Shannon Deery: Allan government’s parliamentary recall for apology, not for childcare crisis, exposes jarring hypocrisy
The Allan government will recall parliament to again apologise to Indigenous Victorians after it refused to interrupt the winter break to fix the childcare system. The apology isn’t the problem — it’s the jarring hypocrisy that goes with it.
In politics, priorities are everything. They tell us not just what governments or oppositions stand for, but where they are actually prepared to invest their time and efforts, and our money.
Victorians could be forgiven for questioning the priorities of both the Allan government and Wilson-led opposition right now.
Next week, the government will recall parliament for an extraordinary sitting to make yet another apology to Victoria’s Indigenous peoples.
It will be the third state apology since then premier Jeff Kennett issued an apology for past policies that led to the removal of Aboriginal children from their families in 1997.
Then there was Kevin Rudd’s national apology. And multiple apologies by Victoria Police.
Jacinta Allan said last week the latest would address “systemic injustices of the past to build a better future for all Victorians, grounded in mutual respect and understanding”.
This is the priority.
This from the same government that in June refused repeated calls to interrupt the parliamentary winter break to urgently address gaping holes exposed as major flaws in Victoria’s childcare system.
They included laws that allowed accused child sex offenders under investigation to continue to hold Working with Children clearances.
Vulnerable children were being harmed, whistleblowers were calling for urgent action, and yet the government decided the crisis could wait.
The opposition demanded the Premier recall parliament to urgently address issues such as this. She said no. Instead we were sold a “rapid review” – symbolism over substance. Much like next week’s apology.
The apology itself is not the problem. It’s the jarring hypocrisy that clouds so much of the Allan government’s work that is.
This is a government, which distracted by tunnel vision, seems to revel in taking Victorians for a ride.
Look at the past eight days of press conferences – each one spruiking the pending opening, then launch, then day after the opening of the Metro Tunnel.
Each day ministers falling over themselves, giddy with excitement, trying to keep the government message on track. Historic new railway. City-changing infrastructure. Investment equals growth. Et cetera.
Never mind the debt. The crime. The taxes. The healthcare system. Ambulance response times. The broken roads.
All aboard the campaign train.
The priorities of this government appear increasingly performative. And voters are noticing.
Just look at the abysmal latest polling data that shows Allan’s personal popularity falling at rapid speed.
If Labor is struggling to prioritise what matters outside the building, the Liberals continue to struggle to prioritise anything beyond the walls of their own party room.
Case in point: Jess Wilson’s shadow cabinet reshuffle.
Now, it was largely a sensible reshuffle that included limited movements of key portfolios. Steady as she goes.
Big tick for keeping Brad Battin on the frontbench – he’ll shine in the police portfolio.
Smart of Wilson to hang on to the treasury portfolio, and to leave knowledgeable shadows to do their thing, Georgie Crozier in health and Matthew Guy in public transport as examples.
But leaving former leader John Pesutto on the backbench?
The same John Pesutto who has made no secret of the fact he has more to offer and was desperate to return to the frontbench.
The same John Pesutto who took the Coalition to its best polling in years before he was unceremoniously knifed for the top job.
The same John Pesutto who Wilson herself backed to be leader of her party.
This is the guy she now says doesn’t make her top team?
It makes little sense, except in the context of ongoing factional considerations that Wilson must incredibly carefully navigate.
The only reason Pesutto is not on the frontbench is because of lingering legal issues that continue to haunt the party, as well as a dose of factional fragility for good measure.
Leaving Pesutto off the frontbench may make internal management easier in the short term.
It may pacify certain factions who still see him as a symbol of the last bruising chapter.
But if priority No.1 were the Victorian public, not internal peacekeeping, Pesutto would be sitting on the frontbench.
Without his inclusion it’s folly to argue the reshuffle was designed with the broader electorate in mind.
It was designed to avoid inflaming the internal tensions that have dogged the party for years.
Between a government addicted to symbolic politics and an opposition that must be obsessed with internal stability, Victorians can only hope for a side prepared to prioritise the issues that keep families up at night.
Shannon Deery is state politics editor
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