Page 3612 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 25 August 2009
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Mr Stanhope: Yes, the Greens will be quiet too because they have not had an opportunity—
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Mr Seselja was the first on his feet—
Mr Stanhope: He was not.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: that I saw and he has the call—
Mr Barr: Oh, that you saw; because you were only looking at him.
Mr Stanhope: That you saw, because you did not look anywhere else.
MR SESELJA: Point of order, Madam Assistant Speaker. Both Mr Barr and Mr Stanhope are now reflecting on your ruling and I would ask you to bring them to order. They can move a substantive motion if they want; otherwise they should come to order.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Mr Barr and Mr Stanhope will be quiet. Mr Seselja has the call. Clerk, can you start the timing clock, please.
MR SESELJA: Thank you, Madam Assistant Speaker. We do have a particularly touchy Chief Minister. We see it again and no doubt he will walk out the door and not listen. He likes to do his attack but he can never bring himself to actually listen to anything in response; so we look forward to him engaging in this debate rather than just throwing cheap barbs at you.
The issue of community consultation, despite the start of Mr Stanhope’s speech where he seemed to be questioning the need for us to discuss the issue, is an important one. We see the Chief Minister again leaving the chamber because he does not want to hear the response. He simply cannot bring himself to deal with the fact that there will be people with alternative views and he will not like what is being said.
This is a government that now has copped a lot of criticism. Mr Stanhope touched on this in his speech. It has copped a lot of genuine and justified criticism for its lack of community consultation on issues like the power station, on issues like Griffith library, on issues like Tharwa bridge, on issues like school closures. We have a government who are now talking a lot about community consultation. There is no doubt about it. They are talking about community consultation more than I think they ever have. If there are radio announcers saying they are sick of it, it is perhaps because they are sick of hearing governments talk about community consultation. But there is a difference between genuine community consultation and paying lip-service to consultation.
It is all very well to put advertisements in the paper saying that you are consulting; it is all very well to put community newsletters out there. But how genuine are you in your consultation? We can use two examples: one is from last term and one is from this term; so we can bring it back to a very recent example.
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