Page 462 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 21 February 2012
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this Chief Minister asked for this time last week. But since then the wheels have fallen off. She looked pretty pathetic the other day in response to Mr Seselja’s motion. She was rattled, she did not hear what she wanted to hear and she is attempting to come back here for another bite.
There are many things in this place which are serious and which have been moved under the carpet by successive Labor ministers. There has been the use of staff for graffiti-ing around town, the use of staff for logging into community groups’ emails and purporting to spam community groups’ emails. That was done by staff. There was the use of hospitals and schools for political advertising, and the 10-year war in obstetrics. There was the time it took for us to build relationships with people at Bimberi, both staff and residents, the work that we had to do to bring it to this government’s attention. There was the “la, la, la” from the minister over there. The bullying, the assaults—all of these things were swept under the carpet until it became insufferable and even this government had to agree to an inquiry.
We agree that there is going to be an inquiry. We have to agree on a process and Ms Gallagher is now trying to undermine the process that has been agreed by the Assembly. This Assembly has agreed on a process and she is trying to white-ant it because she is afraid that it will not give her the political mileage that she is expecting. That is why the standing orders should not be suspended.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (10.15): Mr Speaker, it is unfortunate that we are here today doing this, but I think it is more of a reflection on the Chief Minister than it is on anybody else in this place. The Chief Minister had her shot at this. She asked for leave after the Leader of the Opposition gave his statement last week and she got up and mumbled some words, because she was incapable or she was inept in her ability to actually analyse what was said on that day and put a cogent argument to this place.
Since this issue has arisen some 10 days ago, we have seen the gradual backsliding from the original position where a gleeful Chief Minister was calling this the greatest scandal in the history of the Assembly. She forgets about VITAB, where a minister lost his job. She was looking for inquiries. There was murmuring about inquiries under the Inquiries Act. Inquiries under the Inquiries Act are for important things—for instance, the Gallop inquiry into disability, which had some outcomes that I think the community truly accepted.
And slowly it deteriorated. She could have written to you, Mr Speaker, and sought privilege, but she did not do that either. There are so many things that this Chief Minister said she would do or could have done and has not. The reason is that she knows what this is, and it is simply politics. We hear the cries: “You don’t do this sort of thing lightly.” You are a politician. I am sure we all understand your motivation.
What we have seen is the slow backsliding from the original position where the Chief Minister shot her mouth off, she overreached and she has overreached on several occasions since. Then, last Thursday, what we saw was the inept approach and inept ability of the Chief Minister to put together an argument that said, “Well, here’s the document and we should do something more with it.” She could not do it then, so she has gone away and no doubt the staff have been burrowing away for the last four or five days to come up with a renewed position.
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