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VICTORIA

PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD)

FIFTY-FIRST PARLIAMENT

SPRING SESSION 1989

Legislative Council

VOL. 396

[From 11 October 1989 to 17 November 1989]

MELBOURNE: JEAN GOROON. GOVERNMENT PRINTER

The Governor

His Excellency the Reverend DR JOHN DA VIS McCAUGHEY, AC

The Lieutenant-Governor

The Honourable SIR JOHN McINTOSH YOUNG, AC, KCMG

The Ministry

Premier The Hon. John Cain, MP

Deputy Premier, and Minister for The Hon. J. E. Kirner, AM, MP Education

Minister for the Arts, Minister for Major Projects, and Minister responsible for Post-Secondary Education

Minister for Industry, Technology and Resources, and Minister Assisting the Treasurer in Budget Expenditure

Minister for Police and Emergency Services, and Minister for Tourism

Minister for Health

Treasurer

Minister for Transport

Minister for Local Government ..

Attorney-General, and Minister for Ethnic Affairs

Minister for Labour

Minister for Housing and Construction

Minister for Planning and Environment, and Minister for Consumer Affairs

Minister for Agriculture and Rural Affairs

Minister for Conservation, Forests and Lands

Minister for Community Services, and Minister for Prices

Minister for Sport and Recreation

Minister for Property and Services, and Minister for Water Resources

Parliamentary Secretary of the Cabinet

The Hon. E. H. Walker, MLC

The Hon. D. R. White, MLC

The Hon S. M. Crabb, MP

The Hon. C. J. Hogg, MLC

The Hon. R. A. Jolly, MP

The Hon. J. H. Kennan, QC, MP

The Hon. M. A. Lyster, MLC

The Hon. Andrew McCutcheon, MP

The Hon. N. A. Pope, MP

The Hon. B. T. Pullen, MLC

The Hon. T. W. Roper, MP

The Hon. B. J. Rowe, MP

The Hon. K. P. Setches, MP

The Hon. P. C. Spyker, MP

The Hon. N. B. Trezise, MP

The Hon. R. W. Walsh, MP

M. J. Sandon, Esquire, MP

Members of the Legislative Council

FIFTY -FIRST PARLIAMENT -FIRST SESSION

Member Province Party Member Province Party

Ashman. Hon. Gerald Barry Boronia LP Landeryou. Hon. William DouttaGalIa ALP Baxter. Hon. William Robert North Eastern NP Albert Best. Hon. Ronald Alexander North Western NP Lawson. Hon. Robert Higinbotham LP Birrell. Hon. Mark Alexander East Yarra LP Long. Hon. Richard John Gippsland LP Chamberlain. Hon. Bruce Western LP Lyster, Hon. Maureen Anne Chelsea ALP

Anthony McLean, Hon. Jean Boronia ALP Connard. Hon. Geoffrey Higinbotham LP Macey, Hon. Reg Monash LP

PhiIIip Mackenzie, Hon. Roderick Geelong Ind. Cox. Hon. George Henry Nunawading LP Alexander Coxsedge, Hon. Joan Melbourne West ALP Mier. Hon. Brian William Waverley ALP Craige. Hon. Geoffrey Central LP Miles. Hon. John Gould Templestowe LP

Ronald Highlands PulIen, Hon. Barry Thomas Melbourne ALP Crawford. Hon. George Jika Jika ALP Sgro, Hon. Giovanni Melbourne North ALP

Robert Antonio Davidson, Hon. Burwyn Eric Chelsea ALP Skeggs, Hon. Bruce Albert Templestowe LP de Fegely, Hon. Richard BalIarat LP Edward

Strachan Smith, Hon. Kenneth South Eastern LP Evans, Hon. David Mylor North Eastern NP Maurice Guest, Hon. James Vincent Monash LP Storey, Hon. Haddon, QC East Yarra LP

Chester Tehan, Hon. Marie Therese Central LP Hall, Hon. Peter Ronald Gippsland NP Highlands Hallam, Hon. Roger Murray Western NP Theophanous, Hon. Theo Jika Jika ALP Henshaw, Hon. David Geelong ALP Charles

Ernest, MBE Van Buren, Hon. Charles Eumemmerring ALP Hogg, Hon. Caroline Jennifer Melbourne North ALP Fredrick Hunt, Hon. Alan John South Eastern LP Varty, Hon. Rosemary Nunawading LP I yes, Hon. Robert Stuart Eumemmerring ALP Walker, Hon. Evan Herbert Melbourne ALP Kennedy, Hon. Cyril James Waverley ALP White, Hon. David Ronald DouttaGalla ALP Knowles, Hon. Robert lan BalIarat LP Wright. Hon. Kenneth Irving North Western NP Kokocinski. Hon. Licia Melbourne West ALP Mackenzie

President: THE HON. A. J. HUNT

Chairman of Committees: THE. HON. K. I. M. WRIGHT

Temporary Chairmen of Committees: The Honourables Joan Coxsedge, D. M. Evans, J. V. C. Guest, D. E. Henshaw, W. A. Landeryou, Robert Lawson, R. J. Long, and G. A. Sgro.

Leader of the Government: THE HON. E. H. WALKER

Deputy Leader of the Government: THE HON. D. R. WHITE

Leader of the Opposition: THE HON. M. A. BIRRELL

Deputy Leader of the Opposition: THE HON. HADDON STOREY, QC

Leader of the National Party: THE HON. W. R. BAXTER

Deputy Leader of the National Party: THE HON. R. M. HALLAM

Heads of Parliamentary Departments

Assembly-Clerk of the Parliaments and Clerk of the Legislative Assembly: Mr R. K. Boyes

Council-Clerk of the Legislative Council: Mr A. V. Bray

Hansard-ChiefReporter: Mr L. C. Johns

Library-Librarian: Mr B. J. Davidson

House-Secretary: Mr W. E. C. Ward

Adjournment 11 October 1989 COUNCIL 817

implemented by 30 September 1990. As I said, the first phase of the award creating professional rates-which amounts to 50 per cent of the award-has already been implemented.

Part of that judgment on pa~es 7 and 8 referred to qualification allowances that nurses had been receiving untll the date of the implementation of the judgment, namely, 30 September 1989. The commission said: ... after careful consideration we have concluded that, as a result of this decision, qualification allowances will be absorbed into the final profession rates we now award.

Then a directive went out from Health Department Victoria and was tabled in the commission on 4 October 1989. The reference number of that directive is RN/I0/89 and it is headed "Registered Nurses Award-Professional Rates of Pay-Clinical Nurse Specialist". Paragraph 3 states:

Until these matters are resolved grade 2 nurses will continue to receive their full qualification allowances.

It would seem that there is an award and that the award came into operation on 30 September in its first phase.

The Hon. D. R. White-It is not fully implemented until the next September.

The Hon. M. T. TEHAN-The second phase is implemented on 30 September 1990 but the understanding was that qualification allowances would not be paid, as is spelt out clearly in the judgment, once the professional award is made.

The Hon. D. R. White-Fully implemented?

The Hon. M. T. TEHAN-Fully implemented, or 50 per cent was to be reduced at this stage and 50 per cent was to be reduced at the other, at the most. The Minister did know of this and, I submit, had the capacity to know--

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT (the Hon. K. I. M. Wright)-Order! Mrs Tehan is developing a set speech. She should come to the point.

The Hon. M. T. TEHAN-This is background to the question, and the answer of the Minister today was that she was not aware of the circumstances I have raised.

I shall refer to one more document and that is a letter from the Private Hospitals Association of Victoria dated 5 October 1989 addressed to the Minister for Health. It was faxed to her department. The first paragraph states:

I am writing to you to express the concern of this association over a recent decision taken by your department to continue to pay full qualification allowances for grade 2 nurses until there was a resolution of the clinical nurse specialist classification matter.

I think that is sufficient background to indicate that there was a decision and that it was to be implemented in two phases. It is stated quite explicitly that once the implementation of the professional rates award is implemented, as it will be in the first pay after 30 September this year-in part-no further qualification allowances would be paid in that they are absorbed into the professional rates award. The directive of 4 October 1989--

The Hon. D. R. White-That was not clear in the words you read.

The Hon. M. T. TEHAN-I cannot be more explicit then the judgment on pages 7 and 8, which refers to qualification allowances and I am prepared to repeat the last paragraph of that, which explicitly says--

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT-Order! Mrs Tehan is developing a set speech and the guidelines relating to speeches in debate on the motion for the adjournment of the sitting are that the member may make a complaint or request or pose a query but in

Session 1989-28

818 COUNCIL 11 October 1989 Adjournment

doing so must confine his or her remarks to a single subject and may not develop the remarks into a set speech. I hope Mrs Tehan is coming to the point.

The Hon. M. T. TEHAN-The words are that the qualification allowances "will be absorbed into the final professional rates we now award". In view of the background to the question, I ask the Minister to indicate why her department's directive in RN/I0/89 says that public hospitals do not need to pay that qualification allowance in the interim period.

The Hon. G. P. CONNARD (Higinbotham Province)-The Minister for Health would have received a letter from the Royal Australasian College of Radiologists dated 18 June 1989 because the college wrote to every member of Parliament in Australia to direct attention to the collapse which is occurnn~ in the State's radiotherapy services for the treatment of cancer. In the letter it maintaIns that the entire fabric of radiotherapy services is affected, including equipment, medical and paramedical staff levels, staff training and research, and adds that a strategic plan is necessary to turn the crisis around.

This was supported in the Age of 19 June 1989 where Or Graeme Morgan, Secretary of the Royal Australiasian College of Radiologists, maintained that more than 2000 cancer patients a year are having their chance of cure jeopardised because of inadequate radiotherapy services and the college estimates that 9000 patients a year who would benefit from radiotherapy are not bein$ treated because of staff and equipment shortages. Of those, some 2000 are faced WIth premature death or are seeking treatment by alternative methods that could be disfigunng or more costly.

The importance of my remarks tonight is that that letter would have been received by the Minister and indeed the department. The Royal Australasian College of Radiologists is our most respected institution in this area and, if it is writing to all of us as members of Parliament, we must surely take note of its concern.

It is seeking a comprehensive strategy to provide proper teams of staff to give adequate treatment to all. Knowing the restrictions of the debate on the motion for the adjournment of the sitting, I cannot go into all the issues in the letter but the college is respected both nationally and internationally and this is a serious matter.

The Minister has now had four months to consider this letter and I ask her: what plans has Health Department Victoria to improve the services, which apparently relate more specifically to staff services and support than equipment? The comprehensive strategy it talks of is indeed a step towards getting the act together over a period. I simply ask the Minister, four months later, whether she is able to inform the House of any developments that the department has made concerning this problem.

The Hon. ROBERT LA WSON (Higinbotham Province)-I remind the Minister for Local Government of the brothels legislation that was passed by this Parliament some time ago. A clause in the legislation enabled local government to pass by-laws in respect of brothels or to banish them from their municipalities.

The particular clause to which I refer is printed as part of the legislation and can be read by anyone but, unfortunately, it was never proclaimed by this government.

The City of Camberwell attempted to pass by-laws to give it the power to restrict brothels within its municipality but the government repealed those by-laws. I suggest that this is in contravention of the spirit of the legislation, which was passed by both Houses of Parliament. Parliament gave municipalities the power to limit the use of brothels or the creation of brothels in these areas and the government took the course of not proclaiming that legislation.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT (the Hon. K. I. M. Wright)-Order! I remind Mr Lawson that the rules laid down with respect to speeches on the debate on the motion


for the adjournment of the sitting prevent honourable members from reflecting upon any statute or from making any request for the introduction of proposed legislation. Mr Lawson's remarks have not impinged on those rules yet, but I remind him of those rules.

The Hon. ROBERT LAWSON-Thank your for your guidance, Mr Deputy President. I am not asking the Minister to alter any legislation but merely to follow the spirit of the legislation that exists. I believe she is in contravention of the spirit of the legislation in striking down Camberwell's by-laws and I shall be pleased to hear her comments on the matter.

The Hon. R. A. MACKENZIE (Geelong Province)-I raise a matter for the attention of the Minister for the Arts as the representative in this place of the Attorney-General. I refer to a recent submission made to the Attorney-General by the Victims of Crime Assistance League-VOCAL. In 1986 the organisation made written and oral submissions to both the Parliamentary Legal and Constitutional Committee and the Starke committee on sentencing supporting a bill of rights for victims of crime.

The submission was in accord with the seventh United Nations congress declaration of principles of victims' rights, which contained seventeen specific rights. That has already been adopted by the governments of South Australia and Queensland and is currently being introduced in New South Wales.

I ask the Attorney-General to give serious consideration to the submissions put to him by VOCAL because it is an important and urgent matter. As I have mentioned previously in this House, too often the victims of crime are not protected. They are the forgotten people in these situations. We have an opportunity of ensuring that vicitms' rights-and that means our rights because anyone of us could become a victim at any time-are enshrined and adopted by this government as other governments have done.

The Hon. J. G. MILES (Templestowe Province)-I direct to the attention of the Minister for Local Government the Godwin saga that has been well publicised. I asked the Minister questions on this matter on 19 April and 13 September. Since then I have had subsequent publicity in the Doncaster Templestowe News, which referred to a press release of mine in which I expressed extreme concern about both entrepreneurial and compulsory acquisition powers in the Local Government Act as being highly dangerous and enabling councils to act abitrarily and acquisitively to control the lives of people such as the Godwins for purely commercial motives.

The headline in the Doncaster Templestowe News was "Godwins save home". The article stated that the Godwins had won an appeal to the planning appeals tribunal. It stated that I had raised the Godwin case in Parliament and the previous day had questioned the Minister for Local Government on the dangers of councils using both entrepreneurial and compulsory acquisition powers. The article stated that the Minister agreed to examine the legislation in view of the Godwin case.

The legislation referred to is the Local Government Act 1958, sections 511 and 811G, the Land Acquisition and Compensation Act 1986 and the Local Government Act 1989, which has been passed and will be proclaimed in November this year. Those Acts provide the dangerous combination of entrepreneurial and compulsory acquisition and planning and rezoning powers that councils have, and the Godwin case has exemplified the dangers of these powers or the combination of them.

I ask the Minister for Local Government to inform the House of the progress she has made in examining current local government legislation in view of the serious implications of the Godwin case.


The Hon. D. R. WHITE (Minister for Industry, Technology and Resources)-Mr Smith raised the funding of the State Emergency Service on the Mornington Pemnsula. I shall take up that matter with my colleague, the Minister for Police and Emergency Services in another place.

Mr Mackenzie raised the need for a bill of rights for victims of crime, a proposition put forward by VOCAL. I shall take up that matter with the Attorney-General.

The Hon. C. J. HOGG (Minister for Health)-Mr Hall raised a matter that has not previously been brought to my attention. I shall certainly discuss it with the Federal Minister for Community ServIces and Health, who will be in Victoria shortly.

The letter to which Mr Cox referred was brought to my attention only yesterday. I shall attend to that matter forthwith.

In answer to Mrs Tehan in regard to the matter raised and also her question earlier today, I do not believe I have moved outside the decision or the spirit of the Industrial Relations Commission. However, I shall carefully consider the sequential information given by her and get back to her in writing.

In answer to Mr Connard, I believe we have written at some length about cancer services, and I shall make certain that a copy of any such letter is forwarded to Mr Connard immediately.

The Hon. B. T. PULLEN (Minister for Housing and Construction)-Mr Craige raised the matter of waiting times for Mr Whelan, a blind student in the Lilydale area who has been seeking suitable accommodation. I shall look into that individual's case and I invite Mr Craige to provide me with any additional information that will assist.

The Hon. M. A. LYSTER (Minister for Local Government)-Mr Baxter raised the matter of the application of pecuniary interest provisions under the new Local Government Act in respect of various committees established by councils, and expressed his concerns that the requirements-from his reading and, I believe a general reading of the provisions-of that section may act as a deterrent and prevent a number of people from becoming members of those committees.

I agree with his concern. It would be most unfortunate if communities were to lose the services of a good number of people who would find the need to register their interests rather daunting. Therefore I am having prepared an amendment to section 81 of the Local Government Act 1989 even before its proclamation because of my often stated wish that I want the Act to work in the interests of local government and communities.

The terms of the amendment I am considering are that where a special committee exercises no delegated powers or is responsible for expenditure of less than $5000 a year a council may exempt the members who are neither councillors, council officers nor council staff from completing and submitting returns under this section. Those are the terms of the amendment I am considering and I thank Mr Baxter for bringing the matter to my attention.

Mr Lawson raised a matter that is at present listed for consideration before the Supreme Court. Therefore, it would be inappropriate for me to answer his question at this time. However, at an appropriate time I shall be more than pleased to discuss the issues with him.

Mr Miles raised a matter that he raised with me on 13 September in this place. The next day I asked the legal officer in my department to take notice of the concerns raised by Mr Miles. If I recall correctly, Mr Miles came to this place on 13 September with the advantage of previously-gained legal advice. Mr Miles is shaking his head-I


am sorry, and I apologise; I was speaking from memory. When Mr Miles asked the question I thought he had referred to legal advice that had been given to him.

I have yet to receive that advice from my department. I shall follow up that matter, and certainly communicate with Mr Miles as soon as possible.

The motion was agreed to.

The House adjourned at 11.11 p.m. until Tuesday, October 24.

Death of the Hon. R. C. Dunstan, DSO 24 October 1989 COUNCIL 823

Tuesday, 24 October 1989

The PRESIDENT (the Hon. A. J. Hunt) took the chair at 3.3 p.m. and read the prayer.

DEATH OF THE HONOURABLE ROBERTS CHRISTIAN DUNSTAN, DSO

The Hon. E. H. WALKER (Minister for the Arts)-I move: That this House expresses its sincere sorrow at the death, on 11 October 1989, of the Honourable

Roberts Christian Dunstan, DSO, and places on record its acknowledgment of the valuable services rendered by him to the Parliament and the people of Victoria as a member of the Legislative Assembly for the electoral district of Morning ton from 1956 to 1967 and for the electoral district of Dromana from 1967 to 1982, and as Minister without Portfolio in 1970, Minister of Water Supply from 1970 to 1973, Minister of Public Works from 1972 to 1978 and Minister for Property and Services in 1978.

Mr President, Roberts Christian Dunstan died on the mornin~ of Wednesday, 11 October, a day on which this House met. It was agreed by all SIdes of the House that we would hold over this condolence motion to allow members some time to prepare their comments and so that we could mark the occasion in an appropriate manner.

As I have just mentioned, Roberts was a member of the Legislative Assembly from 1956 to 1982. He was elected to that House as the member for Mornington in March 1956 and he represented that electorate for eleven years.

In April 1967 he became the member for Dromana and he remained a sitting member until his retirement in February 1982. A great many members of this House and of another place would, of course, have known Roberts Dunstan personally and I am sure many honourable members here and elsewhere will want to express their sorrow at his passing.

Roberts Dunstan was born on 5 November 1922 and educated at Mount Eliza State School and Geelong Grammar School. If my arithmetic is correct, he was approaching his 67th birthday this year. I suppose it is significant that he was born on 5 November, Guy Fawkes Day. He did not quite blow up Parliament, although on one or two occasions he might have felt like it. However, he certainly caused plenty of fireworks.

By profession he was a journalist and, like those of so many Australians of that time his life was strongly influenced by the emergence of the second world war. In 1940 he joined the Australian Imperial Forces and, of course, as many others did, he joined before he was eighteen years old. He joined at the age of seventeen years. He served in the Royal Australian Engineers from 1940 to 1942 as a sapper. It was a costly experience for him because he suffered the loss of a leg while serving in Tobruk. He continued his service in a RAAF bomber crew from 1942 to 1945. As evidence of his remarkable courage he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his outstanding contribution to the war effort.

After the war he pursued his career as a journalist and later he wrote a book entitled The Sand and the Sky. He joined the staff of the Herald newspaper, I think in 1948, and was the Herald's film critic until 1967. I must say I remember reading with great pleasure his acid wit in those pieces of his. He was very perceptive in his film criticisms. I think he probably began a tradition which has now been taken up by many other people, not only in writing but also on television these days. However, I think he was probably the first of those who were very forthright in their comments.

He commenced his active political career in 1955 as a shire councillor. He was a Frankston and Hastings shire councillor from 1955 to 1960. So he carried on both

824 COUNCIL 24 October 1989 Death of the Hon. R. C. Dunstan, DSO

roles as a councillor and a member of Parliament for some years. He transferred, I believe naturally, to Parliament in 1956 in the seat of Mornington. Later during his period as the member for Dromana Roberts was appointed to the Ministry-firstly for the Liberal/Country Party, if 1 am correct, and then the Liberal Party. In 1970 he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary of the Cabinet, and also in 1970 he became Minister without Portfolio. That did not last long; he was allocated the water supply portfolio in December of that year. He held that portfolio for three years. During that time he took on the added responsibility of the public works portfolIo in August 1972. I must say he held that portfolio with some distinction and I note, as I did a year or two ago, when touring around Western Port that there is a ports authority tug named after his wife.

He was Minister for Property and Services for a brief period from May to August 1978. He spent the remainder of his political career as a backbencher. One would have to say that he was an active and exuberant man. He was involved in many worthwhile pursuits and causes.

Of course, there are numerous stories about Roberts Dunstan. He was one of the most colourful members of this Parliament. Mr President, I am sure you particularly could regale us for some time, if you felt so inclined, with stories of a person whom you knew very well. I do not intend to tell the two or three good stories I know. I shall be happy to do so privately if anyone wants to hear some of them. Other honourable members will take advantage of today to relate to us one or two of the memorable occasions in which he was involved.

One would have to say that Roberts Dunstan was larger than life. He was a man of courage, combined with compassion and commitment. 1 would say that this Parliament, on both sides of the House, could well do with more people of his style and vigour. With those comments, and on behalf of the government, 1 offer my condolences to his wife and family.

The Hon. M. A. BIRRELL (East Yarra Province )-On behalf of the Opposition 1 also wish to be associated with this motion expressing the sympathy of the House to the family of Roberts Dunstan, DSO.

Roberts Dunstan was born on 5 November 1922 in Caul field and passed away on the 11 th of this month at the age of 66 years. He was elected to Parliament in March 1956 to represent the Liberal Party and did so in a way that will never be forgotten for the style and uniqueness of his contribution. He represented the seat of Mornington until March 1967 and the seat of Dromana from 1967 to 1982. At 33 years of age he was the youngest member of the Legislative Assembly in 1956.

Roberts Dunstan will be remembered for his sharp sense of humour and his wit and he was rated very highly in terms of sincerity and his personal creed of honesty-he was an honest and open man. He was once described as a rugged individual who enjoyed a drink and 1 think that terminology could have been correct and would not in any way be seen as offensive. He admitted as much himself when he said, "I love a drink. It gives you a lovely glow and makes other people so much more interesting." His vocabulary was brimming with such quotable quotes, which tell us so much about the man and about the way he tried to live his life.

He looked for humour and laughter. He had quick retorts and, according to those who served with him in the other place, he always had a good interjection. We all look for that to break up the solemnity and boredom of some debates.

His Parliamentary and Ministerial service were considerable. He was Parliamentary Secretary of the Cabinet in 1970 and, within a short time, became Minister of Water Supply for three years until 1973 and Minister of Public Works for six years through


to 1978. He was a member of the Statute Law Revision Committee for a decade and of other committees such as the House Committee and the Privileges Committee.

Roberts Dunstan was educated at two different schools, the Mount Eliza State School and Geelong Grammar School. His local interests were considerable and, no doubt, a reason for his popularity in his electorate. He was President of the Frankston Branch of the Returned Services League from 1954 to 1956 and President of the Peninsula Development Association during the same period. He was active also in the Mount Eliza Red Cross and at one time the president of that group. Further he was active in the Mount Eliza Association for Environmental Care. He maintained those interests and associations during his time as a member of Parliament. Like many honourable members he was also a local councillor before entering Parliamenta councillor of the Frankston and Hastings shire from 1955 to 1960.

His war service was considerable. The Leader of the House described him as courageous. Roberts Dunstan enlisted in the Australian Imperial Forces at the age of seventeen and lost his leg at the age of eighteen while serving with the Royal Australian Engineers in the Middle East. Returning to Australia, he convinced the doctors that he was fit for aircrew and joined the Royal Australian Air Force in 1942. As he had only one leg, it must have been as a result of his tremendous eloquence that he was able to convince the RAAF that he was fit to be a member of the aircrew. He made 29 operational flights over enemy territory and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in December 1943 for his "unique determination", being the youngest Australian to be given that honour.

He will be remembered for many things but I guess to a certain extent his resignation from Cabinet was a memorable event because it said so much about the type of person he was. He was a great character and he allowed his humour to be part of his resignation just as it was part of his career in the Ministry and in the Parliament. His Parliamentary career could best be described as colourful and his resignation from Cabinet could be described as equally colourful. The resignation followed one occasion when he told the Age newspaper that he was "angry and quotable", so much so that the journalist, after getting the story, went to the editor and the editor said, "You had better ring him back and find out whether he wants this on the record". Roberts Dunstan confirmed that that was exactly what he wanted.

He made a major outburst about the sacking of Senator Reg Withers, Leader of the Senate, and he made it quite clear through his personal attack on the Prime Minister of the time, Malcolm Fraser, that he did not regard that type of behaviour as acceptable and he would not retract his statement. He did not retract his statement, and the Premier of the time therefore saw Roberts Dunstan resign from the State Cabinet in August 1978.

Some time later, as a backbencher, he attended a meeting at the Lodge to discuss, among other things, the future of the River Murray. He reported in his "Something Personal" column in the Age newspaper that the conference had reached absolutely no decision, and that for once in his political career he had not put a foot wrong. He had only one foot but he was happy to make a play of that in humour! He said nothing at the conference and thus could have made no mistakes.

His war service, his political career and his local government service all lead us to admire a man who overcame many obstacles in terms of the wound he suffered.

He is remembered not just for the lighter moments but for the sincerity of his contribution. I have been informed that his former colleagues remember, when they cut through the largeness of the man, the causes that he championed and the fact that he was extremely dogged in his determination to get his own way.


His resignation from Cabinet did not mean that he resigned from the entire political system. He kept an active interest, one in which he ensured that people, not just members of the Liberal Party but beyond it, understood his views. He wrote a book which he co-authored with Burton Graham entitled The Sand and the Sky, which recounted his war experiences and the effect they had on him through his life. He tried to sum himselfup through the statements he wrote, one of which was:

It seems that soldien throuah all the wan throughout history have drunk alcohol and sung songs to make the night pass and help them to foraet what is ahead.

He saw it as a way of saying he achieved a proper perspective of life and the past in that way.

It is fitting to end the tribute to this most extraordinary man by referring to one of his most famous quotes about politicians. I repeat the quote with all respect to those present and those who might be politicians in the future:

There are just three types of popular politicians-retired, defeated or dead.

His axiom was: laugh at yourself and the world will laugh with you. On behalf of the Liberal Party, I extend condolences to J oanna and the family of the late Roberts Dunstan.

The Hon. W. R. BAXTER (North Eastern Province)-On behalf of the National Party, Ijoin this tribute to the late Roberts Christian Dunstan. Some of the words that have already been used today by the Leader of the government and the Leader of the Opposition in this House are very apt when talking about Roberts Dunstanextraordinary, unique and heroic, words that we do not often employ in condolence motions but no doubt very fitting today. Roberts Dunstan was one of the unique characters of this place and his passing means a loss not only to the State of Victoria but, in particular, a loss to this Parliament of one of its reasonably recent members who made such a mark.

I first met Roberts Dunstan before I came to this place when he was Minister of Water Supply. In those days it seemed to me that the Minister of Water Supply received more deputations than any other Minister. It does not happen so much now that the structure of water administration in this State is somewhat different from what it was under the former government. I had occasion in those times, when he was Minister and I was part of a consortium that was endeavouring to establish a private irrigation scheme at Torrumbarry on the River Murray, to meet Roberts Dunstan on two occasions.

In those days the Chairman of the then Water Commission was colloquially known to us as Dr No; regardless of the proposition advanced, the chairman had reasons why it would not work. By contrast, what Roberts Dunstan had to say to the deputations was very helpful to us, and he contested some of those assertions with his own chairman. Even at that stage I was impressed with someone who was prepared, without having close personal experience or knowlege of the subject, to lend that helping hand.

I then came to Parliament and had a much closer association with Roberts Dunstan, both in another place and in this place. My closest association occurred after he resigned from· the Ministry-in circumstances of which Mr Birrell reminded uswhen he was a member of the Public Works Committee. I think Mr Long was also on that committee. It was some of the activities ofRoberts while he was on that committee that led me, when thinking about what I might say today, to use another description which has not yet been used about him-that of daredevil. On some of the inspections the committee went on, Roberts's behaviour could appropriately be characterised as


daredevil. Whatever he got up to, the next morning he was there as large as life, ready for the hearing, and there were never any after-effects so far as I could see.

In those days, of course, as everybody would well recall, the Public Works Committee-and I lament its passing-had a wide charter. The committee members were in Darwin on one occasion attending the crab-tying contest at some suburban hotel. I was not a contestant, but Roberts had two small boys absolutely convinced that he had lost his leg at the crab-tying contest the year before. As I say, he was a man of many talents.

My wife and Roberts found it very easy to engage in all sorts of verbal conflict over the dinner table and after dinner on those trips. I think Mr Long will recall rescuing my wife from the waving crutch at Broome one evening. Roberts was certainly a challenge to be with. He was also a delight to be with because of the wit that he displayed so easily. When I look back, I realise that one of the privileges I had was having been able to serve with someone like Roberts Dunstan at such close quarters.

I place on record the condolences of the National Party and, in particular, I extend the party's deepest sympathy to Roberts's wife Joanna and to his son.

The Hon. HADDON STOREY (East Yarra Province)-I join with the other speakers in paying tribute to Roberts Dunstan. I, like the Leader of the Government, can remember reading his film critiques many years ago. I enjoyed them, but nothing prepared me for the actuality of meeting Roberts when I came here. He was larger than life-a person with an exuberant personality and a ready wit-and he was ready to express his opinion.

What I remember most about him is that he was able to express his opinion in the party room or in Cabinet, where I served with him for a short time, with pungent clarity at times. He was very clear about his views and expressed them clearly and forcefully.

I also remember his walking-stick, but particularly the crutch that Roberts Dunstan used. It was part of Roberts, and when he became excited about some issue it was common to find the crutch being waved in the air as he emphasised a point. That was typical of the personality, the force and vitality that he had.

Roberts Dunstan was a great example to whoever came into contact with him. He was able to overcome the tragic loss of his leg, which would have set some people back for the rest of their lives. He coped with it magnificently and performed well in many areas of public and private life.

Other members have told their stories about Roberts. I like to remember him as one who made a contribution in the public sense as well as being a unique individual; he was certainly a person that people could relate to. I pass on my condolences to his family.

The Hon. M. A. LYSTER (Minister for Local Government)-I am pleased to have the opportunity of joining in the tribute to Roberts Dunstan, not on my own behalf, because I only met the gentleman briefly on one or two occasions, but on behalf of a number of longstanding members of the Australian Labor Party on the Mornington Peninsula who re~ded Roberts Dunstan not in any way as a political opponent, but as a man of prinCIple and a caring man whom they regarded as having been prepared to advocate a cause for them even though in other circumstances they might not have expected that sort of support.

Their memories of him are of his humility, which is perhaps not a quality that has come out in a number of the other contributions that have been made. The party members recall him as being generous to a fault. When one is speaking of one's


political opponent it is not usually those qualities that come to mind. That is the way that Roberts Dunstan was viewed by people of my party, even though they contested elections with him very fiercely. He was always ready to listen, no matter where one came from. As I said, he was prepared to advocate a cause if he saw an injustice being done. He did that freely and with the generosity that he applied to every part of his life.

As has been said, he was a member of the Mount Eliza Association for Environmental Care-MEAFEC-and that was long before concern for the environment became fashionable. Two parts of the Mornington Peninsula for which he had a particular concern were the Moorooduc quarry and the cliff face at Kunyung. His particular interest was in the revegetation program of the cliff face at Kunyung that people in MEAFEC will always recall with great interest. Roberts was most concerned that the plants that were part of the revegetation program should be watered properly, and he ensured that a very long hose was made available to bring water to those plants.

As ajoumalist he had a love of writing and kept up his interest in journalism in his column "Personally Speaking". He had a love of words which is obvious if one reads any of his contributions to debate in the other place. That love of words was exceeded only by his dislike of pomposity. There were functions that Roberts Dunstan would never attend. There were projects he would not support if he believed they were unnecessary trimmings. He was an honest and principled man, and it was that honesty and principle which endeared him to a lot of members of the Australian Labor Party on the Mornington Peninsula who remember him with great affection.

The Hon. G. H. COX (Nunawading Province)-I speak on this motion as a member of Parliament who spent six years with Roberts Dunstan in the Legislative Assembly between 1976 and 1982. During that time Roberts, who was then a Minister, was extremely helpful to me when I was a new backbencher. He had vast experience and was generous with his advice to new members and those representing marginal seats. If one happened to be passing the bar, one could spend a great deal of time speaking to Roberts about how to handle one's future and one's contribution to Parliament.

It was mentioned earlier that Roberts pro$r.essed to the backbench fairly rapidly. At the time I was the Assistant Whip along With Bill Templeton, and it was partly my responsibility to attend to the needs of Roberts in the House. We had many interesting conversations while sitting on the backbench.

The main feature about Roberts that stands out in my mind is the wit of his interjections. They were appreciated by all except perhaps on the night when he began to interject while Mr Speaker was making a contribution. After some problems, Bill Templeton and I convinced Roberts that he should retire to his room.

The time spent with Roberts is a period that stands out in my life. I register my sympathy for Roberts's family and recall the time we spent together as members of the Legislative Assembly.

The Hon. B. A. E. SKEGGS (Templestowe Province)-I join in this motion of condolence in memory of a man who gave a great deal to this State and this nation. He was soldier, airman, journalist, councillor, politician and Cabinet Minister, and he served with enormous enthusiasm and dedication in all of those positions.

Roberts Dunstan was a man of high principle, straight talk and enormous wit. He was always ready to be friendly and helpful to his collea~ues. I had the honour of serving with him in the Legislative Assembly during a penod of nine years. I always found him to be someone one could talk to frankly. Particularly when he was a Cabinet Minister, if one had a constituency problem, he was always ready to be helpful.


I well recall the occasion when the old Heidelberg courthouse became vacant following the construction of the new courthouse. It was the wish of the Heidelberg Historical Society that action be taken quickly before part of the courthouse was used as a storehouse. Roberts Dunstan was the Minister of Public Works at the time and I immediately alerted him to the situation. He dropped everything and said "Let's go and have a look at it". That was the type of person he was-decisive, and he decided to make the courthouse available at a peppercorn rental to the Heidelberg Historical Society as a home for the memorabilia of the Heidelberg district. The courthouse still serves well in that capacity today.

Roberts Dunstan was the type of Minister who did not put things to one side; he would immediately review a situation and, if it were warranted, he would take action. I found him to be a good Minister to deal with and one who really cared about the ordinary person and the community.

The point has been made, and rightly so, that he was not a person who stood on pomp and ceremony, although he cared for traditional values. Roberts Dunstan cared very much for his nation, and that is evident from his distinguished service to Australia during the second world war. After losing a leg when serving with the AIF he was determined to serve again and re-enlisted in the Air Force. That action had a Douglas Bader quality about it. Roberts Dunstan would not give up and would never say die. He got into the Royal Australian Air Force and served with great distinction.

After the war Roberts Dunstan directed his abilities towards journalism as a film critic. He became well known throughout Victoria as an eminent film authority. In later years, after his political career, he won recognition as a columnist and he wrote politically spicy and interesting articles. As a fellow journalist I salute him in that capacity because he was highly regarded by the Austrahan Journalists Association and all his colleagues within that profession. Perhaps his many years of Parliamentary services precluded him from what might otherwise have been an extremely prolific journalistic career.

It is good to know that Roberts Dunstan published at least one book, and that will certainly be well remembered. I would have liked to see a book written by him on political life, similar to one launched today by the Honourable Lindsay Thompson. A book about political life penned by Roberts Dunstan would have been extremely entertaining and many of the things people never get to read about would undoubtedly have come out in such a book.

Roberts Dunstan was an engaging and forthright person. He had a wonderful wit and was a great fellow to know. He was a good colleague and one who served this Parliament and the nation well.

The Hon. G. P. CONNARD (Higinbotham Province)-I join my colleagues from both sides of the House to contribute to the condolence motion for the late Roberts Dunstan. I had known Roberts for a long time prior to his election to this place, as indeed I have known you, Mr President, for that length of time because we all came from the environs of the Mornington Peninsula.

The career of Roberts has been well outlined by previous speakers and I do not intend to go over that. However, I emphasise that he was a man with great determination to succeed. I shall share one story about that. My memory goes back to his preselection. By different mechanisms of some type, all members of this place have had to face preselection contests and it is always Wlth much personal concern that we do.

I recall that Roberts was preselected in 1955 or 1956, and I believe the contest took place in the Frankston Memorial Hall. I well remember that day: having gone through


the processes of advertising and final nomination, at that time Liberal Party candidates were preselected by a meeting of delegates from all the associated branches, similar to the current process. In the days shortly after the second world war the influence of exservicemen was very much associated with preselection contests. Many distinguished people, such as General Morris and Rear Admiral Carr, lived on the Mornington Peninsula and were influential in the preselection process.

My memory of where the determination of Roberts came in is quite clear. In those days Roberts generally wore an artificial leg and walked with the aid of a stick. On the evening of the preselection he entered the hall alone, as did all the other participants, and walked up the long aisle with his walking-stick in one hand, to the heavy thump of the artificial leg. He made a rattling good speech; I do not recall what it was about, but it was a damn good speech. At the end of the night when the people involved had made their decision, the participants walked up the long aisle and Roberts was there with his walking-stick and the solid thump of his wooden leg. He climbed the three steps to the stage, it was announced that he had won and the walking-stick went over his arm and he almost lightly flitted down the three steps and walked to the end of the hall with a beaming smile to meet the people who had voted for him. He was a man of determination who would use the environment at the time to obtain his goal.

Roberts Dunstan was a remarkable man of high intellect. The world is worse for his passing, and I am delighted to have been able to have called him a friend while he was with us.

The PRESIDENT -Roberts Dunstan was my first friend in politics and he remained my closest friend throughout his life. Like Mr Connard I was present at his preselection for the Legislative Assembly seat of Morning ton and thereafter I served for three years as president of one of his Liberal Party branches and for two years as the electorate committee chairman until I joined him in this Parliament where we concumently served the last 21 years of his career and the first 21 years of mine. We also served together on the Statute Law Revision Committee and in the Mornington Apex Club.

Our association was close indeed and I was very honoured to be called upon by the family to give the address at his private funeral. I think it could be fairly said that I knew him well. He was a man of great charm and pizzazz. He had great ability, concentration and competence, none of which, strangely, has been dealt with here today. The House has heard about his courage and determination. It is noteworthy that his Distinguished Service Order was granted for inspiring courage and unique determination-and it was. The loss of his leg was to him only another obstacle to be overcome.

It may be thought that he had a privileged life attending Geelong Grammar, but what has not been said is that his father died when he was aged sixteen years and what had been a privileged family suddenly found that it was not. Because of a business investment gone wrong the family was financially embarrassed and he had to leave school. He joined the services at seventeen years of age and lost his le$. What he could not stand after the loss of his leg was sympathy, and the trigger for hiS determination to overcome that problem was when one of his old mates sympathised with him and said, "You poor old bastard". That was something he would not have.

When he was brought back to Australia, in the days before his discharge he trained regularly on the Mount Eliza beach on a twice and thrice daily basis to get back his strength and physical ability-the ability he had as an under-age athletic champion at his school in the fields of cricket, football and athletics generally.

His unique determination meant that he strove to be accepted back into the services, and he was. He became one of the most famous air gunners Australia had during the


war. The DSO was awarded for his whole career, which was one of inspirational courage, as the citation said but, in particular, there was an occasion when his fighter had incendiary bombs dropped on it by a plane flying above it when the bombs were thrown out the window. His plane lost most of the tail end in which he was sitting, including his oxygen supply, but he managed nevertheless to shoot down an enemy fighter plane that was about to shoot down his plane. The long citation for his DSO referred to his coolness under fire and his unsurpassed skill as an air gunner.

He was well known throughout the British Commonwealth for his exploits. I remember reading of them as a schoolboy. I read about them when he went back to school between his AIF days and his Air Force days. When he was made a prefect at Geelong Grammar he was the only schoolboy ever given permission to smoke. After the war the Argus newspaper even had a supplement on his life and times.

It had been his ambition to do law, but he did not have the necessary qualifications so he went into journalism. There he honed his skill with words and he did develop very great skill with words.

In 1952 he decided to go overseas and have a year off touring around Europe, one of his ambitions being to find the man who had been responsible for the loss of his leg, not with the idea of retribution but with the idea only of making some contribution to better relations with Italy, because he knew that it was an Italian artillery man who had caused his injury, and so he went to Italy.

He toured Europe and ultimately found the man. The Italian papers ran the story, gave the date and time; a man came forward who said that he and his party had been at Tobruk in a certain place and at a certain time and had fired so many salvos, and there was no doubt that he had found the man. The story was picked up firstly in the local Italian papers and local radio stations, then became a national story and was beamed around the world. It did a great deal for improving relations between Italy and Australia in those days and a great deal towards overcoming the type of bitterness that tends to exist between recent opponents in times of war.

He entered this Parliament and I recall that, five years later when I entered Parliament, my first party meeting was a meeting at which the Cabinet was elected by exhaustive ballot. Exhaustive ballot is a slow business. On this occasion the meeting took from 9.30 in the morning until 10.30 at night. Between ballots early in the day business was conducted, but you run out of business by about noon on occasions like that. What Roberts Dunstan did will always stand in my mind. He sat there doing his thankyou letters by hand to those who had assisted him in his election to Parliament. In the course of that day he wrote some 250 thankyou letters, all different, individually acknowledging his helpers. There is a measure of the man and his competence.

Later that competence could be seen when, as a Minister, he left his desk clear every night. Every day he did that day's work completely, whether it meant he had to stay very late or whether he was able to leave at 6 p.m. He stayed until he was finished and he left that day's work clear every day. The permanent head of his department says he remembers no other Minister who could do that always consistently, although many have sought to do so and at times achieved it.

As a backbench member of Parliament he took on a task nobody had undertaken before. Ministers provided second-reading speeches on Bills. These were sometimes complex, difficult to understand and did not always fully explain the measure. Roberts Dunstan, as a backbench member, prepared for members notes on Bills. Every week every member of the Parliamentary Liberal Party would receive his summary of the Bills. Each Bill was summarised within three to eight paragraphs which got to the nitty-gritty of what the Bill was all about, what the reasons were for it and what it was


designed to achieve. Many honourable members who never even looked at Bills were thereafter able to go back to their branch meetings and speak upon Bills with great expertise.

I am sorry to be going backwards and forwards, but it is in the nature of this type of speech. On his tour of Europe in 1952, one notable period was two months he spent in a French monastery. He was genuinely seeking to sort out his views. He was in the state of doubt as to whether he had a religious belief when he went there; when he came out he knew he had none. But that time, spent largely in meditation, had an effect on a number of his humanist beliefs and he came out with strong convictions which he practised throughout the rest of his life.

His clear view was that the past is the past and nothing can be done about it; it is no good worrying about it except to learn for the future; and it is no good crying over spilt milk-sometimes he would add, "Only spilt whisky". His second view was that, as the past is the past, there is no sense in feeling guilty about it. Many people have a sense of guilt over the things they have done that they ought not to have done-not Roberts; he had no sense of guilt whatever.

The third view he had was that the future was in his hands; what he made of it, good or ill, would be up to him, but no-one else-not luck, not any other person would be responsible for his success or failure other than himself. He was the master of his fate; he was the captain of his soul. The fourth belief he left that monastery with was that, if his future was in his hands, it was up to him to use his time and his talents to the greatest advantage. Generally, he did that-with some lapses, it must be said-but generally he certainly used his time and his talents to very great advantage indeed.

The fifth conclusion he came to was that honesty was the best policy and that, most of all, one needed to be honest with oneself. He certainly was always honest with himself and honest with others too. No-one could ever say that they did not know where Roberts really stood on anything. He pulled no punches, he gave no quarter; he was competitive; .he was a fighter-but you knew where you stood and he told you honestly.

He was honest with himself, too, about his failings. It was as a result of one of those failings that, of course, he placed his Ministry in jeopardy. In the sober light of day, next morning he looked back on what he had said about the then Prime Minister, and he knew he had two choices: to recant or to resign. He reflected on what he had said, and he said to me afterwards, "I know I should not have said it, but I was right, and I was damned if I was going to recant". So he resigned. He had hoped that he would be brought back into the Ministry after the next election, but meanwhile, another incident occurred-which arose in not dissimilar circumstances, in which he had attacked the Speaker roundly-and there was an end to his ambitions to return to the Ministry.

Whatever we say about him, he was a man who had great virtues. He was not a paragon of virtue, and he would not want anyone in this House to suggest he was. He was a strong man, an able man, a colourful man, and a man with some very human failings who was not afraid to admit those failings. He contributed greatly to his electorate; he contributed to this Parliament; he contributed to the humour and the good sense that was often here; he contributed, too, to some of the fights that arose. I am proud to have known him and I am proud still to call him a friend, a very close friend. I was honoured to speak at his funeral.

The motion was agreed to in silence, honourable members showing their unanimous agreement by standing in their places.


ADJOURNMENT The Hon. E. H. WALKER (Minister for the Arts)-I move: That, as a further mark of respect to the memory of the late Honourable Roberts Christian Dunstan, the

House do now adjourn until 5 p.m. this day.


The House adjourned at 3.58 p.m.

The PRESIDENT took the Chair at 5.2 p.m.

HISTORIC BUILDINGS (AMENDMENT) BILL This Bill was received from the Assembly and, on the motion of the Hon. B. T.

PULLEN (Minister for Housing and Construction), was read a first time.

QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

PHYSIOTHERAPY EDUCATION The Hon. HADOON STOREY (East Yarra Province)-I direct to the attention of

the Minister responsible for Post-Secondary Education the fact that physiotherapists have, in many cases, resumed their bans on the provision of clinical education for students of physiotherapy. Given that the University of Melbourne is prepared to take the physiotherapy course as part of its curriculum and that physiotherapists have shown that they are not prepared to work with La Trobe University, will the Minister consider transferring the course to the University of Melbourne?

The Hon. E. H. WALKER (Minister responsible for Post-Secondary Education)-I want to make it very clear to Mr Storey that were I to give a simple yes in answer to his question it would mean that anarchy could prevail within any academic unit in any tertiary institution in the State. Through simple blackmail a person could move from one institution to another because the first institution did not offer clinical training in some area or another.

The union which first brought action, the Victorian Allied Health Professionals Association-V AHPA-has since withdrawn all bans. The only bans remaining are individually applied by members of the physiotherapy profession. That is an outrageous activity on their part.

Mr Storey well understands that an Act of Parliament, passed by this House provided for a transfer of the Lincoln Institute of Health Sciences to La Trobe University. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then. Many questions have been asked about this matter in the House and it has also been the subject of major public debate. The reality is that an agreement was made in April this year and I was party to and signed the agreement as did the other major parties. The agreement was that the course would continue to be offered by La Trobe University and certain agreements would hold. In other words, a procedure was begun.

Later this year I was informed by V AHP A and the Australian Physiotherapy Association (Victorian Branch) that bans would go on again because those organisations did not believe the procedures were being put in train properly. I investipted the matter. One of the reasons some of these agreements are slow in being applIed is the

834 COUNCIL 24 October 1989 Questions without Notice

lack of cooperation by the people concerned. It is one thing to make an agreement, it is another to say that one will willingly try to make the agreement work. That is what should occur.

Discussions between La Trobe University and Melbourne University to sort out the issue are planned in a week or two. The Industrial Relations Commission has had a hearing on the matter. Reasonable people, such as students and staff members of the profession and the universities, are happy with the procedure going ahead as it should. If we are to be subjected to the kind of blackmail that physiotherapists are now applying, frankly, I am not particularly keen to even listen to those individuals. In reality, they should be represented.

The Hon. M. A. Birrell-Shame!

The Hon. E. H. WALKER-I inform the Leader of the Opposition that I am one of the best listeners in the business. All this year I have listened and done my best to ensure that justice and fairness prevail; but I find selfish people hard to deal with.

I have answered Mr Storey's question at some length. The proper procedure must be put back in train. There is no presumption at this stage as to how that procedure will necessarily end down the track. It could be that those people who want to transfer might be satisfied. However, it must be done through the proper agencies and with all players taking part. I shall stick to that view from here on. Mr Storey can take that message back and, if he is in there fanning the flames to keep it going, be it on his head.

HOME PURCHASE INSURANCE PREMIUMS The Hon. P. R. HALL (Gippsland Province)-The Minister for Housing and

Construction will be aware that currently people who have purchased homes from the Ministry have paid for insurance policies on their homes as a component of their monthly loan repayments. As from 1 December this year the Ministry will no longer provide for this type of insurance cover, meaning that many people on low fixed incomes will face Increases of up to 400 per cent on their insurance premiums. How does the Minister justify the removal of this service, which will bring about substantial financial hardships to many Victorians?

The Hon. B. T. PULLEN (Minister for Housing and Construction)-The change follows a review of the operations of the Ministry in that area. Although it has historically been the case that the government has provided insurance to people who have bought homes from what was the Housing Commission of Victoria, the government is not really in the business of providing insurance as a service. Other organisations are in a better position to provide that service.

The review showed that the service was not being provided at cost, nor was it a cover that included public liability. It is true that people do reinsure, and it is up to them whom they choose to reinsure with. We have suggested they approach the State Insurance Office and have said that we would assist in the transitional payment situation in which they may have to pay more than the low premiums that they are now paying. In fact, they will have a better insurance cover.

In terms of equity in providing funds-which many honourable members have raised-and the plight of people attempting to enter the first home ownership market or paying very high sums for private rental, and given that many of these people are making historically low loan repayments of between $50 and $100 a month, there is no equity in continuing also to subsidise their insurance costs, particularly when they can obtain a more complete cover than they currently have.

Questions without Notice 24 October 1989 COUNCIL 835

FIFTH UNIVERSITY The Hon. W. A. LANDERYOU (Doutta Galla Province)-I ask the Minister

responsible for Post-Secondary Education whether he is aware of the media reports today-on the John Jost radio program on 3LO, in which he interviewed the Acting Director of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and in the Herald this evening-substantially rewriting the arguments put by the acting director about the decision of the RMIT council last night to reject the proposal for the fifth university in its present form. Is the Minister in a position to inform the House what the government's current attitude to the proposal is?

The Hon. E. H. WALKER (Minister responsible for Post-Secondary Education)It is a critical issue. There was some publicity about a resolution of the RMIT council carried last night concerning the institute's participation in the proposed fifth university. Honourable members will recall that in May of this year the Footscray Institute of Technology, the Western Institute of TAFE and the RMIT agreed to become the foundation institutes ofa fifth university, and an intent was signed at that time.

At the behest of the three institutions, I established a task force, which I have chaired for eight meetings, and a draft heads of agreement document was prepared. The matter was referred back to the councils of the institutions and I was informed that the councils of both the Western Institute and the Footscray Institute had agreed to endorse that document.

Although RMIT has not formally communicated with me today-that may mean it has not been able to get in touch with me, but I should have preferred that it gave me some warning of what was announced on radio and in newspapers today-I understand that, while not rejecting participation in the fifth university campus, the majority of the council was concerned about the proposed organisational structure and the mission statement as presented in the draft heads of agreement, despite the fact that RMIT took part in the eight task force meetings I chaired.

Whether RMIT's concerns can be met will depend on the response of the other institutions. I requested the directors and president of the council of each of the institutions to meet as soon as possible and advise me on the issues that the RMIT is not happy with. It is important that the three institutions meet. It is not a matter in which I intend to, or could, intervene and direct.

I reiterate that both the State and Federal governments have strong commitments to the establishment of a fifth university, for two reasons: firstly, to sustain the high level of research, graduate and technological work undertaken by the institutes themselves, particularly RMIT; and, secondly, to make it possible to deliver the best quality technical education to the people of the western suburbs, which in the past have not had a fair participation in tertiary education. One of the goals of the new university is to lift that participation to at least the State average by the mid-1990s, so there are two major roles. The first is to ensure that RMIT and the Footscray Institute of Technology are sustained as top quality institutes of technology. The second is to deliver top quality university education into the western suburbs, or to have it maintained-and both State and Federal governments are committed to that.

Although our preferred option is to continue with the establishment of the university as outlined, other options recommended by the Commonwealth-State working party on university education in the western suburbs will be explored. It may be necessary to return to that document to ascertain whether other options are possible.

I have asked the directors and presidents of the institutes to meet and to advise me, and I shall keep the House informed as to what occurs. I thank Mr Landeryou for his question. I know that he, together with other honourable members, partIcularly on


this side of the House, who represent that part of the metropolitan area, has waited a long time to have an institution of this kind established to serve the people of the area.

