STATE transport bureaucrats have paid more than $1000 a month for taxis, shunning the public transport system that employs them.

Members of the State Government's Transport Ticketing Authority spent $6662.26 on cab fares between September 20 and April 4.

… Opposition transport spokesman Terry Mulder called on Transport Minister Martin Pakula to explain why his public servants were not using trams, trains and buses.


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VICTORIA’S $5.7billion desalination plant is as much as three months behind schedule and will struggle to meet a December 2011 deadline as heavy rain and unforeseen environmental problems dog the project.

Now, with reservoirs filling and taxpayers liable for hundreds of millions of dollars a year  to pay for the project, doubters  are questioning whether the  plant was a costly overreaction to Melbourne’s water woes.

… Deputy Opposition Leader and South Gippsland MP Peter Ryan said the government panicked in 2007. ‘‘Now we’ve got this massive white elephant down the coast, three times  as big as the one they swore they’d never build.  All of this and an absence of using some contemporary technology for  capturing and recycling, let alone capturing stormwater.’’


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THE Brumby government has rejected the two most contentious recommendations by the Black Saturday royal commission.

These are to place powerlines underground and develop a voluntary buyback scheme for households in unacceptably high-risk bushfire areas.

Amid accusations it has exaggerated the commission's recommendations for its own political purposes, Premier John Brumby yesterday outlined the response to the 67 suggestions handed down by the commission in its final report last month on the fires that claimed 173 lives.

… Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu said Mr Brumby had misrepresented key recommendations and blown them out of proportion for political purposes.


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DETAILS of Victoria's new property tax to help fund fire services will not be known until next year.

The tax, to apply from July 2012, was recommended by the Bushfires Royal Commission and won in-principle support from the Brumby government yesterday.

… Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu welcomed the property-based levy but accused the Premier of a backflip, saying that in the past the ALP had ruled out changing the fire services levy.


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VICTORIA'S top child safety advocate has launched a scathing attack on Victoria Police in the wake of the police failure to tell child protection authorities that hundreds of children were in regular contact with known sex offenders.

Child Safety Commissioner Bernie Geary's criticism came as the opposition said police had broken the law by not informing the Department of Human Services about the relationships.

… Opposition community services spokeswoman Mary Wooldridge said it was the latest scandal to hit child protection in the state. She said that two separate Ombudsman's reports in the past nine months had revealed the state government was placing children with sex offenders, failing to undertake police checks and failing to have case workers look after abused and neglected children.


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THE state government has been rocked by the bitter resignation of a Labor MP who has launched an extraordinary attack on Premier John Brumby just three months before the Victorian election.

In a three-page letter to Mr Brumby, Ivanhoe MP and government whip Craig Langdon accuses the Premier of selling out Labor MPs with policy backflips, relying too much on advice from ''faceless know-it-alls'', and locking himself away in his office rather than consulting with caucus.


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A LONG-SERVING Victorian state MP has blamed "offensive acts of disloyalty and betrayal" for his decision to quit politics yesterday.

Craig Langdon, the government's lower house Whip, yesterday wrote to Speaker Jenny Lindell and posted a notice on his parliamentary office door explaining his decision to resign immediately was personal, but attacks on him from within Labor ranks forced his hand.

… "It has become increasingly difficult for me to participate in parliament given a number of my colleagues undertook offensive acts of disloyalty and betrayal.

"When government ministers and other MPs participate and propagate the demise of longstanding, loyal and dedicated members it can cause harm to the party and government."


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The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Ted Baillieu, was invited to be the Principal for the Day on Tuesday 24th August. Mr Baillieu started his day off with breakfast with the staff then joined Mrs Laurent on yard duty where he spoke to parents and students as they entered the school. He then visited the Year 5/6 classrooms where he was asked questions related to politics, government and parliament.


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The Victorian Opposition says the Government should increase the number of firefighters it is looking to recruit before next summer.

The Government is looking for 700 project firefighters to help with planned burning and other bushfire preparations.

The Opposition's spokesman for Bushfire Response Peter Ryan says more firefighters will be needed if the Royal Commission's recommended planned burns target is to be achieved.


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TOUGHER laws to tackle organised crime and bikie gangs could soon be introduced in Victoria.

… Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu said his party had proposed tough laws to outlaw bikie gangs that would stop gangs coming to Victoria.

He said bikie groups were using the state as the "soft underbelly" for their activities.


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IT WAS often said in the horrible days and weeks after Black Saturday that the tragedy was the making of John Brumby. Now, nearly two years on, the response to the bushfires is shaping as the making of Ted Baillieu.

The Premier has stumbled since those sure-footed early days. Brumby has been weighed down by the overwhelming evidence of poor preparation and leadership before and during the fires. And he has been diminished by his populist approach to the final recommendations of the royal commission.


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THE Brumby government had waged a false and wildly exaggerated scare campaign to undermine the findings of the Black Saturday royal commission, the Victorian parliament heard yesterday.

… Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu accused the Brumby government of lying, incompetence and ignoring countless warnings.


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