Page 2783 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 16 August 2005
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St George, Queensland and Australian rugby league player, Mark Coyne. A former St George and Canberra Raiders player and former member of this place, Paul Osborne, hit me with a high tackle, which was unfortunate, but that is Ozzie’s game!
I pay tribute to the organisers of the game. Andy Turnbull was the primary organiser and it was a fantastic event. It was a bit of fun, but it was also a good way of mixing with other parliamentarians. Money was raised for some good causes as well, and we got free tickets to the Bledisloe Cup, which was good. I am sure that I will have to declare them somewhere, and no doubt I will. I am declaring them now for the public record. I got free tickets to the Bledisloe Cup as part of the deal.
It was a good day and it was well organised. I would like to pay tribute to the organisers and to the sponsors. I know that Visa and Diageo were sponsors. There were some others that I cannot recall at the moment, but a lot of fun was had by all. Unfortunately, the result was a draw, but I am sure that the states and territories will be victorious next time.
Earlier today Mr Gentleman not only disclosed deliberations of the planning and environment committee, which I thought was particularly unfortunate, but also went further in actually naming my adviser. I am not sure of the conventions, but I would have thought that that was going against the usual practice in this place. Advisers do not have the opportunity to respond in here. If Mr Gentleman wants to say all sorts of silly things about me, I can take that, but I think it is unfortunate when advisers’ names are used. I do not think that that is necessary. I would suggest to Mr Gentleman that in future he should be a little more cautious about naming advisers. I do not think that that needs to be done in this place. I have never done it and I do not think it has been the practice of anyone here.
I really think Mr Gentleman’s comments were unfortunate. I think that revealing private deliberations is unhelpful and I think that it will certainly be unhelpful in any future deliberations because members do need to have confidence that they can discuss things with their colleagues without having them being revealed in the chamber. I would like to put on record that I think that Mr Gentleman’s comments were out of line. As chair of a committee, for which he is remunerated, he has some responsibilities. I think that he should behave more appropriately in the future and I would certainly expect the Assembly to hold him to the high standards that we expect.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
The Assembly adjourned at 6.25 pm.
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