The Hon. M. A. BIRRELL (East Yarra Province)-I also refer the Minister responsible for Post-Secondary Education to the breakdown in negotiations between the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, the Western Institute ofT APE and the Footscray Institute of Technology over the establishment ofa university in the western suburbs and specifically ask him: will he support RMIT's stand that if there is to be any amalgamation it should be through the Western Institute amalgamating with RMIT on the basis ofRMIT's educational philosophy and mission, with the Footscray institute operating as an affiliate?

The Hon. E. H. WALKER (Minister responsible for Post-Secondary Education)-I thought I had just answered that question. I certainly made it clear that the State and Federal governments remain committed to the terms of the heads of agreement document that has been distributed, and that includes the three institutes coming together on an agreed basis.

I have yet to be formally approached by RMIT advising me of what was debated last night or what it now believes should occur. I have not been told that, and I was not listening to the radio this morning.

In response to the Leader of the Opposition's question, I can say that the government supports the pattern outlined in the draft heads of agreement that each council has looked at; and it will hold to that view until and unless it is convinced that it cannot work. The government will then examine some of the other options proposed by the Federal-State working party, but it will not be leaned on as result of proposals put together by one of the three institutes concerned.

COUNTRY HOSPITAL WAITING LISTS The Hon. W. R. BAXTER (North Eastern Province)-In view of the increasing

waiting lists at country hospitals-and I instance the special case of the Wangaratta District Base Hospital where, as a result of the signing of a recent agreement with Health Department Victoria the elective surgery list has been slashed-can the Minister for Health explain why the department is so strongly resisting the establishment of private hospitals in those localities?

The Hon. C. J. HOGG (Minister for Health)-I thank Mr Baxter for his question, and I am delighted to learn that the waiting list at the Wangaratta District Base Hospital has been slashed.

The Hon. W. R. Baxter-I meant that they are doing less surgery!

The Hon. C. J. HOGG-I was hopeful that the financial settlement worked out with the Wangaratta District Base Hospital would not lead to an expansion of its waiting list, so I am pleased if there has been a reduction.

It is incorrect to suggest that Health Department Victoria is strenuously resisting the establishment of private hospitals in country Victoria. Indeed, on the day I have planned to visit the Chiltern and District Bush Nursing Hospital I shall be meeting with a group associated with a move to establish a private hospital in Wangaratta. It is true that guidelines for the establishment of private hospitals are being looked at and are being refined. There is no clear-cut answer to Mr Baxter's question, except to say that on the day I plan to be in his region I expect to have a proposition to put forward.


BROWN COAL PROJECT The Hon. G. R. eRA WFORD (Jika Jika Province)-Will the Minister for Industry,

Technology and Resources advise the House whether there have been any further developments with brown coal liquefaction in the operation involving conversion from coal to oil in the pilot plant project at Morwell?

The Hon. D. R. WHITE (Minister for Industry, Technology and Resources)During the early 1980s, when there had been a significant worldWIde dislocation in oil prices, the Japanese government decided to establish the brown coal liquefaction plant In the Latrobe Valley. As a result of that more than $700 million has been spent on the project so far, some 60 per cent of which has been spent in the Latrobe Valley. More than 290 people have been employed at an annual budget of$70 million. There has not been 1 cent of revenue to the Japanese government as a result of that research and development work to study the merits of converting brown coal to oil.

During 1989 it is important, given the risks that have been involved, to recognise that some major successes have been achieved in breakthroughs in technology-most importantly, the realisation ofa key target for continuous operation of the plant in the process of converting brown coal to oil. The target for continuous operation set by the 1 apanese government and the local management was 1000 hours. The project actually achieved 1700 hours-an outstanding result and a major advance in the technology for brown coal liquefaction. All parties involved in the project deserve to be congratulated.

The Japanese have indicated that by agreement of all parties the operation of the pilot plan has now been extended to September 1990. After this the Japanese will make an assessment of the pilot plant's operations and undertake design studies, costings and feasibility studies for a possible commercial demonstration plant.

It is proposed that the Coal Corporation of Victoria will have an ongoing involvement in these studies. This will maintain our involvement in the project and minimise the time required to start any commercial demonstration plant that might follow the studies. A critical factor in any future decision on construction of a larger scale plant on a different site would be the price of oil. Quite clearly there has been a significant reduction in real terms in the worldwide price of oil since the plant was established in 1981. The coal corporation is undertaking discussions with the Japanese parties to ensure that the most productive and cost-effective use is made of the pilot plant site when operations cease there next September.

Honourable members need to be aware that the Japanese are foreshadowing a cessation of those operations at approximately this time next year, given the possible economics of the conversion of brown coal to oil relative to the current world price of oil. However it is important for the House and the government to place on record the success of the project to date in the breakthrough in technology, albeit, against the fact that as it was known in 1981 the break-even price for conversion is somewhere over $42 compared to the current world price of oil, around $US15 to $US20 a barrel.

CAR PARKING FACILITIES AT ROYAL MELBOURNE HOSPITAL The Hon. M. T. TEHAN (Central Highlands Province)-My question is addressed

to the Minister for Health. There has been no pro~ess of late in the Royal Melbourne Hospital's desperately needed car parking facilities, which have been the subject of negotiation for an overly long time. The Minister has acknowledged this need, but will she indicate to the House a precise time frame when the matter may be resolved, decisions taken and the first sod turned to build the much-needed underground car park?


The Hon. C. J. HOGG (Minister for Health)-I thank Mrs Tehan for her question and indeed thank honourable members opposite for their warm reaction to it. As I understand it, the University High School Council held a meeting to consider its attitude on that question. I have had no formal notification of its attitude. I believe there has been significant support from both the staff association and the Victorian Secondary Teachers Association branch at University High School to negotiate with the hospital but I am not certain whether that has been persuasive with the school council. When a clear reply is received, by either the Minister for Education or me, I shall continue to have discussions with the hospital about that matter.

MINERAL SANDS PROJECT The Hon. R. M. HALLAM (Western Province)-I refer the Minister for Industry,

Technology and Resources to the mining lease of CRA Ltd near Horsham and the exciting prospect that this mineral sands operation will become a large-scale commercial venture. Is the Minister aware of recent public claims by the Conservation Council of Victoria that this operation contravenes Victorian nuclear prohibition law? Is he able to assure the House that this venture is not at risk from such a challenge? If necessary, will he bring enabling legislation before Parliament?

The Hon. D. R. WHITE (Minister for Industry, Technology and Resources)-The question has two parts. The first is whether there is a risk involved. My department has not heard recently from the Conservation Council of Victoria in respect of any new evidence. The evidence to date in respect of the material that might be available as a resource is in terms of the potentially major economic significance of this project to Victoria-one that is well worth strong support from the government dunng the planning process.

The communities around Horsham and in adjacent areas have been supportive and CRA Ltd has been well received. In looking at the issue, albeit on a fairly cursory basis, the evidence is that the mining which is proposed to take place does not contravene the Nuclear Activities (Prohibitions) Act. The second part of the question is hypothetical. If any further information becomes available either directly from the honourable member or from the Conservation Council of Victoria, we will be happy to look at its merits with respect to the Nuclear Activities (Prohibitions) Act.

The government does not believe the project is likely to contravene that Act or that the issue will in any form significantly inhibit the economic returns of the project. The government is happy to continue to monitor the views being put forward from time to time.

The Hon. R. S. IVES (Eumemmerring Province)-Following the welcome visit of the Minister for Health to the province of Eumemmerring to open the Leonard centre and the psycho-social rehabilitation project of the Eastern Region Mental Health Association, she should now have first-hand knowledge of the many people in the Dandenong-Springvale-Berwick-Cranbourne districts who are expenencing ongoing psychiatric difficulties. Will the Minister advise the House what is being done to meet the needs of people in the outer south-eastern suburbs?

The Hon. C. J. HOGG (Minister for Health)-I thank Mr Ives for the interest he continues to take in the psychiatric services available in his electorate. It obviously has a large population and the government has been trying for some time to build up progressively a mixture of community-based psychiatric and hospital services. The important thing is to get a good mixture and a balance.

In the 1988-89 Budget, $365 000 was put aside to assist the Dandenong psychiatric centre to expand its community programs and services. Last Wednesday I was delighted


to be able to open the rehabilitation unit which has, as Mr Ives pointed out, a psychosocial focus based at the Leonard centre.

The Leonard centre is named after David Leonard, who gave outstanding service at the Dandenong Psychiatric Centre, and the link support between the Dandenong Psychiatric Centre, the Leonard centre and this program is very important. As important as the program itself are the kinds of links between the various services and the large Dandenong Psychiatric Centre.

I am delighted to state that the funding for this program in a full year is $205 000. It is managed by the Eastern Region Mental Health Association and is community based. Along with everybody else last Wednesday I was there to wish it the best of luck. It should be a very successful unit.

ST AN DREW'S HOSPITAL The Hon. B. A. CHAMBERLAIN (Western Province)-I ask the Minister for

Health what steps she has taken to preserve St Andrew's Hospital as an important health facility for Melbourne or whether she still regards the proposed sale of the hospital as merely a Treasury matter.

The Hon. C. J. HOGG (Minister for Health)-The question ofSt Andrew's Hospital and the Treasurer's guarantee is primarily a Treasurer's matter. A number of meetings have taken place that involved the receiver, the Treasurer, and Department of Management and Budget officials, members of the board and the regional director of health. I have been present at those meetings. We are now obviously awaiting the expressions of interest. Assurances have been given by the receiver as to bookings that have been made. It may be that the St Andrews Hospital and site can be sold as a going concern but, obviously, although a number of health issues that involve private hospital beds are tied up in the question that Mr Chamberlain raises, there is also the question of an enormous amount of money having been lost in the hospital's operations.

AGED NURSING HOSPITAL FOR SOUTH BARWON The Hon. R. A. MACKENZIE (Geelong Province)-I address a question to the

Minister for Health. Following an announcement in September last year that $2 million would be spent to establish an aged nursing hOSPItal in South Barwon on land owned by the City of South Barwon, and following talks with the council yesterday regarding the hospital, can the Minister inform the House whether that project is proceeding and, if so, when the council can expect some response to its request?

The Hon. C. J. HOGG (Minister for Health)-I cannot give a precise date as to when it will proceed, but I give an assurance that it will proceed. As I understand it, negotiations were taking place locally, some to do with the Grace McKellar Centre. I have not heard the outcome of that. I will follow up that issue because several of the honourable members for the Geelong area expressed interest in it.

NEW COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY IN ESSENTIAL GOVERNMENT SERVICES

The Hon. D. E. HENSHA W (Geelong Province )-Can the Minister for Housing and Construction advise on the pioneering role being played by the Communications Engineering Branch of the Ministry in the introduction of new communication


technologies into essential government services, in particular in providing assistance to support courts and police communications?

The Hon. B. T. PULLEN (Minister for Housing and Construction)-Often people think that construction services are only of a conventional kind but the department provides a number of quite innovative services in the area of new technology. For instance, the Ministry is developing a trial video conferencing installation at the Melbourne Magistrates Court. Connected to a courtroom at Pentridge, this will allow minor and recurring cases to be handled without moving prisoners, incurring delays or demanding extra staff to bring prisoners to the court. This is an innovation, and trials are proving successful.

The Ministry also is assisting the Ministry of Transport in the development of a new computensed red light speed camera system to help combat the rising road toll. The Ministry is engaged in a major change in radio communication for the Victoria Police and it is installing a new digitally encrypted signal frequency simulcast radio system, which is very cost effective because it allows existing radios to be used.

Some honourable members seem to think this is unimportant but I remind them that the former Leader of the State Liberal Party and the current Leader of the Federal Opposition found it quite inconvenient not to have security on a particular car telephone conversation.

This particular feature ensures that communications between police are secure at all times. The method being used is a world first in technology. By developing this technology the Ministry will be very well positioned to take up other challenges in relation to communication services to other government departments.

RADIOTHERAPY AT EPWORTH HOSPITAL The Hon. B. A. E. SKEGGS (Templestowe Province)-Will the Minister for Health

advise the House whether the establishment of a radiotherapy unit at the Epworth Hospital in Richmond is in conflict with the Richmond City Council's nuclear-free zone policy?

The Hon. C. J. HOGG (Minister for Health)-I should like to answer Mr Skeggs precisely and furnish him with a detailed written reply. I am convinced it would not be in conflict with the Richmond council's policy which, no doubt, would make exceptions for medical technology. I shall provide Mr Skeggs with a precise answer.

STATE-LOCAL GOVERNMENT CONSULTATIVE COUNCIL MEETING

The Hon. B. E. DAVIDSON (Chelsea Province)-Will the Minister for Local Government inform the House of any outcome of the State-Local Government Consultative Council meeting which was held last week?

The Hon. M. A. LYSTER (Minister for Local Government)-I thank Mr Davidson for his interest in the outcome of this council meeting, which local government across the State is appreciating as a key focus of the increasingly productive relationship between this government and local government.

The best way to describe the outcome of the council meeting is to use the words of a representative of the Municipal Association of Victoria who described the adoption of the three-year work plan for the consultative council as "a firm basis for a good partnership" .

Personal Explanation 24 October 1989 COUNCIL 841

Some of the specific outcomes of the consultative council meeting were the commissioning of further work on some issues that are important in the long term to local government. These include, firstly, a review of occupational health and safety measures which, as local government is well aware, having told me on many occasions, has led to a significant increase in the WorkCare levy on local government. There was an agreement that the best way to address this increase in the WorkCare levy, which is based on the claims record of local government, was to examine together the way in which local government could improve its occupational health and safety practices. This move was welcomed by all parties around the table.

Other work commissioned included a review of the future viability of local government finances. This is a matter of concern to a number of municipalities. The government is not looking for short-term or bandaid responses to this situation. We, as a State government, are interested in working with local government to address a real problem.

The third outcome, equally welcomed by the MA V and the Metropolitan Municipal Association, was a further review of the options for the reform of the pensioner rate rebate scheme.

The consultative council forum provides a way for representatives of State and local government to meet constructively and productively to address problems of major concern to both areas of government. There is a spirit of cooperation and a willingness around the table to address problems in the long term. On the part of the government, it is a genuine recognition of the significant and key role that local government plays in the governing of this State.

PERSONAL EXPLANATION The Hon. B. T. PULLEN (Minister for Housing and Construction)-I wish to

make a personal explanation regarding information I provided on behalf of the Minister for Conservation, Forests and Lands in response to a question on notice, question No. 86, from Mr Evans.

In that answer, for the year 1988-89 the figure that appeared was $196494. I have just received a correction from the Minister to the effect that, since the response to the question was compiled, it has been found that a small number of accounts were not related to firefighting services. Consequently, the costs of fire fighting services for 1988-89 totalled $181 875. I should like the Ha nsa rd record to be corrected.

PETITION Capital punishment

The Hon. R. S. de FEGELY (Ballarat Province) presented a petition from certain citizens of Victoria praying that capital punishment be reintroduced as a penalty in cases of premeditated murder. He stated that the petition was respectfully worded, in order, and bore 863 signatures.

It was ordered that the petition be laid on the table.

CLASSIFICA TION OF FILMS AND PUBLICATIONS BILL The Hon. E. H. WALKER (Minister for the Arts), by leave, moved for leave to

bring in a Bill to provide for classification of films and publications, to repeal certain Acts and for other purposes.

842 COUNCIL 24 October 1989 Control of Weapons Bill


The Bill was brought in and read a first time.

CONTROL OF WEAPONS BILL For the Hon. D. R. WHITE (Minister for Industry, Technology and Resources),

the Hon. E. H. Walker (Minister for the Arts), by leave, moved for leave to bring in a Bill to regulate weapons other than firearms, to repeal the Prescribed Weapons Act 1989, to amend the Crimes Act 1958, the Firearms Act 1"958, the Summary Offences Act 1966 and the Vagrancy Act 1966 and for other purposes.


The Bill was brought in and read a first time.

For the Hon. D. R. WHITE (Minister for Industry, Technology and Resources), the Hon. E. H. Walker (Minister for the Arts)-I move:

That the Bill be printed and, by leave, the second reading be made an Order of the Day for later this day_

The Hon. M. A. BIRRELL (East Yarra Province)-Mr President, there has been a convention-which has been honoured more in the breach in most recent days-that the Opposition is advised in some detail of Bills that the government intends to introduce by leave. That is to ensure that the proper processes of this House can continue. That leave is obviously granted when it facilitates the administration of the Parliament.

It is not granted lightly, in the sense that there should be at least the courtesy afforded of informing the shadow Ministers involved and myself-and the National Party, which can speak for itself-of the detail of the Bills so that we can understand them and some of their implications.

I indicate to the Leader of the Government that we will be extremely reluctant to facilitate the proper administration of Parliament if the government is not forthcoming in providing details before Bills are introduced by leave.


MENTAL HEALTH (GENERAL AMENDMENT) BILL The Hon. C. J. HOGG (Minister for Health), by leave, moved for leave to bring in

a Bill to make miscellaneous amendments to the Mental Health Act 1986.


The Hon. C. J. HOGG (Minister for Health)-I move: That the Bill be printed and, by leave, the second reading be made an Order of the Day for later this

day_

The Hon. W. R. BAXTER (North Eastern Province)-Leave is refused. I have not heard of it.

It was ordered that the Bill be printed and that the second reading be made an Order of the Day for the next day of meeting.

Legal and Constitutional Committee 24 October 1989 COUNCIL 843

LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL COMMITTEE Subordinate legislation

The Hon. D. M. EVANS (North Eastern Province) presented the sixteenth report of the Legal and Constitutional Committee on subordinate legislation-scrutiny of subordinate legislation principles and practices-together with appendices, and the seventeenth report on subordinate legislation (Statutory Rule No. 77 of 1989) together with an appendix.

The Hon. D. M. EV ANS (North Eastern Province)-I move: That they be laid on the table and be printed.

The House will be aware that the Legal and Constitutional Committee through its Subordinate Legislation Subcommittee has the important responsibility of scrutinising all regulations introduced by the government of Victoria from time to time.

The sixteenth report provides an overview of the committee's recent activities in its role as the Parliamentary watchdog over subordinate legislation. It is designed to provide a general source of reference upon the committee's work in this important area.

Honourable members will be aware that Victoria was the first Australian jurisdiction to implement reforms designed to reduce the volume of outdated and inaccessible regulations in force in the State and to facilitate ongoing review of regulations. Indeed, as a result of that pioneering legislation the Victorian Legal and Constitutional Committee a little later this year will be represented at a conference in London on subordinate legislation together with members of the Senate and officers of the Senate.

The Subordinate Legislation (Review and Revocation) Act 1984 was pioneering legislation that greatly enhanced Parliament's ability to exercise real control over regulations. That Act has now been operative for more than four years and, in that time, some teething problems have emerged. The House may recall comments I made on 13 September on the withdrawal of a motion with regard to Public Service re~ulations. The committee believes the time is now ripe for a review of the Act. In thlS report it has recommended that it be given a reference to conduct a comprehensive review.

The report also contains five other recommendations which the committee considers will assist the scrutiny process and will make subordinate legislation more accessible to the legal profession and the public. The committee believes the report will also assist in clarifying and making more widely understood the need for and importance of Parliamentary scrutiny of subordinate legislation. In that sense it will assist the committee's work in carrying out that important and onerous function. I commend the report to Parliament.

The seventeenth report refers to Notice of Motion No. 1 on the Notice Paper, Business to Take Precedence, standing in my name with regard to the Environment Protection (Scheduled Premises and Exemptions) (Amendment) Regulations 1989 (Statutory Rule No. 77 of 1989) and it indicates reasons why that particular regulation should be disallowed. It also states that if the regulation were to pass, the appeal procedures that would normally be available under the existing processes could be removed by regulation. In that sense, I commend a study of that report to honourable members who have an interest in this area.


844 COUNCIL 24 October 1989 Papers

PAPERS The following papers, pursuant to the directions of several Acts of Parliament, were

laid on the table by the Clerk: Broiler Industry Negotiating Committee-Report for the year 1988-89.

Dairy Industry Authority-Report and financial statements for the year 1988-89.

Legal Profession Practice Act 1958-Lay Observer's Report for the year 1988.

Museums Advisory Board-Report for the year 1988-89.

National Tennis Centre Trust-Report and financial statements for the year 1988-89.

Patriotic Funds Council-Report and accounts for the year 1988.

Planning and Environment Act 1987-Notices of Approval of the following amendments to planning schemes:

Eltham Planning Scheme-Amendment L2 Part 2.

Healesville Planning Scheme-Amendment L17.

Keilor Planning Scheme-Amendment L5.

Melbourne Planning Scheme-Amendment L24.

Metropolitan Region Planning Schemes-Amendments RL48 Part 4, RL56 Part 6 and RL129.

Port Melbourne Planning Scheme-Amendment RL 128.

Preston Planning Scheme-Amendment L8.

Swan Hill (City) Planning Scheme-Amendment L3.

Statutory Rules under the following Acts of Parliament:

Accident Compensation Act 1985-No. 237.

Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works Act 1958-No. 243.

Mines Act 1958-No. 247.

Racing Act 1958-Nos 240 and 244.

Road Safety Act 1986-No. 245.

Stamps Act 1958-No. 239.

Supreme Court Act 1986-Nos 241 and 242.

Victorian Relief Committee-Minister's report of 20 October 1989 of failure of Committee to submit an annual report to him by 30 September and the reasons therefor.

Zoological Board-Report and statement of accounts for the year 1988-89.

On the motion of the Hon. HADDON STOREY (East Yarra Province), it was ordered that the reports tabled by the Clerk be taken into consideration on the next day of meeting.

ROOMING HOUSES BILL The Hon. B. T. PULLEN (Minister for Housing and Construction)-I move: That this Bill be now read a second time.

Rooming houses accommodate large numbers of single people on a long-term basis due to a lack of affordable alternatives. They are also a cheaper way to house a number of households under the one roof. Nevertheless in the context of the commitment of this government to the reform of residential tenancy legislation, boarders and lodgers have until now remained the one segment of the tenancy market untouched by legislative action. The proposed legislation is intended to remedy this situation.

Rooming Houses Bill 24 October 1989 COUNCIL 845

The rights and duties of landlords and boarders and lodgers have been the subject of discussion for years. As early as 1983-84 much work had been done by the Residential Tenancies Bill steering committee convened by the Minister for Housing and Construction and the Minister for Consumer Affairs, which produced a set of instructions to Parliamentary Counsel on this issue.

However, the inclusion of rights of boarders and lodgers into the 1985 rewrite of the existing Residential Tenancies Act was not proceeded with. The extensive controversy within the community over the 1985 Act rewrite as a whole not only caused deferment of the extension of legislative coverage to caravans and boarding situations but also saw this reforming legislation defeated in the Legislative Council in April 1986. In 1987, in the context of a decision to introduce further amendments to the Act, it was decided that implementation would be facilitated by separate pieces of legislation, with priority for caravan park dwellers, followed then by boarders and lodgers.

The Caravan Parks and Movable Dwellings Act was passed by Parliament during the 1988 autumn sessional period. Simultaneously the Ministerial Rooming House Program Advisory Group-PAG-which has representation from the Boarders and Lodgers Union and the Shelter rooming house management groups, reopened discussions about legislation to cover boarders and lodgers. The Bill introduced into the Legislative Assembly in May 1989 was a product of that consultation.

As foreshadowed in May, further extensive consultation with all interested parties, including tenant groups, owners and members of the Opposition, has taken place since that time. A large number of amendments were put forward and have been accepted by the government. In this context a decision was taken for the Bill to be reintroduced in a consolidated format including those amendments.

The reasons people live in rooming houses vary. They often include one or more of the following:

they are relatively inexpensive to move into;

affordable rents include cleaning and energy costs;

they may not be able or wish to be encumbered by the various tasks involved in living in self-contained flats;

a desire or need for only one room for exclusive occupancy; or

the option of independent living combined with the opportunity for company in the common areas such as kitchens, dining rooms and lounges.

The problems encountered by boarders and lodgers include substandard conditions due to inaction on essential repairs, lack of reasonable privacy due to the actions of landlords and tenants, lack of proper notice of rent increases, and eviction without notice by landlords-with or without police assistance. In a general sense, boarders and lodgers lack the legal protection of the obligations of landlords to tenants covered by the Residential Tenancies Act, and there is ample evidence of harassment where they have claimed equivalent rights. In addressing these issues the Bill specifies that the possibility of eviction without notice is limited solely to situations where serious personal danger has occurred or is anticipated if a particular tenant is allowed to remain in a rooming house in proximity to other tenants and tenant facilities. The Bill also provides for an appeal mechanism for residents subjected to immediate action by the rooming house owner.

The exact number of rooming houses currently operating in Victoria is difficult to determine. However, a decline is clearly evident. In 1947 there were almost 5000 rooming houses in the then metropolitan statistical district, of which 70 per cent were

846 COUNCIL 24 October 1989 Rooming Houses Bill

located in the inner ring. In 1983 the total number of rooming houses in Victoria was 917, comprising 730 apartment houses and 187 boarding houses-the latter differ from apartment houses in that meals are provided. However, in St Kilda alone, the municipality with the greatest number of rooming houses during the 1980s, the period from 1984 to 1988 has seen a drop in rooming house numbers from 144 to 100, serving a population of 21 00 persons. Projecting that rate of decline across Victoria as a whole, it is estimated that there are now fewer than 600 rooming houses remaining in Victoria. Allowing for non-registered premises, up to 15 000 people may be housed in rooming house facilities.

This decline has occurred as a result of various factors, including poor returns, investment pressures, strata subdivision, inability to meet fire safety or health regulations, retirement of ageing owner-managers, and conversions to offices, holiday flats or homes. Conversion of homes for existing owners or new purchasers is clearly the greatest single cause of closure of smaller rooming houses, resulting in over 60 per cent of closures, while fire damage and neglect are often associated with the closure of larger rooming houses. In order to reduce the rate of decline in rooming house numbers, the Ministry of Housing and Construction provides low-interest loans to owners for upgrading purposes. Five loans totallin~ $391 596 had been approved to 30 June 1989, and a further allocation of $400 000 is lncluded in the Budget for 1989-90.

Lack of clarification of the legal status of tenants in regard to residential tenancies legislation has been detrimental to the rooming house industry and has proved to be a negative influence on investment decisions. Owners fear undefined increasing levels of regulation. Accordingly, this Bill will:

recognise the particular characteristics of roomin~ house lifestyles and match the provisions of the Bill to those special characteristics;

define the rights and duties of the owners of rooming houses and persons living therein; and

provide for the fair and quick resolution of disputes between owners and residents of rooming houses.

The latter will be achieved by providing those residents with legislative protection comparable to that available to renters of self-contained units under the Residential Tenancies Act, in the context of recognition of the special nature of rooming houses. Thus the Act will, inter alia:

establish residency rights and formalise the mode for their termination;

introduce procedures for the charging of rents and taking of bonds which parallel the procedures in the Residential Tenancies Act;

introduce procedures for the carrying out of urgent repairs;

provide for the resolution of disputes by the Residential Tenancies Tribunal; and

specify the duties of residents and owners.

In as much as the Act relates only to residents occupying rooms as their only or main residence, it will not impact upon the tourist industry. Similarly, the limitation of application of the Act to situations involving at least four residents excludes the situation where, for example, a family makes a private agreement to rent a spare room to a student from the country seeking lodgings in the metropolitan area. Also excluded are educational hostels and premises used as accommodation for medical and nursing staff of hospitals. All in all this Act will simply formalise the provision of tenancy protection to the only segment of the tenancy market as yet untouched by legislation. It is an important initiative which is essential in the interests of social justice and

Historic Buildings (Amendment) Bill 24 October 1989 COUNCIL 847

which implements an aspect of tenancy reform first outlined in 1982 and repeated prior to the 1988 State election.

I commend the Bill to the House.

On the motion of the Hon. K. M. SMITH (South Eastern Province), the debate was adjourned.

It was ordered that the debate be adjourned until Tuesday, October 31.

HISTORIC BUILDINGS (AMENDMENT) BILL The Hon. B. T. PULLEN (Minister for Housing and Construction)-I move: That this Bill be now read a second time.

Under the Historic Buildings Act 1985 buildings of historic importance in Victoria are protected by inclusion, according to ownership, on one of two registers. Privately owned buildings are protected by the Historic Buildings Register; however, under the Act government buildings may not be placed on that register but must be listed separately on the Government Buildings Register.

The government has for some time been concerned at this anomaly which means that two sets of procedures apply to buildings, both for registration and for works approvals. Victoria is the only State to distinguish in this way between governmentowned and privately owned buildings. This situation is the result of historical accident rather than deliberate intention.

The government register dates from 1972 when the need was first seen to protect a number of large public buildings of great historic significance. The Historic Buildin~s Register was established two years later to extend similar protection to buildings In private ownership.

In 1983 the two sets of legislation were integrated into a single Act giving responsibilities in relation to both classes of buildings to the Historic Buildings Council. That Act, however, perpetuated the dual register system, with its two different sets of procedures.

This situation is unsatisfactory and inappropriate. The government considers that a single, efficient mechanism for protection should apply to all buildings of historic importance, no matter who the owner may be.

Honourable members may be aware that, in February this year, a major review of the Historic Buildings Act was announced to examine a range of difficulties which have become apparent in its operations. These have occurred largely as a result of the increased volume of matters being referred to the Historic Buildings Council, and the growing importance of heritage matters to the community as a whole.

The opportunity was taken to include a review of the issue of dual registers in the terms of reference of that review. During an extensive program of preliminary consultation, the review has found support in all sections of the community for proposed government action to rectify the anomaly.

The purpose of the Bill is to initiate steps to achieve a sin~e register. Specifically, it provides for the closure of the Government Buildings RegIster, to which no further additions will be made; removes the provision which prevents government buildings from being added to the Historic Buildings Register; provides a simple discretionary mechanism to enable items on the current Government Buildings Register to be transferred to the Historic Buildings Register; and ensures that for buildings not

848 COUNCIL 24 October 1989 Appropriation and Works and Services Bills

currently listed on the Government Buildings Register, a single set of registration and approval procedures will apply in future to all historic buildings whatever their ownership, namely the procedures of the Historic Buildings Register.

The Bill also strengthens protection for buildings on the present government register by providing that unless they are to be transferred to the Historic Buildings Register they cannot be removed from the Government Buildings Register without a prior report from the Historic Buildings Council.

Honourable members will be aware that a discussion paper has been circulated inviting public comment on the general review of the Historic Buildings Act. The Bill is intended as a first step to addressing the issues raised in that paper and is fully consistent with the proposals outlined there. It does not in any way pre-empt the results of that broader process, but, in view of community consensus on the need for action, represents a sensible first step pending the outcome of further consultation on other detailed proposals.

The amendments to the Act contained in this Bill have been carefully framed to achieve even-handed treatment of historic government and private buildings, to strengthen the role of the Historic Buildings Council in decisions on the future status of buildings on the present government register, and to ensure that any historic buildings to be sold by the government can be given the full protections available under the Historic Buildings Act.

While the government was able to protect the railways building in Spencer Street through its conditions of sale, the Bill will provide even stronger protection in relation to future sales of government buildings by guaranteeing that they can be placed on the Historic Buildings Register prior to the sale.

I commend the Bill to the House.

On the motion of the Hon. M. T. Tehan, for the Hon. M. A. BIRRELL (East Yarra Province), the debate was adjourned.

It was ordered that the debate be adjourned until the next day of meeting.

APPROPRIATION (1989-90, No. 1) BILL, WORKS AND SERVICES (ANCILLARY PROVISIONS, 1989-90, No. 2) BILL AND BUDGET

PAPERS 1989-90 The debates (adjourned from 11 October) were resumed on the motions of the Hon.

D. R. White (Minister Assisting the Treasurer) for the second reading of these Bills and:

That the Council take note ofthe Budget Papers 1989-90.

The Hon. G. R. CRAIGE (Central Highlands Province)-The Budget introduced by the government is nothing more than a fraud. The government is like a spruiker at a sideshow. The government certainly has plenty of spruikers, the leader being the Treasurer. The idea of having a spruiker in a country show or a sideshow is to make a lot of noise to attract a crowd. Some of us can remember the days of the Jimmy Sharman boxing troupe and the sideshows where, with a great deal of noise and drums, spruikers attracted crowds outside the tent. Of course, this government has made the same sorts of noises.

The government offers something and hopes that people will be attracted enough to go inside. It is a con. The government has conned the people of Victoria. When people have paid their money and go inside the tent, they find the show is not at all what was

Appropriation and Works and Services Bills 24 October 1989 COUNCIL 849

represented. They have clearly been deceived, and it is the government which is doing this to the people of Victoria. It presents one thing but, in reality, it turns out to be a fraud.

The Budget clearly demonstrates that the government has run out of ideas. It is a tired government that is willing to give in to pressure from union bosses, business mates and bureaucrats. The government has lost the will, if it ever had one, to bite the bullet. It has no intestinal fortitude to resist pressure from outside groups. It is a government without a vision and it is going nowhere. It is lethargic and incompetent. This $32-billion-loss government has run out of ideas. It could not muster up enough energy to blow the door off a country dunny!

The Treasurer is the leader of the pack. Clearly he will be known as the "economic quack". The remedy that this modern money manager, the Treasurer, offers for this State's debts and financial mismanagement is to say, "Don't blame me; blame everybody else".

The State is clearly terminally ill. The government has called in the undertaker, and since the Minister for Industry, Technology and Resources has been in that role, two more terminal illnesses have been thrust upon the State. The first is the loss of $198 million by State Bank Victoria, and the other is the National Tennis Centre fiasco, with special deals on interest rates and a loss of $16 million. I know where the undertaker is taking Victoria: he is taking it under. It is clear that the Treasurer is in on the racket involving the National Tennis Centre. I know one thing: he cannot play tennis with flat balls.

The Treasurer, the Red Baron, who is always shooting down everyone else for the disasters, accepts no blame, yet the buck stops with him. However, I sincerely wish that he would keep a few more bucks in his pocket instead of dishing them out to people with his harebrained ideas.

The Treasurer changed the rules so that State Bank Victoria could go into partnership with Tricontinental Corporation Ltd. What a mismatch that turned out to be! For the first time in its history, the bank lost $198 million. I inform the Treasurer that the match is over; it is time for him to cop it sweet and hang up his boots.

I shall dwell on the State Bank for a moment, not in terms of financial mismanagement, but in another sense, which I believe is just as concerning. Over its 146-year history, State Bank Victoria has had a proud tradition, of which its management and staff have been a part. The bank has been special to many of its longterm employees; they are now disillusioned.

The State Bank's customers see other banks making large profits, but not their own bank. The performance of the State Bank has helped to destroy the morale of its dedicated employees. The finance industry knew that Tricontinental Corporation Ltd was full of bandits, but the Treasurer still saddled the State Bank with that mob of hicks. The government is full of financial management misfits. Victorians have had seven years of mismanagement.

Victoria is the highest taxed State in Australia. State taxation has almost trebled since the Labor government has been in office. In 1981-82 the gain to State revenue was $2056 million. In 1988-89 it has increased to $5634 million. Victorians now pay more in State taxes per head of population than people in any other State. Queenslanders pay $632 a head; South Australians pay $847 a head; Tasmanians pay $890 a head; and Victorians pay $1196 a head.

Victoria has the highest rate of payroll tax, land tax, motor registration fees and stamp duty. The government has the high rollers; Victoria beats the other States in

Session 1989-29


other areas as well as tax, borrowing and spending. Victoria now has the highest debt in its ISO-year history. In 1981-82 its debt was $11 428 million. In 1988-89 it had risen to $25 133 million. The government has no more credibility. It blames its failures on anyone it can. The rooster will fall off its perch at the next State election. The rot has well and truly set in and the Cain socialist government will carry that rot with it to the next election-Victorians will not forget losses of $32 billion which, I have no doubt, will increase further. What will happen as the WorkCare system crumbles and revenue from stamp duty falls? Victoria will go down the gurgler even further.

The government's accounting procedures are questionable. I direct the House to the Treasurer's Statement for the year ended 30 June 1989 and the report of the AuditorGeneral, where at page 21, Item 3.24 the Auditor-General states:

An analysis of actual funding sources used to meet interest disclosed that approximately $123 million of interest charges was funded from the works and services sector, which is financed from borrowings, sales of assets and works grants.

This practice is contrary to the principles of sound financial management because capital funding should be used for capital works, the purchase of assets and the provision of government infrastructure, all of which create long-term economic social benefits to the State. The Auditor-General said that the government's practices stink, and the Opposition agrees with that view.

Of course, one way of balancing the books is to sell off the assets. On page 22 of his report the Auditor-General makes it clear that the Treasurer has continued with his stated policy of selling surplus assets to generate funds to finance investment in new capital areas. Public assets are being sold off to pay for the government's new ideas. The sale of assets during 1988-89 realised $205 million. The Treasurer intends to continue with the sale of State assets to pay the government's debts. There is no way in the world the government will be able to buy new assets because it will have to pay those debts.

There are other ways in which the government intends to write off debts. At page 23 the report of the Auditor-General for the year ended 30 June 1989, under the heading "Forgiveness of Melboume and Metropolitan Board of Works debt", states:

3.31 As part of a package designed to improve the financial performance of the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works, the Treasurer, during 1987-88 approved of the forgiveness of debt of$60 million owed by the board to the State. During 1988-89 the Treasurer approved the forgiveness of a further $50 million of the board's debt.

The high rollers of the government have spent well in excess of what is reasonable; their spending has made the piggy bank bankrupt. As at 30 June 1988 the Victorian Economic Development Corporation had lost $111 million, and the Victorian Investment Corporation had lost $27 million. State Bank Victoria recently announced a loss of$198 million; WorkCare has unfunded liabilities of more than $4000 million; in seven months the Rural Finance Corporation has suffered an operating loss of$27·2 million as a result of its taking over the operations of the VEDC; and the National Tennis Centre lost $16 million in the last financial year. The list goes on.

Rather than creating wealth in Victoria the government is drying it up. What a disaster! Recently Victoria lost the right to stage the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix. The Premier blamed everyone but himself for the loss-a trait he shares with the Treasurer. It was not the fault of the tobacco companies; the Premier should hang his head in shame because the loss of the Grand Prix was no one else's fault but his.


Page 23 of the report of the Auditor-General refers, at items 3.32 and 3.33, to the disclosure of liabilities for employee benefits in the following terms:

On 28 June 1988, the relevant regulations under the Annual Reporting Act 1983 were amended to provide for disclosure of certain liabilities of the State in departmental financial statements. These liabilities relate to long service and recreation leave entitlements at year end ...

However, based on preliminary information available, audit estimates the liability to the State on account oflong service and recreation leave entitlements of budget sector employees at 30 June 1989 could be in the vicinity of$800 million.

One wonders where the government will get that money from. Obviously it will tax someone else! Of course, the government will blame everyone else, claiming that it is not to blame.

In his Budget speech, on pages 7 to 10, the Treasurer talks about social justice. We are also given a dose of social justice in Budget Paper No. 2, entitled Budget Strategy and Review 1989-90. For this government social justice does not go beyond the tram tracks.

As to health, I shall refer to Budget Paper No. 5, Budget Summary and Program Budget Expenditures 1988-89, pages 158 to 181, Programs Nos 390 to 400. There is no mention of the Whittlesea hospital in those pages-not a single word! Yet the Australian Labor Party's Victorian branch health policy documents of September 1988 state clearly that the government will provide 100 beds in a new hospital at Whittlesea.

During the election campaign there was the headline "$58 million 100 bed hospital for Whittlesea". It was a fait accompli, but there was no allocation for this promise in the Budget. Not only was there no allocation for the building, but the land had not been purchased. Another "white" lie; another false promise!

The Whittlesea Post of 21 September 1988 contained an advertisement headed "John Cain-the only choice for the future". Under the heading "Achievement 1985-88" under health it states:

New Whittlesea community hospital-lOO beds.

The advertisement was placed by the honourable members for Whittlesea and Thomastown. The advertisement promised a new Whittlesea community hospital with 100 beds but no land has been purchased and no money has been allocated in the Budget. On Wednesday 21 September in the Whittlesea Post was another headline, "lOO-bed hospital on the way." From which direction? The article states:

A $58 million hospital will be built in McDonalds Road in the Whittlesea municipality.

The first stage of the hospital, expected to cost about $18 million excluding the price of the proposed eight-hectare McDonalds Road site, will start after the State elections.

Which election; the next one or the one after that? At the moment it does not appear to be around the corner. The article continues:

Chairman of the hospital's steering committee and member for Whittle sea, Mr Max McDonald, said he "couldn't give any more details about the site until it had been purchased".

"We can't say where the exact location of the land is," he said.

"All we can say is that it is in McDonalds Road.

We can't buy the land until after the State election.

But it is a fait accompli", he said.

The hospital is expected to be fully operational in about three years.


There will be some fast moving in that area! The article continues: The hospital will initially have approximately 100 beds.

Something was done about the matter because the plans had been published in the newspaper.

The Hon. M. T. Tehan-More bits of paper!

The Hon. G. R. CRAIGE-How long must we wait? In the Whittlesea Post on 8 August 1989 an article states:

Wait on hospital

Whittlesea residents will have to wait for the State Budget to learn when work will start on the Outer Northern Community Hospital.

Whittlesea council's representative on the hospital's steering committee, Cr Frank Merlino, told council last Monday a letter from the regional director of the health department, Mr lan Marshman, said the project proposal was before the Priorities Planning and Strategy Committee.

Guess what; it is still there! It has not left the committee, yet a hospital with 100 beds was promised at a cost of$58 million. The article continues:

Mr Marshman said the hospital, planned for a seven-hectare site in McDonalds Road, South Morang, would "be considered within the overall context of the Budget".

Mr Marshman was wrong because he said he expected to be in a better position to comment after the Treasurer presented the Budget. The people of Whittlesea were sold down the line again. They have no hospital and no land. It is nonsense! The Minister for Health has clearly put her position; she responded by saying:

Within the Plenty corridor development-National Mutual and the Minister for Planning and Environment are developing a planning scheme for Mill Park.

They are not buying land; they are developing a planning scheme. The article continues: Within this planning scheme, land has been set aside and identified for hospital purposes.

Again a bit further, the Minister stated: The public hospital reserve was notified in Government Gazette No. 25 of28 June 1989.

We are off again, though-another committee, no land, no hospital, and a steering committee consisting of interested parties. By the way, do not forget that Mr McDonald, the honourable member for Whittlesea in another place, was the chairman and he is now an interested party. He has been invited to purchase all the property from National Mutual.

Officers of the government are currently not buying land but are preparing a paper on the next step. They have plans, committees, no land and no hospital. I should imagine the people of Whittlesea will show this government what they think of it at the next election when they get such promises on such a vital thing as a lOO-bed community hospital. The Minister continues:

Officers of the government are currently preparing a paper on the next step that I as Minister for Health will be required to take. I hope to have this information within the next four weeks.

The sitting was suspended at 6.32 p.m. until 8.2 p.m.

The Hon. G. R. CRAIGE-Mr President, before the suspension of the sitting I was discussing the health appropriation and finished my remarks on the lack of funding, not only for the hospital but also for the land at Whittlesea and what this government has done to the honourable member for Whittlesea in the other place who was the chairman of that committee. It walked away and left him high and dry, so to speak.


I shall turn to bush nursing hospitals now. There are five bush nursing hospitals in the province of Central Highlands: Euroa Bush Nursing Hospital, Lancefield Bush Nursing Hospital, Lilydale Bush Nursing Hospital, Nagambie Bush Nursing Hospital and Yarra Junction and District Bush Nursing Hospital. These institutions provide the very best of care in the medical field. In most cases they are the hub of country towns. One can only admire the dedication of the people who work in these hospitals. Nothing is too much trouble for them. Patients are not just numbers, they are people.

Within a bush nursing hospital there are many volunteers. These volunteers work countless hours raising extra revenue for the hospital, not to mention the committees of management which work tirelessly in planning for their hospital's future. The volunteers, who spend their countless hours raising finance so that these hospitals can continue to exist and to provide that special sort of service that bush nursing hospitals do can only be applauded for their time and devotion. The reason these hospitals survive is not because of this government; it is because of the staff, the volunteers and the people of those towns. They deserve recognition. Do not let them close! If they do, the hospitals that are near those bush nursing hospitals will have extended waiting lists and, most of all, the community spirit that is built up around a bush nursing hospital will be destroyed.

Mr President, I now refer to the appropriation available to local government. Seven councils, as a result of the Victoria Grants Commission Determination of Allocations of General Revenue, Grants to Municipal Councils in Victoria for the 1988-89 and 1989-90 financial years, have had a decrease in allocations. Honourable members will never guess where those councils are! They are all in the country. Six are in the Central Highlands Province, where, of course, there are no votes for the government: Alexandra, a decrease; Benalla shire, a decrease; Goulburn, a decrease; Pyalong, a decrease; Violet Town, a decrease; and Yea, a decrease.

Three of the councils within the Central Highlands Province fall in the Legislative Assembly seat of Whittlesea, but, guess what? They got an increase. The government thought, "A Labor seat, let us give them an increase," and the government says it does not play politics when it gives local government allocations! Nonsense! Of course, five other councils in my province got an increase. They are in the environmentally sensitive areas:' Sherbrooke, a little pet of this government-look after the environmentalists, so they got an increase; Seymour got an increase, but that is in the heart of a Federal Labor seat, so once again the government is trying to woo the voters.

However, there is a problem, may I say, Mr President. One council got an increase, and it was in the heart of the National Party's territory. Of course, it was a mistake! Somebody obviously had a rush of blood to the head and forgot that the City of Benalla is in the middle of National Party territory.

The financial position of some councils is in the balance because of these reduced grants. The government is still at its old tricks. It will deny rural municipal funding to force amalgamations. It will do this by any means at all. It will dry up their revenue and make them amalgamate. The government says that the only way councils can survive is by amalgamation. This government is behaving like a child hiding its lollies. It is sneaky. Have honourable members ever watched the way a child can get that lolly from behind its back into its mouth without being seen to do it? This government is quite clearly displaying those tactics in respect of local government.

Some honourable members may have heard of a radio program entitled The Coodabeen Champions. Obviously a few of the could-have-beens sit on the Labor side of this Chamber. The Coodabeen Champions program is entertaining and has some famous characters. One character that comes to my mind is Guru Bob who predicts what will happen in the football matches, but he never gets it right. The government


has a famous character, Guru Rob, who predicts economics and he is always wrong too, and he continues to be wrong. Guru Rob is the economic evangelist from the east. No-one in their right mind would place this Treasurer in charge of a child's piggy bank. He suffers from a handout mentality; he is one of the modem money managers. As far as economic and financial management go, this government could not run a country fete, and thank God it does not because at least the books of a country fete balance.

The Premier is another economic whiz. His economics are, of course, soundly based. How does the Premier judge the productivity and economic growth of this State? He goes out onto the steps of Parliament House, faces west, looks at the skyline, sees the cranes and says, "Look at Victoria's growth". I do not know what school the Premier went to because what he sees has nothing to do with this government; that is private enterprise.

The Treasurer's policies are driving up taxes and charges. The ones who pay for this are businesses and families. Through gross incompetence this government continues to drive the screws into private enterprise when new taxes and charges are introduced to try to cover the Treasurer's flights of fancy. It is never possible to cover for an habitual gambler. The Treasurer takes in small business and says he will give the money to the poor. If it were goin~ to the poor, I do not believe the Opposition would have an objection, but it is not; it IS going to the Treasurer's mates who think they can make a quick buck but who fail. The money is going to bureaucrats and non-productive public servants. The grab of additional money is made from businesses, especially efficient businesses, in this State.

It is scandalous that the government will now tax business goodwill. Where was the Treasurer when he thought to introduce this disincentive measure? This tax will reduce incentive for people to build up a business. Small business is a large employer in this country and makes a significant contribution to Victoria's economic affairs. I refer to the Institute of Public Affairs publication Facts, volume 38, of August-October 1989 which refers to the ABS source 1321.0:

Small enterprises (those employing fewer than twenty persons) employ 44 per cent of the work force in the non-agricultural private sector.

Whilst the number of small enterprise has remained constant as a proportion of all enterprises over the period 1984 to 1987, the number of persons employed in small firms has increased by nearly 13 per cent.

I shall give some details. In the retail trade a total of 5 5 per cent of people are employed by small business; in recreation, personnel and other services the figure is 55 per cent; in transport and storage it is 56 per cent; and in construction, 73 per cent-as if things are not already hard enough for small business with high interest rates, high taxes and charges which are determined through an incompetent and corrupt industrial relations system both federally and Statewide.

Where are the bright ideas and incentives for small business in this Budget? There are none. This proposed goodwill tax is nothing more than a rip-off.

The government has sought to place a tax on luxury cars and this is clearly a nonsense. History will show that the tax represents another socialist hangup, which will be buried with this government.

The government intends to change the distribution of Totalizator Agency Board allocations. This also is a disgrace. No consultation has taken place with the industry. The government is guilty of continually doing things and consulting with the parties afterwards although it has talked of consensus for many years. Racing clubs had already organised programs and prizes for forthcoming carnivals only to be told that the rules are to be changed. The big sting is $21 million which will be denied to the


racing industry in Victoria. The impact on the industry will be enormous with a downturn in attendances and people participating in the Ministry. Associated industries will also suffer-catering, printing and the TAB. Does the Labor government realise what it has done? The people employed in this area are the government's trade union mates. They will be put out of work.

The government has continually talked about productivity and I question what it really means by productivity. Is it an increase in output, an increase in productivity? No, I do not think it is that. The government has a new concept. I refer to Community Services Victoria minute of 11 August 1989 from Mark Diamond, Acting Regional Director, Goulburn Region, regarding the implications for the visiting child health nurse program following a recent Budget decision. I am talking about productivity and I wish to point out what the government means by productivity.

I am required to inform you that the government has made a Budgetary decision affecting all VCHN positions. The decisions are as follows:

VCHN positions will be made redundant ...

The decision is based upon a number of factors, as follows:

the government had to identify a 1·5 per cent productivity saving ...

It was clear in this process that in order to achieve the 1·5 per cent a whole program had to be affected in this way.

So the government talks about productivity in this way: "You sack them. You do not talk about an increase in performance but ,0U wipe them off the face of the earth". That is not productivity. The people 0 Victoria are saddled with a wasteful incompetent government.

WorkCare lost $4000 million in its first four years of operation. What it needs is a first-aid application. In first aid there are three procedures called A, Band C; airway, breathing and circulation. I have adopted some new words for WorkCare; accountability, balance, checks and more checks.

One may not believe it, but the government has a social justice strategy, and its principles are excess, equity, participation and rights. Services should be provided on an equitable and accessible basis. The Budget ignores the people of rural Victoria. Social justice is hogwash, or is it a white lie? Country roads are a disgrace, and our libraries, courthouses, police stations and railway stations and lines are closing.

The facilities of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs are closing; visiting child health nursing services have been withdrawn, and the State Emergency Service is battling for survival. Hundreds of people owe their lives to dedicated groups of volunteers, especially those within the State Emergency Service.

I refer to an article in the Kilmore Free Press of 6 September 1989 under the heading "Road rescue work is on the rise", which states:

The annual report of the Kilmore-Broadford State Emergency Service unit shows that road rescue work was the area where activities increased most over the past twelve months.

Controller Sam De Gabrielle has just completed the unit's annual report for the period ended June 30, and he stated that in the unit's increased area of responsibility it was necessary to use all four vehicles on several occasions; dual response to different areas worked well.

Of the unit's 107 operations 54 were road rescue operations, including two hazardous operations at Broadford and Wallan.

Mr De Gabrielle said the unit's area of operation has been scattered.

There were 21 in Kilmore, 19 in Broadford, 9 in Pyalong, 3 near Lancefield, and the rest scattered along the Northern Highway and Hume Freeway.


The Kilmore-Broadford unit of the State Emergency Service provides an excellent service, but it is battling for finances. Sam De Gabrielle, the controller at Kilmore, said recently:

We are glad of the council's allocation to the unit; however, in view of the rise in the cost of petrol and other equipment we are finding it hard to keep our heads above water.

Fundraising is continually conducted by way of bingo, rafiles, stalls and donations.

In April the service had to doorknock to raise extra money. The State Emergency Service members are spending more time raising funds than doing what they should be doing. Equipment costs a lot of money and the government is not providing it.

The Municipal Association of Victoria is concerned about the State Emergency Service, and an article in the Whittlesea Post of 2 September 1989 headed, "State under fire for measly SES funding" states:

State Emergency Services (SES) volunteers spend more time organising chook rafiles and cake stalls than training because of a "disgraceful" lack of government funding, according to the Municipal Association of Victoria (MA V).

Cr Phillip Holmes, of Diamond Valley, who is the chairman of an MA V working party, said councils had been warned they might have to reduce or even withdraw support for SES units unless the State government made a "much more realistic contribution" to local SES units.

