Introduction
Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (12:16): I also rise to support the member for Brighton’s introduction of this bill, the Sentencing Amendment (Emergency Workers) Bill 2026, and I take up the comments of the member for Macedon in the previous contribution about going to war with emergency services workers. I was in Bendigo on Sunday with over a thousand emergency services workers who are at war with the Victorian Labor government in the seat of Bendigo East because they are upset with this government on the emergency services tax that they like to promote over there. So the government should be aware that there is more than just one group of emergency services workers.
I will go back to the member for Macedon’s comments about those of us on this side not engaging with Danny Hill. Well, that is simply not true. As the member for Brighton tried to point out in his point of order, we have engaged. In fact members of the Nationals well know that we have had Danny Hill in our party room to talk to us about the issues and to talk to us about the concerns. I hope I have not got Danny Hill in trouble in that, but he is someone that we have a lot of respect for. We understand his passion for emergency services workers. It is a passion that is shared on this side of the house, which is why we are trying to introduce this legislation – because we know that this loophole has been used and our emergency services workers deserve protection. They deserve protection, and they deserve to have simple loopholes closed.
This is something that is quite simple. The member for Brighton has a piece of legislation. It is going to expand the definition of ‘on duty’ to give the court some clear understanding if an emergency services worker is assaulted while they are on duty – whether they are out getting a coffee or getting lunch or maybe taking a 5-minute break to pick up the kids from school or something like that – to ensure that they are protected. This is quite simple and straightforward, and yet we have got a government putting it off to a review. Why does it need a review?
James Newbury interjected.
Danny O’BRIEN: A two-year delay. It is coming from a government that has a bit of form on reviews recently, a government that says, ‘We’re going to change the rules on IBAC, but we’re going to do it in 18 months.’ This is nothing like the complexity that might come from the definition of ‘corruption’ or the extension of the –
Anthony Carbines: On a point of order, Speaker, I refer to your earlier rulings about being relevant to the procedural debate, and I would ask you to remind the Leader of the Nationals about that.
The SPEAKER: The Leader of the Nationals to come back to the procedural debate.
Danny O’BRIEN: This is a very important piece of legislation to close a simple loophole that will look after our emergency services workers, whether they are police, whether they are paramedics, whether they are nurses on duty or whether they are firefighters, including the volunteer firefighters who I was with on Sunday and who have certainly got a beef with the Labor government. And they will have a further beef with the government over the fact –
Anthony Carbines interjected.
Danny O’BRIEN: ‘The same old whingers’ the minister calls them. Let the record show that the Minister for Police has just referred to the CFA volunteers and emergency services workers as the same old whingers. Well, that highlights exactly the attitude that this government takes towards our volunteer firefighters and emergency services workers. That is absolutely disgraceful, Minister, that you would say that, calling them ‘the same old whingers’ after what this government has done to them over the last few years, particularly with the fire services reform.
But I will come back to the issue at hand. We have just heard from the government how little regard they have for our emergency services workers. ‘The same old whingers’, the Minister for Police called them. This is an important piece of legislation. The member for Macedon just said she does not support it because this bill does not address the issue. She has not even seen the bill. This is a debate about introducing it so that the government members can have a look at it. I know government members are used to being given a piece of paper from the minister’s office and being told ‘Read that, and don’t stray beyond it.’
A member interjected.
Danny O’BRIEN: It is outrageous. You should actually have a look at some legislation at some stage, including legislation that might be introduced by other members of the Parliament, whether that is the opposition, the Greens or anyone else. This government is not interested in that. It is not interested in closing loopholes for our emergency services workers, making sure that they are protected. The heinous acts that some people have committed on paramedics and others, the violence that they have experienced, should not be tolerated. This loophole should not be tolerated. It can be closed. The government could vote for it right now, and it should do so.