Tony Lupton - Speech
Statement of Government Intentions
7 February 2008
I am absolutely delighted to be able to stand in this place today and speak in support of the annual statement of government intentions, because this is an historic day and an historic document. It is the first time that such a piece of work has been done in an Australian Parliament, and Victoria is again leading the nation in this regard.
The importance of an annual statement of government intentions -- this being the first of what is to be an annual document -- is that it sets out in significant detail the bulk of the government's intended legislative program for the year ahead. Historically in the Victorian Parliament and in other, similar parliaments the legislative programs of governments have been announced relatively shortly before bills are introduced into Parliament. There has been a limited amount of time for public consultation and discussion and a limited amount of time for members of Parliament on both sides of the chamber to be engaged in that process.
What the Brumby government has done in developing a statement of government intentions is develop a legislative program for the 12 months ahead and announce that program to the people of Victoria and the Parliament of Victoria so that the people and this Parliament can be more engaged, more informed and more involved in the development of this program as we go through 2008, and of course that process will continue and be repeated in years to come.
I want to congratulate the Premier for this initiative. I also want to pay tribute to the very hard and dedicated work that was carried out by the staff of the Cabinet Secretary's office, who put in a great amount of work, and also staff of the Department of Premier and Cabinet who in this instance were led by Michael Kane.
I also pay tribute to the way in which all the ministers in the government and their offices and departments worked particularly hard to bring their legislative program together so far in advance so the detail of that program could be incorporated into the statement that was announced by the Premier earlier this week.
The statement covers the significant themes that the government intends to pursue through the course of this year. Those themes will not be any surprise to the people of Victoria, because, in essence, they are the themes that this government has been pursuing assiduously over its years in office. In particular the themes cover the areas of investing in Victorians, building stronger and more livable communities, promoting innovative and sustainable growth and leading Victoria and the nation.
When we look at those individual themes, we note that investing in Victorians involves promoting education, which of course has been and continues to be this government's no. 1 priority; it means strengthening health-care provision in this state; and it also involves supporting A Fairer Victoria. Our approach to education in particular this year involves integrating education. It involves early childhood development, further reform of school education and reform of legislation covering our universities. What an example of integrated education those pieces of legislation will provide, because it will go through early childhood development, through our primary and secondary schools and into making our universities more strategic and better able to meet the demands that are placed upon them in the 21st century.
In relation to health care, the focus of the government, as announced by the Premier, will be on strengthening preventive health care.
We will be introducing a public health and wellbeing act, and we will also be making significant further reforms to reduce the harm caused by alcohol abuse in the community. Our far-reaching program, A Fairer Victoria, which has been running over the last few years, will continue to be a focus of this government's attention. In particular there will be more protection for consumers. We will be updating equal opportunity laws. We will be reforming the law regarding access to assisted reproductive technology and surrogacy.
We will be improving the law in relation to residential tenancies, strengthening multiculturalism and also making community organisations better able to function effectively by removing unnecessary red tape. Overall that program for investing in Victorians will strengthen our communities and make our education and health services better and make Victoria a fairer and stronger community as we go forward. We will also be continuing with our themes of building stronger and more liveable communities, in particular by accelerating public transport improvements. We will be improving urban development through reform to the planning and environment legislation and strengthening building legislation.
We will also be continuing to make our community safer. Victoria is the safest state in Australia -- we are very proud of that -- but we cannot rest on our laurels in that regard. We have to continue to make sure that we drive the crime rate down and that Victoria remains the safest state in Australia. We will be introducing the Victoria Police Bill to reform police legislation and legislation that will reform the Crimes Act and deal with serious sex offenders. We will be simplifying the evidence laws and introducing a modernised coronial system.
We will also be continuing to make sure that Victoria is a great place for innovation and sustainable growth. We will be securing Victoria's economic future through streamlining our resources law. We will also be providing for better and fairer accident compensation laws in this state -- that of course is a very important part of this government's policy framework. The ways in which we will continue to provide innovative and sustainable growth stretch out to every corner of Victoria. We will be making sure that we protect and improve our agricultural industries and ensure our water supplies through the provision of important water infrastructure reforms, reforming the metropolitan water retail sector and ensuring water entitlements. We will also be making sure that the environment is protected. This is another of the great hallmarks of this government. We will be moving forward with legislation that will address issues of climate change, the reduction of industrial waste and the improvement and protection of our national parks.
All these reforms -- all of the initiatives of this government, the things that make Victoria a great place to live, to work, to raise a family and to invest in -- are based on the sound financial management this government has made a hallmark of its period of office. In that regard we will be continuing to ensure the strong financial management of this state. In particular we will be moving forward with legislation in relation to financial management reform. As has been debated this week, we will also be making further improvements to freedom of information. There will be continuing public administration reform so that the public sector in this state remains at the forefront of Australia. We will continue to make sure that we lead Australia through the national reform agenda of which this government has been the driver over recent years. We are very pleased that we will now have the opportunity to work with a cooperative federal Labor government to continue to drive that policy initiative and keep reform happening in this country, because that is the way we will maintain our prosperity going forward.
In this document, this statement of government intentions, we have a blueprint for the way in which the government intends to legislate through the course of this year to ensure that Victoria remains a great state in which to live, to work and to raise a family. We will continue to make sure that through this statement of legislative intentions we will give the people of Victoria a greater opportunity to have a say and to be involved in the development of laws that affect them. Through the Your Say website we will encourage the people of Victoria to comment on the legislation that is in the public arena and that we have made public through this statement of government intentions so early in the legislative process. We will ensure that there are more exposure drafts and consultation processes to enable people to have input into the making of the best laws we can possibly make for the people of this state.
We will continue to have a prosperous and thriving democracy in Victoria.
We will continue to make sure we are leading the nation in so many of those important services that the people of Australia need their governments to work with them to provide. And we will make sure that Victoria remains a great state where we have a first-class education system and a health system that is the envy of the rest of the world, the safest state in Australia, a great state to invest in and a great state to live in. I commend the government and the statement of government intentions to the house.
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