Book 8 - Parliament of Victoria

PUBLIC HOLIDAYS AMENDMENT BILL 2011
1708 COUNCIL Thursday, 2 June 2011
Hon. R. A. DALLA-RIVA (Minister for
Employment and Industrial Relations) — I do not have
that information at hand.
Mr SOMYUREK (South Eastern Metropolitan) —
The minister a spoke a little earlier about the confusion
in 2008 because of the 2008 bill. Is it true that prior to
2007 only 23 out of the 48 non-metropolitan
municipalities actually declared a public holiday on
Melbourne Cup Day or a holiday in lieu of Melbourne
Cup Day?
Hon. R. A. DALLA-RIVA (Minister for
Employment and Industrial Relations) — My advice is
that the question asked is not relevant to this bill and
that prior to that the councils had taken a different
course, so things applied differently after 2008.
Mr Somyurek — On a point of order, Deputy
President, Mr Dalla-Riva did talk about how things
worked in 2008 and how things were prior to 2008, so I
suggest that Mr Dalla-Riva himself ventured into this
territory. I am now taking up — —
The DEPUTY PRESIDENT — Order! That is not
a point of order. It is a point of debate which the
member is entitled to make but not as a point of order.
Does the member wish to make a further contribution?
Mr Somyurek — My point of order was that the
minister himself broadened the scope of the debate by
actually referring to it, therefore it became relevant for
me to ask that question.
The DEPUTY PRESIDENT — Order! The
question was not ruled out of order; the question was
allowed to stand, and the minister responded to the
question. I cannot direct the minister to respond in any
particular way; I can only provide him with the
opportunity to respond. I cannot direct the minister to
answer a question.
Mr SOMYUREK (South Eastern Metropolitan) —
I suspect the minister is not going to answer this
question either, but I will try. How many days in
2007 — I say 2007 because that is the year before the
2008 legislation was implemented — were half-day
holidays? Non-metropolitan shires or councils had a
choice of taking up the half-day holidays at that stage.
How many non-metropolitan councils at that stage took
up the half-day holiday option?
Hon. R. A. DALLA-RIVA (Minister for
Employment and Industrial Relations) — I will be
more polite. That does go to the history, but what we
are about with this legislation moving forward is giving
the choice and opportunity to councils and the
flexibility to do as they choose. We could go right back
to the principal act of 1993, but I do not think we
should be prosecuting every legislative change. There
were changes in 2008 and there were election
commitments in 2009. The then government
backflipped and tried to modify the legislation, but it
was still a dog’s breakfast.
We went to the election with a very clear mandate to
make this change, and we have put this amendment to
the house. I put forward the proposition that clause 1
basically deals with the principles. The principles were
an election commitment, and there was an
understanding that this position would be taken in this
chamber.
The DEPUTY PRESIDENT — Order! I am not
advising the minister on this, but it is not uncommon,
where specific information has been requested, for
ministers to provide that information to a member at a
later time once they have obtained that information. It is
obviously not a direction, but it is not uncommon for
that to occur in committee stages.
Ms PULFORD (Western Victoria) — I have one
final question on clause 1. I would be curious to know
what the government’s expectation is of how many of
the shires and rural councils are likely to take up the
half-day option. Like many of my colleagues who
represent areas that are affected by this legislation, I
have had many representations — from local
government, communities, turf clubs and show
societies — about when the date could be and to what
locality it could apply, but I have not encountered a
great demand for information on the half-day option.
What is the minister’s expectation about the likelihood
of this being widely applied?
Mr P. DAVIS (Eastern Victoria) — Deputy
President, I am delighted to have the opportunity to
make a few remarks.
The DEPUTY PRESIDENT — Order! Thank you
for the correct title too, Mr Davis. You are doing better
than the minister.
Mr P. DAVIS — I had not picked that up. I am
trying to contain myself here. I have recently sat
through 54 hours of estimates hearings. Those hearings
were sometimes laborious, but they were not nearly as
laborious as the process we are going through now.
Mr Somyurek — It is called scrutiny.
Mr P. DAVIS — I will take up Mr Somyurek’s
interjection.