Page 2220 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 3 August 2022
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MADAM SPEAKER: Resume your seat. A point of order?
Ms Lee: The motion that we are debating is Minister Gentleman’s motion, which clearly talks about the change to the resolution. I notice that Minister Rattenbury is going to the substance of the no confidence motion, and I ask that you direct him to be relevant to the actual motion that we are debating.
MADAM SPEAKER: Thank you, Ms Lee. Mr Rattenbury?
MR RATTENBURY: In order to accommodate Ms Lee’s discomfort, I think I have made my point very clearly, and I will make it again outside this chamber, as required. We will be supporting this motion. The only issue that I have with Ms Lawder’s amendment is that we do strive to have family-friendly times in this Assembly. For those members who have children, with respect to getting them to school and those sorts of things, 8.30 am does seem to be an unnecessarily early start. The Chief Minister has given an undertaking that we can extend estimates later in the day.
Ms Lee: What are the public service hours?
MR RATTENBURY: I am an early morning person; I will come in at 7 am, if you want to. I could not care less. Let us not have a silly debate; whether it is at 8.30 or 9.30 am really does not matter. But we do have members in this place who have parental responsibilities. I think that 9.30 is a perfectly reasonable starting time, given that the Chief Minister has given an undertaking that he is willing for estimates to go later in the day to accommodate the delayed start.
Mr Hanson: Well, that isn’t family friendly, is it?
MR RATTENBURY: We have to find a way through. But if members of the Liberal Party want to die in a ditch over 8.30, they have really lost perspective.
MR HANSON (Murrumbidgee) (10.12): Mr Rattenbury just said 8.30 or 9.30; it does not matter. By that, I would presume that he is comfortable about that. He says it should be family friendly, but in the same sentence he said, “We’ll extend at the other end of the day.” He has to make up his mind as to what his argument is. Does he want 8.30 or does he want 9.30? Does he want it at the beginning of the day or at the end of the day?
The concern that we have is that this is the most important motion that can be put before this Assembly. It is a very serious matter. The self-government act recognises that. Although Mr Rattenbury started a debate on the substance of the matter, I will not do that today, because this is a serious issue that needs to be dealt with substantively on that day. We do not want to be in a position where members are hesitant to speak and do not want to express themselves because we want to have the time for estimates as well.
No harm will be done by starting the day at 8.30. If the community were to hear us say, “8.30 is too early for us to possibly start,” they would wonder what the hell we
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