Motion
Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (15:12): You can change the jockey, but it does not make any difference if the horse is already buggered, and that is exactly what has happened today. That is why all of those opposite should support those of us on this side in this no-confidence motion. In fact we know that many of you already do, because this morning you actually moved a vote of no confidence in your own government, and many of you voted for it. I am sure right about now many of you would like to come across and support us again, because there are some bruised feelings over there. There are some bruised egos.
Can you imagine the Leader of the House having the chutzpah today to talk about those of us on this side being obsessed with ourselves? If there is ever any evidence anywhere of a government that is more focused on itself than it is on the Victorian people, it is that of the Labor government today. It is just extraordinary that we get lectured by the Leader of the House today.
This is about no confidence in the Labor government, and a whole heap of them opposite today have voted no confidence in their government. This is already one of the most successful no-confidence motions in probably 80 years, because we moved this no-confidence motion today, and the Premier has fallen. So we have actually achieved it.
Jade Benham interjected.
Danny O’BRIEN: It actually was the press release of the member for Mildura this morning, I am sure. I am reminded about the change of Premier that we have had today. I was watching Pirates of the Caribbean with my son on Saturday night – Dead Man’s Chest. If you know the story, it is all about Davy Jones, who is the captain of the Flying Dutchman, and the saying is ‘Part of the crew, part of the ship’. If you are part of the crew, you are part of that ship forever. Well, the new Premier has been part of the crew and has been part of the ship. There is no fresh start for this government. Everything that we are facing in Victoria today the new Premier has been part of. Indeed, to continue the analogy, he has been the first mate of this ship, and you cannot stand there and pretend for some reason that we have got a big change, because we have got a government that has virtually destroyed this state. Just like Davy Jones and the Flying Dutchman do to ships on the open seas, they have had a real go at doing that to Victoria.
We see that in so many ways. We see it in the debt that this government has racked up, which will be being paid by our children’s children’s children for decades to come. Two hundred billion dollars of debt we are heading for, and we have got $1.2 million an hour in interest that we are heading for. Debt is not in itself a problem. I see the member for Essendon sitting up there looking as quiet as a monk. He will have arguments, I know, about debt. Debt is not a problem in itself, but when the interest on the debt is $11 billion of your budget and it is more than what the government spends on police, ambulance services and kindergartens, with change left over, that is a problem. This mob here talk about services all the time and things for Victorians. It is $11 billion of opportunity cost that we are missing out on because of the debt that they have allowed to grow. Imagine what that could do for education, for health services, for roads – all of those things. This government has absolutely failed when it comes to management of the budget.
We have seen what they have managed on crime too. Crime is out of control in this state because we have got a government that is soft on crime, that weakened the bail laws and that has left police with 1500 vacancies. There are 1500 vacancies – that is what this government has done. As a result, we have, from the latest figures – and we heard the Minister for Police just then misleading the house, frankly, when he talked about crime going down. It is like saying – I cannot even come up with an analogy. But crime has been rising for virtually every year of this government, and then when it has ticked down a little bit in the last three months, they say, ‘Crime’s falling under our government; everything’s good.’ We have now got a criminal offence occurring across the state every 50 seconds. Every 50 seconds there is a crime occurring in this state, with 735 Victorians becoming victims of crime every single day – that is according to their own figures – because we have got a government that has turned its back on crime.
It comes back to that financial management as well. If we were not spending $11 billion on interest repayments, maybe we could employ those 1500 police. Maybe we could actually employ more police. That is the failure that we have got from this government. If we had some of that money, some of that $11 billion, maybe we would spend a little bit more to invest in regional Victoria. Regional Victoria is that other part of the state that this mob forgets all the time, beyond Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong.
Juliana Addison: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, as a regional member of Parliament, I take offence at what the member for Gippsland South said, and I would like an apology.
The ACTING SPEAKER (Meng Heang Tak): The member has called for an apology.
Danny O’BRIEN: It actually did not refer to anyone specific, Acting Speaker, so you cannot ask for a withdrawal.
The ACTING SPEAKER (Meng Heang Tak): It is a matter of debate. There is no point of order.
Danny O’BRIEN: If they were so keen to support regional Victoria, maybe we would hear some of those ones that are from regional Victoria speak up occasionally. Maybe they would speak up publicly and talk about things like the simple fact that, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, regional Victoria gets 12 per cent of the infrastructure investment in this state, despite the fact we are 25 per cent of the population. I can hear them chirping up the back there: ‘Wrong, wrong.’ This is the Parliamentary Budget Officer that they established. And he has not just done it once; he has done it five years in a row, and it has never got better than 13 per cent. Indeed this year, in the 2026–27 budget, it is actually less than 12 per cent. That is regional Victoria getting dudded by this government, absolutely, and I will come to our solution to that in a moment.
