Book 8 - Parliament of Victoria

GOVERNMENT: ELECTION COMMITMENTS
Wednesday, 1 June 2011 COUNCIL 1613
having a situation where some sort of ephemeral
performance is covered up with spin and glamour
images and where the substance of delivery is avoided.
We in government are seeking a quality return on the
investment of taxpayers dollars for the delivery of
services in the state.
Part 2 will examine performance measures with
possible recommendations for improvements. That
examination will include a review of the performance
measures the government has proposed discontinuing
or substantially altering in the 2011–12 budget. We
anticipate that part 3 will provide a detailed analysis,
including recommendations relating to the budget
estimates 2011–12 and the forward estimates. The
analysis will be based on the budget papers; the budget
estimates hearings; departments’ responses to
questionnaires from the committee; ministers’
responses to questions on notice, requests for further
details and unasked questions; and any other relevant
material.
The people of Victoria can rest assured. Unlike
members of the Labor government, who are now
languishing in opposition and are yet to show any sort
of spirited performance in this chamber, we on this side
will be a government of openness and transparency,
and importantly a government of capability. I refer to
the ability to deliver on deliverables and deliver on and
live up to our commitments. I am really proud of some
of the elements that we have brought into this budget.
As I said, the budget is the embodiment of a number of
our commitments. I remind Mr Jennings that we are
talking about a four-year budget program, and what
was delivered in this, the first year of the Baillieu
government, was delivered in spite of the savage attack
by the Gillard government in its $4.1 billion cut to our
GST revenue. Interestingly while the narrow response
of Mr Jennings was focused on matters to do with
health funding, let me say — I rejoice in saying this and
I hope it resonates with the people of Victoria — how
important it was for us to have ourselves unplugged
from the health agreement for which the hapless former
Labor government, in a fawning, obsequious way,
actually sold Victoria down the line by surrendering
30 per cent of incoming receipts from GST that this
state had relied on.
The former Labor government supported the poor
performance of the federal government, which cannot
deliver anything, by allowing it access to what we need.
We need that river of gold from the GST here in
Victoria so that it can be managed in a competent
manner by the Baillieu government. The less the
Gillard government can have its hands on, the better, as
far as I am concerned.
From the former government we have seen a series of
black holes that total some $2 billion. So far as I can
recall nobody has made these points in the debate thus
far. All those landmines and snakes under the rocks —
every time you turn a rock you find a snake or a
scorpion ready to rise up and bite you or a landmine
ready to explode — are manifested by the $2 billion in
black holes.
How dare members of the opposition stand up and say,
‘You are not funding this, that or the other thing’, when
their funding regime came to a screaming halt in July
this year. What were they going to fund? With all their
hyperbole, what rabbits were they going to pull out of
the hat to actually fund all those things? What were
they going to do? We all know they built up
expectations in the community that certain things would
have recurrent funding and then that funding was found
not to be there. All that was found were the landmines,
snakes and scorpions under the rocks and the black
holes that our skilful people are having to adroitly
address.
The coalition government has already been able to fund
some of the former government’s black holes in health
services, funding that is going not only directly to
health services but also to major capital works and
things that just were not on the horizon, such as
$55 million for nurses’ holiday pay. Mr Jennings did
not mention that. Who was going to pay for the nurses
after 1 July?
One of my favourite things to note when I examine
Labor’s performance over time is its gormlessness
when it came to the design, implementation and
commissioning of any information technology system
at all. It had no capacity to provide oversight or project
manage such projects. It was absolutely snowed by
third-party providers. It had no capacity to actually ask
a question, project manage anything or even know what
to do with the answer. Thank goodness that area is now
in our domain. We have been able to fund the IT
system for the Royal Children’s Hospital and bring that
back into reality — $24.9 million has been allocated for
that.
The Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre
is very dear to my heart, because most days I see it; it is
on the campus of the Austin Hospital. We have
provided $45 million for the centre. What the former
government did with that centre was an outrage. This is
one of its all-time greatest scandals and an example of
its spin and deceit. The former government left nothing