Confirmation of compensation payments and sentence reductions being awarded to prisoners during COVID-19 is a kick in the guts to Victorians struggling through their sixth lockdown.

Government documents detail at least 13 cases of inmates receiving compensation payments from the State Government since the start of 2020.

Claims against the State of Victoria that were awarded to prisoners are generally the result of assault or injury within prisons. In one case, Glen Remilton, in jail for armed robbery, received compensation after being kicked while milking a cow.

Some of the most high-profile offenders being awarded damages include:

• Jonathan Horrocks, who shot and killed Leon Capraro at a La Trobe University bar in 1999,
• Luke Wentholt, who bashed and murdered Irish backpacker David Greene in 2012,
• Underworld killer Tomislav Ivanovic,
• Former quarantine officer convicted of bribery, Erol Ibrahim, and; 
• Lewis Basse, who was charged with rape, assault, false imprisonment, recklessly causing serious injury, theft, and making threats to kill.

Neither the individual or total amounts of damages paid are disclosed, however previous payment made under the scheme have been up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

These compensation payments follow recent confirmation that 5,285 sentenced prisoners received more than 165,000 days off their sentences to June 30 2021, an average sentence reduction of 31 days per inmate.

Daniel Andrews is guilty of covering up the skyrocketing costs and worsening performance of our prisons – meaning Victorians are paying more and more, just to see hardened criminals back on the street.

Comments attributable to Shadow Minister for Corrections David Southwick

“With dozens of compensation payouts and weeks cut from criminal’s sentences, the only ones coming out ahead of COVID-19 are Victorian prisoners.”

“Daniel Andrews has no plan to fix his broken jails, just a plan to waste more taxpayer money on a system that is not working.

“Victoria needs a new plan to keep our community safe and provide genuine opportunities for offenders to get on the right path.”

Statement issued by
David Southwick - Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, Vic.Division.

The Victorian Liberal Nationals welcome the Andrews Labor Government’s commitment to ban the Nazi swastika in Victoria.

In February 2020, the Liberal Nationals announced a policy position to ban the public display of the Nazi swastika as an important step against racial and religious intolerance.

In recent times, Victorians have witness a deeply concerning rise in the use of the Nazi swastika to strike fear into a range of community groups, including in Beulah, Kyabram, Cranbourne and the Grampians.

Once this legislation is passed, Victoria will become the first jurisdiction in Australia to have an explicit ban on the ultimate symbol of hate.

Today’s commitment is an important step towards a safer, more tolerant future.

The Victorian Liberal Nationals remain committed to working with the Andrews Government to ensure this legislation is effectively implemented in a timely manner.

Comments attributable to Shadow Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Neil Angus:

“The Victorian Liberal Nationals welcome today’s commitment to ban the Nazi swastika.

“This reform are an important step to ensuring a safer, more tolerate community and demonstrating that intolerance has no place in Victoria.”

Comments attributable to Shadow Minister for Police & Crime Prevention, David Southwick:

“Today is an important step forward for all those who have been victims of the ultimate symbol of hate – the Nazi Swastika.

“For too long, frontline police and local communities have been powerless to stop the Nazi swastika being used as a tool to spread hate.

“More recently we have seen a rise extremist nationalist and racist individuals and groups and this ban will go a long way to take away the symbol that they hide behind.”

Statement issued by
David Southwick - Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, Vic.Division.
Bernie Finn - Member for Western Metropolitan Region
Neil Angus - Shadow Minister for Multicultural Affairs

Confirmation that Victoria’s real estate market will remain in lockdown until at least 23 September is a further blow to tenants, home buyers, vendors and agents across Victoria.

The minimal easing of restrictions announced yesterday offered no relief for the real estate sector, which faces the same chaos as under last year’s extended Stage 4 restrictions.

With no ability for real estate agents to conduct property inspections or vendors to organise property photographs, styling and professional cleaning, the lockdown restrictions are now severely impacting the real estate industry.

Labor’s handbrake on the real estate market means less certainty for tenants, fewer opportunities for home buyers and ongoing financial pain for agents and the broader real estate industry.

Daniel Andrews has no plan to support Victoria’s real estate sector, only a plan for longer and harsher lockdowns.

Comments attributable to Shadow Minister for Consumer Affairs, Neil Angus:

“Housing is a critical need for everyone and the current extreme restrictions are now depriving people of this.

“Daniel Andrews is guilty of leaving tenants, home buyers and agents in the lurch with no plan for the future.

“The government needs to address this situation immediately and meet with industry bodies to provide a clear way out of the mess it has created.”

Statement issued by
Neil Angus
Member for Forest Hill

After promising since 2018 to deliver camping along 17,000km of Victoria’s licensed river frontages, the Andrews Labor Government has spectacularly failed to deliver one new camping site in its newly released controversial regulations.

