Motion: Government Business Program

MOTION

‘GOVERNMENT BUSINESS PROGRAM’.

Tuesday, 30 July 2024.

Mr NEWBURY (Brighton) (15:55):

I will start on a positive note and thank the Leader of the House in relation to facilitating the State Sporting Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 being debated today. The fact that the Coalition is opposed to the Government Business Program is in no way linked to that facilitation, so I appreciate very much the scheduling.

However, in relation to the Business Program the Coalition has again, considering the nature of the Youth Justice Bill 2024, which is a thousand pages – it is a substantial bill – sought from the Government an opportunity to take the Bill into consideration in detail.

As we have spoken about in this House before, the Government has very rarely over the last 10 years provided opportunities for Bills to be considered in detail in that process in this place – once in this term when I approached the Minister directly, and I do not think even his own Cabinet could have stopped him from accepting the opportunity, and there has been one other instance that I am aware of over the last 10 years.

The Government declined our request to take that huge Bill into Consideration in Detail, and it is just not good enough. I appreciate that the Minister is not able to deal with the questions that would be asked. I accept that that is the reason why the offer was declined. But just because a Minister is not good enough is not an opportunity, I think, to shirk the House being provided the chance that it should have to deal with the Bill in detail.

So, the Coalition will be opposing the Government Business Program. We do hope that Ministers are good enough, tough enough and smart enough to one day take a Bill into Consideration in Detail, as Minister Pearson did; he was happy to do so. At least there is one Minister who is not afraid to answer difficult questions. So, we will be opposing the Government Business Program.

I do want to note that – I am keeping track for government MPs just as much as coalition MPs – there are still 22 Labor members who have not been given an opportunity to speak on the Budget. We have spoken about this in the Chamber many times. The Government does not want to provide an opportunity to talk about the Budget, because, wow, that was a bad Budget. But to not let their own Members speak really shows quite clearly how afraid they are to add any oxygen to the debate around the Budget – the Budget that I do not think anyone remembers, because it was so bad. But there are 22 Labor Members and 11 Coalition members – of course I want to make sure that our Members have an opportunity to speak, but there are 22 on that side – who have not had an opportunity. In fact, not only have 22 not had an opportunity, I know one was overruled in the middle of a debate by a factional opponent when the Minister walked in and took the call over that Member in, quite frankly, an embarrassing display. So not just have 22 not had a go, but we saw a factional go play out between the left and the right.

Mary-Anne Thomas interjected.

James NEWBURY: I was here; I saw it.

Mary-Anne Thomas: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, I have to confess that I was not really listening, but when I did, what I heard had absolutely nothing to do with the Government Business Program, and I ask that you call the Member back to speaking on the narrow procedural debate, which is of course the Government Business Program.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Lauren Kathage): The Member for Brighton has the call.

James NEWBURY: I have given a reason as to why the Coalition will not be supporting the Government Business Program. When it comes to the Youth Justice Bill, it is clear that the Government’s priorities are not in line with fixing the youth crime crisis in Victoria.

To water down the law at a time when there is a crime crisis is, frankly, shameful, and the community will see that for what it is. There are a number of issues that we could be debating.

The Coalition moved to clean up Government projects today and the Government opposed that, not surprisingly. But we should be debating issues like that in this Chamber. The Coalition will be opposing the program.