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Government’s Tactics

MR WOOD (4.39): I want to comment on this tactic of the new Government. They have changed dramatically since they crossed over to the other side. You, Mr Speaker, I am sure quite impartially, have been calling us to order if I or others interject. We sat on the government benches for three years and no-one interjected more consistently, persistently and noisily than Mr De Domenico. Day after day in this Assembly he interjected. Mrs Carnell was not far behind. The other day I saw Mr De Domenico put his hand out and restrain his Chief Minister. Clearly, the Liberals have a tactic that, in government, they want this Assembly to be a quiet and orderly place. When they were in opposition they set out to be as disruptive and as noisy as possible. Now they are in government they have another standard. This Liberal Government is full of double standards. We have seen the same thing in the last few days. Again Mr Kaine raised it.

Mr Kaine: I take a point of order, Mr Speaker. To accuse somebody of having double standards is surely unparliamentary. I find it objectionable and I hope that you will have it withdrawn.

MR WOOD: I do not think the Speaker will want - - -

MR SPEAKER: It was a statement made in a collective sense and I therefore do not uphold the point of order. If it were made to an individual, Mr Wood, it would be out of order.

Mr Hird: I raise a point of order. I seek your guidance, Mr Speaker. Is the honourable member out of order in challenging the right or the protocol of the former Speaker? Is that out of order too?

MR SPEAKER: Unfortunately, the Chair cannot recognise your comments because there are no honourable members in this chamber, just members. Please continue, Mr Wood.

MR WOOD: Let us look at the other tactic, and it is consistent with these points of order that are being raised. It is to stand up and accuse the Opposition constantly of knocking. What did Kate Carnell, as Opposition Leader, do for nearly three years? She stood in that spot day after day and never stopped carping. I am sure that the Liberals have sat down in their party meeting and have said, in front of the Independents here, on whom they rely for support, “We will present the Labor Party as negative, as being totally unable to come up with fresh ideas”. There clearly is a tactic to keep this new Assembly quiet and orderly, as distinct from what they did in the last Assembly. I see what they are doing. I will continue to be as quiet in my interjections as I was in three years, and you will acknowledge that, unless I become disturbed about this tactic of theirs. Mr Speaker, I do not like the double standards of the Liberal Party.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Assembly adjourned at 4.43 pm

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