Entries by Carlo Carli

Carlo Carli MP is Chairperson of the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee of Parliament. Earlier this month he gave this speech at a conference in Canberra

The development of the human rights dialogue within the Victorian Parliament through the role of the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee has continued to mature and evolve over the last 2.5 years.

The key feature of the ‘dialogue model’ is that it creates a public dialogue between the judiciary, the executive and the legislature about human rights protection by:

• Requiring Parliament to consider whether new laws are compatible with human rights;
  
• Requiring public authorities to take into account human rights in their decision-making
  
• Giving the Superior Courts the power to identify laws that are incompatible or inconsistent with human rights;
  
• Requiring Parliament to consider whether laws identified by the Courts as incompatible with human rights should be changed.

With the opening of ALP nominations for the 2010 State Elections, I have decided not to re-seek party endorsement. I will not stand at the 2010 election.

By then I will have completed nearly seventeen years in Parliament, as the Member for Coburg and then for Brunswick.

I have been proud and humbled to represent this wonderful community. It has been absorbing and fulfilling work that I have greatly enjoyed.

However, I feel it is time to move on, and allow the opportunity for new blood.

In the next 18 months, there are a number of exciting projects to realise in the electorate – the rebuilding of the Brunswick baths, major capital investments in local schools and the continued improvement to local public transport and cycling infrastructure. In the future, I intend to return to my profession as an urban planner and I will be undertaking a postgraduate degree.

My speech in the Victorian Parliament on the condolence motion...

Mr CARLI (Brunswick) -- I also rise with sadness to support the condolence motion myself and on behalf of the people of the Brunswick electorate. The scale of this horror was so great that all communities have been affected. I want to concentrate my contribution on the impacts and the response from my community, but at the same time I also want to congratulate the people of Victoria on the way they have rallied together in this period of great adversity.


I also commend the City of Moreland, which moved very quickly to provide both people and resources. It did so with a heavy heart, because one of the council's longstanding employees and a much-loved worker, Jacinta Bartlett, died in the fires along with her husband, Gary, and daughter Erin. Fortunately her other daughter, Maddison, survived and was hospitalised. Also, the chief executive officer of the City of Moreland had his house burnt down and barely survived the fires.


In conjunction with the local community the council responded quickly. The workers gave blood and saved money. They set up an education trust for Maddison so she can continue her studies in the future. They certainly rallied. The health centre sent grief counsellors and social workers to help people deal with grief. The radio station 3RRR organised collections of important things. It collected toiletries and gave up a room upstairs. People did their extra shopping and came and brought toiletries, which were repackaged by volunteers and sent to the fire areas. Clem Bastow, a radio presenter, came up with the idea, and I think it really demonstrated the support offered by that local community.


People have genuinely opened up their wallets, emptied their cupboards and volunteered in this great period of tragedy.


I also helped out with the Italian language program when SBS held a telethon. After the Italian program that morning SBS radio ran its Greek, Arabic and Vietnamese programs, so I stuck around for those. The telethon raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. It demonstrated a number of things. It demonstrated the genuine success of Victoria's multiculturalism. People were rallying as Victorians, regardless of where they came from in the world.


Another aspect was that many of them -- who had often come from difficult or tragic circumstances and had found refuge in Australia -- saw giving as repaying the generosity of Victoria. They were there to contribute in any way they could, and financial contributions were certainly an important part of that. Later I went to the headquarters of the Italian newspaper, Il Globo, and its radio station. They raised $500 000. It is amazing how the ethnic communities rallied for their community -- their Victoria. A number of people pointed out that bushfires are to Victoria what earthquakes are to many parts of the world -- the great adversary that has to be fought.


Schools also raised money. My son's school basically asked all students to bring gold coins so that they would not have to wear uniforms. It raised $5000. You would expect it to raise $800, because that is what a gold coin each amounts to, but the kids brought notes and their piggy banks -- they contributed everything they could.


CERES -- the Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies -- is a much-loved alternative energy and lifestyle centre in my electorate. Pete Auty, a trainer, tea maker, storyteller, poet and personality at CERES, is originally from Flowerdale. His beloved Flowerdale was burnt down, and not only is CERES raising money but it will also send people to help in the rebuilding of Flowerdale. It has adopted Flowerdale.


