Category Archives: Victorian politics

Victoria’s Oz Lotto changes make it harder to win jackpot and are ‘blatant cash grab’, opposition says

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Allowing two more balls means overall odds of winning something increase but odds of first division win go from one in 45.3m to one in 62.8m

Australians’ chances of winning the Oz Lotto jackpot are set to become slimmer after changes to the game by the Victorian government.

The state government has amended the Public Lottery Licence to introduce two extra balls for Oz Lotto, which currently has participants select seven choices from 45 numbers, with two supplementary numbers drawn.

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‘Grab and drag’ proposal will bridge gap between assault and sexual offences in Victoria, experts say

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Law reform body says there should be consequences for offenders who make victims fear they will be sexually assaulted

Offenders who grab and drag their victim in a way that makes them fear they will be sexually assaulted could be jailed for up to 10 years under a proposal outlined by Victoria’s peak law reform body.

The Andrews government asked the Victorian Law Reform Commission (VLRC) to review “grab and drag” offences after a 2018 assault in which Jackson Williams grabbed a 39-year-old woman and dragged her into an alleyway.

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Australia news live updates: MPs respond to Morrison criticism; 20 Covid deaths; major Optus mobile network outage

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Foreign and defence ministers label Putin a ‘war criminal’; major Optus mobile network outage; ministers respond to criticism of Scott Morrison; NSW records 12 Covid deaths and 19,183 new infections; Victoria records eight deaths and 12,007 new infections. Follow all the latest updates live

Another senior Liberal has taken aim at Scott Morrison, accusing him of “self-serving ruthless bullying” and claiming he has “ruined” the Liberal party.

Catherine Cusack, a NSW Liberal who announced two weeks ago she would resign from the Legislative Council over her anger about flood relief, adds her voice to a growing chorus of critics of Morrison from within his own party in an opinion piece for Guardian Australia.

The concerns over the prime minister’s character are now well established, and they’re well established not by the Labor party, but the people who know him best.

I mean his own deputy prime minister called him a liar and a hypocrite*. These people know him best, they’ve served in cabinet with him, in the Liberal party with him over a period of many years ...

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Adopted people can have biological parents on birth certificates under Victorian bill

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Forced adoptions inquiry recommended names of birth parents be included on birth certificates

Legislation to be introduced to Victoria’s parliament on Tuesday will allow adopted people to have both their birth and adoptive parents included on their birth certificates for the first time.

Under the current law, people who have been adopted in Victoria are issued a new birth certificate with their adoptive name and the name of their adoptive parents. Their original birth certificate is stamped with “cancelled” or “adopted”.

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Victoria to restore area five times size of Melbourne with $31m boost to private land conservation

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BushBank scheme aims to revegetate parcels of private land to create habitat for endangered wildlife and capture carbon

The Victorian government plans to restore an area five times the size of Melbourne as part of a new scheme to increase conservation on private land.

The state’s energy, environment and climate change minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, has announced the government will spend $31m to revegetate parcels of private land to create habitat for endangered wildlife and capture carbon.

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Analysis: Australia’s busiest state government goes into hibernation

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Daniel Andrews and Matthew Guy are stuck at home – but that hasn’t made Victorian politics that much quieter

Both of Victoria’s political leaders were stuck at home this week – Daniel Andrews having tested positive for Covid-19 and Matthew Guy as a close contact of his nine-year-old son.

But it probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference if they weren’t.

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Bid to overhaul Victoria’s political donation laws to target ‘backdoor’ funding and ‘loopholes’

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MP Clifford Hayes says reform is needed to rebuild public trust in political parties

A Victorian crossbench MP is set to introduce a motion to parliament next week calling on the government to overhaul the state’s “weak” donation laws.

It comes after the Centre for Public Integrity last week urged the government to strengthen rules around political donations, election advertising and lobbying ahead of the November poll.

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Australia news live updates: many Lismore buildings ‘expected to flood again’; new Russia sanctions; man’s body found in Qld flood waters

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Many buildings in Lismore are ‘expected to flood again’ as CBD ordered to evacuate; severe weather warning for large parts of NSW; foreign minister announces ‘Magnitsky-style sanctions’ targeting 39 Russians; treasurer Josh Frydenberg says election will be held ‘in a matter of weeks’; nation records 24 Covid deaths, with record high daily case numbers in Tasmania. Follow the latest updates live

The New South Wales government has approved fewer than 400 disaster relief grants for flood-ravaged northern rivers businesses, despite receiving almost 8,000 requests for help since applications opened almost a month ago.

