Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Saturday, Victorians made history by electing Daniel Andrews and Victorian Labor to form state government, consigning the Ted Baillieu-Denis Napthine Liberal government to being the first one-term government in Victoria since John Cain senior lost power at the height of the split in the Labor Party in 1955.

What a turnaround in four short years. The headline in The Agewhen there was last a change of government, in the aftermath of Baillieu's triumph over John Brumby, was 'Victorian Labor will not win government for years'—well, four years! There are a number of reasons why the Labor Party rebounded so quickly, including our pledges to prioritise transport plans that matter to the Victorian people: the Melbourne metro rail link to address public transport woes and the removal of 50 of the worst level-crossings in Victoria, which are a problem not evident to people in other states and in other cities who do not understand the problem of level-crossing hold-ups in Victoria. This stood out against the coalition's prized toll road, much praised in this House but not of as great relevance to Victorians as the hold-ups to their trams and trains.

The fact that the LNP waited a few weeks, just prior to caretaker mode, to sign these expensive contracts in an election they were favoured to lose cannot have helped their credibility. The fact is they had very little to boast about in the election campaign, which was almost entirely focused on negatives about the previous Bracks-Brumby government. It is almost as if no-one told them they had been in power for years.

Some of the most powerful messages I saw in the divisions of Albert Park, Prahran, Caulfield and Brighton, which make up my wonderful electorates of Melbourne Ports, were swings to Labor due to simple and powerful policies. Labor's promise to animal welfare advocates to ban inhumane puppy farms is one campaign which received overwhelmingly positive feedback but that will slip under the radar of many of the cynical journalists who report on state politics. Another policy which won widespread support, particularly for my friend Martin Foley, the member for Albert Park, was to keep the iconic Palais Theatre in St Kilda open, with a much-needed restoration pledged by Daniel Andrews. The election also marked a stark view of the federal government, which was undoubtedly part of the campaign, and the Prime Minister is certainly more unpopular in Victoria than in the rest of the nation. His education deregulation agenda and his petrol tax are very unpopular in Victoria. His awkward hug of Premier Napthine must have made the Victorian Liberal Party cringe, and it seemed to have a very bad effect on the Australian public.

I congratulate Daniel Andrews and Martin Foley on their victories, and I hope Neil Pharaoh is elected in Prahran—he is just 70 votes behind, with absentee votes still to go.