Portfolio — 28 August 2026

The Assembly record for Gippsland East in this window is dominated by two distinct themes: the Member for Gippsland East's scepticism about prisoner entitlements under the Corrections Amendment Bill 2026, and a cluster of regional infrastructure and environmental concerns raised in the context of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee report.

On corrections, Mr Bull supported the bill's central purpose — retrospectively removing the state's liability for compensation claims arising from a convicted murderer's lawsuit over denied outdoor exercise time — but used his contribution to press a broader critique of prisoner entitlements [TA-260730-vichns-06b70b591935:s051]. He cited taxpayer-funded medication provided in prisons, including a specific reference to Ozempic, as an example of entitlements he argued warrant wider review.

His position was one of conditional support for the bill's retrospective mechanism combined with a call for more expansive legislative attention to corrections policy.

In the PAEC debate, Mr Bull raised three concerns specific to regional Victoria and directly relevant to Gippsland East: uncontrolled roadside weeds and pests — naming blackberries, African lovegrass, rabbits and foxes — as a chronic land management failure; the gap between actual fuel-reduction burning rates and the 5 per cent annual target recommended by the royal commission, with unmaintained roadsides characterised as fire wicks; and inadequate road maintenance funding, against which he cited a Labor commitment of $5 billion over four years for road maintenance and renewal [TA-260826-vichns-9f81c0b98fb9:s055].

The convergence of fire risk, pest management, and road infrastructure in a single contribution reflects a consistent regional services frame that runs through the Member's Assembly activity in this window.

Separately, Mr Bull tabled a petition bearing 3 signatures requesting that the Assembly identify a location for a permanent Marine Rescue facility for volunteers on the Paynesville foreshore to service the Gippsland Lakes [TA-260825-vichns-1f0d21d52e31:s001]. The petition's small signature count is notable given the scale of the Gippsland Lakes as a waterway, and the request targets a defined gap in volunteer emergency infrastructure within the district.