A disgrace

The government did not alter the annual $500 subsidy per unit in this year's Budget despite the fact that each unit needed between $5000 and $10 000 a year to operate, Cr Holmes said.

"Local government is being left to bear the costs of what is laughingly described as a State service," he said. "It's an absolute disgrace."

The Hon. K. I. M. Wright-It is $15000 in Mildura.

The Hon. G. R. CRAIGE-The article continues: Somebody in Spring Street has to decide whether Victorians are entitled to trained help in emergencies,

or whether the whole philosophy of helping people in distress is going down the tube.

They are concerned, as we all are. The Kinglake unit of the State Emergency Service recently received an interest-free grant of $8000 from a generous Shire of Yea. A charity ball was held at Broadford on Saturday, 7 October 1989, and the Kilmore and Broadford unit received a cheque for $1200. That was a lot more than the $500 it received from the government. The State Emergency Service in that district on that day attended four emergency calls.

I turn to the area of agriculture and the lip-service the government pays to an important area of our economy. In a document headed Agriculture-a State Strength, dealing with the 1989-90 Budget, the Minister for Agriculture and Rural Affairs states:

The Budget reinforces the Victorian government's commitment to agriculture, natural resources, and to DARA ...

At page 2, the Minister states: I am confident that our commitment will bring about a more vigorous and effective department and

make a substantial contribution to the competitiveness of Victorian agriculture.

At page 3, the Minister states: The real gross value of production has generally ranged between $3 billion and $4 billion per annum

over the past 15 years, fluctuating according to market and seasonal conditions. Victoria's share of national agricultural output has ranged from 20-25 per cent over that time. In 1987-88 the gross value of Victoria's agricultural production was $4·6 billion, 23 per cent of the national figure.


The value added in transporting, processing, wholesaling and retailing food and fibre products derived from agriculture brings the total contribution of the sector to around $10 billion, or 20 per cent of the Victorian economy.

Victorian agriculture is heavily export-oriented and it contributes approximately 45 per cent of the State's total export earnings.

Another document entitled Rural Update Agriculture-a State Strength, under the heading, "Wide ranging review ofDARA's research program", states:

Agriculture continued as a mainstay of the Victorian economy, contributing close to one-fifth of gross State product.

"It's even more significant when you consider its value in export dollars," Mr Rowe said.

That is merely lip-service. If the government were serious about agriCUlture it would not spend $2 million less on the appropriation for that sector, as it did in 1987-88. Clearly there is potential in agriculture in Victoria. If the government were serious it would allocate realistic funding for research, marketing, salinity control and treatment of soil degradation. Victoria is unique. It is a great agricultural producer-the best in the country.

The Hon. R. M. Hallam-The best in the world.

The Hon. G. R. CRAIGE-I agree with that; the best in the world. Australia has a great diversity of products, including lamb, grains, exotic fruits such as Kiwi fruit and avocado, vegetables, grapes, citrus fruits, stone fruits and dairy products-I could go on. Those industries require support and research, not interference.

In the 1982-83 Budget the moneygrabbers introduced a public authority dividend on the Grain Elevators Board. After being beaten around the ears since that time by the grain growers ofVictoria--

The Hon. R. M. Hallam-And the National Party.

The Hon. G. R. CRAIGE-And the Liberal Party, the government has seen fit to remove this unfair and unjust tax on the grain industry in the 1989-90 Budget.

That is a glimmer of hope for social justice for Victorian agriculture. Farmers in this State produce beef on the hoof better than anyone else; however, cattle are sent from this State in droves to be slaughtered and boned either overseas or interstate. This State has a meat processing industry, but if the Secretary of the Australian Meat Industry Employees Union, Mr Wally Curran, has his way, there will not be such an industry for long. What a vagabond! Wally Curran continues to make unrealistic demands on the industry, making the Victorian meat processing industry uncompetitive with other States. Is it any wonder that cattle are taken interstate and overseas? The rambling red renegade, Wally Curran, is destroying an industry but, because the government has a close relationship with the president of that unIon, it will do nothing about Mr Curran.

The government continues to carry on about its social justice strategy; it especially refers to the strategy when talking about community services. I was concerned to read in the Herald of 23 October an article headed "Mission fights to give kids a bed", which states that street kids aged between twelve and fifteen years are missing out on beds and a roof because of red tape, according to a church group. The Mission to Streets and Lanes wants to use three Fitzroy terrace houses and local family households to accommodate approximately 40 youngsters in the inner city who are not catered for adequately through services offered to older teenagers. Since at least April this year the mission has been waiting for permission from Community Services Victoria. After discussions with Community Services Victoria it has submitted detailed submissions for funding. A spokesman for the department has advised the mission that there was


never a guarantee of funding and that no money from the department was available through the State Budget for housing. That is social justice! The government talks about access and equity, yet children between twelve and fifteen years of age are without roofs over their heads.

The government has shown a lack of concern about the intellectually disabled in this State. Originally the government proposed a ten-year plan, but we now have a State plan for the development of intellectual disability services from 1989 to 1992-a reduction in the plan from ten to three years. It did not take the government long to shorten the odds when it realised how much the plan would cost. That is social justice at work at its best!

I refer to an article in the Sun of 25 July headed "$40 million sought to aid handicapped", which states:

The State government will be asked for $40 million in its Budget to revamp services for the intellectually disabled.

The money would pay for the first stage of a three-year "State plan" to overhaul a system which currently sees thousands of intellectually handicapped people in overcrowded and outdated institutions.

What did those people get? They got $10 million and not $40 million. The plan was drawn up by a Ministerial advisory committee headed by former Labor Party member of Parliament, Mr Michael Arnold. The article of25 July says that he was confident of State government support. I am glad he was confident because the intellectually disabled certainly did not have much confidence. Some $40 million was reduced to $10 million and a ten-year plan was reduced to only a three-year plan.

Mr Arnold also said that it is important to ensure that support services be in place before the government closes instItutions. I agree with him totally, but that is not happening. In its haste to close institutions, the government has forgotten about those people it has already put into the community. Some 3000 intellectually disabled people currently live in the community. They are desperately in need of accommodation and support services. If it is introduced as promised, the State plan will create only some 110 supported accommodation places over the next three years. That is totally inadequate because it does not even come near providing for those people already in the community, let alone those the government will send into the community when it closes institutions.

The foreword of the State Plan/or the Development o/Intellectual Disability Services from 1989 to 1992, signed by the Premier and the Minister for Community Services, states:

The Victorian Labor government is vitally concerned with ensuring the rights and equality of all Victorians.

What a joke! It continues: Through the social justice strategy we have already taken many steps in this direction.

Those steps are not forward, they are backward steps. The foreword continues: During this past year the development of services for people with intellectual disabilities and their

families has been identified in the State's major social justice priority.

Some $40 million was needed and $10 million was allocated. A ten-year plan was reduced to a three-year plan; that says a lot. It further states:

There is a clear recognition by the government that despite a significant growth in services over recent years-

The intellectually disabled are not receiving that service; the bureaucrats sitting on their bottoms in offices are receiving it-

people with intellectual disabilities are presently disadvantaged.


It is this government that continues on that line.

The Ministerial advisory committee headed by Mr Arnold recommended that 150 additional case managers be appointed. Some 43 were appointed.

I shall now refer to Budget Paper No. 5, page 49, Program No. 194, headed "Family and Children's Services." It states:

The primary objective of the Family and Children's Services Program is to ensure the development, support and safety of children. The program provides a range of universal and specialist services linked by the themes of enhancement of the health, well-being, educational development and social functioning of children, young people and their families. The services provided in the program are grouped according to each of these themes.

In cooperation with Commonwealth and local government, the child development and care subprogram provides care and developmental opportunities for preschool aged children and children aged five to twelve years before and after school and during vacation periods.

State-subsidised services include kindergartens, toddler groups, play centres and child-care centres which provide services to some 66 000 children across the State.

During 1988-90 new children's services regulations were introduced in order to ensure an adequate standard of care.

The family health and support subprogram provides locally available support services, including maternal and child health, visiting child health nurses, family planning counselling, family aid and financial counselling services.

Additional funding provided in 1988-99 strengthened and expanded provision of family support services, such as financial and family counselling, by the 197 existing services throughout Victoria.

Services designed to protect children from harm through neglect, maltreatment or exploitation are provided through the protection subprogram.

Clearly included in that are child health nurses. The government is into producing glossy brochures to sell its message. One such brochure provides Budget information from Community Services Victoria. That money would have been better spent on those who needed it rather than on some document.

The Community Services Victoria document contains a letter signed by the Minister for Community Services. In it he refers to funding which "covers very important programs which tackle the need to prevent child abuse and family conflict". He refers also to "initiatives which focus upon addressing community problems where they occur". This is the second time that the government has mentioned that it is addressing problems on the local level where they occur and it is not just picking up the pieces afterwards through measures included in the Budget.

For all its talk about prevention and early intervention, this government is merely whitewashing the problem. The visiting child health nurse service will be withdrawn, although that service was concerned with prevention and early intervention. I refer to some (acts about the service. First I refer to a brochure produced by the Goulburn Valley Early Childhood Development Program. The brochure contains all the necessary information, although it is only an A4 sheet folded over. It is very readable and does not need to be glossy. The following statement appears in the brochure:

What is a visiting child health nurse?

A visiting child health nurse is a general trained nurse who has specific qualifications and/or experience in child management ...

Referrals come from many sources, e.g., maternal and child health centres, preschools, doctors and other helping agencies ...

The reasons for referrals are varied and could include:

-help with child management. ..


-to act as liaison with doctors and other agencies.

-to help with other family problems.

The visiting child health nurses have received some support from the Victorian Public Service Association, which made some relevant points in its submission of 31 August 1989 to the Minister for Community Services. On page 1 of the VPSA submission the following statement appears:

A visiting child health nurse (VCHN) provides a holistic, mobile, flexible outreach nursing service for children 0-6 years of age where families at a particular time lack the resources to adequately meet the child's developmental needs.

They also provide early intervention; child protection cases are quite often referred to visiting child health nurses; they play a role in post-court areas; and they consult with and refer cases to child protection services.

On page 4, the submission contains the following statement: The VCHN program is a priority because:

it gives effect to the access and equity principles of the social justice strategy;

its focus is preventative rather than protective;

it services rural and isolated Victoria and is one of the few examples of qualified and experienced staff being attracted to rural Victoria;

It is cost effective.

It further indicates that the government will gain $700 000 by removing this service.

The VPSA wrote to me on this subject on 7 September 1989, and the letter states: The rationale for the decision is that cuts are required due to the tough State Budget ... This union and

the nurses have also been told it is being cut because it only operates in eight regions. There is a good reason for this-it is only in eight regions because these areas were identified as being under-serviced, and suffering from problems of isolation and lack of access to other social services.

In a memo dated ·11 August 1989 to the visiting child health nurses in his area, the Acting Regional Director of the Goulburn Region of Community Services Victoria indicates that the decision to make all VCHN positions redundant was due to the government's budgetary decision, as it had to identify a 1·5 per cent productivity saving. The memo states:

It was clear in this process that in order to achieve the 1·5 per cent, a whole program had to be affected in this way.

In the Sunraysia Daily of Wednesday , 16 August 1989, the following statement appears in an article headed "I'm afra,id it could beco~e too impersonal":

The mother of a terminally ill child is concerned about the government closure of a visiting nurse program in Sunraysia.

Mrs Sue Rochester's five-year-old daughter Amy is both intellectually and physically disabled.

She is not expected to live for more than another year.

The Rochester family is one of a number of families in Sunraysia that benefit from the visiting health nurse program, operated by Community Services Victoria ...

Mrs Rochester said the existing service had worked extremely well.

Whenever she had problems with Amy, she could contact one of the two nurses employed under the program, who were able to solve the problem almost immediately.

Under the program, the nurses also visit people in their homes, which Mrs Rochester said was a far better arrangement than people having to visit the nurse.


In the Lillydale and Yarra Valley Express of 12 September. there was an article headed H Axed program may see increase in child abuse" which contains the following statements:

The axing of the visiting child health nursing program could place children in isolated areas at serious risk, a former staff member claims.

The program, which has operated for twelve years, was dismantled by Community Services Victoria last month.

Under the program, nurses helped isolated families who were unable to reach other support services and having difficulty coping.

In the Sunday Herald of 15 October 1989 the following appears in an article entitled "Survival for Brad is just a matter of love", after the heading, "State government cutbacks in community services are having a traumatic effect":

Brad is eleven years old and has been dying since before he was born.

His mother Liz Town, 37, says he is surviving on love and she's right.

Cradling her desperately ill son in her arms, Liz seems to be willing life into Brad's twisted frame.

At home in the small country town ofNumurkah, near Shepparton, Liz has two options: let Brad starve or feed him by a tube inserted into his stomach. The latter option carries the threat that she could by accident insert the tube into Brad's lung and pierce it.

"When Brad lost the ability to swallow four years ago I honestly considered not putting the tube down," Liz said. But the local visiting child health nurse taught her how to do it, talked her through it and supported her just as she had done for the past seven years ...

The visiting child health nurse program operates in the Seymour area, and in the period of its operation of only two months it has nine cases on its files. The referrals come from the Maternal and Child Health Service, the Seymour Family Counsellor, and community police.

I have received a letter dated 4 July from Julie Booth, aged eight, who states: My sister and I are upset because Mrs Schivo our visiting health nurse has lost her job.

She has helped us and we want her help again and so do other kids.

Please help get her job back.

That highlights my view that in this one area the government clearly failed in its social justice strategy. The government does a lot of belly aching but not much else.

Now that the visiting child health nurses service have gone I wonder what the government will replace it with. It has come up with a new initiative. Community Services Victoria in its Budget Information '89-'90 paper headed Significant Budget Initiatives states that it will replace the service with a Victorian family and children's services council and that $170 000 has been allocated for that council which is to advise the Minister on matters relating to child and family welfare, community services and any other matters that are specified. Great! A council to advise. Not people on the ground but a council to advise. It will also introduce a pilot parenting program at a cost of $150 000 to tell us how to be parents. It is important that the visiting child health nurses services be retained because it is vital for rural families to have equity and access. .

Another article in the Herald of 24 October clearly states that the government merely offers lip-service to its social justice strategy of equity and access. The headline is "Disabled tots 'miss out on aid' ":

Early intervention for children up to six is crucial to the State government's attempts to keep intellectually disabled children in their families and integrate them into schools and the community ...


David Fowler of the Early Intervention Parent Group said staff shortages meant Community Services Victoria had failed to cope with the threefold increase in demand in the western suburbs since 1986.

He said more than 40 western suburbs families with intellectually disabled preschool children were waiting to be assessed so they could join the early intervention program.

Another 30 children in the region, which includes the growth areas around Melton and Werribee were waiting for speech therapy ...

Mr Hugo Williams, vice-president of the local group said CSV had almost 200 children registered as clients in the Western Port region but was able to service only about 110 ... Visits to families had been reduced from weeldy to fortnightly and were in danger of becoming monthly.

My colleague, Mr Chamberlain, referred to Mr Van Buren's contribution to the Budget debate and described it as milk and honey. When the Labor Party was elected in 1982 its members were like bees around the socialist honey pot, full of energy and a purse full of money. They have used all the money and now they run around like blowflies on a pile of cow manure.

In conclusion, the Budget misses the point. The government has tried time and again to hide its financial waste and mismanagement. The Treasurer must recognise responsibility that goes with his job and not palm it off and blame somebody else. I look forward to making a further contribution in the Committee stage.

The Hon. R. S. de FEGELY (Ballarat Province)-Ijoin the debate to speak about the effect of the Budget on rural Victoria. The Treasurer described this year's Budget as one of restraint. Although there is not much evidence of restraint in the Budget, it certainly would be welcome after the Budgets of the past few years.

The Treasurer also mentioned that we have been through the good times and the tough times are ahead. Heaven help us if we have been through the good times when we have run up debts of $31 000 million. What on earth will we do when things get tough? The government has been an abject financial disaster for the State of Victoria and we will all pay for it for many years to come.

Worse than that, the government has now dishonestly covered up its financial mismanagement in all sorts of ways. That was evident recently in the debate in this House on WorkCare. It was also evident with the burying of the Victorian Economic Development Corporation within the Rural Finance Corporation. We do not know what is happening there because it is hidden from freedom of information. What that move has done to that wonderful organisation that has served rural Victoria so well since the days of the Bolte era, I shudder to think.

We have never seen such a level of expenditure and at the same time such a level of taxation receipts that the government is currently drawing in, yet we are still running deficit Budgets. The governll)ent refers to its modem financial management. Please spare me from modem financial management. I would rather refer to the government as the modem money manipulators because it is manipulating its Budget each year so that we cannot follow from one year to the next what it is doing.

I should like to see a return to some old-fashioned money management with honesty and openness so that we can scrutinise exactly what is happening to the affairs of this State. I am sure that will not happen with the current government because it is ashamed of the situation it has brought on the State. The government is concerned that its mismanagement will be exposed. That was obvious by the calling of the early election last year.

Government expenditure increased from $5·903 billion in 1981-82 to $12·6 billion in the last financial year; just seven years for that enormous blow-out. On a per capita basis expenditure has virtually doubled from $1508 to $2904 in Victoria. That


explosion has occurred because government labour costs have blown out by some 65 per cent in the period the government has been in office.

In the past five years the Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that Victorian government employment has blown out by 1 ()'1 per cent compared with a Commonwealth average of 2·2 per cent. Therein lie many of the problems that we face.

I turn to rural Victoria because, as I mentioned earlier, that is my greatest concern. Municipalities within the province I represent have pointed out to the government the problems that they have faced since the government has been in office.

The Shire of A voca wrote a letter to the Minister for Agriculture and Rural Affairs in which it referred to services that had been removed from the municipality since the Labor Party has been in office. The letter states:

Some of our concerns are addressed below:

Failure by the State government to provide public transport in our municipality.

Withdrawal by the Victoria Police of vehicle registration and licence testing services from A voca to Maryborough-27 kilometres away and Ballarat 65 kilometres away.

Threats to education housing in the municipality, whereas a total policy reversal should be implemented.

The leasing of poorly maintained government properties to communities without a commitment to resource capital improvement, e.g. Lower Homebush School, A voca courthouse, the old police residence, Avoca.

Threats of enforced closure on the new A voca Bush Nursing Hospital, fourteen years after it has opened and the nursing hospital annexe, five years after its opening-

Which is a real indictment of this government's health policy-Continual decline of funding for roads and financial assistance grants.

The Shire of A voca received $269 000 in grants last year and is to receive $231 000 this year. There is no way that shires can maintain therr roads and services under such financial arrangements. The letter continues:

Continual decline of funding for roads and financial assistance grants.

Phase-out of revenue subsidy for water supply in rural areas, necessitating huge rate increases.

Threat of increased cost to shire as a result of roads classification review ...

Regionalization of economic development grants means a loss to our community in 1990 that will impact on future development proposals.

I turn now to the unfairness of the grants system, as expressed to me by the Shire of Kara Kara-and concern was also expressed to the Minister for Local Government. A letter from that shire states:

Loddon-Campaspe Region: 27 municipalities.

Seven urban municipalities received 74 per cent-$2 558 OOO-offunding increase.

Thirteen rural municipalities received 2 per cent-$78 OOO-of funding increase! (Remaining seven municipalities the balance).

There is no equity in that. The rural municipalities are being squeezed for funding at present. Consequently, we have experienced a dramatic deterioration in our roads and roads maintenance, to the extent that many roads are becoming dangerous.

What has happened to the country racing industry? The Budget has affected not only city clubs but also Victorian rural clubs. The racing clubs are screaming that they will be squeezed of funds because of the provisions of the Racing (TAB Surplus) Bill that is now before the other place. The government already receives some $96·8


million from the Totalizator Agency Board, but the racing industry receives only $75·5 million from the government. By imposing additional burdens on the racing industry the government will reduce its future revenue. Therefore, the amount of money available to the government on the passage of the new legislation will be reduced.

Two weekends ago I attended a race meeting in Ararat. The local club wanted to put on nine races but could run only seven because of the new system and financial restrictions the government is to impose on racing clubs. As a result of the decrease in the funds available to country clubs, the number of races was reduced from nine to seven.

The Hon. W. A. Landeryou-How many winners did you back?

The Hon. R. A. Best-He got a few votes!

The Hon. R. S. de FEGELY-I won a lot of votes because I expressed my sympathy for the problems facing these people. As a result of Victorian race clubs reducing the number of races they hold, the revenue of the TAB will decrease and, consequently, so will the revenue gained by the government.

There is also the possibility that racehorse owners will take their horses interstate to race because the stake money will be better. City racing will be affected because, without country racing, people training horses in country areas will be unable to trial them in order to qualitY them for metropolitan meetings.

The ~overnment has been short-sighted in attempting to take more money from the racing Industry and, if I might add in a retrospective way, from the TAB in an attempt to shore up the government's mismanagement and in the guise of providing more money to hospitals. I have no doubt that the government should provide more money to hospitals, but I should have preferred to see additional funds coming from general revenue sources and not from organisations such as the TAB.

Tourism has also been significantly affected by the government's policies. The Wimmera tourism region had one of the most efficient tourism operations in Victoria. Last year it received S 132 000 from the government to assist in promoting tourism throughout the area. Unfortunately that assistance is no longer available. Tourism r~ons must now apply to the ~overnment for funds and if they are successful they will receive $50 000. That is a SIgnificant shortfall; it demonstrates yet again how the government is passing on costs to rural Victoria, particularly to local government.

Mr Craige referred to the visiting child health nurse program. I have difficulty in finding the right words to describe my disgust with the government over the scrapping of that program. It cost $700 000 to provide the only preventive service operating within Health Department Victoria or Community Services Victoria, but that program has now been scrapped. The service provided many people, particularly women in isolated areas, with nursing and counselling support and assistance in teaching child behaviour and parenting skills. Many women and families in isolated communities received a good deal of support.

Qaims that the service duplicated other services are absolute, utter rubbish. In no way did it duplicate any other service. The program cannot be replaced with a child protection service, the infant welfare nurse system or any other systems that Community Services Victoria is currently proposing. None of those programs provides the nursing skills that were available from visiting child health nurses.

I shall now quote from an article in the Weekly Times of 18 October, which followed a visit that I arranged with the Honourable Evan Walker in his capacity as Chairman of the Rural Affairs Subcommittee of the Cabinet. He was gracious enough to see us


as well as the three women who came. One was from Ararat, one from Shepparton or Numurkah and one, who had been a visiting child health nurse in Korumburra, was from Melbourne. I should like to quote the words of the article particularly concerning Liz Towe from Numurkah:

Liz Towe admits that for many years her visiting child health nurse was her lifeline.

As a young mother living in Numurkah with four children, one profoundly handicapped, it was a service she simply could not do without.

With the State government's sudden axeing of that service in August, she became angry and is now ready to fight.

Last week, Liz, together with Anne Carroll, of Ararat, and Denise Cosgriff, of Melbourne, met with the Chairman of the Rural Affairs Committee, Evan Walker, and pleaded with him to reconsider.

They have formed the Visiting Child Health Nurse Action Group and are determined to have the decision reversed.

You, Mr Deputy President, know as well as I do, because of your experience in Mildura, how important this service is in country areas, but it was axed because of a decision by the new Director of Community Services Victoria who decided he had to cut costs. He cut out a small program that dId not really matter to anybody in the city; certainly it did not matter to him! However, it matters to the people out there. This service must be restored to make sure that people in need are looked after and if this government is genuine about its social justice policy, it must seriously reconsider this particular program.

Most certainly this government will be hearing a great deal more on this issue from the people who have formed this action group and from a number of members of Parliament. I might say that following letters I wrote to every member of Parliament about the issue, I have had a good many replies including a number from government members expressing concern that the program was scrapped.

The other area I wish to mention concerns road safety which is a very serious problem in the country. I should like to quote briefly from Road News, the official journal of the Australian Road Federation. We often hear from this government that it is maintaining the levels of road funding in the State but, of course, that is not true. It cannot blame the Federal government, although it has also been to blame, but most certainly this State government is at fault.

I refer to an article which comments on the Victorian region annual general meeting held in the Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce building:

The assembled gathering received a report by Bill Carlyle, chairman, in which it was noted, with a certain amount of despair, that in 1987-88 dollar values road expenditure continues on the downslide. The State government level has fallen from $360 million in 1983-84 to $340 million this financial year; local government from $300 million to $280 million and the Commonwealth from $280 million to below $240 million in the same period.

The argument that less real road funds are needed each year due to increased productivity for the dollar spent does not wash. An increase of 4 per cent productivity ...

I have to agree with that statement and I am alarmed at the change and the deterioration in the state of the roads in rural Victoria. I am not talking about back roads; I am talking about roads between places such as Ballarat, Daylesford and Woodend and from Ballarat to Maryborough and A voca. I wish the members of the government would drive over those roads to see how badly they are breaking up. They are becoming dangerous and there are going to be some very serious accidents before long. Because of the state they are in at present, they will require enormous funding for repair.


I am grateful for the opportunity of raising these points and hope to make more specific points during the Committee stage. I

The Hon. G. H. COX (Nunawading Province)-I submit that, regardless· of all the words spoken by members of the government about the action and inactioh that has happened and its claims about modem money management skills, they do not really represent the aspirations of the family and the battler. In cutting back S0me health services, the government has sliced $10 million from Prince Henry's Hospital alone, putting some of Melbourne's vital medical services at risk, and on the verge of collapse.

I believe Prince Henry's Hospital plays a vital role in critical care and emergency treatment services for the whole of the metropolitan area, particularly on Friday and Saturday nights. The trouble is that so much money has been wasted in other areasmillions wasted on schemes that really do not mean anything and we do not have the facilities for those in our community who become ill.

Of course, we still have huge waiting lists of people in need of pain-relieving surgery and, in certain cases, life-saving surgery. Some of these people have been waiting in excess of three years. Public hospital administrators are trying to do their best, as are the medical staff and nurses who are loath to turn patients away. Consequently, they are treating more patients than their budget allows.

I should also like to refer to the Life Education Centre Victoria. This is obviously an excellent project that was originally started by the Reverend Ted Noffs in the Sydney Kings Cross area. It has proliferated throughout Australia and recently come to Melbourne.

I submit that there is a great need for this sort of education in our schools so that we have the opportunity of teaching our young people the way their bodies work and also to give them the opportunity of making their own decisions. This program does not tell children what to do but informs them about their bodies and leaves the choice to them.

A recent evaluative study by the University of Sydney showed that the life education program improves attitudes and awareness in both children and teachers. It also indicates that life education produces no known adverse effects and does not encourage experimentation with drugs. This is an area where we must provide information to encourage young people not to experiment with drugs because they will be future patients for hospital treatment.

The government has made some efforts to reduce tobacco smoking, which must be commended as there are so many people with tobacco-related diseases occupying our hospital beds. We should be making a similar effort to educate young people about their bodies so they can maintain their health.

Another area of concern is housing. Housing and health are two very important areas for the community and I do not believe the government is innovative enough. Although many millions of dollars are available, the thrust is not all in the right direction; we should be looking at opportunities for home ownership through interest support loan schemes supported by government.

The opportunity is afforded for the individual to borrow money through the cooperative housing scheme or the loans scheme to develop his own home, and not to become dependent on government services. Obviously, there is a need for public housing because many are not able to reach this stage of owning their own homes. The cooperative housing societies have been extremely successful in creating home ownership opportunities for many on limited incomes.


The government is placing a goodwill tax on the sale of businesses, and that scheme is to come into operation on 1 November. The introduction ofa goodwill tax through the Budget will place a further burden on small businesses, which are the largest employer in our community. The government uses the argument in introducing the goodwill tax that Victoria is the only mainland State not to pay tax on goodwill from the sales of businesses, but it neglects to state that Victoria also applies land tax to the sale of one's principal place of residence and it is the only State to apply that tax.

The Opposition opposes the introduction of the tax on goodwill. However, because it is a Budget Bill, the Liberal Party will abolish that tax when it comes to government. The State government has seized upon that method of obtaining easy revenue to make up for the shortfalls consequent upon cutbacks from the Federal government and the enormous amount of revenue through tax on property sales.

Another area of concern is road transport, and the condition of Victoria's roads. More recently, it has been stated that the increasing volume of traffic in the metropolitan area at peak periods has led to roads suffering from excessive usage. So long as the government maintains its stand, and continues to favour public transport, no relief will be afforded to road users. Each day approximately 300 000 vehicles-with about 40 per cent being private cars-enter the City of Melbourne. At least 50 per cent travel across town and do not necessarily travel into the city.

Ironically, in 1929 a report by the then Metropolitan Town Planning Commission stated that 43 per cent of traffic through the city could bypass the city if a satisfactory ring road were available-Victoria is still awaiting that facility! Construction of the link between the South Eastern Arterial and the West Gate Freeway will take at least another decade. Victoria has significant problems with road traffic, as anyone who drives on the roads will verify.

One must examine what the Cain government has done since it came to office, and be aware of the disproportionate amount of funds spent on public transport. The public transport services will never fill all needs, and it is about time the government embarked on improving the road system.

Mr Russell, the former head of the then Road Construction Authority, said that he had to settle for second best with the Cain government because it rejected the original proposals for the linking of the two freeways. He said that the government would not adopt the first proposition of a freeway and, therefore, an alternative was put-but it was a second-best solution. He also said that although public transport was being subsidised to the extent of$1000 million a year, governments were failing to provide the funds to enable the necessary balance between the two forms of transport. It is time for an examination of where the funds are being expended.

Insufficient funding is causing a continual deterioration of the roads, resulting in more collisions and in increasing congestion. Road conditions are a subtlety the government does not mention when referring to road fatalities-the number of accidents caused through poor road pavements, signalling and road planning.

The government has played politics in many ways on the subject of roads. An article appearing in the Ringwood Mail quoted the local member of Parliament, the Minister for Conservation, Forests and Lands in the other place, under the heading "Government funds boost to upgrade Dorset Road". That road is a notorious killer; about $7 million will be needed to complete the duplication of this stretch of road. In the newspaper article, the Minister said that the money was a part of the government's commitment over the next few years. However, the article reports the statement of the engineer for the City of Croydon, Mr Lyndon Webb: ... the latest allocation would not go far enough for a reconstruction.


"While the council will be pleased with the allocation it will not be able to put down a new road as a result of the funding," Mr Webb said.

Mr Webb said part of the money would be used to complete major works on Canterbury Rd in which government funding had fallen short the previous year.

The government is chasing its tail in many respects because it is not honouring its previous commitments. That newspaper headline implies that road users are receiving some reliefin respect of local roads, and this is not the case in a total perspective.

Statistics demonstrate that approximately 50 per cent of fuel consumed by motor vehicles in cities would be saved if no stop-start conditions existed. Another comment made by the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria is that the largest number of under-45s who are killed are road accident victims. The RACV has commented on the number of lives that could be saved, injuries prevented and properties secured, totalling billions of dollars in damages. One has only to think of how much it costs to have a damaged car repaired, and it is said, "Dreadful, but the insurance company will pay". However, we will all pay through our insurance premiums!

Poor road conditions are responsible for about 30 per cent of road accidents and many people do not recognise that in percentage terms, tax is 120 per cent, remembering that a tax of 29 cents is applied to each litre of fuel sold.

Luxury goods such as diamonds, cameras and gold attract a tax of 30 per cent. An enormous amount of money is received by governments, particularly the Federal government. I do not hear the Victorian government saying much about having a larger share of that revenue. The government is reaping some $6·5 billion a year from the community, yet it is putting back only $1215 million into road construction. That is an enormous misuse of petrol revenue.

I refer now to road safety. Since the construction of the Tullamarine Freeway, there has been a 70 per cent reduction in crashes compared with the number of crashes on the divided arterial road. Therefore, there is an enormous body of evidence to support what ought to be done in that regard. The government is stagnating and the people in the eastern suburbs are losing patience with yet another panel to examine the development of the proposed eastern arterial road. There has been talk about the Eastern Freeway since 1954, when the route was first drawn up.

Now there is to be another inquiry into the proposed arterial because the government has become nervous about the green vote in the area. Because the Minister for Conservation, Forests and Lands, whose seat is in the area, recognises that conservation is a sensitive issue, she is trying to sit on both sides of the fence, and she is feeling very uncomfortable.

The Hon. R. M. Hallam-No wonder-it would be uncomfortable to be sitting on both sides of the fence at once!

The Hon. G. H. COX-The Minister is trying to put off any development of the arterial. Before she was a member of the government, she was able to say anything she liked; but now that she is not only a member of the government party but also a Minister, she finds that she has to try to placate the conservationists as well as the voters who want the arterial.

During the recent council elections in Nunawading a poll was taken which showed that almost seven out of every ten people wanted the road constructed. Some of the councillors in Nunawading must find themselves in an awful dilemma: they were elected because they were considered to be anti-freeway and said that they would do what the people wanted; now that they have become local councillors, they will be waiting for this panel to report on its findings. I shall be very interested to see which


way the councillors will go because almost 70 per cent of the Nunawading community said they wanted the freeway or an arterial.

The government's talk about an arterial is also a lot of nonsense; it involves having an arterial with traffic lights rather than a freeway. I shall provide some statistics to illustrate the difference between a freeway and an arterial. People have alluded, either fondly or angrily, to the south-eastern "car park" and the way that development has been handled. The government is now spending more than $1 million on rectification and to erect nonsense signs to inform people that they cannot travel faster than 60 kilometres an hour after dark. I sympathise with the people who live in the area and the problems they have.

However, the government was told about the potential problems. If it had developed the road properly in the first place, there would not be such a noise problem, trucks would not be stopping and starting during the day and night, and there would be a minimum of head-and-tail accidents.

The Hon. R. S. de Fegely interjected.

The Hon. G. H. COX-Yes, there was a nonsense knee-jerk reaction from the Premier who announced a reduction of the speed limit from 110 kilometres an hour to 100 kilometres an hour. However, not so long ago, the Premier extolled the virtues of increasing the speed limit to 110 kilometres an hour. The government just does not know where it is; it is vacillating all over the place.

The final report will be the 54th report on development of a road in conjunction with the eastern corridor. I submit that the establishment of this latest study is yet another delaying tactic to get the ~overnment through 1990 and 1991. If the government is still in office in 1991, I suspect It will promise to do something after the next election. The study is only a stalling tactic, and I do not believe the voters will be fooled. I shall certainly be helping them make up their minds about this government and the way it is carrying on. There is continuing congestion throughout the eastern suburbs. Honourable members who live in the area and those who have visited it will certainly be aware of the congestion.

I refer to statistics compiled by the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria about urban casualty rates and crashes. The statistics show the number of casualty crashes ~r 100 million vehicle kilometres on freeways are between 5 and 15; on divided arterial roads, between 40 and 45; and on undivided arterial roads, between 45 and 50. There are dramatic differences in those figures.

Almost every weekend news is heard about youn~ people in urban areas running their vehicles off roads and being killed. The statistiCS for casualty crashes on rural freeways are between 10 and 15; on divided roads, between 20 and 25; and on twolane roads, between 25 and 30. An enormous number of crashes can be averted by widening the roads, and they need be widened by only a small amount to be effective in preventing people from running their vehicles off roads.

The expenditure of some $100 million on roadworks would create 6000 jobs. It would mean a reduction of almost $38 million in unemployment benefits. The expenditure of that money would also mean that the State and Federal governments could expect to have $16 million returned to them through various taxes. I suggest that this is not a bad investment for the future. There would be better access to workplaces, as well as health, education, employment, cultural and sporting facilities. There would be improved safety and a reduction in the cost of injury and damage. There would be more efficient and punctual bus services, lower transport costs for primary, secondary and service industries, and reduced travelling times, which would encourage decentralised industry, and, in turn, create new jobs in rural areas.


Another interesting point is that the fuel consumption of an ordinary family sedan in urban traffic is 80 per cent greater if the vehicle travels at 20 kilometres an hour than if it travels at 40 kilometres an hour. There has been much talk about conservation in other areas. When people talk about conservation, in many cases, they are talking about the conservation of flora and fauna. However, I believe there is also a need to consider the conservation of some basic mineral and energy resources, such as petrol. Only a few years ago there was a scare in the community when it was suggested our fuel might run out, and people dashed out to buy and drive smaller cars. Therefore, there is a need to address the use of fuel as well. If this were done, we may be able to achieve savings of 30 per cent. It may be possible to achieve 30 per cent savings in fuel usage by having more freeways than ordinary roads.

Road users do not accept the government's philosophy of pouring more money into public transport in an attempt to convince more people to go back to using public transport.

It is estimated that patronage on public transport will increase 35 per cent between 1990 and the end of the century. The number of passenger cars is expected to increase by 27 per cent during the same period, a total of 1()'2 million cars throughout Australia. The time spent in a car is also important. It is estimated that urban consumers can spend from a quarter to a third of their peak hour journeys stationary in a car. New arterial roads, by-passes and freeways are required to overcome this problem.

The Hon. W. R. Baxter-That sounds like a good argument to move to the country.

The Hon. G. R. COX-It does indeed. It is an insidious problem that has developed. It is an enormous problem because the increased demands placed on our roads system means that the lifespan of roads is diminishing and pavements are breaking down faster than expected. Sufficient funding is not being allocated to repair the road system.

I am also concerned about community volunteers. Other speakers in the debate have talked about the reduction in services generally in their electorates. I received a letter from an organisation called Personal Emergency Service which says that on 13 September the chairman, Mr John Skinner, received a letter from the Acting Director of the Office of Psychiatric Services advising him that funding for the service would cease effectively from 31 December 1989. The orpnisation should be nurtured and helped. What will the community do when the servIce ceases?

The organisation was initially called the Suicide Prevention Service and during the past few years the service has received approximately 28 000 calls for help. It has 200 volunteers, and more than two-thirds of the calls for help come from people suffering psychiatric problems. The health system is already overloaded, as the Minister for Health is well aware. The people who work in voluntary organisations are very important to the community. The Personal Emergency Service received $180000 funding last year from Health Department Victoria, but that fundin$ will cease. I shall take this matter up with the Minister for Health at the appropriate tIme.

I conclude my remarks on the tourism industry and the development of that industry. Very few in Victoria originally talked about tourism but from a small base the industry has developed enormously to the extent that worldwide it employs one out of every sixteen people. It is the world's largest industry by sales, and money generated from the industry exceeds the gross national product of the United Kingdom and the Federal Republic of West Germany combined. Expenditure on tourism is the third largest item of consumer spending behind food and housing. The value of tourism travel is estimated to exceed the combined automotive, steel and textile industries of the United States of America and France. Tourism in Australia employs more people than the agriculture, electronics, steel and textile industries combined. The community

Appropriation and Works and Services Bills 24 October 1989 C,)UNCIL 871

generally is not aware of the large number of visitors to this country and the benefits that can be gained from tourism.

The number of tourists visiting Australia is decreasing. The March figures show a decline of 3 per cent in overseas visitors when compared with March of the previous year; 180 000 tourists visited Australia in March of this year compared with 185 200 in March 1988. The growth in tourism has slowed to 2·4 per cent, well below the government's target of 7 per cent annual growth up to the year 2000.

Increased tourism requires better services and facilities. Young people should be encouraged to enter the industry. Many young people who present for training in the industry cannot receive employment because facilities are not available to train them.

Australians should also be concerned and consider the reasons why overseas visitors come to this country. Overseas visitors want to see a cultural heritage and physical environment which are part of our quality of life. Australians should be concerned about preserving the facilities as many are irreplaceable.

It is estimated that the disastrous dispute with the domestic airline pilots has caused a loss of more than $340 million to the tourism industry. The Victorian government is not paying enough attention to tourism. The Minister for Tourism has too many hats to wear and cannot give the emphasis required to develop tourism in Victoria.

Many of the people to whom I have talked to, ranging from those working in the snowfields to other development areas are not satisfied with the tourism policies of the Labor government and the manner in which it has handled the tourist industry. When the Liberal Party is elected to government more emphasis will be given to tourism.

In 1982 the Premier, when the Leader of the Opposition, said that an incoming Labor government would reduce the cost of gas for every citizen by 5 cents in every dollar, would reduce water rates and would put in place a formula to reduce municipal rates and so on. A senior Labor shadow Minister at that time was reported as saying, "Tell the electorate anything, get into government and then tell them there is no money left in the till". That is precisely the tactic that the Labor government adopted.

I wonder what the next Liberal government will find when it examines the till. I am sure it will be much emptier than the Labor government's unsubstantiated claim about the previous Liberal government. The loss of $31 000 million on various enterprises will certainly lead to leaner times.

The Hon. J. G. MILES (Templestowe Province)-I shall speak briefly on the Bills because some of what I want to say I said during the debate on the Budget Papers.

The Budget highlights the government's financial waste and mismanagement. Some $31 000 million has been lost through the Victorian Economic Development Corporation, the Victorian Investment Corporation, State Bank Victoria, Tricontinental Corporation Ltd and WorkCare, the failures of which are well known to the Victorian public. Any reputation the Treasurer had as an economic manager has been destroyed. Unfortunately the last election was called before the full extent of the government's economic failures could be made known. It is now obvious that the government has failed as an economic manager, and the Budget is yet another attempt to cover up the failure.

I have referred to the government's attempt to take $21·5 million from the racing industry. The government has also lost the staging of the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix-which would have brought $45 million in revenue to the State-because of its


mismanagement of negotiations with the race promoter. Budget Paper No. 5 states at page 220:

The department also sought to foster sports tourism by providing a total of $20 1 000 for the promotion and conduct of a number of international sporting events during 1988-89, such as the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island.

An amount of$21· 7 million has been allocated for this program in 1989-90.

That is, to promote the economic development of the sport and recreation industry. The promise to allocate $21·7 million for the promotion of sport and recreation is now hollow. The Grand Prix has been lost, despite the promise made in the Budget and the allocation of money to promote it. One wonders why the government intends to take $21·5 million from the racing industry when it is unwisely spending $21·7 million to promote sport and recreation.

The Grand Prix was supposed to be a showpiece to aid Victoria's bid for the 1996 Olympic Games. Although the staging of the Grand Prix was a success the government did not enter into the spirit of things until late in the piece. Its success was due to the efforts of the local and international motorcycle unions and the promoter, Bob Bamard, although the government attempted to claim some credit through the appearance of the Premier at the presentation ceremony.

The staging of the Grand Prix was an attempt to show people throughout the world, including International Olympic Federation delegates, that Victoria could successfully run a major sporting event. One wonders what the IOC delegates are thinking now. If I were a delegate I would be thinking that the government could not run a chook raffle. It was partly by accident that the Grand Prix was staged in Victoria. Because of the Premier's and Treasurer's lack of negotiating skills, the Grand Prix has been lost to New South Wales. As a result the government used taxpayers' money to take legal action against Mr Barnard to ensure that the Grand Prix was staged at Phillip Island. It was found that the contract between Mr Barnard and the Australian Autocycle Union was watertight and that he could promote the event anywhere in Australia. The government should have ensured that Mr Barnard's contract stipulated that the event could be staged only at Phillip Island.

If the government is not more careful in its administration of the Tobacco Act it is possible that test and world series cricket will no longer be played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Although much has been made of the satisfactory negotiations between the Australian Cricket Board, the Melbourne Cricket Ground Trustees, the Victorian Cricket Association and the Benson and Hedges company, which sponsors such cricket, honourable members should be aware that the future of international cricket being staged in Melbourne is in the balance.

Before the Tobacco Bill was passed by Parliament the Opposition inserted a clause that enabled the government to exempt the staging of major sporting functions from the excesses of the provisions restricting tobacco advertising at such events. The government did not make use of that provision with the motorcycle Grand Prix, and if it does not use it regarding advertising at the MCG, international cricket may be lost to Melbourne. The Victorian cricketers Mervyn Hughes and Dean Jones played important roles in the recent successful Ashes tour. Victorian cricket followers may be denied the opportunity of seeing Hughes and Jones in action next year if the government does not properly administer the Tobacco Act.

Melbourne is still chasing the Olympic Games; but if the government remains involved in the bid the games can be written off, too. The only chance of success is if the government keeps out of the negotiations and they are left to Kevan Gosper and the other members of the Australian Olympic Federation.


The National Tennis Centre is, with only minor reservations, a success story, and has achieved international prominence. That success story has been partly undermined because the government has not delivered on its promise to replace parkland taken over to build the centre in Flinders Park. The promise was made four years ago and is yet to be honoured. This is a government that prides itself on its support for the environment.

Of course the National Tennis Centre has been successful, although in the past eighteen months it has lost the minor matter of $16·1 million, partly because of the excessive interest rates, despite its operational profit of more than $5 million. Who should we blame for those? The Federal Labor government has a deliberate policy of increasing interest rates to send ordinary people broke, as well as the National Tennis Centre. .

I turn now to the Eltham Cemetery, which of course honourable members would expect me to do. The matter of the 2 hectares of cemetery land, valued at approximately $2 million, is still in dispute between the Eltham Cemetery Trust and the Montsalvat Trust. In 1983 land valued at $55 000 was excised for the Montsalvat Trust but six years have passed without payment. That debt could now amount to $250 000 of taxpayers' money, which remains in dispute. The government has supported the Montsalvat Trust, virtually giving it taxpayers' land. In 1961 the land in dispute was sold to the cemetery trust by the owner of Montsalvat; in 1963 it was transferred to the Crown, and it was then reserved for Eltham Cemetery purposes in 1967. Honourable members are aware that an Order of the Governor in Council permanently reserved the land for cemetery purposes.

The government in collusion with the Montsalvat Trust or one of its members endeavoured on 21 December 1988 to hand the land back to Montsalvat Trust by stating that the Montsalvat complex was an historic building. When one examines the documentation one finds that it provides that 2 hectares of Crown land by Order of the Governor in Council be decreed to be part of an historic building. It was a neat trick that did not work because the Eltham Shire Council refused to amend the Eltham planning scheme to allow Crown land, the taxpayers' land, to be given free of charge to the Montsalvat Trust. It is a ploy that failed.

Recently various interested citizens in my province in the area of Eltham made representations to the Minister for Planning and Environment, the Ombudsman and the Director-General of Conservation, Forests and Lands to ascertain the status of the land and to ensure that the government did not make any other similar moves. On 7 June 1989 the Minister for Planning and Environment wrote to a constituent of mine:

Montsalvat, Hillcrest A venue, Eltham

Thank you for your letter of 10 March 1988 concerning an entry in the Government Gazette of 21 December 1988 detailing the inclusion of the Montsalvat complex on the Register of Historic Buildings.

I am satisfied that only land actually owned by the Montsalvat Trust can be regarded as being on the Register of Historic Buildings and that the gazetted designation reflects this---copy attached.

I understand that the Historic Buildings Council are investigating those portions of Montsalvat buildings which appear to stand on unreserved Crown land with a view to their possible inclusion on the Register of Government Buildings.

The Minister made it clear that the attempt by the government and the Montsalvat Trust on 21 December by Order of the Governor in Council to transfer the land to the Montsalvat Trust was completely rejected. People keep trying but the only way to change the status of land is by an Act of Parliament. The government has not

874 COUNCIL ~ 24 October 1989 Appropriation and Works and Services Bills

endeavoured to do that in the four years the land has been in dispute. On 30 June 1989 the Ombudsman said:

I have now received that information which I requested upon your complaint from Mr L. Foster, Director-General of the Department of Conservation, Forests and Lands. I attach copy of that advice which is I think self-explanatory for your information.

The Director-General of Conservation, Forests and Lands clearly stated that the area . under dispute was permanently reserved for cemetery purposes as notified in the

Government Gazetteof24 May 1967. The letter continues: You will note that in essence what Mr Foster is saying is that the future of the land is yet to be determined

and that the decision of exactly what will happen to it will be the responsibility of the Minister for Health. I should perhaps point out that as Ombudsman my jurisdiction does not extend to the investigation of decisions made by the elected representatives, nevertheless I can investigate any recommendations made by the staff of an authority which might cause the Minister to make a particular decision and perhaps that will be applicable in this case.

I shall not read the rest but the letter makes it clear. Honourable members do not seem to be interested in the matter, but the director-general made it clear to the government that the land was cemetery land and could not be transferred to the Montsalvat Trust unless by Act of Parliament.

I note a ray of sunshine in this House. Perhaps the Minister for Health is interested in overseeing a conference between the various interested parties in order that a compromise be reached so that this matter will not be brought up in the House during the next four or five years.

Earlier my colleagues referred to the matter of the extension of the freeway-I use the term "freeway" advisedly; not the Eastern Arterial car park, as it could be known. In 1985 it was Liberal Party policy to extend the Eastern Freeway from Doncaster to Ringwood. The Labor government said that there would be no more freeways and no extension. The then Minister for Transport, now the Minister for Police and Emergency Services, said, "No more freeways and no more extensions to freeways". The government realised when the Nunawading re-election was lost by it that the people of the area needed an extension of that road, otherwise it would lose many thousands of votes. After many studies on building an arterial road the Minister for Conservation, Forests and Lands succumbed to pressure from some of her constituents and from others outside her constituency who were concerned about the road, and now we have to have yet another study. This study is called the Eastern Arterial Extension and Ringwood Bypass Review. A few more words and a few more studies; 54 studies have been held and there will probably be 15 more studies before the matter is determined. This study is a load of nonsense! The Doncaster Templestowe News of Wednesday, 6 September 1989 says:

Mayor lashes Kennan-

The mayor is in good company. I notice that the Federal Minister for Aboriginal Affairs also lashed the Minister for Transport.

Honourable members interjecting.

The Hon. J. G. MILE8-1 am concerned about it, too. The Minister for Transport invented an outlandish scheme, which has invited condemnation from his party but he still blunders on in another place. The article in the Doncaster Templestowe News continues:

Doncaster-Templestowe Mayor, er Trevor Waring, has hit out at the State government decision to review its plans for the Eastern Freeway extension.


er Waring branded the decision a ploy to avoid a conservationist backlash before the next State election.

Of course, that is in the electorate of Ring wood which is narrowly held by the Minister in another place. The article continues:

He said he was concerned the fate of the proposed extension would be decided by political considerations and would not reflect the wishes of the majority of residents.

"Obviously the State government is concerned that a freeway will encounter such a backlash during its construction that they could well lose some of the critical seats in the surrounding electorates," he said.

The Minister for Transport, Mr Kennan, last Thursday announced the appointment of an independent panel to review the proposed extension from Doncaster Road to Ringwood and the Ringwood bypass.

The panel will review the current proposals and examine other options before announcing its recommendations in March.

In my four and a half years in Parliament I have noted many reviews of this particular matter. I have attended Doncaster and Templestowe council meetings and also the five-city mayoral committee on the extension of the freeway on several occasions. Only recently, three or four months ago, we were told that this is the last word. There are the plans on the wall. The road is starting in early 1990. The government and the Minister for Transport said "Yes" to it and now the Minister for Transport announces yet another review, giving in to pressure from some of the left-wingers in the party who are worried about votes but of course at the same time not particularly pleasing the City of Don caster and Templestowe.

Possibly at the next election the Minister for Transport may find himself out of a seat even in Broadmeadows because I believe there is strong opposition to his activities which are against the interests ofLabor Party constituents, against his own constituents. There is very strong feeling out there.

The Liberal Party strongly agrees that the freeway should be extended as a full freeway and not as an arterial car park. Of course the failure of the government to act in this area, its repeated changes of mind, the vacillation, the repeated delays, are aggravating the people in these areas. I have explained clearly that the Liberal Party is in favour of the extension of the Eastern Freeway. It is our policy, as my colleague Mr Cox said earlier.

I have mentioned a few items in the Budget and associated with the Budget which indicate the arrant failure of this government in every aspect of economic management. It is, of course, governing as a result of rushing through an early election before the full extent of the VEDC, Tricontinental, WorkCare and other failures were clear. It went to the election on a false premise, with information not being available to the Victorian public. If an election were held now it would result in a landslide defeat of the government.

The government has also attached several economic Bills to the Budget such as the Racing (TAB) Surplus Bill. It would not have the courage to deal with it without making it a Budget Bill. That will be debated in this House when the Bill is introduced in a week or two.

The government has shown great examples of economic waste and mismanagement in many areas. I have emphasised the sporting area but there are many other areas of economic waste and mismanagement. The ALP's Budget and its failures exemplify that it does not deserve to govern. The early election was simply a ploy to cover up its mismanagement. The government should resign or be thrown out. The Budget Bill should not pass. If it does pass, the government will continue to lose taxpayers' money over the next three years, or whenever the State election is held.


Victorians are waking up to the colossal failure in the economic area of this government which prides itself on its economic mismanagement. The end of this government is inevitable, later if not sooner.

The PRESIDENT-Order! I shall deal with the Appropriation (1989-90, No. 1) Bill. The question is:

That this Bill be now read a second time.


The Bill was read a second time, and it was ordered. that it be committed on the next day of meeting.

The PRESIDENT -Order! I shall now deal with the Works and Services (Ancillary Provisions, 1989-90, No. 2) Bill. The question is:

That this Bill be now read a second time.

The motion was agreed to, and the Bill was read a second time.

On the motion, by leave, of the Hon. C. J. Hogg (Minister for Health), for the Hon. D. R. WHITE (Minister Assisting the Treasurer), it was ordered that the Bill be read a third time on the next day of meeting.

