Labor's Solution To Over-Government? More Government!
Western Victoria MP Bev McArthur has expressed her frustration at the creation of the new Great Ocean Road Authority, established by last week’s passage through Parliament of the Great Ocean Road and Environs Protection Bill 2019.
Mrs McArthur voted against the legislation calling it “profoundly disappointing”, and a “missed opportunity” and highlighted the Premier's high-handed and arrogant attitude to Parliament, in declaring the future location of the Authority before legislation had even been approved by MPs.
Noting the 14 public authorities which currently manage often overlapping sections of the road, and the nearly 30 statutory consultees for matters such as planning, she said in Parliament:
“Unsurprisingly there is vast duplication of effort, inefficiency and waste. The experience for local residents and businesses trying to navigate the layers of government is even more damaging. I often hear the same complaint: even if a bureaucrat can be found they do not want to take responsibility for anything that might be somebody else’s job.”
“When something needs funding the buck gets passed too. There is a merry-go-round which exasperated residents and local businesses just cannot seem to escape.”
Said Mrs McArthur: “This fabulous area deserves far better governance. That is why prior to the last election I was a strong supporter of the Liberal Party’s proposed solution. We wanted a Great Ocean Road authority with bite, and that is why I am so disappointed with this outcome.”
“Something needed to be done, but almost anything would have been better than this!”
Mrs McArthur’s biggest concerns related to the Government’s failure to grant the new body funding, its likely tendency to centralise decision-making and generate bureaucracy, its lack of guaranteed representation for local communities, and its complete failure to reduce already duplicated governance.
Quoting the Minister’s repeated promised that all existing staff “will retain their jobs, conditions and working locations” she said:
“How is that streamlining the operation? In short, this bill adds no new resources, cuts no bureaucracy— in fact it increases it—and in so doing dilutes the scarce resources that communities already have to meet their infrastructure challenges.”
“The people of the Great Ocean Road tell me that they need resources, they need infrastructure. These things need cash not committees.”
Mrs McArthur questioned the Minister further during Committee stage in the House, but following the rejection of Coalition and Crossbench she voted against the Bill.
She subsequently said: “I refused to support this Bill because it failed to address the problems it set out to resolve. Not only did it miss an important chance to improve the governance of the Great Ocean Road, but I am convinced that it will in fact duplicate more, centralise more, cost more and do less.”
"The fact the Premier announced in February the Authority would be headquartered in Torquay, before Parliament had even passed the legislation is typical of the deeply arrogant state Government. They took Parliament for granted, and I worry they will do the same with Great Ocean Road communities. I hope this diktat on the HQ location will not be a sign of things to come for the Authority."
11 June 2020