First 100 days in office

Transcript:

Since coming into office late last year, we’ve seen seven natural disasters in the Australasian region where Victorian emergency services personnel have provided assistance in Western Australia, Queensland and New Zealand.

The unforgiving force of nature has also had a serious impact on Victorians with flood events affecting thousands in the central and northern parts of the State. I’ve visited many of the towns affected including recently Benjaroop, where our fellow Victorians are still doing it hard.

Our government has provided tens of millions of dollars to local councils, farmers, small business holders and families to help them through this difficult time. I want to recommit to the people of Victoria my promise to leading a government of integrity, honesty and transparency.

I am determined to stick to our plan of ending the waste and standing up for the interests of all Victorian families, and I look forward to continuing to serve the people of this State.

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Coalition Government delivers in first 100 days

The Victorian Liberal Nationals Coalition Government has delivered on a broad range of key commitments in its first 100 days in office, including reducing the cost of living, increasing transparency, ending waste and standing up for the interests of Victorian families.

Since being given a mandate for change and reform by Victorians on 27 November last year, the Coalition Government has taken a commonsense and sensible approach to governing Victoria.

We have governed with integrity and decency, ending the toxic culture of abuse, bullying and intimidation that marked the previous government.

We are realistic about the challenges facing Victoria and its government, and know that making improvements in areas such as the shortage of infrastructure across the state, the revitalisation of Victoria’s manufacturing industry and housing affordability won’t happen overnight.

Our first 100 days shows that we are determined to stick to our plan and meet our commitments to Victorian families.We are also determined to protect Victorian families from the Federal Government’s attempt to strip $2.5 billion in GST revenue and cut funding for essential infrastructure and services such as the Regional Rail Network.The ruinous legacy of the former Labor Government has left Victoria with cost blowouts on major projects and a financial burden that Victorians will have to bear for many years to come.

The recent terrible floods across Victoria and Queensland and the ongoing reconstruction and recovery of areas ravaged by the 2009 bushfires remind us that natural disasters are a wildly unpredictable challenge for all levels of government.Despite only being in government for a short period, we took swift action to help people and businesses affected by the floods and continue strong support for people affected by bushfires.

We also renegotiated the Commowealth health care agreement to secure much-needed extra health care funding for Victorians. We gave a commitment to provide modern, open and accountable government that has integrity at its core. We have already ended taxpayer-funded party political advertising, slashed advertising costs and reduced the number of spin doctors.We will soon release a code of conduct for Ministers, MPs, staff and office holders and planning for an independent broad-based anti-corruption commission is well advanced.

The record of our first 100 days shows the Coalition Government is getting on with the job, delivering on its key election promises and addressing the issues it outlined in the election campaign.That means providing responsible economic management, fixing and improving services, addressing community safety and security concerns, protecting vulnerable children, assisting country and regional Victoria and dealing with Labor’s waste, mismanagement and secrecy.

From lifting the veil on Labor’s costly mismanagement of the desalination plant to introducing tough new laws to deal with alcohol-fuelled anti-social behaviour and violence on our streets, the Coalition Government has worked hard to fulfil its commitments.

In its first 100 days, the Victorian Liberal Nationals Coalition Government has:

Community safety

• Introduced legislation to abolish suspended sentences for serious crimes such as arson, recklessly causing serious injury, commercial drug trafficking and aggravated burglary
• Introduced legislation to expand the functions of Victoria Police Protective Services Officers to protect railway stations after dark
• Introduced legislation to give principals the power to ban, search and seize weapons in the possession of students
• Introduced legislation enabling tough new penalties for drunken, loutish and threatening behaviour including increasing on-the-spot fines for drunk and disorderly behaviour and persons who fail to leave a licensed venue when drunk, violent or quarrelsome
• Introduced legislation for new offences to deal with drunks hanging around licensed premises after being refused entry or required to leave, those attempting to re-enter a venue within 24 hours of being denied entry or required to leave a venue and new powers for licensees and police officers to bar troublesome patrons from entering or remaining in a venue for a set period of time
• Integrity in government
• Improving Ministerial standards in Parliament by amending standing orders to require Ministers to answer questions and limit answers to four minutes
• Announced amendments requiring MPs to be financially penalised for poor behaviour in Parliament

Transparency

• Released details of the cost of Labor’s desalination plant, which Labor refused to do in government, showing the plant will cost Melbourne water users more than $23 billion over the next 30 years
• Released new data sets to improve transparency of Victoria’s health system, including comparing median waiting times with national median times by procedure and hospital and patients waiting longer than 365 days by procedure and hospital
• Successfully sought an Ombudsman investigation into the Northern Victorian Irrigation Renewal Project

