Pay back threat over Vic cabinet docs dump

Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy has threatened payback on Labor after the government made thousands of old cabinet documents public over a legal payout.

Victorian Leader of the Opposition Matthew Guy speaks to the media.

Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy has defended his actions as a minister. (AAP)

Confidential Andrews government documents will be released in a revenge move by the opposition if it wins government at the Victorian election.

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy has threatened to release Labor cabinet documents after the state government made public 80,000 pages which revealed a multi-million dollar secret settlement over a botched planning decision.

"(Premier Daniel) Andrews doesn't believe in cabinet process, Daniel Andrews doesn't believe in anything that doesn't suit himself, so therefore every cabinet document of an outgoing Labor government will then be subject to the same level of scrutiny," Mr Guy told reporters.

"It will mean government will be very difficult to run in Victoria when you know every single decision being made will be thrown open the moment you leave office"

Mr Guy said if he wins power in November, he would first release documents about the $1.5 billion decision to dump the East West Link and the ongoing CFA pay dispute.

"There'll be a whole range of documents that this has now set a precedent for," he said.

In an unprecedented attack, the state government on Monday released 80,000 pages of confidential documents from Mr Guy's tenure as planning minister in the previous government.

In 2011, Mr Guy controversially rezoned Ventnor on Phillip Island for housing, sparking public outcry and attracting the attention of US pop star Miley Cyrus.

He eventually reversed the decision, prompting legal action from the landowners and the now-public documents show the saga cost $2.5 million for settlement and another $1 million in legal costs.

"It would have been a lawyer's picnic otherwise, it would have been a hell of a lot more to go to court," Mr Guy said..

According to some of the documents, lawyers told Mr Guy at the time the case was winnable, but notes by counsel remarked the minister was disinclined for the matter to go to court because it was unwinnable politically.

"This can't go to court. I shall not be in the job," the lawyers noted him saying.

Deputy Premier James Merlino on Tuesday demanded Mr Guy resign as opposition leader and pay back the taxpayer money used to settle the case.

"This is not about looking stupid, this is about wilful misconduct in public office, this is a crime," he told reporters.

Both major parties are now heading into the poll with controversy hanging over their heads - Labor is under police investigation for the misuse of parliamentary entitlements which went towards paying campaign staff.

There are less than two sitting weeks left before Victorians head to the polls on November 24.


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Source: AAP



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