Family First's Jane Foreman says the Victorian Ombudsman has reserved her hardest criticism for Labor's secret transport tax, and that the government's answer to her was a slogan.
News24 reported today that Victorian Ombudsman Marlo Baragwanath told a conference of integrity experts in Canberra that over the last decade in Victoria it seems the ends really have justified the means, and that delivery is more important than process or accountability. She named $589 million on a Commonwealth Games that never happened and a Big Build that has wasted $15 billion. Her hardest criticism was for the unannounced levy on every public transport fare, which she called a more insidious example of a lack of transparency and, in effect, a secret tax.
"That is the state's own umpire, and Labor has governed for every year of the decade she is describing," said Mrs Foreman.
"Family First said in August that a government which hides a tax on every fare will hide anything. The Ombudsman has now put that tax at the top of her list."
The levy ran on every metropolitan and regional fare from 1 January 2025. The Ombudsman says it was implemented deliberately alongside the ordinary inflation increase, and deliberately not announced.
The Ombudsman said that all too often, when an integrity agency tables recommendations, it is attacked personally or its work is dismissed by the government of the day, and that this is a dangerous sign.
"She is right, and Victorians did not have to wait for the proof," said Mrs Foreman.
Asked about the speech, Deputy Premier Gabrielle Williams said the Premier had made clear that integrity is not negotiable and that it was a centrepiece of the new direction he has set for the state, pointing to the royal commission, savings on the Suburban Rail Loop and reforms from IBAC.
"Told the glass of government has been fogged, the government read out its announcements," said Mrs Foreman.
"The IBAC reform the Deputy Premier points to is the one with the carve-out in it. The Ombudsman named the Big Build in the same week Labor's Bill wrote it out of IBAC's new powers."
"The royal commission she points to reports and goes home. The carve-out she does not mention stays in the Act."
"The Ombudsman wants public opinion on integrity to become a check on the powerful. That is what a ballot paper is."
Mrs Foreman says Victorians get two votes in November. One changes the government. The other puts Family First in the Legislative Council, to keep whoever wins in the light.