I will conclude by reading an excerpt from a poem by Pete:



" The little pink cottage surrounded by black, "


" The mud-brick houses reduced to wrack, "


" The ruin, the wreck, the human cost, "


" The homes that are gone and the lives that are lost. "

We have had in the northern suburbs a spate of incidents with rooming houses and illegal boarding houses. Last night Carlo Carli riased the issue in Parliament and sought stronger legislation to protect the vulnerable.

Mr CARLI (Brunswick) -- I wish to raise a matter for the attention of the Minister for Consumer Affairs. I would like the minister to ensure greater protection for overseas students in the housing rental market.

There was a case in Melbourne earlier this year when Nepalese students were cramped into three houses. One of the houses, a three-bedroom house in Coburg, was set up for 48 students; another for 28 students; and another for 18 students.

These were appalling conditions and showed extreme exploitation by the owner of those properties, who was also of Nepalese origin. It was a terrible situation.

I understand the government is giving greater protection to overseas students in terms of rental properties, particularly properties associated with student accommodation and particular educational institutions.

What I am asking for is greater protection through the residential accommodation strategy to ensure that we have changes to the Residential Tenancies Act so that the phrase 'fit and habitable purpose' is put into the act. There should also be more intervention powers for the director of consumer affairs to ensure that we can deal with these incredibly appalling cases where overseas students who come with very little resources are heavily exploited.

They are vulnerable people. They are often exploited by people who are from a similar or the same ethnic background but who turn out to be incredibly exploitative. In the Coburg cases, the council raided the properties and found they were filthy. The conditions were terrible.

The students were housed in dormitory-style rooms where mattresses were stacked from the floor to the ceiling. These were not fit conditions.

There is a responsibility on both the Australian and Victorian governments to act to protect international students. They are of enormous importance to us; they are certainly economically important but also important in terms of the life that they give to the city. It is also important that we deal with unscrupulous landlords, so I ask the minister to act to ensure that the legislation and the ability for Consumer Affairs Victoria to intervene is made stronger.

Since the release of the East West Needs Assessment Study Report there has been a vigorous debate over its recommendations.

There is a very strong community view that:

• Action is needed to meet demand for sustainable transport services
• Action is needed to address social disadvantage
• Action is needed to ensure that the transport sector makes a contribution to meeting ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction targets
  

Our community has told us via public meetings, conversations in the shops, on the street corners, via phone, letter and email and on the internet that their priority is for a better sustainable transport network. They want better public transport networks that provide real access and choice. They want better walking and cycling infrastructure to cater for people who walk and cycle to work, to shop and to socialise.

The Brunswick community will have the opportunity to participate in a live, online forum about Sir Rod Eddington’s report into Melbourne’s east-west transport needs.



On Friday 11 July, the Government will lead a 2.5 hour, online discussion about recommendations in Sir Rod Eddington’s report – Investing in Transport.

In developing the best transport plan for the community, the government has said it wants to hear from those people who cycle to work, drive across town and catch trains, trams and buses.

To participate register on the Premier's website, www.premier.vic.gov.au

There is some confusion up at Moreland and more than a whiff of political opportunism on the part of some councillors in regards to the State Government's decision to aid the development of activity centres like Coburg.

Below the fold is my full speech last week on the State Governments support for Coburg 2020...

As I said, this is a shared vision of mine, as the local member for Brunswick, and of the member for Pascoe Vale. This is a vision that will have an influence on both our electorates. We understand the importance of Melbourne 2030. We understand the importance of a more sustainable city. We want to get on with the job. We think we have been given the tools to get on with the job. We are very keen to work with Moreland council, and I think the majority of Moreland council is keen to work with the state government and its local MPs. But, as I said, there are those members of the Greens party in Moreland who would rather play politics with these important projects.

They are trying to turn an important project of urban renewal into an area of political conflict, to be able to attack the Victorian government and their state representatives.

Upfield line trains will be six carriages long every day to 7pm (including weekends) following an announcement this morning by Connex.

I am very pleased by this announcement, and hope that it leads to a better service for the many public transport commuters in my electorate.

