Book 8 - Parliament of Victoria

BUDGET PAPERS 2011–12
1584 COUNCIL Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Mr Brumby because they did not think he was good
enough. And do you know what? At the end of the day
your unions were actually right. He was not good
enough, and the people of Victoria showed that he was
not good enough.
As I said, I do not want to concentrate on the negatives
of the opposition. I have to say, and I have said this
before, that the opposition is getting a very quick crash
course in what it is like to be an opposition, and it has
been seen to be floundering. Mr Tee’s contribution was
absolutely atrocious. Mr Tee stood there and did not
even manage to use his full 15 minutes. He seemed to
run out of steam. That is what is happening on a daily
basis. We can see those opposite running out of steam;
we can see them wilting. They are all wilting. We do
not even need to bring out the Roundup. They are going
to be absolutely shrinking in front of us. If Ms Tierney
is the best that they can drag up, really and truly it is
going to be a very boring Parliament.
Having said all of that, I want to concentrate on the
positives — the really good positives — of this first
Baillieu budget. It is an outstanding budget. The reality
is that we did listen. One of the things that won us the
election was the seat of Bentleigh in the Assembly. The
now member for Bentleigh, Ms Elizabeth Miller, with
significant help from Ms Georgie Crozier and others,
ran a sensational campaign.
I would have to say it was the 522 people in Bentleigh
whose vote was so important to us as a government
who we are representing in this budget. These are the
people for whom the concessions were important, the
health issues were important and transport was
particularly important, along with various other issues
that we touched base with them on because we were
listening. Ms Miller was out there every morning at
those railway stations listening to the people, hearing
what they had to say, and she was instrumental in
getting the government to have a look at some of the
issues that are major concerns for the commuters in her
area. Looking at the grade separations in North Road,
Ormond is a good example. We listened; it was
delivered — it is here in the budget. The reality is that
this is a government that does listen. It listens. Unlike
Mr Brumby, it is out there listening to what is
happening.
In relation to Southern Metropolitan Region, I would
like to talk about some of the things we promised
during the election campaign which in fact have been
delivered in this budget. Brighton Secondary College is
going to receive $5 million for the redevelopment of its
school facilities, including construction of new science
and technology facilities. This investment will provide
the school with a state-of-the-art learning environment
for science and technology education, benefiting more
than 1200 secondary students in the Brighton area. I
suggest this is another area that was identified by the
now member for Bentleigh, because in fact many
children go to Brighton Secondary College who come
from the catchment of Bentleigh, and there were people
from Bentleigh who were particularly keen to know
that we were going to be investing this money and who
are particularly pleased to see what the result has been.
I would have to say also that safety was an issue. I have
stood in this chamber many times talking about crime
and the issue of violence on our streets. You do not
have to go much further than Chapel Street to see what
has been happening. Under the former government the
former member for Prahran, Mr Lupton, totally ignored
the violence — to his cost, so it turns out. He did not
want to know about the violence on the streets. He
ignored what was happening with alcohol-fuelled
violence. He did not want to know, and he did not want
to listen.
However, this government has said that it will put
additional protective services officers (PSOs) on the
train stations and on trains. The opposition is seeking,
searching for and wanting something to do — that is,
when it is not wilting on the vine. It fought us every
inch of the way on the PSOs. It did not want to
recognise the excellent work that the PSOs do. It did
not want to understand exactly what the protective
service officers can do for our community; they can
give it a sense of safety and a sense of confidence.
The Labor Party fought us every single bit of the way
on that debate in this chamber, but we have achieved
what we said we would do, and the people in our
electorate of Southern Metropolitan Region are grateful
for the law and order approach that we have taken.
They are particularly pleased to know that we are going
to have additional resources and that our trains and
trams are going to be safe for people to travel on in
areas such as Prahran, where we are going to have
additional closed-circuit televisions to make certain that
there will be no attacks on innocent people coming to
the city of Stonnington for a good time and a nice night
out. In the past they have met with harm, but with this
budget now that has been addressed. The Baillieu
government, Treasurer Kim Wells in particular, is to be
commended for doing that.
The Baillieu government budget has not just touched
Bentleigh and Prahran, it has also touched Burwood. In
speaking about violence, may I remind the chamber yet
again of that poignant moment when an elderly man,
who had lived his entire life in Ashburton, was going