Page 1829 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 4 May 2011
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(2) Omit subparagraphs (2)(a) and (b), substitute:
“(a) continue its programs for a sustainable Canberra and its processes for ensuring community consultation.”.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (4.27): I am speaking to Mr Corbell’s amendments to Mr Rattenbury’s motion and I foreshadow that, should Mr Corbell’s amendments fail, I will move an amendment of my own. It is an extremely interesting motion. At first I did not know whether to be amused or disappointed. By moving this motion, what the Greens are admitting is that they are not the balance of power and they are not third-party insurance, because they have not been able to achieve all the splendid things that they said they were going to achieve on behalf of those that voted for them. I guess, like all third-party insurance, it pays to read the fine print of the policy: “We’ll talk, we’ll be in agreement with the government, we’ll be in coalition with the government, but we certainly won’t act.”
Mr Rattenbury mentioned a mounting sense of unease. I think the public have a mounting sense of unease about the damp squib that the ACT Liberals have turned out to be—sorry, there’s a freudian slip—the damp squib that the ACT Greens have turned out to be. What I was going to say was that the Greens, when they spoke to the Liberal Party—and I will give you one example.
Mr Corbell: That has got to be the raw prawn award for the year.
MR SMYTH: I will give you one example. I was concentrating on the example I was going to give. We talked about what would happen to Spark Solar. Spark Solar wants to be an ACT firm. It wants to manufacture solar cells here. The Greens, when we were negotiating with them about forming government, said, “What would you do to help Spark Solar?” We said we would work towards helping Spark Solar. I assume they put the same question to the government. But here we are two and a bit years later, and nothing has happened for Spark Solar. That is why the Greens are the damp squibs in this place, because you can claim to be the balance of power, you can claim to be third-party insurance, but if you do not use it then you really are a damp squib. And in the case of a firm like Spark Solar, my understanding is that nothing has happened.
So I just wonder, in the context of this motion, what it is that the Greens have actually been doing. And it really is quite an amazing motion. The Greens are trying to use the devices of the Assembly to get the government to do something. The Greens and the Labor Party have got an agreement and, surely within that agreement, these things have been agreed to or there is a mechanism to make things happen.
I think Mr Corbell let the cat out of the bag when he said, “You have been sidelined.” There you go. “Carping from the sidelines” was the quote. “You are carping from the sidelines.” The government does not acknowledge the role of the Greens in their agreement. They do not believe the Greens offer anything. They are in agreement with them because it gives them government. We all understand that. But according to Mr Corbell, all they do is carp from the sidelines.
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