Page 940 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 20 March 2012
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I understand that you had made no request to Mr Hargreaves to do what he did, which was to tally up the number of interjections being made throughout question time; that this was something that he did himself. When questions were asked of Mr Hargreaves by Mr Coe as to what his purpose was, what his intent was or why he did this, Mr Hargreaves said that he did this in his capacity as Assistant Speaker.
Mr Speaker, there is no way that Mr Hargreaves can sit on the backbench of the Labor Party during question time tallying up various interjections and then sit in your chair as Assistant Speaker shortly afterwards and raise this. That is not done as Assistant Speaker. Quite clearly he sits during question time as a backbencher and a member of the Labor Party.
He made some pretty aggressive comments throughout these interjections. On the one hand, he was having a go at the number of interjections made by opposition members during question time, and then when Mr Coe questioned what the purpose was and so on, Mr Hargreaves’s response—from the chair—was to say, “You need to stand up in class, Mr Coe,” or words to that effect. It was very unbecoming of someone sitting in the Speaker’s chair—not only the detail of what Mr Hargreaves was saying, but the way in which he conducted himself, which was quite clearly an abuse of the position, a position of authority, to mount what could only be perceived as an attack on members of the opposition, attacking them for their conduct during question time and attacking individuals, including Mr Coe, in a typical John Hargreaves fashion: “Stand up in class, Mr Coe”.
Mr Speaker, if someone was to make from the chair—any other member; Ms Porter, Mrs Dunne or you—some sort of vile comment attacking someone based on their gender or their sexuality or their age, I think we would find that unacceptable. But we seem to have this separate standard for Mr Hargreaves; that he can have a crack at Mr Coe, referring to him and basically saying, “You are some sort of schoolboy; therefore I’ll discount what you’re saying.” Mr Speaker, if you had said, “I am going to discount what you are saying, Mrs Dunne, because you are a woman,” which is equally offensive language, I think this whole place would be in uproar. There would be outrage coming from the crossbench.
But Mr Hargreaves can slap Mr Coe down, based on his age, with impunity, and have a bit of a chuckle about it. It is totally unacceptable that Mr Hargreaves used the chair to mount political attacks on the opposition, based on our conduct in question time, when quite clearly you, Mr Speaker, adjudicate on question time. If he wants to make rulings on what the opposition are doing while he sits in the chair, he is quite within his rights to do so, and we have never questioned that. From time to time we will take points of order or we will disagree with his rulings in debate, but we have not actually ever previously moved dissent. But he cannot reflect on the performance of the opposition and on you through a period of time which has been adjudicated by the Speaker and then come in here and use that period of adjudication to mount a criticism on the performance of members of this Assembly—because if he is criticising our performance during question time then quite clearly he is also criticising your performance. It is a quite clear reflection on the chair, an unfavourable reflection on the chair.
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