Category Archives: Victorian politics

Melbourne’s ‘pause’ on new bike lanes sparks outrage on World Bicycle Day

Posted on by

Advocates and key councillor hope the halt is short-lived, but transport union criticises existing lanes

Cycling advocates are holding out hope that a halt on new bike lanes in Melbourne CBD announced Friday will be short-lived, warning of the risks posed by gaps in the network.

The Melbourne lord mayor, Sally Capp, said Friday there would be a “pause” on the construction of dedicated cycling lanes in the CBD. The City of Melbourne council said it would instead prioritise upgrading cycling infrastructure on arterial roads.

Continue reading...

First Nations farmers to get traditional lessons of the land in Victorian pilot scheme

Posted on by

State government to launch program to improve skills of Aboriginal agricultural workers and develop business opportunities

Mick Buckworth, like many of his ancestors, loves being on the land.

The farm manager of Rumbalara Aboriginal Cooperative in Shepparton, in regional Victoria, said the skills he has developed – from knowing how to plant “kangaroo tails” to carefully putting traditional beehives together – were both valuable and satisfying.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

‘You don’t have a choice’: Victoria’s mental health regulator criticised over complaints handling

Posted on by

Olivia* complained to hospital and regulator about her treatment and feels disempowered by the process

Olivia* still has questions about the compulsory mental health treatment she received at a Melbourne hospital.

Last year, she was admitted into the Northern hospital after an eating disorder relapse. Olivia, aged in her 40s, alleges she received forced mental health treatment after being told the hospital did not treat eating disorders.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Liberal party should forgo ‘entitled’ Kooyong voters, says their own state Liberal MP

Posted on by

Tim Smith, who is retiring in November, says Coalition needs to ‘stop obsessing with the woke causes of inner-urban elites’ and focus on suburbs

The voters of Kooyong in Melbourne’s east have been described as “loud, entitled and privileged” – by their own state Liberal MP.

Victorian Liberal Tim Smith represents the state electorate of Kew, which overlaps the federal seat of Kooyong, where independent Monique Ryan defeated former treasurer Josh Frydenberg in Saturday’s election.

Continue reading...

Ban on new gas connections will help transition Victoria away from fossil fuels, inquiry finds

Posted on by

Parliamentary committee also recommends cut-off date for sale of diesel and petrol cars

A Victorian parliamentary committee has recommended the Andrews government consider a ban on gas connections in new homes to help accelerate the state’s transition to renewables.

It also urged Victoria to commit to a cut-off date for the sale of new petrol, diesel and gas-fuelled vehicles.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Triple-zero overhaul: 21 Victorians died waiting for an ambulance in past six months, inquiry hears

Posted on by

Failures in triple-zero system blamed for 18 of the deaths, Ambulance Victoria chief tells budget estimates hearing

Twenty-one Victorians have died waiting for an ambulance over the past six months, a budget estimates hearing has been told.

Failures in the triple-zero system have been blamed for 18 of the deaths with three attributed to paramedics not getting to patients on time, Ambulance Victoria’s acting chief executive, Libby Murphy, said on Friday.

Continue reading...

Matthew Guy uses budget reply speech to attack Victoria’s response to the pandemic

Posted on by

Opposition leader makes no new policy announcements ahead of election, but criticises levels of debt

The Victorian opposition leader, Matthew Guy, has delivered a budget reply speech focused on attacking the government’s response to the pandemic, without announcing any new policies ahead of the November state election.

Guy characterised the premier, Daniel Andrews, as an “arrogant and unchecked” leader, who would send Victoria “broke” as a result of Covid-19 lockdowns, cost overruns on major projects and record debt levels.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Victoria ‘failing’ to offset damage caused by disproportionate level of land clearing

Posted on by

Auditor general says Victoria has most native vegetation cleared, proportional to land mass, in Australia

Victoria has the most native vegetation cleared proportional to land mass of any Australian state and it is failing to offset the damage caused, the state’s auditor general says.

About 10,380 habitat hectares of native vegetation is removed from Victorian private properties each year, the auditor general estimated in a report tabled in the state’s parliament on Wednesday.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Victoria’s landmark truth-telling commission needs to run for up to 10 years, First Peoples leader says

Posted on by

Marcus Stewart says current timeframe of Yoorrook Justice Commission not enough to ‘unpack 200-plus years of colonisation’

Victoria’s truth-telling commission needs up to a decade of inquiry before delivering its final report – which is slated for 2024 – a leader of the state’s elected First Nations body says.

Marcus Stewart, co-chair of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, wants the Victorian government to extend the timeframe for the Yoorrook Justice Commission.

Continue reading...

Victorian government delivers a budget that’s a tale of two elections

Posted on by

Analysis: While the budget seeks to repair the damage of the past two years, it’s clear some wounds are yet to heal

Handing down his eighth Victorian budget on Tuesday, the treasurer, Tim Pallas, pitched it at not one but two elections.

The most timely is the federal election. Through the budget, Pallas makes it clear that, whoever wins in May, he expects a greater share of funding for Victoria and is happy to criticise the Morrison government until then.

Continue reading...

Election 2022 live updates: RBA chief warns interest rates could hit 2.5% as Labor seizes on ‘cost of living crisis’

Posted on by

Scott Morrison defends economic ‘shield’ after RBA lifts cash rate target from historic low; Philip Lowe says more interest rate rises to come; Jim Chalmers says central bank decision ‘a very serious development’; nation records 41 Covid deaths. Follow the latest updates live

Scott Morrison doesn’t get sick of the “silly” photo ops [silly photo opportunities being how the question was framed], he tells Melbourne radio’s Neil Mitchell, because he “doesn’t see them that way”.