Under new regulations, Daniel Andrews and Labor have dodged all responsibility and accountability for making decisions about which licensed water frontages will be made available for camping, leaving it to bureaucrats in Parks Victoria to make these controversial decisions.

After receiving more than a thousand submissions from farmers and environmental groups to its botched plans, Labor was exposed in early August for backing down from its plan for camping along 17,000km to just “27 pilot sites”.Yet, on the day the new regulations have been issued and come into force, the government has failed to specify where campers can camp, leaving campers and the nearly 10,000 farmers who hold licenses to use the land for agriculture in complete limbo with hundreds of sites apparently still under assessment.

Labor’s new regulations demonstrate they’ve been forced to back down and backflip from their earlier plan for camps and campfires to remain for 28 consecutive days, with this being slashed in half to a new maximum of 14 days. However, the new regulations will allow campers to dump human faeces 100 metres from farmers’ homes.

Daniel Andrews and Labor are guilty of botching these camping laws and have no plan on how to improve camping opportunities for Victorians whilst protecting valuable river frontages from risks of environmental damage, pollution, bushfire and biosecurity hazards.

Comments attributable to Shadow Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Bridget Vallence:

Comments attributable to Shadow Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Bridget Vallence:

“The Andrews Labor Government’s new laws allowing camping on licensed water frontages were botched from the start.

“Despite years of media spin and major announcements, Labor has spectacularly backflipped by failing to list one additional camping site in its new regulations, leaving farmers, adjacent landowners and campers in complete limbo.

“Landowners and farmers who hold licenses to use the riverbanks for agriculture have worked hard to protect these areas from pollution and environmental damage and deserve to know if camping and campfires will be allowed in front of their properties. “Labor has failed to provide one cent of funding to ensure these new camping regulations aren’t abused and that rivers aren’t left polluted, and has refused to support license holders to obtain adequate insurance to cover the increased risks of fire and biosecurity hazards resulting from these new laws. “Labor’s spectacular backflip breaks their promise to campers, and shows they have no plan to protect and preserve Victoria’s crown river frontages.”

Statement issued by
Bridget Vallence
Minister for Environment and Climate Change

Victorian families and businesses face higher power bills after the Andrews Government’s latest energy announcement, which fails to get clean, renewable power flowing across the state.

Despite announcing an additional 600MW of renewable energy across Victoria – Labor has yet again failed to address its widespread transmission constraints, meaning higher energy bills for Victorian families and businesses.

In just one Victorian Renewable Energy Zone, committed and existing energy already exceeds available transmission capacity by more than 641% - akin to funnelling six lanes of traffic into one on the Monash Freeway.

More clean renewable power is useless if there is no plan to get it off the solar and wind plants and into Victorian homes and businesses.

After 17 of the last 21 years in power, the Andrews’ Labor Government is guilty of failing to plan for the integration of renewable power into Victoria’s grid.

Labor’s Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio should heed her own advice and recognise that “you can keep building more and more large projects renewables, but if they actually have no way of being able to fit into the grid which was built for a different system, then it's going to collapse, it's not gonna work.”

Only the Liberal Nationals have a plan to deliver renewable, reliable, and affordable power to all Victorians.

Statement issued by
Brad Rowswell
Member for Sandringham

Losing the AFL Grand Final for the second year running is a savage blow to the heart and soul of Victoria.

The Andrews Labor Government didn’t give us a chance to bring the biggest event on the national sporting calendar back to the MCG.

The Premier continues to disregard calls for rapid COVID testing. He has failed to deliver a plan to at least allow a smaller crowd into the home of football.

He continues to fail to deliver a plan for Victoria to regain its major events.

We need a plan to live with COVID-19 and rebuild Melbourne as Australia’s most liveable city and get our state back to the top.

Statement issued by
CINDY MCLEISH
Member for Eildon

Victorians should brace for blackouts this summer due to the Andrews Labor Government’s mismanagement of our energy system according to the Australian Energy Market Operator.

In its Statement of Opportunities (SOO) report, AEMO predicts that ongoing risks to the availability of Yallourn Power Station in Victoria will“significantly affect” its ability to meet demand from Victorian consumers, with up to 500,000 households at risk of being without power during an extreme weather event this summer.

In worrying confirmation of Labor’s Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio’s prediction that“the system’s gonna collapse”, the SOO finds that the unreliability of Victoria’s power will immediately exceed AEMO standards once Yallourn is retired in just seven short years.

