Page 2113 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 15 August 2006
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For what? They have not infringed anything in this place and they have not committed any deed that would have this Assembly question their performance as parliamentarians. Opposition members believe they can make mischief by moving a motion such as this. The seven dwarves want to have another go and they want to make a bit of mischief. It will not work. Talk about a want of confidence!
A statement that was made at the conference applies beautifully to these people across the channel—the unwanted, the unloved and the unhinged. The people across the channel are the unwanted, the unloved and the unhinged. Nobody with his or her hinges in place would come up with a stupid motion like this. All opposition members are doing is wasting the time of this Assembly. We should just toss out this motion.
MR STANHOPE (Ginninderra—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Business and Economic Development, Minister for Indigenous Affairs and Minister for the Arts) (11.30): The government will, of course, oppose this motion. Quite clearly, the motion is a stunt and, worryingly, effectively it represents the continued determination of the opposition and others to avoid any engagement in serious debate about the government’s budget decisions, most notably the decision in relation to school rationalisation, school closures and the development of a sustainable, high-quality, best public education system. Once again, opposition members are refusing to engage in debate about the future of public education in the territory and are descending again into stunts and diversions and focusing on side issues. We see through their demeanour this morning—the hilarity, the unrestrained laughter—
Mr Pratt: Where’s your sense of humour, Jon?
MR STANHOPE: The interjection is: where is your sense of humour? The opposition is asking the Minister for Health and the Attorney-General today to resign, and this serious motion, this most serious issue of resignation of the Deputy Chief Minister and of the Attorney-General of the territory, is accompanied by unrestrained hilarity. It is a circus atmosphere—hilarity, bells and whistles and silly hats. The motion we are being asked to take seriously is that the Deputy Chief Minister of the territory and the Attorney-General of the territory resign, and we are asked to address the debate and the issue with a sense of humour, to join in the hilarity, the knee slapping, the jocularity of what is purported to be a serious motion. All the world has seen and heard opposition members this morning—laughter, knee slapping, backslapping, joking—and they want us to take seriously the most serious motion that could be moved in parliament, a motion calling on two-fifths of the cabinet, the Deputy Chief Minister and the Attorney-General, to resign. They think calling on 40 per cent of the cabinet to resign is a matter of the greatest hilarity, a matter in relation to which we need to relax and express our senses of humour.
I treat the motion with seriousness because that is the way it should be reacted to by any serious person. This motion is not worth the time of the Assembly, and members opposite reflect that through their language, through the jokes, through the hilarity, through the jocularity, through the knee slapping. Through their behaviour they have sent the signal for the world to see that they do not believe this is a serious motion. They do not for one second expect this motion to be taken seriously. They do not even take it seriously themselves. They have not even attempted to make it a serious debate. It is a diversion. It is their refusal to engage in a serious debate about serious issues confronting
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