Steve Price: Hang on to your hats, Victoria, the real Labor is about to step up
Labor is very good at shaping the state — or nation — it rules in its own image, and in the areas of social policy, youth crime and Indigenous treaty, Victorians should be very afraid of what the Allan government will announce in the next six months.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Victorians, be afraid – very afraid – of what the Jacinta Allan government will announce in the next six months. Traditionally, sitting governments, especially those serving fixed four-year terms, roll out the unpopular changes they want to make at about the halfway mark.
November this year will mark the Dan Andrews/ Jacinta Allan government’s two years in power, this term, with two to go.
All governments wheel out the bad stuff hoping by the time they get to the next poll – Victoria is due in November 2026 – you will have forgotten what they did.
So, hang on to your hats, especially in the areas of social policy including drug laws, youth crime and Indigenous treaty and compensation.
Labor – both state and federal – are very good at shaping a state or nation that they rule … in their own image.
They are famous for stacking government bodies and institutions with Labor supporters or more likely ex-Labor ministers – think Grand Prix chairman Martin Pakula or ex-premiers John Brumby and Steve Bracks and jobs for ex-ministers Martin Foley, James Merlino and others.
It’s shameless and predictable and extends to places like the magistrates courts.
Premier Allan, of course, like Andrews her predecessor, is from the hard Left. You only need to have listened to her this week reacting to the federal opposition’s nuclear plans – including a reactor in the Latrobe Valley where communities are crying out for jobs post the closure of coal-fired power plants – to work that out.
Premier Allan labelled nuclear power as being “toxic”.
It sounded more like the response from a Greens-supporting university student than from someone supposed to be running a state economy.
She pulled out the “never in Victoria” card, called nuclear risky and said it was unfathomable that nuclear would be established in her state.
How ignorant can you be. This so-called toxic and risky form of energy has the support of governments around the world from the US and Canada to the UK, France, China, Japan and dozens more.
Nuclear is globally hailed as being clean and green, emission-free, and responsible for providing, in places like Western Europe, a cheap alternative, with France enjoying Europe’s cheapest power bills.
And importantly remember this is the same Premier whose government has banned gas from being connected to new builds including houses and factories.
Just where Premier Allan thinks Victoria’s electricity is going to come from, nobody knows.
Midweek this week – the coldest day of the year so far – coal and gas were providing 80 per cent of the state’s power needs.
Watch for a hardening of anti-nuclear laws to spite Dutton’s ambitions as we head to 2026.
Drug policies
This is an area to watch very carefully.
Premier Allan just last weekend proposed a year-long pill-testing trial, including roving pill-testing teams visiting large music festivals.
Dan Andrews wasn’t a fan of pill testing – one thing he did sensibly – but the new Premier is clearly on board and, given Melbourne has a heroin injecting room, pill testing is a natural extension of normalising drug use.
Marijuana will be next, mark my words. Late last year a private member’s bill was debated in the Legislative Council that would allow US-style dope laws to be adopted here. In the US, many states allow the retail sale of marijuana and the use of the drug in public has exploded.
This private member’s bill argued for legal adult possession of small quantities of marijuana and cultivation of up to six plants for personal use.
Labor’s Mental Health Minister Ingrid Stitt said at the time she was open to discussions with the Legalise Cannabis Victoria Party but would consider the risks carefully.
It will happen at some stage, just like it has in the ACT.
Victoria will legalise the public sale and use of cannabis.
Indigenous rights
Victoria already has a Koori Court system that deals with Indigenous people charged with crimes. It has the Yoorook Justice Commission, a taxpayer-funded standing body, the self-confessed role of which is to investigate both past and ongoing so-called injustices experienced by First Peoples in Victoria in ALL areas of life since colonisation.
They reveal on their statement of the intent about future treaties – not if but when.
Victoria, under Labor, will before the next election, negotiate a treaty with Indigenous Victorians, which will include reparation and you will pay for it.
Youth crime
Victoria under Labor will become the first state in Australia to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12 on the way to making that 14 years old.
This is in the middle of a crime wave involving home invasions and car thefts involving children as young as 10.
As it stands, when this happens and a child aged between 10 and 14 is charged with, say, aggravated burglary, the prosecution must show that he or she understood the act was a crime and the behaviour was wrong.
I kid you not.
By the time we get to the election in November 2026, Labor will have been in power in Victoria for 12 years or three terms.
Victoria will be a vastly different place by the time we get there.
Not a better place but one in the shape of a Labor-Green nirvana and stuff the rest of us.
Dislikes
• Lord Mayor Sally Capp hanging around as vaunted projects like the greening of city laneways fall over
• The attack on Labor MP Josh Burns’ St Kilda office dangerous anti-Semitism at its worst
• Richmond Tigers lamentable effort to honour Dusty Martin’s 300th
• Reports the heroin Injecting room were providing client haircuts and art lessons
Likes
• Herald Sun on-line poll showing 94 per cent of recipients support nuclear for Victoria
• Tiger army swelling the MCG crowd to 92,000 plus to say well done DUSTY
• Back on ABC radio with Raf Epstein out at the Preston market Friday
• State of Origin rugby league back at the MCG next Wednesday
Stupid signs of our times: Sure you’re not pregnant, boys?
We used to rely on common sense to stay safe but that’s been replaced by stupid, offensive and expensive visual pollution, writes Jess Adamson.
Kennett: Victorian voters ready to take bat to federal Labor for state’s sins
Never before has the majority of Victorians been so taxed for the failures of the state government, and they’ve had a gutful of Labor’s misnamagement. Now, there’s a good chance it will determine the next federal government.