Despite the Andrews Labor Government’s assurances that batteries will help plug Victoria’s looming energy shortfall, the likelihood of Labor’s much-touted 350 MW battery at Jeeralang actually being built is not sufficient for it to be factored into Victoria’s future energy mix. AEMO has also reiterated that the“scale of the damage” and “impact on commissioning schedules” caused by the blaze which engulfed Labor’s Big Battery is yet to be determined.

The Liberal Nationals have now twicecalled on the Andrews Labor Government to guarantee that repairs and investigations into the Big Battery blaze will be finalised prior to summer and demanded that investigations be open and transparent for the benefit of all Victorians.

Added to Labor’s litany of broken promises is a finding that the state’s“power system is also becoming more exposed to extreme weather events that could lead to supply scarcity” – when as far back as 2016, the Andrews Labor Government committed to“Developing a diverse and distributed energy system that provides Victorians with energy security in the face of extreme weather events.”

Where the Andrews Labor Government has failed, a Liberal Nationals Government will succeed in delivering renewable, reliable, and affordable power to all Victorians.

Statement issued by
Brad Rowswell
Member for Sandringham

The delivery of essential goods to Victorians families and businesses is being tangled in Daniel Andrews web of rules for interstate freight drivers and causing chaos on state borders.

On Monday, truck drivers were refused entry into South Australia after testing requirements were changed – with no freight friendly testing site nearby, truckies were forced to turn around and park their trucks around the Horsham Hospital to have a test and meet the new entry requirements.

All State Governments must immediately implement a uniform set of rules for interstate freight to stop this chaos and confusion. National Cabinet agreed to a framework but states are not compelled to implement it meaning each state has its own set of rules and requirements which leaves truckies caught in the middle.

The Liberal Nationals have a plan to keep freight moving, with an increase in freight-friendly testing sites, introduction of rapid testing, priority vaccination appointments and making freight workers exempt from the authorised worker permit system.

We now also call on the Andrews Labor Government to work with our neighbouring states to adopt the National Cabinet framework and ensure a uniform set of rules on state borders to keep freight moving to where it needs to be.

Comments attributable to Shadow Minister for Ports and Freight, Roma Britnell:

Comments attributable to Shadow Minister for Ports and Freight, Roma Britnell:

“Our truckies have had enough – they are being caught in the tangled web of border entry requirement that each state puts in place.

“The supply chain is already pushed to the brink - if we keep making it harder for truckies to do their job, the system will fall over and Victorians won’t have the goods they need.

“Daniel Andrews is guilty of having no plan to work with neighbouring states towards a standard set of rules to keep interstate freight flowing.”

Statement issued by
Roma Britnell
Member for South-West Coast

The Liberal Nationals are calling on the Andrews Labor Government to provide urgent relief to tourism businesses, in a bid to stop tourism doors from closing indefinitely and save thousands of Victorian jobs.

The Andrews Labor Government is again lagging behind New South Wales in support for tourism businesses, withNew South Wales set to extend JobSaver for large tourism and hospitality businesses to help save approximately 10,000 jobs. This is not the first time New South Wales has been on the front foot to support tourism businesses, offering a whopping $65,000 more per grant for business events than Victoria.

Daniel Andrews needs to put a plan on the table to support tourism businesses. If the Andrews Labor Government needs Federal Government support, they need to grab the bull by the horns and take the lead like the New South Wales Government has.

Businesses fear, when they are allowed to re-open, restricted operating events such as tight density limits will push them further behind the eight ball and closer to sinking.

The Andrews Labor Government has failed to provide support measures following theParliamentary Inquiry into the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Tourism and Events Sectors tabled weeks ago. During the inquiry, tourism operators clearly made their struggles known, pleading the government for support. The inquiry recognised the imposition around density requirements and made recommendations to overcome the restriction, which the Andrews Labor Government should take onboard.

Jobs in service industries which support the tourism sector, including hospitality and accommodation were the most impacted by the lockdowns, falling 22 per cent between March and November 2020. This year’s lockdowns have only continued to decimate tourism businesses further. At the inquiry, the Accommodation Association predicted that these job losses are unlikely to be regained for at least four years.

Daniel Andrews and Labor are guilty of having no plan for the tourism sector and it’s putting the state’s economic recovery at risk that the Victorian people have worked so hard to earn.

Comments attributable to Shadow Minister for Tourism, Major Events and Sport, Cindy McLeish:

“Victoria’s tourism businesses have remained on their knees during this year’s lockdowns. Operators are at their wits end, wondering how or if they can survive until vaccination targets are met.

“Tourism businesses should be planning for the upcoming school holidays, instead they are struggling to stay afloat.

“Operators need to see a light at the end of the tunnel, and they can’t unless the government has a plan. A travel voucher scheme will not be enough help if tourism businesses have already folded.”

Statement issued by
Cindy McLeish
Member for Eildon