Page 2902 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 16 October 2007
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election campaign, although you might say we are in about the sixth month of it. I am not surprised to see that federal election campaign being fought out here between these walls and I am afraid that, to some extent, I see this motion as being part of that.
It is difficult to carry a censure motion. Just going back to the Liberal Party room and their discussion about what they could do this week to gain a spot in the media when so much of the attention is at the federal level and the election campaign, they would have realised that it is difficult to censure an absent minister, especially one who has just had a child and who is absent for very good reason that I am sure the Liberals would approve of. You cannot really censure an acting minister either. So they have come up with this motion of grave concern.
This motion still gives the opposition the opportunity to trot out the growing list of what they see as government failures. But I am still troubled by this word “concern”. How concerned really are members of the opposition? If they felt concern, then they would be making constructive suggestions as to how the problems can be dealt with. I acknowledge that many of the problems raised by Mr Stefaniak, Mrs Burke and Mr Mulcahy are real and deserve attention. I see that each of the rest of the opposition is bursting and waiting to express their concerns from the perspective of their shadow portfolios.
There are many reasons to feel grave concern, but I do not think they can all be laid at the feet of the Chief Minister. I am pleased to see that the Chief Minister is now here because I was concerned when he was not here that he might even have been blithely unaware of the things that were being said about him.
Mr Mulcahy: Well, you should not be if you are in parliament.
DR FOSKEY: Yes.
Mr Stanhope: You knew I was not here. That is why you did it. You are gutless. You knew I was not going to be here.
Opposition members interjecting—
Mr Stanhope: You gave me the pair. You knew I was not here. Gutless!
Mrs Burke: You are here now.
MR SPEAKER: Order!
DR FOSKEY: Health is the core of Mrs Burke’s concerns—
Mr Pratt: Procedure was the only time to do it, Jon.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Dr Foskey has the floor.
DR FOSKEY: The federal Liberal government squeezes health and the Liberal oppositions then bash Labor state governments. We have seen this all the way
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