Book 8 - Parliament of Victoria

QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Thursday, 2 June 2011 COUNCIL 1697
support for urban renewal and urban projects in outer
urban areas as much as inner city growth areas.
This development that will bring a $440 million
injection to the Wyndham economy. Once operational,
there will be an $8 million tourist expenditure with
72 000 annual trips to the marina each year. It will
bring thousands of people to Wyndham. It will open up
an area of Port Phillip Bay that has previously remained
untouched and unable to be accessed by people across
our city. It is a development that we are proud to be
associated with.
Hon. M. P. Pakula interjected.
Hon. M. J. GUY — I note the interjection of
Mr Pakula. Well, well, well! I am so glad to have an
interjection from a member for Western Metropolitan
Region who lives in the eastern suburbs — someone
who treats the west with such disrespect he does not
even bother to live there. But the Liberal members who
live there and who joined me at the launch — Mr Finn
and Mr Elsbury — are all proud to be associated with a
development that is part of rejuvenating Melbourne’s
west in a manner that only a Liberal government is
proud to support.
Planning: major hazard facilities
Mr TEE (Eastern Metropolitan) — My question is
also for the Minister for Planning — while his voice
lasts. On 31 March the Hobsons Bay Weekly lodged an
FOI application seeking a copy of the Ports and
Environs Advisory Committee report. Four days later,
on 4 April, the minister wrote to the member for
Williamstown in the Assembly saying that he had the
report and:
I am currently considering the recommendations of the Port
and Environs Advisory Committee …
Yet on 25 May the minister’s media adviser, Bronwyn
Perry, told the Hobson’s Bay Weekly that the minister
did not have the report. She stated:
When he has received the reports he will make a decision
about whether or not to release them publicly.
Who is telling the truth — the minister or his adviser?
Hon. M. J. GUY (Minister for Planning) — When I
receive the report I will make a decision on it. When
material is published in newspapers, as Mr Tee knows,
sometimes it is told to a newspaper and it lasts beyond
the week in which it might have been given to the
journalist, and it might become dated from that period
of time. Mr Tee should follow the advice of the former
Leader of the Government in this chamber,
Mr Lenders, who scorned people for taking their stories
from newspapers.
Supplementary question
Mr TEE (Eastern Metropolitan) — I am not
referring to the news article; I am referring to the
minister’s letter of 5 April wherein he said, ‘I am
currently considering the recommendations’. This is an
important report dealing with people living next to
major hazard facilities. It is an issue that is causing
anxiety in this community. When will the minister
release the report?
Hon. M. J. GUY (Minister for Planning) — I have
already stated that after I receive the report and make an
assessment I will release it at the proper and appropriate
time. What I find astounding about this report is that it
was commenced by and was around under the previous
government. If the member for Williamstown in the
Assembly, Wade Noonan, and other Labor members
felt so strongly about this issue, why were they silent on
it for 11 years, only to suddenly find their voices now
that they have been thrown into opposition?
All these crocodile tears that the Labor Party cries for
the western suburbs! Where were the crocodile tears
when Justin Madden rezoned land being considered by
this report? Where were the crocodile tears when Justin
Madden rezoned land in Williamstown near an area
that is being considered by this report? Where were
Labor’s crocodile tears then? They were never to be
seen. Now they walk into the chamber — and wow,
what a difference opposition makes!
Manufacturing: industrial action
Mrs COOTE (Southern Metropolitan) — My
question is to the Minister for Manufacturing, Exports
and Trade, Mr Dalla-Riva, and I ask: can the minister
inform the house of the significance of yesterday’s Fair
Work Australia ruling that unions could use strike
action to force employers to the negotiating table?
Hon. R. A. DALLA-RIVA (Minister for
Manufacturing, Exports and Trade) — I thank the
member for the question, because the ruling to force
employers to the negotiating table is an important
matter. This was a decision announced yesterday
involving the Transport Workers Union and
J. J. Richards and Sons. I note the concerns of employer
groups about the potential for the decision to encourage
greater strike action and industrial unrest. The point I
make is this: nobody questions the right of workers to
take lawful industrial action, but surely in any sensible
enterprise bargaining arrangement that right should be