Page 544 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 19 March 2014
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But the problem is that these things can come back to bite you. Remember Julia Gillard’s “There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead”? Remember that one? It has a bit of that same sort of sense. “There will be no walk-in closures under the government I lead.” I am sure that your mates in the Labor Party were pretty happy with this strategy and I imagine Elias sharing the honour. This would have given you lots of fodder for your pamphlets, but ultimately I believe that this was dishonest.
This is not a test of whether the Labor Party is politically opportunistic. It will say anything and do anything in an election. I think we have got that pretty well established. The criteria that we are judging you on today is whether you meet your own standards of always acting with integrity, honesty and decency. And when you look at those criteria it is very difficult—and I am judging you fairly—to say that you were behaving honestly.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Mr Hanson, I have given you quite a degree of latitude but may I remind you, please, not to be unparliamentary and watch your language.
MR HANSON: Sure. There is a meeting going on opposite to stitch it up with the Greens. What did you give him? Did you give him more light rail tracks? I do not know what it was on this occasion but it could have been, “Don’t vote for this one, Shane, and we’ll give you more carbon emission targets.” I do not know. Are we up to 50 or 60 per cent?
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Address your remarks to the chair.
MR HANSON: My apologies, Madam Assistant Speaker.
Ms Gallagher: Back on track; back to me.
MR HANSON: Back to you. The sad thing, when you actually go through the whole story, is that the Chief Minister knew exactly what she was doing. If you look at what she was saying in late 2011 and early in 2012 until it came close to the election and Elias saw the opportunity, she had a very different position. She had a very different position when she realised that the site for the Canberra Hospital walk-in centre was not working. And back in 2011 there were numerous comments from the Chief Minister and in the media that she was actually going to close the walk-in centre.
This was before the election campaign came on. In December 2011, it was there. “Government could shut hospital’s walk-in clinic. Chief Minister and Health Minster Katy Gallagher wants to close the popular nurse-led walk-in centre at the Canberra Hospital when two more open at Belconnen and Tuggeranong.” She was saying all that back in 2011, until she saw the political opportunism of completely reversing her position during the election campaign.
An ABC article from December 2011 stated, “ACT government backtracks on walk-in clinics.” And then what did she say on 15 February, before she got into full-on election mode and decided to say whatever it takes? On 15 February she said in this place:
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