This week in State Parliament – 28 May 2015

This week in State Parliament, Liberal and National MPs sought answers from Premier Andrews about the full facts surrounding his decision to stand down Small Business Minister, Adem Somyurek. Regrettably, not many answers were forthcoming.

We also called on the Premier to justify how a former Labor candidate who was forced to quit because of bullying allegations could end up being employed by a Minister to work as an electorate officer in an office shared with the Premier.

The government this week announced details of its proposed Port of Melbourne lease, apparently including a promise to pay compensation to the successful bidder if a competitor port is allowed within the next 50 years. The Coalition questioned whether this is selling out Victoria’s long term interests for a short term cash grab to pay for unaffordable election promises.

We also highlighted broken promises by Labor candidates to fund upgrades and new schools in their electorates, as well as the devastating effects that Labor’s cuts to country roads and bridges will have on rural and regional communities.

In the Legislative Council, Coalition MPs were successful in securing support to establish Parliamentary inquiries to scrutinise Labor’s infrastructure projects and proposals, and also to examine the operation of Labor’s rate capping policy and to find out the costs and the effects on services of the major changes to departmental structures made by Labor when they were elected.

In the Legislative Assembly, Labor refused to allow detailed scrutiny of their legislation to impose new stamp duty and land tax on overseas property buyers and whether this will drive up house prices.