Page 2480 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 6 August 2013
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government for that.” It is about the taxpayers, and you have lost your way when all of these recommendations simply say that they support the government or congratulate the government on what they have done.
It does not talk about how this is better for the people. It does not talk about how it could be improved for the taxpayer. It does not talk about how it could better expend the finances that the government has. All it does is commend the government constantly. These are members out of touch, supporting a government out of touch with the reality of what is going on in the community.
We had some quite bizarre occurrences in the Assembly. My favourite is in minutes No 28 where Mr Gentleman moved a motion. It is not uncommon for members to move motions. But Mr Gentleman moved a motion. You assume that members believe in motions when they move them, that there is some point to them. Mr Gentleman moved a motion and then abstained from it. He said, “I, Mick Gentleman, believe in this. I want you people to vote on it but I am not going to. I am going to hide. I am going to abstain. I am not going to be here. Nobody will see me if I follow Joy Burch and put my hands over my ears and go, ‘La, la, la, la, la.’ Nobody will notice.”
Read the minutes, members. The minutes are a parody of the behaviour of those members. We can see that when we get into some of the other minutes. The meetings did not even last very long as the two Labor members disappeared, were not to be seen, did not return or got there late. Chief Minister, you ought to ask your committee members why the estimates committee was left without a quorum or why it did not start on time. It was because the two Labor members were missing in action. That is their respect for the committee system.
It is a furphy to defend their own behaviour and their own bizarre positions that they have taken to state that somehow this committee was not conducted according to the standing orders. It is fantastic. Recommendation 1 states that we do not like the outcome; so let us change the rules. Recommendation 1 in the report states:
… recommend that the Assembly consider changing the relevant standing orders to ensure that all committee reports are created in a collaborative manner.
So we are going to legislative for collaborative behaviour. They did not like the outcome; so change the rules. That is fantastic! That is the Labor Party view of the world. Then we have recommendation 2:
Dr Bourke and Mr Gentleman recommend that the Chair of the committee be condemned for his partisan view to proceedings in the creation of the report …
There was no partisan view. The report was created the same way every other report has been created since I have been here over the last 15 years. If you doubt that, read the advice from the Clerk. It says, “Standing order 248 could be interpreted in a number of ways, but my advice is that your interpretation of the standing orders is one way that the standing order could be interpreted.”
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