Page 4832 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 25 October 2011

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The Canberra Liberals are not minded to agree to them being dealt with urgently. We have asked on a number of occasions that all amendments go to the scrutiny committee, and the fact is that this would be an abuse of the standing order on the need for declaring something urgent, because this minister has had over a year to deal with these matters.

Mr Speaker, you would think that after last week’s debacle, when this minister was so embattled, she would want to come in here this morning and put on a stellar performance to show that she has got whatever it takes—the stuff—to be a competent minister. But what we are going to see here today is yet another debacle from this minister, this incapable minister.

It just beggars belief that we got to half past nine this morning and somebody realised that they had not ticked all the boxes in relation to these amendments—for a piece of legislation that has been on the table for over a year, which was agreed to in principle in April this year. It is a sign—yet another sign—of the incompetence of this minister that we are now in a situation where my staff and I were preparing for the day in a particular way and we were told, after half past nine this morning, that all bets were off and everything was going to change because this minister cannot get her act together. This minister and her staff cannot get their act together.

How many people are there between the minister and the lowest filing clerk in her directorate who should know how the procedures of this place work and should know what is required of them, and they cannot get the message? We have seen that this minister cannot manage care and protection, and we see now that she cannot manage the simple procedures of this place. That is why we are not supporting this adjournment today.

There are ways that we should be dealing with this. We should not be having the manager of government business standing up and trying to cover for her; she should come into this place and profusely apologise to this place for messing up the program, because she has messed up the program. And that is why we will not be supporting this adjournment.

Question put:

That Mr Corbell’s motion be agreed to.

The Assembly voted—

Question so resolved in the affirmative.

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