Page 2226 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 16 August 2006
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Just yesterday Mrs Burke presented a travel report on how she enjoyed the wonders of London. Mr Mulcahy presented a report on his grand world tour, where he enjoyed the wonders of New York and London. I think there might have been a stopover in Asia as well. Let us not forget Mr Smyth going to Westminster as well to enjoy the pleasures of Westminster. For Mrs Dunne to throw stones at committee members undertaking legitimate business of the committee hosted by the Queensland Parliament’s Public Works Committee does her own members a disservice. We know that the big travellers in this place in the past couple of years have been the front bench of the Liberal opposition. It has not been representing the territory, promoting the interests of the territory in other forums. It has simply been Mr Mulcahy big-noting himself in New York with other credit agencies trying to talk down the ACT’s credit rating.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Relevance, Mr Corbell?
MR CORBELL: Mr Speaker, you brought us a wide-ranging debate but I accept your ruling. Mrs Dunne simply should not throw stones when she is in a glass house. It is entirely appropriate for Ms Porter to have the opportunity to comment on a committee conference that she attended as a member of the committee. That is why we seek suspension of the standing orders.
Question resolved in the affirmative, with the concurrence of an absolute majority.
Statement by chair
MS PORTER (Ginninderra): I do have some additional comments to make about the conference, contrary to what Mrs Dunne has just said. In reference to the snorkelling on Green Island, Mr Gentleman, Mr Seselja and I all went to this conference, so everyone had an equal opportunity to snorkel if they wished. But this is not about snorkelling. I do not snorkel and did not snorkel. I suggest that one ask Mr Seselja how he enjoyed his snorkelling.
Mr Hargreaves: He is not here.
MS PORTER: I know he is not here but he is a member of the committee. This is not about snorkelling. It was a very worthwhile and important conference. I would like to dwell a little bit more on the importance of the subject matter that we were at the conference to learn about. I am not sure whether members are interested in learning something. Never mind, we will just plough on, shall we? The conference was about ecotourism, as Mr Gentlemen has just said. One of the important things for our economy in the ACT is tourism.
Mr Gentleman: They have been rattling on about tourism for the past couple of weeks. They should listen to this.
MS PORTER: They have, yes. Tourism has been talked about in this place particularly since our budget was brought down. People have been criticising the government for not paying attention to tourism, for not caring about tourism and for not putting enough money and attention into it. At this conference we learned about ecotourism, and I was really impressed by the ideas that came out of this conference. I thought to myself that
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