The PRESIDENT -Order! A further question is: That the Council take note of the Budget Papers 1989-90.


ADJOURNMENT Amendment to Knox planning scheme-Superannuation for part-time municipal

employees-State Additional Apprenticeships Scheme-Overtime cutbacks at Kew Cottages-Cannabis literature-Personal Emergency Service-Nursing home bed funding-B-double petrol tankers-24-hour police stations in Q districtRedundancy payments for V /Line employees-Roads Corporation office, WodongaOne-use syringes-Effects on South Melbourne of proposed Western bypassLicensed vehicle testers in Seymour

The Hon. C. J. HOGG (Minister for Health)-I move: That the House do now adjourn.

The Hon. G. B. ASHMAN (Boronia Province)-I wish to raise a matter with the Minister for Housing and Construction, representing the Minister for Planning and Environment, which involves a planning amendment sought by the City of Knox to two properties on Burwood Highway. The properties are on the corner. of Wesley Street and Burwood Highway. They are generally known as Nos 889 and 891 Burwood Highway. Currently there are two old weatherboard residences on these two allotments, both in a run-down condition and not suitable for habitation.

There has been an application, supported by the council, for an amendment to the Knox planning scheme. It is amendment No. L3, Part 2, seekin~ that these two blocks be rezoned to light industrial and offices. The Minister has rejected the application, indicating that the zoning for these properties should remain residential. I believe the rejection has been made either in isolation or without full knowledge of the circumstances surrounding this land.

I reiterate that the land is on Burwood Highway. Some 25 000 vehicles per day pass these two sites. To the west of the two properties there is a wholesale fruit and


vegetable distributor and semi-trailers and trucks are coming and going throughout the evening, and also there is a motor car dealership, a carpet distribution outlet and a service station. To the east of the site there are four or five shops, a steel fabrication plant and a number of other industrial activities.

To the rear of the properties there are several industrial properties and small factories and on the opposite side of the road there are some retail bulk store outlets and a timber yard. There are no residential properties on Burwood Highway within a kilometre east or west of these two properties.

It seems to me that these two properties are not suitable for residential development or redevelopment. They would certainly not be the place that any honourable member would seek to bring up a family. The noise level of these properties would be extremely high which would make the quality of life rather poor.

I ask the Minister whether he could take up this matter and in fact be prepared to pursue a rezoning because the present residential zoning of this land appears to be quite inappropriate.

The Hon. R. M. HALLAM (Western Province)-I wish to raise with the Minister for Local Government an issue which is causing considerable concern throughout local government. It relates to the question of superannuation entitlements to parttime employees in local government.

I am not qualified to canvass the legalities of the current system but the prospect of enormous potential liabilities is facing most municipalities, at least in respect of superannuation entitlements to part-time employees. The issue was first raised by the Local Authorities Superannuation Board last June in its publication entitled Comment which reported not only that all part-time employees are entitled to superannuation but also that membership is mandatory. It has been put to the House on a previous occasion that that concept is crazy in that many employees working for very short periods of the week, and particularly those who may be working their way through university, for instance, would not be interested in superannuation membership and would see mandatory membership not as an entitlement but as some sort of imposition.

Mr Hall raised the issue with the Minister, who gave the House an assurance that she was investigating the matter, but I put it to the House and the Minister that the councils I represent are looking for something more specific. We are told that about 7000 employees are entitled, at least in the technical sense, to superannuation membership and that that membership should be back-dated to the time of commencement of their employment and the only barrier which may be significant is the statute of limitations. Councils throughout the State are therefore facin~ a substantial potential liability , coming as it does on top of cutbacks in road fundlng, Victoria Grants Commission allocations and library funding and this is a matter of grave concern. Those councils are seeking something more specific than an undertaking that the matter will be investigated, and I ask the Minister what she is prepared to offer in respect of that potential liability.

The Hon. M. T. TEHAN (Central Highlands Province)-I raise with the Minister for Health a matter with which she will be familiar-the implementation of the funding cuts for the State Additional Apprenticeships Scheme. As I visit variou. hospitals, it arises as an area of serious concern, and the chief executive officer or one of the board members of the Kyabram and District Memorial Community Hospital indicated that that hospital has two apprentices under this scheme and the impact of the reduction in funding and the requirement that the apprentices continue to be employed mean that the Kyabram hospital is looking at a bill of about $25 000 which was not anticipated in its budget, and nor should it have been.


Similarly, the Goulburn Valley Base Hospital at Shepparton has six apprentices and, with the tight budget that the Minister recognises, the hospital did not anticipate the additional funding needed to continue to employ these apprentices. No indication was given by the government that the funding would be cut and this demonstrates a lack of good faith to some degree by the government in pulling the rug from underneath what was a worthwhile scheme.

The Victorian Hospitals Association has taken up the matter and indicates that there are more than 100 apprentices in the various hospitals and these cuts are impacting on both large and small institutions. Mainly because it was not done with any forethought or communication or in the interests of the public hospitals who took these apprentices on in good faith under what was assessed as a good scheme, it has left a bitter taste and I do not believe the hospitals should have to carry the economic burden or the social impact it is having. I ask the Minister to look seriously at this matter and, if there is any way to get around it, to make her best endeavours to do so.

The Hon. R. A. BEST (North Western Province)-I raise with the Minister for Health representing the Minister for Community Services the cutback in funding on the overtime bill for Kew Cottages. This matter has been brought to my attention by a family who lives in Goornong, some 15 or 20 miles from Bendigo, who decided some years ago that they could not adequately look after a disabled child and would send him to Kew Cottages. In a recent newsletter it is stated that the overtime bill has been cut by the State. The plan is, I believe, to reduce the holiday that children spend at the Tootgarook holiday house. The children will now be eligible for three days every two years instead ofa week's holiday as in the past.

It is disturbing that for the sake of $20 000 we are not able to see those children enjoy a week's holiday, and I ask the Minister to bring to the attention of the Minister for Community Services this serious problem. The children are already handicapped and this cutback is placing them at a severe disadvantage against members of the work force in Victoria who have four weeks annual leave with 17·5 per cent loading. For $20 000 this matter could be addressed and overcome, and I ask the Minister to bring it to the attention of the Minister for Community Services.

The Hon. R. A. MACKENZIE (Geelong Province)-I raise a matter for the attention of the Minister for Health. Some time ago I raised with her the concern I and other people had that the literature provided by Health Department Victoria about marijuana or cannabis was outdated. The Minister investigated that matter for me and the indication from the department was that it did not feel the literature was out of date, that research available at the time showed its pamphlets to be adequate and to reflect what was known about cannabis up to that time.

I direct to the attention of the Minister a book launched this week entitled The Cannabis Connection by Elaine Waiters, who was granted a research scholarship to study this problem overseas. As a result of her visit in 1988 to countries including Sweden, the United Nations, Austria, the United States of America and Spain she has written this book, a copy of which I gave to the Parliamentary Library today.

In Victoria, and I think it is much the same in other States of Australia, to give a typical example, the pamphlet put out by the then Health Department in 1987 asks the question:

What happens if you use cannabis for a long time?

This is an information booklet by the department. The answer is: The long-term effects of regular use of cannabis are still being investigated but there is some evidence

that it is linked with respiratory problems such as bronchitis and asthma.


The United Nations commission pamphlet on narcotics says: ... marijuana is very dangerous. Extensive research has indicated that marijuana impairs short-term memory and slows learning, interferes with normal reproductive functions; adversely affects heart functions; has serious effects on perception and skilled performance, such as driving and other complex tasks involving judgment or fine motor skills and greatly impairs lung and respiratory functions. A marijuana cigarette contains more cancer causing agents than the strongest tobacco cigarette . ... The National Swedish Board of Health and Welfare states:

The part of the brain functioning as the centre for memory, emotions and instincts is the most affected by smoking hashish. These functions are changed. This explains some of the most common symptoms of hash smoking-changes in perception of time, experience of emotion, dreams, memory lapses, feeling of satisfaction, etc. This means that the abuser is unfit to drive a car after just one dose of cannabis. We also know that ingestion of cannabis increases the effects of alcohol and vice versa.

The PRESIDENT-Order! I think the quotation is becoming a little long.

The Hon. R. A. MACKENZIE-The United States Surgeon General issued the following statement in 1982:

As Surgeon General, I urge other physicians and professionals to advise parents and patients about the harmful effects of using marijuana and to urge discontinuation of its use.

In light of that information will the Minister ask the department to examine the information? I believe it is inadvertent misinformation, and young people should be warned that they are playing with a dangerous substance if they use marijuana.

The Hon. G. H. COX (Nunawading Province)-The matter I raise with the Minister for Health relates to the Personal Emergency Service, which has been notified that funding for its voluntary telephone organisation will cease, effective from 31 December.

In a press release the organisation points out that it has 200 volunteers and the service receives $180000 in funding each year from the Office of Psychiatric Services, but that it received 28 000 anonymous cries for help each year. The Personal Emergency Service was originally called the Suicide Prevention Service and it is concerned about what will happen to the 28 000 anonymous callers each year if the service ceases.

The service makes other claims but, in the main, it cannot understand that at a time of increasing deinstitutionalisation when people have psychiatric disabilities and are looking for community support the government is cutting proven community-based programs. This particular program has been in force for three decades, has been assisting people with urgent psychiatric problems and is the Southern Hemisphere's first 24-hour seven-day-a week telephone counselling crisis intervention service.

The 200 volunteers who work on the telephone demand a twelve-month moratorium on the closure of the Personal Emergency Service to enable the consultation process for the Ministerial review of telephone counselling to take place.

The Hon. ROBERT LA WSON (Higinbotham Province)-I address my remarks to the Minister Assisting the Treasurer, who is the representative in this place of the Treasurer.

The Hon. D. R. White-With enthusiasm.

The Hon. ROBERT LA WSON-I am a little put out because I heard Mr Hallam speak on the same subject as that on which I wish to address the Minister.

The PRESIDENT -Order! Mr Lawson is not in order.

The Hon. ROBERT LA WSON-I shall talk about a different aspect, one that deals with the problems of the City of Moorabbin. It has a difficulty with mandatory superannuation for part-time employees in local government. This is expensive to


administer and most of the part-time employees are not interested in superannuation. A number of employees work only two or three hours a week as crossing supervisors, play leaders or home helpers or carry out various tasks which require a few hours attendance every day. Generally they are students or have occupations elsewhere and are not interested in long-term or full-time employment with the council.

The City of Moorabbin wishes to have the Local Authorities Superannuation Act changed for that reason. I urge the Minister to approach the Treasurer to inquire whether it is possible to alter the Act in respect of part-time municipal employees.

The Hon. G. P. CONNARD (Higinbotham Province)-:-I direct to the attention of the Minister for Health the matter of increasing the number of nursin$ home beds. It is not necessary for me to inform the House of the acute need for nurSIng home beds, particularly with an ageing population, Even with the Commonwealth's target figure of 40 beds for each 1000 people aged 70 years and over, I ask an interrelated question: is the Victorian government's target figure greater or smaller? While some planning figure approaching it lags between the collection of demographic data, developing proposals, approvals for nursing home construction and actual construction, and commissioning of new beds imposes about a five to six-year delay, this is unacceptable in a situation where ~owth rates for demand in some areas are 4 per cent a year. This is ample demographIC data that these areas over a short period are predictable with a high degree of certainty.

Since the Commonwealth government withdrew capital investment but still remains responsible for the maintenance of nursing home beds, State capital investment in the public sector will be needed even if the oldest nursing home beds are progressively decommissioned and smaller, modern units established to meet developing needs.

Is the Victorian target figure 40 beds per thousand? If not, what is it, and what capital provisions will the Victorian Ministry make over the next two or three years for the building of public sector beds and the recommissioning of public sector nursing home beds?

The Hon. B. A. CHAMBERLAIN (Western Province)-The matter I direct to the attention of the Minister for Housing, who is the representative of the Minister for Transport, is in relation to the operation of a large petrol depot in Portland run by the Shell Company of Australia Ltd and the difficult outlook facing that company as a result of a decision by the Minister for Transport. Most petrol coming into Portland is carried by ship and comes in large quantities, and it is economical for ships to unload in the port. The Shell company has received a permit to run B-double transports from Adelaide to Mount Gambier, and the proposal is that part of the load will go to Mount Gambier and the transport will continue over the border to Portland.

An application was made to the Minister for Transport for the operation of B-double trucks into Portland and was rejected. The net effect will be that the fuel will come into Mount Gambier from Adelaide, and from Mount Gambier by conventional truck that will service western Victoria. Consequently, the amount offuel required in the Portland area will diminish to such an extent that it will not warrant ships dropping off fuel through the port of Portland. The decision by the Minister will have a disastrous impact on Portland, firstly, on the availability of that continued fuel operation in Portland and the loss of employment of some ten to twelve employees, and, secondly, the loss of the strategic advantage of having a large fuel storage in Portland.

I ask the Minister to refer the matter to his colleague and to ask him to reconsider the decision he has apparently made. I ask the Minister to point out to him that good roads are available between Mount Gambier and Portland if B-double transports,


which carry fuel from Adelaide to Mount Gambier, are allowed to continue to operate into Victoria.

The Hon. B. A. E. SKEGGS (Templestowe Province)-I direct a matter to the attention of the Minister for Industry, Technology and Resources, who is the representative in this place of the Minister for Police and Emer~ency Services. I seek an undertaking from the Minister for Police and Emergency SefVlceS that the projected implementation next year of Operation Arbiter will not disadvantage the level of police service to the Shire of Eltham and that the Eltham police station will be made a 24-hour complex before the plan is implemented.

Operation Arbiter envisages the reclassification of police districts and removes the City of Doncaster and Templestowe with its 24-hour police station from the present Q district. That would leave only Greensborough and Heidelberg police stations operating on a 24-hour basis in the present area. Police vans on 24-hour service are obliged to go far afield. If a van were required to go to Kinglake, for example, the more densely populated areas, such as Heidelberg and Eltham, would be left without a service for a longer period unless there was a back-up vehicle from a second 24-hour station. That would place people in those populous areas at a disadvantage.

Presently 24-hour police stations service both Heidelberg and DoncasterTemplestowe. I am concerned to ensure that something is done so that the new H district, which is proposed under Operation Arbiter, will provide for a replacement 24-hour police station. There are currently four divisions in Q district: division 1 services Heidelberg, including Heidelberg West; division 2 services Preston, including Reservoir; division 3 services Doncaster-Templestowe, including Eltham, Warrandyte and Hurstbridge; and division 4 services Greensborough and areas as far as Thomastown, Epping, Diamond Creek and Whittlesea.

I commend to the Minister for Industry, Technology and Resources strong representation to his Ministerial colleague to ensure that a replacement 24-hour police station operates in the reclassified area.

The Hon. R. S. de FEGELY (Ballarat Province)-I direct to the attention of the Minister for Housing and Construction, who is the representative in this place of the Minister for Transport, a matter that has been brought to the attention of the honourable member for Ripon in the other place, Mr Austin, and myself. It is an appeal from 25 V/Line employees in Ararat.

Some of these employees became redundant up to two years ago, but they are still awaiting severance pay from V/Line. Those people are forced to turn up to work every day but they have no jobs to do. All they can do is play cards or some other game to fill in time. If they take a day off, it is classified as sick leave, which results in a reduction in the amount V/Line has to pay them in accrued benefits. It appears that V/Line is hoping that the employees will get fed up with the situation, resign and thus free V/Line from making the redundancy payments.

Many of the employees involved are young and have young families. They wish to re-establish themselves in other occupations; however, they cannot afford to resign and leave behind the money justly due to them. It appears that the union has been of little help and that some type of deal has been done with the government.

When the honourable member for Ripon in the other place and I endeavoured to get the names of the employees so that we could inform the Minister about the matter, they refused to give their names on the advice of the union, which claimed that employees in another area who had given their names had been victimised by V/Line and the Minister. This appalling situation makes me wonder whether we are still living in Australia!

Session 1989- 30


I ask the Minister for Housing and Construction to direct this matter to the attention of the Minister for Transport as a matter of urgency. Apart from being an appalling waste of public money, it is also having a profound effect on many of the employees involved. I implore the Minister to give those employees their just deserts and allow them to get on with their lives now that opportunities in V/Line are no longer available to them. I ask that the matter be sorted out before a further 33 employees in Ararat whose jobs are to become redundant are placed in the same situation.

The Hon. W. R. BAXTER (North Eastern Province)-I direct a matter to the attention of the Minister for Housing and Construction, who is the representative in this place of the Minister for Transport. On previous occasions I have had cause both by correspondence and in personal discussions to raise with the Minister for Transport the lack of staff at the Wodonga office of what was formerly known as the Road Traffic Authority but which is now known as the Roads Corporation, or VIC ROADS or whatever it is. The government has an ongoing desire to constantly change the names of authorities.

The matter concerns the long delays that occur at the office when people go to pay their registration fees. Currently, there are delays of up to 45 minutes. I understand that the department is endeavouring to convince people to pay their registration fees at banks, through the mail or by some other means. Nevertheless, it is the largest taxgathering office in the province I represent and I should have thought that appropriat~ staff would be employed to deal with customers in a reasonable period.

Recently Telecom Australia performed a check on the office and, of the 4200 telephone calls to the office, only 2000 were answered. Less than 50 per cent of telephone calls are answered because there is insufficient staff to cope. That is not a good enough service for a government department to be providing to the taxpayers of the State, particularly those who are making substantial contributions to consolidated revenue, as are motorists.

A further matter concerning the office involves the testing of applicants for drivers licences for heavy vehicles. I am informed that some of the testers require applicants to reverse a semitrailer around a blind left-hand corner when it is customary and good practice that such a dangerous manoeuvre is not undertaken. If it is necessary to reverse into a laneway, one should approach it from the opposite direction to avoid the necessity of reversing blind, as is the case if one is backing around a left-hand corner.

I am also informed that applicants are often required to reverse in an S-shaped manoeuvre in a street and park on the wrong side of the street. I should have thought that that was illegal. It raises the question of liability if a motorist collides with a vehicle while it is on the wrong side of the road.

Ifa tester wants to assess an applicant's ability to reverse a vehicle-I concede that that is a valid request-the test should be conducted on department-owned land and not on a public highway. Such action poses a considerable danger to other motorists who quite rightly do not expect a semi-trailer to be reversing down a public street and parking on the wrong side of the road.

I ask the Minister to take up this matter with his colleague with a view to having the short staffing problem rectified and the matter of tests for semitrailer drivers clarified.

The Hon. ROSEMARY V ARTY (Nunawading Province )-1 direct to the attention of the Minister for Health the increasing number of syringes being found in public places. I have been contacted by both the City of Ringwood and the City of Box Hill about this matter.


Recently in the City of Ringwood there were incidents in which parks and gardens staff received puncture wounds from syringes hidden in the garden beds where the gardeners were weeding. Now they have their vehicles fitted with one-way opening syringe containers for disposal at the Maroondah Hospital, and the council staff have been made aware of the problem. They take additional care and wear gloves. Currently they are testing various types of gloves in attempts to overcome the problem.

In the City of Box Hill the same sorts of problems are being faced, particularly in two large shopping centres in the municipality. In addition, of course, there is the difficulty faced by people who daily use insulin and who also need to dispose safely of the needles they use.

One of the concerns of the City of Box Hill relates to street litter bins being so designed that needles are not able to protrude from the bins and the need also for council workers to lift those bins out of their stands with some safety. The council workers in Box Hill have been given syringe-disposal containers so that they can comply with the guidelines outlined by their union.

Councils of both the cities have expressed the view that further consideration should be given to the design and manufacture of a genuine one-use syringe, firstly to prevent the sharing of needles and, secondly, to complement the safety angle so that once the syringes are used there is some way of making them less dangerous to council workers in both cities.

The Hon. E. H. Walker-Is there such a thing? Has such a syringe been designed yet?

The Hon. ROSEMARY V ARTY -I am not sure. That is why I am seeking the Minister's advice as to what action her department is taking to ensure there is some liaison on this matter. It is becoming an important issue for all municipalities and their workers.

The Hon. REG MACEY (Monash Province)-I direct to the attention of the Minister for Housing and Construction in his capacity as representing the Minister for Transport, the continuing concern being expressed about the proposed Western bypass road.

I refer to Information Bulletin No. 2, issued by VIC ROADS and dated September 1989. I refer also to a recent seminar I attended on the proposed docklands project.

Putting the two sources of information together, it is quite clear that the government is proceeding with the planning of the proposed Western bypass road, rightly paying a great deal of attention to the concerns of the residents of Flemington and North Melbourne who will gain as a result of having trucks moved out of their residential streets.

According to the bulletin, one of the community benefits will be: reducing traffic, especially heavy trucks, in local areas so traffic measures can be implemented so as to improve the amenity oflocal streets.

I note that the environment effects statement will be made available in February next year for inspection by the community north of the Yarra. Public meetings will be held to discuss matters arising from the very extensive studies that have been carried out, but nothing has been done in relation ot the concerns of the residents in my electorate sO\lth of the Yarra.

Under the Freedom of Information Act I have been able to obtain a traffic study carried out in July of this year by TTM Consulting Pty Ltd, whose report points out that, on a conservative basis, some 11 000 additional vehicles a day will flow over the


Charles Grimes Bridge into South Melbourne as a consequence of the proposed Western bypass road. I am further advised, by an officer of the Roads Corporation, that between 19 and 20 per cent of that traffic will be commercial vehicles.

I ask the Minister for Housing and Construction to direct the matter to the attention of the Minister for Transport and to seek from him a response as to what consideration the government is ~ving to protecting the residents of my electorate from trucks that have been convenIently and quite properly diverted from the residential streets of North Melbourne and West Melbourne. No studies have been carried out to determine which road system those trucks will use. Will those trucks add to the degradation that was caused by the $overnment's lifting of the toll on the West Gate Bridge, which led to a hu~e increase In heavy traffic moving along the beachfront and other residential streets In my electorate? I ask that the matter be directed to the attention of Minister for Transport as a matter of urgency.

The Hon. D. M. EV ANS (North Eastern Province)-I direct a matter to the attention of the Minister for Housing and Construction, representing the Minister for Transport.

I refer to a meeting that I had on 25 July in Seymour with a number of licensed vehicle testers, at which was discussed the issue of testing vehicles for roadworthiness. After that meeting I wrote to the Minister for Transport on 4 August. I have had acknowledgment of receipt of that letter but no further correspondence, and the letter was written almost three months ago.

I ask that the Minister for Housing and Construction raise the matter with his colleague, the Minister for Transport, as it is now urgent that there be a reply to the genuine concerns of licensed vehicle testers in Seymour.

In order to reinforce his representations to his colleague, I indicate the following matters that are raised in the letter to which I have referred: ... very little information is available from the Road Traffic Authority to explain the regulations, the regulations themselves change from time to time, definitions are quite unclear ...

and explanations cannot be obtained. The letter continues: Licensed vehicle testers may also have considerable legal responsibilities, some of which are unclear.

Special test equipment is required, and the value of that equipment can be between $1000 and $2000 yet the standard fee to carry out a roadworthiness test is $ 14.60 for a motor car, and $21. 90 for a semitrailer prime mover ... the ability of inspectors to recognise an anti-pollution device was challenged ...

It was pointed out also that inspectors are unable always to recognise antipollution devices and that can place in jeopardy the vehicle tester's licence. There are problems also in respect of modified vehicles.

A further rather silly anomaly was drawn to my attention. Apparently under the regulations as they currently stand, in order to test a handbrake, the tester must undertake a moving test. Almost all modem cars are fitted with a dual braking system and if one uses the handbrake when the vehicle is moving it is likely to lead to the destruction of the handbrake. I made a request on behalf of the people in Seymour who strongly suggested that a senior officer from the Roads Corporation visit them to discuss the general issues with them.

I ask the Minister for Housing and Construction to convey my concern to the Minister for Transport so that after a period of three months an answer can be given to these vehicle testers in Seymour and they can be provided with some comfort.

The PRESIDENT -Before I call upon Ministers I direct the attention of the House to the fact that there are rules governing the debate on the motion for the adjournment of the sitting which have been circulated to honourable members. I think in most


cases members have had them twice. I ask members to read them again because the nature of the debate seems to be changing somewhat.

I do not propose to go through the rules, but whether an adjournment is sought at the beginning of the day or the adjournment is taken at the end of the day, in either case matters to be discussed must have an element of urgency about them.

Matters raised must normally be of recent occurrence or arise from a recent failure of the government to act in accordance with information brought to its attention. Unlike Appropriation or Supply debates the debate on the motion for the adjournment of the sitting is not really intended to give an opportunity for the raising of any subject which an honourable member thinks may be of some interest to the House or a Minister. There must be that element of urgency of action required or there must be something needing rectification which is of recent occurrence in some form or another.

I ask honourable members to read those rules again so that the debate on the motion for the adjournment of the sitting can be conducted in the spirit in which it has been intended and does not go beyond the wide latitude which past traditions have allowed.

The Hon. D. R. WHITE (Minister for Industry, Technology and Resources)-Mr Lawson raised the issue of mandatory superannuation for part-time employees at the Moorabbin city council and expressed a concern that many people who are employed in part-time circumstances do not want to be part of a mandatory superannuation scheme. I shall take up that matter with the Treasurer and with the Minister for Local Government in this House and provide a response to Mr Lawson.

Mr Skeggs raised an issue that has also been raised by the honourable member for Greensborough with the Minister for Police and Emergency Services regarding the impact of Operation Arbiter on a proposed 24-hour police station at Eltham. I shall take up that matter with the Minister for Police and Emergency Services.

The Hon. C. J. HOGG (Minister for Health)-In answer to Mrs Tehan, who asked about the State Additional Apprenticeships Scheme, in cases where there would be a genuine hardship it has been made clear by the Treasurer and by the Minister for the Arts that special attention would be paid in those particular cases. Indeed, I think there are a number of such cases within the health sector and I have written accordingly to the Treasurer.

In answer to Mr Best, I shall certainly take up the issue he raised about the Tootgarook holiday house and the holiday scheme for Kew Cottages residents with the Minister for Community Services and give him a reply as soon as possible.

In answer to Mr Mackenzie, I shall ask Health Department Victoria to consider again the pamphlet material on substances, especially with reference to cannabis, available to youth, in the light of the material he has raised.

Mr Cox raised a matter about the Personal Emergency Service that was in fact raised by Mrs Tehan in the last debate on the motion for the adjournment of the sitting. There has been a meeting since with the service, as I informed Mrs Tehan there would be, and a joint statement from the PES volunteer counsellors and from me was issued after that meeting. That statement is brief and I shall read it:

The Personal Emergency Service will not close and will continue to be funded by the health department but a review of its current operations would be undertaken.

The review of the service and agreement on alternative arrangements for it is expected to be completed by March 31 next year. There has been agreement between the health department and the PES volunteer counsellors to reinstate training of volunteer counsellors and that the cost of the training program would be carefully monitored.


The health department and the PES volunteer counsellors will hold regular meetings on the service's future unless agreement can be reached about alternative arrangements.

Alternative arrangements are really hospice arrangements more than anything else.

Mr Connard raised several interrelated matters. I look forward to replying in writing in some detail because I think he mentioned somewhat disingenuously that the matters raised were simple interrelated issues. In fact, I think they are complex interrelated issues and I shall reply to him as quickly as I can.

The matter raised by Mrs Varty about syringes and their disposal is a complicated one that causes a lot of concern to local government and to Health Department Victoria. I shall ensure that the people involved in the Statewide services section of the department are checking with local government on the best method of disposal of syringes, including the one-use syringe.

I think the communication between that section of Health Department Victoria and the Municipal Association of Victoria or, broadly speaking, local government is good. However, I shall double-check that. I realise that with summer approaching additional problems about the disposal of syringes will occur. The issue raised is timely.

The Hon. B. T. PULLEN (Minister for Housing and Construction)-Mr Ashman raised the matter of weatherboard residences in Knox that are apparently derelict and is concerned that the Minister for Planning and Environment is not responding to a proposal to rezone those residences away from residential areas. I shall convey the extra information provided to the Minister and ascertain whether he is prepared to review his decision.

Mr Chamberlain raised for the attention of the Minister for Transport the Shell company's use ofB-doubles on the road from Portland to Mount Gambier. I cannot pretend to understand the complexity of the reasons for that although I do know that B-doubles are wearing on roads. Mr Chamberlain has asked that the economic impact of the decision on the area be considered and I shall undertake to pass that on to the Minister.

Mr de Fegely also raised a matter relating to transport and described the problems of 25 V/Line employees. Some of the things he claims would be disappointing if they were true. I shall convey that information to the Minister for Transport for a response.

Mr Baxter raised with the Minister for Transport the lack of staffing in the Wodonga office of the Roads Corporation in processing people who come there to pay registration and also, as I understand his comments, lack of response to telephone calls. I shall check that with the Minister for Transport.

Mr Macey raised an issue that he has raised in a different way before about traffic that could flow from the implementation of the proposed Western bypass. I shall take up that matter with the Minister for Transport. I understand there have been meetings with local councils on the matter and some assurances have been given about the effects of traffic. However, I shall pass on the information he has given me to the Minister for a response.

Finally, Mr Evans raised a matter on transport in relation to licence vehicle testers having problems obtaining information and clarity about their role in relation to licence testing at Seymour. He said he had written to the Minister about that. I shall open up the matter again with the Minister for Transport in the terms raised by Mr Evans.

The Hon. M. A. LYSTER (Minister for Local Government)-Mr Hallam raised a matter that was raised last in this House on 10 October by Mr Macey. At that time I

Question on Notice 24 October 1989 COUNCIL 887

addressed my attention to the confusion that I believe had existed in the minds of some people in local government about delineation of part-time and casual workers and the impact of recent letters from the Local Authorities Superannuation Board. I touched only on the retrospectivity issue at that time. I shall now pursue the issue raised by Mr Hallam.

Earlier this year the Local Authorities Superannuation Board established a working party that included representatives of the Municipal Association of Victoria, the Metropolitan Municipal Association, the Municipal Officers Association of Australia and the Municipal Employees Union-the relevant unions-as well as other people. The working party made recommendations that, I believe, were unanimous: firstly, that part-time employees should be covered by superannuation as soon as possible; and, secondly, that appropriate arrangements should be made on the issue of retrospectivity.

I reiterate that I am not prepared to introduce an amendment to the existing legislation to remove access to superannuation for part-time employees, and I have made that statement previously in the House.

The Hon. R. M. Hallam-But it's not access we're worried about!

The Hon. M. A. LYSTER-No, the point Mr Hallam raised was the major concern of councils, and certainly the concern that has come across in the letters they have written to me, of the possible cost of retrospectivity. I believe that issue has been discussed at the Local Authorities Superannuation Board. Consideration has been given to limiting in some way the claims that could be made on retrospectivity, and I understand the period of six years has been mentioned.

I am not confident enough of the progress of those discussions to provide Mr Hallam with a definite answer tonight. I have asked the Local Government Department representative on the board to report back to me on the progress of those discussions. I shall speak with that representative tomorrow morning and advise Mr Hallam of the progress of those discussions as soon as possible. Similarly, I shall be advising local government of the progress of those discussions because I am aware of the considerable concern being expressed about the potential cost of this retrospective element.


The House adjourned at 11.12 p. m.

QUESTION ON NOTICE

TASK FORCE COOPERATIVE (Question No. 66)

The Hon. M. A. BIRRELL (East Yarra Province) asked the Minister for Health: (a) When was-(i) the Minister; and (ii) Health Department Victoria, advised of the report, dated

1 July 1986, by M. B. Hodges, a senior inspector reporting to the Registrar of General Cooperatives, which raised serious doubts about the management of public funds by the Task Force Cooperative?

(b) What action did-(i) the Minister; and (ii) the department, take in response to the report and when was such action taken?

888 COUNCIL 24 October 1989 Question on Notice

(c) What independent inquiries were initiated by the department or other government agencies into any breaches of the law or unethical behaviour by people associated with the Task Force Cooperative?

The Hon. C. J. HOGG (Minister for Health)-The answer is: (a) (i) The former Minister for Health, the Honourable David White, was advised of the report, dated

1 July 1986, into the management of public funds by the Task Force Cooperative on 23 December 1986.

(ii) Officers of Health Department Victoria were advised of the report outlined above on 8 July 1986.

(b) (i) Health Department Victoria chose to support the maintenance of the Task Force Cooperative, as the service provision had always been well regarded, was well located and suited to the alcohol and drug service needs of the area.

The former Minister for Health, the Honourable David White, advised the three other Ministers involved in funding Task Force Cooperative-the Minister for Community Services, the Minister for Labour and the Federal Minister for Employment and Industrial Affairs-of the financial difficulties of the cooperative. Mr White requested their assistance in giving ongoing assistance and financial support to the cooperative in its endeavours to rectify the financial situation inherited by the newly-elected management committee.

The former Minister also approved a grant of $44 000 to the Task Force Cooperative to assist them to reduce the financial debt inherited by the new management committee.

(ii) Officers of Health Department Victoria in consultation with officers from the Ministry of Housing, Community Services Victoria, Bureau of Youth Affairs, Community Youth Support Scheme and Health Department Victoria legal advisers, requested that the Registrar of Cooperatives undertake a special investigation under Part IV of the Co-operation Act 1981. This commenced in late July 1986 following the release of the 1 July 1986 report.

Health Department Victoria also advised the former Minister for Health, the Honourable David White of this situation on 23 December 1986 and requested approval for an advance of $44 000 to the Task Force Cooperative to reduce the financial debt inherited by the new management committee. The department also requested that the Minister advise the other relevant Ministers involved in funding the Task Force Cooperative and seek their financial assistance in reducing the Task Force Cooperative's financial debt.

Additionally, a finance officer from the Alcohol and Drug Services Unit ofHDV, established appropriate accounting procedures and reporting requirements for HDV funding to the cooperative.

(c) Officers of the Registrar of General Cooperatives were requested to continue their investigations into the Task Force Cooperative, following the 1 July 1986 report, by undertaking a special investigation under Part IV of the Co-operation Act 1981. This investigation included determining the possible statutory and/or criminal offences which may have been committed, and whether instituting legal action against former directors and officers of Task Force Cooperative was required.


Wednesday, 25 October 1989

The PRESIDENT (the Hon. A. J. Hunt) took the chair at 2.2 p.m. and read the prayer.


QUEEN VICTORIA HOSPITAL SITE The Hon. M. A. BIRRELL (East Yarra Province)-I refer the Minister for Major

Projects to the development guidelines for the Queen Victoria hospital site prepared by the government for inclusion in a package of documents to be given to potential developers of the site, and I ask the Minister why the development guidelines fail to mention that one of the historic building's towers will be permanently tenanted by Victorian women's groups and why the development guidelines do not mention the desirability of retaining the histonc Swanston and Lonsdale street frontages of the building?

The Hon. E. H. WALKER (Minister for Major Projects)-In response to both questions, it is true that the three towers are to be retained and one of them, by agreement struck earlier this year, will be handed over to the women of this State. They will be supported in using that tower for a number of uses for women's groups.

I cannot remember precisely, because I do not have the document in front of me, what the development guidelines are. I accept Mr Birrell's comments that the use is not mentioned. He is no doubt correct; nonetheless the government is committed to that use.

The Hon. M. A. BirreU-You are not telling the developers that.

The Hon. E. H. W ALKER-I shall have a look at those guidelines and if necessary I shall be happy to provide them with that information by separate distribution. Clearly, the tower is to be used in that way.

Secondly, in regard to the Swanston Street frontage of the Queen Victoria buildings, I think Mr Birrell used the word "historic" in the general sense. I do not believe those buildings are on the Historic Buildings Register. It was an original intent not to retain any of the Queen Victoria hospital but, after debate and discussion, it was agreed that the three towers should be retained.

After consultation with the Melbourne City Council we were agreeable to allowing developers to show an interest in the site and if they believed the Swanston Street frontage buildings were valuable and could be used well they could suggest that course of action to us. We do not believe we will get a submission of that sort and it is our intention in the normal course of events to have the site cleared, other than the three towers in Lonsdale Street.

ANNUAL REPORTS OF HOSPITALS The Hon. W. R. BAXTER (North Eastern Province)-The Minister for Health will

be aware that as of this year for the first time 143 public hospitals are required to report direct to Parliament. I ask the Minister whether it is a fact that the Minister's department is requiring hospitals to provide more than 100 copies of their annual


reports to Parliament and, if so, how that figure was arrived at. Is it not a dreadful waste of paper and an unnecessary expense for already financially hard-pressed hospitals when clearly there is no possibility that every member of Parliament would want a copy of the report of each of the 143 hospitals?

The Hon. C. J. HOGG (Minister for Health)-I suspect that there is a lot more to Mr Baxter's question, but I think the sending of the annual reports may be a requirement of the Parliament. I will look at the matter and get back to him. Sometimes there is not much difference in the cost of a small print run and a medium print run. In terms of the use of paper, that might cause all of us in Parliament to rethink some of the requirements we have laid down in the past.

HIGHER EDUCATION IN OUTER EASTERN SUBURBS The Hon. B. W. MIER (Waverley Province )-Can the Minister responsible for

Post-Secondary Education inform the House of the government's attitude to the provision of higher education facilities in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne?

The Hon. E. H. WALKER (Minister responsible for Post-Secondary Education)Historically the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne, which are a major growth area and have been for years, have been served in higher education principally by Monash University and Victoria College and, to some degree, central city institutions and the Swinburne Institute of Technology. Recently the Swinburne institute moved to purchase the MDA Grammar School site at Mooroolbark and has expressed to me a desire to provide some programs on this proposed campus in the outer east. The Swinbume institute has also been negotiating a closer relationship with La Trobe University and Phillip Institute of Technology with the hope of amalgamation there, so that engineering programs that Swinburne institute offers at university level can be offered to the northern suburbs of Melbourne, thus helping to overcome problems in an area of urgent need.

Given that the needs of the outer east should be met and balanced, I have asked the VPSEC-Victorian Post-Secondary Education Commission-to investigate urgently, how best the MDA Grammar School site can be used to deliver higher education programs. Mr Michael Selway, a VPSEC commissioner, is conducting that investigation and is discussing that issue with Swinburne Institute of Technology, Monash University, Victoria College and La Trobe University. He will also be talking with academic staff associations and Commonwealth government officers. The terms of reference involve appropriate program profiles and the level of capital and recurrent funding available for development of the MDA Grammar School site. I will have that report in the second week of November and I confidently expect that some higher education programs will be delivered on the MDA site as early as 1990.

PROMOTION OF ARTS CITY GRANT The Hon. HADDON STOREY (East Yarra Province)-My question without notice

is addressed to the Minister for the Arts. I refer to newspaper reports of a $20 000 grant by the Ministry for the Arts to a Mrs Rosemary Ricker for a carnival to promote Arts City, a feature of which was to be a pancake race. Was the grant made and, ifso, has the money been spent, and on what activities?

The Hon. E. H. WALKER (Minister for the Arts)-Some months ago Mrs Rosemary Ricker made a proposal to undertake the organisation of a carnival that she wished to mount in order to promote the notion of Arts City. She had the idea of a family


afternoon-perhaps in Sturt Street or a nearby location in South Melbourne-which families could attend, and be entertained by a parade.

She had discussions with the Victorian College of the Arts in an endeavour to have the college participate in a parade. She also had the view that such a day could be preceded, perhaps on the previous night, by an arts ball. She was aiming to raise a significant amount of money to do that, and approached the Ministry for the Arts for support. If memory serves me correctly, she was hoping to raise more than $20 000.

Mrs Ricker was asking for support from the Ministry because she believed the concept would provide employment as well as enjoyment, and lift the image of the Arts City generally, and the image of the Victorian College of the Arts. The Ministry agreed to a one-off $20 000 grant being made to her. I cannot remember the exact date, but that occurred approximately two or three months ago.

Returning to the essential question, it was Mrs Ricker's view that the idea deserved some promotion, and I understand she was planning to have certain well-known citizens of this city in the near future take part in a pancake race to publicise her carnival idea.

An Honourable Member-What happened to the money?

The Hon. E. H. W ALKER-The money goes to the carnival. Mrs Ricker is raising the money on a voluntary basis, and doing an excellent job. Her idea to promote the carnival was to hold a pancake race-I think it was rather an imaginative idea. The $20 000 is not to be expended on the pancake race, but if she proceeds with the concept-who knows, it may even involve well-known honourable members from the Opposition taking part in that pancake race.

DECLINE IN HOUSING CONSTRUCTION The Hon. R. A. BEST (North Western Province)-In November last year the

Minister for Housing and Construction was pleased to report that the building industry had experienced strong growth which, he said, meant a very good year for the Victorian economy. As the September figures published by the Housing Industry Association show a massive decline of 52 per cent, on 1988 figures, in housing starts, is the Minister now prepared to concede that the industry is in crisis, and what action does he intend to take to address the crisis?

The Hon. B. T. PULLEN (Minister for Housing and Construction)-I thank the honourable member for his question but I disagree with his description of the current situation. I have had extensive discussions with representatives of the housing industry and, as many honourable members will be aware, although there has been a decline in the number of starts in Victoria, overall the situation is not one of crisis because one has to compare it with the historically extremely high levels of building activity in the previous year.

The general view in the industry is that the activity was probably too high to be sustained, and actually caused problems in relation to access to land, building costs and labour generally, and was partly responsible for the very high prices. The government is now looking to a return to some levels that are still actually and historically better than in the past. All indications show that the industry in Victoria is proving to be very resilient. The government is looking towards a smoothing out and, if one likes, a soft landing rather than any crash at all.

I refer now to what the ~overnment is doing apart from running the programs that are quite important in thetr own right in meeting need. I am speaking about funding for public housing and the support of home ownership. This year the government has


a target of providing some 5500 loans; that figure can be contrasted with the fewer than 1500 loans that were provided in the last year of the Liberal government.

The Hon. R. A. Best interjected.

The HOD. B. T. PULLEN-Honourable members opposite do not like to hear the truth. As well as bein$ very defendable in their own right, these measures have an important countercyclical effect in increasing demand, and that is appreciated by the industry.

At the same time, following discussions with industry representatives, the government is pursuing some joint activities. I have invited submissions from the Housing Industry Association, member builders, and people investing in the industry with ideas on how the government and the industry can overcome any problems that may arise in the smoothing out of the industry at present.

Therefore, I can assure Mr Best that the ~overnment is monitorin$, the situation very carefully and that there is close consultatIon with all areas of the buIlding industry on this matter.

VICTORIAN WINE EXPORTS The Hon. C. F. VAN BUREN (Eumemmerring Province)-I know the government

is keen to ensure- that Victoria has a good export market and that the balance of ~yments is reduced. Will the Minister for Industry, Technology and Resources Inform the House of the progress of the State government's program to boost Victorian wine exports?

The Hon. D. R. WHITE (Minister for Industry, Technology and Resources)-I am sure all honourable members will be interested in the development of the Victorian wine industry. In recent years particular attention has been directed towards boosting exports of Victoria's wine products, which are highly regarded overseas. The latest figures from the Australian Bure8.u of Statistics reveal that Victoria's export wine drive is becoming increasingly successful. This is a tribute to the people who have invested in the wine and grape industries.

The figures show a dramatic jump in export earnings for Victoria's wine industry during the last financial year. Whereas in 1986-87 Victoria's wine exports totalled $3·9 million, in 1987-88 they grew to $11·1 million, and last year soared to S 19·6 million. That means that in two years wine industry exports have increased almost sixfold. The wine industry's performance was so strong in 1988-89 that Victoria is now close to overtaking New South Wales as the country's second-biggest wine export earner.

Victorian wine is now consumed in more than 40 countries around the world, with the biggest sales being in the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Japan and Canada. It is also clear from those figures that the potential of the wine industry as an export earner is far greater than was realised in the early 1980s.

Last year the Victorian wine industry exported some 5·1 million litres of wine, which accounts for 8·3 per cent of the total Australian volume exported. In dollar terms, Victoria's share was 17 per cent of the Australian total of $114 million. This means that Victoria is receiving a better price for its exported wines than most of its rivals in other States, which is a clear reflection of the high quality of Victoria's wine products.

Results such as those achieved in 1988-89 obviously reflect the quality and professionalism of Victoria's wine industry. They also demonstrate that, through the


Department of Industry, Technology and Resources, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the horticultural council, the government has been providing support to the industry.

The Leader of the Opposition refers to Banana Alley. In terms of the commitment to the wine industry, no recent Minister for Industry, Technology and Resourcesone would have to go back to the lan Smith days-has made a greater commitment to that industry than the honourable member for Footscray, the Honourable Robert Fordham, who in a constructive way created the setting which has given the Victorian wine industry such impetus and produced such excellent growth in Victoria's exports.

The job ahead for the government, through the Department of Industry, Technology and Resources and the Department of A$ficulture and Rural Affairs, is to increase and maintain that commitment because It is clear, going into the 1990s, that with proper support there is a capacity for further significant expansion of the wine industry, given the performance over the past two years.

Honourable members interjecting. The Hon. D. R. WHITE-It is reasonable to give credit where it is due; and in this

case it is clear that the former Minister, the Honourable Robert Fordham, made an outstanding commitment to the industry. All wine growers share the view that he made that outstanding commitment. It is clear that the Leader of the Opposition is not as interested in the wine industry as he is in--

Honourable members interjecting. The PRESIDENT -Order! I cannot tolerate a series of interjections like that. If an

interjection is made, although disorderly, at least opportunity must be given to answer it, but six interjections in a row leave no opportunity to answer them at all. It is a disruption to the proceedings and nothing else, and will be treated as such.

PURCHASE OF AUSTRALIAN-MADE PRODUCTS The Hon. R. S. de FEGELY (Ballarat Province)-I ask the Minister for Industry,

Technology and Resources if it is a fact that the State Electricity Commission of Victoria recently accepted a tender for the supply of protective clothing that was manufactured in the Republic of China, and that thiS tender was won over at least one other Australian company which tendered for the supply of Australian-made clothing. How does the government reconcile that decision with. the government's "Buy Australian" campaign?

The Hon. D. R. WHITE (Minister for Industry, Technology and Resources)-Since the incident in Tiananmen Square earlier this year Australia's relations with the Republic of China have been conducted under close scrutiny by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Any dealing by the State government or instrumentalities must be approved by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and notification must be given to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet.

In respect of these purchases it is reasonable for Mr de Fegely to understand that, from time to time, it is not the responsibility of the Minister to be involved in the dayto-day running of the State Electricity Commission and therefore to be knowledgeable about every contract that is entered into for purchases of equipment.

The Hon. R. M. Hallam-That is what the Treasurer says!

The Hon. D. R. WHITE-In response to Mr Hallam's interjection I make it clear that, in my dealings with the SEC, I have regular meetings with the chairman and the


chief executive of the commission, just as I do with all the utilities that I deal with. A range of issues are discussed; they are always the major issues relating to that utility and normally number somewhere between 20 and 50 items. However, it does not mean that we would include in that list a tender for protective clothing.

The issue having been raised by Mr de Fegely, I am more than happy to ascertain whether it is in accordance with the guidelines of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the government's own arrangements in respect of local products, whereby a 20 per cent preference arrangement applies for local producers, whether they be in Victoria or any other State. The Commonwealth government is contemplating the abolition of its preference arrangement, but the State government still adheres to the 20 per cent preference arrangement, and I shall ensure that it applies in this case.

MUNICIPAL BOUNDARIES The Hon. D. M. EVANS (North Eastern Province)-I refer the Minister for Local

Government to the North-Eastern Region report on the restructuring of local government, which I understand has a cut-off date of 23 December. What action, if any, is the Minister continuing to take to implement the recommendations of that report? .

The Hon. M. A. LYSTER (Minister for Local Government)-I am aware of the cut-off date for the possible implementation of that report. Bearing that in mind, I wrote to all relevant councils some months ago, seeking their advice as to where discussions within their own councils and across council boundaries were placed at the moment, and seeking their views as to how they wanted me to address the matter of the imminent closing date for the implementation of the recommendations of the report.

I have since received correspondence from most of those councils. The responses vary and, accordingly, I am initiating meetings with smaller groups of the councils. About five weeks ago I met with the chief executives of most of the councils and I am meeting with representatives of the City of Wangaratta, the Shire of Wangaratta and the Shire ofOxley in a couple of weeks time. I hope I shall have the opportunity then of meeting also with some of the affected municipalities.

As I have said, my wish is to hear from the councils as to where they would like to take that report and as to the wishes of their communities. The responses have been diverse. Some of the municipalities would like to sit down with their neighbours to look at where their boundaries lie and where they could perhaps be amended to the satisfaction of their communities.

The important thing is that there is a cooperative feeling between those councils and myself. They know. that I want to hear their views. They know also that I shall not take precipitate action in respect of their boundaries.

QUALIFICATIONS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICERS The Hon. LICIA KOKOCINSKI (Melbourne West Province)-It has come to my

attention, as I imagine it has to the attention of several other honourable members on both sides of the House, that as a consequence of the new Local Government Act it appears that former municipal officers who have the appropriate qualifications are experiencing difficulty in having their qualifications accepted and they must apply for new certificates. Will the Minister for Local Government explain the situation?


The Hon. M. A. L YSTER (Minister for Local Government)-The matter has been raised with me by officers of my department, by the Institute of Municipal Management, and by some other local government organisations. It was never the intention to disadvantage or to disqualify any qualified council officer through the introduction of the new Local Government Act.

I state publicly that I will not be proclaiming the relevant sections of the Act until I have introduced appropriate amendments in the next sessional period.

Honourable members should not be disturbed or dismayed at the prospect of making amendments to the Local Government Act 1989. It was a most significant reformist piece of legislation. It was a huge task undertaken by the whole of the local government community over a number of years and it would be quite incredible if every part of that Act achieved what Parliament sought to achieve. That is true within the Act itself; it is true also of other pieces of legislation that come within other Ministerial jurisdictions.

I have told the local government community that I shall have no hesitation in introducing amendments to the Local Government Act if it is demonstrated by the industry that any section of the new Act does not work as intended.

I am pleased to take on board matters such as the one referred to by Ms Kokocinski. I signal my intention to propose amendments dealing with this matter in the next sessional period. The major parts of the Act will be proclaimed on 1 November. I should like to thank everyone in the local government community for the way in which they have approached the preparation and implementation of the Act.

WORKCARE AND TRANSPORT ACCIDENT COMMISSION PATIENTS

The Hon. M. T. TEHAN (Central Highlands Province)-In view of the breakdown in negotiations with the government, the Australian Medical Association has stated that it intends to direct its members not to treat WorkCare and Transport Accident Commission patients in their private practices after 1 November 1989. Has the Minister for Health made arrangements for public hospitals to be prepared for what will be a huge increase in their already crippling burden of patient throughput, involving both in-patients and outpatients?

The Hon. C. J. HOGG (Minister for Health)-The government is currently paying close attention to fees payable to doctors who treat WorkCare patients. An independent consultant whose name would be known to a number of honourable members, Mr Bernie McKay, has been employed to negotiate the new fee rates. He was previously the head of the Commonwealth Department of Health and has a detailed understanding and knowledge of medical fees payable by both the Commonwealth and hospitals. Discussions with the Australian Medical Association and Bernie McKay are taking place, and I understand the AMA is happy with the process.

As late as yesterday Mr McKay had spoken to the AMA, and the association indicated that there will not be a withdrawal of services next week while discussions are proceeding satisfactorily. I do not propose to say any more about that matter because the discussions are probably delicate. I am reassured by the advice Mr McKay has provided to the government, that there will not be a withdrawal of services next week.


PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES FOR INNER MELBOURNE AREA The Hon. JEAN McLEAN (Boronia Province )-Concern has been expressed

recently by police, shelters for the homeless and other community organisations about the lack of psychiatric outreach services in the inner Melbourne area, particularly when required outside normal working hours. Will the Minister for Health outline the government's response to the demands for improved services?

The Hon. C. J. HOGG (Minister for Health)-Several programs that will have a major impact on assessment, treatment, care and support for mentally ill people in the inner Melbourne area have been or are on the point of being introduced. Since early 1989 two community psychiatric nurses have been working with the homeless shelter population and theIr management, and management believes that has already resulted in improved access to services for needy people.

The recent Budget included the establishment of a community assessment and treatment team to provide 24-hour outreach services to people in the Melbourne-Essendon area. This team will focus on providing continuing care for those living in the community with severe mental illness, or disabilities arising from mental illness. It will also offer a much-needed capacity for crisis intervention when that is believed to be necessary. This service represents a greatly needed extension of the outreach program commenced by Health Department Victoria some time ago.

In addition to these initiatives, the Ellery Clinic, the Mount Alexander Centre and Royal Park Hospital will increasingly form part of an integrated network of special psychiatric services in the Melbourne-Essendon area.

Although there are many gaps that the government still wants to fill, some real initiatives have been taken that will lead to an increase in services on the ground. The government has a good record in this area.

