Members Statement – 

In December last year SPC Ardmona released a 250-page glossy history book to commemorate its centenary.

On face value it tells the story of 100 years of fruit growing, processing, canning, wholesaling and exporting in the Goulburn Valley.

In reality it is a record of how Shepparton and surrounds became a powerhouse of agricultural production, the changing nature of our community and the vagaries of market forces.

SPC enabled our orchardists to diversify their businesses and has provided secure ongoing and seasonal work in the region for decades, but it has also faced challenges.

The Victorian government spent $22 million bailing it out in 2014, on the condition its parent company, Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA), made its own hefty investment in its renewal.

What followed was a powerful community campaign to re-establish SPC as an iconic Australian brand and renew demand for its products—its canned fruit and tomatoes that have long graced Australian kitchen tables and new lines to cater for developing markets.

Late last year CCA announced it would sell SPC and yesterday, with a number of offers on the table, wrote down the value of the company to zero.

The importance of SPC to the Shepparton region cannot be overstated and it is encouraging to hear that more than a dozen interested parties have recently toured the factory.

I would urge CCA to remember this and to choose a buyer not based solely on finances but with a focus on securing a strong and sustainable future for our agricultural region.

A lot has been said and much of what I would say has been addressed in earlier speeches on this side, in particular that summary by the member for Ripon summarises the broader view of why we need to have sessional orders that are fair.

Going straight to them, I support sessional order 3 and the amendment that the Greens have put up in this place today. I support it because in most parliaments that have a parliamentary system there is an opportunity for non-government business to be addressed. It was only in about 1999 that that seems to have been removed from this place.

It is common practice for non-government business to include debates on petitions and notices and even for private members bills to be introduced and debated. For that to be taken away, especially in a circumstance where we have a government that has an overwhelming majority in this place, does seem to create an inequity in relation to the ability of those of us on this side to properly represent our communities. Because it is only in this place that we are able to get up and say publicly what we think about certain issues and bring them to the attention of everyone in this place and bring them to the attention of the government.

I was reading a paper given to me after diligent research by a member of the library staff called the Ten Measures of a Healthy Parliament. One of them is that non-government members should always be given the opportunity to have their say. Now, the other nine are equally as important and of great value, but in the context of this debate, that is a particularly important one.

It is common in other houses of Parliament, and by some anomaly in 1999 it seems to have been removed from this place. This is the time to reintroduce it because it is a Parliament that is so dominated by government members that the voices of minorities in this place are not heard. I mean, look at us. Look where we sit. We are a very small number and it is very important that we get the opportunity to be able to raise a range of issues.

It used to be that on a petition the petitioner could speak for 5 minutes, and 40 minutes would then be allocated for other members of Parliament to debate that particular petition should they wish to do so. It used to be that private members bills could be introduced and debated. It used to be that notices of motion could be put forward and debated. Now we just have notices read out one day, put on a list and never visited again. That is not the way democracy should really work.

So for those reasons, and the fact that this has been something looked at over a period of time—and I know that some of us in this Parliament have looked at this issue of non-government business being introduced during the course of the last Parliament and it is something that committees could well look at again, a standing orders committee, for instance—I would much rather see the government adopt this amendment today.

One of the other ten healthy factors that was mentioned in that article is that it is appropriate for governments to actually adopt an amendment that may be put by a non-government member if it is a good one. I think this is a good one, as are a number of the other amendments that have been put.

Going to ministers statements, sessional order 7, I would say that both the Leader of the House and the member for Essendon have indicated that it is their clear understanding and intention that ministers statements will relate to their portfolios. Both openly said that. I was sitting here, I heard it, so why would you not simply add the words that the amendment proposes? It seems to be, as stated by the Leader of the House, that that is the intention of the government, but unfortunately the lack of additional words at the end of that sessional order means it does not create an onus on the government to comply with that. This is a really good amendment. It is clearly the understanding of, as I said, the Leader of the House and the member for Essendon that the minister would speak on a matter relevant to their portfolio, and I would urge the government to adopt that amendment.

This would be an amazing thing in this house to see the government actually adopt a non-government amendment that is of value, that is worthy, and it is a precedent that is a good one. It means that we are actually looking at the content of what we are debating and deciding whether or not we might change our mind, whether someone else had a better idea, whether this would be for the better operation of our Parliament. So I would urge the government to put into place what it says its intention is by agreeing to that amendment.

Going to the content of answers and to the amendments proposed, I think there is a need to have more clarity around that and I support the amendments that have been put forward in relation to that.

