Page 1158 - Week 03 - Thursday, 18 March 2010
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Tuesday which of the 68 review options will be implemented and which stakeholders he had sought feedback and advice from. His answers were curt and non-committal. I would not blame the local ACT special needs community if they felt compelled to ask the same question that their New South Wales counterparts asked today: are we part of the education revolution? Mr Barr, we are waiting for your answer.
Madam Deputy Speaker, as part of Catholic schools week, along with you I attended a function at Merici college this morning. It was in the very early hours, around 7.15 am. Madam Deputy Speaker, you were the guest speaker at the school and there were some prominent sporting people there also. They were assisting the children in celebrating the Catholic approach to the development of the whole person, particularly with regard to healthy eating and healthy lifestyle choices—an innovation that Merici college has brought about through their canteen, which is run by staff and students for all staff and all students.
We also met with the principal, Catherine Rey, and the school board president, Steven Cork. I would like to thank them again for their hospitality and for the innovation that they have brought to education in Canberra through the way their canteen is run by the staff and the students for the benefit of all the staff and the students.
Allegations against members’ staff
MR HARGREAVES (Brindabella) (4.34): I am forced to rise to respond to Mrs Dunne who, I have to say, absolutely surprises me. I have been in this place for a dozen years, Madam Deputy Speaker, and I have never seen such a vitriolic piece of venom thrown across the chamber in all of my time here. Any member who displays and disports themselves in that manner ought to resign from this Assembly forthwith.
I have had my sparring with those opposite on some massive subjects but never have I seen such a disgusting, wormlike performance from a person whom I formerly had a respect for. I have lost all respect for Mrs Dunne, Madam Deputy Speaker, for as long as my backside hits the ground. Let me just tell you: she accuses me of knowing what is in the mind of the Prime Minister. Well, thank you for the compliment. If I knew what was in the mind of the Prime Minister, let me tell you something, Madam Deputy Speaker: Mrs Dunne would be the last person I would speak to. She does not have my confidence to keep anything to herself, so why on earth would I want to do something stupid like that?
The other thing, Madam Deputy Speaker, is that she besmirches the good name of my wife, who is a bona fide candidate. I have to put it on the record now, thank you very much to Mrs Dunne, that I have had nothing to do with her campaign. Any suggestion is a rampant insult to my wife and I will hear nothing of it. Madam Deputy Speaker, this is a disgusting display. I do not know where she gets her information from. Perhaps, in fact, it is from her friends, through the hallowed halls of the churches that she frequents. Perhaps there are some people in this building who should consider whether they deport themselves with any credibility and any respect.
I have had nothing to do with this. I have had a conversation, in passing, Madam Deputy Speaker, where it was Mrs Dunne who suggested to me that there may have
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