Victorian Coalition fails to answer key policy questions
The Coalition refuses to answer key questions on transmission lines, firefighting resources and rural issues despite growing voter demand for policy clarity, writes Peter Hunt.
Many Victorians may want to dump the Allan government but really don’t want to risk electing a do-nothing Liberal-Coalition in 12 months’ time.
At this stage the Coalition has failed to show it is a viable alternative to Labor.
Of course the dilemma for Opposition leader Jess Wilson and her colleagues is what to say when the state is broke, the pressure is on to gut the public service, and cut land, fire services and other state taxes.
Tread too carefully and you end up being accused of following in the footsteps of the former Baillieu-Napthine regime that was branded a “do-nothing government”, due to its lack of an agenda on coming to power in 2010.
Yet here we are again, after 11 years in opposition, the Coalition struggles to answer even the most basic questions on its 2026 election agenda.
Regional Victorians want to know if a Coalition government would stop the rollout of the Western Renewables Link and VNI West 500kV transmission lines.
The Coalition refuses to answer the question.
CFA volunteers want to know how the Opposition intends to rebuild the oldest firefighting fleet in the nation and end the United Firefighters Union’s control over staffing of the service.
Bushfire prone communities want answers on what extra resources a Coalition would allocate to fuel reduction burns and what’s the target.
Farmers want to know how the Coalition intends to end a grossly inequitable local government rating scheme and end the cost-shift that has crippled rural councils.
Irrigators want to know what defences the Coalition can raise to defend them against federal water buyouts that drain the wealth from their communities.
Rural landholders want to know how their rights will be protected in the face of the rush to develop critical mineral reserves.
Across the business sector manufacturers want to know how a Wilson government would cut electricity bills and rejuvenate gas supplies.
The Opposition needs to answer these and a myriad of other questions to build the sort of policy platform that former Premier Daniel Andrews took to the 2014 state election – strategic, detailed and diverse.
Of course Ms Wilson will focus on Labor plunging the state into a $151bn debt crisis.
But Premier Jacinta Allan and her team are already doing all they can to portray themselves as bunch of “doers”, while reminding voters of how little the Coalition did last time it was in power.
Labor is already unwrapping shiny new infrastructure projects in the lead-up to Christmas, with crowds flooding into the Westgate and Metro tunnels on what government spin doctors brand “discovery days”.
Victoria’s Big Build website lists 211 mainly urban projects, many of which will be dangled in front of voters over the next 12 months as evidence that Labor is “doing what matters”.
It won’t be long before the crowds ask what the Coalition has to offer.
Peter Hunt is The Weekly Times senior reporter.
