Page 5940 - Week 14 - Thursday, 8 December 2011
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is complaining about personal reflections and then immediately implies that I have not been pulling my weight on admin and procedure, and she should withdraw it. In doing so, it is also a reflection on you because, if I have not been pulling my weight, you have been putting up with it for three years.
MR SPEAKER: Thank you, Mrs Dunne. Nonetheless, there is no point of order. We will continue.
MS HUNTER: I do not think I need to say much more. That is where the Greens are coming from, and that is why we will be supporting Mr Hargreaves’s motion this morning.
MR HARGREAVES (Brindabella) (12.03), in reply: I need, I think, to address some of the points made by those opposite. Unfortunately I will address them in the order in which they appeared rather than try and put them all together. Before I do, though, it is with some sadness that I witnessed that last exchange where those opposite were getting upset because people were making reflections upon other members’ characters, motives and whatever. I ask members to revisit Hansard and they will see that nowhere in my speech did I cast any reflection on any member of the opposition. Nowhere did I suggest that Mrs Dunne had not done anything but an exemplary job on admin and procedure—nowhere. But that needs to contrasted, Mr Speaker, with the bucket of venom that came across the chamber at me, suggesting that I had an ulterior motive, that I had a vendetta against Mrs Dunne.
Opposition members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Order! One moment, Mr Hargreaves. Stop the clocks. All members on the opposition side, if I recall correctly, were predominantly heard in silence during this debate. I expect other members to be afforded the same civility.
MR HARGREAVES: Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I do recall those opposite saying that I have this vendetta, but they do not recall my record in this chamber since 1998 where I have been absolutely dedicated to parliamentary process. I have been involved in standing committee and select committee investigations into the processes of this place. An examination of the reports of those years will reveal just that.
Ms Hunter put it quite correctly—she was merely suggesting that my proposal that the whip having an ex officio role to perform support duty on the admin and procedure committee was an appropriate way to go. She made no suggestions that anybody on that committee has ever done a less than satisfactory job. Any suggestion that Ms Hunter is reflecting poorly on other members on this place is not only misplaced but is mischievous and totally unwarranted. In my view it warrants an apology from the member who accused her of such a statement.
I need also to remind the chamber that my position and that of the government have not changed. The occupier of the seat on admin and procedure by the government representative—indeed, the Labor Party’s representative—since 1998, and possibly before that but I have not checked it, has always been that member appointed as the
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