Page 3709 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 26 August 2009
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amendment goes through. We would call on the minister as a result of this to apologise to Mr Doszpot, to actually correct the record and to not engage in this kind of behaviour in the future. But he does deserve to be condemned for this behaviour; he does deserve to be censured; and he does deserve to be held to account in this Assembly for his actions. I commend Mr Doszpot for his motion.
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) (3.21): I think it is appropriate in a debate such as this that we actually look at the behaviour of all members and the standards we expect of all members in this place. I think it goes very much to the heart of the comments of Mr Corbell in the contribution he made to this debate. What is the standard and how is the standard to be applied universally?
I made some comments today about the stated public position of members of the Liberal Party in this place on the banning of fireworks. I am referring to the statements that they made publicly, on the record, in this place and in the community about their position and their attitude. Go to the comments and the rationale applied just now by the Leader of the Opposition to the appropriate response to this particular issue, irrespective of the rights or the wrongs of what was said by whom or not said by whom and the representation that was made by Mr Barr of a comment that was made by Mr Doszpot.
It is not just about the attitude or position of ministers; it is about the attitude and position of all of us, is it not? You cannot apply one standard or attempt to apply one standard for ministers and not accept the standard for yourselves. So what does Mr Doszpot, the mover of this motion, do publicly and what does this Assembly do, as an Assembly, in the context of this particular position put publicly by Mr Doszpot in an election campaign, direct to electors? He said:
I stand strong with the policy of the Canberra Liberals on this issue that the retail sale of shop-good fireworks should be banned in the ACT.
That is Mr Doszpot’s stated public position on the banning of fireworks. What is the Assembly going to do now about this statement of Mr Doszpot’s? Let me repeat it:
I stand strong with the policy of the Canberra Liberals on this issue that the retail sale of shop-good fireworks should be banned in the ACT.
Mr Seselja has just made much of the need for the public to be able to believe its MLAs. I actually wrote down some of his words: “To not be honest and up-front in everything we do and say undermines public trust.” What about the public trust in relation to the sale of fireworks?
Of course, this is not just a comment made outside this place. We then go to the comments made inside this place by current members. We go to Mrs Dunne who, over the last few days, has led the charge for why it is absolutely ridiculous to ban fireworks. Mrs Dunne has been maintaining on all of the airways in the last three days the Liberal Party’s rigid opposition to this policy. What did she say in this place? This is what Mrs Dunne said in this place on the public record in Hansard:
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