2016-12-07
Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) — The Greens will support this motion. We appreciate that the opposition has been pursuing these issues for some time, I believe through a number of different mechanisms of the house. Documents motions are an appropriate way for the house to obtain information from the government, and that is after all one of the main purposes of this house existing. In addition to dealing with laws we are also to hold the government to account on a day-to-day basis. It is very hard to do that without some basic information, and at least on the face of it the documents here are described in such a way that the government ought to know what they are and whether they are able to deliver them in a timely fashion.
I note, though, just in relation to point (3), about the estimated additional costs to the Victorian health services, that this has shades of the great Liberal inquiry that they set up when they themselves were in government to try and find out the impact of the carbon tax on hospitals.
[Speech was interrupted.]
Mr BARBER — The Minister for Health himself. You are probably all familiar with Yes Minister, and you would know that famous quote, 'Never have an inquiry unless you know the result'. But in a different episode, less famously, he actually said, 'Never have an inquiry' — full stop — because everything is connected to everything, okay?
It is good that the Liberal Party are seeking information on this. Our information, though, is that the Christmas Day public holiday, although not currently in law as a gazetted holiday, is in any case built into many of the enterprise agreements that health sector workers already have. If the government have any information on that, they might like to provide it now for the interest of the house. But, as I said, we will support this motion, and I look forward to the government providing some additional information on this matter, because transparency can only be a good thing. The government has the ability to release whatever information it wants whenever it wants. They had the ability to tell their side of the story, so they should not be afraid of the opposition coming in here and moving a motion asking for certain documents. If the government believes those documents do not paint the whole picture, the government has the ability to release any information it wants at any time or place it wants. As I said, the Greens will support this motion.
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