Motion: Later This Day: Government Sledge Motion

MOTION:

‘LATER THIS DAY: GOVERNMENT SLEDGE MOTION’.

Tuesday, 17 March 2026.

Mr NEWBURY (Brighton) (17:46):

Of course we are going to oppose the Government’s second motion, the second attempt by this Government, to move off this bill of the day for a sledge motion. How concerned are we? Very concerned, because we know a normal Government would have a legislative agenda that is packed.

In the final eight months of the year, you would expect a logjam of legislation from a Government trying to work through what it can possibly get through in the year, before the election, but instead what do we see? We have seen a motion to adjourn, and now a motion to adjourn to later this day so that the Government can waste the Parliament’s time. How terrible to think that the Government would misuse the Parliament’s time in this way. This is – for those who are watching – the fourth week in a row where the Government has done this. You would suspect that the Government might slip in a sledge motion at some point in the first set of sittings, but they are doing it on at least one day of the three-day week every sitting. What a sad reflection on this Government. And this week – I suspect, and it would be very, very fair to say – the Government is likely to move to a sledge motion on all three days this week.

What the Government do not realise is when they do this they are not only setting a terrible, terrible tone for this Parliament but they are actually sending a terrible signal to their own backbench. They have not worked that one out yet. They have not worked out what message this sends to the caucus.

Mary-Anne Thomas interjected.

James NEWBURY: Well, Leader of the House, I would not be talking about getting along with your leader if I were you. In all seriousness, we are very concerned that the Government would be misusing the Parliament’s time, and that is why on every occasion we will be standing up and saying, ‘No, of course we will not allow the Parliament to have its time wasted on sledge motions,’ which descend, frankly, into Government Members getting up and really speaking in a way that you would not traditionally see other than through the grievance debate. It is really lowbrow debate. But that is what the Government wants to do each day this week. And what signal does that give to Victorians – Victorians who are worried about corruption, Victorians who are worried about the cost of living? They have seen an interest rate rise, and they are hurting.

We are concerned not only, as we just spoke about, about the motion that was just moved to adjourn debate but about moving it to later this day with no clear understanding from the Government of when that will be. When will they go back to a bill? There was no clear guidance from the Government on when they will do that. Could we stay on sledge motions for the rest of the week? It is possible. We have had no understanding from the Government otherwise. They are getting the Parliament together to frankly try and politicise, in a very lowbrow way, this Chamber, when this Chamber should be doing better. So, we will be calling it out. We will take every opportunity to frustrate their doing that. And what the Government keeps making the mistake of doing is not understanding how to manage a Chamber. The joy I get every time the Leader of the House moves a motion which just allows me to debate it and laugh the whole way through in terms of the lack of tactical understanding really gives me a smile, because it happens every week and the Leader of the House keeps doing it, and we are going to keep opposing it.