Portfolio — 15 August 2026

The dominant thread in Brighton's parliamentary record over this window is the Member for Brighton's push on workplace safety law. Mr Newbury moved to introduce a bill amending the Magistrates' Court Act 1989 to create workplace protection orders, citing 30,000 retail theft incidents and 5,000 assaults in Victorian workplaces over the past year [TA-260729-vichns-1853e76e6e82:s001].

He framed the bill in explicitly adversarial terms: the Coalition had advanced the same scheme 250 days earlier, Labor members voted it down, and the new bill would take effect immediately upon royal assent rather than after the government's proposed 350-day implementation period. Mr Newbury acknowledged the Member for Caulfield's earlier preparatory work on the scheme.

A second justice-system concern occupied the Member for Brighton: the standing of honorary justices of the peace. Mr Newbury reported that the Royal Victorian Association of Honorary Justices plans to campaign on the Parliament steps against what he characterised as Labor's reduction of their service [TA-260813-vichns-ff06af361824:s010]. He placed Victoria's figure of 3,628 justices — of whom 2,000 are active — against New South Wales' 64,000, and noted the Association's call for recruitment of 5,000 additional justices by 2027.

The pairing of the workplace protection bill and the justice of the peace issue positions the Member for Brighton as a consistent critic of the government's record on access to justice and community safety infrastructure.

Beyond those two policy threads, Mr Newbury engaged with a Melbourne Law School roundtable led by associate professor Jason Bosland on potential reforms to the Open Courts Act 2013, drawing together journalists, media lawyers, academics, and court officers — a third justice-domain engagement in the same window. He also recognised the University of the Third Age, which supports more than 45,000 members across over 100 clubs, thanking state president Annie Grigg and volunteer tutors at the Tutor Recognition Awards ceremony at Parliament, and participated in opening the season at Brighton Croquet Club, a 115-year-old institution that has grown to 60 members.

In the same Assembly sitting, Mr O'Brien advanced amendments to a bill establishing an outdoor recreation authority, with content that had no direct Brighton nexus but illustrates the broader Coalition approach to resource management governance [TA-260813-vichns-ff06af361824:s047]. Mr O'Brien proposed expanding the definition of outdoor recreation to include motorised and non-motorised recreation, trail bike riding, prospecting, and horseriding, and renaming the proposed Outdoor Recreation Victoria to Fishing, Hunting and Outdoor Victoria.

He also sought to broaden the evidence base for decision-making to include regional data and on-ground stakeholder knowledge alongside scientific research, and to rename the land access panel to a land and aquatic access panel. His stated position was that decisions affecting people whose livelihoods depend on fishing, hunting, and outdoor recreation should not rest solely with government bureaucrats [TA-260813-vichns-ff06af361824:s047].

Mr O'Brien also sought clarification on duck season policy, noting that a ministerial answer in the other place had been non-committal.