Page 947 - Week 03 - Thursday, 28 February 2013
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
We saw it dawn on the Chief Minister: “Oh my God, this committee is not going to go the way I thought it would, which is an opportunity to expose what a visionary I am. It is actually going to expose the fact that I and the Labor Party are anything but and that Kate Carnell and the previous Liberal government have done this in spades before.” She is now trying to retrospectively say, “Oops, we’d better make sure that we do not have a chair that actually knows what he’s talking about.” If we were to have a chair who was the right person to provide the sorts of answers Katy Gallagher wants, it is quite clear that person is Brendan Smyth. He was a member of Kate Carnell’s government. He has the experience, the knowledge, the background, the enthusiasm and the energy to do this. So if anyone is playing politics—
Members interjecting—
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Sit down, Mr Hanson. Stop the clock, please. Mr Hanson will be heard in silence, please. Both sides of the house are yelling across the chamber. We will listen to what Mr Hanson has to say.
MR HANSON: The concern Ms Gallagher has—we can see her playing politics now—is that Brendan Smyth has done this before and that he has more vision in his fingernail than Katy Gallagher has in her whole cabinet. So what she wants to do is appoint somebody else to be the chair to try and stop the fact that people like Kate Carnell may appear before the committee and Brendan Smyth as the chair—
Members interjecting—
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Members! I am going to start warning people if you do not be quiet.
MR HANSON: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. What are we going to get? We are going to get another member. I look forward to seeing who the chair is with this wealth of experience and background in regional development. Maybe it is Dr Bourke, because we know he does not have a great deal to do these days.
Madam Deputy Speaker, this is an entirely politically motivated exercise from Katy Gallagher to try and demonstrate that she has some vision, which has been lacking in this government for 12 years. It has backfired on her. She has realised that in the debate today and she is trying to retrofit the committee to make sure that the damage is limited.
That is what is occurring today. It should be left for the committee to decide who is best qualified to be the chair. It is my intention that Mr Smyth be appointed to that committee, and I am pretty sure that if the members of that committee looked around at the Dr Bourkes or the Ms Berrys or the Mick Gentlemans and asked, “Who’s best qualified to be the chair of this committee,” the resounding resolution of that committee, if they were doing it on merit, would be Mr Smyth. But this is not being done on merit; this is being done on the basis of, “Let’s try and promote Katy Gallagher’s vision,” which it turns out is a facade. At the very best Katy Gallagher’s vision is Kate Carnell’s vision lite.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video