Book 8 - Parliament of Victoria

GOVERNMENT: ELECTION COMMITMENTS
1604 COUNCIL Wednesday, 1 June 2011
and the government is continuing to refuse to provide
information about program and service funding to
allow these services to make informed judgements
about where they may or may not stand in relation to
decisions by the government to fund them.
Most recently there have been cuts to the Take a Break
occasional child-care program, and the government has
put on notice neighbourhood houses and other services
that deliver that program. We have heard how members
of the government want to go over the history of this
program in terms of federal and state funding.
However, the fact is that this is a program that was
funded by the former state Labor government, and at
the time of the election in November last year the
Liberal Party and The Nationals neither went to the
election saying that they would not continue funding
this program nor did they make available their costings
revealing that this is something they were intent on
doing.
They also did not make information available through
costings by the Department of Treasury and Finance
that would have made this transparent to Victorians
who are affected. I have been contacted by electors in
my region who are deeply affected by this decision by
the government not to continue funding this program.
Some electors are going to have to stop working and
close businesses. They are simply not going to be able
to continue to participate in small business, which
members opposite like to stand up and say that they are
the great champions of.
The fact of the matter is that a great many small
business operators are being affected by this decision,
which was not made transparent when it certainly
should have been at the time of the election and in the
costing documents that the Labor Party called for prior
to the election, at the time of the election and since the
election. We have called for those documents because
we believe in transparency, and we intend to hold the
government to account for its commitments. This
information is vital to ensure that the opposition is able
to do that. I would have thought the information was
vital for the government if it does not want to be
embroiled in constant arguments about what was or
was not contained in information which only it has
access to, because it continues to be secret information.
I commend Mr Viney’s motion to the house.
Mr FINN (Western Metropolitan) — It gives me a
great deal of pleasure to rise to speak on this particular
motion. At the outset I thank Mr Viney for welcoming
the new government so warmly — I am sure it was
done with a great deal of genuine feeling. I am sure
other members of the opposition would feel some
enthusiasm about the new government. I can say that I
am pleased that he is pleased that there is a new
government, and I know for a fact that an
overwhelming majority of Victorians are also very
pleased there has been a change of government in
Victoria. However, I have to wonder when exactly this
motion was written, because it does seem a tad out of
date. It seems that this motion may well have been
written in January or February this year — maybe even
December last year.
Mr Koch — Late November.
Mr FINN — Do you think about 28 November,
Mr Koch?
Mr Koch — That is right.
Mr FINN — Fair enough! Clearly since this motion
was written there have been significant changes in the
political landscape in Australia. When Mr Viney calls
upon the government to honour all its election
commitments in full it is obvious that the situation has
changed significantly from when this motion was
written. Since then we have had a budget presented to
the Parliament. I would hazard a guess and say that the
budget presented to the Parliament this year by the
Baillieu government has fulfilled more election
promises than any budget I can ever recall.
It is a budget that we on this side of the house are
particularly proud of. We went out of our way to ensure
that the promises we made leading up to the election of
27 November were kept in that budget. If Mr Viney or
any members of the Labor Party wish to go through the
budget line by line, they will see that we have kept a
good many, in fact almost all, election promises in that
document alone — just in the budget. We on this side
of the house should all be very proud of this. Once
again I congratulate the Premier and the Treasurer on
having produced a budget which is good for the
overwhelming majority of Victorians and which
delivers on the promises we put forward in the lead-up
to 27 November last year.
It is a good budget for Victoria, and we have met our
commitments in that budget. But just in case Mr Viney,
Mr Lenders or anybody else is still in any doubt about
where we on this side of the house stand on fulfilling
our election commitments, perhaps we could go
through some of the legislation that has been passed
into law since the election of this government. A quick
browse will produce the following. The Civil Procedure
and Legal Profession Amendment Act 2011
implements an election commitment to remove
mandatory prelitigation procedures in certain civil