HOUSING REDEVELOPMENTS ON PUBLIC LAND The Hon. G. H. COX (Nunawading Province)-Is the Minister for Local

Government aware of a report to the Melbourne City Council about the sell-off of public parks and infant welfare and child health centres for housing redevelopment? Will the Minister urgently investigate this report to the council by consultants with a view to preserving public parks and facilities for communities in the greatest need?

The Hon. M. A. L YSTER (Minister for Local Government)-Mr Cox raises a matter of which I have knowledge only from the newspaper reports I have read. Until and unless I have the opportunity of hearing anything from the Melbourne City Council, I hesitate to take any further action and, apart from that, I really cannot see that that would be within my jurisdiction.

This government has demonstrated, especially through the new Local Government Act, that it believes the relationships of councils, whether they are small rural councils or the Melbourne City Council, are important to the communities to whom they are accountable.

If there is any objection, I anticipate that it should come in the first instance from ratepayers who may choose to communicate with me but, I reiterate that my jurisdiction in this matter would be strictly limited.

LOW COST HOUSING DESIGN The Hon. JOAN COXSEDGE (Melbourne West Province)-One of the major

objectives of the Victorian government is to ensure that every person in Victoria has adequate and appropriate housing at a price within his or her means. I ask the Minister


for Housing and Construction what the government is doing to develop low cost options in housing design.

The Hon. B. T. PULLEN (Minister for Housing and Construction)-This question addresses a matter which was partly raised earlier. I am happy to advise the House of two things that the Ministry of Housing and Construction is doing which will assist people in gaining access to lower cost houses. The first is a joint venture which demonstrates what the Ministry is doing in conjunction with the Housing Industry Association and the Victorian Solar Energy Council. This is occurring in Mock Street, Forest Hill, and involves the design of blocks in such a way that the owners can utilise sunlight to reduce heating costs. Generally, the whole design is intended to reduce heating and other overheads.

The actual design makes use of a variety of block sizes which enables 30 per cent more blocks to be provided on the equivalent areas of land compared with normal subdivisions. This also enables prices to be reduced for the purchasers. This is done without loss of amenity in design and also provides for environmentally sensitive use of roads and footpaths. It is basically leading the way in this type of design. Nine family rental units are nearing completion, together with five units to be built by private builders, which will be on display as a demonstration to others who might want to follow this course.

The second initiative is the growth house, a further proposal which involves sensible and practical design. In association with the Urban Land Authority and private builders, the Ministry is developing designs so that first home buyers can build quality smaller houses to suit their immediate needs, which thereby lowers the cost of their investments at that stage. The houses are designed so that, if desired, home owners can add to the size of houses at a later stage. This is often more affordable and economic for home owners and simply adds to the size of houses which were designed as larger complete entities in the first place. We are inviting designs from the private sector to facilitate this initiative.

As honourable members would appreciate, given the price of some blocks of land, if a person builds a house of a more or less determinable size, that person may often undercapitalise the block in terms of the price he or she paid for it. This proposal enables them to build a house of high quality that suits their immediate needs and provides an easy way to increase the house size later when they can afford that change.

I believe these two measures will contribute to making housing more affordable for Victorians.

The PRESIDENT -Order! The time for questions without notice has now expired. I have, however, just been informed that Mr Chamberlain seeks leave to ask a further question of me relating to the fate ofa resolution of the House. Is leave granted?

The Hon. E. H. WALKER (Minister for the Arts)-Leave is granted.

STOLEN GOODS The Hon. B. A. CHAMBERLAIN (Western Province)-On 24 May 1989 the

House unanimously passed a motion requesting the Attorney-General to make a reference to the Legal and Constitutional Committee of the law relating to the return of stolen property. The Leader of the House will remember that he supported that resolution enthusiastically.

As I understand it, the Clerk that day wrote to the Attorney-General and advised him of that resolution. The response from the Attorney-General's Department was

898 COUNCIL 25 October 1989 Papers

that the Minister was overseas and that the matter would be referred to him. As I understand it there has been no further response.

Given that the House takes its motions seriously and puts a lot of effort into passing a resolution, I seek the indulgence of the House that a further request through the Clerk be transmitted to the Attorney-General advising him of the resolution of the House and requesting his response to the resolution passed by the House.

The Hon. E. H. WALKER (Minister for the Arts)-I do not think it is necessary to move it through the Oerk. I am happy to take the request. Mr Chamberlain did not approach me about the concern he just expressed, but I shall be quite happy to take up the matter with the Minister directly; it does not have to come back to the Clerk.

The PRESIDENT -I agree that it need not go back through the Clerk, and I agree with the course the Leader is proposing, which I will reinforce by writing personally to the Attorney-General at this stage seeking his action.

PAPERS The following papers, pursuant to the directions of several Acts of Parliament, were

laid on the table by the Oerk: Metropolitan Fire Brigades Board-Report and financial statements for the year 1988-89.

Public Authorities Finance Agency-Report and statement of accounts for the year 1988-89.

State Electricity Commission-Report and financial statements for the year 1988-89.

State Film Centre Council-Report and statement of accounts for the year 1988-89.

On the motion of the Hon. HADDON STOREY (East Yarra Province), it was ordered that the reports tabled by the Clerk be taken into consideration on the next day of meeting.

ARTS FUNDING The Hon. HADDON STOREY (East Yarra Province)-I move: That this House condemns the government for its downgrading of the arts in Victoria, and in particular

its discrimination against a range of arts organisations through savage cuts to the Arts Development Fund and its diversion of funds to unspecified government initiatives, and calls upon the government to maintain support to the organisations concerned.

Victoria has had the happy reputation of being pre-eminent in the arts; however, that pre-eminence is now at risk. There is consternation and anxiety throughout the arts community, and I suspect throughout the community generally, because the government is seen to have downgraded the arts. That is tragic for Victoria.

Victoria has a number of attributes that make it a wonderful State. Included in those is the fact that it has been a cultural and intellectual centre. The government needs to enhance and foster those strengths; however, it is attacking the infrastructure upon which the cultural reputation has been built.

The arts community is outra$ed. The Minister for the Arts has achieved one thinghe has united the arts commuruty because the expressions of concern have come from a united front within the indus~. The arts community is outraged because the Ministry for the Arts and the Miruster have accepted savage cuts to what I call the infrastructure money. That money is essential to maintain and enhance the basic arts facilities in the community. The burden of those cuts has been thrust directly upon community organisations rather than on the Ministerial bureaucracy.

Arts Funding 25 October 1989 COUNCIL 899

To the Budget cuts have been added other reductions of 14 per cent earmarked by the Minister to be used for innovations. Those cuts will have many consequences. They will cause a decrease in activity among arts companies and organisations. They will lead to a loss of employment and opportunity among established organisations. They have thrown forward planning of many orpnisations into complete disarray and have caused problems for the advisory comm1ttees whose job it is to recommend to the Minister grants from the Arts Development Fund. The committees' independence and ability to freely determine the allocations they wish to recommend have been hamstrung.

There has been a shift of emphasis from the peer group process that has operated in the past to the priorities of the Minister and the Ministry. The diversion of the 14 per cent allocation is absolutely crazy. That has aggravated the effect of the Budget cuts, which in themselves are savage. As well as the restraints imposed on the arts community the government is further cutting the funds available for the organisations that have already received benefits. As a result the various advisory committees will have no option but to take action that will be detrimental to some people.

Recommendations have been made to cut out altogether funding for the Church Theatre, the Anthill Theatre and the West Theatre Co. Ltd. Those recommendations have been made because of the Minister's request that money should be used for artistic innovation. Those companies embody innovation in the performing arts in Victoria, yet they are threatened by this madness perpetrated by the government. It is absurd! A constant stream of complaints has been made by various arts organisations. Over the past few weeks there have been meetings with the Minister-I think there were two meetings last week. Other meetings are planned for this week, as well as a protest meeting next Sunday. This is happening at a time when our arts organisations ought to be putting all their energies and efforts into improving what they offer to the public, so increasing Victoria's standing as a cultural centre. But their energies and efforts have been diverted into trying to cope with this government-created furore. They are bitter and they are making statements about the unacceptability of the government's actions.

I shall briefly relate to the House the history of the cuts in funding. In the Budget funding for the Ministry for the Arts was cut by 3·5 per cent in real terms, an unfortunate measure. The government's priorities are wrong, especially when one considers that the size of the arts budget is less than State Bank Victoria's loss this year. It is certainly less than the amount lost by the Victorian Economic Development Corporation, and pales into insignificance when compared with the losses of WorkCare and all of the other economic disasters for which the government is responsible. It is sad that the arts budget has been cut for those reasons. Nevertheless, the arts community could have lived with that cut.

The Minister's press release issued at the same time as the Budget was introduced stated that the Arts Development Fund would be cut. The fund is a key part of the activities of the Ministry for the Arts. It supports wide-rangin$ activities 1n the arts to initiate, develop and strengthen cultural activities in Victona. It is not devoted to maintaining major public assets such as the State Library, the State Museum and the art gallery, about which I could say many things. The money provided to the Arts Development Fund enables it to focus on the development and burgeoning of the arts. A city can have many fine institutions devoted to the arts, but unless grassroots cultural activities are fostered and lead to a flowering of artistic activity, one might as well forget all of the grand monuments to the arts.

Despite its role in fostering the arts the government has seen fit to single out the fund for the largest cut in the arts budget. The fund is the heartland of artistic initiative, yet the government thinks so little of it that it feels able to treat it in this

900 COUNCIL 25 October 1989 Arts Funding

way. The Minister's press release shows that moneys for the Arts Development Fund are to be cut by 8·2 per cent in real terms. So the size of the cut in arts funding rose from 3·5 per cent to 8·2 per cent.

As if that were not bad enough, worse was yet to come. The full story began to emerge when the Minister sent letters to the advisory panels. The Minister made a statement in the House that the Arts Development Fund was to be cut by 6 per cent in real terms. When that 6 per cent is added to an inflation factor of 7·6 per cent the effective cut is 13·6 per cent. So the proposed cuts have gone from 3·5 per cent to 8·2 per cent to 13·6 per cent; and those who benefit from the Arts Development Fund will suffer as a result.

The Minister will remember a number of questions asked by the Opposition about the calculation of the figure of 6 per cent. Eventually the Opposition received an answer in a document which was not the document the Minister produced in the House but a subsequent document that explained in detail how the figure was calculated. The gist of the explanation was that the government decided to slash the Arts Development Fund by $900 000. The Minister pointed out that the cut would be spread over a full calendar year-the second six months of one financial year and the first six months of the next. So the government decided to slash the $900 000 from the fund and not from any other projects within the Ministry.

The Minister has heard these figures before, but I should like to compare the cut to the Arts Development Fund with the 270 per cent increase in funds to the Rock Foundation and the 5·9 per cent increase for the Spoleto Festival. They are important artistic activities but they do not represent the heartland of the development of the arts in Victoria. More important comparisons can be made with the funds allocated to Ministry services. Ministry salaries have increased by 4·8 per cent, and the Ministry's operating expenses have gone up by 5·3 per cent. The Ministry and the arts bureaucracy will not bear the burden of the cuts; instead, the burden is to be borne by the fund.

Still worse was to come. Letters were sent to the advisory panels of the Arts Development Fund telling them that not only would their funds be cut by 13·6 per cent in real terms but also another 14 per cent cut would be made to support other government initiatives. In total the cuts to those organisations amount to approximately 28 per cent in real terms-fantastic and catastrophic funding cuts. How can any group of organisations which, because of their very nature, are supported by the government be expected to cope with a cut in funding of almost 30 per cent in real terms?

The Minister surely cannot have realised what the impact would be because at a time when these organisations are facing Budget cuts another 14 per cent is to be taken from them for other unspecified activities. That can have no other effect than to place those organisations in an impossible position, to say nothing of the lack of morale that it creates.

This is the worst possible year in which to decide to take so much money away from these organisations for other unspecified activities. When the economy is buoyant and there is plenty of money around that is the time to try to devote funds to fostering as much activity as is possible, at the same time hoping that that activity will eventually become self-sustaining. However, to take funds from those who are suffering and make them suffer even more is a dreadful indictment on the government.

The government took away the autonomy of these panels which, of course, only make recommendations; the Minister makes the final decision. However, these panels make their recommendations independent of pressure because they are supposed to be the peer group determining in each of the areas of music, arts, drama or whatever,

Arts Funding 2S October 1989 COUNCIL 901

what is the appropriate allocation of these moneys. Peer group activity is thwarted because it is restricted in what it can do.

Much has been said about the performing arts, but I should like the Minister to inform the House what has happened with the music panel. My understanding is that the music panel found it so hard that it either did not take the 14 per cent off, gave up on the activity of taking it off, or took it off and put it back where it originally came from. In other words, it was effectively unable to do its job properly because of these restrictions.

The tragedy is that the drama panel advised that no funding should be provided for the Church, Anthill and West theatres. That has had a draconian effect on these theatres because if that recommendation is adopted not only do they lose funding from the Arts Development Fund but also they lose funding from the Australia Council because the same panel recommends to both the Federal and State bodies. The idea was to have a consistent approach to national and State aspects but the result of the imposition on the panel and the recommendations it has made is that those theatres will lose all of their funding and go out of existence. As a by-product of that, the Federal funding that would have gone to these theatres will probably go to Sydney.

The Hon. M. A. Birrell-Again!

The Hon. HADOON STOREY-Again. This State will lose money because these innovative theatres that would have merited that money will be out of business and the Australia Council, as it so often does, will favour Sydney.

I shall mention the theatres concerned because they deserve mention. The Church Theatre, which happens to be in the province I represent-although that is incidental to this debate-and is not far away from where the Minister for the Arts lives, in recent years has made enormous strides in presenting innovative, stimulating and compelling theatre. It has established a reputation for extending the horizons of theatre and for putting on theatre productions which bear witness to what can be done by other established companies.

The best recommendation one can give the theatre was its production of Call of the Wild, a Jenny Kemp play which was the triumph of the Spoleto Festival. I found the play fascinating and transfixing. It was a different concept in theatre and was the sort of activity that should be fully encouraged by the government. However, it appears that the theatre that brought that play to the Spoleto Festival and to Melbourne is at risk.

The Anthill Theatre does not merely have a Victorian or an Australian reputation; it has an international reputation. It has been in existence for ten years and has built up a tremendous reputation for innovative and fascinating theatre. It has just returned from the World Festival at Hamburg. It was one of the best three companies in the London Festival last year. It has attended international festivals around the world. It produces four new productions each year. Ten years of hard work have led to that reputation. I wonder what will happen to it.

Sometimes people can be prophetic. An article in the Herald of 19 April this year dealt with the Performing Arts Board of the Australia Council and it made comments about the policies adopted by that council. Those policies have provoked strong criticism from a number of people in Victoria. The administrator of the Anthill Theatre was reported in that article as saying:

Anthill is a medium-sized company and might be caught in the middle. We have no guarantee oflongterm funding. We don't even know if we will still exist in 1991.


The theatre does not know now whether it will still exist in 1990 and it is concerned that it will not exist. That situation has been caused not by the policies of the Australia Council but by the policies of the Victorian government.

The West Theatre Co. Ltd is another interesting and innovative concern that, like Anthill, has been in operation for about ten years and has been supported by a number of councils in the western region. It is active in community theatre. It faces the prospect of receiving nothing next year after receiving $89000 this year. The theatre facilities have been upgraded by the City of Essen don and should the theatre go out of business the region will potentially be denied access to community theatre. Mr Chamberlain will inform the House more about the West Theatre because it is an interesting and fascinating story.

The loss of these three companies would destroy the infrastructure of performing arts; what I would describe as the area that really provides the impetus for the development of theatre in this State. The future lies in the work of theatres such as these and we should be fostering and enhancing them as much as we can. Because they tend to be small theatres and do not have large premises they cannot have large audiences. Perhaps they would not attract large audiences because of the different types of productions that they perform. They have received assistance in the past and they should continue to receIve it in the future. It is an outrageous position and one must ask why the Minister has embarked upon this course.

Even if the Minister decided to overrule the recommendations of the drama panel and sa>:: that these three theatres would continue to receive their funding, the 14 per cent stIll must be found from somewhere plus the 13·6 per cent in real terms.

Why does the Minister want this 14 per cent at this time and for what purpose? He has not been able to satisfy the arts community that he has anything in mind. Earlier today I asked a question about the proposals to hold a carnival to celebrate Arts City; that was apparently given as an example to theatre administrators as the sort of innovation on which money ought to be spent. That is outrageous! Why would anyone want to spend $200 000 on a carnival to promote Arts City? ·

If $200 000 were given to some of these performing arts theatres, that would be contributing to Victoria's cultural heritage. Mr Guest suggested by way of interjection that they would not be able to run a carnival for $200 000. If the laser lights for the Melbourne Spoleto Festival cost approximately $500 000 for two weeks, one wonders what sort offestival could be held for $200 000. What is the point of celebrating a lot of buildings? Victoria should be celebrating its cultural actiVIties. Who cares whether there are some nice buildings near the Minister's office? It is what happens in those buildings that is important.

The Hon. M. A. Birrell-Some uglier ones are being built!

The Hon. HADDON STOREY-That is another subject that we will take up at some stage in this House. The government should provide these public facilities. It has to provide the foundations and it must encourage and maintain as infrastructure something that is vibrant, exciting, and developmental and is taking place at the grass roots. It is not something that should be dictated by the Ministry; it should come from the people and from the artists.

We want to see the development of this vibrant activity. The government ought to make clear that it will maintain the existing position and that the 14 per cent allocation will not be removed for other initiatives. After all, if these committees are considered appropriate to do the job they do not need directions on whether they should put the 14 per cent into new initiatives because they should be making decisions according to the overall guidelines for the allocation of moneys under the Arts Development Fund.


It is a tragedy that this has happened because the Minister has shown an interest in the arts. Goodwill exists in the arts community, which wants to work with the Minister to increase Victoria's standing as a cultural centre in Australia. The government decision has created a rift between the community and the Minister that oUght to be resolved promptly before the disillusionment grows. It will be resolved by the government forgetting about the 14 per cent-this year of all years-and providing funds to restore the Arts Development Fund to its place and getting together with the arts community to ensure that in the future that will be the key activity of the Ministry in its support of community arts. Otherwise the government will stand condemned.

The Hon. D. M. EVANS (North Eastern Province)-Mr Storey has painted a dismal picture of the arts in Victoria. I should like to be a little more optimistic and suggest that we think of the worthy Minister as the Professor Henry Higgins of Victoria's arts and quote what Eliza Doolittle said to Professor Higgins:

Art and music will thrive without you,

Somehow Keats will survive without you.

Perhaps, despite what the Victorian government has done to the arts and culture in this State, they will survive regardless of what the government does.

The Hon. E. H. Walker-No thanks to you!

The Hon. D. M. EV ANS-Perhaps the Treasurer could be regarded as the Nero of the State. We have no doubt that the State is burning. What the Treasurer is bringing is bread and circuses-Moomba will survive-but art treasures are going up in flames because of a lack of support from the government.

The Hon. E. H. Walker-Did you support the Flying Fruit Fly Circus?

The Hon. D. M. EV ANS-I did; it is a New South Wales circus in large measure. Not only did I attend performances by the Flying Fruit Fly Circus but also I directed it to the attention of the then Minister for the Arts, the honourable member for Oaldeigh in another place. In 1982 I telephoned him to tell him about the talents of that circus, and I suggested that he should attend a performance. He went, and now the circus is famous.

The current Minister for the Arts will no doubt claim that we are a cultured lot. After all, when overseas we are all capable of singing "Waltzing Matilda", even ifit is a little flat. Sir Les Patterson supplies the necessary urbane Australian face and Australia has produced The Manfrom Snowy River No. I and No. 2. They were both magnificent films that have given enormous enjoyment to many people. The Minister has ridden some of the horses that were involved in the film. Crocodile Dundee was produced in Australia and, of course, Neighbours sells well overseas. However, all these are commercial; they do not have anything to do with the government. They are not being helped by the government.

Dame Joan Sutherland, the late Sir Robert Helpmann and others, like the painters whose works hanging in Queen's Hall, are and have been magnificent Australians. The Heidelberg school is well represented in those paintings. Perhaps the government hopes that by allowing things to drift along and offering no support the great talent will continue to produce the work that has delighted Victorians and all Australians for many years. We have the Government Media Unit, which in its own right is an art form. No doubt money left over from the arts will not go begging.

The issue that Mr Storey referred to is important. There are many small groups in the community in which talent is nurtured and developed and which form the basis of the arts and culture in this State, and they are going to feel the pinch because of the


government's cutbacks in arts funding. The Age of 10 August reported the Minister as having said in a press release that it was a "hair shirt Budget" and that it was going to lead rather euphemistically to a "Budget pain in the arts".

The Hon. R. M. Hallam-That is a colourful turn of phrase.

The Hon. D. M. EVANS-It sums up the situation well. I believe he meant that the arts were not going to get piles of money!

The Hon. Robert Lawson-Leave the jokes to me!

The Hon. D. M. EV ANS-Film Victoria will not receive any more than it did last year; its $3·4 million is down 7·6 per cent in real terms. Various regional art galleries are starving for funds and they will now be down 1·9 per cent. There are some increases in capital works, but they are not the bread-and-butter issues on which the arts and the talents of those people flourish.

An article in the Sun of the same date points to the fact that more than 300 arts and cultural groups could lose their State government funding following these Budget cuts, and many small groups funded by the Victorian Arts Development Fund are expected to find it difficult to survive without government support.

As Mr Storey pointed out, in determining how to cut the subsidies to the arts by about 20 per cent some fanciful accounting has been done. Mr Storey has referred to the Anthill, Church and West theatre companies. The West Theatre Co. Ltd appears to be the only arts theatre of that nature in the western suburbs. That will be of interest to Mrs Coxsedge, who has a genuine interest in the arts and some talent in that direction, and speaks often in this House of the needs of the west and has done so over many years. She will not be overjoyed at the cut in funds which may well mean that the West Theatre Co. Ltd could go out of existence. The spokesman for the Melbourne Theatre Company, Mr Andrew Kay, was quoted in the Herald of 12 October as saying that even the Victoria State Opera runs on the smell of an oil rag.

Mr Lawson, when he speaks to support the motion, as I believe he will, may regale the House with some stories of the more cultured civilisations of the past. The great musicians of 100 and 200 years ago, whose music still delights so many of us, required the patronage of rich men and rich women. We do not have the same degree of patronage of the arts in this day and age or the chance that people of wealth and substance will support and nurture the arts. Perhaps the influence 300 or 400 years ago of the church, which often financed and gave opportunities for expression to people of talent to produce their masterpieces, has diminished. We do not see the Sistine Chapel being painted again by Michelangelo but, although one cannot expect this government to be mentioned in the same terms as those to whom I have just referred, perhaps, given the talent inherent in Austr~ia, it might not be unreasonable to expect some degree of support to be given to it. However, perhaps the new art form is indeed the Government Media Unit.

The Australian Business magazine of 28 September quotes an opinion of Mr Noel Bushnell which refers to the creative accounting that the Minister for the Arts, his department and' his government have engaged in so far as this performance is concerned. The article is rather intricate and unless I quoted every figure from it precisely, it would be extremely difficult to understand. One takes a figure, changes it a little, goes back to the figure that was budgeted and the figure that was actually expended and sees what should be expended this year. Eventually one comes up with a figure which shows that it is not as bad as one thought it might be. But it does not help the bank account when one has to pay the bills. This type of creative accounting


does not assist in any way. At the bottom of that article Mr Bushnell makes a statement that perhaps the Minister expects corporate sponsors to take up the slack left by the government, and he asks:

Is this then the hidden policy aim? Privatisation?

In the Age of 12 October a spokesman for the Minister is reported as having said the night before:

Although cuts are inevitable, the issue of whether the axe is to fall is still to be determined.

No doubt the people who are dependent on a handout to enable them to continue their artistic expression in this State still have to wait a little longer.

Mr Storey has done the House and the State of Victoria a great service by bringing to the clear and undivided attention of this place at least the serious effects that the policies of the present government will have on the arts in Victoria. Honourable members are aware that to a large extent the film industry has moved from this State and is now domiciled in New South Wales where the Premier, Mr Greiner, as no doubt have Premiers of a different political philosophy before him, gives encouragement to the arts and the development of artistic talents. Therefore, not only is Melbourne losing out as a financial centre but it also appears that the arts and entertainment industries will move north to Sydney. Many Sydneysiders would claim that that was their natural home anyway, and that if Melbourne had anything of that nature, it was purely an accident and something that Victoria did not thoroughly deserve. If the arts are to develop further in this State, it will not be through the support and assistance of this State government. That is indicated by the Budget and the issues to which Mr Storey has correctly drawn attention today.

I have said sufficient to indicate that the National Party has a clear interest in the arts and their development, a fascination with the history of the arts, a pride in the achievements of Victoria's citizens of the past and a clear desire to see that this government's plan of reduction in funding for the arts will not lead to a reduction of talent in this State or to Victoria becoming a cultural desert. We support the motion.

The Hon. B. A. CHAMBERLAIN (Western Province)-The Minister for the Arts has the capacity to destroy community theatre in the western region of Melbourne. Last week, in company with five members of the Parliamentary Liberal Party, I visited the Western Region Commission in Footscray, and one of the first issues the people there wanted to discuss with us was their real concern that the work of that community in establishing a community theatre in the last ten years might go down the drain. They felt strongly about that because in that part of Melbourne there are few public facilities that the ordinary man in the street can enjoy and participate in in person.

The Hon. Joan Coxsedge-And the ordinary woman.

The Hon. B. A. CHAMBERLAIN-I should have said "the ordinary person". I know Mrs Coxsedge is very active in support of the West Theatre Co. Ltd. This theatre is actively supported by the nine municipalities and the 480 000 people of the western region. The activities of the West Theatre Co. Ltd are disparate, providing activities such as community theatre, Hazchem Theatre, the Substance Abuse project, the Next Wave Festival and a number of other projects which have catered for the needs and aspirations of that community from time to time. The group works basically out of the Incinerator Theatre, a fascinating old building in Moonee Ponds which, I understand, was designed by the famous Waiter Burley Griffin as an incinerator. It is now a theatre, and the City of Essendon has spent money in upgrading it. It accommodates about 140 people and serves 480 000 people or one-eighth of Victoria's population. That one-eighth receives $89000 in funding from the Victorian Arts


Development Fund and that grant of$89 000 is a catalyst for generating a lot of other money for their activities.

The funding which the theatre receives gives it the opportunity on a project basis to build up other sources of funding throughout the community. Last year, for instance, the theatre's budget was a total of $300 000. The West Theatre Co. Ltd establishes project partnerships involving a diverse range of funding agencies, depending on the nature of the issue. A subject like the Substance Abuse project was of great importance to the community and there would be the possibility of obtaining funding from health organisations and many other organisations which would be interested in the project. As the projects vary, so do the sources of funding.

The basic funding from the State and Federal governments is absolutely essential to enable satisfactory partnership deals to be concluded for various projects. The Western Region Commission believes the West Theatre has developed a high level of expertise and has established itself as a primary training ground for theatre workers. That is very important. The theatre has been in operation for ten years; the projects are designed to reflect the lifestyles, the history and aspirations of that community.

The Western Region Commission has its eyes open, and knows that government funding is under pressure. As Mr Storey said, so much money has been wasted by the government that no longer are adequate funds available for basic services. The Western Region Commission understands that. If there is a cutback in this aspect of Ministry funding-say 6 per cent-it does not mind; it can live with that reduction; but now there is a suggestion that there could be absolutely no funding, which would be disastrous and-in the words of the commission-that could lead to the death of the West Theatre.

Even if the cutback is 20 per cent with the Minister's mysterious slush fund of 14 per cent, that would be disastrous for the theatre. Why has this happened; why is West Theatre facing this unsure future? It appears that recommendations have been made to the Minister for the Arts based on out-of-date information, and based on some difficulties that West Theatre was experiencing about two years ago. It appears that the information available to the Minister does not properly reflect current conditions, or the current program of works, or the current administration of the theatre.

The important aspect about West Theatre is that it is not confined to only one building; productions have occurred at Ascot Vale, St Albans, Footscray and at Sunshine. All those areas would be deprived of that experience if this disaster occurs.

As Mr Storey said, the Australia Council, which provides funding, very much relies on the recommendations of representatives of the Ministry for the Arts. It is not only a question of losing the funding from Victoria but also the consequent loss of Federal funds. Mr Storey's motion should be supported by the House. It condemns the government, and criticises the government for its discrimination against a range of arts organisations, and calls on the government to maintain support for the organisations operating at present.

I should have thought that was a reasonable proposition, and that it should be supported by all honourable members. I expect Mrs Coxsedge will support the motion because of her active support for West Theatre, and her attempts to arrange intervention by the Minister.

If funding is to be totally removed from West Theatre, the Ministry should provide equivalent funds for arts activities in the western suburbs of Melbourne-but why should there be any change? Already there is an organisation that has wide community support; it is a successful operator; and it is obvious that the government should


continue to support that successful operation, which has such wide community support. I strongly support the motion.

This is only one example of the problems that will flow throughout the metropolitan area unless the Minister intervenes to reject the recommendations that apparently have been made to him, and continues to fund those organisations at a realistic level into 1991.

The Hon. E. H. WALKER (Minister for the Arts)-I am happy to respond to the motion moved by Mr Storey. I have listened closely to his comments, and I accept that he is concerned. I shall not attempt to attack him necessarily on what he has said other than perhaps to correct a number of facts, or to provide information which may assist him.

I appreciate the reasons why he has moved the motion. I am concerned. As Mr Evans is aware, my press release some time ago indicated real difficulty when one moves towards having to cut a budget. Certainly in the arts area, cuts will make life difficult this year.

I shall make some comments in response to Mr Storey, which I hope will ameliorate some of his sense of great disasters. Many of his comments are a little premature. The process that occurs through panels will end up with the panels having to make some decision-I think Mr Storey understands that. The sta~e has not been reached where I have made decisions. The panels are advisory; their advice, if you wish, is also filtered through the opinions and views of senior administrators in the Ministry for the Arts.

I am then briefed on the views of the panels, and on the views of my senior administrators. In due course I determine how the budget will be distributed. That is a reasonable process, and it has yet to reach finality. I have not made any public statements about my final conclusions because I have not been fully briefed on the work of the panels and the attitudes and opinions of my senior administrators.

Much of what Mr Storey says is premature, but that is not to say that there is a conflict. Many of his earlier comments were made about my statements on figures and percentages-that is fine, because he has the Budget documents and some material the government has handed to him, as well as some responses from me in this place. Sometimes he exaggerates, sometimes he adds figures, and sometimes he places an inference on figures that I do not necessarily agree with.

Mr Storey is a little premature in his presumptions because decisions have not been made.

The Hon. Haddon Storey interjected.

The Hon. E. H. W ALKER-That is fair enough. I shall characterise the major burden of his comments in two parts: firstly, he is saying there is insufficient funding in a State where culture is important, and the maintenance of the State's major cultural endeavours is important. The essence of what Mr Storey says is, "You must maintain funding and these cuts are too heavy".

Secondly, he is saying that even if one accepts the concept of cuts, and the way it has been managed by the government and the Minister, he says "It has been badly managed and is not being properly managed". The burden of his comments falls into those two categories; he has the right to make the comments but I must respond to them.

I have made rather copious notes which will allow me to respond to some of the issues raised. The notion that peer group assessment has moved into government


priorities taking over is wrong. The notion of peer group assessment by panels still holds very strongly. It is true that the panels were asked to look at the respective budgets in a certain way but it is incorrect to say that the government has instructed those panels on how they are to do their jobs. The government has not done that. Under the terms of reference and a Budget document that the government laid down, the panels have had the many freedoms-as in the past-to make recommendations and suggestions.

Peer group assessment is very important in the area of the arts. In the past several weeks I have heard some criticism about the composition of certain panels. That is likely to occur quite commonly in the arts area. One will never get full agreement as to who should be on a particular panel-that is understandable. I think the panels have been well constituted.

Whenever a hint of conflict has been evident, the person concerned has withdrawn from the panel while the issue has been discussed-and that is a proper procedure. Mr Storey or any other honourable member may like to suggest names that could be considered for panel work during the next year; and I shall be happy to consider them. It is not easy to choose the panels; I did not choose them but I know who are on the panels, and I think the panels are well constituted. Peer group assessment is the hardest.

Mr Storey asked what had happened to the·music panel. I do not know whether Mr Storey knows more than I do, but the music panel prepared its advice. I have had a first run through that advice, and more is to come. To answer the question simply, the music panel has functioned extremely well.

I believe Mr Storey was askinJ, if the panel did not find it suitable to suggest that 14 per cent be made available for Initiatives-I believe I am paraphrasing what he was suggesting-it would not have done its ~ob. That is nonsense. The reality is that the panel had every right to recommend as It saw fit. It was not forced to recommend in any particular manner. The ~idelines provided that it should consider the notion of 14 per cent being made avallable for new initiatives, but that did not mean it was prohibite~ from recommending that it considered a certain budget should be handled In a certain way.

As to what has happened to the music panel, the answer is that the panel is fine; it is healthy and it is makin$ its report in the proper manner. I shall take that panel's recommendations every bit as seriously as I take any other recommendations. I am not sure from where Mr Storey's concern arises.

Mr Storey then referred to the drama panel, which I should indicate to the House is the panel from where some early information leak, as one might call it, occurred which suggested that certain companies would not be funded. The drama panel has caused the early fuss that was reported in the media. In fact, I read the newspapers with great interest because I had received no reports about what the panel intended or did not intend to say; that is not to say that it was not necessarily a real leak. The fact is that I had not even received a report about it when I began reading newspapers and receiving letters and telephone calls from people who were upset about what the drama panel would recommend.

From the comments of Mr Storey it seems that he has already accepted that, for some reason or other, the three companies named have not only been recommended for the scrap heap in some fashion, but also that I have somehow accepted that recommendation. I assure him that I have not done so. I am still considering the matter. Mr Storey said that if the panel's recommendations were accepted, the theatre companies would also lose their grants from the Australia Council. In that regard, I


point out that it was sensibly determined that the drama panel's work should be to advise both the State government and the Australia Council.

I am sure Mr Storey understands the possible difficulties involved if two major funding bodies for a particular venture work on entirely different information. It is a very sensible notion that the panel's advice should be the advice provided to both the Australia Council and the Victorian government, through the Ministry for the Arts. It is true to say that if that panel's recommendation is that something should cease or be commenced, the same advice goes to both bodies. It makes a lot of sense. However, to follow through and then say that if a panel's recommendation is to cease a certain activity, the money will be lost forever is not correct. I reassure Mr Storey that that is not the case.

The drama panel has a recommendatory or advisory role. The Minister makes judgments on that advice, and it is then necessary for me to have some contact with the Australia Council to ensure there is consistency about the views expressed. I believe the system is a good one. I know that previously difficulties had arisen when common advice was not given to both bodies. I am sure Mr Storey would understand that. Mr Storey mentioned three companies, which were also mentioned by other honourable members. I understand the comments made, and I am familiar with each of them.

I have not been to performances at the West Theatre Co. Ltd, I must admit. I have not yet attended a performance at the upgraded WaIter Burley Griffin Incinerator Theatre-it is a fine historic building-but I have examined the building. I have not yet attended a performance there, but I intend to do so as soon as I can.

Recently I attended a performance at the Church Theatre, which was even more recent than Mr Storey's visit; I have been there several times before and, in this case, I saw a performance of the well-presented play by the late James McNeill, based on life in prison. I must say that the theatre, with the assistance of Frank Gallagher, did a lovely job.

I have been to the Anthill Theatre two or three times, although not recently and not since I have been Minister for the Arts. However, I understand the work that it does in the spectrum of small to medium-sized theatre companies.

I assure the House that I am very knowledgeable about those companies and the role they play, as I am now about the spectrum of drama in this State. Therefore, it is not as though, when my decisions are made, I shall not be conscious of the value of small companies in particular, and especially those that seem to have been singled out.

Mr Storey asked why I, the Minister, have embarked on this course. I believe he was referring to the notion of making 14 per cent of the budget available for new initiatives. Perhaps I can put it this way: it is my view that, whether the budget is tight or generous, the Arts Development Fund is just that-a development fund, rather than just an arts maintenance fund. It is necessary to continue to ask bodies such as the panels to which I have referred and also the public servants who work within the Ministry for the Arts-and it is consistently necessary, with good administration-to consider the initiatives that ought to be taken at any time.

It is not just a matter of whether one has enough money; it is important in Public Service administration to keep administrators and advisers thinking creatively. I have always done that, and I shall continue to do so. It is not unusual to ask bodies like that to consider what they would do if they had less money. It is not an unknown approach to have people conSIder the difficulties they may face even if those difficulties do not actually eventuate. This is similar to asking what such bodies would do if they had


some free capacity or resources. I believe such an approach begets a good and creative response, and I shall continue to use that approach.

In answer to Mr Storey, who suggests 14 per cent of the Budget is lost, I point out that any percentage of that kind is not lost. It is available in the Budget, and it will be spent in the arts field.

The Hon. G. R. Craige-Who will make the final decision?

The Hon. E. H. WALKER-In the end, the Minister will decide. It is quite likely that the money will be used to reinforce or support activity that currently exists. It is quite within the gift of the Minister in making final decisions on the budget to do that.

I should explain to Mr Storey that I believe the method I use to be a ~ood one, and it is proper to ask advisory bodies and administrators to think creatIvely, even in times of tight monetary circumstances.

The Hon. R. J. Long-How long will the process continue?

The Hon. E. H. WALKER-As I replied to questions in this House in recent weeks, the answers will be available in the first or second week of November, or early in November in any case.

I should also like to refer Mr Storey to the Arts City Expo and Carnival, which was the subject of a question without notice today and of Mr Storey's remarks. I should explain that Mrs Rosemary Ricker is the Executive Director of the Victorian Arts City Fund, which is mana$ed by trustees, whom I shall name, and is supported by certain advisers and companIes, particularly those in the Arts City Fund area. The fund is a legitimate body, and the Arts City Expo and Carnival is a legitimate activity of that body. Of course, the money was given to the Arts City Fund for use for the Arts City Expo and Carnival.

The trustees of the Victorian Arts City Fund include Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, Sir John Holland, Sir Eric Pearce, Mr lan Roach, Mr George Fairfax, Mr Peter Sleigh, who is the honorary treasurer, and Mr David Beale. The honorary solicitors are Mallesons Stephen Jaques, and the honorary executive director-and I stress the word "honorary", because this lady is a voluntary worker-is Mrs Rosemary Ricker.

I also mention the companies that support the arts and, therefore, the Arts City Expo and Carnival. They include the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust, the Arts Access Society, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Victorian Arts Centre Trust and the Victorian College of the Arts. One would hardly say that group was insubstantial. So the notion that the arts in Victoria are being downgraded, amid the laughter and interjections, is unfortunate; and the motion has no substance, given the bodies that are supporting this work.

I point out again to Mr Storey that the carnival is a legitimate exercise. The funds offered were, of course, not given directly to Mrs Ricker but to the body of which she is the honorary executive director. She has not been inactive in raising money for the carnival. The intention originally was that the carnival would take place in the first week of the Moomba Festival-not that it would be controlled by Moomba, but that it would occur at that time. Recent indications are that she may have difficulty meeting that timetable, but I reiterate that it is a legitimate one-off activity that warrants funding by the government, and the government's view was reinforced by the bodies and persons that I have mentioned.

Mr Storey also said, "We do not want a lot of Ministerial initiatives". I suppose he was casting aspersions on my capacity to choose the initiatives. If I believe an initiative suggested by the panel is good and well developed, I may choose that initiative; but


calling it an administrative initiative does not downgrade it as if it were some whim of the Minister. It is not some whim of the Minister. Any initiatives taken will be taken on the advice of the advisory panel.

Mr Storey ended his speech by saying that the rift between the bodies ought to be resolved. I agree with him. I do not like functioning in circumstances where there is a rift between the arts community and other organisations. I met with the organisations twice last week and I shall continue to meet with them. I offered my assistance to resolve the dispute. They understand that and accept that my efforts are strongly related to their best interests. I am a consultative person and am not given to taking arbitrary initiatives of any kind. I am considering the interests of all the parties within the confines of the tight Budget.

I indicate one point regarding the arts budget that Mr Storey does not quite understand. Mr Storey used a figure-I have no reason to believe it is incorrect-ofa 3·4 per cent reduction in real terms in the budget for the arts. It has to be understood that the reduction applies to the $66 or $67 million total budget for the arts, which includes a significant component for municipal libraries-approximately $20 million. The library component of the arts budget was increased by a reasonable indexation figure; in other words, the library component of the budget was sustained, and libraries all around Victoria are pleased that the government has been able to do that. If the government had not allocated that funding for municipal libraries Mr Storey's motion could well have been about libraries.

Once a reasonable indexation figure applies to that large component allocated to libraries, the remaining part of the budget is reduced by a higher percentage of the overall amount. It is true that the Arts Development Fund is the second largest user of the Ministry for the Arts budget with an allocation of approximately $9 million this year and that it has suffered substantial cuts to its budget. I do not deny that. It is not easy to say how the fund should be managed or where funds should come from. That is in front of me now and I must make decisions in the next week or so; I shall do that and take responsibility for it.

Mr Storey's notion that the allocation to the Arts Development Fund is the only part of the Ministry's budget that has been reduced is incorrect.

The Hon. Haddon Storey-I did not say that.

The Hon. E. H. W ALKER-That was the sense of what was said. If honourable members read H ansard they will see the comment that the Arts Development Fund was taking a reduction in the arts budget on behalf of every other user of the Ministry for the Arts budget. I do not know whether Mr Storey meant to say that but it came through that way.

Unfortunately, other arts initiatives have had to bear significant reductions in their budgets. Regional galleries, performing arts centres and others have all suffered a reduction in funding. The corporate headquarters, which Mr Storey says manages to look after itself, has also suffered a reduction in funding. Historic homes and access programs have taken a cut in funding of significant proportions; so it is not just the Arts Development Fund that has suffered savage cuts to its budget.

Mr Storey's final comment was that the Arts Development Fund should have its funding restored. That is the essence of his motion. He believes the fund is important; I do not disagree with that. The State needs to continue to fund its arts programs in a positive way, and while I am the Minister I shall continue to fight to obtain the best deal I can for the Ministry for the Arts.


The reality is that the whole of government has had to bear significant cuts in funding, and I am sure that other Ministers would like to have someone like Mr Storey bring pressure to bear to have their budgets increased. Community Services Victoria, Health Department Victoria, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Education have all suffered reductions to their budgets.

I shall end on a positive note. We should fund the arts well, and I appreciate the support I have received from Mr Storey. The notion that there is some bitter disagreement between us is incorrect. It is obvious that Mr Storey is ill-informed in this area. His intention is good and the arts should be well funded. However, I cannot wholeheartedly support the motion in the way it is framed. It is not unusual for Oppositions to condemn governments for this or that.

I have not made any comment about Mr Evans's contribution as I felt it was somewhat tendentious. With those few comments I reject the condemnation.

The Hon. J. V. C. GUEST (Monash Province)-The downgrading of the arts is as much a matter of symbolism as it is a matter of dollars and cents. It is symbolic of the government's attitude that, until the last moment when presumably government members thought the debate was about to come to an end, there were only two or three government members in the Chamber; and that did not include the two devotees of the arts, Mrs Cox sedge and Mrs McLean. I shall be interested to see whether they have been gagged, as they could not help but agree with the motion put by the Opposition. It is symbolic that this essentially philistine government yet again appoints to the Ministry for the Arts a Minister who enjoys a retirement job.

The Hon. E. H. Walker-Y ou never even got work in the first place. You have been sitting on the back bench for years doing bugger-all.

The Hon. J. V. C. GUEST-I hope I might eventually elicit some element of excitement about the debate on the arts in the Minister for the Arts, who became the Minister in an atmosphere of hope that he would care for the arts. Here was a successful architect with a strong sense of the visual, a natural for the appreciation at least of dance and the plastic arts. He was a senior Minister with clout. Really, he was what the arts needed.

Instead we find that he is perhaps bored and his intellectual firmness, zest and attention to detail are slipping. It may be more appropriate to call him the "Minister for the broad brush" or the "Minister for the big picture", as he still evidently enjoys major projects.

However, when it comes to the arts, which require attention to small details, honourable members heard the extraordinary answers he gave two weeks ago. He gave three successive answers in which he could not provide any relevant detail and had to resort to putting the answer on paper later. It is a sorry picture for the people who care about the arts.

Regrettably, the Minister himself has become a symbol of the government's downgrading of the arts. In criticising the Minister, I am criticising the high point of the government's interest in the arts.

In Victoria, the arts are still in a comparatively good situation but that situation is critical. It is the reason why the motion before the House is particularly good because of the firm foundation established by Sir Rupert Hamer and his Liberal government. It is because of the foundations laid down and built on by the longest serving Public Service departmental head and the only one left who was appointed undet the Liberal government. It is good because of the work of people like Richard Divall, Ken Mackenzie-Forbes, George Fairfax and many others whose work started under the


Liberal government and who have made fine contributions. There are, of course, many more who have given their talents and energy, for example, Bob Edwards at the Museum of Victoria, to name just one outstanding person, who was appointed by the present government. And the reality is that the arts depend and will always depend on the creative effort of thousands of individuals whose work continues in Victoria.

Furthermore, I gladly acknowledge the contribution made by the last Minister for the Arts but one. By happy chance this philistine government appointed an excellent Minister for the Arts who carried on and extended the good work of the previous Liberal government. I am referring to Mr Mathews, the honourable member for Oakleigh. I observed that the former honourable member for Carrum, Mr Cathie, enjoyed many arts functions when he was Minister for the Arts. In fact, I have never known any Minister for the Arts who did not learn to enjoy many arts functions!

The Hon. Robert Lawson-This sounds like an obituary!

The Hon. J. V. C. GUEST-It should be like an obituary. What this government does for factional reasons to its slim quota of talent is absolutely ridiculous.

The Hon. M. A. Birrell-It is a slur on the Fabian Society, what they did to the honourable member for Oakleigh.

The Hon. J. V. C. GUEST-The government certainly has not acted in a Fabian fashion towards him; he was chopped off at the knees!

In the arts budget, there have always been some pretty funny budgeting and accounting measures, but at least one knew that the heart of the honourable member for Oakleigh was in the right place and that he had a close and detailed concern for the welfare of the arts, in particular for the place of the arts in Melbourne. As to the last comment, I would not dispute that the present Minister for the Arts has that concern as well.

The former Minister, the honourable member for Oakleigh, would have subscribed to some sound principles to which the government should now pay attention. They can be found in the only decent arts policy document to be found anywhere: the Liberal Party's policy, which I have in my hand.

The Hon. E. H. Walker-Did you happen to write it?

The Hon. J. V. C. GUEST-I happened to write it. I make the point partly because there is an extraordinary absence of documentation of the government's arts policy. Position papers of various kinds are produced within the Ministry for the Arts, but any overall conception of where the arts should be and the way Melbourne should be developed as a cultural centre in Australia cannot be found in any ALP documents. It can be found in the Liberal Party arts policy.

I direct the attention of honourable members to page 15 and the Liberal Party's commitment to ensuring that: ... opera, dance and drama companies of international standard are based and maintained in Victoria and that the representative quality of the National Gallery of Victoria's collection is at least maintained. The ultimate rationale for this policy lies first in a determination that the great majority of Victorians should be enabled to know and enjoy their time-tested cultural heritage and, secondly, in the people's sense of what kind of State and what kind of capital city Victoria and Melbourne should be.

The document and the Liberal Party policy contain a rationale for public subsidy which I will not quote at length. It refers, inter alia, to grand opera, classical ballet, and the works of playwrights from Shakespeare to Dorothy Hewitt and David Williamson as part of the heritage of Victorians and part of the basis on which Melbourne will be built as a centre for the highest values of our civilisation and Session 1989-31


culture. The ideal could have been achieved by the present government under the honourable member for Oaldeigh when he was Minister for the Arts because he might have believed in it and continued the work that had been begun.

In the present context of petty cuts, the significance of the Liberal Party's arts policy is that the great companies which this State has been building, like the Victoria State Opera, are being deprived of essential sustenance. They are not inefficient bodies. The VSO, like the Australian Ballet, has one of the highest proportions of box office takings to its total expenditure of any major performing arts company in the world. It is an enormous credit to its management and its artistic quality.

The VSO in particular is a company still building its audiences. It produces only five operas each year, which is fewer than the Australian Opera. The VSO is a company which ought to continue building until its current box office support, along with its sponsorship from private corporations and individuals, has grown to the point where, if the company were to suffer a cutback in government funding, it would still be-with the Australian Opera-one of the two major companies in the State and could produce at least seven major performances a year.

This all involves a recognition that the performing arts are a labour-intensive industry. There is no getting away from it: major savings cannot be made in running performing arts companies without some quite astonishing and unpredictable Improvements in technology, which nobody should anticipate.

If anything, because of the necessity for these companies to import international stars from time to time, they will cost more to run because Australia's currency is hardly likely to appreciate against the American dollar or other major currencies in which imported stars must be paid.

The government has to face it: if it wants Melbourne to be a major centre for the arts, from the kind of high arts which attract senior executives of major international corporations and their spouses to live in Melbourne, right down to the high quality that should be expected in community arts operations, it will have to pay for it.

The government will have to exempt the Arts Development Fund, itself only a small proportion of the arts budget, from the across-the-board slashes that seem to be such an obvious approach of the philistines that determine treasury policies.

The funding commitments to arts bodies cannot be made on a year-to-year basis if any adequate policy of development is to be pursued. Again, I do not think that the former Minister for the Arts, the honourable member for Oakleigh would have had any trouble in agreeing with the notion of three-year rolling funding.

The Hon. E. H. Walker-Why is it that the Opposition is proposing to stop the honourable memher for Oaldeigh from becoming its chairman?

The Hon. J. V. C. GUEST-The Minister has asked, in his first pertinent interjection, why it is that the Opposition proposes to stop the honourable member from becoming the Chairman of Film Victoria. That is, after all, not what the Opposition is proposing to do. The Minister has hopelessly mismanaged the business of arranging for a perfectly suitable chairman of Film Victoria. I shall come to that amongst other symbols of the downgrading of the arts through the negligence of this Minister.

I return to the proper method of funding performing arts companies which must plan their programs several years ahead and, in some cases, engage venues and artists several years ahead to obtaIn the highest quality. I have noted that the honourable member for Oaldeigh would have been able to educate the present Minister for the Arts and perhaps the whole government, if it were minded to listen, on the importance


of the matters to be found in pages 3 and 5 of the Liberal arts policy to which I shall ~efer briefly. One of the undertakings by the Liberal Party has been:

forward commitments of funding will be given, especially to performing arts organisations, sufficient to allow proper forward planning.

At the same time it has undertaken: As an aspect of its determination to achieve its objectives and to ensure effective use of scarce resources,

a Liberal government will institute regular and searching reviews-by professional task forces or, where appropriate, the Public Bodies Review Committee-of all arts organisations funded by the government.

That is not the same thing as saying, "We have to cut expenditure across the board this year; let us parcel out deprivation to the arts and let them fight amongst themselves to determine who will bear the burden of it." That is simply saying that if one sets up and encourages an organisation by public funding, from time to time one must properly review it. That is what a Liberal government would do.

The funding principles which have been long established-Liberal principlesshould be part of this government's thinking. Such systematic thinking about funding of the arts is to be found on page 5 of the Liberal Party policy under the heading "Funding Principles" in which it is said:

The Liberal Party deplores the effect of ceilings placed on expenditure on the arts as a whole which causes competition within the arts community over available resources. Expenditure on the arts may be justified on many quite different grounds such as education, promotion of tourism, labour-intensive and cost-effective employment, economic investment with positive multiplier effects, and the sheer pride of the State's citizens. For this reason a Liberal government will treat the diverse area of the arts as one in which each project or organisation will be considered on its merits rather than treated as in competition with other acts projects or organisations, except to the extent that they will necessarily be seeking to serve the same audience or consumers of their products or services at the same time.

As I have said, degradation or downgrading of the arts is in large measure a matter of symbolism and all the symbols of this government point the wrong way for the arts. On the one hand, we have monumentalism and a love of large uneconomic or unproductive structures like the National Tennis Centre and the growing surplus of office space occupied by government departments and agencies in our low productivity economy. The productivity is certainly not increased by these large structures for which the Minister for the Arts and for major projects has such fondness. On the other hand, there are the petty cuts and slashes in the arts budget in what is the most regrettable symbol of the government's attitude. They will, of course, be large in amount to those who depend on those grants, but they are petty in conception.

I will not, and I probably cannot, consistent with Standing Orders, canvass the Film Victoria Bill which is before the House but I want to say that the Minister's failure to clear the way for this Bill and for the government's perfectly sensible, in my view, intention to have the honourable member for Oakleigh considered for the chairmanship of Film Victoria, and the patent ineptitude in the drafting of that Bill are another symbol that this Minister does not really care for the detail of the portfolio which, as a matter of symbolism, and for the 50 or 100000 people actively involved in the arts in this State, and the many hundreds of thousands more who enjoy the arts, is extremely important.

