Forget political dust-ups – some of parliament’s best work never makes the front page

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At the start of this, the final sitting week in the life of Victoria’s 60th state parliament, all government business in the lower house was pushed aside for an entire day so that politicians could pay tribute to Tim Read, a Greens MP who died on Saturday from cancer.

Some might regard this as Spring Street indulgence. As Greens leader Ellen Sandell remarked, Read would have probably wanted his colleagues to put the day to more productive use. But there is more to being a good parliamentarian than churning through question times or the next piece of legislation.

Once in a while, it is good for our political representatives to pause and reflect, not just on the contribution of a much admired colleague – and Read was certainly that – but what they have done with their own time in office.

The moment also offered a requiem for this parliament. The next one will bear little resemblance to the legislature of the past four years. If the polls are half right, the coming election is about to swing a wrecking ball through this place.

Premier Ben Carroll alluded to this when he noted that the 61st parliament would be well served if the incoming class of 2026, regardless of what party or constituency they represent, share some of Read’s intelligence, curiosity and decency.

In Read’s valedictory speech, the Brunswick MP described the art of politics as “hope in motion”. Carroll, without naming names, held up these words “as a warning against those who seek to use hate and fear to divide and conquer our democracy”.

Read, a general practitioner and accomplished infectious disease researcher before he entered parliament, was never much of a headline grabber. At a time when politics and the media favour shouty over substance, he preferred to get things done quietly and through consensus.

Labor minister Steve Dimopoulos, a gay man whose community benefited from some of the lesser known reforms championed by Read, observed that developing a statewide plan to eradicate congenital syphilis and HIV, or allowing gay and bisexual men to donate blood are not things you tend to read about on the front page.

These changes are part of Read’s legacy and the broader legacy of a parliament which, while punctuated with leadership coups, party room bust-ups and a steady erosion of popular support for the major parties, did some of its better work when no one was paying much attention.

We saw it in the months of patient and productive negotiations between the government and First People’s Assembly which preceded the historic treaty between black and white Victoria and the creation of Gellung Warl.

We saw it in how Tim Bull, the soon to retire Nationals MP for Gippsland East, intervened to save the state’s disability complaints service from the scrap heap. We saw it in how Emma Vulin, a Labor MP moving through the degenerative stages of motor neurone disease and also exiting at the end of this term, adapted text-to-voice technology to keep being heard.

It is fitting that on Thursday night or some time Friday morning, the parliament in its final act will pass into law long-promised changes to IBAC. For the first time since Victoria’s peak anti-corruption agency was established by the Baillieu government 13 years ago, it will have the jurisdiction and power it always needed to properly do its job.

Read chaired the parliament’s Integrity Oversight Committee, which examined the case for reform and recommended significant changes to IBAC. He was part of the Electoral Matters Committee whose work helped rid the upper house and local government elections of group ticket voting – a system of distributing preferences open to manipulation and perverse outcomes.

He was a staunch advocate for greater transparency, integrity and accountability in our democratic institutions. He also understood that any MP must be willing to shovel shit if that is what their local constituents need.

When Read was first elected to parliament in 2018, Sandell said her newbie colleague was at first unsure of what he was supposed to be doing in this place. He then came to her with an epiphany.

“One day he turned to me and said, ‘Ellen, I actually know what my job is now. If three people email me about dog poo on the footpath, it’s my job to do something about the dog poo on the footpath’.” If the people elected to Victoria’s next ever lose sight of how they got there, just pass them a small, biodegradable plastic bag.

Sandell told parliament that Jill Hennessy, a former Andrews government minister, said of Read: “He made us want to be better.” Another former minister described him as the parliament’s conscience. More than one MP said during Tuesday’s condolence motions that Read was “the best of us”.

The worst of this parliament is easy to recall: neo-Nazis gate-crashing a women’s rights rally and the years of tumult this triggered within the opposition; seesawing between the social impact of youth justice reform and punitive bail laws; keffiyehs on the floor of parliament; scandalous exiles to the crossbench, the work-from-home fiasco.

The best of it is easier to miss: eight out of 10 pieces of legislation passed with bipartisan support and without rancour; shared respect for democratic process and camaraderie in the corridors; a steady stream of MPs knocking on Read’s parliamentary door for free medical advice or wise counsel.

“We are all in this place because we have a deep and abiding commitment to the ability of public policy to make life better for the people of Victoria,” Opposition Leader Jess Wilson said. “No one knew this better than Tim. He knew that we have more in common than what we will ever have in disagreements.”

It’s a truism our next lot of parliamentarians should keep in mind.

Chip Le Grand is state political editor.

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