Page 1730 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 1 April 2009
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
While the Liberals waste time chortling and high-fiving themselves over their sophomoric interjections …
Mr Seselja: Over which interjections?
MR SMYTH: Well, it means sophomore; it means young people. So here is an attack on—
Mr Seselja: Sophomoric. Yes, I know that word. I am familiar with that, yes.
MR SMYTH: Sophomoric, yes. It is good to see at least that, given they did not have a—
Mr Seselja: It’s a big word. It’s not used often in conversation.
MR SMYTH: but it does appear now that they have managed to go out and get a dictionary. I suspect it might be one of those new press advisers working for the government now that they have had to change so many members of their staff, but it appears that somebody has also purchased a thesaurus for the government.
On a serious note, I would hope that people will take this seriously. It is something we all need to do our job. Experience tells me that an hour or two is not going to make a great difference to the government. There is no logical reason not to do it. We all talk about the new way the Assembly is operating. Well, here is a little test for the government. It will be interesting to see if they can pass the test, Mr Speaker.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Treasurer, Minister for Health, Minister for Community Services and Minister for Women) (6.14): The government will be opposing this motion. It will be opposing the motion specifically, I guess, firstly because of the way it is written. It states:
notes with concern the reduction in access to Budget information for Members of the Assembly …
We are not talking at all about reducing members’ access to budget information. In relation to it stating that it “requires” the government to do certain things, again it goes to some of the issues that Minister Corbell would have covered off in debate on the bikers. Mr Hanson’s motion goes beyond the scope of the legislature to require—
Mr Seselja: But that was a different point. It was on legislation.
MS GALLAGHER: And I heard that you do not agree with it. This requires the government to provide certain documents at certain times and also to make officers available at certain times on a bill that has not even been introduced into the parliament. That is the reason why we will be opposing the motion. However, this is what—
Mr Seselja: But wait, here is the surprise.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .