Matter of Public Importance: Corruption

MATTER OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE:

‘CORRUPTION.’

Wednesday, 4 March 2026.

Mr NEWBURY (Brighton) (16:52):

I rise in support of the Member for Caulfield’s Matter of Public Importance, an important Matter of Public Importance, in fact the first substantive way this House has dealt with what Victorians know is the worst corruption scandal, the worst instance of corruption, this State has ever seen – a $15 billion corruption of taxpayers’ money.

Victorians have looked on since allegations of a $15 billion corruption have occurred, and they have been watching as the Government has been talking down the corruption and has been attacking those who want to blow the whistle to it. They have been watching, and what they have said, I think, is they want to know what has happened. They want to know what has occurred. Allegations have been put forward, and Victorians rightfully want to know what is occurring on these Government sites. It is a very fair question.

I think Victorians also want to know how much it has cost them, and the Premier has consistently said it is not the number 15. The Premier has confirmed that corruption has occurred but said repeatedly it is not the number 15. So, Victorians of course are asking, ‘Well, what’s the number? It’s our money, Premier – what’s the number?’ The Premier says, ‘We don’t want to know. We don’t want to know as a Government what’s happening. We know something’s going wrong. We know that corruption is occurring. We don’t want to know what, in detail, is happening, and we certainly don’t want to know how much of your money it’s cost.’ Well, I think Victorians have said, ‘Not good enough.’ Though I would certainly caution against following public polling as a pastime, you can certainly see today three out of four Victorians say they want to see action on corruption.

Tim Richardson interjected.

The SPEAKER: Member for Mordialloc, you may not have been in the Chamber earlier when I warned Members who were on the speaking list to be very, very careful.

James NEWBURY: They want to see action, and so do we. At the end of the day – and I make this point repeatedly – every dollar this Government spends was first earned by a Victorian through their hard work and sweat. This Government did not get this money through some imaginary money tree or earn it themselves. They certainly did not earn it themselves – they took it off Victorians. They took it away from Victorians, and we have seen $15 billion or more lost to corruption. Victorians just want accountability. That is why we have said we must have a Royal Commission, and that is what the Liberals and Nationals will do. We will chase down every single dollar, and we will find every criminal. That is the proposition we are putting to the Victorian people. After the next election – because I see no world where this Government acts on the greatest corruption scandal this State has ever seen – every Victorian can be assured we will hold a Royal Commission, we will chase down every dollar, and we will find every criminal. Why? Because we will hold them to account. We will hold every criminal to account.

What we have seen over recent weeks is a shocking, shocking set of allegations, met only with an even more shocking response from a Government. We have seen Ministers attack experts for calling out what is occurring. We have seen a Premier hide behind a fig leaf of saying nothing other than ‘I am not going to say anything other than if there is an allegation to be put, put it to the police’ – to the point that she shuts down journalists from talking. Then we discover that the Attorney-General did not put allegations that were put to her to the police, after advising the House that that is what had happened, which forced the Attorney- General to come into this place and give a personal explanation. It is astonishing. I have seen very few personal explanations, because they are rare. I certainly have never seen an Attorney be forced to give a personal explanation. It just goes to show, though, how the Government is behaving on these issues.

Today we asked the Premier in Question Time about links to Government contracts in companies owned by or linked with Mick Gatto. The Minister responsible for much of the Big Build, the now Premier, simply did not answer the question and said, ‘Refer it off to another agency. Refer it off to another authority.’ Can you believe that questions about one of the most notorious names in modern Victorian history were put to a Premier – someone who, by the way, thinks the Premier is a good person; a mate it might seem, I do not know – and the Premier’s response was, ‘I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know. I’m not going to check. I’m not going to let people know.’ Well, I suspect money is going into Mick Gatto’s pocket, and I do not think that he is the only one. I think it is all going to become clear.

We have a plan to not only clean up corruption by way of a Royal Commission. We have announced a number of policies and moved two Bills already this week to try and do so, including one to give the chief anti-corruption agency the power it needs, because the anti-corruption agency has been calling for stronger powers.

The Premier released a letter recently as some kind of fig leaf of defence that she has acted – ‘I wrote to IBAC, I wrote to IBAC.’ She never told anybody that two weeks later IBAC wrote back and said it did not have the powers to do anything. Whoops, that was a mistake, wasn’t it? I will tell you what, I bet her media office got a flogging for that one. No-one checked what the response was. The response was ‘We need the powers.’ I would say to every Victorian: yesterday every Labor member of Parliament voted against our bill to give IBAC the powers they need – every Labor Member. Remember that, Victoria: every Labor member.

Today we moved a Bill to try and clean up these worksites with a proper oversight body, as should be the case. And again, every Labor Member voted against it. We have announced other provisions to clean up worksites. We want to make sure criminals are off worksites. It seems like an obvious measure, one that clearly the Government does not support.

Tim Richardson interjected.

James NEWBURY: The Government Members are saying we would not have any worksites if we got criminals off them. That may be the case under a Labor Government. I take up the Member’s interjection. Under this Government there would not be any Big Build sites if you removed criminals from them. I take them at their word.

Members interjecting.

James NEWBURY: That is the point. We have a plan to clean up these sites, because Victorians deserve it. Victorians deserve a state that is clean of crime and corruption. That is why Jess Wilson and our team have a plan to clean this State up. I can assure every Victorian as you are looking on and seeing no action from this Government, obfuscation from this Government, dodging, ducking, weaving and deflection from this Government, after November, if you elect a Coalition Government, you will see a state that is cleaned up with a Government that wants to clean it up and will clean it up.