Page 2720 - Week 08 - Thursday, 24 August 2006
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Mrs Burke: I take a point of order, Mr Speaker. Personal imputations are not necessary.
MR HARGREAVES: Mr Speaker, they do not have an anti-graffiti strategy. They did have one until Mr Cornwell left. Mr Cornwell wanted to chop fingers off. Their only policy was to chop fingers off or put them in jail, although we could not put them in jail because they will not let us have one. I do not know what we are going to do with all of the people subject to your harsh fines because we have not got a jail.
Mr Pratt: Scrub walls.
MR HARGREAVES: Scrub walls! What do you think happens? Mr Pratt also talks about sweeping job cuts and slash and burn. He is just full of cliches. He has not offered one thing as an alternative to the budget. He has not said that the government should do this, that or something else. No, he just says, “Do not do this and do not do that.” Members opposite are supposed to be part of a government in waiting, an alternative government, but all we get is opposition for opposition’s sake. That is all it is: opposition for opposition’s sake. You guys have dropped the quality of opposition in this place to an absolute low, a complete low.
Mr Pratt says that we were at fault for the fire at Yarralumla. Firstly, he pre-empts the coroner’s finding, which is a bit iffy for this place to start with. Secondly, he says that there was a miserable fire break at the back of the houses of five metres, that is, 15 feet. He does not recognise the fact that that place was cleaned up only a matter of weeks earlier. He does not acknowledge the fact that the houses that burnt down had brush fences and pergolas at the back and that that was where the fire was. But he is not content, which is so typical of this man, to wait until the coroner delivers a finding. He has the impatience of youth. Talking about the impatience of youth, surely he would try the patience of St Peter. I congratulate Mr Pratt on one thing, that is, for revealing a piece of Liberal Party policy to us tonight. They are going to graze sheep on Phillip Oval. I think that is wonderful, really wonderful.
What did Mr Mulcahy say? He spoke of intimidating process and being callous and opaque. That was good; that upset me. He also revealed his own ignorance of the process when he accused the government of putting up bus fares by six per cent. Does he not realise that it is the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Commission that does that? It recommended a price increase of six per cent.
Mr Mulcahy: Blame them for everything. It is all their fault that the water has gone up and all their fault that the power has gone up.
MR HARGREAVES: Mr Mulcahy can bleat until the cows come home, Mr Speaker, but the simple fact is that there is an independent evaluation of any applications, as there is with taxi fares.
Dr Foskey said little of interest to me, I have to say, but she does not recognise the synergies that come out of putting environment in with single land use management and bringing that together with sustainability so that it is just part of our ordinary psyche. She does not recognise that. If she does, she does not say so. She went on to insult the people that work in environment by saying that they are little more than a rump. How insulting
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