Every year, the Victorian parliament partakes in a tradition that has come to be known as “dump day”.
Usually towards the end of the sitting year, the government will release a bewildering number of annual reports at once, presumably so that journalists and other interested parties are rendered physically incapable of taking them all in.
The opposition will then, on cue, rail against the practice, overlooking the fact that this has also occurred on its watch.
“Dumping reports in an effort to prevent proper transparency and scrutiny of this bumbling, incompetent and wasteful government,” said the opposition leader, John Pesutto, of the tabling of 244 documents on Wednesday.
He then accused the government of a cover-up by failing to release another 40 reports.
Last year, the government chose to table more than 265 reports five days before Christmas, as all eyes were on the official opening of the 60th parliament following the election.
It caused the parliament’s website to temporarily crash, though the then premier, Daniel Andrews, denied it was a sneaky move, citing the fact the government had been in caretaker mode for several months.
Among the 244 documents tabled on Wednesday were 241 annual reports, covering a range of government agencies and departments – including emergency services, integrity bodies, hospitals, the justice system, the state’s cemeteries and zoos – and even the strawberry industry.
They contained a mixture of good, bad and ugly.
Forty-five children’s deaths were investigated by the Commission for Children and Young People in 2022-23, which also investigated an incident where a child was put in an adult prison, placed in a spit hood and spent up to 23 hours a day in his cell.
Victorians fleeing family violence are waiting two years on average for public or social housing, more than double the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing’s 10.5-month target.
Consumer Affairs Victoria received a record 5,400 requests for reviews of rent increases and had to reassign staff to help.
Zoos Victoria lost several wildlife, including a zebra who broke its neck during a transfer, 16 fish that died after a hose was left running in an aquarium tank for too long, and another fish whose death was declared “misadventure” after it jumped out of its new habitat just six days in.
Victoria’s triple-zero operator, which was so overwhelmed by Covid-19 that it experienced delays that were linked to 33 deaths, is back on track. With its workforce increasing by a third, 96.4% of emergency ambulance calls were answered within five seconds, beating its 90% target and improving on last year’s performance by 32%.
Not to mention the deficits racked up, the millions of dollars paid to consultants, the eye-watering salaries of senior executives, including at the agency set up to run the since-cancelled 2026 Commonwealth Games.
Standing alongside the piled-up reports, Pesutto made oft-repeated criticisms of dump day and vowed, if elected, to release them all – including the 40 he said should have been tabled this week – in a “timely way”.
Among the reports that avoided dump day are those from Ambulance Victoria, Fire Rescue Victoria, the State Electricity Commission and the Victorian Building Authority.
“Annual reports are subject to a due-diligence process by Vago [the Victorian auditor general’s office],” a government spokesperson said Wednesday. “All reports that Vago returned to government on time have been tabled this week.
“Remaining reports will be tabled before the last sitting day of the year.”
Here’s hoping the delay will give journalists more time to rifle through them.
