Page 5505 - Week 13 - Thursday, 17 November 2011
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MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Minister for Health and Minister for Industrial Relations) (10.44): I will speak briefly to support the comments of the Attorney-General. I think the attorney has been very clear in explaining his answers to Mr Doszpot’s questions and providing those answers in writing to the opposition, clearly clarifying the comments he has made. I think Ms Hunter is correct—there is a different view about the word and the intention of the word “flexibility” that Mrs Dunne has taken to suit her political cause here this morning. What we find is another day, another censure motion, and it is quite concerning that the Canberra Liberals are adopting the tactics of the Liberal Party of Australia—obviously watching events up on the big hill—on how to disrupt and wreck the normal proceedings of a very busy parliament. They tried it yesterday, they will try it today, and they will probably try it the next sitting day as well. Pushing forward with censure motions without substance is trivialising the processes of this parliament.
Mr Seselja interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Mr Seselja, you are skating close to the edge.
MS GALLAGHER: They are probably quite happy to do that, but it is reaching a point where the Assembly needs to take a stand. We are not going to waste hours of precious Assembly time listening to whether or not the intention behind the word “flexibility” was one thing or another. The standards we apply as ministers in correcting the record need to be shared more broadly across the other side of the chamber. If we want to get down to scouring Hansard and having a view about the intention behind particular words, I am sure that we also could move a censure motion in this place every single morning.
Indeed, I am still waiting for Mr Seselja to correct the public record on the misleading comments he made on radio. I am still waiting for Mr Hanson to correct the record on misleading comments he made on the radio and which he repeats from time to time. If this is a game people want to play in here, and we will go through and find words and take a particular view about what they mean and then move a censure motion, the entire Assembly’s time will be spent this way.
This is a waste of the Assembly’s time. We have got a number of important pieces of business before the Assembly today. Yes, we will all be here to finish that, but it does not help when we have silly, petty, wrecking censure motions that are designed to suit the Liberal Party’s particular purpose. The Assembly deserves more respect than that. The attorney has been clear in clarifying the record. You disagree, and that is fine. You can continue to disagree, but it is not worthy of a censure in this place. The attorney has clarified the comments in question time and in writing, and this censure has absolutely no substance at all.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (10.47): The Chief Minister says the Assembly deserves better, and she is right. The Assembly does deserve better from the ministry. As Mr Seselja said so succinctly, start telling the truth and we will stop having to move censure motions. We are here as guardians of what goes on in this place. If we allow the standard that Mr Corbell applies to truth and honesty then that will be a very bad, very sad, reflection on this place.
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