Tuesday, 2 August 2022

Business of the house

Program

Ms BLANDTHORN (Pascoe Vale—Leader of the House, Minister for Planning) (12:49): I move:

That, under standing order 94(2), the orders of the day, government business, relating to the following bills be considered and completed by 5.00 pm on Thursday, 4 August 2022:

Building, Planning and Heritage Legislation Amendment (Administration and Other Matters) Bill 2022

Crimes Legislation Amendment Bill 2022

Mental Health and Wellbeing Bill 2022

Victorian Energy Efficiency Target Amendment Bill 2022.

Speaker, can I begin my remarks by congratulating you on your appointment to this role. Your commitment, as the Premier indicated, to your community of Bendigo and to the broader state of Victoria and your passion for issues such as students of all abilities have stood you in good stead. I know that your personal journey to this role has been a long one, and I congratulate you and your family. I actually remember first meeting your now husband when I was campaigning one day in Merlynston. I knew then—I think you yourself said how chuffed he is about your role now—how chuffed he was about your achievements along the way, so congratulations to you, your family and your community of Bendigo.

Can I also thank the Premier and the caucus for the privilege of being able to serve as Leader of the House and pay tribute to my good friend and colleague the Deputy Premier, the member for Bendigo East. The Deputy Premier has certainly left some big shoes to fill over the next four weeks, but I thank her as well for her help and support over the winter break. I look forward to working alongside the Manager of Opposition Business and my crossbench colleagues as we deliver four great last weeks of debate in this Parliament.

Can I also thank the Manager of Opposition Business and the crossbench for their support for the condolence motion tomorrow for the late Jane Garrett, a former member of this house, a member of the other place and a former minister in this government. When the late Jane Garrett was the member for Brunswick my electorate of Pascoe Vale bordered her electorate, and I know right across our shared communities of the inner north of Melbourne people thought very highly of Jane and her commitment to working people in our communities and also across this state. I certainly pass on my condolences to her family.

In presenting the government business program I commend each of the bills to the house for debate and consideration this week. With the Mental Health and Wellbeing Bill 2022 we see the next steps in the delivery of the government’s commitment to the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. We all remember the historic sitting of the Parliament at the historic exhibition building last year, and this bill certainly fulfils the next steps in the government’s important agenda in relation to mental health. As we have all indicated in this chamber many a time over the journey and the conversation around these issues, everyone is touched by good mental health and poor mental health, and we all have a commitment to do better. This bill is part of that.

We will also debate the Crimes Legislation Amendment Bill 2022, creating a new offence of engaging in conduct that is grossly offensive to community standards of acceptable conduct. The importance of this reform was highlighted in the aftermath of the Eastern Freeway tragedy where four officers of Victoria Police, sadly, lost their lives and we saw the very distressing conduct of an individual during that tragedy.

We will also debate the Victorian Energy Efficiency Target Amendment Bill 2022, which will improve the Victorian energy upgrades program, continuing to reinforce our government as a leader in taking strong action on climate change while saving Victorian households and businesses money.

And one close to me, the Building, Planning and Heritage Legislation Amendment (Administration and Other Matters) Bill 2022, makes a series of legislative amendments that will implement important reforms and important consumer protections, reshaping the regulatory landscape in Victoria.

I look forward to the government business program being supported across the house and us being able to move forward together and debate these important issues and of course consider the important condolence motion tomorrow for the late Jane Garrett. I commend the business program.

Ms STALEY (Ripon) (12:53): Speaker, I also begin by congratulating you on your election as Speaker. I do hope that there is one prefix that you will continue to allow us to use, and that is that of ‘honourable Speaker’—perhaps one that we do not use enough these days. I do congratulate you on your election. I also thank the previous Speaker, the member for Bundoora, with whom I had I believe an excellent working relationship and who I hold in high regard.

While I am on congratulations I also welcome the new Leader of the House to her role. So far we have made a start, and I hope we can continue in a collegiate fashion. With that of course we have the elevation of the previous Leader of the House to Deputy Premier, and I congratulate her on achieving that high honour of Deputy Premier of Victoria.

This week we have a structure to the week that is different to what would normally be expected from the standing orders. We have moved the condolence to tomorrow, which I understand will take the whole of tomorrow, for Jane Garrett, and as such we have a very truncated time for debate. Through what we have left we will be doing four bills, and we on this side of the house look forward to the debates on those four bills.

I am not going to speak much more, and we will in fact not be opposing the government business program this week, because we do understand that the time for debate is truncated. We also understand that we have had grievances, which would have been tomorrow, moved to today. We appreciate that, and as a result we will not be putting up all our speakers and we believe this debate can be brought to a close.

Ms SHEED (Shepparton) (12:55): I would like to just make a brief contribution on the issue of the government business program. There are a number of important bills today. I do not have the Mental Health and Wellbeing Bill 2022 in front of me, but it is huge. I think that while we all respect the fact that there is a condolence motion tomorrow, and that must happen, it does bring to mind, though, the issue of really important bills simply going to a guillotine on a Thursday night and not enough time being provided throughout the course of a week in some circumstances for bills to be debated.

I think it is fair to say that on this side of the house we respect the government business program, but I would like to just note that on this side of the house we do not have a non-government business program. That is a real disappointment, and it is an issue that I have tried to raise on a number of occasions. Leave is constantly refused for me to be able to have that matter raised and debated. We now have an e-petition before this house seeking that a non-government business program be reintroduced into this house of Parliament. I am sure that the people of Victoria will come out and support that e-petition because if this house will not hear it, the people of Victoria will have their say about whether they think people on the opposition benches and on the crossbenches should be able to have some say for even a limited time on what the non-government business is to enable representatives to truly represent their electorates.

We just saw today the Leader of the National Party trying to introduce a bill and being shut down—not even given leave to read it a first time. If we had a non-government business program, that would have been debated, as would my motion where I seek leave to have a motion debated. These are all denied to us constantly in this place, and as we come to the end of the 59th Parliament I urge everyone in this place—and the government in particular—to consider the sorts of reforms that are needed in this place for the efficient running of the house and for the proper operation of democracy in this house. It happens in the other place, but it does not happen in here.

In concluding speaking on this issue, I just cannot stress enough how important these issues are, because they are fundamental to democracy, and this is the only house in the Westminster system in Australia that does not give those on this side of the house an opportunity to raise matters by having a non-government business program.

Motion agreed to.