Accompanied by the member for Ripon Louise Staley, Guy is ostensibly announcing a plan to extend bus services to the town should he win government in November, but the focus of his words are on the crisis in the state's health services and the blowout in the costs of the Andrews government's projects, which he says are now overbudget by $28 billion.

"That's 28 Melton hospitals we could have built, if those projects were properly managed," Guy says.

In the far less frigid surrounds of the nearby, fire-warmed Courthouse Hotel, Guy is relaxed and keen to talk about the fallout of the federal election and the issue of accountability and transparency in democracy.

He makes the point that it was his former boss and premier Ted Baillieu who established (and eventually fell to) the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) and says if elected, his cabinet would commit to a package supporting 'clean government' - reestablishing transparency and integrity.

Guy says that commitment stands in antithesis to the culture of the Andrews government.

"I think it's it's a culture of arrogance and secrecy, it's just a complete culture of arrogance," he says.

"I would say I've never seen (a culture like this). It was not like this under the Bracks and Brumby governments. And I just don't understand the culture of... not just secrecy, it's nastiness. It's nasty to residents who seek this information, to businesses who seek information."

Guy's frustration with the perceived willingness of the Andrews Government to muzzle accountability bodies and government departments is shared by Louise Staley.

"We're in a situation where every one of the independent officers of Parliament, the parliamentary Budget Office, the Auditor-General, the Ombudsman and IBAC, are all doing two things: they're all raising serious issues of governance transparency - in the case of IBAC and the Ombudsman, obviously corruption; and they're all asking for more resources," Staley says.

"They're all saying they're under-resourced. It's across the board. Every independent officer is saying they don't have the resources to do the job they are legislated to do. And in the case of IBAC: not only did the Liberal-National government set it up, we've now got a situation where the government's amendments, early on in their term, made it harder for IBAC to hold public hearings. So they've made it more secret."

The issue of integrity is obviously pertinent following the fallout of the federal election, where both Guy and Staley acknowledge it was a catastrophic failing of the national Liberal party to embrace or even acknowledge the public desire for a national integrity commission. In that light, a cynical response to the opposition leader's interest in transparency - he's committed to a $20m increase in funding for IBAC and $2m for the office of the Ombudsman - might see the gesture as a timely and performative one.

Guy says such cynicism is always understandable, but points to the shared dismay of journalists, the public and the opposition in the growing willingness of all levels of government and publicly-accountable bodies to obfuscate and delay. He says the inclination of local councils, health services, and public utilities to spin their commitment to transparency, while simultaneously attempting to limit or suppress information, damaging or not, and direct what is 'newsworthy' according to their interests, is deeply concerning.

"Getting information out of government, sometimes it's just basic information... in my own seat, closing Foote Street (Templestowe), for instance, which is major east-west thoroughfare, I don't understand why we can't get information out of the North East Link Authority, a state government statutory authority. Anytime I go and see them, they have to seek approval from the minister's office to have a conversation to return my call, which is ridiculous. All I'm seeking is basic information for my constituents. It's not a state secret.

"There's a disrespect for accountability bodies. We ask questions: for instance, the Auditor-General is making recommendations and findings that (state government) invoices in don't match payments going out. So the invoice comes in for, say, $85,000, and the payment goes out for $96,000. And no one answers for it. We find this stunning. All of that's got to be addressed. There's zero transparency.

"How can any government - Labor, Liberal - any government say, 'Oh well, too bad, and walk away from that? I have a fundamentally different point of view about the operation of government. I actually can't believe the (Auditor-General) makes a finding on invoices in and payments out not matching - on a regular basis -. and people just shrug their shoulders and no one follows it up. You're the only person who's asked me these things in detail. I find it stunning."

"Freedom of Information Officers now have to go through their minister's office to work out whether or not materials can - or should - be released. They don't make decisions independently. When I was a minister, they did. Sometimes to your detriment, but that was their job. That was their job. Nowadays, they go through the minister's office, and that's regulated. So they're not really an FOI officer, they're just an information release officer."

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