Ms THEOPHANOUS (Northcote): There is a lot that has been revealed over the last 18 months as our state has faced one of the most complex and frightening challenges in its history. We have seen systems tested and rapid adaptations made. We have seen deep inequality and immense opportunity. We have seen tragedy and empathy and the whole spectrum and gamut of human behaviours and world views. But one thing has been starkly demarcated, and that is how vitally important it is to have leaders and governments that respond to these circumstances with cool heads. The ability to calmly and assuredly follow an evidence-based approach to public health and safety, to follow the advice of experts and stare down those working in bad faith to undermine these efforts, that is indeed a matter of public importance. Because the alternative is just so unthinkable.

This pandemic has been traumatic for every single one of us in varying degrees. Huge sacrifices have needed to be made and people have been stressed and anxious. No decision has been taken lightly. In that environment, leaders face many choices and many responsibilities. One approach, which disappointingly we have seen far, far too often from conservative quarters throughout the last 18 months, is to stoke the fire of that fear and vulnerability, to flirt with conspiracy theorists, opportunists and malcontents, in order to create instability and uncertainty. We have seen it before. It is in the Trump handbook, and it goes something like this: create division, fuel discontent, present alternative facts aka falsehoods, and then, rather than the science or the logic or the evidence-based best practice, offer yourself up as the solution to the problem. I cannot think of anything more narcissistic or Machiavellian or anything more dangerous. These people want to convince Victorians that they know better than the public health experts, that they know better than our epidemiologists, neurologists and pathologists and our state’s most eminent and senior chief health professionals—what hubris! Not only is it absurd, it goes against every responsibility, every oath and every honour and duty bestowed upon us as elected representatives to uphold the public interest and the wellbeing of our communities.

Needless to say, it is not an approach that this government will ever—ever—subscribe to. We on this side of the chamber take the view that the most important thing we can do as leaders is commit to an evidence-based response to public health and safety issues. We will do that even when it means wearing the fallout of people’s anger, frustration and suffering alongside their solidarity, their comfort and their relief. We will do that because the alternative is to ignore and reject the advice of experts and the facts. Just to be clear, our health advice is not originating from the dark web or from QAnon, it is coming from the leading public health physicians and infectious disease experts in our country. Alongside the chief health officer and the deputy chief health officer expertise is being drawn from the broader medical community, including the Communicable Diseases Network Australia, the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, genomic sequencing from the Doherty Institute and the advice of leading clinicians across our public health units and our hospitals. International expertise, best practice and research are being fed into the advice, which is reassessed and interrogated on a daily basis as we confront ever-changing circumstances.

We cannot just wish this pandemic away. The virus is just as deadly as it was a year ago, and without a much, much higher vaccination rate, it continues to have the potential to be catastrophic for our state. Yet from those opposite we have again and again seen attempts to undermine the health experts, seed doubt in the public health measures put in place to protect Victorians, play politics with the wellbeing of our community and lean in to the conspiracy theorists. Cooler heads must prevail. And of course it is not only the pandemic response where a rational, evidence-based response is needed; it is just as critical in other areas of public health and indeed all of public policy.

One area in particular which I would like to turn to in this matter of public importance is family violence. This is a policy area which I had the honour of working on prior to being elected to Parliament when I worked as an adviser to the former Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence, Fiona Richardson, as Labor initiated the historic Royal Commission into Family Violence and began the enormous task of implementing every single one of its 227 recommendations. For too long family violence was something unspoken, something that happened behind closed doors, spurred by the amorphous consequence of a culture of disrespect towards women and buttressed by its structural inequalities, which are difficult to unpack. From the outset we knew that the only way to meet this challenge was data, data, data. Indeed I recall Minister Richardson saying more than once in our office, ‘You can’t manage what you can’t measure’, and that methodology, that evidence-based approach, has underpinned our response to this deep-seated set of issues from day one. Of course the royal commission found that family violence is the leading contributor to death, disability and illness for women under 45. It told us that it is the number one law and order issue in our state. It told us of the economic cost of family violence to our state—in the billions. Most importantly, it outlined an evidence-based path to addressing family violence to keep women, children and families safe. In its 227 recommendations we find a whole-of-system analysis and reform pathway and we find the cultural, structural and systemic changes that are needed to prevent and address gendered violence.

I will never forget when those opposite dismissed the royal commission as a lawyers picnic or our groundbreaking Respectful Relationships curriculum as a fad. They have still failed to commit to implementing the recommendations of that historic commission, but maybe I should not be so surprised. Whether it is sexist tweets, poor female representation on their benches or the more serious issues we have seen coming out of Canberra, this is not a party with a good track record on respecting women. What we witnessed last week during the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearings was nothing short of despicable. I saw members of those opposite slamming their fists on the tables, raising their voices aggressively at the female chair and the member for Brighton lounging back in his seat with his feet propped up on the desk. What utter contemptuous, disrespectful behaviour. Real leadership material, as they say.

Gender equality is not a token issue for this government; it is front and centre of our work, and it is backed up by the evidence that a more equal community is safer, fairer and more prosperous. To date the Andrews government has invested more than $3.5 billion in family violence reform, more than every other Australian state combined and more than the commonwealth. Importantly, we are continually monitoring and evaluating our progress and have translated our vision to end family violence into a set of clear outcomes, indicators and measures. That is the approach our government is committed to.

It is an approach that we also take to another very significant policy area that is noted in this matter of public importance, and that is climate change. In the minutes I have left I want to turn to this because perhaps more than anything the challenge of climate change demonstrates the stark differences that play out in this chamber. Across the globe governments of all political persuasions have accepted the science when it comes to climate change, and they are driving real reform to reduce emissions and decarbonise their economies. The science is in, and it has been in for a very long time: climate change is real, it is happening, and to ensure a safer, brighter future we need to act rapidly. Yet at almost every turn the coalition has chosen to stand in the way of critical reform to transition our energy sector and our economy. They voted against the Climate Change Bill in 2016, the bill which created our world-leading Climate Change Act 2017 to drive our transition into a climate-resilient community and economy with net zero emissions by 2050. It is frightening. And it is not just one or two of them: the Liberal Party went into the 2018 election promising to scrap our renewable energy targets. They are simply not committed to acting on the evidence, and it is alarming. While they have dithered the Andrews government has, under the exemplary drive and determination of the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, made immense strides and positioned Victoria as a global leader in climate action. This year we delivered Victoria’s climate change strategy, a clear vision with ambitious sector-specific plans to help deliver our commitment to zero net emissions by 2050. We will continue to act on the evidence, we will follow the science, we will listen to the experts and we will deliver the reform and responses that our state needs to strengthen our community.