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Victorian election leaders' debate: Daniel Andrews and Matthew Guy go head to head – live Victorian election leaders' debate: Daniel Andrews and Matthew Guy go head to head – live
(35 minutes later)
Two questions on education now. The first is from a former Tafe teacher, who wants to ensure that the Andrews government’s investment in Tafe will include support for teachers.
Matthew Guy says the Coalition will maintain the restored Tafe funding and says the package he is proposing is “very similar.”
Question two is from a man named Michael who would like both leaders to recognise the preventative health benefits of a plant-based diet. Both leaders agree and kind of try to move on.
Question three goes to the effectiveness and evidence base behind mandatory sentencing, which has been a core plank of the Coalition’s policy platform. Labor has also been tough on crime, introducing bail reforms that lower the bar for the number of offences that have a presumption against bail.
Guy answers first. He says violent crime is up, and he is not interested in concerns about the impact on people who receive mandatory sentences.
(There’s extensive evidence that mandatory sentencing disproportionately affects Indigenous people and vulnerable groups, and does not reduce recidivism or the overall crime rate.)
Guy:
But for repeat violent offenders, I am sorry. I don’t have sympathy for them, I am more worried about the people they have hurt ... We are going to protect those who obey the laws not protect those that ...
David Speers asks him to address the point that there’s not a strong evidence base for mandatory sentences. Guy says he’s not interested.
Speers: “You’re not going to rely on evidence?”
Guy:
What I am going to rely on, David, is making sure that those people are off the streets.
Daniel Andrews says he is concerned about victims of crime, but we need to reduce crime by making other investments to give young people better options. He doesn’t acknowledge the violent crime rate but points out that crime in Victoria has fallen for the past five quarters. It’s still higher than it was when he was elected.
Andrews:
If you cut Tafe, you will end up with a higher crime rate … You have got to give people everything they need to make better choices.
Sometimes you do have to be tough but you always have to be start.
A very emotional start, with a question on neonatal intensive care beds from a woman named Jodie.
Jodie is crying as she says:
Imagine your wives at 24 weeks’ pregnant being told you have to go interstate to give birth because there is no neonatal intensive care beds available.
Daniel Andrews says he has committed $560m to upgrading Frankston hospital, which will be the biggest suburban hospital rebuild in the state and add 120 new beds. It will include a special care nursery and some neonatal intensive care beds – he can’t say how many.
Matthew Guy speaks next, and he sounds like he is also about to cry. His first son, he says, was born premature, at 27 weeks.
My wife’s waters broke at 27 weeks with our first, and we were interstate ... We didn’t know what would be with our son, would he suffer any issues, would there be problems with his growth.
He said he had to leave parliament and fly to Brisbane to be with his wife, Renae.
There was an incubator bed, a big one [at Brisbane hospital] and they showed it to us and said your son will come here, this is where he will be born ... They are exceptionally important when parents need them the most.
He says the Coalition will match Frankston hospital funding and fund neonatal intensive care beds in both Frankston and around the state. Again, he can’t say how many.
Premier up first
Daniel Andrews won the coin toss and elected to speak first. He says he stood at the leader’s debate four years ago and made a range of promises – removing level crossings, improving ambulance services – and has delivered.
He says he is looking forward to answering questions about his “positive and optimistic plan.”
The opposition leader, Matthew Guy, then jumps up, and he is in fine form, almost bouncing on the balls of his feet. He says tonight is not a debate but a discussion, and it’s about the future, not the past.
Now, the audience questions.
The clock is ticking down for the debate. If you want to bone up on the policies before you head in, we have you covered.
The front fell off
Speaking of the Liberal party’s Frankston candidate, Michael Lamb, he had the misfortune to be interviewed by David Speers before the leaders’ debate and, like so many politicians faced with Speers’ annoying tendency to request detailed explanations of policy, has fallen in a heap.
The topic at hand was the Coalition’s promise to build a new 500MW power station can provide demand-driven, dispatchable power.
