Book 8 - Parliament of Victoria

GOVERNMENT: ELECTION COMMITMENTS
Wednesday, 1 June 2011 COUNCIL 1609
Mr JENNINGS (South Eastern Metropolitan) — I
thank the Chair for the opportunity to speak on this
motion, which is about the undertakings that the
government took to the people of Victoria at the last
election, its ability to deliver on them and its
commitment to deliver on them — —
Mr Finn — This will be a very short speech, then.
Mr JENNINGS — Mr Finn’s performance over the
last half hour was just like a voluble three-ring circus.
He is demonstrating one of the criticisms the opposition
has of the government, a criticism that gets some
coverage in the media. It is a criticism that is going to
develop momentum within the Victorian community —
that is, that this government is living in denial of the
fact that it was elected. By its actions it demonstrates
that it still has the mindset of an opposition. If
Mr Finn’s contribution to this debate was not a clear
demonstration of that, I do not know what is.
Mr Finn was given the opportunity to speak for a long
time this morning, but he used that time to trawl over
any random issue he could possibly think of. He
trawled up any ancient history he could find to suit his
view of the failings of the previous Labor
administration rather than taking the opportunity to
speak fulsomely and with pride about the commitments
of his government. He could have outlined to the house
what was in the budget delivered by the Premier and
Treasurer last month. He could have outlined in detail
any of the ways in which this government is delivering
on its commitments. He fundamentally resisted that
opportunity and in a flurry of hyperbole, anger and bile
took the opportunity to relive the history of the Labor
administration and its shortcomings.
Not for one minute did he take the opportunity to say
with any degree of pride what this government is
delivering on. At no stage did he take the opportunity to
outline what is supposed to be the strength of this
government, that it has brought down a budget that
delivers on its commitments. I have heard the phrase
that it is delivering on its commitments and has kept all
its promises. I will be able to demonstrate in the next
few minutes of my contribution, in the area of health
alone, where that clearly is a lie that has been
perpetrated time and again by members of the
government who dare to speak about the budget and
who dare to speak about election commitments. If they
open their mouths, they are condemned by the evidence
that is available to them about what has been delivered
in this budget.
Mr Finn — You tell us about it.
Mr JENNINGS — Thank you for the opportunity,
Mr Finn. I will outline in the next few minutes a range
of commitments the Liberal Party took to the last
election. There is a range of projects, including the
Bendigo hospital, the Box Hill Hospital, the Monash
children’s centre, the Geelong Hospital expansion, the
Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, the Ballarat
helipad, radiotherapy in the south-west coast region, the
Seymour hospital, the Kilmore hospital, the
Castlemaine hospital and the second hospital for
Geelong — projects that total $761 million on the basis
of the best estimates of their costs.
How much expenditure was committed for all those
projects in this year’s budget by the Liberal government
at its first opportunity? Out of $761 million, the amount
that is going to be acquitted this year is $6.9 million.
According to Mr Finn in his rhetorical flourish, this
government has delivered on all of its commitments,
but this year it is delivering $6.9 million for projects it
has committed to spending $761 million on for the
Victorian people. The government pretends it has
delivered on its commitments.
Let us look at only the projects I have listed — there
were even more promises made by the Liberal Party at
the last election — and how much the government is
going to spend on those projects worth a total of
$761 million over four years. Even giving the
government four years to deliver on those promises,
how much will be spent in the next four years? On the
day the budget was published the government
committed $56.8 million, and within 24 hours the
Premier had found an additional $51.5 million out of
nowhere for the Monash children’s centre. Let us give
the government the benefit of the doubt and assume
that, with the Premier’s sleight of hand in relation to
finding $51.5 million not published in the budget
papers but announced within 24 hours of the budget
being delivered, it has now identified $108.3 million to
spend in the next four years on a range of projects
worth $761 million.
How on earth can Mr Finn or any other government
member who is going to be using the Parliament like
Polyfilla — a one-size-fits-all Polyfilla that could be
used on any debate at any time — come in here time
and again and fill our time with an absolute diatribe and
revert to ancient history rather than dealing with the
expectations of the Parliament and the Victorian people
by satisfying the commitments that were made to the
Victorian people on 28 November 2010, the day the
coalition was elected to govern? It was elected to
deliver the undertakings it had made to the people, but
there has been no demonstrable commitment by this
government to confirm the costings that it took to the