Motion: Government Business Program

MOTION:

‘GOVERNMENT BUSINESS PROGRAM’.

Tuesday, 16 June 2026.

Mr NEWBURY (Brighton) (12:48):

I rise to speak on the Government Business Program.

I will start in a collegiate way. As the Leader of the House noted, we will have on Wednesday evening, after the Matter of Public Importance, the valedictory speech for the Member for Pakenham, tentatively scheduled for 6 o’clock, and then the Member for Nepean’s first speech at 6:20 pm. We would hope that every Member of this place can come into the Chamber for both speeches. Both are very important speeches. I am sure that both will be incredibly heartfelt in their own way, and I would hope that the entire Parliament can come together for both of those speeches, both the Members of this place and the Members of the other place, on Wednesday afternoon.

That is where the collegiality will end on the Government Business Program, because when it comes to this Government Business Program, enough is enough. We will not be supporting the Government Business Program, for many reasons.

The Government Business Program has, frankly, become nothing more than some kind of loose guide. We saw in the last sitting week a Government Business Program that absolutely did not reflect the way that this Parliament operated for the week. We saw a rushed change to the program and a desperate attempt by a Government in its end of days to ram through a Bill, and that was shameful. You could not only see that did we speak out strongly about those changes in the Government Business Program and what the Government was attempting to ram through but see in the days thereafter the effect that it had on the Government Members. You saw the effect that that had – they could not brief out hard enough.

Anthony Carbines: On a point of order, Speaker, I am keen for relevance on the Government Business Program by the Manager of Opposition Business.

The SPEAKER: The Manager of Opposition Business, the Member for Brighton, will come back to the Government Business Program.

James NEWBURY: On the Government Business Program, as I was saying, in the last sitting week we saw changes throughout the week to try and suit what the Government was doing, so we have no faith that this Government has any capacity now to manage a program and do so in an honourable way, in an honest way, and frankly, in a way that this Parliament should use its time: in a transparent way. I spoke about the donation bill before. Of course, the Government was not interested in transparency there, but we have genuine fears that the Government will misuse its numbers over the coming four weeks, and who knows what it might do. I think all Victorians should fear what an end-of-days Government tries to sneak through in the middle of the night to ensure that it can ram through terrible changes at law, and that is why we cannot possibly support the Government’s Program. We cannot support a Government that misuses this place, where a Government Business Program can no longer be taken on face value. It absolutely cannot be taken on face value, and so we would not support it.

In addition to that I do note in the Government Business Program there is no opportunity for Private Members Bills, and we saw a Private Members Bill just opposed for introduction, a very important Bill that should have urgently received time for debate in this Chamber – but it is not the only one. We know that many Members in this place have attempted to move Private Members Bills, and these Bills have not been afforded time on the Government Business Program. It is one of the few Parliaments in Australia where there is little to no – in this case no – capacity for Private Members to move items. In other Chambers there is a little, but in Victoria there is none. It is an absolute shame, because clearly where the Government do not get it right, where they do not support their emergency services workers, as in the case that I raised earlier, you would hope that the Parliament could come together and afford time to a proposed law so the Parliament could it debate under the Government Business Program. You would think that that would be a collaborative way to approach an important, pressing policy issue in this state, but no. So, while the Government is in such chaos, so unable to manage the Parliament, we certainly cannot support the Government Business Program, and I do not feel that we can support future programs with that in mind.