Page 4892 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs and Minister for the Arts and Heritage) (6.02): I will not take up much of the Assembly’s time in relation to this. The government would be pleased to support Ms Le Couteur’s amendment. I think it goes to the reality of the situation we find ourselves in in relation to this. Without acknowledging it explicitly, it acknowledges that the government is involved, as everybody in this place knows, as we have broadcast and said repeatedly, in a process to respond. We have accepted the recommendations, and we have been explicit in our undertakings to respond fully around their implementation.
It is for that reason that I established an all-of-government coordinating committee to deal with the very issues that Mr Seselja is agitated about. We recognise there are issues of interpretation and implementation, most particularly in relation to a number of the recommendations. We are taking this seriously. We are consulting with all of the stakeholders. That implementation group has had meetings with the very people that Mr Seselja pretends to represent to talk through all of the issues that they have raised publicly in their correspondence. All of those issues are being dealt with directly, and my understanding at this stage is that almost all of the concerns are being addressed.
Mrs Dunne: Well, you shouldn’t have a problem supporting the motion.
MR STANHOPE: Well, no, we are doing it, but you are pre-empting it. I go back to one of the most significant aspects. That part of Mr Seselja’s motion, which he actually pretends does not impact on the report and will not impact on the capacity to deal with the duopoly, is that there be no restriction on access—
Mr Seselja: I didn’t say that.
MR STANHOPE: You do. Your motion says that quite explicitly—a competitive process. A competitive process in this place means to go to the market and sell.
Mr Seselja: No, it doesn’t.
MR STANHOPE: Yes, it does. Yes, it does, and Woolworths and Coles—
Mr Seselja: “Competitive process” normally means more than one.
MR STANHOPE: It does. That is what I mean.
Mr Seselja: You can’t make up what’s in the motion, Jon.
MR STANHOPE: That is what I mean—you go to the market; you do not actually direct grant. Your motion would prevent any of the significant recommendations being implemented.
Mr Seselja: No, you can have limited tenders. What a stupid thing to say. When you don’t know, you just make it up, don’t you, Jon?
MR STANHOPE: No, no, no, you are caught out here. You are caught out here.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video