I rise to support this motion of no confidence because the people entrusted to navigate Victoria through this pandemic steered it onto the rocks of the second wave and now they obfuscate, buck-pass, dissemble and, as we have seen, even lie under oath. It is a conga line of incompetence, insincerity and insensitivity, and it is a gross insult to the families who have lost loved ones because of them. There is no honour in these people and the person who leads them. They have no interest in easing the pain of Victorians. They have no interest in giving grieving families answers or devastated business owners the truth about why a lifetime’s work has been sacrificed. They are just out to save themselves. That none of them is accepting responsibility for the greatest policy failure in living memory means everybody must, starting from the top.
Mr Pearson: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, I remind the member for Kew that we are not allowed to read our speeches. If he is referring to notes, that is perfectly acceptable. But he appears to me to be reading his speech. I would have thought a member who has been here long enough would know better.
The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Kilkenny): Is the member reading from notes?
Mr T SMITH: The minister has gone a little bit troppo. I am reading from notes, Acting Speaker. Can I continue without being interrupted?
The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Kilkenny): Are you referring to notes?
Mr T SMITH: I am referring to notes.
The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Kilkenny): The member may continue.
Mr T SMITH: Thank you, Acting Speaker. I will continue if I can. They are just out to save themselves. That none of them is accepting responsibility for the greatest public policy failure in living memory means everybody must, starting from the top. The Premier has said time and time again that he is responsible for his government, so he must go. The deaths have been too many, the destruction too great and his culpability too deep for any other course of action. The Premier has extended the state of disaster because literally he has turned Victoria into a disaster and 791 of his fellow Victorians have died because of the hotel quarantine fiasco that started the second wave, resulting in such death and such destruction. Genomic sequencing does not lie. The Premier caused the disaster, the Premier is responsible for the disaster and Victorians are paying for it. Not only has he caused the disaster but this Premier has done so while presiding over the single greatest period of diminished government scrutiny in the history of our state.
Under this Premier, cabinet government—gone. Under this Premier, Parliament can be suspended by a mid-ranking public servant. Under this Premier, scrutiny is okay, but only if the committee charged with doing it is controlled by the Labor Party. People’s rights and freedoms—gone. A curfew was introduced, so was the 5-kilometre rule, which is still imposed upon us. For the first time in our history millions of Victorians could not leave their homes in the evening because, we were told, it was necessary to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, only for us to find out that the Chief Commissioner of Police did not ask for it.
Ms Green: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, the member for Kew is quite clearly reading his speech. He is not referring to notes. Mr Magoo could see that he is reading it, and it is even bound in a nice little booklet form. I ask you to ask him to come back to delivering his heartfelt speech from his heart rather than reading it.
The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Kilkenny): Thank you, member for Yan Yean. Is the member referring to notes?
Mr T SMITH: On the point of order, the member for Yan Yean is one of the more challenged members of this chamber. I am not going to accept her ridiculous points of order. Once again, I am reading from copious notes, Acting Speaker. Would you shut up these people so I can continue?
Ms Green: On the point of order, Acting Speaker, I take offence at the reference that the member for Kew just made to me, and I ask him to withdraw. He is also being very disrespectful to the Chair, and I think he is showing he has a distinct problem with the women in this chamber.
Mr R Smith: On the point of order, Acting Speaker, let the record show that the member for Yan Yean is far more concerned about the method in which the member for Kew is delivering his speech than the 800 people that have died as a result—
The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Kilkenny): Order! There is no point of order. Will the member withdraw his statement?
Mr T SMITH: I withdraw.
The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Kilkenny): Thank you. The member will continue.
Mr T SMITH: The economy has been smashed, and yet we get gratuitous, ridiculous interruptions from the member for Yan Yean. Businesses have been destroyed because of the incompetence of your party. Do you understand that? Do you understand? Has it seeped into your skull yet, member for Yan Yean, that your party is responsible for the deaths of 791 people in the second wave of coronavirus, hundreds of thousands of jobs lost—literally hundreds of thousands of jobs lost—and a mental health crisis? Do you understand that, whilst you are taking your ridiculous points of order about the notes that I am reading from? You are a disgrace, and you are an embarrassment to the people that sent you here.
The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Kilkenny): Order! Through the Chair, please.
Mr T SMITH: I fear that our children’s schooling has been seriously impinged upon, that hundreds and hundreds of people have literally lost their lives because of your incompetence—literally hundreds—and Labor’s criminal negligence. Hopefully one of these days WorkCover and the police knock on a few ministers’ doors and call them in for questioning and hopefully then drag them before the courts for what they have done that has resulted in so much death and destruction to so many people in our state.
I also fear for the mental health impacts of what has gone on in Victoria over the past few months. I think the consequences will live with us for years. What we need from the Premier is a recovery plan, and what we got was a media plan. If we were to take the Premier at his word, everything is under control. Contact tracing—all under control, yet we got a second wave. Enforcement—well, that was meant to be done terrifically, yet a pregnant mother was arrested in front of her children and a riot squad was sent to a fruit and vegetables market. The government’s response—well, according to you lot, you have said it all afternoon—has been terrific. You have done a great job. Except your health minister resigned in the middle of a pandemic and then told the Coate inquiry that the Premier’s evidence should be observed with caution—with caution. She called the Premier a liar. Then, yesterday, the Secretary of the Department of Premier and Cabinet resigned. Why? Because he lied to the Coate inquiry—he lied under oath. That is the sort of calibre of person that we are dealing with in this rotten Andrews Labor government. So if everything is under control, what does the Premier consider out of control?
Labor members have a very important decision to make in the next few hours. Victorians should rightly judge Labor members on how they vote today. But Labor members of Parliament and ministers will not just be judged today or next week or next year or next month or at the next election—those Labor members will be judged by history itself. And one thing is clear: on this question, on this motion, there is only one right side of history, and you know it. The Liberal Party is on the right side of history. The National Party is on the right side of history. Because we stand with workers, we stand with businesses, we stand with families and we stand for responsible government. Most importantly of all, we stand with and for the people of Victoria in this terrible time of trial.