Page 3971 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 25 August 2010
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
But the stress must be on “exceptional occasions.”
Do you consider this an exceptional occasion?
Mr Seselja: Another one, another exceptional occasion.
MR HANSON: It seems that they are all exceptional occasions, Mr Seselja. Everything is exceptional. And he said:
Labor won’t hide behind a cloak of confidentiality.
You will not do that, minister? No; never. It will never happen. No, it never happened with the bush healing farm, never happened with obstetrics and the Public Interest Disclosure Act—no, never happened.
But the great hypocrisy, as I said before, was the reckless act by Jon Stanhope in 2005 when he decided, in the context of counterterrorism legislation that was draft legislation, that was labelled in confidence, that he felt that, because it suited his purposes, he would release it publicly. We have got to make sure that we do not think that this is some high principle and change of view that Jon Stanhope has got now that he has matured into government—that he was wrong back when he was in opposition, but now he is the Chief Minister he has become wise. No, that is not the case. He simply uses the application of his rhetoric where it suits him. He was quite happy to talk about freedom of information and public interest back in 2005, because it suited him. But now he is doing exactly what he preached against—hiding behind the cloak of secrecy.
We from the Canberra Liberals want to be involved in the process moving forward. We do not want to see a further two years of procrastination, failure and bungling. We want to be involved in it. Clearly the secret way of doing business has not worked. We want to be engaged. I have looked at the options but, when I look at the paragraphs in each of the options, it is difficult to understand the detail contained in those. I am looking forward to doing that, but it is difficult for me to do that with all the necessary information lacking. This is all I have received. If this is all I have received to date, and I am being expected to make a decision, and Jon Stanhope is demanding—
Ms Gallagher: But you were right, Jezza. You were right the whole time. You knew it all.
MR HANSON: Remember that last time it took us six months to come to a conclusion. It took us six months to come to a conclusion because we looked at it in detail. And all the time, thumping on the table, you are saying, “Where is your answer, opposition?” We said, “No, we will take our time”—as we will in this case. We will look at what you propose; we will look at the options. We will judge them and we will let you know whether we support any of them or whether we think there is a further option that should be considered. We will let you know in timing that is chosen by us. We will not be rushed by you. Certainly, whilst you refuse to provide us with the
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video