Page 3203 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 16 August 2011
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Canberra. I think the 350,000 people in Canberra expect this place and expect the 17 members in this place to be concentrating on things that will contribute to improvements in quality of life for Canberrans. Instead, what is happening today is that we are getting sidetracked because a person in this place has, I believe, not upheld the dignity and standards expected of this place and has indeed brought this place into disrepute.
We heard just then from the now leader of the Greens—she was once the convenor and she is now the leader of the Greens—that in actual fact we should uphold the rule of law, but. There is a “but”. Let me say that we on this side of the chamber, the Canberra Liberals, believe there are no buts when it comes to upholding the rule of law. We believe that the laws that are set in this place and in other parliaments around Australia should be upheld. We believe that there are processes in place to change laws if we do not like them. We believe in democracy and we believe in making sure that Canberrans know that their laws are going to be upheld by the people that set them.
What we have here is complete hypocrisy. We hear the leader of the Greens say that it was about peaceful process, it was about civil disobedience. Well, there was nothing civil and there was nothing peaceful about what happened on 14 July in Canberra. There was nothing peaceful about that whatsoever. In actual fact, if you read an extract from an article produced by the St John’s Innovation Centre in Cambridge, they talk about just how bad it was. They said:
On 14 July, a GM wheat trial (modified to have a lower glycaemic index and a high fibre content) run by the CSIRO in Ginninderra near Canberra, was destroyed by a group of protesters … The finely tuned Greenpeace propaganda machine was once again organised to gain maximum impact. Both the women who destroyed the crop wore full protective clothing including gloves, helmets and face masks of the sort used when handling hazardous materials. Just one problem: they were dealing with a perfectly harmless plot of young wheat plants which represent no risk to them whatsoever. That they were grown under cover was merely part of a very cautious approach taken to the development and trialling of GM crops.
Unfortunately, this finely tuned Greenpeace propaganda machine included the Speaker of this place, because it was the Speaker of this place that came out and contributed to this debate. He flared this debate and, indeed, he incited others to take part in such activities. He did, in effect, condone the criminal activity which took place on 14 July. This is hypocrisy.
Imagine if I had done something along these lines. Imagine if I had taken part in criminal activity or I had supported some form of criminal activity. What would those on the crossbench or those in the government say? What would they expect the leader of the Canberra Liberals, Mr Seselja, to do? Would they expect him to be as gutless as the leader of the Greens has been? No. No, they would not.
Ms Bresnan: Point of order, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Ms Bresnan. Order, Mr Coe, one moment. Stop the clocks, thank you.
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