Page 865 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 24 February 2009
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MR SPEAKER: Mr Stanhope, you need to move to suspend standing and temporary orders to move a motion.
Standing and temporary orders—suspension
MR STANHOPE (Ginninderra—Chief Minister, Minister for Transport, Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, Minister for Business and Economic Development, Minister for Indigenous Affairs and Minister for the Arts and Heritage) (2.50): I move:
That Mr Coe provide to the Chief Minister, before the close of business today, the names and addresses of those who have complained to him about the ACT Government’s Land Rent Scheme—
none of whom have contacted me or any member of the government.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (2.51): It might be of benefit to those who are about to vote on this that they actually heard what the question was. As is so typical of the Chief Minister, he ignores the question and rewrites it as he verbals people.
Mr Corbell: The question is that standing orders be suspended.
MR SMYTH: Yes, to allow him to move a motion. The actual question that Mr Coe asked—
Mr Corbell: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: the question before the chair is that standing orders be suspended.
MR SPEAKER: There is no point of order. Mr Smyth is speaking to the motion.
MR SMYTH: The bit that the Chief Minister verbals, as he does so often when he puts his spin on things because he is uncomfortable, is this:
Chief Minister, it has been reported in the media and to me personally that Canberra families feel they have been led astray, let down and frustrated by the government over the land rent scheme.
He then asked, “Will you apologise to these people?” He actually has not said that he has had people come into his office. He has not said that he has received correspondence. The whole point is that you want him to table something that he has not done and he has not said and he has not brought to this place. There is no reason, under the standing orders, because it is not what he said.
When the Chief Minister speaks in this place, he must speak truthfully. We have a Chief Minister who continually misleads this Assembly by the way he tells his stories and by the way he twists things. He is very good at spinning things; we know that. But if we are going to have a motion, it has got to be a motion based on truth; it cannot be a motion based on fantasy or lies.
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