Page 4583 - Week 14 - Thursday, 24 November 2005
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MR STANHOPE: I draw members’ attention to the vote in Weston Creek; look at the vote in Duffy. The ALP vote in 2004 was 50 per cent. The Liberal Party vote in Duffy in 2004 was 29 per cent. I wonder why that is. I wonder why 50 per cent of the residents of Duffy voted Labor and 29 per cent voted Liberal after the fire, after McLeod, after COAG, after the coronial inquest. Do you know why only 29 per cent of them voted for you? Because they are offended to their core by your behaviour in relation to the fire. That is why.
They believe that your behaviour is unacceptable, that your dredging up of the pain, the suffering, the loss and the grief for your own purposes is not what they want. They do not want, they do not like your constant preying on their loss and their grief. And that is why 50 per cent of them voted Labor. That is why 50 per cent of them voted for me, and that is why 29 per cent of voters, less than your core vote, less than the Liberal Party core vote, voted for you in Duffy. I wonder why. You could not even attract your core vote in Duffy. And yet here you are railing in this pathetic, putrid way that you have, trying to profit by other people’s loss and grief. People are heartily sick of your abuse of this issue.
MR SPEAKER: The member’s time has expired.
MRS BURKE (Molonglo) (11.26): What a diatribe and a load of disgraceful spin that was. It really is disgraceful for the Chief Minister to stand in this place—
Mr Stanhope: Twenty-nine per cent!
MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Stanhope!
Mr Quinlan: Let us look you up, Jacqui.
MRS BURKE: Have you finished, children?
MR SPEAKER: Continue.
MRS BURKE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I have read this report and, quite interestingly, have taken on board Mr Pratt’s comments. He talks of the report being skated over in regard to some serious issues, and I have to agree. I put it to the house that we have also skated over and tried to hurry on in some way the recovery of the people who suffered and are still suffering as a result of the bushfires in which four people lost their lives and hundreds of home were destroyed.
If we look through the report—and I will just pick out one or two of the areas that were talked about; obviously there was a very nice gathering of people and some good things were talked about—there was a lot of skating over. On page 8, for example, 1.15 of the report states:
… following the first keynote and panel session, delegates divided into two streams, focusing loosely on public works and the built environment, and community engagement.
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