Page 3681 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 21 November 2007
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have thought that I would have received the indulgence of the Assembly to move this amendment. I, consistent with the standing orders, sought leave to move the amendment which I had actually circulated. Consistent with, I would have thought, the usual courtesies, I then sought the agreement of colleagues, particularly the opposition, to move the amendment.
There are a whole range of other possibilities that might have been open. I could have, of course, waited until the motion comes back in a couple of weeks time. I could have arranged for leave then or I could have asked one of my colleagues perhaps to move this amendment on behalf of the government. But I would have thought the usual courtesies would have been extended to me and I would have been given leave, the opportunity, to actually move the motion. All I was seeking was leave to allow me to say, “I move the motion circulated in my name.”
Mr Hargreaves: It is procedural.
MR STANHOPE: It is procedural. It is quite simple, a simple courtesy. I find it not unremarkable that I would have sought to move an amendment and that out of sheer spite, nonsense, a desire to make some puerile point—I cannot quite imagine what other purpose there would have been—leave was not granted. Of course, I guess it is a hallmark and a feature of Mr Smyth’s standing, performance or behaviour in this place that he spitefully refused.
The interesting aspect of that is that—and we see this time and time again—his leader, the Leader of the Opposition, Bill Stefaniak, had already agreed. As we know, the standing orders provide that, if a single voice is raised in opposition to a granting of leave, then leave is not granted. We have a remarkable position where the leader of the party says yes.
Mr Hargreaves: And the leader-in-waiting.
MR STANHOPE: And the leader-in-waiting. I heard Mr Stefaniak and I think another voice in the affirmative, the shadow treasurer. So the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow treasurer said yes. Behind the Leader of the Opposition was the voice that said no.
At 6.00 pm, in accordance with standing order 34, the debate was interrupted and the resumption of the debate made an order of the day for the next sitting. The motion for the adjournment of the Assembly was put.
Adjournment
Death of Helen Notaras
MR HARGREAVES (Brindabella—Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, Minister for Housing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (6.00): I would like to extend my deepest sympathies and thoughts today to the family of Helen Notaras. Mrs Notaras was a strong ambassador for the Greek community and several generations of Greek women in Canberra. Not only did she take on the role of keeping her young family together in a foreign place when our city was in its early stages of
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