Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Justice) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate my state Labor colleagues in Victoria, and also to congratulate and thank Victorians who have just given the Daniel Andrews government a resounding victory on the weekend. It wasn't just any win; it was a down slide. It was a result that showed the power of a positive campaign, which focused on the issues that people really cared about. Labor in Victoria spent an election talking about our education system, about health and hospitals, about tackling climate change, and about funding the big public infrastructure that we need for a growing population.

Something that struck me during the election was that everyone I talked to—whether it was doing street stalls, whether it was my parents or whether it was mums that I'm friends with on Facebook—could point to a way that their life was being improved by Daniel Andrews's Labor government. That is what we aspire to be on this side of the chamber.

On the other side of politics, we saw the Victorian public reject a campaign that was extremely negative. It had not a skerrick, not a shred, of a sense of vision for our great state of Victoria, and the voters punished the Liberals in Victoria for that. It was nasty and it was small-minded. We take nothing for granted on this side of the chamber, but that election shows you that if you think you can win an election on faux culture wars, and on internecine party conflicts that we see on the other side of the chamber, then the voters might just give you a kick in the pants. I'm very excited about what I see in Victoria and about the wonderful new members of parliament that I have representing my area of the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne.