Page 3670 - Week 12 - Thursday, 25 November 2021
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No 1 core responsibility, to be parliamentarians, to be local members. I commend my motion to this Assembly.
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella—Manager of Government Business, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Industrial Relations and Workplace Safety, Minister for Planning and Land Management and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (10.17): Let us be clear: this motion is nothing but a schoolboy antic from Mr Hanson. Like a naughty child heading on holidays, he is trying to muck up. This motion is a stunt, Madam Speaker. Mr Hanson is aware that the sitting calendar for next year has been agreed. It is broadly consistent with sitting calendars in recent years. The 2022 sitting calendar enables committees to undertake two sets of annual report hearings, estimates hearings and allows committees to do important work in conducting other hearings as well.
As Mr Hanson is aware, committees do not undertake inquiries while the Assembly is sitting. Let me quote from Mr Hanson’s remarks on Tuesday:
The standing committees next year are going to be required to do two annual reports as it is. We want to see committees inquiring into bills that are tabled in this place and we want to see committees conducting inquiries into other matters.
If that was Mr Hanson’s intention on Tuesday, then he should not be supporting this motion today. Madam Speaker, you would also know that it is a stunt because Mr Hanson is aware of the longstanding practice of making changes to Assembly procedure through the admin and procedure committee, and he talked about it just now in his speech. He is a member of A&P. If Mr Hanson were serious, he would have put this forward to admin and procedure so that the committee could then make a recommendation to the Assembly. That is the process. We know that Mr Hanson is not serious because he is being lazy. His motion does not alter standing order 74, which sets out how business in this place runs each day. After 20 years of opposition, the Canberra Liberals are too lazy to learn how this place works.
The government engages extensively with community groups throughout the year. Committees also do this. The petition process is another avenue for issues to be raised in this chamber. We will not be supporting this pretence from Mr Hanson. I have been thinking about some of his remarks during the sitting week calendar debate about having two months off. This is not a luxury the government enjoys. The government remains on duty and works hard over the December and January period, including being on duty to respond to bushfires and storms. The work of government never stops.
However, it is clear that the top hats of opposition down their quills when parliament is not sitting. It is when Mr Hanson and his mates head off to their holiday estates and raise their champagne flutes. It is no wonder that the Canberra Liberals enjoy opposition so much. The opposition we see here is all show and no substance.
MR BRADDOCK (Yerrabi) (10.20): I note Mr Hanson’s comments. I feel like we have dealt with a lot of these comments in the last sitting week, and I do not believe that there is any point in rehashing the arguments that were made then. The Greens
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