After the state’s north was left reeling by weeks of devastating floods, the government announced grants of up to $50,000 for small businesses to help pay for cleanup costs, repairs, replace damaged stock and to lease temporary premises.

Today it’s been revealed that the unemployment rate will have a friend for the first time in 50 years. This is a remarkable achievement that belongs to 26 million Australians. We’ve avoided the scouring of the labour market so reminiscent of previous recessions in Australia in the 80s and 90s.

We now have an unemployment rate that is very, very low and we are banking that dividend, now with the cost of living.

Would you be providing that if Australians weren’t going to the polls in a matter of weeks?

We would of course be providing cost-of-living relief given the circumstances that Australia now faces. There’s higher expected inflation, indeed, it’s a global phenomenon. There’s petrol prices rising above $2 a litre and with the other challenges on Australian companies.

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Victoria daily news update: hospitality training to fill shortages, Matthew Guy isolates and Covid cases rise

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Both Daniel Andrews and the opposition leader are now in isolation as Covid cases rise across the state

A quick summary of all the Victorian news you need to know on Tuesday 29 March.

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A week of own-goals leaves Victoria’s opposition bruised

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Analysis: the Coalition’s week began with swagger and ended in a whimper after series of stumbles

A week ago, the Victorian opposition was quietly confident.

After struggling to gain any political momentum amid the pandemic, the opposition leader, Matthew Guy’s consistent and disciplined messaging on the triple-zero call response crisis appeared to be cutting through.

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Push to protect sexual assault victims’ communications with doctors enters Victorian parliament

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Confidential communications often obtained by defence lawyers to undermine victims’ credibility

Victorian alleged sexual assault victims will have the right to defend their confidential communications being aired in court under new amendments to be introduced to state parliament by Justice party MP Stuart Grimley.

The amendments to the justice legislation amendment bill 2022, to be debated in the upper house on Thursday, were recommended in two separate inquiries by the Victorian Law Reform Commission in 2016 and 2021.

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Victorian government calls for ‘fair’ commonwealth funding for transport projects

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Grattan Institute report finds ‘consistent pattern’ of transport funding going to political battleground states

Victorian transport infrastructure minister Jacinta Allan has called on the federal government to provide the state with its “fair share” of funding after a report found the state was being shortchanged compared with New South Wales and Queensland.

The Grattan Institute report, released on Sunday night, found there was a “consistent pattern” of successive federal governments spending more money on transport in New South Wales and Queensland – where elections tend to be won and lost – than in Victoria.

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Victorian politics of paid sick leave is very different to developer levies

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Daniel Andrews was gearing up for a fight with lobby groups, but the main prize was in the electorate

For the second time in a month the Andrews government this week unfurled a big social reform to be funded by a levy on business.

And for the second time in a month, it provoked outrage from the usual quarters, including the state opposition, the federal government and industry groups.

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‘Just not the right time’: Victoria urged to keep mask rules for key workers

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Epidemiologists say calls by business to relax mask rules as case numbers escalate is ‘down the rabbit hole thinking’

Victorian business leaders pushing to scrap mask mandates for hospitality and retail workers are “clearly not following the trend” in rising cases, according to epidemiologists who say now is not the time to relax rules.

The state’s premier, Daniel Andrews, on Thursday rejected a push from the Australian Hotels Association, the Australian ­Retailers Association and the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry who told the Herald Sun they wanted national consistency on mask mandates and warned workers could leave the sectors for other jobs.

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Victorian public schools face $20bn funding shortfall, analysis shows

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Private schools will be overfunded by almost $400m, but public schools will fall short of national standards

Victoria’s public schools face a dire funding shortfall of almost $20bn, with new analysis revealing funding growth for private schools is five times higher than for the state’s government schools.

Analysis from public schools advocacy group Save Our Schools shows that combined federal and state funding for government schools from 2019 to 2029 would be about $19.5bn below the Gonski review’s recommended funding benchmark – the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS).

