Page 4605 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 19 October 2010
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MR SPEAKER: Order! Sit down, Mr Hargreaves, thank you.
Mr Hargreaves: I will do it again till we go home.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Sit down. Mr Smyth, I consider it to be unparliamentary for you particularly to stand up and so brazenly make that statement across the chamber. I invite you to withdraw.
Mr Smyth: Mr Speaker, I am happy to withdraw, and I would ask for your ruling on the fact that in the last two years in this place since Mr Hanson has been a member he has been consistently called a jellyback by the Chief Minister—Jellyback Jeremy. I think he uses it all the time. You would have heard it; you have never intervened. Why is there a double standard applied to the opposition and not to all members of this place? I seek your ruling on that.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Smyth, a lot of comments are made in this chamber, some of which I note and some of which I do not. I was explicitly asked on this occasion to make a ruling, and that is the ruling I am making.
Mr Hargreaves: And on a point of order again, I would like you to ask Mr Doszpot to withdraw the word “coward”, please.
MR SPEAKER: I did not hear that. Sit down. Mr Barr has the floor.
MR BARR: Thank you, Mr Speaker. As I was indicating, the department has responsibility for the implementation of the efficiency dividend and is doing so in accordance with its enterprise—
Members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Order, members! There will be an opportunity for supplementary questions in a moment. Mr Barr.
MR BARR: And is doing so in accordance with the enterprise agreements that are in place with the Australian Education Union and the CPSU through the general staff agreement. Those processes have been outlined. Members are aware of that. The department will continue to manage the process in accordance with those protocols.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Doszpot, a supplementary question?
MR DOSZPOT: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Minister, in another act of courage, did you or your office authorise the consultation for these cuts to occur during the school holidays?
MR BARR: Members would be aware, through the discussion paper that was released by the department, that in fact the consultation process began on 7 September, through phase 1. But I understand this document has been widely circulated and I know I have been copied in on a range of emails where the opposition have seen this.
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