This week in State Parliament – 5 May 2016
This was a disrupted week in State Parliament. The government had the Assembly sit for only two days because it sat a single day last week for the State Budget, yet the Council sat until almost midnight last night because of the government’s poor scheduling of business.
Liberal and National MPs continued to expose the high taxing, high spending and poor priorities of the State budget.
We condemned the government’s cutting of TAFE student numbers despite all its election claims and rhetoric.
We called on the government to undertake a proper and full Environmental Effects Study for Skyrail instead of trying to rely on inadequate partial studies, so the community can know what noise, fumes and other impacts Skyrail will have.
We repeatedly called for the government to rule out accepting firefighters’ union demands that would give the union control over the CFA, which the government repeatedly refused to do.
We highlighted the Chief Commissioner of Police’s concerns about the government watering down bail laws for juvenile offenders, and called on the government to reverse its changes.
We sought information on how many of the Apex gang members who had been arrested following the Moomba riot were then released again on the bail.
We highlighted concern that much of soaring juvenile crime is due to the government’s failure to control young persons in government residential care and juvenile offenders in the Parkville Youth Justice Centre.
We also opposed the government’s watering down of fines laws to allow the wiping off of the unpaid fines of criminals who are sent to jail.