Page 948 - Week 03 - Thursday, 28 February 2013
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MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Minister for Workplace Safety and Industrial Relations and Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development) (12.03): What we have just heard from the Leader of the Opposition is the fallout he has to deal with now in his party room because Brendan Smyth got dumped. We know what happened when Mr Smyth got dumped—he took a pay cut. So what Mr Hanson is now doing is saying, “Don’t worry, Brendan, I’ll find you a job where you get a bit of an increase in your salary.” That is what Mr Hanson is saying today. This is not about merit; this is not about who has got the best ideas around chairing a committee; this is about giving Mr Smyth a little sinecure because he lost 7-1 in the party room vote.
Mr Coe: A point of order.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Stop the clock, please. Mr Coe.
Mr Coe: I ask for your ruling as to whether it is appropriate for Mr Corbell to, in effect, insinuate financial gain as a motivation.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Corbell, I think the point has been made and you need to get back to the motion, please.
MR CORBELL: I have made my point.
Mrs Dunne: Madam Deputy Speaker, has Mr Corbell finished?
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: No, he has not.
Mrs Dunne: Sorry, I thought he had finished.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Corbell, are you finished?
MR CORBELL: Yes, Madam Deputy Speaker.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Terrific. Yes, Mrs Dunne.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (12.05): It is interesting that Mr Corbell should stand and make the sorts of comments he did when it is quite clear that Chief Minister Gallagher should have thought about who her captain’s pick might have been before she finished drafting this motion in the first instance. Without revealing secrets about what happens in the Liberal Party party room, I do not think there were members of the Liberal Party party room who had not thought that the Chief Minister might have wanted to have made a captain’s pick.
And Mr Corbell talks about sinecures for backbenchers on standing committees. The standout sinecure is the preferment that was given to Mr Gentleman in 2004 when he chaired the select committee on family and work responsibilities. In the first year it met for 11 hours and in the second year it met for 10 hours. Mr Gentleman was earning—
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