Let us reflect on that for a
moment. Members should remember that the promise
to move to 15 hours of kindergarten was a federal
Labor election commitment in 2007. At the time the
federal Labor Party made that election commitment it
said those 5 hours would be fully funded by the federal
government. That is not the case. The work we have
had done by our department shows that over the
forward estimates of the budget the funding for those
5 hours is $120 million short.
An honourable member — Short-changed!
Hon. W. A. LOVELL — Short-changing Victoria.
I call on the opposition to join with us to tell the federal
government as part of the — —
The PRESIDENT — Time!
Ms Mikakos — On a point of order, President, the
minister is yet again referring to the $210 million that
the federal government has committed to 15 hours. The
question was about workforce programs.
The PRESIDENT — Order! That is not a point of
order. As with Mr Finn, members trying to put in
additional information and trying to canvass their case
by way of a point of order is not on. That is not a point
of order. Ms Mikakos will have another day to pursue
further information for the chamber if she wishes, but
she will not do it by way of point of order now.
Road safety: government initiatives
Mr DRUM (Northern Victoria) — My question
without notice is to the Assistant Treasurer,
Mr Rich-Phillips, and I ask: can the minister inform the
house of any initiatives the Baillieu government is
supporting to help reduce Victoria’s road toll?
Hon. G. K. RICH-PHILLIPS (Assistant
Treasurer) — I thank Mr Drum for his question and for
his interest in road safety in Victoria. Delivering road
safety outcomes is a matter that crosses jurisdictions. It
is a matter for the commonwealth government, it is a
matter for the Victorian government and it is a matter
for local government. Within Victoria there are a
number of agencies that also participate in delivering
road safety outcomes: there is the Transport Accident
Commission, which is responsible to my portfolio;
VicRoads; Victoria Police; and the Department of
Justice.
Essentially there are three elements related to road
safety outcomes. One is delivering safer drivers in safer
vehicles on safer roads. The Transport Accident
Commission is heavily engaged in delivering on all
three of those elements. The first is in relation to safer
roads, and it is being delivered through the Safer Roads
Infrastructure Program undertaken by the Transport
Accident Commission, and this year’s budget shows
there is $75 million being spent out of that program
funded by the TAC. The second is in relation to safer
vehicles, and we have the TAC’s How Safe is Your Car
campaign encouraging people who are purchasing new
vehicles to have regard to the safety features that are
found in new vehicles and to make them a primary
consideration when choosing a new vehicle. The third
element is the behavioural change campaigns around
ensuring that we have safer drivers — the drink-driving
and drug-driving messages and the Wipe Off 5
campaign.
Allied to those behavioural change campaigns designed
to ensure that we have safer drivers is Fatality Free
Friday. Last week I was pleased to represent the
government at the launch of the fifth Fatality Free
Friday event at Federation Square, where I joined with
patron Bev Brock, Deputy Commissioner Kieran
Walshe from Victoria Police and touring car driver
Mark Winterbottom. This is a community-based
campaign to encourage drivers to have regard to others
on the road and to ensure that they use our roads
responsibly.
As part of the launch of Fatality Free Friday at
Federation Square last week the organisers laid out
1500 pairs of shoes across the forecourt. Each pair of
shoes laid out across the forecourt at Federation Square
represented somebody who had been killed on
Australian roads last year. I can tell the chamber that to
see 1500 pairs of shoes laid out across the forecourt
representing each fatality on Australian roads last year
was a very stark reminder of the impact of road
fatalities. This year in Victoria we have already seen
131 fatalities.