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Category: Speeches

Question to the Premier – Prescribred Burning

Mr MORRIS (Mornington) (12:16): My question is also for the Premier. The 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission found that prescribed burning was one of the main tools for fire management on public land. Ms Neville interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! The minister will come to order. Mr MORRIS: The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) annual report reveals that the amount of planned burning has dropped from 234 614 hectares in 2014–15 to only

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5 March 2019

Kaufland – Return Planning Power to Mornington Peninsula Shire

Mr MORRIS (Mornington) (19:40): (16) Thank you, Speaker, and can I also add my congratulations on your return to the chair. I raise a matter for the Minister for Planning. By way of background, the minister has appointed an advisory committee under section 151 of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 to provide advice on the proposed initial establishment of a number of stores for the German Kaufland company. One of the sites being investigated

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19 December 2018

Main Street Traffic – New Counts Needed

Mr MORRIS (Mornington) (17:13:47) —  I raise a matter this evening for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety, and the action I am seeking from the minister is that he direct VicRoads to immediately undertake a tube traffic count in the southern section of Main Street, Mornington, and to transmit the resulting count to myself and to the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council. This is a locale that I have raised on a number of occasions in adjournments

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6 September 2018

Improving Compensation for Injured Cyclists

Mr MORRIS (Mornington) — It is a pleasure to rise to make what I anticipate will be some relatively brief comments on the Treasury and Finance Legislation Amendment Bill 2018. I was going to say the bill is one of those rare creatures, an omnibus bill, but that is probably not reasonable because they are now not all that rare. While in fact it is not seeking to achieve great reform, it is very much a relatively

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4 September 2018

Labor Refuses Peninsula Landscape Protection

Mr MORRIS (Mornington) — When I first entered this Parliament almost 12 years ago, one of my first statements identified the threat that the Bracks’ government’s planning policies posed to the distinctive character of the Mornington Peninsula. More than a decade on, nothing has changed. This government has orchestrated a sustained attack on peninsula livability. They have trashed the rules on residential development. They have taken two-storey height limits and made them three. They have scrapped reasonable minimum subdivision

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8 August 2018

A New Local Government Act? – Debate shut down!

Mr MORRIS (Mornington) (16:09:05) — I too rise to oppose the adjournment of debate on this bill. As I made clear in my opening remarks in the second-reading debate, this is a very detailed bill. The heft of the bill indicates the size of it: 409 clauses, 119 consequential amendments plus four principal acts being amended. There is an enormous amount of detail, and it is just plain ridiculous for legislation of this type to not be considered in

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21 June 2018

A New Local Government Act?

Mr MORRIS (Mornington) — It is a pleasure to rise this evening to open the debate on behalf of the opposition on the Local Government Bill 2018. The bill is intended to give effect to section 74A(1) of the Constitution Act 1975. Of course, as all members will be aware, that is the section of the constitution that provides that local government is a distinct and essential tier of government consisting of democratically elected councils, councils that have functions

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19 June 2018

When is a Rate Cap not a Rate Cap? – When it’s a Waste Charge.

Mr MORRIS (Mornington) — This government went to the 2014 election with an explicit promise to cap rates. Like so many other Labor promises, this one was not worth the paper it was written on. Labor promised to limit rate increases to CPI, but between March 2015 and March 2018 the CPI has gone up by 6.9 per cent. Rates in the same period are up by 11 per cent, almost twice CPI. Promise delivered? I do not

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19 June 2018

Harry Dean

Mr MORRIS (Mornington) (13:39:49) — I rise today to mark the passing of Harold Leslie Dean, known to all as Harry, on 4 May this year. I had the great privilege and pleasure of knowing Harry for over 20 years. I first made his acquaintance when I was treasurer of the Mornington branch of the Liberal Party, while Harry was in charge of the area of finance. But we got to know one other much better during the GST

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31 May 2018

Main Street Traffic

Mr MORRIS (Mornington) (12:03:55) — (14 415) My question is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety. In August 2017 I asked the minister in this house to provide traffic counts for Main Street in Mornington. He responded in October that the average daily two-way count was approximately 14 689 cars. The minister also indicated that VicRoads was investigating potential works to improve pedestrian safety in the southern section of the street and that the improvement was expected to

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23 May 2018