Page 3037 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 23 August 2005
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MR STANHOPE: Thank you, Ms Porter, for the question. This is an important question in the context of the relationships which the government has with Canberra’s sister cities. We have two sister cities—Nara and Beijing—and we have a friendship relationship with Dili, an emerging nation within the world. I was very pleased recently on a trip to Nara, representing the community of the ACT, to cement the relationship between Nara and the ACT, but it was a regrettable trip to the extent that, for the first time, the Liberal Party refused to offer bipartisan support for our sister city relationship with Nara, the Leader of the Opposition describing my trip to Nara as the “greatest junket of all time.”
Mr Corbell: Shame!
Mr Smyth: No, it is not true—it is not true; you can’t mislead the Assembly.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Those sorts of interjections are bad enough by themselves but to imply that the Chief Minister has misled the Assembly is disorderly. Withdraw it.
Mr Smyth: I withdraw, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Thank you.
Mr Smyth: But he cannot put words into the mouth of the Liberal Party. We have not said any of what he has—
MR SPEAKER: Order! Resume your seat, Mr Smyth.
Mr Smyth: It’s just Shane Warne again!
MR STANHOPE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I do think it a pity that we have come to a pass where even the sister city relationship with Nara, something that has endured for more than a decade, is being attacked—
Mr Smyth: It is not true and you know it.
MR SPEAKER: Cease your interjections, Mr Smyth.
MR STANHOPE: for the first time by the Leader of the Opposition, referring to my first trip to Nara—
Mr Smyth: Point of order, Mr Speaker. Under standing order 118 (b), he cannot debate the subject. He was asked about the benefits of the trip but he is more interested in what the Liberal Party has not said. I think he should come to the point of the question and you should ask him to.
MR SPEAKER: That is not a point of order, Mr Smyth.
Mr Smyth: Of course it is, Mr Speaker. Under 118 (b), he cannot debate the subject and it is exactly what he is doing.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .