Page 2476 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 17 June 2009
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
understand that your terms of reference as a committee extended to an examination of a specific bill: the appropriation bill. The minister with responsibility for infrastructure at the Canberra hospital is the Minister for Health. The Minister for Health agreed to attend to answer your further questions, further questions which I understand occupied as long as 40 minutes, such was the nature and extent of your interest in this particular matter.
It was discussed amongst ministers that it was appropriate for the Minister for Health only and alone to attend. The Minister for Planning did advise me of his intention. I supported him fully at the time and I support him fully now. If we could actually transport ourselves back two weeks, I would advise him to do again precisely what he did: advise the committee, in the polite and extensive terms that he did, that he did not believe it appropriate at this time to adjudicate or to agitate before a committee of the Assembly a matter that he was giving consideration to as a minister—a very reasonable position, an appropriate position, a position of integrity which you seek to undermine.
The relevant and responsible minister to respond to the committee on infrastructure at the Canberra hospital is, was and remains the Minister for Health. The committee was, without doubt, seeking to extend its terms of reference into an area to which they did not extend. This is a political exercise—brutal, plain, shallow and blatant and nothing more. That is all it is. That is what it will be seen by the people of Canberra to be.
This came on top of an executive business day yesterday during which, for the first time in my time in this Assembly, we did not get to executive business. An entire day was consumed yesterday by the Liberal Party and by the Greens in political stunts. In my 12 years in this place, I have never before endured an executive business day where executive business was not called on. This was because of the stunts, the cheap political stunts, engineered by the Greens and the Liberals. And today we see it again: the Liberals and the Greens combining again. But now, of course, today is private members’ day. We see today, again, private members’ day, being consumed by another, further political stunt.
In the two weeks of sitting put aside essentially to agitate the most important bill of the year, the appropriation bill, we are just about through the second day, we have had no executive business and we are just about to conclude a private members’ day exhausted by another Green-Liberal shallow political stunt—a stunt, through the speeches, the presentations, that we have heard today, which exhibits absolutely no understanding of the nature and responsibilities of government and the role and responsibilities of the Assembly and the parliament.
I guess what concerns me the most, through the tortuous debates of yesterday and today, the puerile debates, is the lack of understanding of the responsibilities of government and the responsibilities of a parliament or an assembly. We have heard some muttering and some puffing about Westminster. What we saw yesterday and see again today is a complete lack of understanding of the incidence of Westminster and of responsible government—a clear lack of understanding of responsible government as exercised under the Westminster system. This is predictable, regrettable, fairly sad, extremely and completely excruciating, exhortative political posturing by the Liberal
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .