Page 840 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 16 March 2010
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what was being asked. There is also no question about the answer. The answer was equally specific. Mr Corbell said:
Mr Speaker, the government does not have any documents about the home insulation program because we do not run the home insulation program.
He went on and said again:
The government does not have documents in relation to the home insulation program because we do not run the home insulation program.
We know that was simply not true. The question could not have been more specific. It was asked three times. It was clarified in two points of order. The answer could not have been more clear. What do we find out through the course of events? Those documents as tabled by Mrs Dunne, which include correspondence from the federal government to the minister and documents signed by the minister, absolutely, in black and white, contradict the minister’s assertions. How anybody in this Assembly, most particularly members of the crossbench, could be left with any doubt whatsoever that Mr Corbell has misled this Assembly is absolutely preposterous.
Madam Deputy Speaker, this is a very important issue. This is not a trivial matter that we are dealing with today. Short of a vote of no confidence, this is about as serious as it gets. I question why the Speaker has not been dealing with this in his role as the Speaker. This was an issue that was raised, the conflict of interest, by Mr Hargreaves when this issue was initially raised. Today we see Mr Rattenbury refusing to hold Mr Corbell to account. We see him vacating the chair so that he can run this issue from the floor. This is a very serious issue.
Mr Rattenbury is still taking his money as the Speaker. He takes that money because of the very serious responsibilities he has as the Speaker of this Assembly. But today we see that he has shirked his responsibilities as the Speaker. He has decided that he is going to sit on the crossbench so he can run this issue and not accept his responsibilities to run the issue as the Speaker. He has had a choice: “What is more important to me, Shane Rattenbury? Is it to sit on the crossbench and run a defence on behalf of Simon Corbell and run a Greens line? Or is it, on this very important issue of a minister being censured, to sit in the chair?” He has had that decision before him and what has he chosen? He has chosen to sit on the crossbench so he can defend his Labor mate. That is what we have seen today, Madam Deputy Speaker. This is a man who has put himself and his party ahead of the Assembly. That is what we have seen here today and it is disgraceful.
What is the Greens’ position? We all remember the rhetoric throughout the election campaign, that of third-party insurance. What we see here today is third-party insurance fraud. What we see is a government that has come into this place, a minister of the government, and clearly misled the Assembly. The Greens once said they stood for accountability and for making sure that this government was held to account. That was their rhetoric. We see an abject failing on behalf of the government and, in particular, on behalf of Mr Rattenbury—Mr Rattenbury the radical. We remember his maiden speech. He said, if you remember: “I’ve been labelled as a radical. I’m glad to be a radical.” What have we seen from Mr Rattenbury, other than kowtowing—
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