I refer again to the other symbols. One goes down to the museum and finds there the rotting remnants, in some cases the only remnants, of great collections, some of the greatest collections in the world which in many cases are simply unidentified because of neglect year after year of the necessity for maintenance. Perhaps by way of comparison, I may illustrate what this government has done. There is a collection of some 15 million exhibits in the Museum of Victoria and a staff of 200. For a collection of 400 000 exhibits in the Power House in Sydney there are 400 staff. Where do we go


from there? We get the government covering up with another example of monumentalism. From the point of view of Mr Bob Edwards, whose idea I think it was, it is not monumentalism, it is a darn good idea. I ho~ it will work out extremely well. I am referring to the move to Spotswood of a significant part of the museum's activities. The only problem is that this government has not provided the funds for anythin$ more than the building and the move. There is nothing committed for the actual displays and for actually making use of what is there so that the public will be able to enjoy it. It could prove educational for children and make a real contribution to our cultural life. No doubt the architect's eyes are satisfied. The Spotswood development will be a thing of considerable visual beauty or at least impressiveness. So far, so good, but it is not enough.

The Hon. E. H. Walker interjected.

The Hon. J. V. C. GUEST -The Minister was not listening to my criticisms of what is deficient in the Spotswood move. The Minister's inattention to detail has other problems; he has an unwillingness to maintain the old intellectual firmness. And it is quite wrong that he should behave in a way that might appear to be devious because the arts world is a world in which suspiCIon can flourish, and there is much gossip. As I said before, the Minister and others are not likely ever to gain wholly approval or disapproval but straightforward dealing is very important.

In this context the Minister's handling of the Spoleto Festival name change is another unfortunate symbol. It was not straightforward as one might expect, for the Minister seems to have foisted a government view very strongly on the executive of the Spoleto board that there should be a change of name to the Melbourne International Festival. It is true that there was some desire by Cain Carlo Menotti that the name Spoleto should not continue to be used, but that problem could have been overcome.

The Hon. E. H. Walker-You were of that view at one point!

The Hon. J. V. C. GUEST-That is not correct, and I shall come to the curious aspects of the behaviour of the Minister for the Arts towards the role expected of board members who are trying to serve the public and the government, and the signals that he is willing to send to peo:' ~e who put in time and effort without financial reward on behalf of the government in this area. The reality seems to be that the Minister was not seeking to serve the interests of the arts but the interests 9fthe bid to win the 1996 Olympic Games for Melbourne. The Minister, who wears more than one hat, was not wearing his arts hat at this time. It seems he wanted to have a festival that was by name a Melbourne festival to assist in advertising the suitability of the City of Melbourne for the Olympic Games.

I do not make too much of any conflict of interest there. Ministers, and other people, have to deal with a number of delicate overlaps of interests. Unfortunately, the government played a three-card trick and forced its view on the board which, as the Minister disclosed, some weeks before it was to become public had resolved to accept the executive recommendation that there would be a name change. After the board has so resolved, some people appeared to have changed their minds and the subject remained alive. Accordingly, the Opposition raised the issue in this House. The Minister then said that he wanted public debate to take place. He had some prima facie preference for a change to Melbourne International Festival but he wanted public debate. He did not say anything about it having already been decided.

Clearly the Minister had no bona fide intention of listening to anything anybody wanted to say. The Minister did not want to change his mind. He refused to go on John Jost's program on 3LO to discuss the matter.

The Hon. E. H. Walker-That's absolute nonsense. You should withdraw that.


The Hon. J. V. C. GUEST-The Minister suggests that is nonsense, but when Mr Jost's producer wanted me to go on the program to discuss the matter he told me the Minister would not go on.

The Hon. E. H. Walker-That is wrong. I was not available. I would be happy to go on the program, particularly with you-that would be money for jam!

The Hon. J. V. C. GUEST-On that basis I am happy to withdraw my statement that the Minister was not willing to debate the matter. Apparently he is happy to go on Mr Jost's program and debate the issue and associated issues with me, and I am happy to have that on record.

Unfortunately, the Minister's reaction to my careful attempt to air the issue is to write an intemperate letter to the Age. His petulant action has larger ramifications for public money invested in the Spoleto name. The fact is that the Minister does not understand opportunity costs. He does not understand how one should reckon the amount of public money that has gone into an event such as the Spoleto Festival. To the Minister for the Arts it is neither here nor there. One hopes the Treasurer will be looking over his shoulder.

More important in the context of this debate is the fact that the Minister disclosed the contents of the confidential board meeting. For partisan reasons he chose to make a gibe that was not even correct about my having first suggested the name change to Spoleto. The Minister picked up something he had overheard. He got it wrong and chose to imply that a board member was not doing his homework and was not attending to the matters being raised for his attention.

This is the message the Minister sends to people who give up their time to serve on government boards. He expects them to work without reward. Instead of encouraging them he brings them into public controversy.

The Hon. E. H. Walker-Are you referring to what happened at the board?

The Hon. J. V. C. GUEST - I do not propose to go into things that happened at the board. I am referring to what the Minister has said.

The Hon. E. H. Walker-I have no knowledge of your board meetings, and no interest in them.

The Hon. J. V. C. GUEST-Another interesting observation is that the Minister has no interest in board meetings, despite having made public reference to a motion I moved. Apparently he wants to advertise the fact that people who spend a good deal of time serving on boards should not regard their work as having any significance. For example, I serve on the finance committee and other board members serve on committees such as the development committee and the marketing committee of the board of the Spoleto Melbourne Foundation. That work has no significance, according to the Minister, because ultimately decisions will be made by the government. Inevitably that is true because 60 per cent of the arts budget IS provided by the government. Moreover, a Minister who took his job seriously would not send signals to the hundreds of boards and organisations throughout the State that, whenever it suits him, he is prepared to make wild attacks not even based on fact, on members of such boards, simply to suit his political purposes.

The Minister's intervention in Spoleto funding for this year brings me back to funding of the arts. I understand why the Minister adopted the expedient that he did in funding additional programs for the Spoleto Festival this year. It is not something for which I wish to criticise the Minister, although it seems strange that a government that prides itself on its economic management should resort to taking some $350000


in sponsorship of arts events away from the budgets of each of the three major statutory monopolies.

It is no different from the former Road Traffic Authority being required to fund the continuation of the Footscray Football Club. That is rather a problem of the government's straying from any rational principle of economic management. But it is another symbol of the government's downgrading of the arts that the Minister was forced to resort to this underhand method of financing instead of having the expenditure of public moneys honestly expressed in the State Budget.

Before concluding, I shall make a constructive suggestion. If the Minister wants to maintain the leading edge of the arts in this State-and by and large the Arts Development Fund represents the leading edge-he should look to the public library ~ants. Under the former Minister for the Arts, the honourable member for Oakleigh In another place, there was a surreptitious departure from the expressed policies of the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal Party and a reduction in the proportion of the State subsidy to public libraries. If the current Minister for the Arts would grasp the nettle and recognise that at least some kind of user-pays principle ought to apply to the consumers of library materials, as it also applies to the performing arts, there would be no problem about finding funds for arts development in the Budget.

There is no excuse for depriving Melbourne of its cultural future by slashing funds from the arts budget on the premise that the government recognises the need for economy. Every week millions of dollars are wasted in education, transport and other portfolios. Honourable members are now aware that the great success story claimed by the Minister for Industry, Technology and Resources, when he was first responsible for the State Electricity Commission, has been followed by the discovery that it can again reduce its payroll by several thousand employees.

It is to these areas that one should look for the real and undoubted needs of this government to economise on expenditure.

I support this motion most strongly on the grounds that the Arts Development Fund and the arts budget generally should be maintained.

The Hon. G. A. SGRO (Melbourne North Province)-Mr Guest mentioned the Melbourne Spoleto Festival a few times. He also mentioned other arts festivals which have taken place in the past few years. I wish to remind him that if it were not for this government and the Minister for the Arts, the Spoleto Festival would not exist. In 1983-84 we brought over migrants from Italy to launch a festival of the free worldSpoleto. We invited all political parties to come to the meeting and not one member from the Opposition, including Mr Guest, came to support the festival in Melbourne.

Before the Labor Party came to power, the only people in this State who really loved the arts and did something for them were former Premier Hamer and one or two others from the Liberal Party. Mr Storey was one of those people who, with Sir Rupert Hamer, after we established a committee to form Spoleto and other festivals, including the Lygon Street Festival, participated not as a politician but as a person who really loved the arts.

The arts, in my opinion, cut across all language barriers. They belong to the whole world and to the ordinary people; they bring about creativity and understanding between people and the government does its best to support them on a restricted budget. We all know that.

Mr Guest says he loves the arts-and I think he does. I enjoy discussions with him from time to time on opera. We exchange views. For him to criticise the current Minister for the Arts is ridiculous because the Minister has done more for the arts


than anyone else. He has always supported the arts from within the government, the Ministry and caucus. It is wrong for Mr Guest to say we have to change the name from Spoleto to the Melbourne international arts festival.

I am glad that has come from him. If it had come from the Italians, people would say, "They are this, that and the other". The Italian regional government spent more than $2 million in the first two years to stage the Spoleto Festival in Victoria with not one tiny bit of recognition of what it did. Professor Gian Carlo Menotti was treated with contempt whenever he came here-not by you, Mr Guest, but by other peoplebecause not many people understood the intelligence of that man and what he could do for the arts, not only in Melbourne but in the rest of the world.

He got sick and tired of the people who spent more time on names and so on than arts issues. That is why he had had enough. He would have liked to stay here and go on with the arts festival because he had devoted his life to this area. He has no nationality; he belongs to the world. We drove him out. After we did that he said, "If that is the case, you had better change the name Spoleto; what is wrong with the Melbourne arts festival?"

We should not depend on people for handouts. We should allow other artists to participate. We have many artists in this country who have been unpaid and unrecognised and we could do a lot if we changed the name from Spoleto to the Melbourne international arts festival. It will give local artists a chance-not only in Victoria but also interstate-to become involved in something which is really Australian. I want everybody to participate.

That does not mean we should close the door and not allow artists from other parts of the world to participate. Everyone agrees that Melbourne, in the past three or four years, has become the arts centre of Australia. That is thanks to Professor Menotti because only in the past three or four years since the Spoleto Festival began in this State did the arts world come to realise the potential we have here.

Two or three years ago, whenever I went to the opera, I would see people with expensive clothing, fur coats and so on; now the ordinary people go to opera and enjoy it. It is tremendous. This art belongs to the ordinary people. This is thanks to this and, originally, the Whitlam government, which gave the arts back to the people.

Spoleto is the people's festival, and not just Melbourne but all the country towns, small and big, and all suburbs. This government broke the ice and gave the people the opportunity to participate in and perform their arts. It does not matter how good or how bad they are. They do not have to be champions of the world. It is an opportunity for people to get up and do something for themselves.

I understand Mr Storey really loves the arts and I am prepared to agree with the criticism he made today: the government should spend a little more money. However, nobody will tell it where it is to get the money. Ifit did, money would have to be taken from education, health, transport, and so on.

The Hon. B. A. Chamberlain-Get it out of the Treasurer!

The Hon. G. A. SGRO-If Mr Chamberlain wants to make political statements, that is up to him. I love the arts. Mr Guest's criticism is unjustified because the Minister for the Arts has done more for the arts in two or three years than anyone else, including the honourable member for Oakleigh in another place, although he did work hard. Mr Guest made a few trips--

The Hon. J. V. C. Guest-Paid for by myself.


The Hon. G. A. SGRO-I do not suggest Mr Guest got a free ticket. Nevertheless, once he got there he was looked after very well by the authorities. I did not see one member of the committee which Mr Guest praIsed today go out of their way to entertain the people representing Spoleto who came here and spent millions of dollars.

The Hon. J. V. C. Guest-I did.

The Hon. G. A. SGRO-Ifyou did, I thank you very much. Many people came here but were dumped. A change of name does not worry me; what concerns me is the arts.

The Hon. ROBERT LA WSON (Higinbotham Province)-Artistic impulses are among the oldest of all. We know that because of the thousands of years of prehistory in Europe and in Australia, which are illuminated here and there by the rock paintings that were drawn by the hunters and gatherers of the period. As technology improved there were increased opportunities for expressing artistic yeamings. Apart from rock paintings, artists could decorate vases and tiles and architecture, and when written literature was created that was the greatest opportunity of all; it represented the most significant change in the form of art. It was possible to preserve art not only in the plastic form, in decoration, in architecture or in paintings, but also in poetry and literature that could be preserved from one generation to another. At last it was possible to preserve the great works of the past. Heinrich Schliemann, by a close study of the Greek Iliad, was able to establish that Troy was a real city, and discovered its treasures.

There has been excitement on the South Bank in London over the past few months because the remains of the Globe Theatre have been discovered, together with the other theatres of Shakespeare's time. The architecture of the Globe Theatre has been completely destroyed, but the 37 plays and sonnets of Shakespeare and other works have been preserved because they were written. To this day we can perform the same plays that were played in Elizabethan times and earlier. We can read the old morality plays of the Middle Ages because they have been preserved in writing.

This artistic impulse was expressed in various ways by literature, poetry, architecture and so on-it lives on to this day. That is why we have the magnificent arts complex on the banks of the Yarra River. I understand the Premier's father secured the land for that purpose and that the building of the art gallery itself may have been commenced during the time of the first Cain government. Nevertheless, it has been carried on by successive governments. It was a bipartisan approach to art in this State that has led to the magnificent complex, and the efforts of the government in trying to foster the artistic impulse in Victoria should be applauded. The Opposition applauds the decision to build a new museum on the south bank of the Yarra. I should point out that the motion itself does not criticise the Minister. The motion states:

That this House condemns the government for its downgrading of the arts in Victoria ...

The Minister for the Arts is a man of goodwill and a lover of the arts, as was the honourable member for Oakleigh in the other place when he was the Minister for the Arts and as were other former Ministers. The artistic community in Victoria will suffer for the sins of the government just as the employees of television stations are now suffering for the sins of the people who purchased their stations at overblown prices. If the Department of Management and Budget and the various government sponsored commercial enterprises had not run off the rails and lost vast amounts of money enough would have been left for the artistic requirements of the State. Everybody is suffering because of financial mismanagement.

All artists need patrons. Probably when the artists were drawing on the walls of caves they needed someone to supply their food, but since someone has been unwise

Closure of Courthouses 25 October 1989 COUNCIL 921

enough to invent money artists need it to survive. The Opposition does not object to the government's patronage of the arts but the source of patronage is drying up and this has become a serious matter for the artists.

I understand the difficulties of the Minister because he, like all Ministers, has a shrinking budget, but the blame must be laid at the door of the present government for the way it has grossly mismanaged the financial affairs of the State necessitating not only the community being short of money but also many other causes being deprived.

The House divided on the motion (the Hon. A. J. Hunt in the chair). Ayes 22 Noes 17

Majority for the motion

AYES MrBaxter Mr Best Mr Birrell Mr Chamberlain MrCox Mrde Fegely MrEvans MrGuest MrHall MrHallam MrKnowles MrLawson MrMacey MrMiles MrSkeggs MrSmith MrStorey Mrs Tehan Mrs Varty MrWright

Tellers: MrAshman MrLong

MrConnard PAIR

I

5

CLOSURE OF COURTHOUSES

NOES Mrs Cox sedge MrCrawford MrDavidson MrHenshaw MrIves MrKennedy Mr Landeryou Mrs Lyster MrMler MrPullen MrSgro Mr Theophanous MrVan Buren MrWalker MrWhite

Tellers: Ms Kokocinski MrsMcLean

MrsHogg

The debate (adjourned from October 11) was resumed on the motion of the Hon. B. A. Chamberlain (Western Province):

That this House expresses its concern at the decision of the government to close 41 courthouses without consultation with the community, municipalities, the police or the legal profession and calls on the government to postpone the closures until proper consultation has occurred and the Council directs the Clerk to advise the Attorney-General of the view of the Council on this issue.

The Hon. R. S. IVES (Eumemmerring Province)-This is a serious motion concerning the administration of justice in this State. The Opposition takes it seriously and the National Party takes it even more seriously. The government takes it seriously and I take it seriously. Therefore, I inform the House that I have prepared copious notes. Because this is a serious topic and I wish to do it justice, I shall refer copiously to my copious notes. Of course, I shall not read my speech.

922 COUNCIL 25 October 1989 Closure of Courthouses

The motion states: That this House expresses its concern at the decision of the government to close 41 courthouses without

consultation with the community, municipalities, the police or the legal profession and calls on the government to postpone the closures until proper consultation has occurred and the Council directs the Clerk to advise the Attorney-General of the view of the Council on this issue.

The motion does not call for the government to stop the closure of all courthouses; it seeks some process of consultation with local communities and concerned persons before the government proceeds. The government will oppose the motion. I should like to begin my speech by putting the matter into historical context and perspective.

Over the past 23 years progressive rationalisation, court improvement and changes in court administration have meant the removal of numerous courthouses from small country towns. More than a century ago, in many cases, when country towns were founded the overwhelming requirement was that services provided should be no more than one day's buggy ride away. Other courthouses in country towns were built in the times of booming goldfields and they have now become pleasant towns that are only reminders of their former selves.

As part of the process that has been continuing for 23 years, the former Liberal government closed 27 courthouses in 1966. Included in that number were such familiar names as Harrow, Romsey, North Melbourne, Nagambie, Lake Tyers, Stratford, Violet Town, Malvern, A voca, Hawthorn, Merino, Erica, Koroit, Richmond and Yallourn. .

The government of the day handled questions regarding those closures in a particularly firm manner. In Hansard of 9 November 1966, the then honourable member for Melbourne, Mr Clarey, asked the then Attorney-General:

Whether his department has under consideration the question of the closing of the Court of Petty Sessions at North Melbourne; if so, whether he is prepared, before arriving at a decision, to consider representations from residents and others concerned?

The answer from the then Attorney-General, Mr Rylah, was: The Secretary to the Law Department will be available to receive representation from local residents,

but it is felt that the necessity to make suitable provision for police services at North Melbourne outweighs the slight inconvenience to persons who would otherwise appear at the North Melbourne court.

On 6 April 1966, in the Legislative Assembly, Mr Mitchell, the then honourable member for Benambra, asked the Attorney-General:

1. Whether the government has, within the last year, closed down a number of country Courts of Petty Sessions; if so-(a) how many; and (b) where?

2. Whether the government intends to close down any more such country courts; if so, where?

The then Attorney-General, Mr Rylah, answered: 1. Yes-the Courts of Petty Sessions at Culgoa, Harrow and Merino were closed as from 1 February

1966.

2. Yes-the Court of Petty Sessions at Willaura will be closed as from 31 May next. The government does not have any general policy of closing country Courts of Petty Sessions, but it does not retain a court when it is clear that the amount of business does not warrant its retention and there are adequate alternative court facilities. Each case is carefully considered on its merits, bearing in mind the convenience of the pUblic.

On 21 February 1967, as reported at page 3009 of Hansard of that date, Mr Clarey made one last effort. He asked Mr Rylah:

Whether representations and/or petitions were made to or received by him against the proposed closing; if so-(a) from whom; and (b) what reply was made to the protesters?

Closure 0/ Courthouses 25 October 1989 COUNCIL 923

Mr Rylah replied, in part: I have received representations from the Melbourne City Council, the Council of Progress Associations

of Victoria and from Mr G. E. Reimann-Basch, JP, who is also president of the latter council. I have informed them that I am satisfied that the court can be closed without causing serious inconvenience to the public or any significant reduction in police services in the area.

That was a government that knew how to handle an Opposition! In 1981-82 the then government closed 28 courthouses. They included courthouses in such recognisable towns and suburbs as Bunyip, Rosedale, Coleraine, Dookie, Wedderburn, Maldon, Mooroopna, Broadford, Buninyong, Balmoral, Birregurra, Yackandandah, Kew and Flemington. The closure of courthouses, and country courthouses in particular, has accelerated under the present government.

All honourable members will be aware that in 1983 50 courthouses were closed' in 1984 three courthouses were closed; and in 1985 nine were closed. In Hansa,:;} of 1 December 1982, at page 1110 Mr Landeryou detailed the criteria on which the courthouses nominated for closure were selected. The criteria were not dissimilar to those of Mr Rylah; certainly they are not dissimilar to the criteria any government of whatever political persuasion would employ in such circumstances.

The Hon. B. A. Chamberlain-Fifty hours! Two-thirds of these are open for more than 50 hours.

The Hon. R. S. IVES-The criteria announced by Mr Landeryou were: Courts which sit less than 50 hours per year.

Those courts which are within 50 kilometres of a nearby court which can absorb the increased workload.

The courts not to be closed should be capable of being serviced by qualified magistrates.

The nature of the cases heard of the courts to be closed. In traffic cases there are many instances where all parties concerned, complainants, defendants, witnesses and magistrates are required to travel to the court.

The demographic changes occurring within the locality of the court to be closed, and in particular whether the population has increased or decreased in that area.

If there is a special legal need, then the court may remain open to service that particular requirement.

Since those days the government has attempted to establish a better qualified and more professional court system for which adequate resources are provided. In May 1985 the then Law Department of Victoria published a booklet entitled The Future Organisation and Operation o/Courts in Victoria -The Courts Management Change Program. The basic thrust of the report concerns the need for a regional courts structure. It stressed the need for improved court services, the computerisation of court records and the establishment of mention courts to provide centralised control over court lists.

As a result of matters arising from the court improvement program, the continuing reorganisation of the courts and the introduction of the mention system, it became possible to reopen the Edenhope and Casterton courthouses in 1987.

The Hon. B. A. Chamberlain-We told them in 1982 that they were making a mistake by closing them.

The Hon. R. S. IVES-Those courts were closed in 1982; but it became possible to gear them for the future and not for the past. It is not inconceivable that that could happen a~ain, and for the right reasons. The advantageous reforms of the court system will contInue. It is planned to establish regional courts and to provide improved additional court services. A computerised network will be installed to provide instantaneous access to all court records, and the additional services include the provision of legal aid and counselling services. Another initiative is also being


pursued-namely, the provision of trained police prosecutors in all Magistrates Courts In the future.

The quality of justice should not depend on where a courthouse is situated, but rather on the levels of resources and services available and how effectively and efficiently they operate. One wonders about the justice that is dispensed in a court that sits only twice a month, which does not have adequate resources and which has inadequate access to computers. Wherever possible, country people should not have to suffer second-rate justice; and that can only be overcome if courthouses are given adequate resources.

A handful of repeat offenders or litigants should not determine the location of a courthouse. More than 50 per cent of offenders do not commit offences in the area in which they reside. Increasingly traffic offences are being dealt with by on-the-spot fines, so such offenders seldom appear in court. Courthouses should not be established for the same reasons as chemist shops, newsagents and post offices. Most residents of an area never have to go to court. Courthouses are not symbols of civic pride and status. They should be established only in areas that generate a good deal of court business.

It is proposed to close 41 courthouses in January 1990, which is the reason for the motion moved by the Opposition. I appreciate that the Opposition is not against the closure of courts per se. The thrust of the motion calls for consultation with local communities before decisions are made to close courthouses. Consultation should occur not only with local councils but also with police officers and the legal profession. During the debate the Opposition has gone further by arguing for the retention of 28 of those courthouses. I exclude the courthouse at St Arnaud from that number because it has a visiting service. I have also excluded the Omeo courthouse because court facilities will be provided in the local council chambers. In their speeches Mr Craige, Mr de Fegely, Mr Connard, Mr Chamberlain, Mr Hall and Mr Baxter mentioned the following courthouses: Sunbury, Camperdown, Warracknabeal, Beechworth, Tallangatta, Tatura, Daylesford, Traralgon, Warragul, Morwell, Yarram, Alexandra, Euroa, Healesville, Kilmore, Warburton, Yea, Whittlesea, Berwick, Cranbourne, Hastings, Packenham, Cowes, Leongatha and Cheltenham.

The Hon. W. R. Baxter-I mentioned Cohuna and Kyabram as well.

The Hon. R. S. IVES-Yes, both Cohuna and Kyabram are included in the list; I should have mentioned them. Before referring to each of those courthouses I shall make one or two general comments. The case for the closure of those courthouses meet Sir Arthur Rylah's criteria for closure, one of which is that a courthouse should be closed when the amount of business conducted by it does not warrant retention or when adequate or alternative court facilities are available.

Moreover they fall broadly within the government's 1982 criteria spelt out earlier which not only mentioned 50 hours a year but also 50 kilometres to the nearest available court.

The Hon. B. A. Chamberlain-That means that Camperdown stays open, for a start.

The Hon. R. S. IVES-Or, the third point, they fall within the government's plan for an upgraded regional court system which provides a range of better resourced courts but at fewer locations.

The Hon. W. R. Baxter-In Melbourne, by the sound of it.

The Hon. R. S. IVES-Of the 41 courts to be closed-and this is where I dispute Mr Chamberlain's figures-23 are open for 50 hours or less a year, 9 between 51 and


100 hours, 4 between 101 and 150 hours and 5 for more than 150 hours a year. In 38 of the 41 courts to be closed the distance is less than 50 kilometres to the next available court.

The Hon. B. A. Chamberlain-What about public transport? It takes more than an hour and half to go from Sunbury to Broadmeadows.

The Hon. R. S. IVES-The regional courts will advantage those people currently disadvantaged by poorly serviced and poorly resourced courts in the country. One of the reasons for the rationalisation and the desire for fewer courts is, for instance, the plan to extend the court link computer system throughout Victoria by the end of this }'ear. If this system were to be extended to the courts to be closed down it would add $1· 2 million to the cost.

The Hon. B. A. Chamberlain-What would?

The Hon. R. S. IVES-If the computer network was extended to the courts to be closed down.

The Hon. B. A. Chamberlain-But the Attomey-General's Department said the courts were to get portable computers hooked up by telephone.

The Hon. R. S. IVES-In addition $280000 in operational costs a year would be needed for the hire of the lines and the servicing of the equipment. I take up the point raised by Mr Chamberlain as reported in Hansard of 11 October:

I recall when, as shadow Attorney-General, I was being briefed by Mr John King, the head of the department. I was told of the possibility of a system of a clerk of courts travelling to the outer courts with a small portable computer with a modem that was hooked into the telephone which would give access to the complete court system whether that court was at Camperdown, Warracknabeal, or Sunbury. For instance, a lady could appear in court to enforce a maintenance order and the clerk of courts could plug into the court records and pull up the necessary documentation and know exactly what was needed to help that lady. That is a strong argument-and there are others that I have not mentioned-for small courts to be used.

The HOD. B. A. Chamberlain-That is what Mr King said.

The Hon. R. S. IVES-The current position is that the security of the court system is paramount; dedicated lines are needed. It appears that security cannot be guaranteed with portable transmitters. For that reason it is necessary to install stationary equipment; it is not possible to have portable equipment.

The Hon. B. A. Chamberlain-So Mr King was wrong?

The Hon. R. S. IVES-In this case, yes, or subsequent investigations and subsequent developments have shown that that is the case. Mr Chamberlain would appreciate that in any court system security is of paramount importance.

The Hon. B. A. Chamberlain-Most court records are public records.

The Hon. R. S. IVES-The next point is the condition of the courthouses. Probably the majority of the courthouses to be closed down are in poor physical condition. They are probably not suitable venues from which to dispense justice. It is estimated the cost of refurbishing those courthouses is at least $1 million. The cost of keeping them open would be $500 000 for salaries and resourcing, $280000 for the lines for the computer network, $1·2 million computer capital costs and $1 million at least in refurbishment costs. In addition most of the courts remain idle for much of the year and the combined buildings and stock of those courthouses is valued at $6 million. It would seem that better and more sensitive use of these public buildings could be made.


Certainly the Department of Conservation, Forests and Lands will consider sensitively any alternative use of these buildings. It is recognised that many have historic significance and a number of councils have already expressed interest in using the buildings for community facilities.

The Hon. R. J. Long-They would be stupid if the cost is as high as you say it is!

The Hon. R. S. IVES-Considerable consultation has taken place between departmental officers and interested groups in the implementation of this decision.

The Hon. B. A. Chamberlain-That is right, after the decision has been made.

The Hon. R. S. IVES-In particular, Mrs Jennifer Williams, deputy secretary of the department, and Mr John Gidley, General Manager, Courts Administration, have spent considerable time touring the country and talking to interested parties and grou{>s about the implementation of the decision. Havin~ spoken at length to Mrs Jenrufer Williams this morning I find her image somewhat In contradistinction to that put forward by Mr Baxter. I find her a pleasant, dedicated public servant although I can well imagIne the over-the-top grandstanding that Mr Baxter, Mr Evans and the honourable member for Benambra in another place would have done in their home territory.

Mr Gidley has been concerned with the Yarram courthouse and I understand that as a result of discussions an arrangement has been made with the local area manager to ensure that Yarram business at the Sale court is dealt with early and expeditiously so that people involved will not be required to stay around the court until all business is finished. Disbursement of court moneys through a local agency has been arranged and where an individual in the Yarram area needs the services or assistance of the clerk of courts, that clerk of courts will travel by car to that person. The same sort of arrangements can be made in other areas and the government is happy to make those arrangements in cases where legitimate grievances can be shown.

I shall now comment on the list of courts mentioned in the debate. Mr Chamberlain mentioned Sunbury as having 150 hours of business a year-at least, the press release of the Attorney-General described it as 150 hours a year. I shall use Camperdown as a benchmark. Camperdown has 110 hours a year. That means two days a week for 4 or 5 hours every day. A court with 150 hours a year would probably SIt for three days a month.

Mr Chamberlain is reported in H ansard as saying that it takes 5 hours by public transport to travel from Sunbury to Broadmeadows and return.

The Hon. B. A. Chamberlain-That was the estimate by a local lawyer of the public transport time because there is no natural line of public transport between Sunbury and Broadmeadows.

The Hon. R. S. IVES-I spoke to local people about the matter and the first comment I received was: are we talking about a SCIatica invalid walking from Sunbury to Broadmeadows and back? Mr Chamberlain's claim cannot be substantiated.

Mr Chamberlain is a consummate Parliamentary performer. Unless I am mistaken, not once in his speech did he say what the actual distance from Sunbury to Broadmeadows was. I may be wrong but I could not find any mention of it. I would suggest when someone as consummate and considered in his performance as Mr Chamberlain is does not mention a figure when the rest of his address is sprinkled with kilometres it is because that figure looks slightly ridiculous. It is 19 kilometres to Broadmeadows.

The Hon. B. A. Chamberlain-We are talking about people who don't own motor cars and must use public transport.


The Hon. R. S. IVES-I repeat, one cannot design a court system on the basis of the needs of that handful of people who repeatedly offend or are litigants and who do not own motor cars. In the case of the Sunbury court, it is 19 kilometres from Broadmeadows. I understand that the trip takes nowhere near 5 hours. The estimates I have received are that it takes an hour or an hour and a half. That court has modem facilities and is equipped with resources that are needed for the administration of justice at Broadmeadows. Camperdown court sits 110 hours a year, which is two days a week. The clerk of courts visits two days a week and the court is in operation for two days a month; it is 47 kilometres from Colac.

I appreciate the point made by Mr Baxter but we are talking about travel from still more distant areas. People from Camperdown will have to travel to Colac but that is a distance of 47 kilometres which is under the 50-kilometre distance. It is impractical to have regional courts maintained at a certain standard within 47 kilometres of each other.

The Hon. W. R. Baxter-Every family does not have two cars.

The Hon. R. S. IVES-But the great mass of people do not attend the court and, if they do, it will be only once or twice in their lives. The ~ovemment is striving to make the courts better resourced and to dispense better justIce. If Mr Baxter is saying that the sole criterion should be that a small handful of people who make repeated appearances before the court and who do not own cars should not be disadvantaged, it would be necessary to have a court in every suburb and every country town. I appreciate that Warracknabeal is a charming town with a considerable history. Certainly if resources could be stretched it would be good to have a court in the area.

The Hon. B. A. Chamberlain-There is a court there at the moment.

The Hon. R. S. IVES-But it operates for only 36 hours a year and it will fall behind for want of resources. Camperdown court sits 110 hours a year, which results in two days sitting a month. One could not justify refurbishing the Warracknabeal courthouse to sit for two-thirds of a day each month. My figures show that it is only 50 kilometres to Horsham, which falls within the guidelines.

The Hon. B. A. Chamberlain-But they may live 50 miles east, west or north of Warracknabeal.

The Hon. R. S. IVES-Beech worth court sits 63 hours a year.

The Hon. W. R. Baxter-Those figures are up 33 per cent. already this year.

The Hon. R. S. IVES-Is Mr Baxter absolutely sure about that?

The Hon. W. R. Baxter-Those were the figures provided by the clerks at the meeting.

The Hon. R. S. IVES-The figures I have been given show a decrease, but I will not dispute that. Beechworth court sits 63 hours a year and, in comparison, Myrtleford's court hours are increasing faster. It appears that Myrtleford is a natural place for a regional court. The Beechworth courthouse has considerable beauty and historic value; a worthwhile and sensitive use could be found for it, but it has a very low usage rate. Tallangatta court sits approximately one day a month.

The Hon. W. R. Baxter-But it services a vast-.hinterland up through the valleys.

The Hon. R. S. IVES-But that is only one day a month; what do they do on the other 29 days with a poorly resourced, underserviced courthouse?

The Hon. W. R. Baxter-But one does not get into court on the next day.

928 COUNCIL 25 October 1989 Closure of Courihouses

The Hon. R. S. IVES-It sits for one day a month but Mr Baxter is claiming this courthouse can provide an adequate service. It is 35 kilometres to Wodonga. How many people would need to use the courts on a consistent basis? I remind honourable members that the great mass of people never appear before the court-which is fortunate. Those who attend do so on one or two occasions during their lives and we are being asked to determine the entire spread of our courts merely to cater for those people who may not own motor cars. For the one or two occasions that people may appear before a court in their lifetimes, the government suggests that they should travel and such a distance as 35 kilometres to W odonga is not excessive.

The Hon. W. R. Buter-You have forgotten the hinterland.

The Hon. R. S. IVES-I also remind honourable members that when they reach the regional courts they will receive much better justice and services than they would have received in Tallangatta.

The Hon. R. A. Best-I thought justice was the same everywhere.

The Hon. R. S. IVES-No, it is not because justice depends on resources such as computer records and legal aid, counselling and so on. Tatura court sits for 70 hours a year and is 20 kilometres from Shepparton. Cohuna court sits for 70 hours a year and is 30 kilometres from Kerang. The same arguments apply to those areas.

Mr de Fegely mentioned Daylesford court, which sits for 53 hours a year and is 35 kilometres from Kyneton and 40 kilometres from Ballarat. Mr Hall was particularly concerned about Leongatha court, but there has been no effective sitting day in Leongatha for some time.

Traralgon court is a more difficult case. It sits for 185 hours a year but is only 29 kilometres from Moe. Moe has a better court that is easier to upgrade. A clerk of courts will still be situated at Morwell. Warragul court sits for 101 hours a year, less than two days a month. It is 33 kilometres from Moe. Morwell will still use its courthouse but it will be upgraded to a County Court with provision for the services of a clerk of courts. Yarram court sits for 54 hours a year and is 70 kilometres from Sale. That is one of the courthouses that is used for more than 50 hours a year and is more than 50 kilometres from the next courthouse. Special provision has been made to service Yarram. The Yarram cases will be heard expeditiously in the Sale court and, when a clerk of courts is required in Yarram, the clerk will visit that town by car. Court moneys will be distributed at Yarram through a local voluntary agency.

Alexandra court sits for 107 hours a year and is 70 kilometres from Mansfield. According to the Attorney-General's Department not one complaint has been received about what will occur at Alexandra. Euroa court has not sat for some time. Healesville court sits for 71 hours a rear and is 24 kilometres from Lilydale. Kilmore court sits for 158 hours a year and IS 42 kilometres from Broadmeadows; Warburton court sits for 40 hours a year and is 39 kilometres from Lilydale. Yea court sits for 43 hours a year and it is 35 kilometres from Seymour. Whittlesea court sits for 41 hours a year and it is 29 kilometres from Preston. So the list goes on!

Mr Smith mentioned particularly courts in the area that I represent. The Berwick court sits 30 hours a year and is 11 kilometres from Dandenong. I should imagine that anyone in Berwick who has to appear before a Magistrates Court is much better off travelling that 11 kilometres by public transport and appearing in a better resourced court than in a court that meets only one day a week in Berwick. The Cranbourne court sits 28 hours a year and is 15 kilometres from Dandenong. Hastings court sits 73 hours a year and is 15 kilometres from Dromana. Pakenham court sits 37 hours a year and is 25 kilometres from Dandenong. Cowes court sits 11 hours a year and is 37 kilometres from Wonthaggi. Mr Smith expressed concern about Cowes. The Leongatha


court has had no effective sittings for some time. Mr Connard expressed concern about Cheltenham and said there was some case for preserving that court but no sittings have occurred there for three years.

On the basis that we believe regional courts provide better justice and are a better way of providing a contemporary court system because the criteria that were set have been reasonable, and also because of the costs of around $3 million involved in trying to upgrade those courts scheduled for closure, the government opposes this motion.

The Hon. B. A. CHAMBERLAIN (Western Province)-I thank Mr Ives for his contribution. I am rather surprised that a Minister in this House would not justify the government's record in this area because access to justice is one of the most 1mportant criteria ofa democratic society. Mr Ives did not come down to the bottom line of all that. At the end of the day, when 41 courts are closed, there will be only 67 Magistrates Courts in the whole of V 1ctoria.

Mr Ives glibly gave us a guided tour of Victoria, mentioning places that he obviously has not visited because he could not even pronounce their names, reading a list that someone has fed to him, without any local input. He said the government is talking to the people. What are they talking about? The government is saying that it has decided to close their courthouse and it will let them talk about what day the closure will take place. That is the type of consultation taking place, consultation in which this government has spec1alised ever since it came to office.

The Labor Party used to criticise the former Liberal government saying it would be a government of consultation and would listen to the people, taking into account their views when making decisions. We know that is a lot of claptrap. It has always been so and ever will be.

A similar procedure occurred in relation to the lights at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and other projects. When the former Liberal government proposed the World Trade Centre, the Labor Party said, "You cannot have buildings overshadowing the Y arra River; that is terrible." That construction was to be undertaken after consultation. However, what did the Labor ~overnment do? It built the centre out in the Yarra itself. From time to time there 1S this arrogant display by the government of saying, "This is what we will do to you but we will talk to you about how it will be implemented" .

It is claimed that if people go to one of these super duper courts which has a computer, justice will somehow be better and somehow the parties will be better off. As I understand the court system, there are normally two parties to a dispute, whether a civil dispute or a dispute over some regulatory default, and there is an umpire, a magistrate, and the odd witness; they are the ingredients. No mention of that is made by Mr Ives. Under the government's scenario, unless there is a mainframe computer, somehow there is not justice of the proper standard. That is garbage!

Mr Ives did not make one reference to people in his contribution. When he talked about what a building would cost, he did not talk about the parties to the proceedings. As the system is organised now, a case can be generated in Camperdown and can be on the court lists in Colac or in Warmambool. However, if the natural flow were to occur there would be greater numbers of cases in these courts. Mr Ives does not refer to people having their local lawyers appear for them and witnesses from local areas and the police. I demonstrated to this House the implications of this policy on the operations of the Victoria Police. Mr Ives did not mention police once. He ignored the views of the chief inspector of the Sunbury district who said that the closure of the Sunbury courthouse would have a disastrous impact on his ability to protect that community. Why did Mr Ives not mention that? He said that he had copious notes and he went through all the courts.


The Hon. R. S. Ives-Because the majority of police consulted agreed with the move.

The Hon. B. A CHAMBERLAIN-The majority of police were not consulted, nor were the majority of magistrates consulted. I rang the chief magistrate and asked him whether he had been consulted about this issue and he said, "Yes". I asked him whether the other magistrates in the field had been consulted and he said, "No". I suggest that the chief magistrate was told that the government intended to close 41 courts and that he should organise himself accordingly. Mr Ives conveniently ignored the fact that the police will be sorely inconvenienced by this operation. He did say that the government had to admit that it made a mistake in relation to the closure of a couple of courts in 1982-Casterton and Edenhope. When the courts were sitting in Horsham and Hamilton, respectively, there were days when no police were available in the home towns. They were all in court. That is why the chief inspector is saying in relation to Sunbury that his ability to operate his district will be devastated.

I shall go through a couple of issues raised by Mr Ives. Firstly, he said that under a Liberal government courts were closed. That is correct. There was a progression, and there are some fundamental differences in the instance cited. Mr Rylah, the Chief Secretary at that time, received representations and presumably deputations in relation to particular courthouses-North Melbourne comes to mind-and Mr Ives gave out a list of the representations Mr Rylah had received. In this case the Attorney-General will not talk to anyone. Deputations from my area have been sought. The honourable member for Lowan in another place, has asked for a deputation trom Warracknabeal and one has been requested for Camperdown, another for Sunbury through the honourable member for Gisborne, but the Attorney-General will not see them. That illustrates the difference between what is happening now and what happened under the former Liberal government.

Mention was made of closures having occurred when Mr Storey was AttorneyGeneral in 1981-82, but those closures were based on a report which was a public document. I forget who the consultants were. In this case the government refuses to release the document on which it bases its decision. One of my constituents in Camperdown sought that document under the Freedom of Information Act but the government claimed that it was a Cabinet document. Through secrecy, the people are not being involved in the decision making but merely in the implementation of what has already been determined by the government.

Reference was made to the supposedly adequate alternative courts. The government thinks it does not matter about the 50 kilometres between Warracknabeal and Horsham. It ignores the fact that there is no public transport between those places.

The Hon. R. A. Mackenzie-The lawyers will charge for transport.

The Hon. B. A. CHAMBERLAIN-The lawyers will charge, and it adds to the cost for the community; that adds to the cost of justice for the man in the street, and adds to the operating costs of the police.

The Hon. W. A. Landeryou-Why, what would you have done?

The Hon. R. J ~ Long-Not what you did.

The Hon. B. A. CHAMBERLAIN-Take the case of Camperdown; that is 50 kilometres from Warmambool, and a shorter distance to Colac. There are no courthouses between Camperdown and the 100 kilometres south to the sea; to the north the next available court is at Ballarat-130 kilometres distant. There are huge gaps. I should buy Mr Ives a map of Victoria, and plot the courthouses on it. Actually, the consultation document to which he refers contains some maps. It will be a very


sparse map of Victoria if it shows the courts that will remain after the proposed closures.

The government has not denied the fact that I was advised by the former Secretary to the Attorney-General's Department that the intention was to give laptop computers to the clerks of courts, and to provide modems to connect them to telephones. The excuse for that not to occur was that court records must be kept secure, but I am not too sure about that. Anyone can walk into the Melbourne Magistrates Court, approach the counter, and have access to the court records which are contained on computer.

The only confidential court records are those of the Children's Court. Otherwise, court records basically are public documents. I could be incorrect about particulars but, in general, they are public documents. One can obtain information about all matters listed before the Melbourne Magistrates Court from its computer records. Before too long, solicitors acting in matters before that court will have that information available in their offices. The excuse of confidentiality has been used in this instance but most cases are dealt with on the one day; relatively few need to be adjourned to another day. That excuse is a nonsense.

On the question of savings, Mr Ives says that it is not only the $500 000 but there is another $280 000 for computers and another $1·2 million for capital expenditure on courthouses. Not one representative of any courthouse that I have mentioned has asked for funds to be spent on those courthouses. In the present circumstances, the courthouses are quite usable. Another $1 million was allocated for refurbishment. Obviously someone in government said, "Let us load the figures so they look worse than they are", but the figures have no justification.

Reference was then made to a number of individual courthouses. On the subject of public transport, my basis for speaking about the difficulties in that respect was a solicitor, Mr J. R. Hoban, practising in Sunbury.

The Hon. W. A. Landeryou-It takes five and a half hours to get to Broadmeadows!

The Hon. B. A. CHAMBERLAIN-In a letter supplied to me by the Shire of Bulla, dated 9 October 1984, to the Director of Court Operations, Mr Hoban states:

The most important principle which has been ignored in your study is that of the individual's right to have an opportunity to be heard by the tribunal when his rights are being affected. Ifhe has to spend nearly 5 hours travelling to and from court for this purpose, the individual is probably going to opt not to appear. Thus a very important right is being eroded by administrative fiat.

Mr Landeryou lives in that area-he should try travelling by public transport.

The Hon. W. A. Landeryou-Y ou are quoting a letter going back some years but, since then, the government has provided better public transport-in fact, you can catch a bus from Sunbury to the court.

The Hon. B. A. CHAMBERLAIN-That is not the view of the Shire of Bulla.

The Hon. W. A. Landeryou-Give us the date of the letter.

The Hon. B. A. CHAMBERLAIN-That was in 1984, but I have another letter of 1989. I am happy to make them available.

The Hon. M. A. Lyster-That was 1984?

The Hon. B. A. CHAMBERLAIN-That was 1984.

The Hon. W. A. Landeryou-You quoted John Hoban-what are you talking about?


The Hon. B. A. CHAMBERLAIN-I have two different letters-J. R. Hoban, LLB, barrister and solicitor, O'Shanassy Street, Sunbury.

The Hon. W. A. Landeryou-That's five and a half hours to get to Broadmeadows!

The Hon. B. A. CHAMBERLAIN-It is 5 hours travelling, to return as well.

The Hon. W. A. Landeryou-What year, what date is the letter?

The Hon. B. A. CHAMBERLAIN-The other questions related to the Camperdown court. The main argument put by Mr Ives was that the court was not adequately equipped. Camperdown court has the ability to receive the cases that are listed for heanng and are contested. The town has the parties, perhaps the plaintiff and the defendent, the police officers, the lawyers and the local witnesses; the magistrate has a car and knows he will get home if he drives from Warmambool or from another direction.

What sort of excuse is that for not having the court at Camperdown? That court meets the government's criteria, in particular the Premier's 50-hour criterion used in 1982 and the distance criterion. Certainly he could catch the morning train and return at night if he wants to wait long enough, yet the government is proposing that the courthouse be closed. Warracknabeal is 50 kilometres distant from Horsham; it may be a relatively short time for travel in a car, but what does that matter? It is providing a service in the community where it is needed; there is no public transport. Government members talked about the cost of refurbishing the courthouses. Recently the AttorneyGeneral's Department asked the Warracknabeal shire to do some work around the courthouse, which the shire was happy to do.

The responses of Mr Ives are rather pathetic and are symptomatic of the way in which the government has handled the Issue. Assume that by next January, Victoria has 67 courts-what is the future? Mr Ives did not spell that out, but what is the hidden agenda? Can it be expected that in the future Victoria may have a handful of courthouses in the western part of the State, at Mildura, Horsham, Hamilton and Warrnambool-will that be it? Is that the grand plan?

The Hon. W. A. Landeryou-Too many.

The Hon. B. A. CHAMBERLAIN-Mr Landeryou says that is too many. He may have a smile on his face but that typifies the attitude of the government. On account of the government's proposals-if the process continues-in three years time, instead of 67 courts for Victoria the number could be as low as 25-is that what is to be expected? Is that available and affordable justice?

That certainly shows the criteria of the government, and demonstrates the contempt that the government has for Victorians. I commend the motion to the House.

The House divided on the motion (the Hon. A. J. Hunt in the chair). Ayes 24 Noes 17

Majority for the motion

AYES MrAshman MrBaxter MrBest Mr Birrell Mr Chamberlain MrCox MrCraige

7

NOES Mrs Cox sedge MrCrawford MrHenshaw Mrlves MrKennedy Ms Kokocinski Mr Landeryou

Appropriation (1989-90, No. 1) Bill

AYES MrEvans MrHall MrHallam MrKnowles MrLawson MrLong MrMacey Mr Mackenzie MrMiles MrSkeggs MrSmith MrStorey MrsTehan Mrs Varty MrWright

Tellers: MrdeFegely MrGuest

MrConnard

25 October 1989 COUNCIL

PAIR I

NOES Mrs Lyster MrsMcLean MrMier MrPullen Mr Theophanous MrVan Buren MrWalker MrWhite

Tellers: MrDavidson MrSgro

MrsHogg

APPROPRIATION (1989-90, No. 1) BILL The House went into Committee for the consideration of this Bill.

Clauses 1 to 3 were agreed to.

Clause 4

933

The CHAIRMAN (the Hon. K. I. M. Wright)-Order! I inform the honourable members that at this stage they may discuss the programs shown in the table that forms part of clause 4 and appears at pages 5 to 138 of the Bill. I ask honourable members to nominate the particular program or programs to which their remarks are directed.

The Hon. M. T. TEHAN (Central HiP.lands Province)-I direct my comments to the health sector of the Appropriation BIll, namely, Programs Nos 390 to 400.

Program No. 391 relates to acute care hospitals. The expenditure for works and services for that program is $120 379 800. The recurrent expenditure for this program, as outlined in Program Budget Outlays 1989-90, Budget Paper No. 5, is $1 802334. When the Budget Papers were first introduced there was some debate about the actual increase or decrease in the program funding when compared with the increase in the consumer price index. There are two schools of thought: the Budget Papers indicate that an increase of 5·9 per cent in fundin$ for that program but, when compared with the accepted increase in the consumer pnce index of 7·4 per cent for this year, it is in fact a decrease in real terms of 1·5 per cent.

If the allocation is juxtaposed against the non-salaries and wages component of the health budget, which is estimated at 6 per cent, there has been an increase in real terms of more than 3 per cent and it is that increase of more than 3 per cent in real terms that the Minister for Health refers to on all occasions. It is academic which of these two figures is correct, because it is apparent that many hospitals have had their expenditure reduced on last year's allocation, and those reductions must be added to the decline in real terms of hospital budgets between 1984-85 and 1988-89. There has been a decline in real terms over the past five years with perhaps a minimal increase ofQ.3 per cent for the current Budget.

934 COUNCIL 25 October 1989 Appropriation (1989-90, No. 1) Bill

The reduction in expenditure is not across the board: there are many examples of an amount being available to one hospital but not to another. The figures show that in real terms it is a decline in expenditure, and certainly not even an increase of O· 3 per cent.

There are two qualifications one can make about the 0·3 per cent increase. Firstly, in addition to the allocation in Program No. 391 there was a requirement that $25 million be found in productivity savings. If that amount is deducted from the allocation for recurrent expenditure for acute hospitals there is a decline in real terms. The Victorian Hospitals Association Ltd states that the inclusion of the $25 million in productivity savin$s has an impact equivalent to a 1·2 per cent budget cut for hospitals. The associatIon says that this proposed productivity saving will undoubtedly create significant difficulties.

Secondly, a considerable proportion of the Budget allocation to acute hospitals, albeit with the 0·3 per cent increase, went to bringing on stream the 100 new beds in Frankston Hospital and the new beds at the Maroondah Hospital. When the additional funding is added for those new beds on a per bed basis of existing staffing requirements for the existing hospitals, there has been a decrease in real terms for the major proportion of hospitals throughout Victoria.

I propose to examine two or three examples of how the reduction in acute care hospital funding has impacted on services that are expected of our public hospitals. In addition to the qualifications that I have already given there is an expectation in the public hospital sector that there will be an increased throughput of patients of 2 per cent. That is on top of the increase in throughput over the past two years of 16 per cent. In the 1987-88 Budget there was an increase of 11 per cent in patient throughput. In the 1988-89 Budget the increase in throughput was 4 per cent, making an increase of 16 per cent during the past two years. As I say, the expectation that hospitals will increase their throughput of patients by a further 2 per cent in the current Budget will be difficult to obtain.

Honourable members well know that the hospital sector is pressed for cash. This will be exacerbated by the reduction in the recurrent expenditure to acute hospitals and the expected increase of 2 per cent to the throughput of patients. A number of hospitals that I have visited have said to me that there is a breaking point. Under the agreement some hospitals entered into, many hospitals overspent their budget and many increased their throughput of patients and/or found that their throughput of patients was in excess of that agreed upon. Hospitals were unable to stay within their budgets and treat the number of patients being demanded of them.

Acute care hospitals, for the sixth year in a row, are being asked to increase their throughput of patients on a reducing budget base. The increased throughput is unlikely to be met this financial year. I pass on a warning on behalf of the hospitals to the Minister for Health and the government generally: this equation cannot continue; something will have to give.

I acknowledge that there are industrial relations areas where savings could be made. It was anticipated that those problem areas would be approached in this Budget when the productivity savings of$25 million were announced. Almost 80 per cent of hospital budgets are taken up with salaries, wages and ongoing labour costs. That leaves only 20 per cent on which cuts can be made. Cuts to services have been made and then made again, and there is no elasticity in that 20 per cent of the Budget for any further productivity savings or cost savings. If the government is brave enough or prepared to back the hospitals it should examine some of the work practices adopted by members of the Hospital Employees Federation of Australia, some of the overmanning practices at hospitals, and the considerable savings that can be made in cleaning, laundry,

Appropriation (1989-90, No. 1) Bill 25 October 1989 COUNCIL 935

catering and kitchen services. Savings in those areas will not be made unless the government has the political will to support hospitals that are prepared to examine those elements of cost savings.