He then gives a hero-gram to tradies.

I don’t fit in those ways, what I see is [being] out and about and doing what Australians do every day.

... What I enjoy doing is standing there with an apprentice who shows me what they’re learning, and then I’d have a go at it.

Continue reading...

Victoria’s treasurer delivers health-focused budget and promises return to surplus

Posted on by

Tim Pallas announces new hospitals, clearing of a surgery backlog and hiring of thousands of healthcare workers

The Victorian government will spend $12bn to repair its Covid-battered health system with the treasurer, Tim Pallas, confident that the worst of the pandemic is behind the state and a return to surplus will happen in the near future.

Pallas’s eighth budget, handed down on Tuesday, includes $2.9bn worth of new health infrastructure. This includes $900m to build a hospital in Melton, in Melbourne’s west, which will include a 24-hour emergency department and an intensive care unit, along with maternity and mental health services.

Continue reading...

In an election budget, Victorian treasurer Tim Pallas is fighting a war on many fronts

Posted on by

Analysis: To fight his way back to surplus, Pallas relies on economic growth rather than spending cuts or increased taxes

Inflation, a Covid comeback, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Josh Frydenberg “short-changing” his home state – these are the major battles Victoria’s treasurer, Tim Pallas, faces as he plots a narrow course towards a small budget surplus within four years’ time.

To fight his way back to surplus, Pallas is relying on economic growth – fuelled by the state’s speedy bounceback from a Covid-19 recession and a full-to-overflowing $21bn-a-year infrastructure pipeline, which itself contains significant potential pitfalls – rather than cutting spending or increasing taxes.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Victoria’s government quietly prepares an election budget while attention is diverted

Posted on by

Analysis: In the days before last year’s budget, $4.2bn in commitments were announced. Just $277m has been announced ahead of Tuesday’s

With all eyes fixed on the federal election campaign, you’d be forgiven for nearly forgetting Victoria’s treasurer, Tim Pallas, is set to hand down a state budget in a couple of days.

So far, all we know is that health will be a main theme of the pre-election budget. Improving lengthy ambulance wait times, emergency department overcrowding and the state’s triple zero call-taking system are front of mind after several much-publicised deaths, including that of a 72-year-old man who waited more than three hours for a bed at a regional hospital earlier this month.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Uncle Jack Charles makes history as first Indigenous elder to speak at Victorian truth-telling commission

Posted on by

Yoorrook commission will establish official record of Indigenous experiences since colonisation

Victoria’s Indigenous truth-telling commission has opened public hearings, with respected actor and activist Uncle Jack Charles the first to share his story.

Born to a Wiradjuri father and a Bunurong mother, Charles was called as the first Indigenous elder to speak at the Yoorrook Justice Commission on Tuesday.

Continue reading...

Covid funding to states should be extended, Daniel Andrews says

Posted on by

Victorian government wants extension of commonwealth funding arrangement to combat pandemic

Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has reignited calls for the commonwealth to extend its increased health funding for Covid, warning the effects of the pandemic will not end after winter.

But the state opposition has lashed the Andrews government, saying the pressure has been caused by “years of Labor mismanagement” prior to the pandemic.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Decriminalisation of public drunkenness delayed by Victorian government

Posted on by

Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service ‘disappointed’ that official repeal will not occur in November

Victoria will delay repealing public drunkenness as a crime, in a move that has triggered the state’s Indigenous legal service to urge the state government to prioritise the “overdue reform”.

The offence was to be officially repealed in November, but Guardian Australia understands the decriminalisation of public drunkenness may not take effect until 2023 – more than five years after the death of 55-year-old Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Epidemiologists split over easing of Covid restrictions in NSW and Victoria

Posted on by

While business groups celebrate change to isolation rules, some experts remain cautious

The easing of Covid restrictions in Victoria and New South Wales has been welcomed by industry groups, despite concerns from some epidemiologists that it sends the wrong message at a time daily infections remain high.

From Friday, people in both states who live with Covid-19 cases or are deemed close contacts will no longer have to quarantine for seven days, provided they have no symptoms.

Continue reading...

Another election year leads to another Victorian debate about the East West Link proposal

Posted on by

Analysis: Like clockwork, an announcement is made to revive the ‘zombie’ toll road project

Almost seven years after Victoria’s Labor government scrapped a billion-dollar contract to construct the East West Link, the project – once dubbed a “zombie” by the state’s treasurer – refuses to die.

The federal Coalition has previously pushed the case for the project. But this time, it was the state opposition reviving it by announcing it would build the underground tunnel to connect Melbourne’s Eastern Freeway to CityLink if was elected at the November election.

Continue reading...

Family violence groups call for Victoria’s first culturally specific refuge

Posted on by

Unlike Queensland and New South Wales, Victoria has no culturally specific family violence refuges

Zara* believes she and her children wouldn’t be alive today were it not for the support she received while at a family violence refuge in New Zealand tailored to her cultural needs.

“The mainstream refuge didn’t understand the seriousness of abuse the ethnic women go through,” Zara said. “I have been told by my own family, community and society to reconcile so many times and every time the abuse worsens.

In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 1-800-273-8255 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org

Continue reading...