Page 1442 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 6 April 2011
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MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ms Le Couteur): Mr Corbell.
Mr Corbell: I think that is unparliamentary language, Madam Assistant Speaker. Mrs Dunne knows that she should refer to members by their appropriate title and she should be asked to withdraw the comment.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: I am afraid, due to the fact that I have just changed chairs, I am not sure exactly what Mrs Dunne said so I cannot make any comment as to whether it was unparliamentary or not.
Mr Corbell: Madam Assistant Speaker—
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: I might take advice. Stop the clocks.
Mr Corbell: The suggestion was that I or other members of the government were to be considered dumb, dumber or dumbest. That is unparliamentary and she should be asked to withdraw it.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Mrs—
Mr Seselja: On the point of order, Madam Assistant Speaker, there is a lot of robust language used in this place and I think we would be taking it to a new standard if “dumb, dumber and dumbest” is somehow now unparliamentary. I know Simon Corbell is very sensitive on this point but I would not have thought that is particularly unparliamentary language, even if it is offensive to Mr Corbell.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Mrs Dunne, I invite you to withdraw those comments.
MRS DUNNE: Okay. I withdraw the comments, Madam Assistant Speaker. But the point needs to be made that the Chief Minister in 15 minutes could not bring himself to say one good word for Simon Corbell as the minister who is facing a censure here today.
The minister is facing a censure here today because of an extraordinary litany of failure; a litany of failure that goes back well beyond the opening of the AMC; a litany of failure which is highlighted this week by the release of a range of reports, the formal and informal release of reports—the informal release of reports, of course, being a matter of considerable embarrassment for the Assembly.
Madam Assistant Speaker Le Couteur, you touched on this this morning in your motion on open government, that these are matters which should be before the people. The people have paid for these reports and it is quite clear that the report that is going to be released tomorrow, the Burnet report, is only being released because the government became aware that it was in the possession of the Canberra Liberals. That is quite clear because last Wednesday, a week ago, almost a week ago to the hour, I attended the government business meeting and was told what was coming up this week—and there was no mention that the Minister for Health would be presenting a paper on Thursday. There was no discussion of a paper from the Minister for Health.
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