Book 8 - Parliament of Victoria

GOVERNMENT: ELECTION COMMITMENTS
1634 COUNCIL Wednesday, 1 June 2011
the one exception: the Jama report was released and this
report is being suppressed.
Both the Premier and the Minister for Corrections,
Mr McIntosh, have refused to give any indication about
when the independent office of the FOI commissioner
will be opened. I asked the Premier about it during the
Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearing. His
answer was, ‘In due course’. I asked Mr McIntosh
about it, and he literally sat there silently, refusing to
speak.
The number of members on parliamentary committees
has been reduced. We have seen every motion to refer
bills to an upper house legislation committee rejected
by the government. This all puts the lie to the
proposition that somehow this government was going
to improve the standards of openness, transparency and
accountability. I have just gone through something like
a dozen examples of how the government has either
made no improvement or has actually taken the notion
of transparency backwards. It was a key coalition
commitment, and it has been the biggest
disappointment of the government. It was clearly a
fundamental promise that has been broken by the
government, and it is one that the opposition will not
stop pursuing until this government is true to its word
and actually delivers on its commitment of greater
openness, transparency and accountability.
Ms CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) — I am
pleased to rise to speak on this motion, and in doing so
I firstly thank Mr Viney for his congratulations on the
election of the Baillieu government. However, I remind
Mr Viney in relation to this motion that this
government listened to Victorians in the lead-up to last
year’s election and delivered a budget that was in line
with the expectations of the Victorian public.
This budget was put together at a time when significant
challenges were being faced by the Treasurer and the
leadership of the government. For example, floods have
affected many parts of Victoria, and communities are
still being affected by those floods. Another factor in
formulating the budget has been the Gillard
government’s significant cut of $4.1 billion to GST
revenue, and the house hardly needs to be reminded of
the enormous cost blow-outs in relation to a number of
projects that have been mentioned numerous times by
those on this side of the house, such as the desalination
plant, myki, HealthSMART, smart meters and so on.
The government has provided detailed costings for this
budget, and many election commitments are being met
by the Baillieu government. Some $5.1 billion of
election commitments have been put forward. The
budget has been tabled, the Public Accounts and
Estimates Committee, to which Mr Pakula has referred,
has conducted its hearings and, as we heard from
Mr Davis this morning, some 50 hours of public
hearings have taken place in relation to that process.
I will highlight some areas of the budget which were of
most concern to the Victorian public in the lead-up to
last year’s election. I refer in particular to the area of
community safety. As we all know, law and order is a
big issue due to the increasing incidence of violent
crime on our streets, both within metropolitan
Melbourne and across rural Victoria. Violent crime has
increased, and that needs to be addressed. This
government has put in place significant investment in
that area. This government will provide 1700 police
officers and 940 protective services officers on our
transport system to help people in the community feel
safer. These officers will have a presence on our streets
to ensure that we are delivering on that commitment.
Transport has been an absolute mess in this city for a
number of years, and it was totally neglected by the
previous government. This government is aiming to fix
many of the problems, and in doing so it has provided
significant investment in various areas. As I mentioned
yesterday, in my own region there will be an upgrade of
the Balaclava railway station. Other upgrades include
grade separations at several locations in Melbourne.
The government faces a huge undertaking in relation to
the myki ticketing system fiasco, and the government is
looking into that and other difficult areas.
The budget provides $13 billion to deliver improved
health services, which is a record spend. I note that in
his contribution to the debate on this motion
Mr Jennings drew significantly on the health aspects of
the budget. He was concerned about this government’s
ability to deliver on the commitments in the budget. He
said this government is living in denial and has the
mindset of being in opposition. He then listed a number
of hospitals and said there are various issues in relation
to health funding in the budget.
I remind Mr Jennings that there will be significant
investment in that area — as I mentioned,
$13 billion — which will improve those health services
that were neglected by the previous government. Other
improvements will affect elective surgery wait times,
ambulance response times and other factors that impact
on a patient’s ability to receive proper and appropriate
care in a timely fashion in this state. In addition the
budget provides significant funding of $34 million for
palliative care services, a measure that has been widely
accepted and appreciated by those working within that
area.