Page 1713 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 4 June 2014
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easy group to please but there they are—the Heart Foundation, the AEU, ACTCOSS, the Youth Coalition, Advocacy for Inclusion and even a mention from the Australasian Railway Association—all important feedback
Mr Hanson: Who would have thought?
MS GALLAGHER: It is nice to welcome the Leader of the Opposition here today in what appears to be an unprecedented silence for a private members’ day motion to this point in time. I cannot recall actually ever attending a private members’ day where there was absolutely no willingness to engage in the formal debate. Obviously there is continued interest to heckle, jeer, deride and interject, something that Mr Hanson knows how to do very well, but in an honest debate on the big issues that face this city we hear silence from the opposition. Maybe I have goaded them into speaking now. Maybe we will see—
Members interjecting—
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Ms Gallagher, sit down. Stop the clock, thank you. Mr Hanson, I know that Ms Gallagher remarked that she had not heard from the opposition but I am hearing a bit too much from you at the moment. So could you keep your voice down, thank you. Ms Gallagher.
MS GALLAGHER: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I think the feedback that the government has received to date was shown by the feeling in the room earlier today, a packed-out room, a big audience to hear the Treasurer talk through in great detail the reasons behind the decisions the government took. There was standing room only at that function. In fact, I am told it is so popular now, perhaps because it does not have us parading on stage like we are actors in a game but actually because it is a legitimate discussion about the issues by experts, not political opponents, that we need a bigger room.
We have plenty of time for those debates, do not worry about that, but what we actually had today, the day after budget day—and you would have been more than welcome to attend, Mr Hanson, to actually hear from people who understand what is going on in this city and who are prepared to criticise where they need but in an actually informed way, backed by some expertise and with the removal of the political games that have fraught that event in years past—was a much higher quality event, with people willing to engage. Indeed, I am advised we need to find a larger venue to fit everybody in. We have not seen that before.
Mr Hanson: All of the insiders, is it?
MS GALLAGHER: I am not sure the audience there today would like to be referred to as Labor insiders. It is a professional event and it should be given the respect it deserves, even if you feel that you were uninvited to it.
Mr Hanson: You refused to debate it.
MS GALLAGHER: We never refuse to debate you, ever.
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