• Government drags their feet on new ambulance station at Wallan

    15/05/2013

    Colleen Hartland questions the Minister in parliament

    My question today is for the Minister for Health. In June 2010 the Liberal-Nationals coalition announced that if elected, it would build a 24-hour ambulance station at Wallan, in north-east Victoria, and that it would be operational by the end of the first term of government. It is 18 months out from this deadline, and I do not believe the government has selected a site for the new station, and there appears to be no funding for it in the recently announced budget.

    There are currently 10 Ambulance Victoria staff that service the Wallan community who are forced to operate out of a cramped temporary facility located at Kilmore ambulance station, which is some 12 minutes drive away from the Wallan. My question for the minister is: when does he expect the site to be purchased, building to commence and the new station to be operational?

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  • Animal Studies - another victum of TAFE cuts in the West

    15/05/2013

    Colleen Hartland - Speech in Parlaiment

    My adjournment matter is for the attention of the Minister for Higher Education and Skills, the Honourable Peter Hall. Animal studies TAFE courses provide the skills and knowledge to care for and manage the daily needs of a range of animal species. These courses provide skills for potential careers in pet grooming and veterinary nursing, and for shelter workers, kennel or cattery attendants, animal attendants, pet shop workers, community animal-care workers and farm workers.

    Thanks to the government’s TAFE funding cuts Victoria University has been forced to discontinue providing an animal studies TAFE course. There is now no institution offering an animal studies course in the western region of Melbourne.

  • Greens Motion: Parliamentary Committees Amendment Bill 2013

    09/05/2013

    Ms PENNICUIK (Southern Metropolitan) -- By leave, I move:

    • That the Parliamentary Committees Amendment Bill 2013 be referred to the Environment and Planning Legislation Committee for inquiry, consideration and report by 25 June 2013.

    The motion would allow enough time for the Environment and Planning Legislation Committee to look at the bill and hold hearings or receive submissions if it needs to and the bill could then come back for it to be passed, amended or not amended, in time for its commencement date, which is 1 August.

  • Parliamentary Committees Amendment Bill 2013

    09/05/2013

    Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) -- Since the 2006 state election -- the election in which I, Ms Pennicuik and Ms Hartland came to this place -- we have been advocating for a Senate-style system of committees and a range of other mechanisms to improve the scrutiny role of the upper house. Some progress has been made towards that, and we continue to advocate for that. As Mr Viney has just quite correctly said, we now have the structure of an upper house, Senate-style set of committees which can systematically hold the government to account and scrutinise governmental programs, legislation and individual issues as they arise. What we do not have is the resourcing for those committees to do their jobs, and we do not yet have embedded in this place the political culture that says those committees have the right to do their jobs.

  • Integrity Legislation Amendment Bill 2013

    09/05/2013

    Ms PENNICUIK (Southern Metropolitan) -- The Greens will support the Integrity Legislation Amendment Bill 2013. This bill amends the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2011 and the Victorian Inspectorate Act 2011 by providing for pension entitlements for the IBAC Commissioner and the Inspector of the Victorian Inspectorate respectively. These entitlements have the same post-retirement restrictions as those which apply to Supreme Court judges, and they will restrict the ability of those officers to be appointed to public office when in receipt of a pension. The terms, conditions and rates of the entitlements are the same as for a judge of the Supreme Court.