Page 230 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 15 February 2012
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
This is a government that cannot be trusted to deliver on this. Does anyone really believe that if Labor come back into office they will have a newfound commitment to local services; that, after 11 years of ignoring these things, of slugging people extra in taxes and not being able to deliver on these services, they will now magically have a commitment to do it? Will it be like the promise Katy Gallagher gave us in 2004 that they would not close any schools? And then after the election she started closing schools within six weeks. This government tell lies before elections; that is one thing we can guarantee. And here is another one: “Believe us this time.”
Mr Barr: Mr Speaker—
MR SPEAKER: Order! One moment, Mr Seselja. Stop the clocks, thank you.
Mr Barr: The Leader of the Opposition has just said that the Chief Minister tells lies. He should be asked to withdraw.
MR SPEAKER: He did actually say “the government”. I think we have had quite a discussion in this chamber, though, about the use of the word and I think the general practice is that we do not. So I would ask you to withdraw, Mr Seselja, and find another set of words.
MR SESELJA: I withdraw, Mr Speaker. It is interesting, isn’t it, that Mr Barr got up? He thought I was talking about the Chief Minister. And why would he think that? Why would he think, when I use that word that we must not utter, that I would be talking about the Chief Minister? Maybe it is because she does. Andrew knows, because Andrew has seen—
MR SPEAKER: Mr Barr.
MR SESELJA: Mr Barr, before the 2004 election, saw Ms Gallagher not telling the truth, deceiving the community, about education. In fact he was the one who came in. She was prepared to close only one school; he was prepared to close the rest. He was prepared to complete the breach of faith that was started by Katy Gallagher after the 2004 election. And of course Andrew Barr would have seen Katy Gallagher before the 2008 election saying that all of her health plans were on the table. Of course he would have known that she was not telling the truth at the time, because I am sure that, as a member of cabinet, he would have also known about the secret plan to buy Calvary hospital—the debacle that that was, and it fell over.
Coming back to this fund, can we really trust that this government, if re-elected, will suddenly have a new-found commitment to local services and to the delivery of local services? Of course not. They are not credible; they are not to be believed. We saw the overwhelming response, comments all over the place, when this announcement was made. People do not believe you. This should be the core business of government. You should have been focusing on this the whole time. When you were slugging people an extra 75 per cent on their rates, you should have been able to deliver these kinds of things.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video