Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today.

I begin by just making clear that due acknowledgment of the Victorian election result has to be given to Premier Daniel Andrews, the state parliamentary Labor Party and the Victorian branch of the ALP. Having said that, I think those in this chamber would be aware of my involvement in the Victorian branch of the Labor Party. I can say with some certainty that, since August and the removal of the former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, there's been no doubt that the Liberal vote has collapsed in that state. We only have to look at the published polling in that regard, because back in August the published polling in regard to the differences between the parties was roughly fifty-fifty, and ever since that time the gap between the political parties has simply grown wider and wider. This is an emphatic victory, of course, for the Andrews Labor government because of the policy directions that government has followed, but it also is a complete rejection of the policy positions that were taken by the Liberal opposition in Victoria, which reflected so clearly the positions that had been taken in Canberra in regard to race baiting, division, and extraordinary social and moral conservatism that's reflected a view of society which is more reminiscent of the 1950s than of 21st century Australia.

A social democratic government, as we see in Victoria, is able to have a very strong record of getting things done, predicated on the assumption that if you've got massive growth in the population—and Victoria is growing probably at the fastest rate anywhere in the Commonwealth, and Melbourne is growing to be the largest city in the Commonwealth and may well be one of the fastest growing cities in the world—then the people of that state, Victoria, are looking to government to do its job and to ensure that the services that are provided in education, health and infrastructure are able to meet the challenges. So it's no good talking about how we're going to restrict the rights of people to live in Victoria by saying we're going to cut immigration or we're going to restrict people's rights as to where they live, because that doesn't change the fundamentals in terms of what people are looking for. The fact that there has been neglect in recent years in terms of spending by governments, planning and providing the necessary services doesn't change the fact that now people are looking towards government to make sure that they work hand in hand to secure the future prosperity of the state, and that's exactly what the Labor government and the Labor Party has argued. It has been able to demonstrate to the people that there is, in fact, a really clear vision of the direction the state should be going in.

The contrast couldn't be sharper. The division in terms of the opportunities that have been presented and then missed—totally missed—by the Liberal Party in Victoria is only too clear for all those to see. There are people like Michael Sukkar, Minister Hunt, who was the running mate for Mr Dutton, Alan Tudge—and, of course, Senator Fifield. Who could forget that infamous press conference out in the courtyard here, where out of sheer panic, they chose to move towards a much more conservative view of the way in which the Liberal Party should operate. That was completely rejected by the people of Victoria.

We know the cheer squad within the Murdoch press has been urging this government to take forward a position even more to the right than has actually been adopted. The main complaint is that this government is not right wing enough. What we have seen is that the once great Liberal Party has now degenerated into a group of warring ideological sects driven by ambition and not committed to any deep-seated ideological position in terms of the advancement of a progressive agenda in this country. As a consequence you have got areas across the eastern belt of Melbourne—the so-called Bible Belt of Melbourne—rejecting the Liberal Party so comprehensively that you can't help but be surprised at the extent to which the Liberal Party is so out of touch. Of course, it's the same Liberal Party driven by the same groups of people in this city at the national level, whereby the people in suburbs such as Box Hill and Glen Waverley, from Frankston through to Carrum, to Mordialloc and Bentleigh—thoroughly middle-class communities—are rejecting the Liberal Party. (Time expired)