Page 3206 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 16 August 2011
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We believe that Mr Rattenbury is able to ably and impartially perform the duties of Speaker and we do express our ongoing confidence in Mr Rattenbury to perform the role of Speaker in this place. Having said that, the government do not support in any way the incident that occurred at CSIRO last month. Science and the study of science are important, even if you disagree with the research underway.
The government have made some amendments to Mr Seselja’s motion which we believe better reflect a reasonable response to Mr Rattenbury’s comment, and that is that we express our ongoing confidence in the capacity of the Speaker to perform his duties, but at the same time we reaffirm the importance of all members upholding and supporting the principle of the rule of law and we also urge all members to refrain from comments which may be construed as supporting unlawful protests. We believe that this is a suitable response to the issue that is being discussed this morning, Mr Speaker.
MS LE COUTEUR (Molonglo) (10.46): I will speak only very briefly on this today, but I was astounded to hear Mr Coe’s speech in which he said that there was absolutely never, ever, ever, ever any possibility that there could ever, ever, ever be any unlawful action. My understanding is that Mr Coe is a Christian and my memory of reading the Bible suggests that there were considerable amounts of unlawful actions in that text.
I will also draw the Liberal Party’s attention to the war crime trials after World War II in Nuremberg. I think that we have established in Western democracies that the rule of law is important, and we all as parliamentarians I think agree that the rule of law is important and to be upheld. But we have also, as a Western democratic community, established that there other issues as well. The trials after World War II if nothing else made that abundantly clear.
In terms of hypocrisy, I do not think that any party has a mortgage on that. I think the Liberal Party could equally be regarded as being involved in this. I think Mr Pratt’s actions have already been talked about. I believe also former Senator Ian Campbell is currently on the board of Sea Shepherd. I think that we are all clear about this. The rule of law is important, and people who engage in civil disobedience believe in the rule of law. We all here believe in the rule of law. People who engage in civil disobedience expect to be arrested for breaking it and they believe in moral principles, political conscious and in the public good. That is why they are doing it. They are acting on these principles in the public good and they are prepared to suffer the consequences.
I think that what we need here is a much more nuanced debate about what the Speaker may or may not have said. The Speaker at all times, as I have heard, upheld the concept—more than the concept; the rule of law. I think that this is what the Assembly here should also be saying—that we do all support the rule of law. I think that is what we all are saying. We also support that the Speaker is doing a good and impartial job as Speaker. So I think that we should all be here to vote against the Liberal Party’s motion and to support the Speaker and uphold the law as well.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (10.49): Mr Speaker, this matter has been brought forward without a great deal of joy on behalf of the Liberal Party, because we believe
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