Backroom Baz: Pollies driving in the fast lane

Treasurer Tim Pallas set tongues wagging recently when it emerged he had been cruising around in a luxury Lexus. But he is not the only minister living life in the fast lane, writes Backroom Baz.

Tim “The Taxman” Pallas set tongues wagging recently when it emerged he had been cruising around in a luxury Lexus.

The Treasurer got an exemption from the government’s fleet policy to ride in the chauffeur-driven hybrid vehicle, worth at least $67,000.

But Baz has found out he’s not the only minister living life in the fast lane.

Almost half of the cars in the government’s fleet needed special approval to be purchased because they didn’t meet the base standards for safety, fuel efficiency, emissions and value for money.

Tim Pallas behind the wheel of a Toyota, but he actually prefers the luxury of a Lexus.

Seven ministers — including Jacinta Allan, Lisa Neville and Martin Pakula — are transported around town in a Toyota Kluger Grande AWD, which retail for almost $70,000 each.

The government is now overhauling the fleet rules to avoid the need to exempt different types of cars which are often bought to carry more passengers and luggage.

The vehicles which are already approved include the giant Jeep Grand Cherokee, which carries Deputy Premier James Merlino, and the Holden Calais, a sensible choice for down-to-earth Speaker Colin Brooks.

Legislative Council President Shaun Leane rides around in a Volkswagen Passat R-Line — probably not the kind of wagon he would have picked in his days as a sparky.

LIGHTS & SIRENS OVER MERGER

While John Setka went rogue and split the Labor movement this week, Victoria’s paramedics delivered a jolt to plans to create a new super union.

United Voice, which represents workers across industries including hospitality, has been in negotiations to merge with the National Union of Workers.

Danny Hill

The proposed amalgamation would create one of the nation’s biggest unions, following in the footsteps of the CFMEU’s decision to link up with the Maritime Union of Australia.

But Ambulance Employees Australia general secretary Danny Hill would have given union leaders heartburn when he fired off a series of tweets this week which slammed the plan.

The ambulance union has been tied to United Voice, but Hill said he was quitting as United Voice’s deputy state president because his members were being “shut out” of the proposed merger.

“Paramedics have stated to us in overwhelming numbers that they do not support being swallowed into a political super union,” he wrote.

Hill said paramedics wanted to be part of an “ambulance industry specific union”, and given the generous deal they negotiated with the state government, Baz can’t argue with that.

 

OFF THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW

Liberal staffer Andrew Hudgson can’t take a trick.

He used to work in the party’s Victorian HQ as communications manager, before the reign of disgraced state director Damien Mantach.

Andrew Hudgson

Then it was off to the nation’s capital, where he landed in the office of Michaelia Cash.

He was out a year later in a staff exodus after a leak about the Australian Workers’ Union raid, eventually landing as a media adviser to Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman.

But he was the one in the headlines this week after he was convicted of drink driving. He had a blood-alcohol level of 0.197 when he crashed his car — still registered in Victoria — into a tree and then a parked car. Another spokesman said Hudgson was “extremely remorseful” and remained an employee.

 

BUDGET SOFTBALL

Ministers have been parading past the Politicians’ Aptitude and Ego Check — umm, sorry, the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee — to be quizzed on last month’s state Budget.

Jaala Pulford

A shake-up saw it stacked with five Labor MPs — and just three Opposition members and solo Green Sam Hibbins — who delivered an endless stream of Dorothy Dixers.

Energy and Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio, overseeing a recycling crisis and rising power bills, fielded multiple questions about dog parks, while Road Safety Minister Jaala Pulford gave the green light to a lengthy discussion of lollipop people. Baz wonders what Ms Pulford made of the softball questions, given she pondered their effectiveness while in opposition. “These PAEC Dorothy Dixers don’t really add much to public discourse, do they?” she tweeted in 2014.

 

ORDER OUT OF THE HOUSE

Hugh Jackman, Eric Bana and Ita Buttrose dominated the Queen’s Birthday headlines in this week’s honours list.

But those on Spring St were more interested in the Order of Australia medal handed to ex-Liberal MP Clem Newton-Brown “for service to the Parliament of Victoria, and to the community of Melbourne”.

Former Prahran MP Clem Newton-Brown.

He spent just four years in parliament — rising to the lofty heights of parliamentary secretary for education — before the Greens pushed him out of his seat of Prahran.

Baz hears the honour has prompted MPs with longer resumes than the one-time Deputy Lord Mayor of Melbourne to question when they will receive their nod from Her Majesty.

Nevertheless, Newton-Brown seems quite happy in his post-parliamentary career, running a property and planning strategy firm while owning an island off the Tasmanian coastline.

He even popped up in the Wall Street Journal this week, spruiking his company, Skyportz, to develop landing pads for “people-carrying drones” — or flying cars, as Baz calls them.

Making that a reality would be quite a service to the community of Melbourne.

OVERHEARD BY BAZ

“I thought we should call one ‘David Davis’ because he is boring.” — Labor’s Philip Dalidakis proposing to name one of the city’s tunnel boring machines after upper house Liberal MP David Davis