Page 5894 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 7 December 2011
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amendment. The motion, as it is, should stand. The Chief Minister should have the courage, if not of her convictions then of her position, to stand and condemn these cuts in this place, in this debate. But she will not, because she does not believe in jobs in Canberra. If she did, she would stand immediately and say, “Julia Gillard, Wayne Swan, we denounce the cuts that you propose.” But she will not do that, because she puts her party before the people that she represents.
Ms Gallagher also said this is petty politics. But it is the same motion from just four months ago. It was not apparently petty politics when it was a device to attack the Liberal Party; that was okay. But if you seek to attempt to hold the federal Labor Party to account and protect the people of the ACT, that is petty politics. I am quite amazed that that would be petty politics.
What was amazing was the air of resignation and the lack of enthusiasm for this debate in the tone of the Chief Minister when she spoke. There is no way this Chief Minister will stand up to her federal colleagues. There is no way she will do what the Leader of the Opposition did. There is no way she will stand in this place and say things similar to what the Leader of the Opposition said. There is no way she will say today: “It doesn’t matter what political party it is. The Canberra Labor Party will always stand up for Canberra jobs and today we are urging the federal Liberal Party—
Ms Gallagher: The Canberra Labor Party? I think you meant the Liberal Party.
MR SMYTH: No, the Canberra Labor Party. Let us put it in a local context—the Canberra branch of the Labor Party.
Ms Gallagher: Yes. You said we will stand up for jobs.
MR SMYTH: I am paraphrasing. That is what I am asking you to do. But she will not. She has not. She cannot. Mr Speaker, the amendment should go down.
Amendment negatived.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (7.00): To close the debate—
Ms Gallagher: Lucky us.
MR SMYTH: If you will not do the job, I will do it for you. It is as simple as that. If you cannot stand up and denounce your federal colleagues, I will take every opportunity I can to denounce you for your failure and to denounce the federal Labor Party for what it is going to do to my city.
The last election was won by the Gillard Labor government on a basis of lies. It was a bed of lies designed to deceive the people of Australia and designed to deceive the people of the ACT. We all heard the promise: “There will be no carbon tax under a government that I lead.” And there was another promise: “We will not cut the public service.” The Prime Minister is revealed for her hypocrisy, and I think this motion highlights that not only is the Labor Party a party of hypocrites; it is a party of very sloppy hypocrites. They cannot even be good at their hypocrisy. Those opposite cannot even muster a defence to defend the hypocrisy of their federal colleagues.
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