Member for Frankston: performance – Grievance Speech delivered in Parliament 23 May 2012
Mr PALLAS (Tarneit) — I wish to grieve today for the people of Frankston and the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne and for the continuing erosion of the levels of infrastructure they clearly need. There is also the need for improved parliamentary standards in this place. It is important that we recognise when looking at the capacity to deliver on infrastructure within a community that that community needs good, strong local representation. There is no better demonstration of that than what a local member delivers for their community.
The Premier has made it clear that so far as local representatives, particularly in Frankston, are concerned, they are doing a good job. He has made it clear that they are delivering for Frankston. Well that is not actually the case. They are not so much delivering for Frankston as delivering from Frankston.
This is a government that is seeing that jobs are moving further and further away from the grasp of the ordinary people in the Frankston community. We have seen the increasing erosion of employment in this community and the increasing loss of job opportunities — for most, but not all. Since 2010, unemployment in Frankston has gone from 5.89 per cent to 7.58 per cent. We have seen an enormous increase in unemployment, going well above the 5.3 per cent, which is the current state average. This is a telling indictment of a government that paraded itself as being able to fix the problems and to build the future. Little building and little fixing is going on in this area. This is not so much about a community that is being serviced by its members as it is about a member who is servicing his own personal desires and aspirations.
This member falls into the category of a Dude, Where’s My Car? member in a Dude, Where’s My Government? population.
The people of Frankston are sitting back and looking and wondering when they will be getting something more than the moonlighting and merriment that constitute the standard operating procedure of this member. Over the time of the previous Labor government, in the area directly concerned, the Frankston area, we saw something like $90.4 million invested in arterial roads — arterial roads only, I say. We also saw the development and ongoing delivery of the Peninsula Link, which should be completed by the end of this year or early next year at the latest. That will, of course, be — —
Mr Watt interjected.
Mr PALLAS— I hear from the member at the back that this is a project that those opposite would now like to take credit for. But I recall there being many critics of elements, if not the entire concept, of this project from those opposite over a prolonged period of time.
It is good to see they have got on board in delivering Labor’s committed project. Of course the people of Frankston will be better for it. But they need more than that. They need more than just the long tail of the effort and aspiration of the previous government; they need a government that is actually concerned about their welfare and their wellbeing — a government that is prepared to commit and to deliver real outcomes. We need in this place a government that not only lives up to its own expectations and aspirations but also honours the electorate in terms of the benefits and recognition it provides through the high office it holds, as well as a government that is prepared to stand up and do the right thing.
In this place doing the right thing has been a tenet of faith for those opposite. They have consistently spoken about the need for openness and accountability in this place. In his inaugural speech in this place the member for Frankston stated:
- I am glad to be here as part of the new coalition government that knows the difference between righteousness and self-righteousness, in a place where truth is no longer on the endangered species list …
He said on 14 June 2011:
- It is very simple, and it is something those opposite do not understand — delivering promises and telling the truth. It is a very fine line for them to understand.
We would hope ultimately those who have adopted such high levels of probity and accountability and self-righteous indignation — directed to those on this side of the chamber — would hold themselves to account, not only for their words but also for their actions. Let us hope that the people of Frankston and the south-east have exactly the same assessment of them. They might ask, ‘Have you lived up to your own code of conduct — not in terms of the language that is encapsulated within that code, but in terms of the actions that you have delivered for us and the way you hold yourself accountable?’.
Clearly when we talk about actions and when we talk about delivery, we can say that this is a government that has delivered very little for the community.
If we look, for example, at the area of new funding for Frankston, we see that there is some new capital funding for Frankston. The Peninsula Link speed cameras get $9.5 million from the Department of Justice. It is interesting to see that those opposite have recently become converts to the idea that you should be able to increase revenue through the use of a greater level of law enforcement. In fact they have become such great advocates for it that the Treasurer was before the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee recently extolling the virtues of being able to catch lawbreakers, whether it be through speed enforcement or other forms of revenue allocation, in order to ensure that those who did the wrong thing were brought to account.
This is surprising.
I say that because if we go back to 2005 and 2006, we then had advice from the Auditor-General telling us exactly that — that the use of speed cameras actually drove down the road toll, and the principal motivation for putting them in place was to save lives. We have not disputed that because we adhere consistently to the values we espoused in government and to the ones that we have taken into opposition. It is about a consistency of approach and purpose; it is not about jumping on any bandwagon of disillusionment and anguish in order to garner as many votes as you can. However, the people of Frankston must be wondering whether these are the same people who told us when they were in opposition that it was all about revenue raising. Are they now, by their own application, essentially — —
Mr Mulder interjected.