One of the most savage cuts impacting on Victoria's health system was a component of Program No. 391 in the acute care hospital sector. Some $10 million was taken from that part of the Budget, expressly from Prince Henry's Hospital. The cut was made without any consultation with Prince Henry's Hospital, and without any warning to the hospital. It is causing grave concern and creating serious havoc not only in Prince Henry's Hospital but also in many of the hospitals that are concerned about the impact on their facilities when Prince Henry's Hospital starts to make the cuts in services that are necessary as a result of the $10 million reduction in its funding.

The fact that the proposed cuts were not heralded and no notice was given makes the $10 million cut considerably more substantial in the current financial year. The Budget was brought down in the middle of August and about a quarter of the year has passed before any changes can be made to implement a cut of that magnitude. The hospital is looking at implementing a cut in its budget of approximately $60 million, that is, it is a reduction of one-sixth in the remaining three-quarters of this financial year.

The cuts and the loss of facilities as a result of the $10 million deployment-to which I shall refer again in a moment-are savage. I place on record some of the initiatives that the hospital is considering as a result of this one Budget allocation.

Michael Pirrie, the medical reporter for the Age, said in an article that appeared on 7 October 1989 that:

Prince Henry's Hospital is expected to close three of its wards and one operating theatre by the end of December under a radical cost-cutting plan.

Casualty services may also be limited to ambulance admissions only, with walk-in patients being asked to seek treatment elsewhere, according to senior medical staff at the hospital.

The planned cut in medical services at the hospital may also see another ward closed by next March if the estimated savings are not achieved.

Casualty services may also be closed to patients after hours, placing further strain on accident and emergency services at over-crowded inner-city hospitals, which are struggling to cope with emergency patients.

This has resulted in patients being ferried around the city and metropolitan areas in ambulances, searching for empty beds.

The options under consideration by senior medical staff at Prince Henry's are designed to meet a $10 million cut in the hospital's budget announced in this year's State Budget.

The closure of beds at Prince Henry's is expected to see waiting lists climb at public hospitals in the city and south-east suburban areas, according to senior hospital sources.

Cr Patricia Brown of South Melbourne City Council, who is a keen supporter of and has been actively involved in Prince Henry's Hospital, wrote to the Emerald Hill. Sandridge and St Kilda Times. Her letter appears in the issue of 7 September 1989 and contains the following statement: HOSPITAL CUTS A DISASTER

In the recent State Budget the Victorian government slashed $10 million from Prince Henry's Hospital budget, effectively representing about one-third of the budget in a full year.

This decision is a betrayal of the accord covering the future of Prince Henry's agreed to by the previous Minister for Health. A betrayal which will inevitably reduce the quality of medical care offered to thousands of patients in the south east of Victoria.


Cr Brown lists what will happen as a result of moving $10 million from Prince Henry's Hospital's budget this financial year. She says:

It will:

reduce the quality of medical care as interdependent specialty units become non-viable.

devastate the ability of the Clinical School to maintain its teaching and clinical undergraduate studentswho represent one half of the total ofMonash medical students.

impose an intolerable burden on other teaching hospitals in the State, which are already stretched past capacity.

seriously endanger the future of Monash Medical Centre as a university teaching hospital with a comprehensive range of services.

annihilate clinical research programs.

The decision is neither feasible not practicable to implement.

This single decision in the acute care hospital budget is as damaging as any single government initiative possibly could be. It is havin~ a disastrous effect on morale at Prince Henry's Hospital and on the services proVIded by the hospital, on clinical teaching at Prince Henry's and on the outstanding clinical units of that hospital. It is impacting on the other hospitals in the area by putting undue pressure on their accident and emergency units and their waiting lists. The full impact of the initiative has not yet been clarified.

I ask the government to announce as clearly and as quickly as possible what action it has taken and what initiatives it has set in place to take up the role that Prince Henry's Hospital has played in the city over the past 60 years. Where are the accident and emergency patients to go? Where are the people waiting for the great specialties of Prince Henry's Hospital to be serviced? They will not-as is glibly answered-go to the western suburbs, and many of them will not go to the Monash Medical Centre because it is not on the direct path of ambulances that service the incredibly busy city centre.

Finally on Prince Henry's Hospital, a letter written by Brian Davie, Chairman of the Australian Society of Orthopaedic Surgeons, which appeared in the Herald of Thursday, 14 September 1989, states:

Price Henry's must stay open

The State government has imposed real spending cuts on all hospitals for the past five years.

The 38-hour week, rising salaries have meant that hospitals have been forced to reduce services in order to remain within budget.

The move of Prince Henry's Hospital to Clayton in 1992 will result in the loss of several hundred public beds as well as a first class coronary and intensive care department and is another example of the government's poor health planning.

Prince Henry's Hospital is right next to the outflow of traffic from the West Gate Bridge, it is next to the Flinders Street station and there is an emerging policy of increasing public housing in the inner suburbs by councils which will further increase the inner city population and would further enhance what Prince Henry's has always offered-accessibility, service and medical expertise.

This was a disast~ous start to the acute care component of the Budget.

Other hospitals have been impacted upon and affected by the government's initiative. Last week I was at the Goulburn Valley Base Hospital in Shepparton, which is working within a very tight budget. The hospital comes within the very criteria I outlined earlier in respect of the constraints on public hospitals as a result ofa cut in real funds allocation over the past five years and a demand for increased throughput. They are treating more patients than they have ever treated and they are doing that on a tight


budget. They have not had any increase in real funding this year; they have had a decr~ase in real funding.

I refer to a letter of26 September 1989 written by the Chief Executive Officer of the Goulburn Valley Base Hospital, Mr Terry Milan, to the honourable member for Shepparton, copIes of which he sent to Health Department Victoria and me. Mr Milan said:

As you know the government's general policy in regard to the State Budget was that departments would be required to achieve a 2 per cent productivity increase for less dollars in real terms than last year. In our discussions with the acting regional director it was indicated to the hospital that in our case he would not require us to achieve the 2 per cent productivity increase over last year's throughput, but instead the hospital's base operating budget was reduced by $91 500 and it was indicated that this was required to be reallocated to areas of greater need within the total region.

That is of interest because within the northern sector of the north-east Goulburn Valley region there is only one public hospital. It is the only subregion in Victoria that has only one public hospItal. So it is interesting to know where the greater needs could be met withIn that total region when that hospital services a huge and growing population; when that hospital has one of the longest waiting lists, and in fact for some specialties the longest waiting list in Victoria; and when it has in the six weeks prior to 11 August been on ambulance bypass eleven times.

We hear of ambulance bypass in the city. We know that patients are being ferried from Prince Henry's to the Alfred Hospital or from the Alfred to St Vincent's Hospital or from the Royal Melbourne Hospital to St Vincent's Hospital. That is a short tnp of 10 or 15 minutes, but when one is looking at ambulance bypass in country areas one is looking at an entirely different scenario. One is looking at a trip from Shepparton to Melbourne of2 hours at a minimum. That can be a critical time for a patient who has been critically hurt in an accident or who has suffered a coronary complaint and cannot be admitted to the local hospital, not because the facilities are not there but because there are insufficient beds for people to be moved out of the accident and emergency unit into general wards of the hospital. As a result, relatives and friends are told that this patient cannot be admitted and will have to go to Melbourne or Wangaratta. This is happening and, as I said, it happened eleven times in six weeks prior to 11 August. I have no reason to doubt that it is not happening just as regularly at the moment.

The letter to the honourable member for Shepparton goes on to say that: In summary, it can be seen that on the one hand, the hospital has had $91 500 removed from its base

operating budget, and has been required to forego the achievement of a 2 per cent productivity increase which would have equated to 183 in-patients.

So that is 183 in-patients who will not be treated in the Goulburn Valley Base Hospital if it is to comply with the terms of its hospital agreement and come in on budget. The letter continues:

On the other hand it has been reallocated a total of $120 ()()() to cover additional throughput from the waiting list and through the day procedure unit. I might add that the hospital opted to treat the additional patients and not have the $91 500 taken from its budget base but this appeared to have been a decision taken by the acting regional director on the grounds of need throughout the areas of the region. The hospital protested over this action during discussions.

SO, that similarly is an example of the impact on the facilities and services that our public hospitals can give to the community with the reduction or the containment of funds available for our public hospital system and the acute care hospitals.

The sitting was suspended at 6.25 p. m. until 8.2 p. m. The Hon. M. T. TEHAN-Before the suspension of the sitting for dinner, I told

the Committee that over the past few years the Budget had imposed constraints. This


year's Budget has brought the public hospital sector to a position where there is no room for further cuts. I stop short of saying that at this time hospital standards are being eroded as a result of underfundlng. I pay tribute to the staff, the medical profession, the chief executive officers and management in the hospital sector. There is no doubt that, if Budget constraints relating to acute care hospitals in Program No. 391 continue along the lines of the past three or four years, Victoria will face a serious situation.

In August and September of this year there was press comment after press comment, illustration after illustration of the problems experienced in accident and emergency and critical care areas as a result of the lack of beds in the critical care area and,just as importantly, in the general wards of hospitals. The so-called stoppage that does not allow a free flow of patients through the system is beginning to hit constantly and generally throughout the system.

I refer the Committee to a letter from Mr Glenning, Chairman of the Committee of Chairmen of Senior Medical Staff, whose letter is reported in the Sun newspaper of 22 August:

I write on behalf of the Committee of Chairmen of Senior Medical Staff of major metropolitan hospitals, which represents the 19 biggest hospitals in the Melbourne area.

The committee feels obliged to draw to the public's attention that the public hospital system is finding it more and more difficult to maintain its previously very high standard of care.

The $10 million cut in funds to Prince Henry's Hospital will have a disastrous effect on its ability to function in any capacity. Prince Henry's will literally starve to death.

Despite government promises not to cut funding until alternative facilities are available, Prince Henry's is feeling the impact of those cuts. He refers to the Royal Melbourne Hospital and states:

In the last financial year RMH exceeded its budgeted throughput of patients by about 4500, with a cost over-run of about 1·5 per cent (around $2 million). This is a workload increase of 10 per cent with a cost increase of 1·5 per cent.

Current bed closures and conversions are an attempt to get the hospital back on budget, as it has been made responsible for its over-run.

He refers to the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute which had to disband its transport service for patients because of the lack of funds. He then states:

The committee believes this information has not been made clearly available to the public, and that government statements that there is no crisis in health care are incorrect.

The problem can only be solved by a substantial injection of money into the public hospital sector.

The evidence is all too apparent; it is widespread and detailed. Public hospitals cannot continue to carry the burden of patient demands placed on them with the limited funds now available.

In concluding these comments on the public hospital sector, it is timely to refer to the comments the Premier made at a press conference on 5 July 1979 in which he is reported in the Herald of the same date as saying:

Mr Cain today attacked public hospital administration for starting a scare campaign over government funding cuts in the coming State Budget.

An angry Mr Cain said that every year, like clockwork, hospital officials launched a campaign against the Budget, scaring the public with emotional arguments about important services being cut.

"The ones they generally use is closing casualty-that's a good one-turning patients away or closing beds. It's a dead-set certainty," he said.

The Premier was right; his comments have been proven to be correct. There has been a turning away of patients. Beds have been closed. Casualty departments have been


closed,just as the senior executive officers warned prior to the delivery of the Budget. They did not deserve the scorn the Premier heaped on them. Public hospital officials warned the government that expensive medical services would be cut. The Premier said that they were not even subtle about it. Perhaps they were not subtle, but the warnings were true; they were prophetic statements.

Victoria is facing a critical situation and cannot afford to have its public hospital stafflose their morale as a result of the loss of facilities, technology and the confidence of the public. Hospitals have played an outstanding role in the provision of health services in this State. It is imperative that appropriate funds be made available in future Budgets for hospitals to continue to provide that high standard of service.

I conclude by referring to one more element in Program No. 391; it involves the proviso that consideration will be given for a program to make more use of private hospitals, which will relieve pressure on public hospitals.

It is a worthwhile initiative and one that the Australian Labor Party promised in its health policy of September 1988 but it is similarly a promise that has not been kept. This initiative has not been implemented and nothing has been done in the past twelve months by this government to redress the obvious imbalance between the private and public sectors.

Primarily, it is a Federal matter and it is something that will have to be considered by the next Liberal government at the Federal level. When it announces its health policy, it will be addressing the matter directly and encouraging people to take out private health insurance so they can afford private hospitals, which will take the pressure off the public sector.

The public sector should be used for those in need, those who cannot afford private insurance or hospitals, those who have serious injuries, disabilities or illnesses and those who need the expert skills and technology that public hospitals can provide.

Thousands of patients should be utilising the private sector-which is an outstanding provider of health services in Victoria-but cannot afford to do so because they are compelled to pay the compulsory Medicare levy. A family with two members working is paying the levy twice-each member is paying 1·5 per cent of his or her income towards it. In straitened circumstances it is very difficult for families to find the money for private health insurance.

This imbalance in what was an excellent dual system has got totally out of proportion and is having a severe impact on the opportunities for all Victorians to have the health services they need and deserve.

The ALP health policy of September 1988 gave recognition to that and at page 10 states:

The Labor government is committed to a total Victorian hospital system, in which both public and private hospitals work together.

Page 11 states: In our next term we will:

introduce a two-pronged strategy to make private hospitals more affordable and attractive;

enter into contracts with private hospitals which contain out-of-pocket costs to a reasonable level and are prepared to offer services where private patients demand on public hospital is highest.

Page 12 refers to two specifics: Up to 15000 privately-insured patients will be encouraged to use private rather than public hospitals at

an estimated cost of$10 million.


I ask the Minister: precisely how many of those 15 000 privately insured patients have been encouraged to use the private hospitals? How much of the $10 million estimated cost of that program has been spent? What plans are in place to keep that very serious written commitment to establish better use of our private hospital system? The second part of the promise states:

Another reason many insured patients use public rather than private hospitals is that private hospitals do not have doctors on duty full time.

Doctors and patients will have a stronger incentive to use private hospitals if they know medical care is available at all times.

The precise promise was: In our next term, we will invite each of the major private hospitals to apply for a $200 000 subsidy to

enable doctors to be on duty in the hospital at nights and weekends.

This initiative will cost up to $3 million and will make both patients and their doctors more comfortable about using private hospitals.

As of this date, how many of those major private hospitals have been given the $200 000 subsidy? How many doctors have been subsidised by the government to work in the private hospitals and how much of the $3 million has been spent on that specific, precise, spelt-out promise?

We have an excellent private sector which provides health and hospital services throughout Victoria. One has only to go to places like Ballarat and inspect the St John of God Hospital, which is beautifully appointed and superbly managed with outstanding nursing and staff commitment. However, that hospital cannot be filled because people cannot afford to use those beds. People go to the Mercy Private Hospital in Melbourne.

The St John of God Hospital has an occupancy rate of 65 per cent. It used to be 95 per cent. People just cannot afford private insurance. Facilities and beds are not being utilised.

St Vincent's Private Hospital, St Francis Xavier Cabrini Hospital and Epworth Hospital-which offer a range of health services second to none-are unable to attract the occupancy rates they need to remain economically viable. These hospitals are not operating for profit; they are not seeking to make money out of our sick. They are offering a service and one which is on a non-profit basis to the people of Victoria.

With the advent of Medicare and the inability of people to afford private insurance and the fall to an all-time record low of people taking out private insurance these hospitals are under-utilised and our communities are suffering. Up to 25 000 people are waiting to get into public hospitals. Services in the private sector are underutilised.

The government recognised this and promised in its policy to do somethin$, but it has done nothing. I ask the government and the Minister at the table when it IS going to implement those promises and redress the imbalance. It will not be a full-time solution; that is a Federal problem. However, it is one that can be and should be addressed and, until it is, there will continue to be undue pressures on our public hospital sector and concern throughout the State as to the economic viability of the private sector.

A similar situation exists at St Andrew's Hospital, which is an outstanding hospital that has given service to the community for more than 66 years. Thousands of babies have been born there and mothers have gone back and new $enerations have been born there. It is run by the Uniting Church in Australia and IS based on a sense of

Appropriation (1989-90, No. 1) Bill 25 October 1989 . COUNCIL 941

commitment to the sick. It provides outstanding service and yet it will go under because it cannot remain economically viable.

The health services in this State are at the crossroads. Unless swift, decisive action is taken, Victoria will see the demise of its private hospital system and the absolute collapse of the public sector. Those are some of the issues that become apparent when one examines the health budget.

I conclude by indicating that this Budget may suffice for this year. It has placed incredible burdens on the people trying to provide facilities, services and technology to our sick but they cannot continue to carry that burden. The government must provide basic health services and it must provide for the seriously ill, the disabled and those who cannot afford medical treatment and who, on a needs basis, are dependent on services supplied by governments, and it must supply services for the aged.

They are three of the first priorities. Others could follow but we are in dire straits and in danger of not even meeting those basic requirements. It is imperative that this government looks very carefully at the financial priorities in the State to ensure that health services do not suffer because of the scandalous economic mismanagement that has taken place during the past twelve months.

The Hon. ROBERT LA WSON (Higinbotham Province )-Every year the duty of the Opposition in this place becomes more important and onerous because Opposition members have to speak for the people who have been disadvantaged and grossly deceived by this government. It is extraordinary that every year the revenue to government increases. This year it will increase $600 million.

The CHAIRMAN (the Hon. K. I. M. Wright)-Order! Mr Lawson is embarking on a second-reading speech.

The Hon. ROBERT LA WSON-Mr Chairman, I am laying the groundwork for my remarks. I am pointing out that government income is $600 million more than last year, yet the government is constantly curtailing or closing down services. That is a disgraceful record.

I turn to the area of the arts, which is close to home and particularly Moorabbin, which is in my province. Program No. 144, subprogram 3910 relates to library services. According to the figures there has been a $856 000 increase in the amount allocated in the Budget. We have a central library in Bentleigh and six satellite libraries around the city. Every year the Moorabbin City Council continues to fall behind in its expenses in this area. The government allocated a library subsidy of $422 957 to the City of Moorabbin, which is $10 000 more than it received last year. That is all ript on the surface; but, unfortunately for Moorabbin, the costs of library services are Increasing at a greater rate; the library budget is now $1·5 million. The subsidy that Moorabbin receives for its library services is less than one-third of cost.

This morning we debated in this Chamber the arts subsidy and the general treatment of arts by the government. We classify libraries as part of the arts portfolio. Libraries throughout Victoria are being treated shabbily. Members of the National Party and Liberal Party would agree that our libraries in Victoria are still the best in Australia. There is no other library system in any of the States that can compare with ours; they are the poor person's university and are centres of information and pleasure for thousands of people. It would be a bold municipal council that would say it can no longer afford a library service and will cut back the service or even eliminate it. People today regard libraries as an essential service provided by councils. They may not be aware that the government is gradually strangling library services by cutting back the subsidy. Councils are getting more deeply into debt to keep library services operating.


There is a limit to the shortfall that can be made up in library services. Some day something will break; either the councils will cut down on the services or close them altogether.

I turn to local government, Program No. 502. Several municipalities in my province, such as Brighton, Caulfield, Sandringham and Moorabbin, are suffering from the same difficulties. My province is a good area and is well serviced by its local members of Parliament. The government is gradually strangling local government by reducing the various subsidies. Brighton faces a 7·1 per cent rate rise to meet its 1989-90 budget because its grants have been reduced by more than $30 000.

The Hon. M. A. Lyster-That rate rise was below the cost of living increase.

The Hon. ROBERT LA WSON-The rates spiralled again. Sandringham has a 1 ()'8 per cent rise, but Brighton must be congratulated.

The Hon. M. A. Lyster-That has been sitting for two months now.

The Hon. ROBERT LA WSON-That is not long when dealing with a property of that nature.

The Hon. M. A. Lyster-I hope the council took that into account.

The Hon. ROBERT LA WSON-The Minister is being unruly in getting into an argument about what the Sandringham council should do with the property.

The CHAIRMAN-Order! Mr Lawson should disregard interjections.

The Hon. ROBERT LA WSON-Councils are in difficulties because of the reduction in the subsidies they receive.

The Sandringham-Brighton Advertiser of 26 September states: Councillor Moller said rates were increased because funding to Sandringham from the Victoria Grants

Commission was reduced by $69 000. In real terms this was a reduction of $ 110 000 which has to be to be countered by a 1·7 per cent increase in rates.

The total income of the State government is not more than $10 billion. The former Liberal Treasurer, Mr Thompson, had $5 billion to spend on various services, yet in those days the Liberal government did not cut out services as the present government is cutting them.

The Hon. R. A. Mackenzie-Those services were not there to cut out; they have all been introduced since 1982.

The Hon. ROBERT LAWSON-We have always had libraries. The government has lured local councils into providing numerous services and then pulled the financial rug from under them.

The government cannot have it both ways; on the one hand saying that there are these wonderful services that have been provided in conjunction with local government and then, on the other hand, taking the financial incentive away. I would not be surprised if the Liberal Party lost faith in the government the way its members are carrying on.

I turn to the area of beach -cleaning subsidies. The Liberal Party began th~t particular project and paid each of the councils in my area $30000.

The Hon. M. A. Lyster-There was a ceiling on it.


The Hon. ROBERT LA WSON-According to my information, the town clerk, Mr Cobain, said that the Brighton City Council incurred considerable costs in maintaining the foreshore in a clean and tidy state. He said:

The State government contributed a small amount of$47 000 ...

The Hon. M. A. Lyster-Will you go there?

The Hon. ROBERT LA WSON-I will go if you do.

The Hon. M. A. Lyster-I will be at the St Kilda beach.

The CHAIRMAN-Order! Some of the interjections, particularly those of the Minister for Local Government, are irrelevant.

The Hon. ROBERT LA WSON-The Minister is trying to defend her position because I am showing up failures of the Local Government Department.

In 1988-89 the State government contributed the small amount of $47 000. That money could be spent only on sand areas during the months from October to March. During that same period the Brighton council incurred costs of$330 000 in maintaining the foreshore areas, which include the parkland beach area, toilets and car parks.

I point out that the Brighton City Council is spending $330 000 a year on public facilities and receiving a subsidy of only $47000. The beaches at Brighton, Sandringham and the other areas I represent are parks, because they are used by people from far outside the area in which they are situated. People come from all over the metropolitan area to use the beaches at Black Rock, Sandringham and Brighton. The local council is saddled with the cost of maintaining the beaches and all it gets is a paltry $47000 when it incurs costs of$330 000. That is unfair by any reckoning.

The Brighton council is pleased to look after the beaches; it holds them in trust for all of Victoria and it is prepared to do the necessary work. However, the government is not treating the council equitably. When the Liberal Party was in government costs were far less than they are now, but a beach-cleaning subsidy was planned then. Over the past seven and a half years of Labor Party government, the disparity has become far worse.

I now refer to transport and metropolitan passenger services, Program No. 683 at page 119 of the Bill. Recently a curious thing has been happening with bus services in Bentleigh and Brighton. There are certainly no complaints about the lack of buses in that area because bus routes are suddenly appearing; new buses are plying the routes, but at first no-one knew where they were heading. The Minister for Transport is having a feud with the private bus operators and, during the course of the dis{>ute, he guaranteed $9 million to QUince's Scenicruisers Pty Ltd. The Minister is USIng that bus service as a weapon against other bus proprietors.

I have no quarrel with Quince's. It is a good firm and provides a good service, partly because it was given $9 million with which to purchase buses. The Met undertook to provide the $9 million for coaches and operating costs for the company to operate for 2 million kilometres last year, 3 million this year and 4 million next year. The problem is that the Ministry of Transport has arranged to put bus routes on top of the existing routes without consultation.

When the new buses appeared no-one knew where they were going or where they had come from. All we knew was that magnificent new buses were plying the streets of Higinbotham Province. Local bus proprietors are of the opinion that the Met is trying to teach them a lesson. Two of the new local routes will run from Middle Brighton along N ormanby Street, Dendy Street, New Street, Hawthorn Road and so on. I shall not bore honourable members with the names of the streets because they


will not be as familiar with them as I am. Another route is from Southland shopping centre to Caulfield via Nepean Highway.

The buses appeared suddenly, like swallows in the summer. One day they were not there; the next day they appeared and were everywhere.

The Hon. P. R. Hall-They were like seagulls.

The Hon. ROBERT LA WSON-No; seagulls are there all the time. Swallows are transient, and I wonder whether the buses will disappear when the winter sets in.

Another extraordinary part of the story is that the Met put up a number of bus route signs on lampposts around the area. People saw the signs and decided to take advantage of the new services: they would wait and wait, but nothing happened. The bus signs had been installed, but not the buses-they were elsewhere.

I have not mentioned bus route No. 631 from Southland to Mitcham, but that is another of our secret bus routes. At first no-one was aware of it; even ringing the Met information service was of no use in trying to elicit information about the secret service. Some other buses run through the area with no passengers. Some of my constituents have been watching the bus routes for years and have complained bitterly that buses regularly pass their houses carrying phantom passengers.

I should not complain because the province I represent must have the most prolific bus service in the metropolitan area. However, some of this surplus transport may be more useful in the western suburbs. A group of six Liberal Party Parliamentarians recently visited the western suburbs at the invitation of the Western Region Commission; its members were delighted to see us. Representatives of the commission had never before seen so many members of Parliament in their lives, particularly Liberal Party Parliamentarians. They said they were lucky to see their local representatives!

We were astonished at the neglect of the area. The western suburbs are in need ofa few marginal seats and perhaps then something would be done for the unfortunate people living in that area.

The CHAIRMAN-Order! I presume Mr Lawson is still speaking about Program No. 683.

The Hon. ROBERT LA WSON-I am talking about buses and saying how the western suburbs could use some of the new buses being driven around the province I represent.

I shall now refer to the plight of the disabled. I have a copy of the Disability Resources Centre Inc. DRC Bulletin, which refers to transport problems for intellectually disabled. Members of the centre have seen the Minister for Transport and the way they describe that meeting is so typical that I can see it all happening. The article states that the meeting was unsatisfactory and that the Minister assumed the manner of an indulgent father listening to the ravings of a petulant child. How often has he adopted that manner with members of this place? Thank heavens the Legislative Assembly has him now! The article also states that most of what the representatives brought up with the Minister was dismissed. The meeting was unsatisfactory because it did not address the transport needs of disabled people. I have in my hand a document entitled A Fare Deal from which I shall quote.

The CHAIRMAN-Order! I ask Mr Lawson to identify the document.


The Hon. ROBERT LA WSON-The document was authorised by Mr John Cain when he was Leader of the Opposition. It is an election manifesto on the subject of buses and trains. It states:

Victorians are now paying the highest fares in Australia for the worst service!

Under Labor's Metropolitan Transit Authority, the zone system will be restructured to simplify ticketing.

That is happening! Further: The huge fare increases imposed on commuters in November will be brought back to their real 1981

value ...

Financial targets will be set for the railways to ensure better management.

The targets were way out of sight! Honourable members will note the way costs have blown out under the Cain Labor government. When the Liberal government was in power the deficits of the railways and buses were at serious levels. The cost of the railways has blown out catastrophically since the Labor government came to power. A subsidy of $3 million a day is not bad for a transport system! The document from which I quoted is the material offantasies. It becomes more quaint year by year when one sees how the promises Mr Cain made have failed to match reality.

Since the Labor government came to office the state of Victoria's transport system has deteriorated. Although new stock was purchased by the government it is now in a disgraceful condition. What is to be done about the graffiti on our trains? I travel to the House by train and usually the carriages are covered in graffiti and are in a disgusting condition. This morning it was refreshing to board a carriage from which the graffiti had been scrubbed off.

,A while ago I wrote a letter to the local paper about graffiti on railway carriages. Following publication of the letter a detective rang me to say that the police have difficulty in prosecuting graffitists.

The Hon. D. M. Evans-Is it expressed in plain English, in Kennanisation?

The Hon. ROBERT LAWSON-There is all sorts of rubbish! I do not think the Minister for Transport is responsible for any of it, but I shall watch out for his initials! The police officer said that more often than not he is instructed by his superiors not to prosecute the graffitists that are caught because the law is defective and smart lawyers can get them off. To prosecute the offenders is more trouble than it is worth. He asked me whether a section could be included in the Va~ancy Act to deal specifically with the problems caused by graffitists. It is imperatIve that either Parliament or the government do something about the disgusting tide of graffiti that is spreading nowadays. It is disgraceful that patrons have to sit in trains the walls and seats of which are covered in $faffiti.

Program No. 700 concerns road system developme'lt services. In a day or two the Hous~ will debate the state of our roads; nevertheless I shall refer briefly to the disgraceful condition of roads throughout the State. There was a time when Victoria's road system was the envy of Australia, but those days are long gone. Nowadays our roads are deteriorating quickly. Because of their state of neglect we will soon reach the point--

Honourable members interjecting.

The Hon. ROBERT LA WSON-Is that a private conversation, or may I join in?

The CHAIRMAN-Order! There are too many interjections. Mr Sgro, who is interjecting, is also out of his place. Session 1989-32


The Hon. ROBERT LA WSON-One of these days our roads will reach the point of no return. Indeed, local councils in the metropolitan area may be forced to follow the example of their rural counterparts in harrowing the top off our roads, so letting the badly pitted and potholed surfaces revert to gravel. That could happen unless something is done quickly.

The state of our roads contributes to the number of road accidents. There are no median strips on some of our high-speed roads, as there should be. The horrible crash that occurred in New South Wales between a semitrailer and a bus could easily occur in Victoria because there is little to prevent vehicles swerving across the road into the path of oncoming traffic. Unless something is done to repair Victoria's rapidly deteriorating road system it will reach the point of no return. Apart from other problems, the state of our roads is responsible for either killing or putting into hospital thousands of Victorians.

The Hon. C. J. KENNEDY (Waverley Province)-In speaking on the Bills I shall refer to some of the major achievements of my government in recent years. Many of the achievements have occurred since Malcolm Farnsworth did so much research for me a few years ago-and although some honourable members may not know who he is, I shall not tell them!

I shall not take all the credit for the spectacular achievements of the government. I shall share the credit with Mr Mier, who also represents Waverley Province, and the honourable members for Clayton and Oakleigh in the other place, Dr Gerard Vaughan and Mr Race Matthews respectively-and perhaps I shall share the credit with an occasional Minister or two.

I do not have all that much to say very often because I do not like to slow down government business. However, to begin, I shall refer to Program No. 482, which deals with child-care. I wish to commend some of the local industries in my electorate, particularly the very large car manufacturer, Nissan Australia, which has recently done something sensible about providing child-care services for its employees.

The Hon. Rosemary V arty-What has that to do with the government?

The Hon. C. J. KENNEDY-Nissan is located in Clayton.

The CHAIRMAN-Order! I think Mr Kennedy is quoting the wrong program number.

The Hon. C. J. KENNEDY-I think I have a copy of the 1989 Budget in my hand, Mr Chairman. Anyway, any number will do; it does not really matter. I shall nominate that one!

I shall speak briefly about work-based child-care. The Nissan factory in Clayton recently accepted a grant, one of some twenty available, to allow it to assess its options in providing child-care services for its employees. The feasibility study fund provides assistance up to a maximum of $7500. Recently the Minister for Labour came out to Clayton and handed the cheque over in a very impressive ceremony.

Program No. 585, police and emergency services, refers to police road traffic control, safety and enforcement. For the information of the knockers on other side of the Chamber who governed this State for most of this century and all of the last century, it is page 89. I refer to vehicles provided for the police.

The CHAIRMAN-Order! It is page 92.

The Hon. C. J. KENNEDY-The summary is on page 89 and I certainly cleared it with the President before I started speaking. In any case, prior to the historic election of 1982, after 27 years of consecutive miserable Liberal government, the Cain


government was elected and one of the. first thin~s it did was to institute a program whereby every police station had its oWn car-alr-conditioned at that. Prior to that time most police stations, especially small police stations, that needed transport had to have it provided by the police members.

The Hon. Rosemary Varty-It still happens.

The Hon. C. J. KENNEDY-Rubbish! In some cases Ford T-models were used. However, when the Labor Party came into power in 1982 it introduced a program of providing modem, comfortable, air-conditioned vehicles for all police stations. By and large over the past 40 years all police cars have been made by the two Americanbased companies, the Ford Motor Co. of Australia Ltd and General Motors Holden's Automotive Ltd.

It is interesting to note that in Clayton six cars have been developed that are now being used by the Tasmanian police on a trial basis. Those cars are Nissan Skyline Silhouette GTS, especially designed by Nissan Australia for police work. Some of those cars made in Clayton may eventually be seen on Victorian roads. I have just noticed an attached photograph of yours truly standing beside one of these vehicles but I had better not show it in the Chamber because last time I produced a photograph it raised hell and was responsible for six pages of Hansard.

I shall now mention health, Program No. 393, dealing with community health and home services. Apart from the credit that naturally goes to local members-Mr Mier and me and the honourable members for Clayton and Oakleigh in another place-a lot of credit should go to the current Minister for Health who has enhanced the work of the previous Minister, now the Minister for Industry, Technology and Resources, who in turn enhanced the work of the previous Minister, now the Minister for PJanning and Environment. They are three fine Ministers in a row. In no area of government have we done better than in health.

The Waverley Community Health Centre was founded in the early 19705 by John and Clarissa O'Meara and J an Kennedy, who is now the president. The manager of that excellent health centre is Monica Morcos. The previous manager was Glen Wood and before him was another excellent manager who now graces the Legislative Assembly as the honourable member for Niddrie. He was an excellent manager and he is now a good member of Parliament.

I should also refer to something that National Party members often do; that is, name a few people. I should like to refer to the president of the committee of management of the health centre who is none other than Jan Kennedy. The vicepresidents are Fay Kerrison and Judy Reichel; the secretary is Alison Barr; the treasurer is Keith Bower and the committee comprises Jim Claven, Val Edens, Robert McHugh, John Penrose, Or John Reid and Jenny Wilkinson.

The Hon. W. R. Baxter-So what?

The Hon. C. J. KENNEDY-They have performed their services well. I do not know what the National Party has up in Mr Baxter's area; it certainly has large number of Parliamentarians but it obviously does not have community health centres. Waverley has one of the finest community health centres in the State and it has been chosen by each of the three successive and successful Ministers to institute the government's pilot program.

I shall refer to the amount of money given to the Waverley Community Health Centre in the last financial year. It had a total income of approximately $700 000, almost $400 000 of which came from the State government. The Waverley centre and most other community health centres could not possibly survive without strong


financial support from the State government and the capable leadership of the three Ministers I mentioned plus, of course, the outstanding members of Parliament from that area.

Program No. 394 relates to psychiatric services. The Waverley community has a team of highly skilled, competent and humane psychiatric nurses who not only run programs at a Waverley centre which operates directly from Larundel Psychiatric Hospital but also regularly visit the homes of patients and their families, especially patients suffering from schizophrenia. Six fine nurses work on that team: Fiona Moore, Alix Blair, John Mackley, Marie Winfield, Andrew Murrigan and Diane Albiston. Unfortunately one of those nurses is ill and will be ill for some time so the service is down and the patients and their parents are not receiving the service they should have.

The Hon. M. A. Birrell-Why is that nurse not replaced?

The Hon. C. J. KENNEDY-As it is not a minnow who has interjected I shall mention him by name. Mr Birrell asked why that nurse was not replaced. The answer is simple: the Federal government has reduced the allocation to the State government this year by some $150 million. As I am sure you realise, Mr Chairman, the State government does not own the note printing bank so this humane government has had to make some cuts.

However, I shall refer to the government's generous financial allocation to the Schizophrenia Fellowship of Victoria which looks after 1 per cent of the population. The President of the Schizophrenia Fellowship of Victoria reported that the fellowship'S task "was and still is to replace neglect with care, stigma with understanding and despair with rational hope". .

The fellowship does it well. In 1988-89 the fellowship received a total of $508 870 from Health Department Victoria, which is a great achievement in a time of financial stringency. It received $364000 from other sources. Honourable members will note that once again almost 60 per cent of the costs of the fellowship, which has done so much good for people who suffer from this terrible disease, have come from the State government through the Minister and previous Ministers.

The committee of the fellowship has as its members, Mr Harry Green, president, Mr John Thrum, vice-president, Mr Ron Webster, treasurer, Mr Gordon Cameron, secretary, and the committee comprises Mrs Robyn Humphries, Mr Horrie Graham, Reverend C. R. Kenyon, Mr Howard Savory, Mr Stewart Peterkin, Mr Bruce LePage, Mr GeoffDeuchar, Mr John Briggs, and myself. I believe it is important that members of Parliament play an active part in local organisations rather than knocking the popularly elected government which is merely undoing the difficulties done by 27 years of conservative government.

I thank my colleagues in the local area and those Ministers who have performed so magnificently in a time of financial stringency.

The Hon. R. A. MACKENZIE (Geelon~ Province)-There are several matters that I ask the government to address regardIng the allocation of funds. Althou$h the Committee cannot do a great deal about the funds as they are allocated because It does not have the power to amend Appropriation Bills-and rightly so-nevertheless it provides the opportunity for honourable members to question the government on particular aspects of different programs and to point out areas in which perhaps next year, with proper consideration of the matters raised, funds may be allocated differently.

I shall begin with the allocation for Parliament, Programs Nos 103 to 107. I raised the matter last year and I shall continue to raise it until there is some action. I believe


Parliament should have its own single line appropriation that is divorced from this Bill. I find it insulting to see Parliament stuck down among the departmental votes. Parliament is not a department of government; it should not be included as a departmental vote. The government is responsible to Parliament. Until we change that approach and until we alter our Constitution, as has been done recently at the Federal level, so that Parliament has its own appropriation, it will never receive the respect it is due or do the things that it should be doing.

For example, recently Parliamentary committees needed some accommodation. The Legislative Council officers found accommodation available for the committees under the Legislative Council arrangements which was modem and adequate and which would give the committees room to house a Select Committee should one be formed from time to time. Unfortunately, because Parliament does not control its own appropriation, it was necessary to receive permission from a government officer in the Department of Property and Services.

In this situation the Parliament of Victoria was told by an officer of that department what it should do. That is outrageous and insulting to this institution. Parliament should have its own appropriation. It has fallen behind the rest of the world. If one examines what other Parliaments are doing, one finds that 75 per cent of Parliaments throughout the world have a single-line appropriation through which it is decided what should be done, without government interference. In that way Parliament can control its destiny and it is autonomous.

I refer to Programs Nos 142 and 144 in the arts appropriation. Concern has been expressed about the new funding structure that will be implemented next year. I have received correspondence from the Geelong Art Gallery in which concern IS expressed about the new arrangements. I understand that next year the Ministry for the Arts will change the allocation for regional galleries, which formerly received their funding through the Regional Art Galleries Association of Victoria.

Art galleries will be required to present their own submissions directly to the government. Apparently the old scheme worked well. The Geelong Art Galle!}' received approximately $67000 a year, which formed approximately 33 per cent of Its annual budget. The galleries are concerned that, under the changes, it will be necessary to spend much time preparing submissions and that will leave less time to do the gallery work. They are also concerned that they will not be dealing with people who understand regional galleries, as is the case with the Regional Art Galleries Association of Victoria.

Considerable funding has been allocated to other regional galleries but to the present the Geelong Art Gallery has not received substantial grants and, as a result, it will be necessary for it to receive increased funding to undertake long overdue modernisation. Geelong Art Gallery has a fine collection of paintings, but unfortunately the building was erected at the turn of the century. It is outdated and does not contain the necessary air-conditioning, protection from ultraviolet light or other facilities that a modem gallery should have.

These collections should be protected as they get older. If that is not done, they could be lost for all time. The government has spent considerable money on other regional galleries, such as Bendigo and Ballarat, and I give credit to the government for looking after the regional galleries. Perhaps consideration could be given in next year's Budget to improving the position of the Geelong Art Gallery because the collection there is at risk.

I was pleased that the government acknowledged the work of the Braille and Talking Book Library and, although it did not increase the funding, it maintained it at the previous level. Although it is only 60 per cent of the funds required for that library, it


was pleasing to note that the Minister for the Arts acknowledges the representations by Mr Storey, other members of Parliament and me for retention of the funding. The Braille and Talking Book Library has been established for a long time, and I advise honourable members to visit it if they have the opportunity. It is a State public library, unlike some other braille libraries, and provides services and talking books to blind persons throughout the State and to the municipal libraries.

I shall speak briefly on Programs Nos 162 to 168, dealing with Attorney-General's Department. I raise with the government the imminent closure of the Geelong branch office of the State Trust Corporation of Victoria. The Attorney-General visited Geelong about eighteen months ago and, with great fanfare, announced the opening of the office as part of a program to place regional offices throughout Victoria. Geelong was the first. The announcement was received with much satisfaction by the people of Geelong that at last they had a branch office of the State trustees in the shopping centre where local people could go. The office was set up in a fine building which was modernised. Now, just over twelve months later, it is to be closed, despite the fact that it has been receiving an increasing workload all the time. The reason given for the closure is that it is not making a profit. It seems a terrible shame.

The government has always advocated regionalisation and decentralisation, access for people in provincial and country areas to the services enjoyed by residents in the metropolitan area. Here we have a change of heart because the Geelong office of the State trustees is not making a profit. I do not know that the office should have to make a profit. The workload has been increasing and more demands have been placed on the staff there. It is disappointing that costs are to be cut in this area and that a service that has been so well received in Geelong is to be withdrawn. It is also upsetting to the staff who have made their homes in Geelong and settled in with their families. Perhaps some consideration could be given to retaining the office in Geelong.

I now turn to Programs Nos 192 to 198 under community services. I am concerned at what is occurring in community services because, although I realise that governments have to cut down, and I do not think any honourable member would argue with that, it is sometimes difficult to work out how governments set their priorities. One gets the feeling that many of the priorities are set by officers in ~overnment departments who do not really understand the ramifications of their actions. One also gets the feeling that accountant-type people are sitting down balancing the books and trimming something off here and something off there without considering the results of those actions.

Yesterday there was one of the most moving demonstrations I have seen outside this Parliament in the ten years I have been a member, when 300 or 400 intellectually disabled people from as far away as Mildura stood in front of the House because the government had taken away a transport subsidy which would cost in the vicinity of $20 000. I cannot believe this is happening in a modem society or that any Minister or any member of Parliament who understood the ramifications of that cut would do it. It is an indication that unfortunate things are happening.

I was saddened that the Minister did not go out and speak to those people. It is the responsibility of Ministers to do so. If they make decisions to cut funds and those actions are unpopular, they must be prepared to defend the decisions and stand up to the people who are affected. If Ministers cannot do that, they should not be in the Ministry. Part of the responsibilities of a Minister is to face people affected by his or her decisions.

Quite a few people in the Geelong area are badly affected by the removal of this transport subsidy and it was obvious that the people there yesterday were very upset about what had been done. It is not too late to review the situation and the Minister


should do so. We are not talking about large sums of money in this instance, but it means so much to these people. To give one extreme instance, by the time one of those persons pays from the pension the $129 a week cost of board in the house where he or she lives and the money he or she gets from a minor job, without the transport subsidy that person will have 70 cents a week left to get by.

Disabled people have been encouraged to go out into the community and live normal lives, and everybody agrees with that. "Deinstitutionalise" has been the catchword. Ifwe are going to move these persons out into the community, we have to support them. If someone has to pay to balance the books, it should not be them; it should be those who can well and truly afford it.

Another area that is of concern to me and that I find hard to understand is the reduction in funding to the home and community care programs. Again it seems that the officers concerned have not done their homework. Our population is ageing and more and more elderly people will be living on their own as their partners pass on. We have tried to encourage people to stay as long as they can in their own homes. Every encouragement must be given to them to remain in familiar surroundings where they have lived all their lives, surrounded by their friends and relatives. That is what social service is all about.

The citizens must have community services, including meals on wheels, and other facilities. There is no argument against deinstitutionalisation. People should remain for as long as possible in their homes.

The Hon. G. R. Craige-We should look after them.

The Hon. R. A. MACKENZIE-Also, a program of increasing the throughput in hospitals has been effected. Hospitals have been encouraged to allow people to go home more quickly-that is good because it means the waiting lists are reduced. However, more people then have to be cared for when they arrive home. They need the services. It is pointless Health Department Victoria and hospitals saving money if the problem is thrown back onto local councils and community services. Funds cannot be saved on the one hand, and, on the other hand, not returned to where the slack must be taken up.

I hope the government will take those issues on board. The problems are caused by a lack of understanding by the people who make the decisions. More decision making should be done by the Ministers after discussions with local communities.

The citizens of Geelong are very concerned about the drug abuse problem. That problem is prevalent in all areas of our society, but many are aware of the serious drug problem in Geelong because of the city's provincial nature. The abuse is on the increase, and not enough is being done to assist those affected. More halfway houses are needed where addicts can receive counselling; where they can go when in a bad way; where they will get help; and where they will not be harassed by government officials. When addicts are trying to kick the habit, halfway houses provide some refuge.

At the moment, an addict may be picked up by the police and charged, but the magistrate has nowhere to send that person for rehabilitation. Where are the addicts to be sent? Refuges would not be costly to provide because rental accommodation could be used, and the addicts could contribute to the running costs of those homes. The government does not need to build large mansions or to provide large farming properties-three or four-bedroomed houses can be used as refuges to assist addicts to return to the mainstream of life.


Program Nos 390 to 400 deal with the health appropriation and several areas which cause concern to people in Geelong. Program No. 392 deals with nursing homes. The Ethnic Community Council at Geelong is anxious to build a nursing home for elderly people of ethnic ongin. Many of these people-especially the females-have difficulties which include language {lroblems, their lifestrles, and the Australian culture. At present, they would be placed In the normal nursIng home facilities. The Geelong Ethnic Community Council has persuaded the Commonwealth government to provide about $2-5 million towards the construction cost of such a building.

The community council believes it can raise sufficient funds to furnish the building, and to have it operational once furnished, but it has no land on which to erect the nursing home. The State government has offered to sell a property to the Ethnic Community Council which the Ministry of Housing and Construction bought from another government department and which will not be used for housing purposes. The land has always been owned by the State government.

However, the project looks like falling into a big heap because the Ethnic Community Council has approached local government and only one of the nine municipalities approached has sufficient funds to provide any support. The other councils are willing to help but they are operating in lean times. That land could be provided to the council without any cost to the government. If that is not done in the near future, the Commonwealth government may not continue its offer of $2-5 million, and the opportunity for a home for 28 aged ethnic people will be lost.

Geelong has the fourth largest hospital in Victoria. It is a most efficiently operated hospital but, because it is so efficient, it is in some trouble. When many of the larger hospitals in Melbourne were not beinB run in an efficient manner several years ago, and they found themselves in financIal difficulties, they would receive a hand-out from the State government to take them from the red into the black.

The Geelong hospital has never operated in that way. It has kept a tight rein on the books. Consequently, it has operated with the bare minimum of staff-there has never been an excess number of staff. The economic climate of the past few years has produced cutbacks and the major hospitals-particularly in Melbourne-in those circumstances have had sufficient staff numbers to effect those reductions without too much trouble. If the government says it wishes to take 1·5 per cent from hospital budgets, they can afford it, but the Geelong Hospital has operated on mean and lean lines for a long time.

Because of the $700 000 cutbacks-although that may not sound a substantial amount-the hospital will have to close 18 beds. The government should be encou~ng the hospitals that are being operated in an efficient manner, rather than victimiSIng them. The authorities need to ascertain the actual situations before decisions are made.

Funds have been provided by the government through the Budget for the radiotherapy unit in Geelong. A voluntary group in Geelong has raised more than $500 000 over the past seven or eight years towards the installation costs of the radiotherapy unit; the government has now agreed to fund the actual installation, and provide the machinery and operational staff.

By 1991, the Geelong community will not have to face that horrific trip along the highway to and from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute. People will be able to avoid that two and a half hour trip-normally undertaken in difficult circumstancesby attending the Geelong Hospital. I congratulate the government for providing those funds.

I refer now to police and emergency services allocations as contained in Programs Nos 582 to 599, and the crime investigation section. A situation now exists where not


only the State Trust Corporation of Victoria but also the 024 base will be lost to Geelong. This is because, again, the accountant-like people in head office have found a way to reduce funds. They now believe the police corps and the 024 station can be operated from Melbourne.

After all the years it took to gain autonomy and to get the local people behind the radio controls, which has resulted in the establishment of a reasonable disaster management set-up-where everybody knows everybody, where the State Emergency Service units, the Country Fire Authority, the police, the hospital and everybody knows who is working on the radios, and where everybody knows the local roads and their condition so that they can direct people in a matter of seconds-it is now proposed that the local 024 base be transferred to Melbourne. I cannot understand the logic of that.

It may save money; admittedly, radio waves take only a fraction of a second to reach Geelong from Melbourne. I understand that, but the point is that the expertise of the local people behind the radios will be lost. It is no good having an emergency corps attached to a 024 operator in Melbourne. I know it is possible for him to get through to Geelong just as quickly, but he would not know the local area, and, in an emergency situation where a person has been in a road accident and is only minutes away from death, it could create a dangerous situation. I hope this is another costcuttlng exercise that will be reconsidered because its ramifications at the grassroots level are obviously not understood clearly by the people who make these decisions.

I refer now to funding for the State Emergency Service. I am sure.this matter will be raised by other honourable members. There is much concern about it in country areas, and I am sure the councils with which the Minister for Local Government deals are complaining about it as well. Each State Emergency Service unit receives some $500 a year from the State government, and local councils contribute some $2000 to $ 15 ()()() to supplement that. Yet the work the units are doing affects everyone. Their work is not confined to local municipalities, either. The work they do in road accidents, for a start, is extremely valuable. Members of the units must have saved numerous lives in Victoria by quickly arriving at the scenes of accidents with the appropriate equipment, such as the "jaws of life" , to get people out of their cars and into hospital immediately. I am sure that if the State Emergency Service units were not operating, many people who are alive today would not be around.

It seems strange that the government expects local government to pick up the tab yet apin, when this organisation, which is doing a great job, is providing a service to all Victorians. Everyone is concerned about the road toll. There has been much talk recently, and many people have expressed their concern, about the road toll. One way of ensuring that the road toll is kept to a minimum is by keeping the State Emergency Service well funded. More units should be established instead of existing units being closed down. I understand a restructuring program is occurring at present that could result in the closure of several units in the Geelong region.

I refer now to Programs Nos 682 to 702, which relate to transport. Recently I read a report about what has occurred with the public transport system in Holland. After removing the conductors, the guards and station personnel from trains and trams and replacing them with ticket-vending machines, the government of that country found it necessary to go the other way. It has now employed some 1400 young people throughout the system who were previously unemployed; it has trained them to act as transport officers and carry out a range of duties, including collecting fares, conducting fare inspections, and stopping vandalism. As a result, graffiti has been wiped out almost entirely. Mr Lawson mentioned earlier that graffiti was creating enormous problems for the Victorian public transport system. There has been an improvement


in the transport system in Holland to the extent that people now feel safe travelling on the trains and trams on which the new guards or inspectors are working.

It seems that Victoria should take a pa~e out of Holland's book. That is an example of overseas experience that has had positIve results. Victoria is now heading down the track that was previously travelled by the government of Holland. It will be disastrous if we continue down that track.

One can argue, again in accounting terms, that if one reduces the number of peo{>le working in the public transport system, much money can be saved; one can put a nIce list offigures on a piece of paper if one is an accountant-type bureaucrat, and approach the Minister saying, "I can save $21 million this year by cutting out the conductors, and doing this and doing that" .

It may look terrific on paper, but the ramifications should be seriously considered. One should consider the other costs associated with such action. Of course, money could be saved by no longer paying wages to conductors and so on, but one should consider the real cost to the transport system. Those are the calculations one must make rather than just doing sums in the books; one should consider what would happen out there in the real world.

I thank the Committee for its indulgence in allowing me to make the points I have made on behalf of the people in the province I represent. I hope the Minister for Local Government will take note of my remarks about the State Emergency Service funding; if something cannot be done about it this year, perhaps it could be addressed next year.

The Hon. G. P. CONNARD (Higinbotham Province)-As this is the Committee stage of the Appropriation Bill, I know it would be incorrect to talk about what is essentially a corrupt and inefficient Budget, which it certainly is, so I shall not say that.

I refer specifically to the Parliamentary appropriations contained in Programs Nos 103 to 107. I am delighted that in the past two years I have found at least one supporter of the principles that I have espoused in this House on 30 April 1985, 14 November 1985, 9 May 1986, 19 October 1987 and also last year. My words must have got through to at least one member of the House-Mr Mackenzie, whom I thank for his contribution to the debate.

The remarks that Mr Mackenzie made have been in support of the general principles of Parliamentary democracy. I believe it is worth repeating in this Chamber again my remarks about the fragility of the Parliamentary system that now exists in this country, which is being threatened by the government. Honourable members are the participants in a genuine democratic system that has evolved from the Westminster system, which has been developed over more than 1000 years, and particularly over the past 500 years.