I think, in summing up, a healthy Parliament does provide the opportunity for everyone to have their say, for all our constituents to be represented and for those of us who have something to say to Victoria, something to say to this Parliament and to the government, to have the opportunity to do that and for there to be open debate on it.

So I would urge the government to consider these amendments. While the Leader of the House is not looking at me at this moment, I wish that she would so I could eyeball her and try and persuade her that she should change her mind in this case and persuade her government to do so. For those reasons I will be supporting the amendments.

 

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It is really a privilege to be here today and to be a part of this condolence motion. It was such a tragic day.

At the outset I would like to say, without renaming everyone who has been honoured by other members of Parliament, that I certainly share that support and acknowledge the hard work that so many people did on that day at all levels of government, within our emergency services and elsewhere.

At the state commemoration service on Monday night I was struck by the names of the 173 people who lost their lives. Every person on that list was important to someone, was loved by someone—and by many, I am sure. Every person will have been missed desperately over the course of this past decade, and each life lost is a tragedy in its own right. But to see the same surname repeated two, three, four, five times; to feel the gravity of whole families being taken and whole communities disappearing was immensely sobering.

I took from the speech given by the member for Eildon the horror of that day and the feeling that I think most of us felt. I was not a member of Parliament back then—I was a resident of Shepparton—but it was a day to remember, and I think we all will certainly remember it for a whole lot of reasons. It was almost too hot to go outside and, like many others, we had 774 on the radio. That long day and night started to unfold in front of us—the horror of it generally came into our psyche and we started to understand what was happening. People were being called in in different places. The hospital was put on alert. Our firefighters were put on alert and indeed many of them had already gone. So while that fire did not touch Shepparton district directly, physically, our community, like many others, was personally impacted.

I grew up on a farm at Jerilderie. Bushfires were not uncommon, but they were the low grassfires. The horror of these forest fires is really something to behold compared to the sort of bushfires that I had experienced in my life. I think the state of our forests at that time, the warnings we received leading up to that, were all very much in my mind and in the minds of probably most country people then. I remember the Premier particularly giving a warning in advance of Black Saturday about the shocking conditions that we were facing.

Over the years various people have shared with me their local experience of the day, particularly those who were involved in the emergency services. Crews of firefighters from district 22, my district, went south to support their district 12 colleagues. They were at Kilmore—district 12 was the Kilmore fire. They had actually been there for days leading up to Black Saturday to help them with the tasks they had around them. They relieved local fireys from their command posts so that they could go to the front line with their own crews. They took calls from members of the public, either seeking information to protect themselves and their families, or sharing information to support the emergency effort. They were on deck when news of the fatalities started to come in and they stayed for weeks after the fires were slowly brought under control and the heartbreaking clean-up and investigations began.

Our hospital was also involved. Goulburn Valley Health was put on stand-by, and as the extent of the crisis emerged many staff who were on days off returned, volunteering their time and expertise. A young man and his heavily pregnant wife managed to escape fires engulfing the Yarra Ranges and made a nearly seven-hour trip to Shepparton with their toddler son and elderly parents. The owner of the hotel took them in close to midnight, just in time for the woman’s waters to break, and she gave birth at Goulburn Valley Health just a few hours later.

In the days that followed the hospital cared for another man who had lost his wife and children. As chance would have it, the couple knew the man—they were from the same community and were able to comfort and support each other while they were stranded there at Goulburn Valley Health, away from their other family and friends. We often talk about the resilience of regional communities and their ability to band together in times of need, but it is really at the heart of the broader human condition, and it was truly on display during the fires and the months and years that followed.

All Victorians will be grateful to those who were involved in the emergency effort. It is an honour to be here today to express my support and to indicate how grateful I am. I am sure if the previous member of Parliament for the Shepparton district were here today, she would have much to share too about her on-the-ground involvement in what went on.

I would also just like to say that I acknowledge the member for Yan Yean. How could any of us not be touched by that firsthand experience you shared with us today. I think it certainly brings home to all of us that stark reality of what it was like, and I thank you for sharing that very deep and emotional experience with us. I think it has brought us all closer to what that day meant for everyone and particularly those on the front.

I congratulate the government on honouring this day, on taking the time out to provide the opportunity for members to be able to speak to the event and to be able to share their own thoughts and experiences. On that note I think we all have a shared grief to some extent, but some so much more than others. I say on behalf of the Shepparton district that this event will remain in all our hearts forever. We continue to think about the loss and the devastation that occurred and look for ways of trying to avoid it happening again.

 

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