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Home births cancelled at short notice due to Victoria’s ambulance crisis

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The state’s two publicly funded home-birth programs are suspended, with some expectant mothers not told until weeks before due dates

Expectant mothers are having planned home births cancelled within weeks of their due dates, with Victoria’s ambulance crisis putting intense strain on the state’s maternity services.

Victoria has just two publicly funded home-birth programs at Sunshine and Casey hospitals – both of which are now temporarily suspended. Assisted home births require ambulances to be available in case of any complications during the procedure.

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NT chief minister says Omicron ‘too infectious’ for lockdowns to work as nation records at least 88 Covid deaths – As it happened

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Michael Gunner says lockdowns and lockouts no longer effective; At least 88 Covid deaths recorded around the country as Kerry Chant says Omicron sub-variant is circulating in NSW; Queensland reveals back-to-school plan. This blog is now closed

Albanese says Labor will boost aged-care funding, but cannot specify by how much.

There has been a boost.

Two things they haven’t done: One is to tie that funding of actual delivery of better healthcare for aged-care residents in terms of some of the regulatory measures required that were recommended by the royal commission, but the big missing piece in this workforce, we still don’t have a commitment to have a nurse in a nursing home.

We still don’t have a commitment to increase in the number of other care workers in aged care, and we still don’t have a commitment to increases in wages and conditions so that aged-care facilities are able to attract the staff.

Quite clearly there will be a need for increased health funding, but there is a need also to look at the particular areas of funding.

GPs, for example. One of the reasons there is so much pressure on the hospitals is we have GP shortages in terms of training, we have GP shortages in terms of some of the changes that they’ve made to the Medicare schedule that have had an impact in our regions.

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‘No vax, no play’: surfer Kelly Slater won’t be let into Australia if he’s not vaccinated against Covid

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World Surf League events are due in Victoria and WA but federal health minister says position on coronavirus vaccine is ‘pretty clear’ following Novak Djokovic visa saga

Surfing great Kelly Slater could be the next big name in sport to be refused the right to compete in Australia, with the federal health minister saying the 11-time champion will not be allowed into the country if he is not vaccinated against Covid.

Slater, who has not publicly disclosed his Covid vaccination status, has aired some controversial views on the Covid vaccine, including an Instagram comment in October that claimed he knew “more about being healthy than 99% of doctors”.

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Political leaders condemn alleged attack on MP’s daughter – as it happened

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PM comments after Animal Justice MP Andy Meddick says daughter attacked; Indian PM repeals controversial agricultural laws; rapid antigen Covid testing for NSW primary schools; Victoria records 1,273 new cases and eight deaths; NSW records 216 new cases and three deaths; rain set to hamper search for remains of William Tyrrell. This blog is now closed

OK, jumping back to South Australia where opposition leader Peter Malinauskas has condemned the premier’s decision not to dismiss his deputy premier and attorney general Vicky Chapman after the parliament passed a vote of no confidence against her.

Malinauskas told ABC News Breakfast that this was “a truly extraordinary state of affairs, if not a constitutional crisis”.

It’s an incredibly unfortunate state of affairs in South Australia where premier Steven Marshall has decided to almost literally tear up the rulebook of convention that’s been established over hundreds of years of the Westminster system of government and ignore the parliament’s will [for him to] ask Vickie Chapman to resign her position at deputy premier.

There’s been a motion of no confidence passed in the deputy premier. This is unprecedented. Everybody seems to be putting their fingers in their ears and pretending nothing has happened, particularly the premier himself.

What I accept and what I’ve always defended and been a very strong supporter of is people’s right to protest. But if it’s not peaceful, it’s not protest and it’s something very different.

We have seen extremists, rabid anti-vaxxer and others making all sorts of threats, threats against me, my wife and my kids. That is not my focus, this is about every family’s safety and that’s why we have to work together and that’s what Victorians have done.

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Victorian Labor MP gave staffer more than $33,000 to pay for party memberships, Ibac hears

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Investigators obtain bank records of transfers between Marlene Kairouz and electorate office manager Kirsten Psaila, hearing told

A Labor MP gave a staffer more than $33,000 to pay the party memberships of people within her faction, according to evidence provided to the Victorian anti-corruption commission.

But the MP, Marlene Kairouz, whose evidence is considered critical to the investigation into the alleged misuse of public funds by paying staff to do factional activity – including branch stacking – will not be subject to a public examination by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (Ibac).

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