The Westminster system is one of the greatest institutions that the British were able to persuade many countries in the world to adopt. There is no more important power for the Parliament to possess than control over its resources. That power is fundamental to all legislative actions; yet there is no Parliament in Australia that has complete control over its fiscal, physical and human resources. In this Parliament, those powers are extremely limited.

Over recent years, not only in this Parliament but also in Parliaments around the world, the fundamental control of Parliament has been increasingly passed on to the executive of the Parliament.

The smaller Parliaments-the Victorian Parliament is one-are more and more being dictated to regarding the running and control of Parliament itself. For instance,


in recent years Parliament has sat for only approximately 45 days each year. When the Liberal Party was in government it sat for approximately 65 days and even that period was too short for Parliamentarians, elected by the people, to debate important issues concerning those they represented.

For the benefit of new members who may not know the structure of Parliament, Parliamentary departments are virtually autonomous within their own bud~etary framework. Parliament comprises the departments of the Legislative Council, the Legislative Assembly, the Parliamentary Library, the Department of Victorian Parliamentary Debates and the Joint House Committee. Each department has a budget to enable it to service the Parliament.

When I was first elected to Parliament I thought it would have a chief executive officer, but that is not the case. The principal officers should be the Presiding Officers but they are, by their nature, temporary officers of Parliament.

Modern Parliaments have appointed joint Parliamentary committees similar to our Joint Standing Committee system. During the past two or three years the House has attempted to appoint Joint Select Committees but the Treasurer has not provided the necessary funding. Select Committees are one way that members of Parliament can express their views and get Parliament to agree to those views. Standing Committees must have a Ministerial reference as the Treasurer will not allocate funds to pay for any self-generated inquiries. The House must appoint Joint Select Committees, but invariably one finds that the Treasurer will not provide the funds. The control of Parliament is passed to an arrogant Treasurer and arrogant Ministers, including the Minister for Industry, Technology and Resources, who is interjecting.

Parliamentary democracy is a fragile system. Other Parliaments, particularly those in the Westminster system, are addressing this problem. On a recent study tour I examined two such Parliaments, the Westminster Parliament and the Province of Quebec Parliament. In recent years the Westminster Parliament established a House of Commons Commission. The first House of Commons commissioners were appointed in 1800. However in October 1973 the then Speaker, Mr Selwyn Lloyd, appointed a former Comptroller and Auditor-General, Sir Edmund Compton, to examine the structure and organisation of all five departments of the Westminster Parliament, which had a similar departmental structure to the Victorian Parliament. The Compton report was published in 1974 and made radical proposals for a unified House of Commons service. The Speaker, Mr Selwyn Lloyd, appointed an informal group of eight members chaired by Mr Arthur Bottomley to consider the report and make recommendations. The Bottomley report proposals were largely enacted in the House of Commons (Administration) Act 1978.

The Speaker is the ex officio chairman and the Leader of the House sits ex officio. The Leader of the Opposition appoints a member of the House, and three other members, none of whom can be a Minister, are appointed by the House itself. That commission controls the fiscal destiny of the House. The budgets of the various departments are debated before the commission and, when they are finalised, the Speaker lays before the House the annual Estimates for the administration of the House. Honourable members should note that it is the Speaker who lays those annual Estimates before the House, not the Treasurer. The Estimates are prepared by House departments and approved by the commission. Almost invariably the Treasurer agrees to the Estimates and the House votes on the appropriations for the House of Commons separate from the ordinary Appropriation Bill. The House of Commons Commission manages the resources of Parliament for the benefit of its members and their constituents.


I was also very impressed by the system operating in the House of Assembly in Quebec. It has a similar system to the Westminster Parliament, but the Speaker not only lays the Estimates of the administration of the House before Parliament, but presents the Budget of the House to Parliament and personally leads the debate on that Budget. The Estimates for the administration of the House are always carried.

The House of Assembly in Quebec creates its own appropriation, not just an Appropriation Bill, as Mr Mackenzie outlined. It is not a one-line appropriation either, but a substantial document which enables Parliament to run its own affairs. The Parliamentary committee system plays a valuable role in this process. The Victorian Parliament would have to adapt a similar system to suit the needs of this Parliament, but that could be done.

I compliment the Presiding Officers on the enormous progress they have made in recent times. The Presiding Officers are examining the structure of Parliament, and the departments of Parliament are now required to demonstrate management accountability, but Parliament has not yet allowed the Presiding Officers to take the next step of controlling budgetary outlays.

Parliamentary democracy is a fragile system and, unless something is done about it soon, it may fail. The United Nations organisation recently stated that only 28 countries out ofa total of 194 now have free and open elections and we must insist on proper accountability of the Cabinet to the Parliament and oppose the reverse.

I now refer to Pro~am No. 144, the arts program. Last week I asked the Minister for the Arts a questIon relating to the Arts Development Fund and, in particular, whether he was aware that fifteen letters had been sent to various recipients of that fund. His answer was extremely wishy-washy. I understand that a busy Minister may not know about the intricacies of some aspects of his department, but there is no question that the reduction in funding to the Arts Development Fund will affect the arts community.

Last week I attended the 500th presentation by the Melbourne Theatre Company and it was an excellent play , Heart for the Future. It was supported by sponsorships from the National Heart Foundation and the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation. The financial support it received from each of those organisations enabled it to present this excellent play.

At the end of the night, the Director of the Melbourne Theatre Company made some remarks to the audience. He pointed out quite clearly that the MTC, together with its many sister organisations in the State, will just not be viable if the proposed cuts are implemented. Victoria is well known in Australia and in some parts of the world for the excellence of its opera productions and a whole variety of visual arts. Here is a government making arbitrary cuts to a community that really cannot get up and scream too loudly. The Minister for the Arts should restore those funds, if not give the arts commuruty an increase.

I refer to Budget allocations for the Department of Conservation, Forests and Lands. Honourable members will have heard me refer to the rentals that are proposed to be chaIJed on Crown land on the foreshore around the bay. The Department of ConservatIon, Forests and Lands has indicated that it will increase rents arbitrarily to the level of true rents for properties around the bay. That sounds reasonable. However, I use the model of the Beaumaris Motor Yacht Squadron which had a rental of $500 per annum and which was to have its rent increased to $28 000. After two years of negotiations, the yacht squadron was forced to accept a rental of $14 000 a year.

The government is pursuing an insidious approach towards all of the occupiers of the foreshore, which are generally sporting clubs. Officers of the department have said


to me that I should not worry about the yacht squadron as its members are elitist and can afford to pay. The contrary is true. Certainly there are some wealthy people in that motor yacht squadron and other yacht clubs, but the large majority of the people in the organisations are ordinary, mIddle-class people who enjoy water sports and want to allow their children to enjoy them. The government is picking off the yacht clubs and motor yacht squadrons.

I sound a note of warning that the next group that will be affected will be the lifesaving clubs which are fragile in their ability to raise money. Honourable members who have constituents who live near the foreshore will know how difficult it is for lifesaving clubs to get any money, let alone to raise enough to pay massive rents,yet the Department of Conservation, Forests and Lands seeks to establish a so-called "true" rent for these properties. The Valuer-General has been instructed to create the valuation on the value of the existing and surrounding residential properties. It is a farcical and quite incorrect procedure because the leased land will never be available for sale. The land will only ever have a restricted occupancy and yet the government is setting top rents for properties. As I said, the land will never be available for sale and at the same time the government is dramatically affecting the capacity of ordinary people to use the splendid environment of the bayslde.

I move to Community Services Victoria, Program No. 193, community support. Here is another fundamental problem which the government is singularly Ineffective in solving. Mr Chairman, as an active local member, you will be aware that over recent years local government has been required by the State government and the Federal government to provide more human services. Over recent years it has been attractive for local government to be able to say that the State government is providing $X to match local government's $Y for a program of human services. Local government has learned that State governments do not keep faith, and more particularly Labor Jovernments do not keep faith. Local government authorities that want to be involved In the delivery of human services are becoming very wary.

I refer to the Australian Municipal Journal of October 1989, in which the following remarks appear:

A point in question is the State government's recent Budget decision to take up only 12·3 per cent ofa possible 20 per cent federally matched Home and Community Care (HACC) funding increase. That 12· 3 per cent increase will result in status quo funding-meaning that no increases in services can be contemplated at the local level this year.

The State will argue that it upped the ante 12·3 per cent during a time of gross economic restraint and, what the hell do those whingeing councils expect?

It is much harder for councils to say: "Well the State and Federal governments have integrated X number of psychiatric patients and X number of intellectually handicapped people into our community, sent home X number of new mothers early from public hospitals, discharged X number of other hospital patients, housed X number of homeless youths, de-institutionalised X number of nursing home cases, etc."

Getting people out of institutions was a political master stroke. Not only do central governments appear humane and caring (remember the catch-all cliche social justice?), but they no longer take respollsibility for paying for them ... they have washed their hands of these people and set them adrift in the domain of local government.

Local government cannot support these people and they are left completely in the lurch. I am grateful to the Municipal Association of Victoria for the remarks, which I think are worth repeating.

I refer to the Ministry of Transport, and Programs Nos 697 to 700. I make some comments firstly concerning the F6 freeway which Mr Smith knows about because he travels along it frequently. The previous Liberal government built the freeway from Frankston to Springvale Road. It was intended to take the pressure off the bayside


Nepean Highway and planned to connect up with South Road. In 1982, this government stopped the pr~gress of the freeway, which ended at Springvale Road with nowhere else for the traffic to go.

I recollect that when speaking on the Budget about four years ago I made some comment about the freeway, forgetting that the Cain Labor government does not like freeways. I do not know why. That assertion can be proved by the fact that the Mulgrave and the South-Eastern freeways were connected by a so-called arterial road so that there was no longer a freeway.

As I said, the F6 freeway stops at Springvale Road and the traffic has nowhere to go. When I made the comments about the F6 freeway some four or five years ago, the Premier must have read what I said-hopefully he will read the remarks I am making now-and he said, "Mr Connard wants the government to spend $100 million".

The Cain Labor government, through its Ministry of Transport, made a promise four years ago to connect the Eastern Freeway by improving local roads connected up to South Road. I understand it spent nearly $400 000 on less than 2 kilometres of road. The road goes nowhere. The road gets to Lower Dandenong Road, some 200 yards beyond it, but it certainly does not connect up anywhere near South Road. Quite Incorrectly, a person who comes down the Nepean Highway turns into Albert Street, White Street, Lower Dandenong Road or Centre Dandenong Road, all of which are residential streets. If the government had grasped the nettle as it should have done four years ago it would have constructed that major freeway for less than $60 million whereas to fix the problem now it will probably cost in excess of $1 00 million, which is the figure the Premier quoted. It is an absolute disgrace and the result of incompetence by successive Ministers.

I also refer to the railways under Program No. 683-metropolitan passenger services. I refer to the McKinnon railway station which is situated between Caulfield and Moorabbin. With the completion of the new third track between Moorabbin and Caulfield a better service was supposed to be provided. In fact, the service has declined dramatically. Trains have been cancelled between Frankston and Mordialloc and cancelled trains have been replaced by trains travelling through this railway station from Moorabbin and Caulfield. So it is not unknown for commuters to wait at those railway stations for anything up to three quarters of an hour. What is even worse is the state of the railway station.

One of my commuters asked me to look at McKinnon railway station. That station is a typical example of almost all the stations on that line because it is an absolute disgrace. Mr Davidson should occasionally travel by train and he would see what a disaster it is. Perhaps Mrs Lyster, who also lives in the same area, could talk about it in Cabinet. It would receive some interest from her constituents and we might get somewhere because the Minister for Transport is doing nothing about it.

McKinnon railway station is an absolute disgrace. It is covered with graffiti and it is graffiti on top of graffiti. Timetables are unreadable because they are covered in graffiti. There is graffiti over walls, doors, seats. The rubbish bins remain unemptied for several days at a time. During school holidays and many other times the station is completely unmanned and commuters cannot buy tickets. There are no signs for train departures. Sometimes when the station attendant is there he uses the public address system but usually he does not. On top of that, the station has a pedestrian underpass which is full of rubbish. It is a haven for rats, disease and papers and has not been cleaned for years. The trains that go throu$h that station are unbelievably filthy and are covered everywhere with graffiti. What IS going on there is an absolute disgrace.

I can equally make the same remarks not only about all the several stations on that line but also the stations on the other side of my province between Sandringham and


Ripponlea. They, too, are dis~ceful. The Ripponlea station is falling down and it is covered with graffiti on graffiti on graffiti. The ticket box of the railway station itself is no longer used and there is a little box separate from the railway station for the ticket collector when he is there to protect him from the rain.

Gardenvale station often is unmanned. I ask the question in light of the condition of McKinnon station and others and the lack of regular manning: does this mean that MetRail intends to cancel the manning of the subsidiary stations? It seems to be that way. If so, what arrangements will be made for the regular cleaning and maintenance of the stations, because otherwise more and more vandals will abuse them? Regular maintenance is so important, not only for cleanliness but also to protect the buildings from the regular application of graffitI.

Stations like McKinnon railway station are a real deterrent to people who travel by train. It is just straight inefficiency of administration. It can be argued, as the Minister does, that we are saving money. How many millions of dollars a day are being lost as a result of inefficient management methods? There is no pride of workers within the railway industry. It is no wonder that there continues to be industrial trouble when one considers the conditions in which workers work. I should have thought many of the government members who have come out of union movements would have understood what I am talking about, but perhaps not.

I now refer to the health appropriation, and to Program No. 400. I preface my remarks by repeating, as honourable members know, my involvement as Chairman ofFairfield Hospital. That hospital is primarily an infectious diseases hospital. At the same time it has under its direction two fine laboratories, a pathology laboratory and a virus laboratory, as well as a centre for medical research. There IS no doubt that there is a further need for expansion within that hospital.

Last year when the Minister for Industry, Technology and Resources was Minister for Health he encouraged the hospital to look at extending its role in the curing of infectious diseases and supported the hospital in its desire to establish a particularly focused epidemiology unit. Both the executive director, Mr Richards, and I s~nt almost twelve months debating with officers of Health Department Victoria the VarIOUS issues associated with the epidemiology centre. We agreed on the role the centre should take within the charter of the hospital on infectious diseases. We are now requiring and requesting fundin$ from the government in line with its election promises which promised Fairfield HOSPItal $10 million over the next three years.

I now ask for the government to pay for this service. I compliment the North Eastern Regional Director, Mr lan Marshman, who is a singularly_ fine officer. I encourage the Minister for Health to look not only at the regional office level of his work but also at the effect he has had in the region.

I recognise that the Minister is working extremely hard with the Treasurer to provide funds for the Fairfield Hospital. I raise this matter for the attention of the Committee because of the importance of epidemiology-the study of epidemic diseases-in this State.

I have had the opportunity of visiting the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States of America, and the Public Health Laboratory Service in the United Kingdom. They are world leaders in epidemiology because they have been provided with sufficient financial resources. I point out to the Committee that at the end of the day, if sufficient financial resources are provided, the appropriate mechanisms can be put in place to do the work required.

It is clear that savings will be made by the government if a major epidemiology service operates in this State, and the Minister agrees with that, but before the State

960· COUNCIL 25 October 1989 Appropriation (1989-90, No. 1) Bill

can save that money funding is required. Some progress is being made within Health Department Victona, but I raise this matter for the attention of the Committee and the ,overnment because rapid funding is necessary. The type of person Victoria reqUIres as its new Director of Epidemiology would be an international figure. Iris Well recognised that there are many talented Australians working both in Australia and in other countries who could fulfil this role. The government should seek to attract such a person back to Australia by providing a satisfactory employment package.

One could criticise the Budget for a long time, but this evening time is limited and other speakers wish to contribute to the debate. It is far from a good Budget. It is almost a dishonest Budget, particularly the information provided in the Budget Papers that was discussed by honourable members a fortnight ago.

The Hon. B. A. E. SKEGGS (Templestowe Province)-There are a number of items in the Budget that deserve critical analysis. I shall refer to a number of these items specifically, but I express some disappointment generally that the planning and environment, tourism and transport portfolios all suffered cuts and that the education and ethnic affairs portfolios received only small increases.

I turn to the Attorney-General's Department and to item 2623 of Program No. 168, which deals with a grant to the Royal Victorian Association of Honorary Justices. I record my disappointment that no Increase has been made to last year's grant for the work that has been undertaken by the association for generations in this State. The association's office is besieged constantly with all sorts of requests from the public for assistance in a multitude of matters. Yet only one person, a registrar, is employed on the staff of the association; the assistants are all voluntary. The association deserves better than that.

Recently there has been a significant reduction in the number of honorary justices appointed in Victoria. Since the mandatory retirement age of 72 years was introduced the number of honorary justices has reduced by one-third. The importance, duties and responsibilities of justices of the peace in this State have, regrettably, been considerably diminished in recent years. Some action should be taken by the government to assist the association In improvin~ its support services, especially as there has been no increase to the $3000 grant provIded to the association last year.

I turn now to Community Services Victoria and to item 2678 of Program No. 194, which refers to the child-care program. I compliment the government on the significant increase in funds provided for this program. Although the government should be criticised for many aspects of the Budget, it is only fair to congratulate it when it has done something that will enrich the community. I strongly believe the government should do all it can to increase its support for child-care services. Many people in the low-income bracket require assistance in this important service. They have experienced difficulty in finding child-care places in centres funded by the government-in stark contrast to the affordable child-care services offered by the private sector. Solutions such as tax deductions, tax rebates and funding through the provision of vouchers tend to benefit people in better circumstances. The government must find other ways of providing child-care services to people in the lower income bracket. The provision of qualified staifto care for children in these programs is the key factor. Our children deserve only the best, and I welcome the increase that has been made in this area.

I now turn to item 2682 of Program No. 195, which refers to the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program. I raise for the attention of the Committee and the government a specific issue that has arisen in Templestowe Province. There is an urgent need for an additional refuge worker to be employed on a half-time basis for the STAy-the Short-Term Accommodation Youth-house at Rosanna-Heidelberg. The request has been put to local councils and has received some support. The


Heidelberg City Council, of which I am a councillor, has been supportive, but not all councils have been able to contribute.

I hope the government will take up the challenge because the organisation, ShortTerm Accommodation for Youth is seeking funds for an additional 0·5 of a refuge worker's salary to cover 20 hours a week in the STAY house, which proVides valuable care for homeless youth. An application for funding has been made under the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program and the expected shortfall for the refuge worker at the ST AY house in Rosanna is $13 900. I hope the Minister for Community Services will ensure that this matter receives attention.

I turn now to item 2685 of Program No. 197, concerning the redevelopment of services for intellectually disabled persons. There has been a considerable increase in the assistance offered to intellectually disabled people under this program. The need to redevelop services for people with intellectual disabilities in this State is of prime concern to many concerned organisations. We must plan towards community-based living for these people. I am aware of the Neilson report's ten-year plan, which will ensure that an adequate level of support is provided for people moving out of institutions and into the general community.

We need to increase forms of public housing, general services and funding to assist people with multiple disabilities. It is important to see that this service receives continuing attention.

Another important matter under community services is item 2687 of Program No. 198, which concerns the pensioner rates remission scheme and local government. This is one area I am very disappointed about in this Budget inasmuch as there is an increase of only $1·5 million in the assistance to pensioners under the municipal rates remission scheme.

There has been little improvement in their lot since 1982. Pensioners have suffered significant erosion in the value of the pensioner rate remission offered by the State government since 1982. The maximum amount available for remission has remained static at $135 per claimant per year without any sign of keeping pace with inflation.

Compared with other States, Victoria's level of pensioner rate remissions represents the lowest offered based on comparable dollar maximum rebate amounts. This is a very sad reflection on how this State government treats the pensioners. It is an area which needs urgent attention to restore the pensioner rate remissions to a level which reflects indexation since the maximum rebate set in 1982-the last term of a Liberal government in this State.

I hope that this matter, which was raised at the recent Municipal Association of Victoria conference on 11 and 12 October, will spur the government into an urgent review because an increase of $1· 5 million for the pensioner rebate scheme is not good enough. I know there is a great deal of concern throughout local government at the failure of that program to take into account indexation to keep pace with inflation.

I turn to the recycling of waste materials, which comes under planning and environment. I am speaking to that subject generally because I cannot find anything specific which covers the recycling program under planning and environment, but I believe it is something which should be commended to the government for urgent consideration. There is a great deal of concern today that we should have recycling of waste and it will be successful only if it is ~ckled on a Statewide basis.

People today are very conscious of the ever increasing dependence on disposable items, which are mostly convenience items. They are being used at the expense of the

962 COUNCIL 25 October 1989 Business Franchise (Tobacco) Bill

efficient use of resources. This is contributing to the waste disposal problem. I certainly hope the government gives some attention to this problem.

In respect of education, in item 1100, of Program No. 292, concerning the salaries, wages, allowances, overtime and penalty rates paid within the State education system, I am concerned that there is a lack of confidence and, indeed, some disquiet among the teaching staff and students at conditions and staffing agreements for 1990-91 for primary schools.

Much concern arises from the fact that many children have no idea who their teachers will be in the following year. There is uncertainty among students and staff because of a failure to come to an agreement about conditions and staffing for the following year. There is no doubt that the school grade structure is something which has to be very carefully prepared but I believe it is high time this agreement reached finality.

It is important that school administrators know what resources they will have to work with in the following year. Also, the number of teachers who will be allocated to schools is of critical importance.

I note there has been a drop of $1-5 million in salaries, allowances and wages which will be available to that department. It means that there will be cuts of a kind within that department and one hopes they will not be too drastic.

Transport, which has been discussed during this debate under item 3449 ofPro~m No. 683, appears to have suffered grievously with a drop of almost $13 million In its allocation. It appears to me that the government is not showing enough concern about the great needs In the public transport area.

There is no doubt that a lot of the rolling stock is not in good condition, graffiti is not being eradicated effectively and there is a lack of confidence of the people generally who travel on public transport.

It certainly will not be addressed while we have cuts of $13 million in what should be one of the primary items of the State Budget. I hope the government gives urgent attention to placing a higher priority on public transport.

Progress was reported.

BUSINESS FRANCHISE (TOBACCO) (AMENDMENT) BILL This Bill was received from the Assembly and, on the motion of the Hon. B. T.

Pullen (Minister for Housing and Construction), for the Hon. D. R. WHITE (Minister Assisting the Treasurer), was read a first time.

FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS DUTY (AMENDMENT) BILL This Bill was received from the Assembly and, on the motion of the Hon. E. H.

Walker (Minister for the Arts), for the Hon. D. R. WHITE (Minister Assisting the Treasurer), was read a first time.

ADJOURNMENT Wallan Senior Citizens Community Centre-Footscray Football Club-Sudden infant

death syndrome-State government tenders-Brothel by-laws-Bathing boxes on Brighton Beach-Ringwood youth accommodation project


The Hon. E. H. WALKER (Minister for the Arts)-I move: That the House do now adjourn.

The Hon. G. R. CRAIGE (Central Highlands Province)-I wish to raise a matter concerning the Wallan Senior Citizens Community Centre. An application for funds was made for the centre in January 1988. The costing of the centre was $332000 at that stage and funding sought from Community Services Victoria was $172 000, with the Shire of Kilmore paying the rest.

Community Services Victoria aged section in the Goulburn Valley placed the centre on the top of the priority list in that area. The council has not heard from CSV about what is happening to something which they consider to be top priority. No formal advice has been received by the Shire ofKilmore. A group has been established to try to set this matter in motion, and the Wallan and District Community Group held an annual meeting and passed a resolution which states:

At present it seems that a new community centre being built for Wallan is still just a carrot being dangled to tantalise us.

I agree with that statement. Nothing has happened; not even a letter has been written, yet the regional office of CS V says that it is top priority.

The council is prepared to make provision for the allocation offunds in its 1989-90 estimates. Will the Minister respond to the council's request that some acknowledgment of the need for the building of the senior citizens community centre be given, and to allowing such an important facility to be built in a growth area in the State?

The Hon. K. M. SMITH (South Eastern Province)-The matter I direct to the attention of the Minister for the Arts is important. I believe I should put the question to him and seek justification for the actions of the Premier and of the government. I was shocked to read in the newspapers that one of the items considered to be important at the ALP conference held last weekend was the Footscray Football Club and its apparent demise at the hands of the Victorian Football League. The Premier considers that the Footscray Football Club is far more important than many community spirited organisations. The Premier has said that he is prepared to put $160000 of taxpayers' money into the club in addition to the $320 000 that the Minister for Transport considered neces~ to allocate in the name of the Roads Corporation with a view to reducing drink-drivlng.

Was it because the government was pressured by Mr Mier, a member of the government caucus committee, and the honourable member for Sunshine in the other place, the architect of the WorkCare failure? How can the Minister justify the Premier giving an additional $162 000 to an ailing football club that probably should have been wound up?

The Hon. R. A. MACKENZIE (Geelong Province)-I refer the Minister for Health to the sudden infant-death syndrome. The Geelong newspapers have reported that there have been ten deaths this year from sudden infant-death syndrome in Geelong and four in the past week, which is unusual.

I understand the government supports the sudden death research program. Will the Minister explain how much support the government gives to the research program and will she consider increasing that support in view of the deaths that have occurred? A large number of deaths have occurred this year in the Geelong area.

The Hon. R. S. de FEGELY (Ballarat Province)-The matter I raise for the attention of the Minister for Industry, Technology and Resources relates to a question I asked him today during questions without notice concerning the government's position in buying Australian-made products. A Ballarat firm submitted a tender to the State


Electricity Commission of Victoria for the supply of 100 000 pairs of protective gloves which the commission was seeking. The firm was unsuccessful and the tender went to a firm that imports gloves from China.

It is somewhat incongruous that a government that has been strong in its suggestion that Australians should buy Australian-made goods allows government departments to buy outside Australia, particularly in view of the disastrous balance of payments Australia is experiencing. The owners of the firm are seeking details of the parameters the government sets down so that they may be able to comply with them and be successful in tendering in the future.

The Minister is well aware that Ballarat has an above average unemployment rateit is double the Australian average. The firm, which is labour intensive, makes specialist protective clothing garments and, if it had obtained the tender, would have been able to employ an additional ten people. The firm is concerned that in the future there will be opportunities to tender for a number of projects and yesterday was endeavouring to WIn a tender with V/Line. The firm believes there will be major opportunities in the future to become involved with the frigate contract at Port Melbourne, which would be worth a great deal to a place like Ballarat. Probably another fifteen to twenty jobs would become available if the firm were to win such contracts for its products.

In view of the professed need for us to buy Australian-made goods and the fact that the tender stated a preference would be given to products with Australian content, will the Minister indicate what is required for Australian manufacturers to win contracts with the government? The firm informs me that unless that is possible it will do as others have done; discontinue employment, put in a computer, employ a secretary and import goods from overseas, as does the tenderer who was successful with the commission on this occasion.

The Hon. R. M. HALLAM (Western Province )-1 refer the Minister for Local Government to her recent action in invoking section 229 of the Local Government Act to repeal two by-laws enacted by the City of Camberwell. Those by-laws had been enacted specifically to regulate the establishment of brothels within the municipal district of Camberwell. The Minister's action in that regard is causing a lot of concern across local government.

I have received many letters, as has the Minister, about this matter. The issues that keep coming to the surface fall largely into three categories. Firstly, there is a concern that the Prostitution Regulations Act passed by Parliament in 1986 included the right for municipalities to regulate brothels within their districts, which is precisely what the City of Camberwell sought to do. However, that did not suit the government and so it has chosen not to proclaim that part of the Act. There is some room to argue that the Minister's action is very close to contempt of Parliament.

A second concern is that the Minister's action was taken without any notice $iven to the City of Camberwell, and there is room to argue that there has been a dental of justice. Apart from that, municipalities are concerned about the situation that has now arisen. Parliament has just debated a major overhaul of the Local Government Act, which was premised on the autonomy and competence of local government. Municipalities are now suggesting that that concept has been put at risk.

Local government wants to know where it stands in regard to by-laws, and that is a fair question. Can councils make by-laws, as they are required to do almost daily, in the confidence that they will not be attacked simply because a member of the government disagrees with their formal content?

The Hon. G. P. CONNARD (Higinbotham Province)-I ask the Minister for Housing and Construction, who is the representative in this place for the Minister for


Planning and Environment, whether the attention of the Minister for Planning and Environment has been directed to an article in the Bayside Times of 18 October this year where he is reported as saying:

The government will take a tougher stand on locating non-coastal dependent facilities, such as bathing boxes, on the coastline.

The article also states: In the statement to the Port Phillip Conservation Council, Mr Roper said that the draft strategy for the

bay would be launched by the end of the year.

However, he said he was already taking action on many of the issues raised in the strategy.

That is abhorrent to the municipality of Brighton, where there is a handful of bathing boxes on the Dendy Street beach. Many of the boxes are more that 100 years old and, under council direction, they have been well maintained. They are part of the heritage of Brighton, and it is absolutely necessary that they are retained. The boxes have the endorsement of the local council and the local community. I ask the Minister to make a definite statement on the retention of the bathing boxes at Brighton.

The Hon. ROSEMARY VARTY (Nunawadin~ Province)-I direct the attention of the Minister for Health, who is the representatIve in this place of the Minister for Community Services, to the Ringwood youth accommodation program youth refuge. The refuge is strongly supported by the Ringwood City Council, but it is experiencing difficulty with staffing. The refuge serves an area far wider than Ringwood itself because of the problems facing homeless youths, and the council is keen to ensure that the refuge continues to operate.

The refuge was funded in 1985, but the basis of the funding has never been made clear. A houseparent has been living at the refuge and has been paid on the basis of a 40-hour week with no penalty rates, no overtime and no payments for .sleepovers.

It now seems that the only model that is acceptable to Community Services Victoria is the refuge model, which requires a proper staffing structure and does not cover the houseparent-type model. The refuge has been advised that either the houseparent and his family must work as at present for seven days a week, 24 hours a day on a voluntary, unpaid basis or he can decide to work as an external, paid worker.

The houseparent has challenged that interpretation of the award and he has the support of officials of the Department of Labour. They have informed him that, in their opinion, provision is made in the award to pay resident workers. The houseparent is now seeking a written ruling to that effect. Apparently Community Services Victoria is also conducting a demonstration project in the outer eastern region to determine how best to cater for homeless street kids.

Honourable members should bear in mind that the refuge is now closed. It has been operating on a funding level of approximately $51 300 a year. It has asked for that funding to be increased to $116 000 to fund two houseparents and a part-time worker. The refuge model would cost at least $220 000 a year, and it would serve only the same number of clients. It is strange that a model that was operating efficiently cannot be accommodated within the award.

The upshot of all this is that the refuge is closed. I ask the Minister to take up this issue because, in a situation where there are so many homeless young people in that area, this was one refuge that catered satisfactorily for a disadvantaged group. Now, because of demarcation disputes and so on, the refuge has been closed and it is imperative that it be reopened.

The Hon. E. H. WALKER (Minister for the Arts)-Mr Smith asked a question of the Premier, but I shall answer it myself. Mr Smith may use a different tone when he


understands that last year $162 000 was offered to the Footscray Football Club for the ·05 campaign. The same amount was also offered to the Richmond Football Club. For that money the Footscray Football Club took part in a television advertisement and the players wore ·05 emblems on their jumpers. There are also signs around the ground. It is similar to the arrangements with the Quit campaign at the Fitzroy Football Club. The Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, through the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria, offers a similar amount of money to that club, and has for the past two or three years. The campaigns have had nothing to do with the Footscray Football Club experiencing financial difficulties. The relevant Minister decided the program should continue this year as it probably will with the Richmond Football Club. Mr Smith should change his views about where the money comes from and what it is used for.

It is reasonable that the government should follow up last year's program with a promise for this year, given that the Footscray Football Club is very important to the people of the western suburbs. The ·05 campaign should be maintained. I do not know which team Mr Smith supports, but if it is Carlton he should appreciate that a football club that runs on beer probably needs the antidote of a football club that advertises the ·05 campaign.

Mr Smith should have done his homework. This is the second year in which the program has operated and it does not apply to only one football club. If one includes the sponsorship by the Quit campaign of the Fitzroy Football Club, there are three clubs in the new Australian Football League that are sponsored in a reasonable way to undertake campaign work for community programs that the government believes are worthwhile.

The Hon. D. R. WHITE (Minister for Industry, Technology and Resources)-As a follow-up to a question without notice Mr de Fegely raised the issue of the difficulty a Ballarat firm has had in tendering for contracts let by a number of government departments and instrumentalities-in this case, a contract let by the State Electricity Commission for protective gloves.

Notwithstanding the Federal government's announcement that it will cease its preferential arrangements for Australian manufacturers from November of this year, the Victorian government, as will other State governments, will maintain its 20 per cent preference arrangement which, although it is a Victorian government preference scheme, is available to all manufacturers not only in Australia but also in New Zealand.

The SEC's annual report, which was tabled today, states that 82 per cent of the contracts awarded by it were for Australian manufactures which is reasonable given the complexity of some of the material and the technology used by the commission. So the SEC is a party to the preference arrangement because it is a "Buy Australian" campaign.

As Mr de Fegely said, notwithstanding those factors the Ballarat firm has been an unsuccessful tenderer. I shall be happy to receive a deputation from the firm to discuss in detail its problems. In addition I shall pursue the issue with the SEC and examine the circumstances under which the protective gloves contract was awarded to ensure that it was within the principles that I have outlined. Also, without breaching confidentiality, I shall try to establish why the Ballarat firm was unsuccessful.

The Hon. C. J. HOGG (Minister for Health)-In answer to Mr Craige, who raised a matter concerning the anticipated senior citizens centre at Wallan, I shall raise the matter with the Minister for Community Services to see whether he can resolve the disparity between the priority the project holds within the region and what appears to


be a lack of response from the department to the Shire of Kilmore-and I shall do so as a matter of urgency.

MrMackenzie asked a question about research into the sudden infant-death syndrome. The government gives a grant for SIDS research, although I am not sure how much it is. I shall reply in writing to Mr Mackenzie after I have made inquiries. I am sure Mr Mackenzie is aware that the red nose day, which is held throughout the world, raises a great deal of money for research into the baffling and terrible sudden infant-death syndrome. I shall check to see how much money the government gives. The group has come up with a winning idea to raise funds, and more power and credit to it for that, because it is a wonderful cause.

In answer to Mrs Varty, I shall take up the matter she raised with the Minister for Community Services as soon as possible because it would be a pity if the refuge were closed. It may be possible that a more flexible model could be incorporated on the basis of a demonstration project.

The Hon. B. T. PULLEN (Minister for Housing and Construction)-Mr Connard raised a matter concerning a report in the Bayside Times. According to that report, which I cannot verify, the Minister for Planning and Environment intends to take a tougher line on the cleaning up of beaches.

The Hon. G. P. Connard-Bathing boxes.

The Hon. B. T. PULLEN-I thought Mr Connard's remarks were more general than that. In any case, I shall refer the matter to the Minister for Planning and Environment to see what effect the Minister's alleged comments will have on the bathing boxes that Mr Connard is so concerned about-namely, those at Brighton.

The Hon. M. A. LYSTER (Minister for Local Government)-Mr Hallam raised a matter that has been canvassed by Mr Lawson during an earlier debate ·on the motion for the adjournment of the sitting. The issues raised relate to the validity of the bylaws and the mechanisms of repeal matters that are before a court. Therefore it would be inappropriate for me to comment on specific issues. In answering Mr Hallam's question I shall have to limit my response to a reiteration of two sections of the Local Government Act 1958. Section 201 provides:

No by-law shall contain matter contrary to any public law in force in Victoria.

Section 229 provides: Every by-law in force in any municipality may be repealed by the Governor in Council by Order

published in the Government Gazette.

The State government has always had certain powers in respect of local government, including the power to dismiss councils and, as I have stated, the power to repeal bylaws. There has been no change in that relationship, and no change is contemplated.


The House adjourned at 10.58 p. m.

Stamps (Motor Vehicles) Bill 26 October 1989 COUNCIL 969

Thursday, 26 October 1989

The PRESIDENT (the Hon. A. J. Hunt) took the chair at 11.3 a.m. and read the prayer.

STAMPS (MOTOR VEHICLES) BILL This Bill was received from the Assembly and, on the motion of the Hon. D. R.

WHITE (Minister Assisting the Treasurer), was read a first time.



The Hon. M. T. TEHAN (Central Highlands Province)-I address my question to the Minister for Health. The Australian Medical Association has responded to an answer that the Minister gave in the House yesterday, and says: ... it is completely inaccurate to say "the AMA is happy with the process" ... It is a complete fabrication to say that the AMA "indicated that there will not be a withdrawal of services next week" ...

In view of those statements by the association, how does the Minister reconcile her answer to the House yesterday with the stated position of the AMA?

The Hon. C. J. HOGG (Minister for Health)-I was quoting directly from a briefing note given to me by the staff working on WorkCare. I su~est the disparity probably hinges around the word "negotiations". As I understand It, a discussion took place between Mr McKay and the Australian Medical Association and further discussion may take place today between the AMA and the government; if not today, very shortly. Whether discussions by telephone or face to face constitute negotiations is a linsuistic point but, so far as the government is concerned, a process has been set in tnlln.

WORKCARE PREMIUMS The Hon. R. M. HALLAM (Western Province)-The Minister for Local

Government will be aware of the recent quite dramatic increase in WorkCare premiums across local government generally and individual councils based on what IS claimed to be a poor safety record and claims management. Is the Minister satisfied that local government has been treated fairly in the shake-out of Work Care premiums and what support is she prepared to offer municipalities which can demonstrate that the increases levied on them cannot be justified on their claims experience?

The Hon. M. A. LYSTER (Minister for Local Government)-Mr Hallam and the House will recall that I said in an answer earlier this week that one of the outcomes of the State-Local Government Consultative Council meeting held last week was the commissioning of further work to address the question of the increased WorkCare levy imposed on local government. That work will extend into the very important area of occupational health and safety. As I said earlier this week, through addressing occupational health and safety in the long term it is the wish of the State government and the local government industry to improve the record of local government in this respect.


Recent information from the Accident Compensation Commission suggests that there is also a lack of information in local government circles as to the appropriate way to handle the administration of claims and that this fact is indeed contributing significantly to the higher level of premium being charged on local government. If this is so, I believe it should be fairly simple to remedy and I would be looking forward to an improvement in the levy that is payable by the local government industry across the board.

In respect of particular councils there are, as I also said earlier in the week, some councils which have an excellent record and some which have a poor record. They will benefit by the incentive scheme built into the WorkCare system and the example from their peers will provide the catalyst to those local councils that are currently looking at a significant increase in the WorkCare premium. I will be doing all I can to assist the industry in improving its record in this area.

MELBOURNE CmCKET GROUND SOUTHERN STAND The Hon. C. J. KENNEDY (Waverley Province)-Can the Minister for Major

Projects advise the House on the current situation with regard to the reconstructIon of the Southern Stand at the Melbourne Cricket Ground?

The Hon. E. H. WALKER (Minister for Major Projects)-I thank Mr Kennedy for his sensitive question.

The Hon. M. A. Birrell-Tell us about Brunton A venue!

The Hon. E. H. W ALKER-Brunton A venue will remain.

The Hon. M. A. Birrell-Is it a road or a park?

The Hon. E. H. WALKER-Perhaps I had best not be diverted from the answer I should like to give. A board known as the Melbourne Cricket Ground Southern Stand Redevelopment Advisory Board has been established to coordinate this project. I chair that board and it has held regular meetings since August this year. The board comprises representatives of the Melbourne Cricket Club-Or John Lill, the $eneral manager; the Melbourne Cricket Ground trustees-the Honourable Llndsay Thompson; and the government-the Honourable Rob Jolly, Treasurer, and me, as Minister for Major Projects.

The building of the proposed Southern Stand will be undertaken by the Melbourne Cricket Club with the full support of the government. The government will underwrite the financing of the project by way of a Treasurer's guarantee. As honourable members will be aware, a measure has been introduced into the Parliament to enable this important project to proceed. Tenders for the financing have been received, and tenders for the appointment of the preferred contractor have been called and will close on 10 November. The government is working to reduce by some 15 per cent the forecast end cost of the current design, which is $164 million.

During this week the Melbourne Cricket Club will appoint a professional project manager to assist it in the task of ~etting the project under way. The cost reduction exercise and the building contract will be finalised by 30 March 1990, with construction starting immediately after that.

Honourable members can be assured that the proposed new stand will significantly improve the comfort and safety of spectators. It will retain and enhance the Melbourne Cricket Ground's colosseum feeling. It has been designed so that the intimacy-and I mean "intimacy" -will be maintained. In my view the MCG is the best sportsground in the nation.


The PRESIDENT -One of the best in the world.

The Hon. E. H. WALKER-And one of the best in the world. One of its great qualities is the sense of immediacy it has for pretty well every spectator, the closeness to the ground, and the sense of involvement that it affords spectators. The proposed new stand is designed to reflect the same feeling.

The proposed new stand will not increase dramatically the number of places for spectators. Victorians will have access to a stadium which will eventually be able to accommodate 109 000 people. The vast number that will sit in the proposed new Southern Stand will be immeasurably more comfortable than some other spectators, and they will have better view lines to what is happening on the ground. Moreover, the proposed new building will incorporate a wide range of services to patrons, with office space for the headquarters of the new Australian Football League and boxes for sponsors.

Finally, the new stand will provide an important addition to the MCG when it is used for the 1996 Olympic Games, as the government is confident it will be. In all its planning the government retains a real sense of the significance of the MCG as Victoria's and Australia's premier sporting stadium.


The Hon. M. A. BIRRELL (East Yarra Province)-I refer the Minister for Health to the dispute between the Australian Medical Association and Health Department Victoria and to her answer yesterday about the so-called negotiation process, when the Minister said: ... I understand the AMA is happy with the process ... the association indicated that there will not be a withdrawal of services next week while discussions are proceeding ...

Will the Minister withdraw this extremely misleading statement and acknowledge that the AMA is not happy with the negotiating process?

The Hon. C. J. HOGG (Minister for Health)-In a sense, Health Department Victoria is involved only marginally in the WorkCare issue. Yesterday I replied to Mrs Tehan's question in the way that I did because I believed a particular process had begun and that that was the reaction of the Australian Medical Association.

I reiterate the answer I have given already today: the government will be seeking to initiate discussions with the AMA.

WODONGA DISTRICT HOSPITAL The Hon. W. R. BAXTER (North Eastern Province)-My question without notice

is also directed to the Minister for Health but it is on a different subject. It concerns the Wodonga District Hospital, which as the Minister will be we1.l aware was built in the 19508 when Wodonga was a very small country town. Since then the hospital and the local community have suffered many disappointments, including the ripping up of plans for a new hospital by the Minister's predecessor several times removed, Mr Roper, currently the Minister for Planning and Environment.

In view of the history, why are the Wodonga District Hospital and the local community being further penalised by the cutting back of plans for a new theatre


block to dimensions that are clearly inadequate, bearing in mind the growth of Wodonga?

The Hon. C. J. HOGG (Minister for Health)-Once again, the answer to the question hinges on a word, and in this case the word is "adequate". The regional office of Health Department Victoria considers that the plans that are currently being approved are adequate. However, I am aware that there is a considerable clamour in W odonga about that issue. Mr Baxter has brought it to my attention on several occasions. Next Thursday I shall be seeing a group from Wodonga to discuss the hospital and particularly the hospital plans. I look forward to the questions, views and comments of representatives from the hospital and the community generally.

MARS CONFECTIONERY OF AUSTRALIA The Hon. B. E. DAVIDSON (Chelsea Province)-My question is directed to the

Minister for Industry, Technology and Resources. Given my shape I imagine many honourable members will understand my interest in confectionery.

The Hon. K. M. Smith interjected.

The Hon. B. E. DAVIDSON-And also Mr Smith's interest. Can the Minister inform the House of the results of and the benefits likely to flow to Victoria from the State government's support for Mars Confectionery of Australia?

The Hon. D. R. WHITE (Minister for Industry, Technology and Resources)-The government is always interested in major initiatives that can assist in generating additional employment in major regional centres, particularly in Ballarat. As honourable members are aware, the Mars company has been in Ballarat since 1979, and its plant currently employs approximately 250 people. Major expansions were undertaken in 1984, 1986 and 1988. The company has massively expanded its exports in recent years and now it exports to Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and a number of South Pacific countries.

Last year the company approached the Victorian government seeking help with the possible establishment of a new $4·1 million manufacturing production line at Ballarat. The new line is a multipurpose facility that allows products to be manufactured here for test marketing rather than the company having to import trial shipments. It is a further breakthrough in manufacturing process. If the response to the product is strong enough to justify setting up specialised facilities to produce it, the line can handle fullscale production while permanent production facilities are established.

Because of the company's excellent track record and the new project's potential to create jobs and boost export earnings, a grant of $316 000 was approved earlier this year. This funding allowed the company to train staff in the operation of the new production facilities. Because the project involves processes completely new to the Ballarat plant the training had to be carried out at plants in Europe and the United Kingdom.

The first product to be trialed, a confectionery item called Twix, has now been released onto the Australian market. This item is the fourth-largest selling chocolate bar in the world and the company holds great hopes for its sales here. The establishment of the trial plant has already benefited the local economy with the creation of 35 to 40 jobs. More jobs, and possible export dollars, can be expected if the product proves popular and therefore a permanent production plant is needed.

The Hon. Robert Lawson-More business for dentists.


The Hon. D. R. WHITE-It is not compulsory for Mr Lawson to eat these bars; in this society it is optional.

Once the permanent production plant is in place, the initial facility can be used to test the viability of other company products, including new lines not currently produced or available in Australia. If Mr Lawson has any objection to these types of products, I remind him that they may still be of interest to Mr Davidson, Sidney Greenstreet and MrSmith.

Until the government became involved with the project there was no guarantee the trial plant would be established in Victoria. The alternative was to import trial shipments of the product. People are already exercising a choice for the product. What we are seeking to do is to ensure that there is an effective import replacement indus!I)', ifnot an export"replacement industry. The government is delighted to be involved In assisting this further expansion of employment in Ballarat.


The Hon. ROSEMARY V ARTY (Nunawading Province )-1 ask the Minister for Health whether in the light of her reply to Mrs Tehan earlier there are discussions taking place. The Australian Medical Association made a statement that it will take action next week; what provision has the Minister made for public hospitals to meet the increased demands that this will place on them?

The Hon. C. J. HOGG (Minister for Health)-I welcome Mrs Varty's question because it gives me the opportunity of saying that the government will be seeking to initiate further discussions today, and therefore I hope the need for contingency plans will not arise.

I believe some of the figures that have been quoted in the press about the burden that might fall upon public hospitals are misleading. At this stage, I do not think, in the hypothetical sense, that one would really know what difference would be made to public hospitals. I am hopeful that the further discussions which should ensue today or very shortly will resolve the difficulties of both sides.

MILDURA BASE HOSPITAL The Hon. K. I. M. WRIGHT (North Western Province)-My question is also

directed to the Minister for Health. It concerns the Mildura Base Hospital and the urgent need for ward upgrading. Local members have informed the Minister of the situation. Last week the president of the hospital, Or Vasa Skorupanovic, said in his annual report that staff and patients have been exposed to inefficient and hazardous working conditions. Taking that into account, will the Minister inform the House whether she can predict an early upgrading of those wards?

The Hon. C. J. HOGG (Minister for Health)-I think Mr Wright knows I am aware of the conditions at the Mildura Base Hospital because it was at his invitation, I think, that I visited it before this session began and acknowledged the need for work to be done there.

I cannot predict with any degree of confidence or certainty when such capital works might begin. There are many capital works of some urgency in Mr Wright's region and he would certainly acknowledge that. All I can say is that my department is aware of the situation and will make improvements when the financial situation allows. We are looking at ways of speeding up capital works programs for hospitals but at this


stage I cannot give any more reassurance than that. I am aware that a number of hospitals need capital works and improvements.

SHIRE OF MALDON The Hon. G. A. SGRO (Melbourne North Province}-In light ofa report regarding

trouble with administration and lack of staff at the Shire of Maldon, is the Minister for Local Government able to report any improvement to the House?

The Hon. M. A. LYSTER (Minister for Local Government}-Mr Sgro is correct; there was a considerable amount of concern in the community of Maldon which, I must admit, was exacerbated by a report that was put out by the Local Government Commission.

Last night I met with the shire president and another councillor and I was particularly impressed with the positive attitude and realistic assessments that that council is now making of its future. The Shire of Maldon now has a full complement of staff with a full-time shire secretary. Other positions have been filled recently, including a parttime health surveyor, and a consultant town planner has been asked to work on the shire's planning scheme. That is very important to this historic town.

The belief that much of it is due not only to the attitude of councillors but the excellent work of the shire secretary, Mr Graeme Calder, who was helped to turn around the shire's somewhat gloomy and fragmented situation to an expected balanced budget, was confirmed from my conversation with the councillors. His management skills have been used to assist the shire to become a positive and viable municipality for the next twelve months.

There is an outstanding issue in respect of the future of the Baringhup riding on which there was a petition which is now somewhat aged. I discussed this with the councillors and we look forward to hearing from the community in respect of that previously expressed desire to move to the Shire of Tullaroop.

ELECTRICITY TARIFFS The Hon. B. A. CHAMBERLAIN (Western Province}-The question I direct to

the attention of the Minister for Industry, Technology and Resources relates to the report of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria that was tabled yesterday. Will the Minister acknowledge that the tariffs of the commission are still considerably higher than those in both New South Wales and Queensland, and that the rate of annual increase is higher in Victoria than in each of those States? What action has the government taken to ensure that the SEC eventually becomes tariff competitive with New South Wales and Queensland?

The Hon. D. R. WHITE (Minister for Industry, Technology and Resources}-The first point I make is that dunng the course of the 1980s there has been a secure pricing policy for the State Electricity Commission of Victoria, and as a result of the security of that pricing policy it was possible to bring about the resumption of work on the Portland aluminium smelter which is now a $750 million export industry.

As a result of the excellent achievements of the commission this year people, whether they are domestic consumers of electricity, commercial consumers or potential investors, can rest assured that the tariff increases for the SEC in the next four years will not only be in line with the family pledge but will be less than the movements in the consumer price index, unlike the tariff increases that have been occurring over the past two years in New South Wales. Further restructuring of the tariffs will also occur.


I am very pleased to inform the House that, as a result of the wage restructuring process that has occurred in the Latrobe Valley, it is more than likely that over the next twelve months significantly in excess of 1000 people will be leaving the SEC voluntarily.

The Hon. R. J. Long-You would not say voluntarily; they are being bought out.

The Hon. D. R. WHITE-A voluntary agreement was entered into by the relevant unions as part of a package agreed to by the State Industrial Relations Commission which will produce an outcome that further enhances the trend which has seen the commission reduce its work force during the 1980s from 23 000 to 21 100 employees today, with the prospect of a further reduction towards the target set by the SEC of 17 000. That s~bstantial reduction in the work force has coincided with a 3 to 4 per cent increase in the sales revenue in each year over the past seven years and an even stronger than expected growth in the first quarter of this financial year, which demonstrates that there is still an underlying strength in the Victorian economy as registered in SEC and gas sales.

This is a significant productivity improvement, with the SEC leading the way in Victoria in wage restructuring and productivity improvement, and producing a setting which significantly enhances the capacity of the Victorian government to pursue a third potline at Portland. The aluminium industry in this State consumes approximately 20 per cent of Victoria's electricity, and the two major smelters in the State, at Point Henry and Portland, are in the top 25 per cent of aluminium smelters throughout the world in terms of their cost competitiveness. This is a direct result of the competitiveness of our production of brown coal and is a tribute to the effectiveness of the management of the State Electricity Commission, which has the strong support of the government.

The Hon. B. A. Chamberlain-Every industry and family is paying more in Victoria than in New South Wales and Queensland. That is what you have just acknowledged.

PUBLIC DENTAL HEALTH SERVICES The Hon. G. R. CRAWFORD (Jika Jika Province)-Will the Minister for Health

inform the House of any recent developments in public dental health in the northeastern suburbs of Melbourne?

The Hon. C. J. HOGG (Minister for Health)-I thank Mr Crawford for his question, and I am pleased to announce that the implementation of the 1988-89 dental health strategy has resulted in real improvements in the delivery of public dental services in the north-eastern suburbs. For Mr Crawford and other members who represent those suburbs, that is a real achievement.

During 1988-89 a total of $48 000 in capital funds and $150 000 in recurrent funding was provided for the expansion of public dental services in the region. During this financial year the funding has been increased to $110000 for capital works and $905 000 in recurrent funds.

In concrete terms, although some difficulties have been experienced in finding appropriate dentists to fill the new positions, progress has been made. Through the cooperation of the Royal Dental Hospital of Melbourne, services are operating in all the areas that are planned for commencement in 1988-89.

It is anticipated that full service delivery will be achieved within the next few months. That is the equivalent of five full-time dental teams in Preston, West Heidelberg, Richmond, Northcote, Fitzroy and Collingwood. The government anticipates that those services will be operating. A dental team consists of a dentist

victoria...victoria parliamentary debates (hansard) fifty-first parliament spring session 1989...

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