Mr PALLAS— We hear from the Minister for Roads that he now has much more accountable systems in place. Exactly what are those measures of accountability? Not much! He essentially has a road safety camera commissioner who can, on referral from the minister, look at issues of systemic concern. However, if one aggrieved member of the public wanted to say, ‘I’m down in Frankston, and I got hit with one of your revenue raising tactics and I think your revenue raising tactic is effectively defective’, the minister would say, ‘Well, unless I consider it systemic, this commissioner won’t be looking at it’.
Mr Mulder interjected.
Mr PALLAS— There we have it, an admission from the minister that that is what he thinks of the people of Frankston — that they are now milking cows rather than recipients of the benefit of a government that should be thankful for the faith that they have placed in it.
If we look at the other cuts that this government has put in place in respect of the community in Frankston, we see that the TAFE cuts are some of the cruellest and most inhumane. Job losses and course cancellations are likely to follow. I hear from my colleague that he is going to touch on that issue with alacrity, so I move on quickly.
Mr Merlino interjected.
Mr PALLAS— The member interjects, ‘There can never be enough’. If there is never enough, I will keep the good times rolling, which obviously the government is not doing. One thing I will say is that if you look at the job losses and the course cancellations that are likely to occur, you realise that you could not pick a worse area to get involved in.
If you cut back skill acquisition in an area with one of the highest levels of unemployment, you consign future generations to a deprived opportunity for skill enhancement, job improvement and ultimately, as statistics tell us, the real practical opportunity to find work and also to have a skill that can be used right across the workforce.
We have seen that the state budget cuts to Chisholm Institute of TAFE, which includes the Frankston campus, are worse than was first estimated. Now we are looking at something like $25 million in cuts, up from the $20 million that was originally anticipated. The chief executive officer of the TAFE, Maria Peters, has said that the institute’s closer analysis of the state budget showed an estimated loss of $25.5 million — and that is on top of the $4 million cut from the state
government last October. The TAFE has said that with the magnitude of the cuts:
- It’s more than possible that there will be job losses and the likelihood that some of our current courses will not run.
Those comments were accompanied by the observation that these were astonishing levels of cuts in a community where unemployment has effectively risen by 40 per cent, to use the words of the Deputy Leader of the Opposition.
These matters also need to be taken in the context of a community that is suffering economically and a community that requires the attention and earnest efforts of the government to address those concerns. We know that the south-east of Melbourne has the highest tally of bankruptcies of any community. More than 180 bankruptcies have occurred in that community in the postcodes that cover the area from Carrum to Frankston in the 12 months to 30 June 2011.
Demographer Matthew Deacon, of.id consulting has said that the number of bankruptcies in the Frankston area was surprising as it was not an area of high population growth. He went on to say that:
- You could say that 3977 … has exploded, while Frankston has done almost nothing.
It has been stated that this is an area of high socioeconomic disadvantage. We have massive growth there and there is a need for government to support it with infrastructure. What have we seen in support from the government for infrastructure? More speed cameras and effectively little else over and above that.
If we look at the Victorian certificate of applied learning (VCAL), Frankston High School has advised that it will be forced to eliminate the VCAL program entirely because it is unable to make up the $46 000 that will be cut from that school’s budgetary allocation for coordination funding.
If we look at health, the Baillieu government has clearly slashed spending on health and the building program. It has failed to keep its election commitment to open a new Monash Children’s hospital by the end of its first term, according to the 2012 state budget papers. This will mean waiting lists for elective surgery will balloon and Victorian patients will be waiting even longer for care. Only $7.3 million was delivered in this budget for the Monash Children’s hospital, which will mean 30 000 children in Melbourne’s south-east will be made to wait even longer. The Australian Medical Association has warned Victorians to avoid Frankston Hospital, one of the largest in Melbourne, after it closed a 30-bed ward due to a lack of government funding.
When all this is happening, one would have thought that the local member would have been fastidious in making sure that his primary and sole efforts were about the wellbeing and welfare of his community. We know this. But the Liberal Party’s website extols the virtues of the member for Frankston, saying:
- Geoff’s real-life experiences of starting and operating businesses, employing team members, and being actively engaged in the community … will allow him to help advance and protect the interests of the people of Frankston.
His skills in employing team members and being actively engaged in the community have gone a long way! The website for Geoff Shaw and Partners, Accountants and Business Advisers, says that it:
- … is located on the Nepean Highway with views over the Frankston foreshore.
- We offer friendly service, great rates and, of course most importantly, excellent advice.
The advice that the people of this community want is not abuse, not second jobs, not sanctimonious pontificating about what is the truthful and just way to conduct yourself; it is about people living up to their own philosophy and mantra. That is where this member has fallen far short of the levels of accountability this government has set for itself.