Page 5793 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 7 December 2011
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have their children in childcare and who are dealing every day with cost of living pressures. I commend Mrs Dunne for the leadership she showed on child protection that exposed the failures in the child protection system—indeed, the breaking of the law and the failures of the minister. I commend Mrs Dunne for her work that she has done on Bimberi—
Ms Burch: Madam Deputy Speaker, on a point of order, Mr Hanson has just said that workers in care and protection broke the law. That is wrong and he should withdraw it.
Mrs Dunne: On the point of order, the minister does not have the right to stand up in the middle of a debate because somebody says something that she does not agree with. There are standing orders—for instance, standing order 47—that she can use at some stage. But just because she disagrees with something, she does not have the capacity to stand up and interrupt Mr Hanson.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is no point of order, Ms Burch.
MR HANSON: I commend Mrs Dunne for raising the issue of Bimberi that led to the review, whilst all Ms Burch could do was put her hands over her ears and say to the staff, “La, la, la,” not wanting to hear what was going on. I commend Mrs Dunne for the work that she has done when it comes to the Murray-Darling Basin plan and the backflip that that led to from the minister, Simon Corbell, who in this place and in the media lauded the plan when it was first announced. He then went back to take up many of the issues that had been raised by Mrs Dunne.
I commend Mrs Dunne for her work on the liquor licensing laws, which she exposed were flawed. The government has had to go back in embarrassing retreat on many aspects of those laws. I commend Mrs Dunne for her work on sentencing for culpable drivers.
If Ms Burch wants to come in here and spend most of her speech attacking Mrs Dunne, whose credibility in this place is enormous compared to the failings and dismal performance of Minister Burch, if she wants to lead with her chin and try to compare herself and her performance with that of Mrs Dunne, well, bring it on, because she will get smashed on the rocks of failure.
Today’s motion would not be necessary if Ms Burch and this Labor government had bothered to listen to the people of Canberra and find out the real factors affecting them on a daily basis. Today’s motion is about the people of Canberra, those people in the community who are struggling to run their households, feed their families, maintain their health and send their children to childcare while they are working for a living.
Today’s motion is about Mr and Mrs Average Canberran and the pressures that this government is putting on them with their out of touch policies and ignorance of the real issues facing families. Having had children in childcare myself, I understand the difficulties with balancing the costs of having the child in care with wages that would be gained in the workforce. However, we have made a choice as a community to support families to make the decisions that they want, for mothers and fathers to have the ability to return to their work if they wish to do so.
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