Page 295 - Week 01 - Thursday, 16 February 2012
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This is a man who has stood up for his community in adversity—through fire and drought—and who has been the linchpin of his community. Mr Hargreaves has the temerity to accuse him of stupidity and the Chief Minister does not require him to do anything about it.
It is a failure of the Chief Minister. She keeps talking about her standards, her honesty, her integrity, her openness and her accountability. What we have seen here today is the same as we saw last time: “I will go as far as I have to. I will apologise as far as I have to.” What he said last night was just demonstrably wrong and unjust.
What the Chief Minister has done is endorse it. She said, “I do not agree with him but he can say anything he likes.” He can go out and vilify a volunteer organisation and the individuals in that as geriatrics, as lackeys. He can say that Mr Jeffery is stupid and Ms Gallagher has said that that is all right.
The standards of the Labor Party here are on display for all to see and they are being endorsed by Ms Bresnan and presumably by the Greens. We saw it last night—you know, Johnno is having one of his little rants. Dr Bourke and Ms Burch chuckled away through it. When this motion started today, the staff in the gallery, led by the president of the ALP, were laughing. They think it is pretty funny. They think it is pretty funny when Johnno has one of his rants. It was not funny. It was mortifying. It was unfair to people who do not have recourse.
Ms Bresnan says they do have recourse. They can use the citizens’ right of reply. They should not have to because we should censure this man. We should censure this man for the abusive language he used against members of the public in the ACT—people who work hard, people who pay their taxes, who participate, who volunteer, who fight bushfires, who work in the community. While Mr Hargreaves draws his fat salary and his extra allowance for being the whip, that they pay, he gets to abuse them and he is endorsed in his words by the Chief Minister and by Ms Bresnan.
That is what it is about. It is about standards. Ms Gallagher spends her time talking about standards. We saw during the unfortunate incident last year where Mr Hargreaves was forced to apologise to me. Ms Gallagher said: “This goes to members on both sides. We have understood the lesson. We have learnt and you should desist from those sorts of personal interjections in future.”
It goes beyond the members of this place. If it is good enough to desist in personal interjections, according to the Chief Minister, against members of this place it should be more so when Mr Hargreaves stands up for a five-minute rant against members of the public. He should be called to desist in the matter.
The Chief Minister has, by her own mouth, failed to stand up for the standards that she touts on every occasion. Mr Hargreaves should be condemned. Mr Hargreaves should be censured by this place and the Chief Minister should have the guts to strip him of his job as the whip.
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