00:02The hard hat wearing Premier Daniel Andrews made road and rail king.
00:06He also set up the independent advisory body Infrastructure Victoria.
00:10That has been created to do an important job.
00:12To identify and prioritise the infrastructure our state will need over the next 30 years.
00:18But the Labor government still picked its own projects.
00:20The suburban rail loop was never on Infrastructure Victoria's list.
00:23The body has now been axed.
00:25What's that tell us about their infrastructure agenda?
00:28Probably that it's based on votes, not based on fact.
00:31When Labor doesn't like independent scrutiny,
00:34it seems the best response for them is to shut down that scrutiny.
00:38No, that's definitely not the case.
00:39This is about extracting the best value
00:41where there's opportunities to end duplication and find efficiencies.
00:45We're going to take those opportunities.
00:47In a statement, Infrastructure Victoria Chief Executive Jonathan Spear said,
00:50our independence is unambiguous.
00:53Economic growth Victoria is also closing.
00:5550 staff at both agencies told this morning some will be redeployed.
01:00Embarrassed by the opposition over big budgets for office plants,
01:04the government is now pruning workplace flora, office artwork and commemorative plaques.
01:11Where there are cheaper options, they should be explored.
01:14It's also cutting back on consultants while asking a slimmer public service to do more.
01:19Labor continues to let the coalition lead the agenda,
01:23with the Premier trying to stymie opposition attack lines.
01:26The government is also watering down its working from home laws,
01:29delaying a vote in parliament on the legislation until it next meets.
01:33It's done little to quell business anger.
01:35We've explained to the Premier there is no middle ground.
01:37The fact is that we are very much against this legislation.
01:41We don't think it should continue.
01:42We are committed to seeing it entrenched in law.
01:45The clock is ticking.
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