Page 4757 - Week 11 - Thursday, 20 October 2011
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
MS BRESNAN: He said that we had tried to stop Mrs Dunne from listing an item of business, which actually did not occur.
Mr Seselja: Sorry, is this relevant?
MS BRESNAN: It is relevant because it goes to the fact that what gets discussed in admin and procedure is not honoured by the Liberal Party. It is happening over and over again and the only reason this has happened today is your behaviour, and you know that.
MR HARGREAVES (Brindabella) (3.17): I note while I am on my feet, Ms Bresnan—
MR SPEAKER: Are you taking a point of order or are you speaking to the motion?
MR HARGREAVES: No, I am speaking to the motion, Mr Speaker. Ms Bresnan was speaking about the processes on the administration and procedure committee. She was talking about the relationship that the whips should have in that particular forum. She was saying, if I can paraphrase it a bit, how disappointing it was that we could not have any agreements between the three parties in that particular forum, because that is the very forum created to arrive at those agreements. All she did was suffer the abuse from those opposite who were shouting her down while she was trying to make her case, including Mr Seselja and—
Mr Seselja: Point of order, Mr Speaker. Could you ask Mr Hargreaves whether he is taking a point of order or making a speech? This is not relevant to the suspension of standing orders and I would ask you to ask him to be relevant.
MR SPEAKER: Order, there is no point of order at this stage. Mr Hargreaves, you have the floor.
MR HARGREAVES: Thank you, Mr Speaker. It goes to the point that Ms Bresnan was trying to make without interruption and she was howled down about the courtesies which should normally exist. In fact, admin and procedure is the place where we get together and put the views of our groups. We actually sometimes take a minority position into that particular discussion.
I have done it on a number of occasions to find that the will of admin and procedure was that the Labor Party would not have its position advanced. I have accepted that. I did not like it but I have accepted it because I understood it to be the majority view of the committee. In this particular case, we left that committee knowing that we were going to go with the swap.
Mr Seselja said that it is the business of the parliament. Mr Speaker, if in fact we have got a truncated day because we were on official duties elsewhere, I would submit to you that Mr Doszpot’s items should not be on the paper. In fact, the agreement was that we would swap Mr Doszpot’s item for the MPI because it was important to Mr Doszpot. Mrs Dunne advocated this for him, quite reasonably, and it was important to the Greens to have that item finished. We supported that.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video