Cost of living

• Introduced year-round discounts on electricity bills for Victorian concession card holders from 1 March – earlier than promised
• Established Victoria’s first Housing Affordability Unit within the Department of Planning and Community Development to help improve housing affordability by providing whole-of-government planning advice

Economy/business

• Halved liquor licence fees for 10,000 small businesses
• Commenced an expert independent review of the state’s finances
• Ended Easter Sunday trading confusion by introducing legislation to ensure all Victorian businesses will be able to trade on Easter Sunday
• Reversed Labor’s clearways laws, which damaged small businesses, cost jobs and made no real improvement to travel times
• Established the only State Ministry for Aviation in Australia
• Reorganised industry portfolios into the new Department of Business and Innovation to refocus government assistance on making all Victorian industry more competitive

Ending waste

• Terminated Labor’s wasteful plan to spend $20 million on fairy lights for the Westgate Bridge
• Immediately halted taxpayer-funded party political advertising
• Reduced by 40 per cent the government’s advertising spend
• Reduced by 25 per cent the number of taxpayer-funded ministerial advisers compared to those employed by the former Labor Government

Health

• Secured a better health deal from Julia Gillard and the Federal Government, including more funding, greater transparency and protecting Victoria’s country hospital boards from amalgamation
• Started work on Ballarat’s Regional Integrated Cancer Centre which will be completed next year
• Announced $56 million emergency department upgrade for Geelong to treat up to 20,000 patients annually
• Committed to reopen or rebuild Charlton’s flooded hospital and established a field hospital to meet the immediate needs of the community
• Implemented new point-of-sale tobacco bans on display of tobacco products in Victoria

Education

• Provided $2 million to enable the Eaglehawk Primary School to remain open
• Launched a new bipartisan Premiers’ Reading Challenge to improve the literacy of young Victorians
• Ensured TAFE concession fee places for 15 to 24 year old students holding a Health Care Card will be available from 1 February this year, cutting fees for Health Care Card holders by 95 per cent and resulting in major savings for young people accessing Diploma and Advanced Diploma courses

Community services and support

• Launched a comprehensive review of Victoria’s child protection system to recommend how the protection and support of vulnerable young Victorians can be improved
• Introduced the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) onto the COAG agenda and announced Brian Woodford OAM of Yooralla as the chair of an expert taskforce to advise the government on the establishment of an NDIS
• Announced a $3.8 million package to more effectively recruit frontline child protection workers and retain them in their important roles
• Strengthened ongoing support for bushfire survivors and towns ravaged by the 2009 bushfires, including providing $450,000 to the Yarra Valley Practitioners Project

Transport

• Made public the location of mobile speed cameras
• Announced the first independent commissioner to monitor and review the accuracy and use of speed and red light cameras
• Commenced an audit of the myki ticketing system
• Started a feasibility study into a Rowville rail line

Emergency response

• Provided vital support and assistance to flood victims including $25,000 clean-up and restoration grants, low-interest loans of up to $200,000, the waiving of waste levies and specialised assistance for communities such as Benjeroop (pumps/diesel) and Creswick ($250,000 for flood drainage plan and immediate flood prevention works)
• Introduced legislation to ensure independent oversight of the implementation of all 67 Bushfire Royal Commission recommendations
• Signed the CFA Volunteer Charter and introduced legislation to enshrine the Charter into law

Regional growth

• Introduced a new Regional Growth Fund Act into Parliament to establish a $1 billion commitment to drive regional development across Victoria, which will supplement general government expenditure
• Introduced food security as a Cabinet portfolio

Planning

• Reversed Labor’s VC71 Planning Scheme which would have allowed high-rise, high-density development along every transport corridor
• Started delivering on our election commitment to ensure homes within two kilometres of proposed wind turbines are considered in planning applications and restored the authority of local government for all new wind farm permits
• Opened Registrations of Interest to develop the last remaining uncontracted land parcel in the Docklands
• Approved plans for the new suburbs of Greenvale North and Greenvale West in the City of Hume, allowing for approximately 7000 people to live in about 2500 homes across 363 hectares.

Justice and law

• Introduced legislation to restore the independence of the Victoria Law Foundation
• Launched an investigation by Frank Vincent into the operations of the Office of Public Prosecutions
• Introduced legislation to reduce court delays and the use of obstructive tactics in litigation

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