Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Victoria
racing. Victorians who wished to partake of gaming machines (known colloquially
as ‘poker machines’ or ‘the pokies’) had to travel to NSW. These prohibitions
reinforced the notion of Victoria as a staid, conservative and prohibitionist state.
The term ‘wowser’ emerged to describe this conservative Victorian mindset.
The task of undoing the Bolte legacy began under his successor, Dick Hamer.
His government moved to solve the police corruption crisis by decriminalising
abortion. This government also put in place extensive urban and rural conservation
laws. It abolished capital punishment and decriminalised homosexuality. The Cain
Labor government legalised and regulated prostitution and began deregulating
liquor licensing laws in a bid to encourage a cafe approach to wining and dining
that was emerging from Melbourne’s large ethnic communities, thereby setting
Victoria on course to enjoy a tourism boom. The Kennett coalition government
issued an apology to the Stolen Generation in 1997. It also deregulated retail
trading hours and radically expanded the gaming industry to include poker
machines, and backed the development of a major casino complex on the southern
bank of the Yarra River, where factories and warehouses once stood. The Bracks
Labor government instituted a bill of rights, and the Brumby Labor government
oversaw the decriminalisation of abortion. The Andrews Labor government
committed Victoria to ambitious greenhouse gas emission reductions. In 2017,
it also oversaw the introduction of ‘dying with dignity’ laws, thereby permitting
euthanasia in certain circumstances.
Some of these reforms precipitated bitter political exchanges, as the state’s
conservative forces within the community, politics and some of the churches
maintained their opposition to abortion and euthanasia. Other reforms have been
the subject of ongoing debate about their social consequences. Gaming liberalisation
has been the subject of intense criticism on the grounds that it has caused
unacceptable social consequences. Strong concerns have been expressed about the
link between excessive alcohol consumption and violence, as well as its impact
on road safety. It is the prerogative of government to respond to these concerns
and formulate policy accordingly, but the significance of the extent to which social
policy has changed since the 1980s cannot be denied. Victoria generally, and
Melbourne in particular, are very different places to what they were at the height
of the ‘wowser’ period under the auspices of the Liberal Party conservatives of the
Bolte era.
Conclusions
The government and politics of Victoria reflect both stability and significant
change. Stability is to be found in the basic institutions of government where, in the
aftermath of the Eureka rebellion, colonial and British political actors were quick
to institute a Westminster system of parliamentary government that continues to
this day. Modifications to the constitution occurred periodically, with arguably the
311