Liberal candidate for Frankston Michael Lamb says his party will get the private industry to build a power station in Victoria, if elected, but admits it will be at least partly taxpayer-funded.MORE: https://t.co/vMF1BfEI9c #Speers pic.twitter.com/8S4kxVdyvI
Oh dear this is Clarke and Dawe-esque https://t.co/OlxPCuy7co
This is just a brief excerpt of the exchange:
Speers: “So the government, the taxpayer, would fund this?”
Lamb: “No no, it’s private industry.”
S: “But they can do that already.”
L: “Well they haven’t, they haven’t. The Coalition government will allow them to do it.”
S: “But with their own money.”
L: “Yes.”
S: “They’re allowed to do that now.”
L: “But they’re not, though, are they?”
S: “Why not?”
L: “Well, I don’t know.”
S: “So hang on, I’m just confused. What changes?”
L: “What changes is we will tender to get the lowest base power we can get to get a power station build.”
S: “So sorry, tender to purchase the power itself?”
L: “No to build the power station.”
S: “But you’re not building it.”
L: “No the private sector will.”
S: “OK, so. But the private sector can go and build a power station today.”
L: “But they haven’t though, have they? They haven’t been allowed to under this government.”
S: “I’m a little confused.”
So are we, David, and so is Lamb.
To clarify: the Coalition proposal is to tender the electricity contract for public services and hospitals to an energy provider that builds the new power station, so there will be a built-in purchase contract.
I asked the opposition’s energy spokesman, David Southwick, if the Coalition would either contribute to the cost of the station or structure the contract to provide a set service fee that would allow the new station to bid into the wholesale electricity market at below cost to drive down prices; he said no.
Perhaps Lamb should stick to discussing crime policy, provided it doesn’t involve local cafe owners.
Please @ mePlease @ me
If you are watching the debate at home or in the audience, please let us know your thoughts either on twitter or in the comments — I’m on twitter @callapilla. If you are watching the debate at home or in the audience, please let us know your thoughts either on Twitter or in the comments — I’m on Twitter @callapilla.
Also, if you’re wondering where Greens leader Samantha Ratnam is on stage tonight, she was not invited — it’s premier vs potential premier only. If you are interested in learning more about Ratnam, my colleague Luke Henriques-Gomes sat down with her earlier in the campaign. You can read his profile here: Also, if you’re wondering where the Greens leader, Samantha Ratnam, is on stage tonight, she was not invited – it’s premier v potential premier only. If you are interested in learning more about Ratnam, my colleague Luke Henriques-Gomes sat down with her earlier in the campaign. You can read his profile here:
Good evening and welcome to our coverage of the leader’s debate for the Victorian election. Premier Daniel Andrews and opposition leader Matthew Guy are set to go head-to-head at the Frankston Arts Centre at 8pm, on a debate moderated by Sky News political editor David Speers. Good evening and welcome to our coverage of the leader’s debate for the Victorian election. The premier, Daniel Andrews, and the opposition leader, Matthew Guy, are set to go head-to-head at the Frankston arts centre at 8pm, on a debate moderated by Sky News political editor David Speers.
The debate is being hosted by and broadcast on Sky News and is set to run for an hour. People have been filing in to the audience for the past two hours, walking past this diverse buffet of protesters – a bevy of lobsters, reminding voters of that time Guy went to a fundraiser at a lobster restaurant that was also attended by a man with alleged but strenuously denied mafia ties, and one solitary and frankly terrifying lamb, for Frankston Liberal candidate and local senior sergeant, Michael Lamb. The debate is being hosted by and broadcast on Sky News and is set to run for an hour. People have been filing in to the audience for the past two hours, walking past this diverse buffet of protesters – a bevy of lobsters, reminding voters of that time Guy went to a fundraiser at a lobster restaurant that was also attended by a man with alleged but strenuously denied mafia ties, and one solitary and frankly terrifying lamb, for Frankston Liberal candidate and local senior sergeant Michael Lamb.
So buckle in, tuck in your seafood bib or political apron of choice, and let’s get under way.So buckle in, tuck in your seafood bib or political apron of choice, and let’s get under way.
One lonely Liberal lamb trying to outplay Labor’s lobster brigade at Frankston. pic.twitter.com/J0FvCkthpcOne lonely Liberal lamb trying to outplay Labor’s lobster brigade at Frankston. pic.twitter.com/J0FvCkthpc