Denis Napthine has been defeated on the floor of the Parliament twice in three days.

At Midday today the Napthine Government’s Parliamentary Budget Officer Bill was defeated.

This is a situation without precedent since 1933.

It’s clear that Denis Napthine no longer can rely on the support of the Parliament.

Denis Napthine has led this Government into the ground and Victoria is in crisis.

“Denis Napthine has led Victoria into this crisis. A State and a Parliament that can longer function is bad for jobs, bad for investment and bad for our future”

“Victoria deserves better than Denis Napthine and his unstable minority government.”

Key Facts:

• The Opposition opposed this Bill because the establishment of a parliamentary budget office (PBO) is too important a reform to be done in such a half-hearted, ineffectual way.
• The State Parliamentary Labor Party has consistently supported the establishment of a genuine PBO. We have given the Napthine Government every opportunity to work with us to develop a PBO that would have bipartisan support. We have a put forward a private member’s bill, made a submission on the discussion paper and now proposed this reasoned amendment requiring that the Bill come back in an acceptable form.
• Labor has a positive track record on PBOs in other jurisdictions, having introduced standing offices in NSW and in Canberra.
• The Government’s model provides neither the accountability nor the independence that a true PBO would require.
• A temporary parliamentary budget office does not fit with the realities of public policy debate, and misses an opportunity to make a genuine improvement to the quality of debate in this state.