Students, casual workers, families and shift workers in particular will benefit from this initiative, which I have been lobbying for and many of my constituents have, in turn, lobbied me for.

The Eddington Report on East West transport links will be released today. The details have been splashed around the media over the last few days. As expected there will be a recommendation for an East West tunnel to join the Eastern freeway to Citylink and then over to the western suburbs joining up at Ballarat or even Geelong Rd.

The surprise is that Eddington has recommended that no such exits be built. He has accepted the argument that any exit ramps aimed towards the CBD would increase downstream congestion. This makes the project much more marginal for private investors. The economic model of the financial backers of the project was that money was to be made funnelling and tolling traffic into the CBD. It therefore makes it unlikely that the tunnel can be funded as a private sector toll road.

Therefore without significant State or Federal funding the tunnel will never be built. I also expect the poor cost benefit of the project will see the tunnel project fall over. There just is not much traffic that flows from western Melbourne to the Eastern freeway or vice a versa.

Eddington also proposes a very large rail project. This involves an underground metro link between Caulfield station, through to North Melbourne and then Footscray stations. In the long term this project is probably necessary to increase the capacity of the loop. However the debate will be whether there are more worthwhile rail projects in the short to medium term. Certainly outer areas of Melbourne will want to see extensions to rail provision ahead of increased capacity.

The cost of Eddington’s recommendation will be around $20 billion. More importantly there is a desire by the Brumby Government for an extended debate.

As a supporter of sustainable transport it is important that the debate is broad and looks not at just the issue of more roads and rail but the conditions that will allow for mobility with a reduction of car dependency. We need to look at world best practice and we need to at the transport divide in Melbourne. A divide between the public transport, walking and cycling friendly inner areas and the car dependent outer suburbs.

In 2007 the Brunswick ALP Branch ran a campaign to bring the plight of the Brunswick Baths to public attention.

1000 people signed the petition either at the Sydney Road Street Party, at the baths or online.

Council listened to the community and committed to renewing the Brunswick Baths and is now seeking State and Federal Government support.

_{The following speech is due to be delivered at the Fabian Society on March 5, 2008.}

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Congestion is an accepted part of life in large cities. It always has been. Ancient Romans complained about congestion, and Londoners in the 17th century had similar complaints. And with half the world’s population now living in urban environments it is part of our modern experience. We deal with it by adapting, and when it becomes unacceptable by using modes of sustainable transport – trains, trams, buses, bikes or feet. Or we make decisions to defer our trip or change how we do things.

We can respond to congestion in a number of ways. Either by building more road space, or promoting modal shift to public transport, walking and cycling or we can use existing road space more efficiently.

Mr CARLI (Brunswick) -- Brunswick Secondary College had some fantastic successes at the grand final of the 2007 Rock Eisteddfod Challenge. It was an enormous success by Brunswick Secondary College. I know of the Acting Speaker's long association and that of his family with Brunswick Secondary College. This is very good news. This school had terrific success in a competition with metropolitan, regional and independent schools and students from all over the state. It is in fact the largest youth performing art program in Australia, and Brunswick did extremely well. It won awards for choreography, for stage use, for performance skills, for concept, for drama, for design and function, and for visual enhancement, lighting and design, and it won the Rock Eisteddfod Challenge entertainment award. It was an enormous success.

I congratulate Catherine Weatherhead and all the team and all the students on this fantastic result. It is much appreciated by the school community at Brunswick Secondary College and, I must say, by the local community. It was a terrific night and a terrific event. We are already looking forward to the Rock Eisteddfod for 2008 and further success for Brunswick Secondary College.

Last week Moreland City Council launched the Coburg Initiative, a $1 billion plan for the urban renewal of central Coburg. Feedback from this has been almost universally positive and Coburg residents in particular have shown themselves ready to engage and get involved in making their suburb a better place to live.

Below the fold is a speech given to Parliament on the 31st of October regarding this project.

The Melbourne and Olympic Parks Amendment Bill is being debated in Parliament. The Bill makes some changes to facilitate the construction of Melbourne's Rectangular Stadium next to the current Olympic Park and will be used by Football and Rugby.