Motion: Item Be Postponed: Government Sledge Motion

MOTION

‘ITEM BE POSTPONED: GOVERNMENT SLEDGE MOTION’.

Thursday, 5 February 2026.

Mr NEWBURY (Brighton) (16:05):

We will have a 30-minute debate on this, won’t we, a second 30-minute speech, because –

Members interjecting.

James NEWBURY: The Leader of the House, embarrassed – twice procedurally you have failed, Leader of the House. Twice you have failed today, Leader of the House. You have lost on one 30-minute debate –

The SPEAKER: Member for Brighton, you will address your comments through the Chair and cease yelling.

James NEWBURY: I am not yelling.

The SPEAKER: I would ask you not to reflect on the Chair, Member for Brighton. Through the Chair, not across the table.

James NEWBURY: Speaker, may I seek your guidance?

The SPEAKER: Do you have a point of order, member for Brighton?

James NEWBURY: I do. On a point of order, Speaker, are there any Standing Orders that relate to how I speak?

The SPEAKER: Member for Brighton, I would ask you to address your comments through the Chair.

James NEWBURY: Fine, of course. I would say, to update the House, what has happened this afternoon is the Government said to us they wanted to come in here and move to a sledge motion, and they did not realise that we could debate that. So, we have just had a 30-minute debate on whether or not we go to a sledge motion. How embarrassing for the Government. And weren’t they shocked? I tell you what, the quality of their speakers is not very good at the best of times, but on that debate it was really, really bad. What they also did not realise when the Leader of the House just got up again to move to the sledge motion is we can debate that one too. So, we are going to have a 30-minute debate about whether or not this house should move to a sledge motion again. Do you know what? At the start of this week, this Parliament did what it does best. What this Parliament did is deal with two condolence motions where Members from across this place spoke from their hearts. They spoke in support of issues that were so incredibly important to Victorians: the horrific events at Bondi and the bushfires that have occurred over summer and are still going. It was the best of what this Parliament does. And how has the Government instead bookended this week? They want to go from what this Government does best to what Labor does worst – grubby politics. That is what this Government has done, and we will spend an hour debating it. We will not even get to the motion. We will briefly get to the motion. And guess who is there first – the Attorney-General. I tell you what, we are worried. We are so worried about being hit by this wet lettuce leaf of an Attorney in her attack to end the week. I tell you what, we are sitting here quaking in our boots.

But I tell you, the Premier and the Leader of the House will be sitting in their offices right now saying, ‘How the hell did we get done over twice?’ Well, it is because you do not know the game. That is what you do not understand. The Leader of the House got rolled not once but twice – how embarrassing. And for the backbench who are sitting there: this is the tactical genius that is taking you to an election, backbench. This is the tactical genius that is taking you to an election. Can you believe it? A Premier who has come back from summer and said, ‘Switch on the nasty. Let’s switch on the nasty.’ Well, they came into this Chamber and tried to be clever and tried to be tactical to position themselves for the end of the week, and they got rolled. Getting rolled once is embarrassing, but when you have 50 people in the Chamber – how do you get rolled when you have got 50 people in the Chamber? I would say to the backbench: go and knock on the door of the Leader of House and say, ‘How did we get rolled twice?’

Pauline Richards interjected.

James NEWBURY: My gosh, that is right: you got 50 votes, Government Whip, and you could not even control the Chamber. How could you not control the Chamber?

The ACTING SPEAKER (Nathan Lambert): Member for Brighton, direct your comments through the Chair.

James NEWBURY: I guess I am just so surprised at seeing how poorly run this Chamber is. I appreciate every opportunity to speak on a procedural debate, but to rub salt in the Leader of the House’s failure today has been quite sweet. I have to admit it is quite sweet to know that the Premier and the Leader of the House are sitting in there going, ‘We got rolled twice. How did it happen?’ Because you are not good enough, that is why. And that is the team that is taking Labor to an election. Well, we are going to beat you.