Page 855 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 20 March 2012
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Mr Corbell: What a confection.
MR SMYTH: Mr Corbell says it is a confection. Let me read you the email again. The email simply says it is being “held up by the Liberals and the Greens”. If the minister had done what Minister Gallagher had intended and had the review been done by November, it could have been passed in December. That was the original intention: “We’ll do this. We’re onto the job. This will be quick. We’ll get it to you. You can do your job. We’ll all do it by Christmas. It will be out by Christmas.” Wonderful. But here we are in March. March! So if you are going to put to the community that it is the fault of the Greens and the Liberal Party, you need to put to the community the correction that the reason the committee has not reported on the day that it was due was that the government failed to deliver the report according to the law, and that the government broke the law. That is what we do here today when we hold the government to account.
I accept the numbers. I think it is disappointing. It does send an interesting message to the community on breaking the law. The important thing is that we will apparently get this report this afternoon and the committee can get on with its job.
Ms Le Couteur’s amendment to Mr Smyth’s proposed amendments agreed to.
Mr Smyth’s amendments, as amended, agreed to.
Motion, as amended, agreed to.
Administration and Procedure—Standing Committee
Membership
MR SPEAKER: Pursuant to standing order 223 I have approved the discharge of Mr Hargreaves from the membership of the Standing Committee on Administration and Procedure and the appointment of Ms Porter in his place. I table the following paper:
Paper: Standing Committee on Administration and Procedure—Membership—Letter to the Speaker from Ms Porter, dated 3 March 2012.
Motion (by Mr Corbell) proposed:
That Ms Porter be appointed as a member of the Standing Committee on Administration and Procedure.
MR HANSON (Molonglo) (10.47): I cannot let this motion pass without some comment. The irony is that the Labor Party and, indeed, Mr Hargreaves himself came into this place full of vim and vigour demanding essentially that Mrs Dunne be sacked from the admin and procedure committee and that I be appointed to that committee because it has to be a whip that sits on that committee. We argued against that. We saw no reason why that should be the case. In fact, there is no reason why that be the case. It was churlish and petty politics being played by the Labor Party and, indeed,
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video