Motion: Government Business Program

MOTION

‘GOVERNMENT BUSINESS PROGRAM’.

Tuesday, 13 August 2024.

Mr NEWBURY (Brighton) (12:57):

I rise to speak on the Government Business Program, deeply concerned and alarmed at the design of the program this week.

For those watching, what the Government is trying to do this week is to split the program into two parts and deal with three Bills that you could probably fairly say are not substantive statewide reforms. I am not in any way talking down those reforms, but you would not describe them as key priority reforms that have statewide impact, though I do know that the Leader of the Nationals is very, very much looking forward to leading on the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute Repeal Bill 2024. He has been talking a very big game about how good his speech will be on this bill, so I would hope that the entire Chamber is here, because he is very, very keen to impress us with his speech on this Bill.

But the Government is going to also try to ram a Bill through this Chamber. We saw today a bill introduced which the Chamber has not seen – the Chamber has not seen that proposed reform yet – and they seek to guillotine it tomorrow at 4 o’clock. So, the process of the House will be that at some stage late morning tomorrow that Bill will be tabled in this place and by 4 o’clock that afternoon it will be rammed through this Chamber. It is deeply, deeply concerning to see that the Government will do that. That is why I move:

That paragraph (1) on the Government Business Program be omitted.

It is just fundamentally not right that you introduce a Bill into this place and only a few hours later take it to a guillotine. And we know that tomorrow in between when the Bill is tabled and the guillotine being brought in at 4 o’clock, there will be Question Time and other procedures of the House; there will be a lunch break. So, most of the time between –

Tim Richardson: interjected.

James NEWBURY: We would be more than happy, Member for Mordialloc, to stay in here for the entire time and debate you. But it is concerning that for the very few hours between when the Bill is tabled and the Government is guillotining it in this place, we will not have an opportunity to debate it.

So, we might have at best perhaps an hour to consider the Bill. Normally the standard adjournment period for a Bill that has been laid on the table is two weeks, and federally the rule of thumb is, unless it is an issue of national security or national emergency, Bills do not get rammed through quicker. It is standard that a bill is for national security or a national emergency before it is rushed through. This clearly is not the case in this circumstance. We see we are in the middle of a youth crime crisis and the Government has not put its shoulder to the wheel on any matters to rush through any changes that would actually protect the community, but when it comes to this one Bill, after perhaps an hour of debate it will be ramming it through. So, the Coalition has moved an Amendment to the Government Business Program because of this outrageous guillotine, and of course that being the case, we will not accept a program of this nature and will be opposing it. So, the Coalition will be opposing the Government Business Program.

I do also want to note the Coalition has proposed Amendments to the Sessional Orders which would require the Government to actually answer some of the questions that they are being asked. Last sitting week, we saw a shameful display of 22 questions being asked and none being answered, and I think that reflects on the Premier and the Ministry. So, we will seek an opportunity to have those Sessional Orders considered and passed.

Lastly, I will briefly step away this week for a very short amount of time for my grandfather’s funeral and would hope that no-one even notices I am not here. I think that would be the best part. I very sadly lost my grandfather, a beautiful man who lived 100 years. We were very fortunate, and I will miss him very much and love him very much.