Motion: Government Business Program

MOTION

‘GOVERNMENT BUSINESS PROGRAM’.

Tuesday, 18 November 2025

Mr NEWBURY (Brighton) (12:21):

The Coalition will be opposing the Government Business Program.

What we have seen over weeks is a Government mismanaging this Chamber, mismanaging its legislative process and mismanaging the Bills it brings to this Chamber and, as a direct result, not ensuring that promises are lived up to by way of new laws and that the concerns of Victorians are being dealt with when they need to be through legislation. It is not being done.

As I heard the Leader of the House moving the Government Business Program, what I noted was the items that were not included in the Government Business Program and the commitments made over recent weeks by the Premier that have not been introduced by way of legislation into this Chamber – because I am sure, as we would all understand, that a press release does not change the law.

When it comes to the Government Business Program, the Government Business Program must include important issues that the community wants solved. I mean, we are here as legislators to ensure that our laws are modern, they are up to date and they deal with the priorities and concerns of Victorians. That is what is missing from the Government Business Program.

By way of the Bills, there are four Bills being considered this week. There are a number of Bills that are being considered this week whereby the Government has made commitments aligned to those Bills, and we will obviously speak about that in more substance throughout the debate. Now is not the time to deal with the substance of those Bills, other than to say those Bills do not fully form the commitments the Government have made when they made them. The Bills do not acquit those promises. ‘There are things missing’ is probably a simpler way to say it, because as I said earlier, press releases do not change the law.

When you look at the Government Business Program, you can see that for week after week the government has not fully understood how to manage a Chamber. We were here for an extra sitting last week, and as I said last week, I would sit more, not less, at all times. Next year is obviously a very light sitting, but I would sit more, not less, as a creature of this Chamber. But the reason we had extra sittings is because the Government had mismanaged the legislative program of the year. You can see it with the Government Business Program, and important bills are being introduced without a timeline to complete them. We have just seen a bill introduced now which cannot be passed by the Parliament this year. It is not possible for it to be passed by the Parliament this year, which says a lot about the mismanagement of the Chamber. We would say, when it comes to the Government Business Program, it is so important with a Government Business Program to not simply pick it up on a Thursday before it is publicly announced and just chuck something in there, but to think through how the year will look, how the legislative process will work throughout the year, and put forward a Government Business Program that deals with the promises you make to the community, but also their concerns.

When it comes to this Government Business Program, of course we know that not only are the items contained therein not fully acquitting those promises and not dealing with the concerns that Victorians face, but the proposed legislation does not actually cover off on the substance of the issues or on the promises that have been made. We have got another ‘We promise to do more at some point’ with some unknown timeline, some unknown date, by way of press release.

I think Victorians are very well aware now that press releases do not change laws. We now have a Government that is effectively governing by press release rather than managing a Chamber and proposing legislation that acquits those commitments and deals with the concerns of Victorians, which is why we will oppose the Government Business Program. We will continue to make the point around the mismanagement of the Chamber, as we have for recent weeks.