Hansard debates

Martin CAMERON (Morwell) (12:39): I rise to speak on the business program once again this week. As the member for Brighton said, we will be opposing the business program this week, although we do have, this time, three bills to talk about. I will be up and talking on all three because whether it be something that just needs dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s, a little bit of cleaning up and housekeeping, or bills that are really, really important to the people of Victoria and the people of my electorate, I enjoy being able to get up and talk on them. A lot of the time we do oppose the business program because we should be having hard conversations in the chamber about the things that really do affect Victorians right across the board.

We are talking about roads and road safety at some stage this week, and that may be up today. We are talking about trucks entering the new tunnel that is being built down Footscray way. The member for Footscray I know is very happy about that – being able to get trucks off the roads down there – but it also affects truck drivers coming from my patch and from out of Gippsland on their journey to get down to the ports to unload their goods, with the atrocious country roads that they need to navigate. A lot of the financial gain, a lot of the money, that they get for doing long hours and delivering this stuff to the port and bringing it back is going into maintaining their trucks so that they are up to the standard that VicRoads need them to be at. It is not their fault that the roads are in disrepair and they need to spend extra time making sure that their trucks are safe. These are issues outside of what that bill goes into that we should be actually talking about.

On the Criminal Organisations Control Amendment Bill 2024, I think this is the third time the act has been amended, and I note that the last time it was amended I do not think there was any notice given to any of the organisations. Once again the government is amending it to make Victorians safer. The first time it was not done and the second time it did not quite get it right, so hopefully the third time, when we discuss it this week, we can get it right to keep Victorians safe.

We move on to the Short Stay Levy Bill 2024, which will be very interesting, and I notice that it is proposed that it is going to be spoken about on Thursday – not for a very long time. It will be one of these bills that is possibly rammed through the house with a limited number of people able to speak. But in talking to people in my electorate, I do not think I have spoken to anyone that thinks this is a great idea. People are not going to be taking their houses off the short-stay register, they are just going to be passing on these costs to other Victorians that want to get away and enjoy a holiday. I know we cannot speak a lot now about what is in the bill, so I am really hopeful that we do get an actual timeframe so that every member inside this chamber gets to speak about it, because, as the member for Brighton said, this is just another tax. You can sugar-coat it and call it what you want, but it is just another tax that is going to be dumped on not only the owners of these short-stay dwellings but also the rest of the Victorians who like to get away for a holiday, whether it be for two or three days or for a week. It is just going to be an extra cost.

I would love to be able to talk about energy. Why has the Premier got a vendetta against plumbers and gasfitters? Trying to shut down the gas industry here in Victoria is really affecting a lot of people. I am a former plumber myself. What have they got against us? We are trying to do the best we can and supply home owners in Victoria with a safe, cheap and reliable option for their energy needs. Unfortunately the government will not let us do that. They want to shut down and ban gas, and I think it is poor form that the Premier has got a vendetta against plumbers.