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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Thursday, 24 June 2004) . . Page.. 2702 ..

MRS CROSS: Mr Speaker, the Treasurer made an imputation. I ask him to withdraw that.

MR SPEAKER: What did he say?

MRS CROSS: He said that I was talking crap. Please ask him to withdraw that.

MR SPEAKER: Withdraw that. It is unparliamentary.

Mr Quinlan: Can I replace crap with rubbish?

MR SPEAKER: No, you cannot as an interjection but, in due course, you can speak to the matter.

Mr Quinlan: I withdraw crap until later.

MR SPEAKER: No, you will withdraw it unconditionally and you can contribute later.

Mr Quinlan: Okay. I have made my point.

MRS CROSS: Thank you, Mr Speaker. This appears to be nothing more than an attempt by the Labor Party to ensure that they maximise what they receive from clubs. This is a shame because they are putting community interest behind their own self-interest. To correct the comment that was made by the Treasurer, it was stated to my office and me by members of the Chief Minister’s office that the Labor Party is a community organisation.

I will, therefore, be supporting Mr Stefaniak’s amendment No 5, which ensures that all donations to political parties are matched dollar for dollar by community contributions.

MR HARGREAVES (8.34): I just want to point out, for the record, that the main plank to Mrs Cross’s argument is an attack on the Labor Party and nothing else. It is purely a political stance. The premise that the Labor Club group would claim political donations made to the Labor Party as community contributions is false. Mrs Cross has perpetrated a falsehood. She knows full well that that is not the case and, if she does not know that is not so, she is guilty of not having read the act, nor is she familiar with the Electoral Act. This piece of legislation that merely singles out one particular group, every single person—

Mrs Dunne: Point of order, Mr Speaker: I think I heard Mr Hargreaves say, “Mrs Cross has perpetuated a falsehood,” which I think is one of those similes for a lie.

MR SPEAKER: No, I am not going to draw that out. If people cannot say that what somebody else has said is not factual—

Mrs Dunne: Is your ruling that perpetuating a falsehood is not a simile for telling a lie?

MR HARGREAVES: On the point of order, Mr Speaker: you have ruled.

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