On corruption, there is one figure that just about everyone in Victoria knows, and I reckon even the preppies starting school this year know it: $15 billion on corruption. I know all of those on that side know about it, because you have only got to look at their social media posts and go about three comments in and you will find ‘$15 billion’ on everything that you see – $15 billion, at a minimum, that we have seen of corruption, and that is not accounting for the waste that has gone on in the Big Build projects; that is just the corruption element. It is $40 billion of cost overruns at a minimum on the Big Build project, and so much of that – virtually all of that – here in the city. Regional Victoria has missed out again.
When it comes to the infrastructure that we do use in regional Victoria, the single biggest thing – and it is absolutely appalling – is the state of our roads. The state of our roads in Victoria is appalling. Like most country MPs, I spend a lot of time on the road, and in the five-week break that we have had from Parliament I spent a lot of time on the road, and I saw some shameful stretches of road on the Hume on the Goulburn Valley Highway. I drove up to Bendigo, to the former Premier’s own seat, and there were multiple stretches of the dual-lane highway blocked off because of the potholes. What did the signs say? They said, ‘Warning: potholes ahead. Storm damage.’ Apparently the roads fall apart when there is a storm. That is the sort of duplicity we have got from this government. It is not about a lack of investment in maintenance, it is not about the preventative maintenance that has failed for the last 10 years; it is storm damage.
With the change of Premier this morning, I did a little bit of research and I went back to the budget, because of course this is all about what has been done in the past. Over two years, 2021–22 and 2022–23, there was $214 million of cuts to the road maintenance budget. Can anyone guess who the minister for roads was back then? Do not tell me. It was the member for Niddrie, the now Premier, who oversaw $214 million of consecutive cuts to the road maintenance budget. I did find, talking again about comments on Facebook, one of the best comments I saw over that break when we were showing people exactly how bad the roads had got, which was from a commentator who said, ‘It’s not a pothole, it’s just the start of a new tunnel.’ I think that was probably spot on, because that is exactly what it looks like.
We have got a government that has wasted so much money. Very pertinent right at the moment: $600 million was lost on the Commonwealth Games – $600 million for nothing. A bit like the $1.3 billion we spent not to build a road, the east–west link, we spent $600 million not to host the Commonwealth Games. Indeed $200 million of that went to Glasgow to pay them to host the Commonwealth Games literally on the other side of the world. We have seen a government that have failed in health, and they like to say how good they are at managing health, but we have got 68,000 Victorians on the elective surgery waiting list at the moment. We have had a war on farmers. We have had a government that is so determined to get through its renewable energy agenda that it just is running roughshod over farmers right around the state. And we had the spectacle of both the Premier and the Prime Minister last year talking about how they had got it wrong with transmission lines and they need to do better, literally a day after they passed legislation in this place granting the government more powers to fine farmers who do not let authorised officers onto their land. Subsequent to that, they passed new compulsory acquisition powers, which are just an affront to farmers.
We have seen the waste. There is so much waste that it is hard to say what has been the worst: the $600 million on the Commonwealth Games is one, and on the CFA, in the former Premier’s own electorate, there was $2.4 million on a temporary fire station that was not and still has never been used. Indeed they made an announcement only a month or so ago of more money to bring it up to scratch so it can be used after sitting idle for four years. We have literally today had the bushfire inquiry report tabled in the other place, which highlights that the cost of building CFA stations has grown three to four times since the government brought in its new agency.
I know it is important not just to highlight the failures when we are talking about no confidence, because Victorians can have confidence in this side, and we are ready for an election. If this no-confidence motion is passed today, we have got a plan already outlined. We have got more to come, but we could go to the election now, because we will end the waste and we will stop the corruption, and by doing that we will be able to deliver a 10-year plan to fix the budget.
We will be able to employ 3000 new police. We will be able to introduce our policies for ‘break bail, face jail’ to ensure there are consequences for Victorians who do the wrong thing. We will introduce a genuine royal commission into the corruption on the Big Build – not a quick and dirty one to cover things up so the unions are protected. We will give IBAC new powers to follow the dollars. We will introduce Construction Enforcement Victoria to ensure there is a cop on the beat.
We will introduce the fair share guarantee to make sure regional Victoria gets its fair share. Instead of the 12 per cent that those opposite have given, we will ensure that we get the 25 per cent that we are entitled to in regional Victoria and make sure that we get the investment we need. We have got a plan for regional health. We have already announced commitments to the Mildura hospital, to the Hamilton hospital and to Wonthaggi in West Gippsland – two of those are projects that this government promised and failed to do. We will give the farmers their rights back – we will repeal those fines that I talked about earlier and the compulsory acquisition powers – and their ability to appeal projects at VCAT, which have been taken away by a government that does not care about farmers.
As I said earlier, this is probably the most successful no-confidence motion in about 80 years, because already it has brought down a Premier today. We know many of those opposite, at least 14 of them, did not support the current Premier. We know many more did not support the previous Premier. I am reminded of the quote from a Labor powerbroker yesterday who said, ‘This is about saving the furniture.’ But he added, ‘If you put some of this furniture out on the footpath, no-one would take it.’ Those opposite should support this no-confidence motion and give Victorians the election they deserve.