Page 3199 - Week 07 - Thursday, 1 July 2010
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to develop a balanced character in this place. He wants to be a balanced politician. I suggest, for example, that he go back and have a look at the relationships of two people whom I regard as the pillars of politics—Fred Daly and Jim McClelland.
Both of those people were professionals. Both of them were absolutely determined to argue their case. Both of them did so with respect for one another. Mr Hanson has shown no respect for anybody in this Assembly other than his colleagues. I am sorry to say that because I do not think it is the way to go. I think it is a sad and sorry state that we have got a member in this place like that. I think he ought to show us that he has actually done some research.
I used to cross swords with Mr Pratt and I disagreed with him on many things. But I have to tell you that he actually did the work. He was not always accurate but he did work at it and you could see it. I have to say that I cannot say the same thing about Mr Hanson. I do not believe that the sensational stories actually cut it as research.
I want to address a couple of other points. One of them is the assertion from Mrs Dunne around the grandparent and kinship carer statement that there was institutional abuse. He forgot to say, of course, that that comment was qualified a little later by those witnesses and a different story emerged. Again, Mrs Dunne emotionally, tears brimming, quoted one example to prove her case—only one.
It was not her experience, as it happens. It was an anecdote given to her which she adopted as her own, as they do all too often, Mr Hanson is guilty of it. Mrs Dunne is guilty of it and in the estimates hearings Mr Doszpot did it. They quote one episode and then attribute systemic failure to that one episode. We saw it with different people who used one example. I think that is a pretty poor way of going about it.
I have respect for the way Mr Smyth conducts himself in the estimates process. I have said it in this place before; so it is not a great secret. I thought, however, that his comments today about Billabong were not particularly budget related. I could not see it. However, I think he used up a full 10 minutes of his time prosecuting just two cases on behalf of Billabong and putting one case forward. I think he could have used the time a little better on this sort of thing.
Mr Hanson: You are probably guilty of that too, John, I would have to say.
MR HARGREAVES: I propose not to respond to interjections this evening. I am going to treat Mr Hanson with the contempt that is due. Mrs Dunne, in her diatribe against Minister Burch, went on and on for 10 minutes about childcare. Childcare certainly is part of the minister’s portfolio. But she went on and on and on. It must be about the fourth or fifth time we have heard her deliver the same speech.
But could she tell this place at one point what is the bad news that she obviously embraces that makes her so vehement as to oppose the childcare services going into Flynn? Was it not true that this initiative actually rescued two precarious childcare centres? I think so. That is missing from Mrs Dunne’s presentation. She spent 10 minutes saying the same thing over and over again as if repetition is the substitute for substance. I am sorry; it is one of those old things. If you shout it long enough and hard enough, maybe someone will believe you. But not in this place; not in this place.
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