Page 3717 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 26 August 2009
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Mr Hargreaves has just accused Mr Smyth of mistruths. He should withdraw or make an alternative substantive motion.
MR HARGREAVES: Madam Assistant Speaker, I have no difficulty in withdrawing that; none at all.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ms Le Couteur): Thank you, Mr Hargreaves.
MR HARGREAVES: However, I can say that on more than one occasion I have seen Mr Smyth create a straw man. He creates a straw man, creates this imagery and then proceeds to tear it down. He does not do it just in this chamber. He continues his creations and his destructions in his media releases and his pontifications out there in the electorate.
Now, when you have been around as long as we have, you get this sort of feedback. You do not actually just rely on what you know yourself. You get feedback. I know that, of any member who has been in this place for any length of time, Mr Smyth is the absolute expert in character assassination. This bloke is the absolute master at it. The thing is that he has absolutely no qualms. He has ice water in his veins.
Mr Seselja: I raise a point of order, Madam Assistant Speaker. Going on from the precedent set last week in the MPI, I would ask for your ruling on whether Mr Hargreaves’s statement in relation to Mr Smyth is a personal reflection and therefore breaches the standing orders.
MR HARGREAVES: On the point of order, Madam Assistant Speaker: this is not an MPI. This is not a debate.
Mr Doszpot: It is a debate.
MR HARGREAVES: This is a censure motion and a point of far more gravitas than these vexatious people would have us believe.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Mr Hargreaves, would you withdraw that comment, please.
MR HARGREAVES: Yes, I will withdraw that. It has been said and I cannot put it back in my mouth.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Thank you.
MR HARGREAVES: You know, the moving finger writes and, having writ, moves on. That has stuck it up. Not only is Mr Smyth guilty of creating straw men and tearing them down; he is also guilty of creating images of people out there in the public arena which are not true. I have seen it, and he has applied it time after time after time to me. I accept that as being part of politics. I do not like it. More often than not, it is false. I have come into this place and proven it to be false, but he still goes about his merry way doing these things. I find his pontifications in this place today too much to stomach.
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